The Class War Federation has long ceased to have any meaningful political or organisational existence. However the merchandise in hooded tops and shirts has thrived,the finances kept in good order, the website maintained and the occasional paper appearing, plus recent outings in London and Birmingham for the very fine CW banner…………all achieved by ten or so people round the country…….and a load more who though inactive identified with CW. About ten days ago a statement apppeared on the CW site and Wikipedia announcing the end of the CWF. I have no idea who put this out. There also apeared on the website blog a racist reply to someone enquiring about merchandise.This was placed via the admin page by someone not authorised to use it or somehow hacked the password and was clearly of malicious intent. It has now been removed. So I thought it was time to say something.
There are five of us in LondonCW and two of us – me and Jane Nicholl – will be leaving after the weekend. I’m going to the ALARM meeting on Sunday and if it turns out any good – and they’ll have us – we’ll probably throw in our lot with them. What others do elsewhere is down to them. I have no more right than anyone else to declare CW dead and would not want to…..it’s death has been declared before and I suspect the revivalist tendency wil surface again. If so and they continue in the original spirit of CW I’ll wish them well but my energies will be going elsewhere. I think the CW merchandising arm will probably continue in good health. And I post this in the true spirit of CW by someone who still best exemplifies the true spirit of CW – Patrick MaCroidain:’ Class War will never be gone not even if it only had one member, it would still cause havoc.’
One offshoot of this has been the opprtunity for posters on the LibCom forum to come up with good ol’ fascist smears worthy of Searchlight.
Here’s the best one from Harrison Myers:
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Ian Bone 
It’s not dead.. its just.. resting.
Anyhows – i find it hard to stomach people would post fascist slurs about Class War.. not nice.. why the cheap shots?
A very cheap shot and Ian we are all class war and it will never die. We are to old to change are ways now!!!!As long as we have passion for what we believe and pure hatred for the rich class war will never die……. Never!!!!!
I suppose this ‘Harrison Myers’ is under the impression that pirates were in fact proto-fascists with their skull & crossbone flags.
where’s captain anarchy? He’s my favourite. Citizen smith with a public school education and a touch of the aspergers.
But libcom is a clear indictator of what happenes when you only let middle class boys play with radical politics.
well, it was no doubt partly prompted by the anti-semitic comment posted that Ian refers to in the article. Also it is hardly a smear, if read all of ‘his’ posts on the tread. but I agree that it is a pretty silly comparation.
All of you judging the libcom thread should actually read it. It’s here:
http://libcom.org/forums/organise/class-war-disbands-again-04052011
Calm it, it’s just a joke and people challenge Harrison Myers on it later in the thread, if you keep reading. Myers even says that they like the imagery, and no, Harry White, nobody says pirates were proto-fascist and they are also raised in the thread if you bothered to read it.
I do think the ‘spot the difference’ pictures were pretty stupid, but less slagging off libcom where it really doesn’t deserve it.
It’s always a joke with Libcom, isn’t it. Every time. Even some of the more lurid and disgusting slurs thrown at the Wombles, I’ve seen those laughed off as ‘just a joke’. The ‘spoof’ sticker removed by a mod off that thread – ‘just a joke’. Accusations of racism – just a joke. It’s hard to tell when people on Libcom are being serious because as soon as they’re challenged on their more offensive comments they trot out the old line ‘it’s just a joke’.
It’s not just a joke, and it’s not just me who thinks it.
Now that Class Was has (again) given up the ghost, a prize goes to anyone who spots the following quote, probably in the Evening Standard, in the run up to future protests:
“Disorder at the march is feared. Police sources claim extremists groups such as Class War are reforming to infiltrate the protests and cause chaos”
Who else can they blame?
maybe they’ll try blaming the b.m or b.u.f,or even the cato street conspirators next time!
Skull and crossbones… The freemasons’ architect Hiram Abiff, the Knights Templar, yawn. Some Nazis, anarchists, biker gangs, submarine battalions. What kind of name is ‘Harrison Myers’ anyway? Silly sod! Take him down Dartmouth, show him the skull and crossbones over the pub there – he’ll wet his knickers!
Class War will never be gone not even if it only had one member, it would still cause havoc.
The libcom thread on this is awful and uncomradely; it leaves a bad taste in the mouth and while I don’t believe it is representative of UK anarchists as a whole, it may be symptomatic of something which has been bothering me since I have become active again over the past six months.
It seems to me that positions around the various theoretical approaches within revolutionary anarchism have become more entrenched. I mean twenty-five years ago I would have described myself as an anarcho-syndicalist, but I was never so covinced of the absolute correctness of my views as to indulge in some of the sniping that I see now; I was just happy to be with, to be doing things with, other anarchists. I’m sure that still goes for most of us, but the worst of what I’m seeing now reminds me the bickering of trotskyist sects, even down to new comrades being quietly approached to ‘join’ this or that national organisation. Stuff that for a game of marbles.
Or maybe I should take off these rose-tinted specs when I’m thinking about the past? I dunno. It’s just a shame to see this stuff given everything we have achieved in the past six months. Enough!
maybe its because those that seem to be at the centre of sectarianism are closet trots?
If anarchists ethics is not about co-operation then its nothing. It shouldn’t be petty competition between dogmatists and politically pure snobs.
The original image seems to not be there any more, but from the description I would agree with the people on libcom saying that the burning of “Jesus” and “Mohammed” effigies (I gather) seems pretty stupid and divisive. There are loads of people who identify as “Christians” and “Muslims” who would be open to anarchist ideas if they were explained to them, but definitely not if they were yelled at with brandished burning effigies, in much the same way that the lunatic U.S. preachers who have been given free reign of the Swansea city centre were pointing fingers and yelling at me today (minus effigies). “Jesus is the only way, repent, sinner!” “Atheism is the only way, wise up, you stupid idiot, and how dare you get offended when I burn a caricature of your prophet and your holy book [at the same time that every ignorant drunken twat on the street is insulting you, spitting at you and calling you a terrorist]”… both seem designed more for maximum self-righteous posturing rather than for actually introducing your ideas to people who just might be interested in them, actually. Why not burn effigies of, say, Abu Hamza and whoever is the best known fundamentalist christian twat in the UK if that’s the point people were trying to make? And if you’re going to burn “Christian” and “Muslim” effigies, what about the antecedent of both those religions, “Judaism”? Or would that upset Darren “Israel has the right to exist” Redstar too much?
Anyway I wasn’t there at the time and don’t know the whole context so enough of that; re the “spot the difference”: the difference is that one of them is the logo of a highly centralized, ultra-authoritarian, exclusively Aryan (or passing for Aryan) group of mass murderous lunatics, whilst the other is the logo og a very loose, anti-authoritarian (at least in theory), multi-racial (albeit mostly white, but then so is the UK) group of a wide variety of people, some of whom I’ve met and none of those seem to be the mass murderer type – in fact they seem quite nice. So that would be the difference. Oh, and the CW one paraphrases Malcolm X and/or KRS- ONE, something which I doubt the SS would want to do.
Good point Alan, obsessing over membership is so Trot like. It seems these people would rather do anything rather than engage in class struggle. They talk it, but are utterly incapable of walking it. Totally unable to function outside of a safe sterile political zone unconnected with any developing working class consciousness and class struggles. I would laugh my head off watching a ‘fly on the wall camera’ if they were transplanted and made to live in Bedlington or Blyth, the working class wouldn’t recognise these people.
alright guys calm down.
when i said ‘spot the difference’ i was being facetious, obviously Class War has had a great long history of anti-fascist activity. i wouldn’t have posted it if i’d known people would take me seriously (which the people on the thread didn’t). i apologise for causing such confusion amongst comrades.
i also wish ALARM all the best!
this is what i said later on in the thread:
‘i do think the skull and crossbones looks cool, its just to me it holds a similar kind of poltical stigma as a hammer & sickle does to statism’
as for Davey Hairbrush: ‘where’s captain anarchy? He’s my favourite. Citizen smith with a public school education and a touch of the aspergers.’
You are going to seriously call someone disabled as a way of insulting them?
Just a pedantic note Harrison. Asperger’s Syndrome is an Austistic Spectrum disorder. The word ‘disabled’ is not used in connection to this as it’s not a disabilty. For example, the comedian Dave Gorman is diagnosed with Asperger’s but is not ‘disabled’ by it.
I do agree with you about davey hairbrush using it as an insult though.
also, forgot to say, although i have major disagreements with CW, i still see them as comrades. hence i feel it is unfair to say that i was trying to ‘fascist smear’ them.
No, I quite understand. The juxtaposition of imagexs was purely coicidental. With ‘comrades’ like you…
You tried to smear CW, what are you denying this?
This is a quote from you Myers on that thread.
“so basically, they have a had a bit of a history of racism. don’t know if its derived from their courting of the white british werking class or what.
what do people think of the prospect that they have been infiltrated by the state or fascists?
or are they just really stupid to the point of racism?”
care to justify any of this shit?
I don’t see why that thread is particularly uncomradely – bear in mind there was a justifiable initial reaction to antisemitic remarks we now know weren’t by a CW member. Certainly no one’s gone as far as Davey’s childish personal insult here. The closet trot remark is pretty weak too without an argument to back it up.
I don’t see the need for co-operation when there are clear differences in terms of politics (i’d guess most libcom posters see class in political/economic terms rather than sociological ones) and disagreements over actions (the effigy burning).
I love the old fascist smear – a la Gable. It takes the faulty syllogism to new levels of farce. Dialectics transcends boojwah logic, comrades, so pay attention!
Major premise – All Fascists have mothers.
Minor premise – Anarchists have mothers.
Conclusion – All anarchists are fascists.
And you can’t argue with that.
Glad the finances are in good order. Still owe about 60 quid for papers. Don’t feel quite so bad now.
They still go down a treat.
i call it as i see it lucy
http://libcom.org/forums/libcommunity/how-would-you-rank-following-libcom-mentals-09092010
http://libcom.org/forums/libcommunity/list-most-mental-people-libcom-right-now-08112009
Most people here have gone on about the thread which I can’t be arsed to look at as all seems to be resolved and I’m not that interested… what’s bothering me more is Ian’s statement that CW has ceased to have a ‘meaningful political or organisational existence’. I think if people still feel it is something to organise around then it’s not the case and now more than in the last two decades the wealthy are being allowed to be comfortable in the public nature of their excesses. Class war at least states it’s aim pretty clearly on the tin, even if it’s become more symbolic than actual but at least it’s there… as an aside I’m fine with the demise and pheonix like return of WAG and CW if that’s what those involved really see as best but ALARM ? I fucking hate alarms. all of them. and i get the word play but still…
Kellys right – if there ever was a time for Class War it is now. The feel and spirit of the present times is class against class, ie class war, ‘class war’ is even the language being used within parts of the left for a change, which builds the general class war ambiance. Sometimes I think politicos obsess too much about purity and something new i.e. Alarm, its a title that doesn’t fill me with hope, perhaps unfortunately, but thats how i feel about it.
You only have to read the newspapers yesterday which reported upon the Government’s decision to allow the affluent to ‘purchase’ university places for their idiot spawn to realise class war still rages. Or be reminded of the proliferation of affluent Oxford and Cambridge alumni to occupy the ‘glitterati’ of the echelons of British society whilst the aristocracy continue to own 20 million plus of Britain’s 60 million acres of soil to recognise not much has changed since the 19th century.
This type of class discrimination even pervades the Anarchist Movement by the disproportionate media attention directed at public school boy, City boy and er…’anarchist’, Charlie Veitch. An illuminati conspiracy theorist who has publicly admitted he is an admirer of David Ike, who is completely barking, who has a rich daddy and who enjoys media exposure ad nauseam.
It’s a pity I ‘m too ill, at present, to attend the Alarm meeting because I have an army of battleaxes to grind with the British class system. However, I think y’all probably be relieved you won’t have a rather large and rather militant, overbearing middle-aged women bellowing all evening. 🙂
Oh well goodbye to Class War although it’s barely existed for well over a decade. A bit of a shame, if ever there was a time for a big, noisy anarchist paper and mob now seems to be it.
The LibCon lot seem to mostly miss the point an organisation that produced a six-weekly paper with a distribution of upto 10,000, had groups meeting weekly in over a dozen cities and could get a couple of hundred people marching through a damp wood in Somerset for no apparent reason whatsoever had a bit more to it than swearing and special brew.
Come to think of it, I can’t remember a single comrade in Class War drinking spesh. Plenty of swearing, mostly when the paper group managed to delete the current edition of the paper ‘cos they hadn’t really figured out how to use their computer, but also a level of openness and honest I’ve not seen in any political group before or since.
As for CW being antisemitic / racist / nazi just grow up.
It’s a damn shame, nothing quite stirred the loins than getting your mitts on the latest copy of CW on a demo back in the day, it was a breath of fresh air from the old, stale politicking and endless rehashing of the Spanish Civil War. Let’s hope ALARM comes to something, what with ‘Flashman’ Cameron being told to rein in his triumphalism by his own party, and the boss of McDonalds telling working class kids to give up on getting a Uni education and go for a ‘McJob’ (I kid you not)…I’m still counting on the ‘scum from the ghettos of London’ and other cities to let rip…But maybe the pull of Xbox and Britains Got Talent is too strong..?
Just read the anti Semitic comment allegedly posted by Class War on libcom.org. No matter how many cans of Special Brew on special offer at Asda that week; it’s obvious this comment is a hoax and wasn’t posted up by Class War.
That Libcom thread is disgusting, the majority on Libcom esepcially “Steven” one of the admins are desperate to be able to paint CW as racist loons, while it was obvious their website had been hacked. Libcom is a poisonious little cult that spends it’s time smearing anarchists and the left and it needs to be challanged.
Luckily there’s less than 20 people involved in Libcom so they are not representative of a significant group of anything.
it’s seriously fucked up place with seriously fucked up people. My ‘captain anarchy’ remarks might have been facetious, but this is what we are dealing with – young men from public schools whose parents come from a very privileged position of political power and wealth. Ring any bells? They are as much part of the anarchist movement as they are the working class. Sadly we have neither the bollocks of the wherewithall to deal with them.
If any of these creeps turn up on the 15th…
It must have been bash Class War week over at Libcom.
I think it is the Steven you refer to who has in part critiqued a piece I had published in Shift magazine by:
1. Raising my membership of Class War (I left CW in 2008)
2. Complaining about Class War’s ‘position’ on Ireland (My article does not mention Ireland or Irish Republicanism once)
http://paulstott.typepad.com/i_intend_to_escape_and_co/2011/05/british-islamism-towards-an-anarchist-response.html
It was always amusing how much some of the founders of Libcom genuinely hated Class War (and I mean hate) It is interesting to note how they have transferred their sectarianism to others who have joined the Libcom collective. Perhaps it is a condition of membership?
I was barred from my local pub about a year ago for throwing a punch at a punter showing me racist jokes on his phone. I’m back in there now the past few days.
Check this; landlords say we can’t bar people for being racist but we can for throwing punches. I beg to differ!
Class War racist? Don’t make me laugh, please.
It’s more of a state of mind than an organisation.
Been up for class war since 1984 dont let the BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN i never have,fuck ‘ em.IAN
Incubus did’nt have to wait too long