"class war" candidate stands for mayor of hackney

[ed miliband]

http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/patrick-macrodain-is-chosen-as-class-war-candidate-for-mayor-of-hackney-2014/

manifesto includes the suggestion of more police sergeants on the street.

as one of the comments suggests, there is no chance of labour being beaten in hackney, so if you think the ballot box is an avenue for revolt why not stand on a platform of impossible demands? but of course, only "do nothing anarcho-purists" would suggest that, or go even further and say that anarchists should not stand in elections at all.

it's the sort of sectarian-non-sectarianism that bothers me more than anything. i hear a lot that class war people are sound personally, and - sorry to sound patronising - they mean well, but as soon as people disagree with their tactics they're sectarians who just want to read theory and sit on their hands. and since solfed, afed, etc. anarchists are going to disagree, these organisations are automatically pointyhead sectarians. you should see some of the abuse libcom gets when it's brought up on bone's blog.

to be fair though, it isn't like this is being passed off as an anarchist or communist or whatever platform. it's a populist "working class", in very much a sociological sense, platform.

[Hit The North]

Class War want more coppers on the street? Is this for target practice or the beginning of Class War's strategy to replace the Lib Dems as the third force in British electoral politics? :lol:

[Ravachol]

I've always had very mixed feelings about groups like Class War and the late Red Action. While they were often ruthless in condemning Labour and the union bureaucracy in ways that Leninists never did, they adhere to a kind of 'workerism' that is just as suffocating as Trotskyite naivety about 'one more time to push labour in the right direction'.

They tend to view 'the working class' as a sociological category and sometimes even as a stereotype (ie. the bald guy who likes his pint and oi! is working class while the introverted indie-listening poetry lover is a 'middle class student' or whatever). In a sense, they take the working class and turn it into a sort of identity politics that reaffirms the proletarian condition as somehow a sense of 'pride', elevating it as if it were good to be a prole and we should reproduce the conditions, just 'without the posh tory wankers'. It stands in the way of the self-negation of the proletariat, the workers' movement against work and bad politics like this are just a by-product.

[ed miliband]

in the comments the man standing explicitly suggests that the aim is to make labour "wake up" or something

[ed miliband]

here:


I believe this is the point as Salvador, Nick, are saying, by wiping the smug grin off the three leading parties in Hackney which can be done as I’ve seen them standing on Reading Lane nervously chain smoking wondering whether they’ll still be in control the following morning or not? All it takes is for a good campaign to be run against them. Grumble away all you want to General Grumble, let’s see what changes you can come up with for Hackney (A Labour stronghold – which with an effective well organised campaign give Labour the slap in the face it needs to wake em up so they’ll be reminded of what their party is supposed to represent – the working class) So many Labour politicians & councillors forgot all about those who supported them, voted for them for decades after they sold us out and began their Labour Champaigner shoulder rubbing arse licking up to their corporate friends. This is no SWP manifesto, they may try to nick some of it if they have the bollocks to stand which I very much doubt as they’re to busy with internal arguments and selling that bottom wipe of a newspaper of theirs.

[Ravachol]

here:

Things like this make me want to slit my wrists and run off for the woods to go live with the wolves.

[Agathor]

Things like this make me want to slit my wrists and run off for the woods to go live with the wolves.

As if the wolves would let you live with them.

[ed miliband]

why not? they all fans of class war?

[Agathor]

I know a ton of wolves and they wouldn't like Ravochol.

[L.A.P.]

Aside from what you think of them, some of the things they do is kind of lulz. They're definetely trolls; fetishizing pictures of injured cops, marching through West London yelling "behold your future executioners!", and having the headline of Prince William's birth saying "another fucking royal parasite." lol

Also, "No war but the class war" is my slogan of choice when passing the time with propaganda.

[ed miliband]

Aside from what you think of them, some of the things they do is kind of lulz. They're definetely trolls; fetishizing pictures of injured cops, marching through West London yelling "behold your future executioners!", and having the headline of Prince William's birth saying "another fucking royal parasite." lol

you're from florida, what would you know of west london?

and most of that was in the 80s

[L.A.P.]

you're from florida, what would you know of west london?

and most of that was in the 80s

It's called the Information Age, dude.

[ed miliband]

It's called the Information Age, dude.

uh huh, but by suggesting that class war marched through "west london" shouting "behold your future executioners" it would seem that the information age isn't that informative.

they marched through notting hill, a tiny part of west london, protesting against gentrification; some of the areas surrounding (or rather, to the north and west of) notting hill are the most deprived in london. idk what you think "west london" is like, but i don't think you can get a good impression of the social dynamics of an urban area via the internet.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Notting Hill isn't really West London, it's more central.

Would say the East of London is (in general) largely more deprived than the West - North, North East and South East, though admittedly SE is becoming the city's extension.

Don't really understand the bloke standing for Mayor of Hackney. It does seem odd that he'd come up with such a detailed set of absolutely impossible demands. They're not even that revolutionary, or bonkers, just look like they've been written down on the back of a cigarette packet. I know people like DNZ will love this and it's not my intention, but you still have to respect empiricism, bureaucracy and proper accounting for costs and benefits when thinking up smaller-scale policy ideas, otherwise nobody will take you seriously, whatever your political colours.

[ed miliband]

it's west inasmuch as it's covered by a 'w' post code (as opposed to a 'west central' one) and it's to the west of paddington, after which i'd say you're properly central. and definitely, areas of east london are much more deprived than even the poorest places in west london, but to imagine all of west london is kensington and chelsea, as some seem to, is silly.

[Leo]

Uh... I'm sorry but wasn't Class War supposed to be anarchist?

[black magick hustla]

class war is a fucking joke. from what i heard its all college kids also so i don't get the whole dumb workerist identity fetish. i remember when they burnt a mohammad efigi that was just a brown dude with a beard and big nose. talk about racism. class war can kiss my ass and ian bone is a tool

[Ravachol]

I know a ton of wolves and they wouldn't like Ravochol.

Bourgeois lies. I'm a big hit in the grim carpathian forests. TRUE STORY BRAH.

[ed miliband]

Uh... I'm sorry but wasn't Class War supposed to be anarchist?

they were never explicitly an anarchist organisation as far as i know. indeed, they were very critical of most anarchists and instead drew on various strands of anarchist and marxist thought: platformism and illegalism, council communism and situationism, etc.

how all that translated into the publication of a tabloid newspaper and extreme pranks idk.

[bricolage]

didn't the bash the rich thing end up getting diverted into a camden council estate largely populated by migrants? behold your future executioners indeed...

but still, fuck west london. it's all north to me.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Bourgeois lies. I'm a big hit in the grim carpathian forests. TRUE STORY BRAH.

Reckon it's best to keep this sort of stuff in chit-chat?

[ed miliband]

didn't the bash the rich thing end up getting diverted into a camden council estate largely populated by migrants? behold your future executioners indeed...

but still, fuck west london. it's all north to me.

you south? fuck south.

north west is where it's at.

G1ZgCkUt7wM


to bring this back on topic, class war ran a candidate in a north kensington by-election some time in the 80s i believe, so n'owt new.

[bricolage]

you south? fuck south.

north west is where it's at.

G1ZgCkUt7wM
pff,
5aKHUoIHZV4


to bring this back on topic, class war ran a candidate in a north kensington by-election some time in the 80s i believe, so n'owt new.
ian bone gave a whole speech about it at the anarchist bookfair two years ago I think.

[Manic Impressive]

you south? fuck south.

north west is where it's at.

G1ZgCkUt7wM


to bring this back on topic, class war ran a candidate in a north kensington by-election some time in the 80s i believe, so n'owt new.
That's North privilege. A fundamental endorsement of your privileged status as a North Londoner which upholds the doctrine of oppression imposed by taxi drivers on the toiling masses of South London. Plus everyone knows that North Londoners are all middle class.

signed the Party For Liberation of the South from the shackles of the North and the Setting Up of the Democratic People's Republic of South London (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist)
(PLSNSUDPRSL-MLM)

[ed miliband]

there's nothing good south of the thames, and marx and engels agreed.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

North London all the way.

In all seriousness though, I do love Camden/Holloway/Chalk Farm. Once you get past the 14 year old 'emos' who turn it to shit on Saturday/Sunday afternoons, there are some quality pubs, bars, clubs and music venues down there.

[SHORAS]

Been following Bone's blog for a while, not so much these days though especially after the Libya debacle. I've concluded that when he's not having a laugh with various stunts and self promotion his 'serious politics' are terrible and thus he retreats back into the former. And on it goes.