FRFI 219 February / March 2011
Kettling students
As one of the thousands of students who took to the streets on 9 December to defend my right to education, I witnessed first-hand the aggressive and inflammatory tactics of the Metropolitan Police.
After the first peaceful few hours at Parliament Square, the news that the Bill had been passed by a narrow majority slowly rippled through the crowd, and it was shortly after this that a member of the riot police told my friends and I that nobody was getting out – even a heavily-pregnant woman was refused.
The police had now created a situation in which thousands of cold, hungry, angry students – whose futures had just been clouded with uncertainty due to the scrapping of EMA and the raising of tuition fees – were kept in a very confined space, despite the dejected majority simply wanting to go home at this point. The police knew that this would lead to violence and rioting, which would allow the media to brand us as feral youth, and ultimately lead to an increase in their power: creating a situation in which they could without reproof legitimately consider borrowing water cannons from the North of Ireland to control us in the future.
This tactic was most blatantly obvious when the Treasury was being attacked. As its windows were broken, about 20 feet away stood at least 100 riot police, watching passively, while scores of cameras competed eagerly for the best shot.
At 9.30 that night, we were finally allowed out of Parliament Square, but our freedom was short-lived and we found ourselves kettled on Westminster Bridge. Two hours later we were finally allowed to go home, having been taught a clear message by the police of the consequences of exercising our right to protest.
Niamh McIntyre (aged 15)
North London
Tower Hamlets learning mentors face cuts
The government’s commitment to families from disadvantaged backgrounds is spurious and Cameron’s ‘big society’ is a sham. This is shown by the fact that learning mentors and school home support workers, who work in schools helping children and parents from economically deprived backgrounds, are facing an increasingly precarious employment situation. This comes directly after a project called Excellence in the Cities (which funded learning mentor posts in Tower Hamlets, east London) has had its funding cut.
Learning mentors work alongside children and families to raise school attendance and attainment by acting as an advocate, friend and source of advice to families who are experiencing difficulties due to poverty, disadvantage and violence. Removing learning mentors from schools will have a negative effect on the very families who are vulnerable to the increasingly bleak employment situation and draconian benefit cuts.
People need to be prepared – any letter sent to employees about ‘proposed restructuring’ and ‘consultation’ is nearly always an attempt to get rid of staff – and people should be wary of this. Pressure needs to be put on employers to offer job shares and to employ people on a part-time basis rather than make staff redundant.
I am glad that FRFI supports the struggle for full employment and free education for all. Keep up the good work.
Ayesha Taylor
School-Home Support Worker/Learning Mentor
Imperialist usury in Brazil
Over the years, I have found Alvaro Michaels’ articles on Latin America a delight to read. They are insightful and educative, anti-imperialist to the core. However, in the latest issue of FRFI, his article contains a puzzling comment. He stated: ‘Brazil cannot prevent the continued imposition of usury imperialism on top of the scheme of direct investments.’ (‘Brazil: accelerating exploitation’, FRFI 218)
It is not clear what Comrade Michaels means by ‘direct investments’. Does he have in mind productive investments or some other form of investments? The British imperialists’ use of the term ‘direct investments’ is highly unsatisfactory. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), any British company that holds a certain percentage of shares in an overseas company is a direct foreign investor. This gives the false impression that British banks, decidedly usurious institutions, engage in productive investments when they open up branches in the Third World, or when they hold shares in overseas companies that are tied to, or have their origin in, usury capital. And besides, it is misleading for Michaels to counterpose a type of imperialism (in this instance, usury imperialism) to a form of capital (so-called ‘direct investments’).
In his analysis of imperialism, Lenin drew the distinction between different imperialist types. For example, he wrote: ‘Unlike British colonial imperialism, French imperialism might be termed usury imperialism. In the case of Germany, we have a third type; colonies are inconsiderable, and German capital invested abroad is divided most evenly between Europe and America.’ (Vol 22 p243) (As an industrially powerful country that plundered others without colonising them, the USA was a prime example of the ‘third type’. (See Vol 31 p448))
In my work Modern-day Kautskyism, I explained how and why Britain underwent the transition from colonial imperialism to usury imperialism. (See www.rosclar.webspace.virgin
media.com) Rather than counterpose a type of imperialism to a form of capital, Michaels should have explained that the imperialists’ so-called ‘direct investments’ in the Third World are indissolubly bound up with the imperialists’ usurious activities.
None of the above detracts from the undoubted merits of Alvaro Michaels’ article. Instead of his puzzling comment, he could simply have written: ‘Despite Brazil’s industrial growth, the country has not escaped the clutches of the imperialist usurers.’ Whether or not it is correct to characterise the European Union, Japan and the US as usury imperialist types is another question.
Alec Abbott
London
Response to Alec Abbott
Comrade Abbott’s sharp eye helps us all. The sentence was intended to read ‘Brazil cannot prevent the continued imposition of usury capital on top of the scheme of direct investments’. The spoiled aim of the sentence had been to indicate the growing proportion of money flooding into Brazil in the form of usury capital which searches directly for interest, discount and fee opportunities, rather than directly industrial, commercial and merchanting prospects. The imperialist extension of its banking infrastructure into weaker economies promotes the former by fraternising, bullying and finally merging with the latter’s forms of capital.
Abbott is quite right then to draw out the further question of what is meant by ‘direct investment’. The reporting language used by imperialism does indeed obscure its actions. The?OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment?(4th edition, 2008) provides the global standard for bourgeois direct investment statistics, and so for the ONS. Thus the UN and its bodies have accepted a 10% foreign shareholding as the point at which such paper claims magically become ‘foreign direct investment’, seemingly a helping hand in ‘development’, and not what it is, an anonymous stranglehold on existing sources of wealth by money owners uninterested in anything other than the profit-pumping business.
The task of a short news item on Brazil cannot be to discuss the complex intertwining of the different circuits of industrial, bank, merchant and other forms of capital, but it is well that readers and contributors to FRFI are constantly alert to the contrast between an exact scientific socialist presentation of the class struggle and the deceptive slang used by those reconciled to imperialism.
Alvaro Michaels
Rangzieb Ahmed – harassment continues
The harassment of Rangzieb Ahmed by prison staff at HMP Full Sutton continues, with his mail, in particular, being tampered with and frequently going astray. The most recent letter he sent FRFI had been ripped open before reaching us.
Rangzieb’s appeal against his 2008 conviction on terrorism charges was heard at the Royal Courts of Justice at the beginning of December 2010. He and his co-accused, Habib Ahmed, gave evidence by videolink. Rangzieb, who was tortured in Pakistan at the behest of the British security services and Manchester police in 2005, and had three of his fingernails ripped out with pliers, argued that his original conviction was based on an abuse of due process (for a full report on the appeal, much of which was heard in camera, see www.cageprisoners. com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item /923-rangzieb-ahmed-complete-appeal-coverage). The results of the hearing are expected within the next few weeks.
The harassment of Rangzieb intensified in the run-up to his appeal; by 16 December he had made four formal complaints about his letters repeatedly, and he believes deliberately, being misdirected to a prisoner with the same surname on another wing, despite being clearly labelled with his name and prison number. By the fourth incident, after complaining to the wing officer and seeing no improvement, he wrote on 22 November: ‘I feel victimised and bullied… I feel aggrieved. This must stop happening – it has been happening too often’. A senior officer admitted that staff on Rangzieb’s wing had indeed been interfering with his mail: ‘Your letter was sent to the correct wing by the censors’ department. However, for some reason, wing staff sent it to Echo Wing, crossing out the ‘A’ written on the front of the letter and putting in ‘E’…I have now instructed the censors’ department to label your correspondence file, reminding staff to be extra thorough when issuing your mail’. Rangzieb is in little doubt as to what the ‘reason’ might be. A few days later, two more items of correspondence were misdirected. Rangzieb wrote to the governor: ‘I know this is only due to my beliefs and about what I’m in for.’ He points out the seriousness of the harassment: ‘Due to the nature of my conviction and the fact that I am appealing, it concerns me that mistakes like this continually occur, especially as a lot of the time I have very sensitive information contained in my mail that only I should have access to’.
Please write to show support to Rangzieb Ahmed (A6326AC) at HMP Full Sutton, York YO41 1PS.
Cat Wiener
South London
Honorary Fellow sacked for supporting Millbank occupiers
I am a founder member of the University of Kent Law School and Kent Law Clinic and principally responsible for its international reputation as a critical law school. I was appointed an Honorary Fellow in January 2007 as part of a settlement for breach of contract.
I was interviewed by the media after the Millbank occupation by students opposed to the rise in fees and gave unconditional support to the actions of the students. My comments appeared on the University of Kent’s Centre for Journalism website and in consequence the university demanded the article be taken down. The Centre’s director, Tim Luckhurst, refused to do so.
The university then sought to terminate the Honorary Fellowship and ordered me to remove Kent Law School as the mailing address of the National Critical Lawyers Group (NCLG) (founded in 1987 with this address, see www.nclg.org.uk). I was ordered not to associate myself in any way with Kent Law School and to leave my office with one day’s notice. Kent Law School then suspended the NCLG mailing list of over 3,000 and ordered the removal of NCLG from university internet servers.
Before the suspension, over 60 members of NCLG emailed the Vice Chancellor and Kent Law School head of department protesting strongly at my sacking – the protests came from barristers, solicitors and professors, staff and students at other law schools.
No one in Kent Law School staff and students has dared to say anything about these events, fearing the consequences, although there have been private messages of support. The university is in fascist mode, as are many other universities at this time.
I have received limited support from my union UCU, consisting of one visit to the Vice Chancellor who refused to talk. The union has failed to take any other action. The student union has a no victimisation policy but has also failed to support me, even though I was the legal adviser to the magnificent Kent occupiers who kept their occupation going from 8 December to 5 January.
UCU legal committee is meeting on 4 February to consider whether to support me legally, but this is not the best option.
I am a supporter of the RCP – now the Spiked Group – but have received no support whatsover from my former comrades; one at Kent Law School has worked actively against me. The SWP know about these events but they have so far failed to give any support. Similarly Dave Nellist of the Socialist Party and the Coalition of Resistance, including Clare Solomon, have not supported me.
The university has cancelled our booking for the NCLG bi-annual conference in March at Kent University and we have found it impossible to get a booking in London. SOAS accepted our booking then cancelled under pressure from some of their law professors. I suspect the NCLG has been blacklisted.
I would like to thank FRFI for their comradely support.
In solidarity and onwards to a better world,
Ian Grigg-Spall
Canterbury
Impressed by FRFI
I am active in Stop the War and Palestine movements locally and have been for a long time. I run a street stall periodically in Yeovil and Sherborne for the local Stop the War group and I am also a member of Unite.
I am impressed by the RCG’s progress in applying Marxism-Leninism to the problems of revolution in this country at this time. The article in FRFI 218 on the trade union movement was very good – several workers here thought it was spot-on. I am looking forward to studying your paper and would like to sell FRFI in this area.
JOHN BURBIDGE
Dorset
A selection of prisoners’ seasonal greetings…
Just want to wish you all the best for 2011. Please know I’m grateful to you all for your ongoing support. Till walls fall…
SATPAL RAM (A4442AL), HMP Garth
Let me send all of you positive, healthy and hopeful Red Season’s and New Year’s greetings. 2011 will certainly be a year of struggle. Let’s hope and keep working for some people’s victories. We recently finished issue 17 of 4SM (www.4strugglemag.org) Lots on Lebanon and Marilyn Buck. Let us know if you’re interested in getting a small bundle. Keep up your positive and important work. Amandla!
JAAN LAAMAN
USP Tucson, Arizona, US
‘We must not abandon hope while the aspiration for freedom remains.’ Season’s greetings and many thanks for the paper throughout the year.
TONY HYLAND
For the Republican prisoners on E2 landing, Portlaoise Gaol, Ireland
