This Damsel in Distress Needs More Than Tea and Sympathy, though she is entitled to both.

CUP THAT CHEERS, but can it placate Aussie immigration controls?

MAY KING TSANG is a young woman from Bolton in Greater Manchester who has made a name for herself, and I'd say a good one, in the Antipodes, having stepped out of her previous role as an  IT  instructor in order to bring sophistication-seeking Aussies the fine art of brewing, tasting and supping tea.

Tea in all its varieties, on which May King has become an expert and enthusiast, and on which she has built a business. Tea for your health, and tea as in tea parties, tea for which "everything stops", as we used to sing in the good old pre-Thatcher days when England was almost civilised, and tea in the tradition of the Chinese Gong Fu ceremony.


I.T. to High Tea?  The invention of Afternoon Tea in England is attributed to Anna Russel, the 18th century Duchess of Bedford, but as May King and friends show in this photograph, they can blend old and still older traditions. 

"Gong Fu Tea-tasting is an art form in which many Chinese people take their daily beverage.  Gong Fu or Kung Fu may conjure up images of martial arts but the translated words merely means the art of doing something well.  Drinking tea is not just about the fluid intake but it’s about the admiration of the dry leaf, the aroma of the liquor (the liquid derived from the making of the tea) and, of course, in the final tasting of the tea.

 "Here is a little insight into what a Chinese Gong Fu Tea Ceremony entails.  This is my version of the Chinese Gong Fu Tea Ceremony which I call “Chinese Gong Fu Tea Ceremony with a Dash of Milk” as a tribute to my BBC (British Born Chinese) upbringing


http://maykingtea.wordpress.com/

As May King jokes, "Gong Fu or Kung Fu may conjure up images of martial arts..."
but I first met her in London through the anti-war movement. It was a wet and windy night in Wembley and we were the only two volunteers who turned up to leaflet outside Wembley Park tube for a meeting of the Stop the War Coalition.

Strangers in the night soon got along fine, as I discovered May King was from Bolton, just up the road from my home town Salford, and our shared greater Manchester imperviousness to the rain was reinforced by her cheerfulness and sense of humour. 

At this time May King was working as an IT instructor, and her job with the Swedish firm Ericsson took her out of the country sometimes, but I met her again at a fundraising quiz night in Willesden, and later with her partner Euan, also a tekkie, at the 'Skies Are Weeping' concert in Hackney (dedicated to Rachel Corrie). Each time I remember for her geniality and ready laughter. Right now she needs more than that resilient sense of humour.

I remember another friend telling me Euan and May King had wed in a Scottish castle (though they started married life in the less noble London Borough of Hackney).  That choice of venue might show their romantic imagination, but along with creativity May King has kept her common sense and feet on the earth. "Whilst we all love tea many questions are poised with accompanying bold statements and at times we often forget that our own opinions may not be held by others.  I was brought up in a working class background; my parents didn’t have two pennies to rub together.  I was also brought up in a Chinese household which meant no hoighty-toighty-ness; simple as you like with no fuss.  These two influences have also lent themselves into my business."

The lass from Bolton certainly seems to have carved out her own niche since traveling via Brent (and Hackney) with her spouse to Brisbane. Invitations to speak at food trade fairs, worldwide contacts exchanging tea lore, a Facebook page turning into a group promoting Queensland businesses and training. Seeing her enthusiastic and colourfully illustrated postings about different teas and fresh travels, one could not help but share her joy and wish her continued success and happiness.

But starting after a change in her personal circumstances, May King has also had an albatross hovering over her in the shape of the authorities wanting to take away her visa, and permission to remain in Australia. I had noticed lately that she seemed a little preoccupied, not her usual jolly self, even slower to laugh at my jokes. It seems that having been persuaded to extend her time once, the authorities have returned to the visa topic again, so that just when everything seemed to be going well and Queensland society to have accepted May King with pleasure as one of its own, she could have only days to start packing her bags and get thrown out.

Why? I know nothing about Australian immigration laws, apart from the news that after Labour and "Liberal" leaders competed in inhumanity, arguing whether to sink boats or send people to Papua New Guinea, the country has been rewarded with a government not unlike our own. But I had not heard of any hoarding vans parading Brisbane as one did through Brent, telling people to "Go Home".    
What has May King Tsang done wrong?  She has not, so far as I am aware, committed any crime. She is not even unemployed or taking benefits. She has not been peddling drugs, unless Lapsang Souchong has been reclassified. Like most immigrants, in Australia or here, far from taking anything away from society she is giving it something, in more ways than one. In fact, I'd say May King Tsang   is the sort of person any society should be glad to have, and I only question whether Australia, particularly Queensland, deserves her!  But my prejudices apart, May King Tsang deserves the right to stay and pursue her career, I hope my friends in Australia and all fair minded people there will agree and give her support.


  May King makes appeal

Online Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/keep-may-king-tsang-where-she-belongs.html

Bon Voyage to the Estelle!

But is Guardian heading on to rocks?

A SHIP has sailed from Sweden on an international mission to bring hope and humanitarian aid to Gaza. 

The S/V Estelle passed through  the Skaggerak today, heading out into the North Sea, at the start of its 5,000 mile voyage which aims to tell the people in Gaza they are not forgotten and challenge the Israeli blockade, making sure that is not forgotten either. 

After passing Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, the Estelle will sail through the Channel. then west to Brittany.
.
" When we put into Douarnenez in about a week’s time, the town’s Film Festival will be on, to which Ship to Gaza has been invited in order to talk about our action. It is particularly appropriate since the theme of the film festival this year is 'international solidarity', and the event includes guests from the Basque Country..

"The Basque Country will then be Ship to Gaza’s and the Estelle’s next stop. We are expecting to reach San Sebastian around 26 August – we have been promised a grand reception there by both the town’s notabiliities and activists from our Spanish sister organisation, Rumbo a Gaza.".

"There are activists from Sweden, Norway and Finland on board the Estelle from Kristiansand to Douarnenez.

There will be a passenger exchange in San Sebastian, and in other ports. The stage after that is a one-day trip to Bermeo, harbour town next to Guernica, which was devastated by bombing from Nazi Germany’s air force while the outside world looked on."

The steering group’s representative on board the Estelle to Douarnenez is Staffan Granér, who can be reached on his mobile: +46703549687.
Ship to Gaza Sweden
www.shiptogaza.se

I am grateful for this message to my friend Dror Feiler, an ex-Israeli para and now a Swedish citizen earning his living as a musician., and a dedicated peace and solidarity activist.  A founder member of European Jews for a Just Peace, Dror was on board the Freedom Flotilla for Gaza, captured on the high seas by the Israelis
h. Nine Turkish crew members were killed. Dror himself was roughed up by his captors. But they have not weakened his resolve. Perhaps it owes something to his upbringing. He grew up at Yad Hannah, a kibbutz that takes its socialism seriously. His mother, in her eighties, perseveres with her internationalism in a practical way with health work in Palestinian communities. It is something to live up to. 
 .               https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/world/2009/jun/04/palestinian-territories-health

It is ironic in a sad way that this item which Dror proudly posted to friends on Facebook he other day came from the Guardian. Some people I know complained this week that the Guardian's Comment is Free page was not that free, because it had censored out remarks by Moshe Machover concerning the Israeli government and the threat of war against Iran. Professor Machover himself has written to the Guardian rightly taking umbrage that he or what he had to say should be considered so objectionable.

I might not have paid much attention to this, thinking it just showed the liberal paper's succumbing to pressure from certain hypersensitive readers (such as those at the Israeli embassy), had it not been for an item on the Electronic Intifada site which suggests the Guardian is less concerned about offending other people.

In a sad sign of its deterioration, The Guardian has hired a new contributor who openly called on the Israeli army to kill Americans sailing to Gaza, including Pulitzer prize-winning author Alice Walker and Kindertransport refugee Hedy Epstein. In a statement on its website the newspaper says: Today the Guardian announced the addition of Josh Treviño to their editorial team. Formerly of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Treviño will be the newest Correspondent for the Guardian’s growing US politics team through his column “On Politics & Persuasion” which launches on Monday, August 20.

“We are pleased to have Josh join the Guardian,” said Janine Gibson, editor-in-chief of the Guardian US. “He brings an important perspective our readers look for on issues concerning US politics,” added Gibson.

Apparently, one of those “perspectives” is that those who disagree with Treviño should be brutally murdered. In June 2011, as several dozen Americans, including Walker and Epstein attempted to set sail from Greece to Gaza, to break Israel’s blockade along with boats from other countries, Treviño tweeted, “Dear IDF: If you end up shooting any Americans on the new Gaza flotilla – well, most Americans are cool with that. Including me.” Joshua Treviño @jstrevino

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/new-guardian-team-member-openly-incited-israel-murder-alice-walker-and-others

Flippant remarks like that on Facebook last year earned young people visits from PC.Plod, not promotion to serious news organs.

The Jerusalem Post reported last Thursday that a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry had commented for the first time on this year’s Ship to Gaza action involving the S/V Estelle with a yawn: “One ship does not a flotilla make.”
: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=280587

I would like to think that airy dismissal means the IDF is not going to interfere with the Estelle, and that Israel will not even use its lackeys in some European governments to interfere, as happened with the Jewish boat Irene in Greece.

But on previous form I am not optimistic.

If the arrival of Mr.Trevino is any indication of what attitude the Guardian might take or the course on which that venerable newspaper is now headed, I think the paper could be about to wreck its own reputation and already dwindling sales. Sorry for the decent members of the paper's staff, but I think most readers, including me, would be cool with that.

The Law isn't always an ass!

I'M sorry I missed a good day in the High Court today and I imagine, a good drink with friends afterwards. Mr.Justice Eady struck out the libel case being brought by Tower Hamlets Tory activist Johanna Kaschke against journalist and blogger David Osler.

He did so on grounds of "abuse of process".

I'm not well up on law, and won't attempt an interpretation of this. I did attend court the other week when the lawyer acting for Dave Osler made application for the case to be struck. Judge Eady suggested to Ms.Kaschke that since the differences between anything she had said and anything Mr.Osler had allegedly said about her were slight, and as he had been prepared to withdraw anything that was wrong, it seemed pointless to go to the expense of a jury trial.

Kaschke replied at some length, saying she had already devoted time and expense to bringing the case, that her business had suffered, and so on. She did not accept the judge's suggestion that this was good reason to stop now. Later, she seemed to question whether Dave Osler had referred accurately to an article from Der Spiegel which had appeared, then disappeared, from her own blog site. Claiming her link with fundraising for Rote Hilfe, which assisted members of the Baader-Meinhof group, had only come about through her musical interests, she went on to refer to details of a police raid and court case in Germany, which, as the judge pointed out happened thirty years ago.

It sounded interesting but I could not understand its relevance to the present case. Nor I suspect could Mr.Justice Eady, though he listened with patience, as I suppose is his job.

Anyway, you read the full details of his decision at:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2010/1075.html

Johanna Kaschke is needless to say, not a happy woman, as she makes clear amid her rejoicing at the advent of David Cameron's Tory-Liberal Democrat government, though she finds comfort in Judge Eady not having issued an order forbidding her from pursuing further cases:
"A gagging order would make it clear to the world, that if my name was added to the banned souls in the British legal system that there is no fair justice in this country. the Left are already allowed to run havoc with people’s reputation and get away with whatever they like; is it any wonder that Karl Marx chose London as his second home when the Germans had thrown him out".

The odd thing is, well one of the odd things about this case, that three years ago when Dave Osler was supposed to have libelled Johanna Kaschke, he had no reason to think she was not one of those Lefties whom she now complains are running around, protected by British justice. (Karl Marx, incidentally, was the bringer of a successful libel suit, not the subject of one).

It all started when then comrade Kaschke had obtained but one vote, having offered herself to be shortlisted as a Labour parliamentary candidate (With Bethnal Green and Limehouse both now having returned Labour MPs, just think what we have missed!) Upset by rejection, she joined George Galloway's Respect, and then a Communist Party, before moving on to.. the Tory party! All in one year.

But meanwhile, having offended her, Dave Osler offered her the right of reply, as he said was the custom within the Left and the labour movement. In court the other week, Johanna Kaschke cited this to argue that he had not really offered her the right of reply, as she was not a socialist.

Indeed, not only has Kaschke included speeches by Margaret Thatcher about socialism on her blog,
http://johannakaschke.blogspot.com/
but she has taken exception, both in court and her blog, to the accusation that she ever had connections with left-wing extremists.
"..., there is no evidence whatsoever in the extensive paperwork I provided that I was ever accused of links to left-wing extremists by the German authorities. I have got a letter from the German Attorney General to proof that point. I do not know why Eady J chose to ignore that evidence".
(note that emphasis, it is in the original)
http://jkaschke.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/kaschke-v-osler-2010-ewhc-1075-qb/


That might be misinterpreted, but I will leave it to Ms.Kaschke to keep on digging. She has some more cases pending.

Last time I blogged about Johanna Kaschke I was impressed by the number of committees for which she managed to find time, but also by her wide-ranging knowledge of subjects including the Knights Templar, and significant numbers. I'm surprised she did not notice that yesterday was the 13th.

As it is, suggesting that blogger Dave is some kind of media Goliath, she has commented ruefully: " I think it is amazing how well Mr Osler’s publicity machinery is organised to give interviews after the hearing and put it on YouTube straightaway, for that extra bit of publicity".

Yeah. Amazing what some people can do with a laptop and/or a
mobile.

I wonder, though, without any of this litigation, how many people would have noticed, let alone remembered what Dave Osler said in a blog, three years ago about an obscure East End character, and a long spent German court case? Far from silencing him, the case has amplified the issue through a large number of other blogs and into the news media. Maybe this will give some others reaching for their libel writs pause for thought.

See:
http://www.davidosler.com/
Jack of Kent: What the Osler Decision Means

Is it Meme(the name of the game), or Me!, Me! (like the heroine of La Boheme)?

I've been tagged by Madame Miaow in a sort of game called political meme where you all answer a few questions about yourself then pass it on to someone else. That urbane guerrilla from exotic East Eight reckons ruefully that this kimd of exercise must help Special Branch, but way I see it, when you get to my age you can fill up their files and wear down their pencil stubs, and will to persist, by loading them with useless information. So here goes:

First political experience Difficult to say, and depends what you mean by 'political' and 'experience'. I did ask why some people had big houses, gardens and lots of money, and we didn't, and why the government did not tax the rich and give it to the poor to make us all sort pf 'middle class' , a phrase my Mam liked, but she advised me to be careful or people would call me a "Communist". That seemed strange because the "communists" in my Yankee war comics were bad guys, and there was a young guy in our street home on leave from fighting communists in Malaya, his pal had been killed, but he could not answer my questions as to why the troops were there. When we visted some friends of my parents whom they'd described as Communist I found these seemed nice people, they had lots of books and magazines, and though they were working people like my Mam and Dad, they seemed to know and understand all sorts of things, but were always friendly and jolly, not like the teachers at school.

I also remember a discussion in our house once, it might have concerned the "Doctors' Plot", or the fate of Soviet Yiddish writers, or the Prague trials, and the grown' ups were saying "How can you have antisemitism in a communist country?", and so on. Someone mentioned Marx, someone then mentioned Trotsky, and a Mr.Rosenfelt said "Ah, now Trotsky was a real communist!" Later when my friend Dave whose parents were in the CP was referring to "Four great leaders, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin", I asked about Trotsky. He said Trotsky had been a "traitor", though he could not say why. Mind you, he also said Tito was a traitor, and as I was reading keenly about the Yugoslav partisans then I wasn't having that! But we stayed friends.

First vote Well, I was taking part in votes in the youth movement, and so on, and in 1959 I also helped left-wing Labour MP Frank Allaun in his campaign, his vote went up though over the rest of the country, Labour did badly, but to be fair I think he would have done well even without my support. In those days you did not get the vote till you were 21, so the first general election I voted in was 1964. By then I was in London and had just been chucked out of the Labour Party as a Trot, for selling 'Keep Left' , but I still voted Labour, for Reg Freeson, one of the people who had chucked me out.

First demo: Not sure. Could have been CND or May Day, or might have been a Connolly Association march in Manchester over two guys called Mallon and Talbot who were facing a murder charge - in those days a hanging matter.

Last vote: European and London Mayoral, though I am not that fond of either institution. If I remember rightly I voted for No2EU, Yes to Democracy, though I'd wished it had a more positively socialist name and policy, and voted Labour, for Ken Livingstone as mayor though again, I'm not his greatest fan, but just hoping to keep the Tory Boris out.

Last political activity: See my previous blog. I was in Grosvenor Square with the Iranians, partly just to find out more, but partly also to give support. Whatever one makes of the Mujihaddeen-e Khalq, I don't like to think of a refugee camp being surrounded by troops and riot police, at the mercy of a regime which, let's face it, Britain and the US put in place. Something has to be said.
And now I must get on with another political activity, editing a members'bulletin for the Jewish Socialists' Group. This was by way of a break!

And not sure how you "tag" people, being old and technologically challenged, but I'll go for Jim http://jimjay.blogspot.com/

and Stroppy or Janine, http://www.stroppyblog.blogspot.com/

Incidentally, does anyone know whence this word "meme" comes, and is it supposed tobe pronounced like "Mame" (there is nothing you can name) as in the musical, or like Mimi, whose tiny hand was frozen in La Boheme?

Lean years and repression in Egypt

BESIDES helping to seal off the Gaza Strip along with the Israeli blockade, Egyptian authorities are in trouble with their own people over rising food prices and shortages. The government's continuing privatisation of industry and resources may qualify it for the American-led crusade for "democracy" in the Middle East, but Egypt's working people are confronting hunger and repression. But resistance is growing.

Thousands of demonstrators have clashed with police, in a protest against a decision by local authorities to end distribution of flour rations in the northern coastal town of Burullus.

A Reuters report on Saturday, quoting the state-owned al-Ahram newspaper, said around 8,000 protestors sealed off a road for seven hours, using burning tyres to stop traffic. Police used teargas and batons to disperse the crowds and three protesters were hospitalised after inhaling teargas, security sources said. Police made 30 arrests, according to al-Ahram.

One security source said rubber bullets had been fired at the crowd. Security sources said earlier the protests were caused by bread shortages, but subsequent reports said the protestors, primarily local fisherman, were angered by the local authority's decision to end direct distribution of flour rations in favour of supplying bakeries with the flour.

High wheat prices have put great strain on Egypt's bread subsidy system, where the urban poor depend on cheap bread to survive.

The demand for subsidised bread has grown and the heavy subsidy has increased the incentive to divert subsidised flour illegally to other uses. Egypt said in May it would add at least 17 million people to the ranks of ration card holders to ease the effect of rising food prices. (Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni, editing by Mary Gabriel)

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL07142958.html

Among recent reports of police arresting opposition leaders, trade unionists and religious figures, one particularly has caught my eye, as it concerns a man described as "a blogger and labour activist". According to Agence France Press, Karim al-Beheiri. "who was released after weeks behind bars over deadly protests at Egypt's biggest textile plant for higher pay and controls on prices, said Monday he and his fellow detainees suffered eeks of 'torture'.

"We were subjected to electric shocks, to beatings and there was no food and or drink for the first few days," blogger Karim el-Beheiri told AFP a day after his release. "We went through weeks of torture and humiliation."

Beheiri, Tarek Amin and Kamal al-Fayoumy, three worker activists, were arrested on April 6 at the Misr Spinning and Weaving company in the Nile Delta industrial city of Mahalla after riots which left three people dead and hundreds detained.

An interior ministry official confirmed the three had been released but denied they had been mistreated.

"These are false accusations," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Everything took place within a framework of human rights."

They were accused of "inciting unrest, damage to property and demonstrating," a security official told AFP, adding that of the hundreds detained in connection with the Mahalla riots, eight remain in custody.

The three were fired from their jobs after their arrest, said Beheiri, whose detention was condemned by international human rights watchdogs.

"Many of us had never seen the inside of a prison before," Beheiri said, describing his first weeks at Borg al-Arab prison near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria sharing a small cell with 25 people as "terrifying."

"We had bread thrown at us. They would dip their hands in our food before throwing it at us," said Beheiri who, with the others, mounted two hunger strikes while in detention.

On April 16, the prosecution ordered the release of several detainees including Beheiri, Fayoumy and Amin, but the three remained behind bars until Sunday.

Beheiri said that during interrogations at state security headquarters in various Egyptian cities, questioning focused mainly on his blog and his connections to other bloggers.

"It's the new fashion," he said of a large-scale crackdown against Egypt's cyber dissidents.

He said the first thing he wanted to do when he got home after the release was to blog the events.

"But I couldn't remember my own password. It was so frustrating," he said.

Symbolic of their rise to power, Egyptian police have arrested several political bloggers in recent months.

But despite Egypt's Internet explosion, the cyber realm remains largely the preserve of the young and educated in a country where 40 percent of the population of 80 million people cannot read.

Nevertheless, Egypt's bloggers, who rarely conceal their real identity, have taken on the role of bridging the gap between civil society's desire for democracy and workers' demands for better pay and working conditions.

In a country where there is little access to live and independent Egyptian reporting, blogs and "real time" social networking sites like Twitter provide regular but unverified updates on events, such as elections and protests.

In recent months, Egypt has seen a number of strikes and protests against low salaries and price rises that have been one of the most serious challenges to the regime of veteran President Hosni Mubarak.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080602/wl_mideast_afp/egyptprotestrights

I sometimes wonder whether activity like blogging is a diversion from more useful political activity. I'd like to think it could prove even a fraction of the effect bloggers like Beheiri have apparently had. Not that I want to face similar consequences.

New links, and old acquaintances

I'M pleased to have two more blogs to add to my listed links at the side of this page. One is Charlie Marks, whose name I'd heard before but I don't think we have met. I believe he was/is linked to the Socialist Workers Party, but known for his independent attitude. This other Charlie has contacted me to compliment me on the posting about London Underground and Overground troubles. When I looked up his name I found that he had his own blog, left-wing commentary with looks at issues I haven't tackled, and lots of links. Among them was one to Random Pottins, so I thought it was only right to reciprocate.

Then there's this message that came by e-mail the other day:

Dear friends,

I'm writing to announce my new blog, 'Greater Surbiton', which I hope you will all drop by from time to time.
http://greatersurbiton.wordpress.com/
It will be devoted to political commentary and analysis, with a (far from exclusive) thematic focus on reinterpreting the meaning of progressive politics and (equally far from exclusive) geographic focus on South East Europe.
I don't plan to have public comments for the time being, but any private comments or criticisms would be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,
Marko

I first met Marko Attla Hoare in Trafalgar Square about 14 years ago, at a rally about the war in Bosnia. I'd gone up there with a couple of my friends from the WRP/Workers Press, Dot Gibson and Geoff Pilling.

When the conflict in former Yugoslavia first broke out few of us knew much, or had any idea what to do about it. Trotskyists had supported Yugoslavia when it stood up to both Western and Soviet pressure, some even going out to work projects there. But we had not really followed or understood recent developments, and knew little about the national question there. I'd keenly read books about the partisans when I was young, and also knew about Ustashe crimes and the fact that the perpetrators remained active as emigres.

It was a Yugoslav comrade called Rade who helped us learn more, and urged us to action. He was one of a group of East Europeans who'd formed around the Hungarian Trotskyist Balasz Nagy in Paris, and who joined us in forming the Workers International (to reconstruct the Fourth International). When Rade came to London I asked him whether the situation was as bad as we read about in the newspapers. He replied: "What's happening is much worse than anything you've read in your newspapers".

It had not occurred to me till then to ask what variety of Yugoslav he was. I asked where he was from. Rade was a Serb, from near Belgrade. His brother had been called up to the Yugoslav People's Army, and decided though he disagreed with the regime that as a Marxist he must go with the masses. At a place called Vukovar he discovered that overnight his fellow-soldiers had removed the red star from their caps, replacing it with the Serb nationalist white eagle. It was at Vukovar that invading Serb troops dragged patients from their hospital beds to kill them. Rade's brother narrowly persuaded the men is his own unit not to participate in such actions.

We got Rade to speak at a meeting in London's Conway Hall. It was not well attended. Maybe some on the Left knew as much they wanted to, or thought they did. But a Greek person asked whether it was not bad to see Yugoslavia breaking up. It was, agreed Radi. "But if you want to save unity you don't do it by destroying a mixed, working class city like Vukovar, and you don't bombard the national library of Sarajevo with incendiary shells!"

What Rade had to tell us about responsibility fitted what I also heard from two people at a Jewish Socialist Group meeting, one being Dr.Donald Kenrick, best-known for his activity for Gypsy rights, but also long-acquainted with Yugoslavia and its peoples; and the other Ben Cohen, a young guy from an Iraqi-Sefardi family who had been visiting relatives in Sarajevo when it first came under siege.

It was Rade who advised us to try and get help to Tuzla, a mining town where something of working class unity survived between 'Muslim', Croat and Serb. We met some Bosnian refugees from the area, and heard how miners in Tuzla had raised funds for the British miners during the great strike. We also heard that some socialists who had been mainly involved in anti-fascist activity were planning to set up something called "Red Aid for Bosnian Refugees". It was together with them that we formed Workers Aid for Bosnia. But where and how to begin?

We set off for that rally in Trafalgar Square with our publications, and a petition calling on the TUC to support aid to Bosnian workers and refugees. It never did, but the names gave us a start. A young guy signed my petition and bought a copy of the 'International Trade Union Solidarity Bulletin' , a modest little monthly I edited at the time. Shortly afterwards I saw Dot and Geoff talking to a couple, and went over to offer them the Bulletin. "I see my son has just bought one," said the woman, who had already bought a Workers Press and signed the petition.

Looking at the signatures I saw the names of Branca Magas and her partner Quintin Hoare, and that the name on my board was Attila Hoare. I'd heard about Branca and Quintin breaking with the New Left review but this was the first time we'd met them or their son. Later, although they had their own activity, they helped Workers Aid, and Marko Attila Hoare wrote an article in Workers Press.

The reason I'm telling you these mundane details is because the WRP and Workers Aid for Bosnia came under attack at this time from, among others, a sect centred on Detroit and led by one Dave North who, before he broke with both Gerry Healy and Healy's opponents in the WRP had been co-author of a series of works called Security and the Fourth International, dealing with real and increasingly unreal agents and conspiracies. Now in similar vein, but more imaginatively, North and his British followers led by one Dave Hyland uncovered a fresh conspiracy hatched by Leeds academic Cliff Slaughter of the WRP. They insisted that preserving Yugoslav state unity was a principle, whatever the weak-kneed Tito had allowed for in the constitution. Ignoring the fact that Douglas Hurd and the Tory government were denying the Bosnian people's right to defend themselves, they said Workers Aid to Bosnia was smuggling arms to Bosnia on behalf of the imperialists. Why the imperialists whose troops in UN guise controlled Bosnia's roads and airfields should depend on a bunch of amateurs with second-hand lorries was never explained.

But the North group had informed readers that "Slaughter procured Attila Hoare from his privileged educational background" to write in Workers Press. And there was me thinking I'd just bumped into the lad in Trafalgar Square by chance. Just goes to show the difference between what we mere plebs think of as common sense about how things happen, and the higher levels of thought achieved by conspiracy theorists.

I hear that nowadays the North group's Australian offshoot printer is handling the Financial Times contract. Not bad for an international outfit that once denounced Workers Aid for having a contact in Tuzla who was "a banker with interests in Bosnia". He was indeed the manager of the state-owned Bank of Tuzla, who, since the place was sandbagged and the money wasn't much use in wartime, took time off to help on convoys. I stayed in his flat in a tower block on an ordinary estate there. Obviously a high-level financial conspiracy.

We don't see much of the Hyland Light Infantry these days, but I see the venom is still available from other, perhaps more traditional sources. Neil Clark, a Morning Star contributor who I gather doesn't like Trotskyists of any description and thought poor old Milosevic was innocent, accuses those who disagree of being "anti-Yugoslav" and informs readers of his blog that:

"Attila Hoare is a ex-Workers Revolutionary Party fanatic who is as far from an unbiased observer on Balkan affairs as it is to be. The comments on him by resistor on Harry's Place say it all. "

http://neilclark66.blogspot.com/2006/02/oliver-kamm-is-not-son-of-god-or-is-he.html

I've stayed away from Harry's Place so far, and see no reason to look up smears from anonymous habitues. I'll leave it to others to decide from their writings which is the "fanatic" , Marko Attila Hoare or Neil Clark.

My path and that of Marko parted ways during the Kosova war, when we took different attitudes to Western intervention. I think he has strayed into some company now that I'd not want to keep. But he continues to write well, and with real knowledge, particularly about Yugoslavia and its history. *

Regarding the "ex-WRP" tag, Marko has replied that he was never in the WRP, but if he had been in the WRP/Workers Press he would have been proud to say so, because of its principled record. And whatever differences we may now have, I am proud to add a link to Marko Attila Hoare's blog to my list.

* Books by Marko Attila Hoare: "I am the author of three books, The History of Bosnia: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day (London, Saqi, 2007), Genocide and Resistance in Hitler’s Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks, 1941-1943 (London, Oxford University Press, 2006) and How Bosnia Armed (London, Saqi, 2004). I am currently working on a history of modern Serbia".

From Guadalajara to Glastonbury, Old Comrade, New Friends

SOMEBODY has sent a comment to my posting on Spanish civil war veteran, retired hospital worker and centenarian Howard Andrews. It's actually an extract from the programme for the Glastonbury Festival:

"Last minute announcement for the Left Field stage - we've just confirmed that a veteran of the Spanish Civil War will be opening the Love Music Hate Racism night on Saturday. Howard Andrews, known as Andy is 100 years old, and worked as a medic in field hospitals as a member of international brigades.He'll be opening the Love Music Hate Racism night with a few words about his experiences of fighting fascism in Spain, and why he supports the campaign against the BNP.
http://forums.virtualfestivals.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101164

So all those of us who have slowed down a little since passing 50 had better sit up and pay attention. Not content with showing up on picket lines in his buggy, Andy, at twice that age, is taking the stage at an open air rock festival. Born in Kilburn, he has lived in Somerset for half a century. Must be the air down there. Koech (Strength) and Long Life, Andy! And let's hope people pay attention to your message.
(original posting - http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2007/01/howard-andrews-century.html

Thanks by the way to whoever sent the information. It came anonymously, and about four times so maybe that's four different people, unless someone's computer is playing up! This might be good a time as any to catch up on some correspondence, and mention a few new bloggers on the blog and one not quite so new.

First, as the agony and chaos in Gaza shaped into civil war last week, and there was little that you could call good news, this message from a Palestinian woman reached me:

Dear Friends,

I have decided to start a blog: http://margo-bouba.blogspot.com/
It is nothing elaborate or as politically controversial as some of the others.
The reason why I started it is to show a different side of Palestine and Palestinians. Some of you might think it's not the time, that while battles rage in Gaza I should write about that and what's happening there and the state of affairs on Palestinian political life. But everyone else is already doing that, everyone is so consumed by it...
I wanted to write something different; just things about mundane life. I feel that because of the opportunities that I've had that it makes me all the more responsible to show that life here is not just about the conflict. That some aspects are surprisingly ordinary, even if the violence overshadows everything else. Yet, I always insist that there is more to Palestinians than just the conflict and I think more people need to realize that! So, I hope that this helps in some small way. We'll see how it develops and whether I will keep it up... So check it and if you feel so inclined, leave comments, I would love to hear what you think.

Best, Margo

I think, having visited the blog, that If you can keep your head while others, so-called leaders, around you are losing theirs, then you might be part of the answer that people need, my sister.

BTW, the message from Margo was passed on to me by Julia Bard, of the Jewish Socialists' Group, who says Margo was one of her students on a journalism course at Goldsmiths, and has just returned to Palestine after four months in the United States.

Then there's Mick Hall, with whom I've sometimes agreed and sometimes argued on the Labour Briefing Readers List. It was Mick who introduced us via that list to 'The Blanket' , an online magazine started by former Irish Republican POWs. http://lark.phoblacht.net/ Now Mick has started a blog called Organised Rage at http://organizedrage.blogspot.com/ and so far it has been taking a particular interest in Irish politics. His blog is subtitled "The View from The Tower Block", but his is no Ivory Tower viewpoint.

Next, I don't think I mentioned when reporting the Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) meeting in London last month that among the people who spoke from the floor was a young guy from Down Under who happened to be passing through. He told us how a group of them in Australia had got more attention than they expected when they started something similar to IJV out there.
I meanwhile had recognised his name as a fellow-blogger, Anthony Loewenstein, and having only previously met in cyberspace (or on the blogosphere, was pleased to go up afterwards and introduce myself and shake hands. His website/blog address is worth a visit, at
http://antonyloewenstein.com/

Last, but by no means of least interest, I was pleased to welcome a communication yesterday concerning a Manchester personage, about whom I'd previously written, from someone who calls themselves Meursalt, who I see has started a blog called Nothing to Put Here at http://whataboutasongtitle.blogspot.com/
Beyond seeing that he is a shopworker in Manchester, I know nothing about Meursalt except that his politics are left-wing, but from looking at his links, hard to pigeonhole, which makes them more interesting, nu?