cantsin
Well-Known Member
watched an over long docu on Sun Zu / Art of War recently .... some strong BTF vibes in places, reminded me to return to it
Beating the Fascists: The authorised history of Anti-Fascist Action
- Thread starter cogg
- Start date
watched an over long docu on Sun Zu / Art of War recently .... some strong BTF vibes in places, reminded me to return to it
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I missed this too. He was about for years. Was really good at leading his lads to a slap.
krink
I'll do it this afternoon
Not sure where to put this but it's a pdf of an article that was in the German press about far right accelerationists. Probably these groups are going to be full of cranks and infiltrated by the state but I was surprised the atomwafen are thought to be responsible for 5 murders. Anyway...
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Guardian reports of a new Netflix Copeland documentary.
www.theguardian.com
Far-right attack inevitable, warns informant who identified London nail bomber
Undercover agent who identified 1999 attacker says police are failing to keep pace with online spread of extreme ideology
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
I'm sure there will be another fash terror attack. But on reading the article I felt the info about the new book had some influence on the warning's timingGuardian reports of a new Netflix Copeland documentary.
Far-right attack inevitable, warns informant who identified London nail bomber
Undercover agent who identified 1999 attacker says police are failing to keep pace with online spread of extreme ideology
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Larry O'Hara might find it interesting/infuriating.
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
Not infuriated: I am well used to disinformation being the rule regarding Copeland and our attempts to get at the truth for over 20 years being ignored. Certainly interesting, as the information in the public domain so far contradicts known facts about 'Arthur' and when/how/why Searchlight contacted police (see Notes From the Borderland 3 p.24-28 on this specifically). For the record, Arthur did not actually inform them about Copeland in any usable/credible/relevant way. Who will be infuriated is Gerry Gable: I very much doubt Aire (Lowles) ran 'Arthur'...
Last edited:
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
If you mean that history has been rewritten to manufacture a warning about Copeland that was never given, you are right.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I remember reading Gable’s “At war with society” followed by your work “At war with with the truth”.
I might dig both out prior to the Netflix programme. It was a long time ago but both are surely relevant now. Both for Gable’s lying narrative and for what you uncovered.
Murky it was and remains.
Did you learn much in the decades since it all went quiet, nothing to see here just a lone nutter all sorted?
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
Learnt a tremendous amount: it has got murkier & murkier! see the link below, which includes reference to a summary at one point.
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
For those interested, I have written a short holding article pending the programme here just follow the suggestions: Notes From The Borderland - NETFLIX Documentary Nail-bomber: Manhunt. Declaration of interest by NFB
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Doubt lowles could run a bath let alone an agent
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
Not quite true: I have read numerous agent reports he has written up. Gullible yes, but not entirely useless.
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
Gable's narrative was indeed dishonest: and At War With The Truth so shocked them that they dropped Hepple & never dared refute it. He himself (in case you didn't know!) changed his name to Tim Matthews and began infiltrating (of all places) the world of Ufology. We wrote about that too, in 'At War With the Universe'.
The Copeland stuff, while yet again exhibiting the mendacity of both Gable and Nick Lowles (who co-wrote 'Mr Evil' about Copeland with Met Police mouth-piece Graeme McLagan) was of course a later separate investigation on our part that is still not over....
krink
I'll do it this afternoon
Arthur pretty much saved the world according to Lowles/HNH twitter people. I wouldn't trust that lot as far as I could throw them so will be re-reading Larry O'Hara articles ASAP.
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
Couldn’t agree more. I will watch it tonight and discuss with colleagues before posting a holding response: the book will be important too as the more they say the more they lie
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
Have just watched it in exhaustive detail. There are two important facts in it (one extremely useful) new to me and one I'd forgotten I now realise the significance of but maybe didn't before. It was so utterly conforming to the script laid out by that dishonest hamster clone Nick Lowles a superficial reaction would be to see the production team as self-consciously colluding with his disinformational agenda. But I will discuss it all with others and give the matter further thought: one observation that does spring to mind is that while Lowles has left Searchlight (completely obliterating Gerry Gable from the story!) Searchlight has not left Lowles. The central premise of the show, that 'Agent Arthur' identified Copeland as the bomber disgracefully leaves out Paul Mifsud his work colleague who actually did. Lowles of course knows this, which is why his little hamster-teeth quiver when he remarks that Arthur wanted no reward. That Searchlight's disregard for truth and preference for disinformation persist in Lowles version of events can, as I have said elsewhere, be easily shown by perusing p.24-28 of Notes From the Borderland issue 3 and cross-referring with this show. Has Vernon the journalistic integrity to do this and admit he was sold a pup? Does he even care? We shall see.....
The excellent 'Class Action' on social media.
With the release of the Netflix film 'Nailbomber - Manhunt' and accompanying book by Nick Lowles [an updated rehash of his previous fairy tale 'Mr Evil', which is reviewed below] it is perhaps time to reveal the world of smoke, mirrors, fantasy and fascist honeypots inhabited by Searchlight, Hope Not Hate and their sponsors in the intelligence agencies.
These are not the exclusively 'anti-fascist' organisations they claim to be. They are 'anti-extremist' appendages of the state and they are just as likely to be spying on Muslims, Anti-Zionist Jews in the Labour Party, BLM, Irish Republicans, Kurdish Communists and genuine militant anti-fascists, as they are to be investigating Nazis like David Copeland, a man that their 'spy' inside the far-right completely missed and failed to flag up as a potential terrorist. Tomorrow I will review the film, but I'll kick it off today by reminding anti-fascists that we've been here before and some of the same players were involved.
-----------------------------------------------
Red Action Book Review - "Mr Evil"
Reproduced from RA bulletin Vol 4, Issue 10, March/April 2001
"MR EVIL - The Secret Life of Racist Pub Bomber and Killer David Copeland" by Graeme McLagen & Nick Lowles
It is only fair to say that Mr Evil is a riveting read for all the wrong reasons. Seasoned anti-fascists will either snort or gag.
Co-written by Searchlight editor Nick Lowles and fellow-traveler Graeme MacClagen the first half of the book appears to have been written with the ‘serial killer’ market in mind, while the final third is a polemic against foes and rivals in the security services. It is an uneasy mix. All is simplicity to begin with. "This is the chilling insight into a mind so warped it practically defies belief," the introduction promises, and before long you know you are in for a treat - of sorts. Following a conviction for common assault Copeland received a community service order. This the authors warn darkly, proved to be the first sign Copeland "was getting out of control". Later we are told, "like many on the far right he [another bombing suspect] had been bullied in school".
On page 28 "anti-Zionist" is defined for the simple reader as "a far-right euphemism for anti-Semitism" The temptations of reaching a mass market may have encouraged such... ahm... simplicities, but then dates too are also modified to accord with the "Copeland inherently evil" script. Thus it is inferred that it is was only after Copeland joined the BNP in 1997, that the BNP sought "to remodel the party as a respectable alternative" rather than three years earlier in 1994 when at a press conference it announced there would be "no more marches, meetings, punch-ups". Wouldn’t do to have Copeland the nutter joining anything other than the "most extreme racist political organisation in Britain" now would it?
In the same vein, it is announced that by 1999 "any hope of achieving a racist society through the ballot box... seemed more distant that ever" so bombing (in frustration with democracy you see) inevitably had greater purchase among right-wing extremists generally. Except that in the GLA elections less than a year after Copeland’s arrest, the BNP attracted the highest popular vote for any far-right party for a quarter of a century!
More seriously, despite a hardbacked 300 pages, the core questions in regard to the nature, and the basis for the mysterious police warning to the Admiral Duncan on the day before the bombing, is cynically skated over. A particular pity as these key questions the book side-steps are the ones the victims and their relatives, who are suing the pub’s owners, are asking.
Now, it is generally accepted that Copeland carried out reconnaissance in Soho on the same day he planted the bomb in Brick Lane. Five days later The Pink a gay newspaper ran a headline ‘Gays in fascist bomb alert’. According to the book "acting in response to the headline" police then warned some gay pubs in Soho including the Admiral Duncan, but as the book coyly frames it, "other well known gay venues in London were not visited". More to the point, other well know gay venues in Soho were not visited either.
Whatever way you look at it, police conduct seems extraordinary. Put simply, either they picked Soho and the venues they visited entirely at random, (as a PR exercise) or working on information received, chose to warn instead only those pubs Copeland had reconnoitred the previous Saturday. And if indeed they were acting on some specific information as would appear to be the case, they could have done so only if Copeland been under surveillance by ‘persons unknown’ prior to the bomb in Brick Lane as he went directly to Soho from there, If so, then someone ‘in the know’ very deliberately withheld such info from Scotland Yard.
Though none of this is addressed, a little finger-pointing is not entirely resisted. Describing the "relief and jubilation" of police at the Scotland Yard news conference after Copeland’s capture there is reference to "a significant omission in the widespread congratulation offered by Assistant Commissioner Veness". "Missing most notably from the list of those deserving congratulation was any mention of MI5 and Special Branch". As is stressed this was no oversight, "the omission was deliberate". A consciously public snub in fact, primarily because of "what one senior detective described to us later as an intelligence void". Here at the very least is tacit confirmation of the intense and bitter rivalry (though vehemently and repeatedly denied in the media) that exists between competing sections of the security services, not least of course that ‘lay adviser to the Met’: Searchlight itself.
In truth Searchlight were central to the in-fighting. Trenchant criticism of police handling of the investigation was a marked feature of Searchlight’s Gerry Gables contribution to the public debate in the run up to Copeland’s arrest. With every opportunity, came the same complaint: the investigation needed to be "intelligence led". A comment made in the knowledge, as the book confirms, that this is exactly where the operational "void" existed.
No bouquets for guessing what organisation Gable felt was best equipped to fill it. Though the likes of the ANL unashamedly endorse the strategy of ‘filling the vacuum Searchlight style’ a still widespread and commendable uneasiness at such collusion is evident by the fact Searchlight, just three months after a hardback Mr Evil was being offered to the public for £14.99, are giving it away for "free". Hopefully, if people are not buying the book they’re not buying the theory that underpins it either
Reproduced from RA bulletin Vol 4, Issue 10, March/April 2001
With the release of the Netflix film 'Nailbomber - Manhunt' and accompanying book by Nick Lowles [an updated rehash of his previous fairy tale 'Mr Evil', which is reviewed below] it is perhaps time to reveal the world of smoke, mirrors, fantasy and fascist honeypots inhabited by Searchlight, Hope Not Hate and their sponsors in the intelligence agencies.
These are not the exclusively 'anti-fascist' organisations they claim to be. They are 'anti-extremist' appendages of the state and they are just as likely to be spying on Muslims, Anti-Zionist Jews in the Labour Party, BLM, Irish Republicans, Kurdish Communists and genuine militant anti-fascists, as they are to be investigating Nazis like David Copeland, a man that their 'spy' inside the far-right completely missed and failed to flag up as a potential terrorist. Tomorrow I will review the film, but I'll kick it off today by reminding anti-fascists that we've been here before and some of the same players were involved.
-----------------------------------------------
Red Action Book Review - "Mr Evil"
Reproduced from RA bulletin Vol 4, Issue 10, March/April 2001
"MR EVIL - The Secret Life of Racist Pub Bomber and Killer David Copeland" by Graeme McLagen & Nick Lowles
It is only fair to say that Mr Evil is a riveting read for all the wrong reasons. Seasoned anti-fascists will either snort or gag.
Co-written by Searchlight editor Nick Lowles and fellow-traveler Graeme MacClagen the first half of the book appears to have been written with the ‘serial killer’ market in mind, while the final third is a polemic against foes and rivals in the security services. It is an uneasy mix. All is simplicity to begin with. "This is the chilling insight into a mind so warped it practically defies belief," the introduction promises, and before long you know you are in for a treat - of sorts. Following a conviction for common assault Copeland received a community service order. This the authors warn darkly, proved to be the first sign Copeland "was getting out of control". Later we are told, "like many on the far right he [another bombing suspect] had been bullied in school".
On page 28 "anti-Zionist" is defined for the simple reader as "a far-right euphemism for anti-Semitism" The temptations of reaching a mass market may have encouraged such... ahm... simplicities, but then dates too are also modified to accord with the "Copeland inherently evil" script. Thus it is inferred that it is was only after Copeland joined the BNP in 1997, that the BNP sought "to remodel the party as a respectable alternative" rather than three years earlier in 1994 when at a press conference it announced there would be "no more marches, meetings, punch-ups". Wouldn’t do to have Copeland the nutter joining anything other than the "most extreme racist political organisation in Britain" now would it?
In the same vein, it is announced that by 1999 "any hope of achieving a racist society through the ballot box... seemed more distant that ever" so bombing (in frustration with democracy you see) inevitably had greater purchase among right-wing extremists generally. Except that in the GLA elections less than a year after Copeland’s arrest, the BNP attracted the highest popular vote for any far-right party for a quarter of a century!
More seriously, despite a hardbacked 300 pages, the core questions in regard to the nature, and the basis for the mysterious police warning to the Admiral Duncan on the day before the bombing, is cynically skated over. A particular pity as these key questions the book side-steps are the ones the victims and their relatives, who are suing the pub’s owners, are asking.
Now, it is generally accepted that Copeland carried out reconnaissance in Soho on the same day he planted the bomb in Brick Lane. Five days later The Pink a gay newspaper ran a headline ‘Gays in fascist bomb alert’. According to the book "acting in response to the headline" police then warned some gay pubs in Soho including the Admiral Duncan, but as the book coyly frames it, "other well known gay venues in London were not visited". More to the point, other well know gay venues in Soho were not visited either.
Whatever way you look at it, police conduct seems extraordinary. Put simply, either they picked Soho and the venues they visited entirely at random, (as a PR exercise) or working on information received, chose to warn instead only those pubs Copeland had reconnoitred the previous Saturday. And if indeed they were acting on some specific information as would appear to be the case, they could have done so only if Copeland been under surveillance by ‘persons unknown’ prior to the bomb in Brick Lane as he went directly to Soho from there, If so, then someone ‘in the know’ very deliberately withheld such info from Scotland Yard.
Though none of this is addressed, a little finger-pointing is not entirely resisted. Describing the "relief and jubilation" of police at the Scotland Yard news conference after Copeland’s capture there is reference to "a significant omission in the widespread congratulation offered by Assistant Commissioner Veness". "Missing most notably from the list of those deserving congratulation was any mention of MI5 and Special Branch". As is stressed this was no oversight, "the omission was deliberate". A consciously public snub in fact, primarily because of "what one senior detective described to us later as an intelligence void". Here at the very least is tacit confirmation of the intense and bitter rivalry (though vehemently and repeatedly denied in the media) that exists between competing sections of the security services, not least of course that ‘lay adviser to the Met’: Searchlight itself.
In truth Searchlight were central to the in-fighting. Trenchant criticism of police handling of the investigation was a marked feature of Searchlight’s Gerry Gables contribution to the public debate in the run up to Copeland’s arrest. With every opportunity, came the same complaint: the investigation needed to be "intelligence led". A comment made in the knowledge, as the book confirms, that this is exactly where the operational "void" existed.
No bouquets for guessing what organisation Gable felt was best equipped to fill it. Though the likes of the ANL unashamedly endorse the strategy of ‘filling the vacuum Searchlight style’ a still widespread and commendable uneasiness at such collusion is evident by the fact Searchlight, just three months after a hardback Mr Evil was being offered to the public for £14.99, are giving it away for "free". Hopefully, if people are not buying the book they’re not buying the theory that underpins it either
Reproduced from RA bulletin Vol 4, Issue 10, March/April 2001
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
I was just about to post a link to this: excellent. I should point out the hypothesis Copeland may have been trailed from Brick Lane when doing recon in Soho 24/4 was first highlighted by myself in Notes From the Borderland issue 3 p.17-18. At that stage, we did not yet know that when on the way to detonating his last bomb in Soho 30/4, it has been credibly reported he was tailed also. Nothing in the film about this of course. This one will run & run...
Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
I think there was a claim for compensation when an infamous anti-fascist magazine claimed that footage as its own for a previous documentary also?
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
This may be of interest in terms of Filling The Vacuum etc
www.theguardian.com
Draws on this new book which looks interesting:
lwbooks.co.uk
How the 2001 northern riots boosted the far right – and reshaped British politics | Daniel Trilling
The BNP’s explicitly racist politics only had limited appeal but more adept politicians have seized on the myths they exploited, says author Daniel Trilling
Draws on this new book which looks interesting:
On Burnley Road - Lawrence Wishart
On Burnley Road explores the rise of the BNP in Burnley in 2001.
lwbooks.co.uk
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Cor, there must be a whole book to be written about "The untold story of litigation over photos and videos of Anti-Fascist Action".
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
A book with barely any pictures in it mind
Hate is Not Enough – the passing of a class warrior
Alan Pullin (6 February 1949 – 23 April 2021)
An obituary for an old friend from Bristol who recently passed away :
“I met Alan first while working as a builder in Bristol. I quickly came to recognise a fierce intelligence and a sharp class consciousness. He was also a man of unlimited energy, regularly working all day as a builder and then night shifts as a psychiatric nurse, while also serving as a union rep in the NHS. We regularly had political discussions while we worked on roofs all over Bristol, as well as the odd argument about which town was bigger - Alan’ s beloved Bristol or my own hometown of Bradford.
Alans’s father was a painter and decorator (and a member of the communist party) while his mother was a bookkeeper. Alan joined the Young Communist League as many of his generation and background did, the first of many political ‘homes’ he would try out, a quest to find a suitable outlet for his core beliefs. From there, by the time I met Alan, he had been involved with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), and had been particularly active with the original Anti-Nazi League. Alan had been among those who understood the need for physically confronting fascists – and he was never shy in identifying this as his favourite form of recreational violence. As the leading figure in a crew of particularly enthusiastic anti-fascists, he of course fell foul of the largely middle class SWP leadership and consequently the (SWP dominated) ANL leadership. Alan was not the only activist to find themselves in this position, and the conflict between the middle class and working-class elements saw the militants establishing a new formation - Red Action. Alan retold a story about an SWP meeting where the leadership was criticising Red Action for its violent tactics. At the meeting was the famous Red Clydesider Harry McShane, who spoke up for Red Action much to the embarrassment of the SWP leadership. The legendary figure pointed out that the working-class movement had always included ‘hooligans’.
Like many, Alan became disenchanted with the SWP and drifted away from it. He maintained his comradely association with Red Action members and many other militant comrades but didn’t recommit himself to any organisation. He hadn’t found the ‘right fit’ just yet, but that would soon be changing.
The early 1980’s saw an explosion of anger as working-class communities rioted across the country, with Bristol being one of the first to erupt, to be followed by London, Manchester, Liverpool and many more doing likewise. Our class knew the scale of the threat they were facing. The attempts to analyse and pigeonhole these riots and the tensions brewing within our class by the traditional left were pathetic and something different was needed. That something different was Class War, emerging during this decade to become an uncompromising voice for working class anger, and an unapologetic advocate of working-class militancy, be this in our own areas, on the picket line or even “devastating the avenues where the rich live”. Starting off essentially as a propaganda sheet, Class War spread to see groups developing across the country (and abroad) and eventually establishing a national organisation that became a household name. But more importantly was the promotion of Class War as a political goal – ensuring that a class-based agenda was to the forefront of all struggles and campaigns, replacing the pointless middle-class liberalism, reformism and lifestylist attitudes that were way too prevalent. This aggressive ‘working class and proud’ ethos was timely and necessary, and would serve well in the era of rampant Thatcherism, with key struggles from the Miners' Strike, through News International (Wapping) to the Poll Tax campaign. Class War and Alan would have a busy decade.
The Bristol anarchist group had started to discuss class politics and this would lead to the formation of the Bristol Class War ‘branch’. Having put the SWP behind him, Alan was intrigued by the direction of the anarchist group, it is fair to say, and started to attend meetings, and soon became a driving force. Through the 80’s and 90’s we were involved with others from Class War in many of the industrial and social disputes of the time. During the miners’ strike Alan’s father donated his caravan to be used by the pickets at the nearby Berkley power station.
Alan, like Harry McShane, understood the role of ‘hooligans’ and never accepted that the State should enjoy a monopoly on political violence – he was a born activist and could mobilise within working class estates many who would never normally be attracted to political activity, and I guess it's safer just to acknowledge that there are many stories that should still not be shared in print.
An important aspect of Alan’s involvement in Class War was his ability to provide a link from an older generation of class warriors, like Harry McShane, to the younger generation. You can see picture of Alan and Harry leading the 1976 Right to Work March on the cover of the recently reissued biography of Harry McShane “No Mean Fighter”. Alan had acquired a lot of experience in different political groups and knew the importance of being a thoughtful and caring friend and comrade. He always had time to talk to people, and as his son Paul observed at Alan’s funeral, he needed to talk to people all the time about politics, whether they liked it or not! Many of us have memories of all night discussions with Alan.
Alan was a well-read class warrior and knew the importance of ideas in the struggle. One of his favourite phrases was ‘Is it the Singer or the Song?” to describe the tension between charismatic political operators and the ideas that they represent to the working class, drawing on his observation of struggles in Latin America. Alan understood and appreciated the importance of good PR operators in the struggle but also knew without a clear set of ideas and values things would go nowhere. As such he was a key figure in the production of the Class War Book ‘Unfinished Business’. Another phrase he was fond of using, that has always stuck in my mind, was ‘Hate Is Not Enough!’. There is plenty to hate about capitalism and its sick class system, but our class also needs a positive message of how things could be better and how that could happen – now more than ever. Like many activists Alan understood the importance of being part of a community and to have a long-term commitment to protect and support that community in order to be taken seriously and to have a base to operate from. Despite his attachment to his local community and his status as a proud Bristolian, he was not parochial. He was an Internationalist who keenly observed struggles across the globe, and was always happy to educate himself and share experiences with overseas activists, even naming one of his sons after an Irish comrade.
With the increasing strategy of the ruling class and their stooges to atomise our communities and society into helpless and fatalistic individuals, Alan’ legacy to us is the importance of ideas, having a story of hope to tell, caring for each other and being involved in community work - these things are now more important than ever. “
- John Casey
Alan Pullin (6 February 1949 – 23 April 2021)
An obituary for an old friend from Bristol who recently passed away :
“I met Alan first while working as a builder in Bristol. I quickly came to recognise a fierce intelligence and a sharp class consciousness. He was also a man of unlimited energy, regularly working all day as a builder and then night shifts as a psychiatric nurse, while also serving as a union rep in the NHS. We regularly had political discussions while we worked on roofs all over Bristol, as well as the odd argument about which town was bigger - Alan’ s beloved Bristol or my own hometown of Bradford.
Alans’s father was a painter and decorator (and a member of the communist party) while his mother was a bookkeeper. Alan joined the Young Communist League as many of his generation and background did, the first of many political ‘homes’ he would try out, a quest to find a suitable outlet for his core beliefs. From there, by the time I met Alan, he had been involved with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), and had been particularly active with the original Anti-Nazi League. Alan had been among those who understood the need for physically confronting fascists – and he was never shy in identifying this as his favourite form of recreational violence. As the leading figure in a crew of particularly enthusiastic anti-fascists, he of course fell foul of the largely middle class SWP leadership and consequently the (SWP dominated) ANL leadership. Alan was not the only activist to find themselves in this position, and the conflict between the middle class and working-class elements saw the militants establishing a new formation - Red Action. Alan retold a story about an SWP meeting where the leadership was criticising Red Action for its violent tactics. At the meeting was the famous Red Clydesider Harry McShane, who spoke up for Red Action much to the embarrassment of the SWP leadership. The legendary figure pointed out that the working-class movement had always included ‘hooligans’.
Like many, Alan became disenchanted with the SWP and drifted away from it. He maintained his comradely association with Red Action members and many other militant comrades but didn’t recommit himself to any organisation. He hadn’t found the ‘right fit’ just yet, but that would soon be changing.
The early 1980’s saw an explosion of anger as working-class communities rioted across the country, with Bristol being one of the first to erupt, to be followed by London, Manchester, Liverpool and many more doing likewise. Our class knew the scale of the threat they were facing. The attempts to analyse and pigeonhole these riots and the tensions brewing within our class by the traditional left were pathetic and something different was needed. That something different was Class War, emerging during this decade to become an uncompromising voice for working class anger, and an unapologetic advocate of working-class militancy, be this in our own areas, on the picket line or even “devastating the avenues where the rich live”. Starting off essentially as a propaganda sheet, Class War spread to see groups developing across the country (and abroad) and eventually establishing a national organisation that became a household name. But more importantly was the promotion of Class War as a political goal – ensuring that a class-based agenda was to the forefront of all struggles and campaigns, replacing the pointless middle-class liberalism, reformism and lifestylist attitudes that were way too prevalent. This aggressive ‘working class and proud’ ethos was timely and necessary, and would serve well in the era of rampant Thatcherism, with key struggles from the Miners' Strike, through News International (Wapping) to the Poll Tax campaign. Class War and Alan would have a busy decade.
The Bristol anarchist group had started to discuss class politics and this would lead to the formation of the Bristol Class War ‘branch’. Having put the SWP behind him, Alan was intrigued by the direction of the anarchist group, it is fair to say, and started to attend meetings, and soon became a driving force. Through the 80’s and 90’s we were involved with others from Class War in many of the industrial and social disputes of the time. During the miners’ strike Alan’s father donated his caravan to be used by the pickets at the nearby Berkley power station.
Alan, like Harry McShane, understood the role of ‘hooligans’ and never accepted that the State should enjoy a monopoly on political violence – he was a born activist and could mobilise within working class estates many who would never normally be attracted to political activity, and I guess it's safer just to acknowledge that there are many stories that should still not be shared in print.
An important aspect of Alan’s involvement in Class War was his ability to provide a link from an older generation of class warriors, like Harry McShane, to the younger generation. You can see picture of Alan and Harry leading the 1976 Right to Work March on the cover of the recently reissued biography of Harry McShane “No Mean Fighter”. Alan had acquired a lot of experience in different political groups and knew the importance of being a thoughtful and caring friend and comrade. He always had time to talk to people, and as his son Paul observed at Alan’s funeral, he needed to talk to people all the time about politics, whether they liked it or not! Many of us have memories of all night discussions with Alan.
Alan was a well-read class warrior and knew the importance of ideas in the struggle. One of his favourite phrases was ‘Is it the Singer or the Song?” to describe the tension between charismatic political operators and the ideas that they represent to the working class, drawing on his observation of struggles in Latin America. Alan understood and appreciated the importance of good PR operators in the struggle but also knew without a clear set of ideas and values things would go nowhere. As such he was a key figure in the production of the Class War Book ‘Unfinished Business’. Another phrase he was fond of using, that has always stuck in my mind, was ‘Hate Is Not Enough!’. There is plenty to hate about capitalism and its sick class system, but our class also needs a positive message of how things could be better and how that could happen – now more than ever. Like many activists Alan understood the importance of being part of a community and to have a long-term commitment to protect and support that community in order to be taken seriously and to have a base to operate from. Despite his attachment to his local community and his status as a proud Bristolian, he was not parochial. He was an Internationalist who keenly observed struggles across the globe, and was always happy to educate himself and share experiences with overseas activists, even naming one of his sons after an Irish comrade.
With the increasing strategy of the ruling class and their stooges to atomise our communities and society into helpless and fatalistic individuals, Alan’ legacy to us is the importance of ideas, having a story of hope to tell, caring for each other and being involved in community work - these things are now more important than ever. “
- John Casey
Geri
wasn't born to follow
I was involved in Bristol Anarchist Group in the 80s and Class War later on, and I remember Alan. He was a small man but very feisty. I couldn't make the funeral but I was talking to a friend who went earlier in the week, and he said they had two banners that they wanted to put on the hearse - Class War and an ANL one. The funeral home flat out refused the Class War one, which was the first choice, so they asked if they could put the ANL one on it instead. The funeral home said no, it might offend people so the friend said "What people might get offended? Nazis? Are any of you Nazis?" Cue some flustered denials and immediate backtracking!
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