Cry me a river
Oh, and he's cracked one out for the Staggers too. Minor factual …
There you are boss.
(Google "cnd iran", third result). I think Nick's issue here is that the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is concerned with nuclear disarmament, rather than the promotion of democracy and Decency worldwide. Perhaps he thought the initials stood for Campaign for Nick and Dave?
Also notable … the Worker Communist Party of Iran make another appearance. I mentioned a few posts ago that the root of Cohen's politics at present is that he is a chair which bears the impression of the last arse to have sat on him, and presumably it was Maryam Namazie who got through on the speed dial this week. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but it seems pretty clear to me (and pretty important to a wider understanding of what's going on) that Nick's outpourings don't actually reflect his considered view of what's important at the moment; rather, they reflect what passed across his desk during the dark hours before deadline. The difference between Tweedledumb and Tweedledangerous can now be summed up rather pithily; Aaronovitch is a "hack" in the political sense, while Nick is one in the journalistic sense.
Since it is the WCPI we are talking about, I must once more remind the room that they did not support the invasion of Iraq and indeed consider themselves to be strongly of the "anti-imperialist" tendency. It's an irritating past habit of NC's to parade loudly his "solidarity" with various overseas movements of the left who agree with him on some issues but who agree with people he vehemently condemns on others.
The stuff about Searchlight I cannot comment on, other than to say that if you've "read an article about how Combat 18 is recruiting from soccer thugs", then you've read a pack of bollocks. C18 has been basically out of business for at least five years and it never "recruited" at all; it was always a small cadre organization (lots of people believe that it was a pseudo-gang set up by Special Branch in order to infiltrate Loyalist terrorist organizations and the way in which it was run certainly suggests that it was led by enemies of Fascism). I don't believe that Searchlight magazine did actually ever propagate this kind of crap, by the way.
On the subject of "the mainstream liberal press and parts of the BBC" and the "left wing blogs", all I can say is cry me a fucking river, build a bridge and get over it. Melanie Philips and Carol Gould are waiting on the other side and you can still get the Times, the Standard, the Guardian and the New Statesman delivered.
But if CND doesn’t invite speakers from the Ministry of Defence or American embassy - and it doesn’t - and never issues a press release condemning Iran – ditto
There you are boss.
(Google "cnd iran", third result). I think Nick's issue here is that the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is concerned with nuclear disarmament, rather than the promotion of democracy and Decency worldwide. Perhaps he thought the initials stood for Campaign for Nick and Dave?
Also notable … the Worker Communist Party of Iran make another appearance. I mentioned a few posts ago that the root of Cohen's politics at present is that he is a chair which bears the impression of the last arse to have sat on him, and presumably it was Maryam Namazie who got through on the speed dial this week. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but it seems pretty clear to me (and pretty important to a wider understanding of what's going on) that Nick's outpourings don't actually reflect his considered view of what's important at the moment; rather, they reflect what passed across his desk during the dark hours before deadline. The difference between Tweedledumb and Tweedledangerous can now be summed up rather pithily; Aaronovitch is a "hack" in the political sense, while Nick is one in the journalistic sense.
Since it is the WCPI we are talking about, I must once more remind the room that they did not support the invasion of Iraq and indeed consider themselves to be strongly of the "anti-imperialist" tendency. It's an irritating past habit of NC's to parade loudly his "solidarity" with various overseas movements of the left who agree with him on some issues but who agree with people he vehemently condemns on others.
The stuff about Searchlight I cannot comment on, other than to say that if you've "read an article about how Combat 18 is recruiting from soccer thugs", then you've read a pack of bollocks. C18 has been basically out of business for at least five years and it never "recruited" at all; it was always a small cadre organization (lots of people believe that it was a pseudo-gang set up by Special Branch in order to infiltrate Loyalist terrorist organizations and the way in which it was run certainly suggests that it was led by enemies of Fascism). I don't believe that Searchlight magazine did actually ever propagate this kind of crap, by the way.
On the subject of "the mainstream liberal press and parts of the BBC" and the "left wing blogs", all I can say is cry me a fucking river, build a bridge and get over it. Melanie Philips and Carol Gould are waiting on the other side and you can still get the Times, the Standard, the Guardian and the New Statesman delivered.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 12/08/2005 05:40:00 PM
12 Comments:
On Searchlight they have a lomg history of staying out of broad based anti-fascist movements. They stayed out of the Anti-nazi League, so them no joining the successor org (Unite against facsism) is hardly earth shattering news.
afaict, the actual reason that they left was over the recrimintations following a monumentally fucked-up council election campaign in Keighley, Yorks, where Searchlight and UAF fell out over how to handle the delicate issue that there actually had been a paedophile ring operating in the Asian community. The bit about a whispering Zionist campaign was post-facto mudslinging in a Searchlight editorial.
Talking of "unite against", what happened to the "unite against terror" campaign?
Camomile Chris
If you suggest that Unite Against Terror was anything less than a resounding success, uniting freedom-loving and democratic intellectuals and workers across the world against terror and securing 500 million signatures in a record 37 hours, the terrorists have won. Shame on you.
What did in United against terrorism was their habit of sticking out press releases in the name of the organisation which reflected the Decent's own little obsessions.
See here http://crookedtimber.org/2005/08/02/unite-on-this-and-swivel/
Comments are well worth a trawl through as well.
I wondered why Palestinian suicide bombings prompted an 'update' in the statement but the PKK atrocity in Turkey didn't. Making 'terror' synonymous with 'Islamist terror' (which definition is questionable itself in the context of Palestinian terrorism) seemed an odd move. But then, like about 500 other websites he's started over the last year or so, it was really just a front for the vanity of Alan Johnson, so we don't need to mourn for it too much.
Aaronovitch is a "hack" in the political sense, while Nick is one in the journalistic sense.
Cruel, but neat.
Btw, a possibly stupid question: what does the 'brown' in 'red-brown alliance' refer to?
'brown' can refer to fascists, as in Brownshirts, or it can refer to other forms of chauvinistic nationalism; Slobadan Milosevic's coalition was referred to as 'red-brown' because it united nationalists with the remnants of Yuogslavian Stalinism.
ah, thanks.
How does that CND country briefing (not even a press release) condemn Iran? It barely even condemns any possible Iranian nuclear weapons program. Most of that article seems to be trying to make the case that there is no Iranian nuclear weapons program and that the US is manufacturing a crisis.
Is Nick saying that Unite Against Fascism should not be supported then ? that seems to be it, altho' even Searchlight do not say that.
a different anonymous
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