Class War Bonfire Party
Nov 10 2006 11:33
Class War bonfire party
Aren't people shocked by this? Isn't it quite worrying when anarcho-populism is making racist effigies, and burning them?
http://www.londonclasswar.org/newswire_bonfirenight.php
Devrim
Nov 10 2006 11:54
#2
Yeah, I thought it all looked a bit dodgy. That image looks like it could easily have come from a BNP bommy night bash. Mind you, was that an inflatable Jesus? Which sex shop did they get that from? I think we should be told.
Nov 10 2006 11:58
#3
I can't get myself too worked up about this. Didn't they burn Jesus and Hackney's major too?
I don't see how it's particularly racist though.
Nov 10 2006 12:02
#4
Thora wrote:
I can't get myself too worked up about this. Didn't they burn Jesus and Hackney's major too?I don't see how it's particularly racist though.
Yes, I mean burning an effigy of a sterotype arab figure with a big nose isn't racist at all. If I had seen that picture without a caption I would have thought it was from a BNP do.
Devrim
Nov 10 2006 12:07
#5
It's not that they burned Mohammad in effigy that's the problem. While we might think it a little childish, no one is really going to have a problem with it.
The problem is that the effigy is a racist stereotype of an Arab - I mean look at it!
Just because CWF and their chums shriek that everyone is a liberal/Trot/women hater if they point out their mental anti-Islam stuff is going a bit fucking far, doesn't mean it doesn't need done.
Nov 10 2006 12:09
#6
Devrim wrote:
Yes, I mean burning an effigy of a sterotype arab figure with a big nose isn't racist at all.
I like the evil eyes and the hunch myself.
For the record, I don't think the people who made it are 'racists' - I just think they've taken their opposition to the SWP pro-Islam stance ridiculously too far, and have done something unbelievably fucking stupid.
Nov 10 2006 12:11
#7
Populist opportunism again - the working class that CW see as their natural constituency, ie white locals (though that has always remained wishful fantasy) has greater fears now of Islam, encouraged by the tabloids who have always led CW's content and style - so CW play on that in the hope of drawing 'whitey' in. Racialised stereotyped politics swallowed whole and regurgitated as anarchism bandwagon jumping.
Nov 10 2006 12:14
#8
Well, yes. Take that image out of context, add the caption "Here's what the anarchists are up to", then it really makes anarchists look like total racist twats. Class War really do need to engage their collective brain before they do stuff.
Nov 10 2006 12:50
#9
Serge Forward wrote:
Well, yes. Take that image out of context, add the caption "Here's what the anarchists are up to", then it really makes anarchists look like total racist twats. Class War really do need to engage their collective brain before they do stuff.
I'd much rather they stopped doing stuff.
Nov 10 2006 12:53
#10
Refused wrote:
Serge Forward wrote:
Well, yes. Take that image out of context, add the caption "Here's what the anarchists are up to", then it really makes anarchists look like total racist twats. Class War really do need to engage their collective brain before they do stuff.I'd much rather they stopped doing stuff.
shut it you or do you wanna end up on top of next years.
Actually they probably will develop a class analysis about paki middle class doctors.
Nov 10 2006 12:56
#11
...Bastards! (perhaps?)
Nov 10 2006 14:02
#12
*
* This is a spoof
Nov 10 2006 14:07
#13
Nov 10 2006 14:38
#14
London Class War/Class War Federation continue to miss the point of political activism, so we're going to stab them with it, since Anarchists are being virtually forced into denouncing the LCW/CWF position which promotes this kind of subpolitik as a substitute for activism and discourse.
The point we'd like to stab you with is that political and cultural blunder that the 'leadership' of London Class War/Class War Federation makes by burning the effigies of two very famous religious/political apostate Jews. What's all that about? Are Class War the new Sanhedrin? If they are, wouldn't it have been more appropriate to stone the effigies?
On a public level, if the Paul Marsh/Darren Redstar blundering version of 'Class War' continues to make protests in this way, then all of us enjoined in the class struggle might be tarred with the same brush.
On a subliminal level, such action could compromise the entire anarchist stance for disestablishmentarianism - the separation of religion from state.
Leaving aside Paul Marsh's unsavoury views about people of faith, I cannot for the life of me understand why the Class War Federation/London Class War should allow itself to be run by people who appear to be philosophically hostile to Anarchism.
Nov 10 2006 14:42
#15
Devrim wrote:
Thora wrote:
I can't get myself too worked up about this. Didn't they burn Jesus and Hackney's major too?I don't see how it's particularly racist though.
Yes, I mean burning an effigy of a sterotype arab figure with a big nose isn't racist at all. If I had seen that picture without a caption I would have thought it was from a BNP do.
Devrim
We came to a similar conclusion, and we're very unhappy about it. It's antisemitism in the true sense of it's meaning.
Nov 10 2006 14:54
#16
Luther - Who are "we" in your case?
Pingtiao - the work of a genius! 
Nov 10 2006 15:09
#17
Luther Blissett wrote:
The point we'd like to stab you with is that political and cultural blunder that the 'leadership' of London Class War/Class War Federation makes by burning the effigies of two very famous religious/political apostate Jews. What's all that about? Are Class War the new Sanhedrin? If they are, wouldn't it have been more appropriate to stone the effigies?
Yeah, sometimes I nick jokes off urban75 and hope nobody notices too 
Nov 10 2006 15:15
#18
ViolentPanda posted that one...
Nov 10 2006 15:22
#19
What is Mohammed supposed to look liek anyway? Isn't his image banned by the Koran or whatever and that's what started all that shit about the danish mag?
In the absence of any depictions of the prophet did they go: "Well he'd probably just look like any other towelhead"?
Nov 10 2006 15:25
#20
the whole thing is just well fucking embarassing. What message were they delivering by doing that?
There's more nuance at a Cradle of Filth gig fffs.
Nov 10 2006 16:21
#21
The ironic thing is that tactically it's really similar to SWP and the anti-war shit. Insert Blair (ooh, sorry I mean Bliar) and Bush for Mohammad and I'd think it was them.
In the meantime, let Class War do what they will. Noone takes them seriously anyway, apart from conceivably a BBC researcher for Eastenders.
Nov 10 2006 16:35
#22
god I couldn't see that picture before. That's truly truly awful.
Still no doubt some will take disapproval here as a sign of "great fucking success and a job well done"...
I think it would be accurate to say that pretty much every person in the country who wasn't either a racist, or in the small group of class war or IWCA periphery would think this was stupid. And probably the IWCA types would think it childish.
Nov 10 2006 16:57
#23
Of course it's childish. I don't see why burning Mohammed's so much worse than burning Jesus though.
Nov 10 2006 17:00
#24
Thora wrote:
Of course it's childish. I don't see why burning Mohammed's so much worse than burning Jesus though.
Burning an effigy of Mugabe would be no worse than burning one of Bush but if you make it as a big-lipped racist charicature then there's a problem, no?
Nov 10 2006 17:01
#25
Thora wrote:
Of course it's childish. I don't see why burning Mohammed's so much worse than burning Jesus though.
It's not because it's Mohammed, it's because of the way that they have portrayed Mohammed.
Do you not think the beady eyes and the hook nose are even a tiny bit dodgy?
Nov 10 2006 17:05
#26
In itself, it isn't any worse... but in the current ultra right political climate, it's totally fucking stupid. Plus, the Mohammed effigy looked very racially stereotyped, like what would have once been called a "dirty wog".
I'm no conspiracy theorist, but are Class War really this fucking stupid??? I mean to say, it really undermines any notion of working class unity while making anarchists look total shite. The far right or even the state itself couldn't have made a better job of it.
Nov 10 2006 17:08
#27
**
Nov 10 2006 17:17
#28
Serge Forward wrote:
I'm no conspiracy theorist, but are Class War really this fucking stupid??? I mean to say, it really undermines any notion of working class unity while making anarchists look total shite. The far right or even the state itself couldn't have made a better job of it.
I think it's more down to the fact that Class War's pollitics are pretty much a reaction against liberal/Trot stupidity. Which is all very well, except that it leads to silly positions on Islam and idiotic stunts like this.
Nov 10 2006 17:22
#29
Yes, I understand it's their reaction to trot bollicks, but that's really no excuse. If it wasn't for the fact that they have an established connection with the anarchist scene, most anarcho-communists would not tolerate this shit.
Nov 10 2006 17:23
#30
Are any of them going to comment on any of this? It's a shame because some of them are really good people.
To be honest, I didn't really care about this, and was annoyed at the lack of anti-CWF ammunition this event had given me.
Luckily, I then saw the pictures, and was "glad" (
) to see that they're made the Prophet look like a racist tabloid characature of an Arab.
Hopefully next year they can burn an effigy in protest of the growth of black fundamentalist Christian groups. May I suggest a golliwog?