Author: ourbulgarianlife

The recent G7 meeting in Cornwall was to all extents and purposes a very expensive, high security, long photo opportunity yawn as far as the British working class were concerned. Although originally intended to have representatives of major countries, the G7 now has over-representation from the undemocratic EU. As a Country, we can’t seem to shake off their constant meddling in our internal affairs. We had about 45 years in total of being under their illegal, fascist- run, austerity- driven subjugation and to continue to ‘entertain’ them in Britain is a ‘wind-up’ to those of us who have consistently campaigned to have no part in the EU ‘stitch-up’. What obvious conclusions can we draw from the Cornwall meeting. The first is the parallel between the atmosphere polluting G7 and NATO pollution of the environment. NATO, it has been reported, has been a high polluter with its military gas guzzling tanks and military vehicles. It would seem that it wants to spread its evil influence to all parts of the globe, from China to the Arctic. The G7 in comparison were busily polluting the atmosphere in Carbis Bay, with billowing clouds of smoke from out-of-control industrial scale beach barbeques catering for the high- powered, low- productivity personnel on display. To add to the pollution, the ‘Red Arrows’ left their trail of fumes above the Cornish skies. These were only a small part of the planes and helicopters also involved in this ‘photo pageant’ which also saw the British Royal family popping in for more photogenic opportunities. With the new strains of Covid emerging to large extents in the Greater Manchester area, we had the local Devon and Cornwall police complaining about the influx of over 6000 police into the Cornwall area, including many, untested and unvaccinated, from the new covid ‘hotspots. Despite the emphasis on picturesque photo opportunities, the Cornwall reality couldn’t be totally hidden from the foreign leaders in that to make their way to venues like the Eden Project, they had to drive through areas of deprivation in one of the poorest counties in Britain. Rob J. Hawkins 17.6.2021

The British Government, The BBC, and the majority of the UK’s media’s protests at the decision by the Government in Hong Kong once again exposes its hypocrisy in respect of its propaganda against China. Yet again the UK conveniently ignores its own past. In 1988 the British Government  banned all voices of Sinn Fein and other Irish Republican groups on TV and Radio. We have not forgotten the British Government’s role in banning organisations in India, Kenya and Rhodesia and many more of its Colonies. and 80 years ago the British Government banned the Communist newspaper the Daily Worker.  The Capitalist  West has infiltrated all Socialist Parties and all Trade Unions and individual Leaders. It is political hypocrisy to condemn another country when it has for decades done the same thing. Arthur Scargill 17.6.2021

The Battle of Saltley Gate which took place in Birmingham in February, 1972 is a defining moment in British Working Class History. A mural was commissioned for display at the Digbeth Campus of what is now South and City College, Birmingham.

Channel 5 decided it was time to bring Margaret Thatcher back to life. Exactly what demand there is for her exhumation is not clear, but lovers of the neoliberal global onslaught and Margaret Thatcher’s friend and ally, Augusto Pinochet are still cheering. Not so those who are enduring life threatening cuts to pay, benefits and “essential” services”. So Mrs Thatcher vs the Miners was aired on Channel 5 during May 2021. “A shameful contribution to British industrial history”. Ken Capstick was one of those invited to take part in the travesty and he responded immediately having viewed the finished programme: “Tonight’s Channel 5 program about the miners’ strike was the most blatantly biased program about the strike I have ever witnessed. It was no more than a disgraceful attempt to resurrect the tainted image of Thatcher and a wrongful attempt to destroy Arthur Scargill’s image and leadership qualities in keeping miners on strike for 12 months in a fight to save the industry. It ignored the justice of our fight. In the end it was a shameful contribution to British industrial history that only ended up tainting the credibility of Channel 5 and its duty as a broadcaster to be unbiased. I have already made my views known to those from Channel 5 who produced this program and its twisted version of an historic event to rewrite working class history.” “Channel 5’s new documentary about the 1984 Miners’ Strike paints Thatcher as a hero and covers up her government’s real intentions – it is just the latest establishment attack on the miners who fought back.” Ian Lavery M.P. was another person conned into taking part reveals Thatcher and her Government’s true agenda. He wrote the following article for Tribune in response: Failing the Miners Again. “Channel 5 aired a documentary that blew the lid on a secret buried for almost four decades. Admittedly, with a hugely sympathetic narration which depicted Margaret Thatcher as a heroine and Arthur Scargill as a bumbling idiot, you had to look very hard to find it. But the truth is that the British people have been repeatedly lied to. I have told my story many times before. In 1984 I was an apprentice miner. Despite the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) arranging that we should be able to continue work, I joined my father and brothers on the picket line. We stuck it out for the entire dispute – not because we wanted to spend a year without pay, not because we owed allegiance to Arthur Scargill, but because war had been declared on us, our community, and our way of life by the Prime Minister of Great Britain. For its failings and factual errors, the documentary gets one thing absolutely correct: that Margaret Thatcher meticulously planned the dispute and micromanaged the state’s mobilisation against the NUM and the coalfield communities in order to destroy opposition to her disastrous agenda of liberalising the economy. It charts her vindictive quest for revenge on communities on whose backs Britain was built for bringing down the government of Ted Heath, her predecessor, and her use of the police, press, state, and judiciary as political tools against ordinary men and women fighting for a future for their communities. It depicts the strike as pivotal to her tenure as Prime Minister – and pivotal it was. For a century, the miners had been at the forefront of improvements to working-class life in the UK. Without the decimation of the industry, it would have been impossible to press ahead with her reforms which sought to undo the post-war consensus that had prevailed for 40 years. For more than three decades, it was claimed that Margaret Thatcher was simply a bystander in a dispute between the National Coal Board (NCB) and the NUM. Arthur Scargill’s claim that a secret closure list of more than 70 collieries was also vehemently denied, the government countering that only 20 economically unsustainable pits were at risk. But in 2014, cabinet papers pertaining to the strike were released which categorically proved both government assertions to be incorrect. The documentary fails to mention these facts at all. It also fails to make any mention of the role Sir Ian Kinloch MacGregor played in the dispute. Handpicked by the government to gut the workforce of British Steel and move the industry into private hands, he was then moved to the NCB with a similar role in mind. Arthur Scargill correctly branded MacGregor as ‘the American butcher of British industry’. Where 170 collieries were working in 1984, only 15 remained by 1994. In 2015, there were none. While presented in a celebratory manner in the documentary, civil liberties were dramatically curtailed across the coalfield. In the end, 11,291 people were arrested, with 8,392 being charged with breach of the peace or obstructing the highway. The NUM estimates that at least six in ten of those arrested were on bogus grounds. Men were told to accept lesser charges to avoid jail and were then forced off the picket lines. Many of these people who had never before been in trouble are still haunted by criminal records. The documentary’s portrayal of Arthur Scargill as stumbling from one mistake to another is particularly galling. Scargill, in my view, is the most principled trade union leader in modern British history. Despite facing a militarised police force, a government intent on starving miners and their families, a hostile and incendiary press, and a judiciary in the pocket of the government, Arthur Scargill led hundreds of thousands of miners on strike for a full year. In the end his resourcefulness and cunning were defeated, but only by the full force of the British state being pitted against us. It was equally as galling to see the triumphalist contributions of Neil Kinnock on the programme with no reflection of his own failings as Labour leader during the strike. Sadly, the solidarity expressed by Labour councils and the trade union movement to mining communities did not extend to the Labour Party leadership. We can only imagine what the outcome of the strike might have been had it done so. But to see him add weight to the premise—that this was a battle between two individuals, rather than the government being hell bent on destroying mining communities—is shameful. The documentary goes to prove that history is written by those with the power. Having denied her active role in the strike for three decades, those closest to Thatcher now celebrate her use of state machinery to destroy ordinary people. Our communities still bear the direct scars from the Conservative government’s industrial vandalism, and the entire country has been shaped by the outcome of that dispute. Perhaps the new attempt to paint Thatcher’s role in the strike as a heroic one is fuelled by the current state of British politics. We’ve entered a period where the truth no longer matters, and the taboo of a Prime Minister lying at the despatch box has well and truly been broken. We should not forget that Boris Johnson is on record as having joined the Conservative Party in support of Thatcher’s treatment of mining communities during the dispute. As Britain drifts ever nearer to authoritarianism under an emboldened right-wing Conservative Party, we should never forget what the Thatcher government did to our communities and to Britain. Their agenda, unimpeded by a hollowed-out trade union movement, has fuelled rampant inequality in a country where both billionaires and poverty are on the increase. But we should also remember the miners’ role at the vanguard of working-class politics. We can never return to coal, but the spirit of solidarity that built our communities and public institutions, and was prepared to fight for them, is something that should be the basis of our movement as we face the future. The working class of our country has never been the ‘enemy within’ – they are the backbone of our nation. Some would do well to remember that.” Ian Lavery is the Labour Party member of parliament for Wansbeck. It is clear that those who were responsible for producing the film were less than candid with those they approached. The article “Miners Failed Again” appears in Tribune. “Channel 5’s new documentary about the 1984 Miners’ Strike paints Thatcher as a hero and covers up her government’s real intentions – it is just the latest establishment attack on the miners who fought back.” “Never seen anything so despicable.” Ricky Tomlinson, himself the victim of a stitch up in 1972, said he’d never seen anything so despicable. The miners and Arthur Scargill had his full support against such deliberate lies. The Most Excruciating bit of State Propaganda. Ian Isaac, a former miner, made this response: A Truly Biased Inaccurate Load of Tosh. Nick Wroughton commented: “A truly biased inaccurate load of tosh. ‘Scargill fell for this/was blindsided by that’ etc etc. Using the same union rule (41) that areas such as Notts and S. Derbys had previously employed to force through a divisive bonus scheme, a Special Delegate Conference of the NUM (with its loose federal structure) decided to allow NUM (each area [unlike eg the T & G] a separate union within a national union) with pits threatened to defend themselves. Arthur had nothing to do with it.” “The Operational Briefing (of police at Orgreave) was something (I’d) never heard of”. A Channel 4 documentary on Orgreave Police Officer’s damning revelation of his orders: In 2016 Channel 4 interviewed a member of the police force who was “ordered to carry out instructions he believed to be wrong” clearly contradicting claims repeated in te Channel 5 documentary presented as historical fact: “He says the operational briefing was something he had never heard of: a bizarre ticketing system whereby South Yorkshire Police officers would write statements even if they had not arrested the pickets themselves. That ran against the fundamentals of policing: the arresting officer makes the arrest statement concerning the prisoner, and nobody else.” Channel 4 News 2/9/2016.

The G7 Tax Deal will be welcomed by the Multinationals, The “Deal” will require these Billionaire Companies to pay a mere 15% tax in Countries they trade in. All Countries should compel all Multinational Companies to pay 40% to the Government in which they trade. Arthur Scargill. Leader. Socialist Labour Party.

There is so much fraud and hypocrisy being perpetrated against the masses at the moment that it is not easy to know where to begin but since the Virus is currently dictating much of the debate then that seems a good place to start. We have had Government ministers applauding the nurses and other carers when these same politicians voted against pay rises for the same people. Similarly, the Tories have been pushing ahead with further privatisations of the NHS whilst apparently ‘lauding’ the effectiveness and work of the organisation. At the same time, the initial lack of Government help or interest in private care homes (which should have been integrated into the NHS) has been a disgrace. Only large capitalist pharmaceutical companies seem to have official encouragement to develop vaccines or potential cures for the Virus. These same Companies should in fact be taken into public ownership so that easily affordable drugs can be made available if required thus excluding the ‘profit motive’ element in the health service. Near the start of the lockdown in Britain, prominent media ‘personalities’ were blatantly encouraging people to fly to Northern Italy – where the Virus was raging. How infantile, irresponsible and idiotic was that? The Tories have diverted Billions of our money into propping up banks and lining the pockets of wealthy financiers. The Labour Party has acquiesced in this action, basically because the leadership represents the interests of the same .1 per cent of the population. Again, it would be difficult for them to argue with these actions since Gordon Brown’s Labour regime did the same sort of thing during the 2008 economic ‘crisis’. Having suffered years of needless ‘austerity’ (in theory to pay for the above) it looks like we are being lined up for even worse. The whole strategy is useless anyway since it is the equivalent to pumping air into a tyre with a huge hole in it. Capitalism has been shown to be a disaster worldwide, especially as far as people’s health and wellbeing is concerned with the USA and Britain near the top of the ‘ineffectiveness’ chart. A reportedly leaked report into the Labour Party under Corbyn’s leadership has concluded that a section of the Party was working to lose both the 2017 and 2019 General elections. What bigger fraud upon the Labour supporting working class voters could you get? These same people now seem to hold the reins of power in that Party. The bonus for the British working class is that they indirectly and inadvertently enabled the fulfilment of the 2016 referendum result to leave the EU. What has been obvious to all (even the politically neutral) was the attempted ‘coup’ against Corbyn’s early leadership which failed. Similarly, we saw deputy Tom Watson repeatedly ‘disloyal’ to the leader, never apparently having a good word to say about his efforts. There was also the onscreen evidence of the ‘shock’ and ‘revised comments’ that Stephen Kinnock displayed on TV when the 2017 General election results were coming in, which showed Corbyn’s ‘effort’ to be much better than the plotters expected. The new leader, Starmer, who was, it seems, part of the ‘coup’ attempt has had a much easier ride from the mainstream media (including the BBC) than Corbyn ever had but denigration of working class supporting politicians has been ongoing for generations and has affected such prominent figures as Bevan, Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill. Arthur has exposed more hypocrisy with a recent issued item:- Hypocrites “I have all my life condemned all so- called Blood Sports and I have made clear the Socialist Labour Party has campaigned for all Blood Sports to be banned. I find the calls by British politicians for the capture and killing of wild animals in South East Asia to be banned the height of Hypocrisy. These critics are calling (correctly) for an end to the slaughter of wild animals whist pursuing or supporting the slaughter of pheasants; partridges and grouse in the name of sport. There is no difference in killing wild birds and animals in South East Asia and killing wild pheasants, partridges, grouse and deer in the United Kingdom. This deplorable slaughter should be banned. Arthur Scargill.” Who are the main people in Britain who participate in these so-called blood sports? They are, of course, some members of the Royal Family, some aristocrats and some of the landed gentry. More hypocrisy came out the other day involving two people with interests in West Country farming. It appears that synchronised statements came out the same day from Prince Charles and the Government spokesman for the day, George Eustice. The statements related to the need for fruit pickers etc. to help get the crops in at this time of the year. There is no dispute that this is necessary. But what was being called for were ‘volunteers’ from workers who currently have some spare time on their hands. Since farmers like Eustice have been able to make use of very cheap imported labour from the EU in the past, they now need inexpensive British labour to do the job. No mention was made by either the Prince or the politician that a decent rate of pay, reflecting the expensive cost of living these days, be paid to willing workers. Further to this, we must ask why the Prince was tested for the virus well in advance of vital frontline health workers for which testing was not available. A further source of questionable regime decision making in Britain has been the previous lack of testing or tracing of people on incoming flights. Apparently, this is now being rectified but no mention of tracing of incoming small boat and yacht visitors to our shores has been made. This is probably linked to our inability as a Country to provide accurate immigration figures. Further hypocrisy has recently been revealed with regard to Government Ministers and advisors who do not follow their own guidelines relating to the Virus. Some of the reporting on individuals could, indirectly, be connected with the inability of the BBC, Channel 4, Labour Party leadership etc. to accept the 2016 EU referendum result and perhaps a common denominator is a strong Zionist lobby in these organisations. What we can say with certainty is that NO GENUINE SOCIALIST WOULD TOUCH THE LABOUR PARTY WITH A BARGE POLE. Rob J. Hawkins SLP S.W. Region. 20.5.2021

The howls of outrage and protest by NATO, the USA and Western Countries about the action of Belarus in forcing down the Ryanair Aircraft down is not only outrageous but Hypocritical. It appears that this concerted protest and call for sanctions against Belarus have conveniently forgotten the concerted action in July 2013 when the USA aided by NATO, France and Portugal forced the President of Bolivia Aircraft to land in Vienna amid suspicion that it was carrying Edward Snowden with hardly a whimper from the UK or any of the countries who are screaming their heads of at the action of Belarus. I deplore both the action by the USA and all those who supported the action in 2013 and the action by Belarus in May 2021, but I recognise that both are part of a dangerous ongoing conflict between the USA and its allies on the one hand and Russia and China on the other hand. Any sane person will condemn both incidents and call for an end to a Cold War which could so easily turn into a real war resulting in people all over the world becoming victims of this stupidity and hypocrisy. Arthur Scargill. Leader, Socialist Labour Party. 29.5.2021

VIDEO OF KEN CAPSTICK’S SPEECH IN RUSELEY ON SUNDAY 23 MAY ON THE SUBJECT “THE MINERS’ NEXT STEP”

The G7 World Leaders’ summit is due to be held at Carbis Bay near St Ives in Cornwall in mid-June 2021. The Capitalist warmongering representatives of the super-rich elites that will be attending deserve all the contempt and derision that can be thrown at them by any normal people with their heads ‘screwed on’ and their hearts in the right place. Will anyone (including SLP members) be able to legally protest at this sick gathering of World parasites? According to international law, any protestors have a right to have their voices heard by those attending such a conference. The authorities and police in Cornwall and Devon have otherplans, however. There were initial plans to allow protestors at Lemon Quay, Truro and the Hoe, Plymouth. It must be said that rather large megaphones would be required for any protestors to have their voices heard in St Ives from these two sites. Local M.P.s have commented that these two venues are unsuitable (they would affect farmers’ markets and tourist attractions) and the police and authorities are proposing that protests be held in Parks in Truro and Plymouth. It seems the main protests within the vicinty of Carbis Bay will be by local residents whose normal daily routines will be severely disrupted. As a local Tory M.P. (Sheryll Murray) commented on BBC, however, THEY CAN ACCESS THEIR HOMES! That’s alright then! Rob J. Hawkins, Southwest Region 17.5.2021

UAV is an Israeli company operating in the UK with one of its factories at Shenstone, near Birmingham. There are regular demonstrations there since motors for drones are manufactured here. Many protestors have been pointing this out for many years now, but this is just one of UAV’s companies continuing to operate in the UK in spite of the demands on the British Government to stop arms sales to countries known to be using them against defenceless populations. Supporting Israeli owned companies in this way just adds to the revulsion felt by very many people. A number of people are on trial following the occupation of the factory. The Morning Star reports that the trial has been delayed until 2022 because it coincides with military action currently happening in the escalating conflict where weapons such as these are in use by the Israeli Occupying Force killing and maiming civilians, including many children. Pictures taken here were at a demonstration I attended in 2016. John Tyrrell 16.5.2021 UPDATE 20.5.2021 HEADLINE IN MORNING STAR Fire fighters refuse to help police stop drone factory shutdown.