Maryam Namazie in the news
Regular readers will remember a period when Maryam Namazie of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran was nearly as ubiquitous in Nick's columns as Harry Fletcher. I had idly wondered why she never signed the Euston Manifesto (oh my god they are soliciting essays about Lebanon and having a meeting about Darfur! The Darfur one has a load of Rwanda experts but seemingly nobody who knows about Sudan! I must get my entries in for both!). The answer is apparently that she (and possibly the WCPI) have been working on their own "Third Camp Manifesto" against "US militarism and Islamic Terrorism". It rather explicitly makes a point of drawing moral equivalence between the two:
"In the conflict between the state terrorism of the West and Islamic terrorism, the civilised world is not represented. Both sides of this conflict are reactionary and inhuman. They must be driven back."
It is all rather bracing. I thought about signing it but then I remembered a) I don't sign manifestoes and b) the WCPI have systematically alienated nearly allof their mates over the years and there is presumably some reason for that.
I seem to remember that Nick was rather proud of his association with Maryam. (Looking through the archives, I find that it was actually her that was the subject of his original coinage of the phrase "The Greatest Intellectual Struggle Of Our Time"). I also seem to remember that he was rather rude (which is to say, very rude) about people who had opinions about the Middle East but lacked such authentic friends. Will he be signing the Third Camp Manifesto?
"In the conflict between the state terrorism of the West and Islamic terrorism, the civilised world is not represented. Both sides of this conflict are reactionary and inhuman. They must be driven back."
It is all rather bracing. I thought about signing it but then I remembered a) I don't sign manifestoes and b) the WCPI have systematically alienated nearly allof their mates over the years and there is presumably some reason for that.
I seem to remember that Nick was rather proud of his association with Maryam. (Looking through the archives, I find that it was actually her that was the subject of his original coinage of the phrase "The Greatest Intellectual Struggle Of Our Time"). I also seem to remember that he was rather rude (which is to say, very rude) about people who had opinions about the Middle East but lacked such authentic friends. Will he be signing the Third Camp Manifesto?
posted by The Rioja Kid at 8/08/2006 12:42:00 PM
9 Comments:
There's a curiously substantial leaven of left-of-Sinn Fein Irish republicans in the list of intitial signatories.
Isn't there a "Rock Family Trees" connection between the WCPI, the Alliance for Worker's Liberty and the Official IRA, I dimly seem to remember? Like the one between Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac and Vanilla Ice (via bass player Glenn Hughes, unless I am completely wrong which to be honest has to be considered at least on the cards).
I also notice that, very unlike the Euston Manifesto, a lot of the signatories are signing on behalf of their organisations rather than making a big deal of "personal capacity". Don't know what this means though.
Isn't there a "Rock Family Trees" connection
I am informed via email that there isn't, sorry.
The Irish names seem to be mostly associated with The Blanket, which is more left-former-provo than Sticky.
I see Ophelia Benson has signed up too, so that's one signature in common with Eustonites.
"But BB, tell me who your comrades are, tell me who they are, hic
"Dunno Nicky boy, but whoever they are I'm pretty sure they're not making moral equivalence between the US and Islamic terrorists. "
Weren't some members of the WCPI terrorists? I vaguely remember that one of the anti-Ayatollah groups that Nick used to bang on about were.
Has Nick figured out that his friends in Kurdistan aren't exactly the good guys yet (or more accurately - that there aren't any good guys)?
cian: "Has Nick figured out that his friends in Kurdistan aren't exactly the good guys yet (or more accurately - that there aren't any good guys)?"
It's simple: the Good Kurds are in Iraq; the Bad Kurds are everywhere else (especially in Turkey). I exaggerate, but not by much.
I note the shortened dicussion about 'family trees' . May I suggest that one that should be investigated is membership of the National Secular Society (the NSS or should it be N SS ?) which I know for sure includes Nick cohen and Polly Tombie and who else?
Well, I signed and my mate Terry Liddle did (see our reasons on the Third Camp site). So there's a leavening of hard-left secularists to add to your family tree.
Andrew Coates
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