Bash the Rich - Class War - November '07

I've had a measure of success in getting non-politicos along to pickets as well.

Edit: although my methods may not be universally applicable.

so we are drawing a line between stunts which would be embarassing and pickets and rallies? Well i'd say they were both as challenging for the newcomer, but i was really trying to apply Johns point to other events; its going to be a bit shit ergo, you don't invite your workmates. It might be shit cos it will be a penned in non-riot or it will be some embarassing chanting outside ikea*. What i'm saying is 'would you invite your workmates' can't be the be all and end all.

Did you invite your workmates to this thread?

* i'd prefer Ikea any day mind

My comment was mostly aimed at ftony, who seemed to be implying there was something else behind what I was saying.

ah you're just too tolerant that's all.

I don't think this can be worthwhile. At best it's just asking for "equal opportunities" for culturally w/c people like loads of Labour politicians.

But jack is a twat though.

Well not really, but as you say I wouldn't go either, so my point still stands.

That's the thing though, tacks. All the things you're talking about are stuntist, elitest stuff. Your co-workers - even builders - would care about things like their wages and working conditions. My nephew's a casual builder trying to get loads of back wages owed him, for example. Okay so they won't care about some crusties walking about on mayday - but why should you? I certainly don't.

I didn't say that. But if I did say that a political activity is so embarrassing you won't tell normal people about it, then there's a good chance it's stupid and pointless. Most anarcho politicos work within a self-contained subculture, never opening themselves up to criticism from the outside world because they don't engage with it. You can see how detached lots of them are from reality because they slag off people on here for "not doing anything." Do they slag off their workmates for "not doing anything" to fight capitalism? (not that many of them have jobs anyway but still)

I'm skeptical of stunts like this in general, but to be fair, that's not really what Class War seem to be trying to say.

Surely the point is that capitalism tries to legitimise itself through the myth of meritocracy and social mobility, attacking that myth doesn't necessarily entail a demand for more social mobility.

Interesting way of looking at it. I think it’s important for the organisers to show that it’s not a “protest” it’s an attack. Tricky to pull off. I think Lucy Parsons posters are in order.

Did it work for Fathers for Justice, or not? Genuine question, because I’m not sure.

Another interesting way of looking at it. I would hope CW is not attacking a myth, one assumes their aim is to popularise the hatred of Etonians and Class War. I wonder if it will.

You can go a week or two without thinking about how much you love rkn, then he reminds you why you do.

There's a lot of issues over Portobello Road regarding gentrification and a couple of local campaigns against luxury housing in Meanwhile Gardens and the Sutarias plans for Portobello as a super rich enclave of gated housing. A lot of local people are up in arms over this and if this discontent can be tapped into there could be a lot of local support. From what I've seen locally theres lots of the flyers about and links have been made with the Meanwhile Gardens campaign at least.

I can't go one evening, myself.

Brouhaha - welcome the site. I'm quite interested in these local gentrification centred campaigns. Stuff like HSG etc. seem to be doing. Do you have any more info you could post up, perhaps in a new thread?

At least one of my workmates is registered on this site, but he's never posted. He also told me about the Anarchist Christmas thread before I'd seen it. So in a sense, yes. He's by far not a politico.

I have managed to get my workplace (not entirely single-handedly, but I've worked pretty fucking hard) to a point where wages and conditions are a near permanent topic of conversation, people are digging contracts out of drawers to compare them, discussing seriously ways of taking action. Collectively defending your conditions (or even talking about it), where you are, is worth a thousand solidarity pickets talking about someone else collectively defending their conditions.

Excellent.

I can imagine the hard work.

Love

LW X

you remain, devrim, as ever in a class of your own.

Judging by your responses on this thread: posh kid self-proletarianised by shear force of will.

But let's assume for a moment you are from a genuine working class background. Didn't you feel, back in your class war days, slightly perturbed by those (notice that it is plural) public school boys proclaiming their working class credentials? Didn't you question their fetishisation of the working class? Weren't you slightly put out by the fact these ex-public school boys were the most vocal and ardent in their support of the working class: "our class"? And did it make you feel slightly suspicious of their motives in doing do? And didn't you feel a certain degree of contempt and mistrust of these middle class ex-public school boys forever repeating the phrase 'class struggle' as either a point of order or a badge of honour and in doing so negating their own class background?

If your answer to those questions in yes then we have more in common than i suppose is politically healthy. If your answer is no then maybe that goes in some way to explain why you have such a comfortable place amongst the internet anarchists here?

rkn - i think that's the most you've ever posted on your own website.

Congratulations, your round down the foundry.

Nope, from a poor working class background background, left school at sixteen, and worked in manual jobs. As proletarian as they come actually.

I felt so `perturbed` by it that I didn`t have Class War days.

Devrim

so you're not the fabled ' ...the mouth' then?

think the phrase you're looking for CM is 'whoops' mate

You fucking loved us though. Some of us more than others you cheeky minx. I bet you'll be there, for old time's sake.

the meanwhile gardens issue is indeed an interesting prospect. You're probably also aware, brouhaha, of the wornington green estate where local residents are fighting against the demolition of their council estate to make way for 'regeneration'.

It is these kind of things that BTR will be looking to and not the fierce intellectualism of internet anarchism.

PS the local paper dubbed the campaigning residents of the worthington green estate, in not an unflattering way, "the new set of anarchists".

thats interesting - how did they mean?

Kensington and Chelsea News

I don't think so. You seem to have destroyrd your own argument here though. First you are that you can tell from the post alone, but then you refer back to someone you thought I was.
Devrim

apologies devrim, i've got the wrong man. You're not the 'postie' who hung around class war nicknamed **** the mouth?

But you are from genuine working class stock so to my original questions: Didn't you feel slightly perturbed by those (notice that it is plural) public school boys involved in class war proclaiming their working class credentials? Didn't you question their fetishisation of the working class? Weren't you slightly put out by the fact these ex-public school boys were the most vocal and ardent in their support of the working class: "our class"? And did it make you feel slightly suspicious of their motives in doing do? And didn't you feel a certain degree of contempt and mistrust of these middle class ex-public school boys forever repeating the phrase 'class struggle' as either a point of order or a badge of honour and in doing so negating their own class background?

I'm wondering how your "class rage" manifested itself, what form it took? Weren't you, and aren't you, just slightly disturbed by middle class people pretending to be working class? Isn't it even a little insulting?

Admin - don't try to post personal details of other posters

awesome

What id don't get here is: if you are slagging CW off so heavily in this post, and i know you feel strongly about people calling themselves w/c when you consider them not to be, why are you working on their event? I'm not being smart, but if you think CW were insulting cos they had so many public schoolies in em,* why are you into this BTR march?

*not my opinion.

Thanks, I do own most of the shares and feel I should make my presence known every now and again.

Well here are some stickers for the event;
http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/bash-the-rich-stickers-top-fucking-class/#comment-144

The same blog mentions that Kilmartin - the working class guy who got attacked by the toff - will be speaking at this manifestation. This seems to me a very working class event, keying into anti gentrification campaigns and feelings there are around the country, taking into account actually existing class consciousness rather than an idealised one. Its only a shame I am busy that day.

It's happened!!

It was embarrasing back in the eighties to have met public school educated types in Class War. Most of them did arrive after the poll tax riot, attracted by the news footage one assumes.

Many if not most of the posho members of CW were active and got involved, for that we tolerated them. What is more telling is the number of wealthy students now pretending to be anarchists and communists who don't actually do anything other than actions which will cause most reasonable people to laugh or simply despsie them ala jack and his starbucks leaflets.

I think for many of you it's all too theoretical. You have grown up in times of plenty. Your middle class, can afford to go to university, have never been on a mass picket, participated in a riot, attacked any balliff or done anything which may fire up the passion centres. Consequently actually doing stuff now just seems alien and threatening to you hence the attcks on CW.

Please don't bother turning up to the organising meeting at the bookfair and bleating away. You will get thrown out on your arses.

A rather empty comment IMO.