I’ve been going through the stats on my stats counter (click on the globe-looking thing at the very bottom of this page) and guess where most of my incoming hits come from?
Stroppyblog.
So, therefore, they are my Fairy Blogmothers. Be nice to them, now.
This news report from the BBC had me worried:
Pentagon mounts media offensive
The Pentagon has set up a new unit to focus on promoting its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet.
The US Defence Department said it would expand its public relations work to fight “inaccurate” news stories.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said media manipulation by enemies of the US is the only thing keeping him awake at night.
Domestic support for the war in Iraq has fallen as US mid-term polls near.
The opposition Democrats are trying to win control of Congress from the Republicans.
‘Correcting messages’
The newly-established Pentagon unit would use “new media” channels to push its message, a spokesman said.
“We’re looking at being quicker to respond to breaking news,” the spokesman said.
“Being quicker to respond, frankly, to inaccurate statements.”
According to the BBC’s Justin Webb in Washington, the Bush administration does not believe the true picture of events in Iraq has been made public.
He says the administration is particularly concerned that insurgents in areas such as Iraq have been able to use the web to disseminate their message and give the impression they are more powerful than the US.
A Pentagon memo seen by the Associated Press news agency said the new unit will “develop messages” for the 24-hour news cycle and aim to “correct the record”.
A spokesman said the unit would monitor media such as weblogs and would also employ “surrogates”, or top politicians or lobbyists who could be interviewed on TV and radio shows.
The emphasis is my own.
The Pentagon’s launch of their new “Rapid Rebuttal Force” comes hot off the heels of General Richard Dannan, who spoke out against the US/UK occupation in Iraq.
It’s quite clear to anyone that the Pentagon is being used as a political football in order to scare American voters into voting Republican in the up-coming Mid-term elections for the House and Senate. The military under capitalism has always been a political football, in so far as it is the armed force of capital and fights for the maintainance of the capitalist system, but in Western, ‘liberal’ democracies, it has always been subordinate to the legislative branch of Government.
The US military are worried, because they know that, while they are not losing outright (in that it is nothing like Vietnam), they aren’t winning, either. There are whole swathes of Iraq which are effectively under the control of the Islamist ‘resistance’ much fethishised (but never critisised by) the likes of the SWP and Workers Power. There is also a third camp developing which opposes both the reactionary Islamist militias and the US occupation.
The military should not be allowed to interfere in the political sphere. The US DoD should not be allowed to ‘correct mistaken stories’. By creating this RRF, they are creating a propaganda operation which has a disturbing similarity with Gobbels (and I’m not one for comparisons with Nazis).
Now all we have to do is hold on for the launch of the Pentagon Channel… oh wait…
I have been reading the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet “How To Fight Elections”. It it essentially the story of Lol Duffy, a supporter of Socialist Organiser (the forerunner to the AWL) who stood as the official Labour candidate in Wallasey, Merseyside in the 1987 elections. Lol came within 250 votes of ousting Lynda Chalker, the then Tory minister.
It is an inspirational story of how Marxists, with a well-organised, firmly rooted and imaginative campaign, coupled with real working class, socialist ideas, can connect with working class people and make a real difference. Lol’s campaign reached into workers in struggle - Lol himself was a sacked shipyard worker who was sent down for defying the anti-TU laws brought in by the Tories. It reached out to unemployed workers by calling on them to help “put Chalker on the dole.”
Many said that Lol’s support for SO and his Marxism would put voters off. Even fellow Labour Party members - including the neighbouring Labour MP Frank Field refused to support a democratically selected Labour candidate (if a left-Labour candidate did the same to a right winger, that lefty would be out sooner than you can say Peter Kilfoyle). Lol and the comrades proved them wrong, by generating the biggest swing to Labour in the 1987 election, and seeing a near-doubling of membership in Wallasey Labour Party.
Working people identified with Lol, mainly because he stood for working class socialism, a real socialist alternative to the attacks of the Tories. Lol’s campaign wasn’t a passive leaflet fest, but sought not to just win peoples’ votes, but also to activism. It wasn’t Lol’s campaign, but Wallasey’s campaign.
The lessons of the Lol Duffy campaign are relevant now, more than ever. They are relevant to the SSP, as they regroup after the Sheridan split. They are relevant to the John McDonnell campaign. It is a shame, therefore, that the AWL have not published the pamphlet online (since I assume it is out of print). This should be corrected as a matter of urgency.
Regular readers of this blog know that I was born and raised in Swinton, Salford. My old house, as a matter of fact, is a couple of streets off Worsley Road.
Worsley Road, Swinton, Manchester, M27 might also be better known as the address of a certain club where a certain MSP may or may not have had adulterous relations.
Right by my old high school, too.
Well, it interests me!
From the SSP website:
SSP MSP Rosie Kane has been jailed for two weeks for refusing to pay a fine for an anti Trident direct action that took place outside the Scottish Parliament in March of 2005.
Speaking before the court hearing which sent her to jail Rosie said; “I certainly don’t want to go to prison but I am prepared mentally and practically for that to happen but this is about international law and my conscience makes me protest against nuclear weapons.”
Send messages of support to:
Rosie Kane, 99451, Bruce House, HMP Cornton Vale, Cornton Rd, Stirling, FK9 5NU
Get to it!
Because it’s important:
Lobby of Parliament organised by Abortion Rights/NUS Women’s Campaign
Lobby of Parliament 22 Novermber
11am — 4pm Briefings in Room S Portcullis House
On 23rd October MPs will enter a ballot to determine which twenty can propose a Private Members Bill on a subject of their choosing. We know that anti-choice MPs are already planning to propose legislation to restrict women’s abortion rights if they get the opportunity.
Abortion Rights and the NUS Women’s Campaign have organised this lobby of parliament to give pro-choice supporters the opportunity to talk face to face with their MPs ahead of the Ballot.
It is important that MPs hear why later abortion is crucial to the few women who need it; to expose the anti-choice myths that are dominating the debate; and to let MPs know that, contrary to the anti-choice lobby’s assertion, there is no consensus on reducing the time limit for abortion.
People are encouraged to write to their MP in advance to request a meeting on the 22nd.
Briefings, advice and information will be on hand in room S of Portcullis House opposite the Palace of Westminster, to help prepare you for your meeting.
Please email us at info@abortionrights.org.uk to let us know if you can attend.
Never meddle in forces you don’t understand.
This is a temporary theme for KitNotes until I figure out what exactly I did to the PHP script for the side bar, and how I can get it back.
Not any more! All sorted now. Phew.
Sorry. Not doing very well generally, am I?
Erm, this one’s still true.
OK, OK, so I know I said I would take a break from blogging. I will do. Honest. But I just had to write about this, because it’s pissed me off immensly.
One of the worst aspects of being a young worker under globalised capitalism is that every single gain that organised workers who have trodden the boards of class struggle before me, are being taken away. Job security, for instance. I don’t think I’ve managed to hold onto a job for longer than six months, though I’ve never, ever been fired from a job. Unionisation, as well - no matter how hard I try to unionise, it’s still difficult to persuade my fellow workers that it’s int their interests to join a union.
Still, there was the little matter of the welfare state which, despite all of the attacks made upon it by Thatcherites and Blarites alike, is still there. Thanks to the welfare state, I can go to the doctor, safe in the knowledge that they will check my blood pressure and not my bank balance. Also, during times of unemployment (two six-month spells so far) I know that I will not be totally fucked and have to live on wild berries and air (despite the system pushing me quite close to it.)
All in all, I like the welfare state. I like paying my National Insurance contributions - yes, you read that correctly, I like paying my NIC. Financial, and health security for a fiver a week? It’s a bargain, it’s a steal, it’s the deal of the fucking century.
One of the many rather wonderful (in context) things which my NIC pays for is my basic state pension. So, in retirement (if, of course, I actually do get to retire), I’m not totally fucked (at least if they actually restore the link to earnings and keep it there). So, imagine my surprise when this letter from my old chums at the HMRC came through today.
Our records for the 2004-2005 tax year show that you have not paid or been credited with enough National Insurance contributions to make this year count towards your basic State Pension.
You may be able to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions to make up the shortfall and protect your entitlement to basic State Pension. The amount of these contributions and the deadline for payment is shown below. Please do not worry, this letter is not a demand for payment.
Now, I know that I NEVER opt out of any NI contributions. I daren’t. One of my more unusual fears is that I will need to take something out of the welfare state and being told that I can’t.
What has happened is that one of my many employers has not made the appropriate NI contributions. Which means, I am nine weeks short of my pension. Needless to say, I am not pleased in the slightest.
Has this happened to anyone else, per chance?
Before I go…
THE TIME, DATE AND LOCATION FOR THE INAUGRIAL KITNOTES SOCIALIST BLOGGERS MEETUP HAVE BEEN DECIDED!
It will take place on SATURDAY, 20th JANUARY 2007
Drinking will commence at 1600 (that’s 4pm, folks) until LATE
We will meet up at EUSTON TRAIN STATION in Central London
(That’s on the Northern and Victoria Lines of the London Underground)
Pre-registration is now OPEN (with numbers, I can find a suitable venue)
It isn’t essential but it does mean I can plan - and aren’t we socialists for planning?
You can pre-register by email to socialistbloggers@kitnotes.co.uk
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MEETING OF THE FINEST SOCIALIST MINDS SINCE THE DRINKING SESSIONS OF MARX AND ENGELS
Keep up to date at www.kitnotes.co.uk/socialist-bloggers-meetup
I’m going to have to take a break from blogging. I’ve been handed what very well could be a redundancy notice, and I am absconding to Glasgow on Wednesday night on AWL business.
