The Bradford Anti War march
Over 3000 people marched from Manningham Park to Bradford city centre last month in one of the largest marches Bradford has ever seen. People came from all over Yorkshire and a few from beyond. There were Christians, including at least one Bishop, two banners from different Quaker groups, Muslims and many without any religion.
Despite the existence of a nationally active Labour Movement Campaign Against the War, the Labour Party was largely absent. There were only a couple of Leeds Councillors marching although there were some from Bradford. This reflects the spiraling drop in Labour Party membership, now down to only 180,000, half the numbers at the height of the Blair counter-revolution. During the last Gulf War over 17,000 Labour Party members left. It has been estimated that 20,000 will leave if there is another war over Iraq but this would rise to over 60,000 if there was no clear United Nations mandate for war. This would bring New Labour's membership below that of the Liberal Democrats for the first time in eighty years.
There were over 30 people from Chapel Allerton Against the War on the march. This month they followed up their campaign with a candlelit vigil in Chapel Allerton on Friday night and a Saturday stall. They attracted large support from passers-by, one of whom donated a large box of chocolates to keep the campaigners going. Chapel Allerton has played its role building up for the big marches on the 15th February in London and Glasgow.
The strange case of Charles Kennedy
Will Charles Kennedy go on the 15th February demonstration after being urged to by the Guardian? He did eventually and reluctantly issue a statement saying he might. However he emphasised his commitment to the United Nations despite the fact that many of its members are controlled by the corrupt and bullying techniques of the United States. The Guardian wants Kennedy there to prevent the anti-war movement developing a political expression to the left of New Labour. This creates a big problem for Kennedy because he knows his potential seat gains in the next general election will come from the Tories. He therefore needs to be to the right of Labour. It is these kind of sharp dilemmas that create change in capitalist societies. His local acolytes in Leeds however resemble the episode in Fawlty Towers where they scrupulously try to avoid mentioning the possibility of war.
The Florida candidate
Predictably Geoff Hoon has given permission for the US to upgrade the Fylingdales spy base so leading to a dramatic drop in security in our region by making us more of a terrorist target without any security gains for Yorkshire. Specifically, Hoon has decided to align the UK with US against any attempts to develop European security alternatives. The rag-bag of mainly former Eastern European states which Blair and Bush have managed to bribe to support them in their aggression in Iraq will soon explode when they realise they are just being used as cannon fodder without any of their own concerns being taken on board.
Germany, France and Russia have come up with an alternative plan, for their own narrow and different reasons, which would avoid a war over Iraq. They have been joined by China. Blair and Hoon (and Charles Kennedy) have failed to respond positively to these proposals which could save thousands of innocent lives in Iraq as well as those of British soldiers. Blair is so far into the US pocket that he has completely lost the ability to be able to act independently of the US. It is no surprise that the former bearded wonder Hoon acts this way. He has always acted like some programmed US puppet a la the Manchurian candidate. It is as if Blair is the Member for Texas North and Hoon is the Florida candidate. Just carefully read the full-page interview with him in the Guardian to see this is no exaggeration.
Education Leeds
My old friends Hibberd and Edwards of Education Leeds are doing the rounds trying to convince parents and school staff that their schools should be closed. They have continued to tell the big lie over school surplus places in order to cover what is a complete lack of professionalism and imagination on their part in developing education in the working class areas of Leeds. However they are only the tools of Clarke's Education Ministry, which has decided to cut spending on our local schools so as to expand the number of elite academies which will be allowed to exclude the working class. This is called social exclusion.
Hibberd, Edwards and the company Capita have been employed by Leeds City Council to shrink the school system, and this method enables the New Labour Council to escape the political flak. However all the decisions in Education Leeds are politically controlled. Luckily many in Leeds are waking up to this sleight of hand and the lessons of the campaign to save Leopold School are being spread far and wide. The doublespeak of the Chapel Allerton councillors calling for the defence of Potternewton and Miles Hill Schools after their failure to defend Leopold particularly stinks of hypocrisy. Even more extraordinary is Councillor Moxon's complaint that she was not consulted over the proposed closures unlike that of Leopold at a recent Leeds City Council Scrutiny Board meeting. However the whole issue has ceased to be one of a single school but of the defence of the whole Education system. The call for Ridsdale to go as Chair of Education Leeds echoes the call from the terraces of Elland Road.
Housing
Council tenants in Leeds have been conned into going down the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) road. They voted overwhelmingly to be able to control their own estates; however they have now found out this only a precursor for PFI, a short step to handing their estates over to private enterprise. The estate committees only have a minority of tenants and are dominated by housing professionals who are committed to the PFI route. There is widespread anger building up on the estates, which is spreading into support for the Defend Council Housing campaign.
The Yorkshire Coalfields
Ian Lavery, President of the National Union of Mineworkers, has called for the coal industry to be taken back into public ownership. Drawing on parallels with the rail industry he said that the strategic case to keep the existing deep mines open, given the possibilities of war in the Gulf, was overwhelming. A new report commissioned by the NUM showed that relatively small subsidies would be needed to keep the Selby Coalfields open. The owners UK Coal have rejected the plans. They are now controlled by accountants who are only looking at the land prices of their assets. They want to get out of coal mining as soon as possible.
They have been supported by the New Labour MP for the area (and Leeds resident) John Grogan, who has told the NUM to get real and cooperate with the closure. He said that the NUM should work with local agencies to help find new jobs for the miners. All of these jobs would be lower paid than their existing ones. John's major political activity over the last few years appears to have been arranging seminars for local business people to meet various New Labour dignitaries, so he perhaps is not that closely in touch with what is happening.
For instance, UK Coal is also trying to close Maltby pit near Rotherham. NACODS (the pit deputies union) and the NUM lobbied the government to save 130 jobs at the pit. They managed to obtain a £110 million package for Maltby. However UK Coal said that 80 jobs would still have to go.
This is the reality of the Yorkshire coalfields. Public ownership is the only way to preserve both jobs and the ability of Britain to exploit deep-mined coal.
-- Half-Celestial Khan
