Wednesday 30 April 2008

LUAF and David Kerr

Lancaster Unity scrapes the barrel by publishing comments designed to have a go at Ulster Nation editor and Solidarity EC member David Kerr' The anonymous poster does their best to smear David Kerr with the 'racist' tag. Here's the case for the prosecution followed by that of the defence...

Under David Kerr's leadership the Ulster Third Way is affiliated to the US-based Council of Conservative Citizens.

This is not true. U3W is not affiliated to the CofCC in any way. In response to an invitation Kerr did indeed address a meeting of the CofCC in 1997 in his capacity as Chairman of the now defunct Ulster Independence Movement. His acceptance of a speaking engagement should not be taken as an endorsement of everything in the CofCC's political platform. As for the verdict of the bunch of gougers styling themselves the Southern Poverty Law Center and the hysterical Ant-Defamation League: their allegations are not to be taken seriously. Against all evidence, the SPLC defames the 'neo-Confederate' League of the South' as a racist hate group. The League of the South and groups such as the Southern Party of Georgia are nothing of the kind and David Kerr is proud to stand alongside them in defence of common values.

Under David Kerr the Nation website carries links to the League of the South and the 'nazi BNP's fake cover groups such as Solidarity and Civil Liberty.'

David Kerr does not believe that the BNP is now a 'nazi' party and he believes strongly in the cause of Civil Liberty and free trade unions. Lancaster Unity's commentator doesn't seem to have noticed that the links page clearly carries a disclaimer to the effect that 'Apart from the Third Way sites, the presence of a link on this page should not be taken to imply any organisational link with the organisations or individuals behind those sites. A link is not a full endorsement of all or any of the political, historical or ideological positions taken by the publishers of such sites.' Some sites are useful for readers looking for good background on history and politics; Slugger O'Toole, N I Elections and Newshound. Some are good new sources for anti-war activists; antiwar.com and Americans Against World Empire. Some are good at exposing the risks of an all-powerful surveillance State; Privacy International and Civil Liberty. Lancaster Unity's narrow focus distorts the truth.

As for Solidarity being a 'front' for the BNP no matter how many times they repeat it this still will not be true!

Further, the Ulster Third Way website praises the racist and fascist book The Eleventh Hour by John Tyndall, the convicted neo-nazi terrorist and founder of the BNP 'In thoroughly recommending this book to all those looking for alternative political thinking'.

This really is a piece of dishonest distortion. Firstly this is a guest review written by the veteran British nationalist John Bean and is solely Mr Bean's opinion of the book. The Ulster Nation website has always encouraged debate and the exchange of ideas. A disclaimer on every page makes it clear that the views expressed in signed articles and reviews are solely those of the author. Mr Bean’s view of Tyndall's book is quite different from that of David Kerr. Mr Bean had his own criticisms too. The partial sentence quoted above concludes, 'I would make just two minor criticisms.' They are 'a certain amount of repetition' and 'he does use three words where he could get away with two.' Lancaster Unity's selective quotation by wresting the first part of this sentence from its context and the implied attribution of these opinions to David Kerr are without justification.

David Kerr has reviewed quite a few political books from the left field of the political spectrum. He thoroughly recommended Paul Foot's Who Framed Colin Wallace? to all Third Way supporters and also praised Mark Steel's Reasons to be Cheerful as an honest book. By Lancaster Unity's reckoning this 'links' Kerr with the Socialist Workers Party.

Digging deep in the archives of the Ulster Nation site, the Lancaster UAF correspondent has dug up an article written in January 1995 by David Kerr. At the time the ANC government of Nelson Mandela had been in power for a few months and there was a lot of apprehension about. Most people will admit to having been surprised by how well the ANC government did under Mandela after assuming power in 1994. This was by no means obvious at the time despite Lancaster Unity's 20-20 hindsight. Mandela's organisation did use terrorist methods against its enemies and - at times - innocent civilians. The ANC denied the right of the nations of Southern Africa to their own states. Similar strictures in the former and led to major conflict. It was not unreasonable to fear that something similar could have happened in 1995. Mugabe's was the malign template. Happily things never got quite that bad – so far – but it is far from being the paradise of rose-tinted leftist dreams.

Dagging about in the mid-nineties, the UAF correspondent digs up a 1996 article Living Alternatives – neither racism nor 'multiculturalism' to have another crack at Kerr. Where the critic falls down is that this discussion piece was not written by Kerr at all. It was written by another Third Way activist using the pen name 'John Jenkins'.

This article was written twelve years ago when racial attacks were indeed virtually unheard of but when organisations like NICEM were trying to justify their funding by exaggerating the severity and extent of such attacks. In the last four or five years there has been a genuine increase in such attacks: although even now the rate of such attacks is low in comparison to sectarian attacks across the religious divide. The idea was to argue for a 'living alternative' to outright racism and trendy multiculturalism. For 1996 this was quite groundbreaking as crude biological racism had still quite a strong following in nationalist circles at the time. Ultimately the Lancaster Unity correspondent is trying to force Ulster Third Way into a mould for which it is unsuitable.

Same old fascism. Same old racism – doesn't matter whether it's the BNP or Patrick Harrington and his Third Way, it's all the same.

Well, no. Lancaster Unity's definition of both fascism and racism is very elastic. Third Way is not the same as the BNP. The 2008 BNP is not the same as the 1982 BNP. Just as they elide fascism and nazism they like to portray all expressions of nationalist thinking as all the same. it's totally untrue, of course and as shown above, they will twist any article through selective quotation, perfect hindsight, projection of ideas and attitudes to explain what Third Way 'really' means. Opposition to mass migration does not mean opposition to non-whites. In fact the Third Way is open to members from all ethnic and faith backgrounds. It has clearly stated that it aims for a harmonious, multi-cultural society.

Sunday 27 April 2008

Fulminating Against the National Liberals

The infantile leftists of Lancaster UAF and Norfolk Unity like to keep themselves busy. Currently they are fulminating against the National Liberal Party (NLP) of which I am a member. They are worried by the NLP decision to target Lib Dem marginals at the next General Election.

They say:-


“Ignoring the feeble attempt at self-justification as to why a fascist party
lays claim to the title “Liberal”, the first paragraph of Completely Blank’s
posting leaves no doubt whatsoever that the National Liberal Party intends to go
into the next general election purposed on conning votes away from the Liberal
Democrats by confusing itself with the mainstream party, and - they hope -
losing the sitting Liberal Democrats their seats.


There can be, and is, no other reason for the NLP to target itself so specifically - only against Liberal Democrats, and only in marginals where a small number of votes will decide the sitting MPs’ fates.


No other no-hope party, to the best of our knowledge, has
ever gone into a general election fixed purely on unseating MPs by use of deceit
and obsfucation.


In our opinion this amounts to a clear intention to mislead
voters and to abuse the democratic process on the part of a nasty little
organisation made up of no-hopers and fantasists closely connected with the BNP
and complicit in the running of the racist party’s bogus front groups.


It is also reason enough for the Electoral Commission to strip Third Way of the right
to campaign under the spurious “National Liberal Party” title.

We have already alerted the Liberal Democrats to the underhand intentions of the squalid NLP, but visitors (of all political persuasions) to this website can help by
complaining to the Electoral Commission, and by bringing this post to the
attention of Liberal Democrat MPs and LibDem organisations.”


Of course the National Liberal Party is by no means ‘Fascist’. The NLP opposes foreign military adventures, supports direct democracy and co-operative ownership, has an open membership for all ethnic, cultural and faith backgrounds and advocates civil rights against an increasingly interventionist State. This is not fascism but the exact opposite!

As for BNP ‘front groups’ we presume they refer to the Trade Union Solidarity which is independent and open to people of all political persuasions.

Still, let’s leave aside their childish name-calling and look at the substance of their argument.
The NLP has stated that it will target Lib Dem marginals for good reasons. The NLP wants, in fact, to highlight the difference between our Liberalism and theirs. What better way than to do this in an exciting marginal contest where maximum media attention might be expected? Far from seeking to ‘mislead’ voters by pretending to be the LIb Dems (as LUAF implies) the whole point is to show that a different form of Liberalism exists. This is what will be stressed in campaign literature. No one Party owns the term ‘Liberal’ just as no one Party owns the terms ‘Socialist’, ‘Workers’, ‘Democratic’ or ‘English’.

Parties registered using the term ‘Socialist’ include:-

Socialist Alliance
Socialist Equality Party
Socialist Labour Party
Socialist Party of Great Britain [The]
Socialist Party (Northern Ireland)
Socialist Studies Party (1904)Socialist Unity

Parties registered using the term ‘Workers’ include:-

Workers’ Liberty
Workers Revolutionary Party
Workers’ Party [The]

Parties registered using the term ‘Democratic’ include:
-
Democratic Party [The]
Democratic Socialist Alliance - People Before Profit
Democratic Unionist Party

Parties registered using the term ‘England’ or ‘English’ include:-

England First Party
English Democrats Party
English National Party
English Progressive and Liberty Party [The]
Englishindependenceparty.com

Additionally as LUAF themselves admit in addition to the NLP two other registered parties use the term ‘Liberal’. These are the Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Party.

Do LUAF really think that the electorate is unable to distinguish between Parties using a term within their name which is the same as another? There is a lot of media coverage and campaigning during elections. The general public are not as stupid as LUAF implies. Any vote for the NLP will be a positive vote for a different form of Liberalism. If the Lib Dems lose seats as a result that is democracy in action. The NLP has already beaten them in local elections.
LUAF say that the National Liberal party should be “stripped” of its name by the State. No such thing will happen. They have no logical case, they have no legal case, in fact they are fantasists.

Logic is not their strong point



There was an interesting post on the thread at LUAF which made assumptions about the accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission by the National Liberal Party. It was from ‘Chris B.’ . It read:-

“Nice work.
…And of the Third Way - what does one say about a “party” of 20
members that bores the Electoral Commission to tears with its windy account of
its local election performances (successes = 0), admits to having only £88.17 in
the kitty (2006), but which allegedly raised £1400 from membership subs (yet £15
x 20 = £300! - go figure)…
That’s interesting. They obviously didn’t get
£1400 from membership subs, so somebody is telling lies to the Electoral
Commission.
Bung that one in your complaints too.”


LUAF always like you to start a post with ‘Nice work’, ‘Well done LUAF’ or ‘Excellent article’ so Chris B. gets top marks for that. His logic lets him down, however.

£15 x 20 is indeed £300.

The membership fee of the NLP, however, (as in the past with Third Way) is a minimum of £15. Those with more money pay more. Several pay between £15 and £25 per month to sustain the cause. That is how we get £1400 from membership fees in a year. The Electoral Commission has a better understanding of our structure than the posters on LUAF. Is anyone shocked?

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Information

I'd like to thank those who have been so kind as to send me information on 'Atreus' of 'Norfolk Unity'. Paricular thanks to 'Old Timer'. If 'Atreus' has harassed or victimised you please do contact me (anonymously if you wish) with any information you may wish to share.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Theft is theft - even when it's intellectual property theft

Have you ever been in a pub and seen a loud drunk trying to start a fight and then when challenged seeking to involve and get back-up from his friends? I have and sometimes the friends are wise enough to stay out of things, other times they don't and the consequence is often that they end-up getting a good-kicking. I thought of this analogy when reading an entry entitled “Get stuffed Harrington!” on a supposed 'anti-fascist' blog.

It reported:-

“The Great Fantasist himself, the One Big Vast Huge Onion's farcical serial failure Patrick Harrington, is attempting to get Blogger to do the dirty legal work he's too afraid to do himself.He's complained that we used the photograph above from the One Big Vast Huge Onion's website and therefore breached his copyright.”

This was in response to a complaint I filed with Blogger (owned by Google) regarding infringment of copyright. Norfolk Unity had been warned previously that action would be taken if they did not respect copyright and could at that stage have quietly removed the offending image. That isn't exactly their style, however.

Instead they responded by stating:-

“Anyway, Harrington's a bit on the late side. That photo has already appeared on several other internet sites, and though we can't be sure, we have a feeling it's about to appear on many more.We're not taking it down, and we're not removing the post.As far as we're concerned, loser Harrington can take a running jump off the end of the Britannia Pier. We're Norfolk Unity, not Clive Potter or Tim Hawke - and we bite back.”

The picture was then posted on a number of associated sites. We were very intimidated! It also meant that we had to complain about all these other sites which have taken a hostile attitude to the Solidarity Brotherhood!

The result was that the image (and sometimes pages) from the following sites were removed:-

http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/solidarity-and-mysteries-of-copyright.html
http://norfolkunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-stuffed-harrington.html
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2007/12/bnp-ballerina-provokes-new-storm.html
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/03/huge-growth-for-bnps-one-big-union.html
http://birminghamunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/norfolk-unity-tells-hypocrite.html
http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/solidarity-and-mysteries-of-copyright.html
http://antifascistnetwork.blogspot.com/2008/03/solidarity-and-mysteries-of-copyright.html http://norfolkunity.blogspot.com/2008/03/huge-growth-for-bnps-one-big-union.html

The end result was that not only Norfolk Unity but the other infantile leftist sites have made themselves appear foolish. Our Union will enforce Copyright and deal with any infringement of our legal rights. If you sign-up to the terms and conditions of American servers and companies you shouldn't complain when we refer to US law in our complaints. That shouldn't be taken to mean, however, that we will not take action in other or multiple juristictions.

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Max Mosley - LU No different from the gutter press

You would think that supposed progressives would take a different line from the establishment gutter press. In the case of 'Lancaster Unity' however you would be disappointed. Last weekend the 'News of the Screws' published a front-page article on Formula 1 boss Max Mosley. Max is the son of Oswald and Diana Mosley who were leading British Fascists. Max, however, has distanced himself from their views and spoken out against racism.

The News of the World claimed that one of the young ladies pictured with Max was wearing a 'concentration camp' uniform. It used this to bring up Hitler, Mosley etc etc. Yet the picture showed one girl in suspenders and another in a US-style prison outfit. I am no historian but I believe that the stripes on a US prison uniform and a concentration camp one run horizontally and the other vertically. Surely all anti-fascists should know this?

Why then does Lancaster Unity simply reproduce these inaccuracies? Why do they follow reactionary propaganda lines dictated by the establishment gutter press? Why don't they speak out for freedom on issues of sexuality? Do they have any ideology or world view of their own or do they simply borrow that of the establishment?

- Pat Harrington

Tuesday 1 April 2008

Hear the truth before you read the lies

This blog has been created on the orders of Patrick Harrington. Patrick Harrington is the General Secretary of the Solidarity Trades Union and a Director of the Third Way think-tank. He became concerned at the disinformation being spread by some blogs of the infantile left and felt that their arguments and reactionary positions needed to be analysed, deconstructed and replied to. This blog will answer all those bloggers who adopt positions which are dishonest and reactionary and not just Lancaster Unity.