"london 'slaves' had been in political collective with captors, police say"

[ed miliband]

this is a very strange and concerning case:

Two of the three women allegedly held for 30 years as slaves had lived in a political collective with their captors, police have disclosed.

Metropolitan police commander Steve Rodhouse told reporters that two of the alleged victims met the male suspect in London through a shared political ideology and began living together in a "collective".

The address where the women lived with their alleged captors is understood to be a three-storey block in Peckford Place, Stockwell, south London. Police are conducting house-to-house inquiries in the area.

The suspects, both 67, are of Indian and Tanzanian origin and came to the UK in the 1960s, police said. They have been released on bail to a date in January.

A 30-year-old British woman, a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 69-year-old Malaysian woman were rescued from a house last month, after one of the women called a support charity asking for help. All three women are believed to have suffered emotional and physical abuse.

Scotland Yard revealed that part of the agreement when the women were removed from the address on 25 October was that police would not at that stage take any action.

None of the women was reported missing after they were rescued. Officers have recovered a birth certificate for the 30-year-old woman, who is believed to have lived her entire life in servitude.

Rodhouse said police agreed to move at a slow pace to accommodate the fragile state of mind of the alleged victims.

"Part of the agreement on 25 October when they were removed from the suspects' address was that police would not at that stage take any action. Since that date we have been working to gain their trust and evidence. That came to fruition on 21 November, when we were in a position to make arrests," he said.

Rodhouse said police were examining the nature of the cult. "The people involved, the nature of that collective and how it operated is all subject to our investigation and we are slowly and painstakingly piecing together more information," he said.

"Somehow that collective came to an end and … somehow the women ended up continuing to live with the suspects. How this resulted in the women living in this way for over 30 years is what are seeking to establish, but we believe emotional and physical abuse has been a feature of all the victims' lives."

The 30-year-old woman's birth certificate was the only the official documentation that police have recovered.

"We believe she has lived with the suspects and the other victims all her life, but of course at this early stage we are still seeking out evidence," Rodhouse said.

Meanwhile, as officers stood guard on Saturday at the three-storey block in Stockwell, neighbours spoke of their shock. One local resident, Abdul Rogers, said many people living in the area did not speak to each other. "It's really shocking," he said. "It's a kind of quiet area. I don't even know my next-door neighbour. If I met them on the street now I would not be able to tell it was my next-door neighbour, which is not good for community cohesion. Nobody speaks to each other."

A woman, who gave her name only as Valerie, said the area was usually quiet and calm.

"People who live here respect where they live," she said. "There is still a little community. Seeing all this going on is quite surprising to me. It's shocking really."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...-captor-police

as the story develops, the angle being pushed is that it was a left-wing group, see for e.g.:

The two suspects arrested over the discovery are believed to have also been arrested several times in the 1970s, linked to their roles in a far-left political movement based in Brixton.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...police-inquiry

i don't believe speculation about these things is particularly helpful but on another forum (one with input from many people based in and around brixton) some users have posted a link to an article about a maoist group who attempted to establish a "red base" in brixton in the 1970s before "going underground" after the closure of their centre and the arrest of various members. this is the group in question:

http://www.marxists.org/history/erol...htide/#wimlmzt

of course, again, this is all purely speculation based on the reports of it being a left-wing group who 'dissolved' around thirty years ago. whatever the case, as horrific as this story is, it will be interesting to see how it develops.

[Yuppie Grinder]

I bet most posters in this thread will take offense to your implication that this was possibly a fringe new-left group, but it's entirely possible. A lot of far left groups are cult-like.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

What in the fuck?

I haven't seen this much craziness from self-dubbed 'far-leftists' since Jim Jones and the kool-aid incident.

Fucking insane.

[Oenomaus]

I bet most posters in this thread will take offense to your implication that this was possibly a fringe new-left group, but it's entirely possible. A lot of far left groups are cult-like.

Nah, I think anyone at all familiar with the history of the Left - not just the New Left but the left in general - will be familiar with political and bureaucratic cults. Given that the abuse endured after the collective had dissolved, however, I think there is more to this than shitty cultist politics.

[ed miliband]

I bet most posters in this thread will take offense to your implication that this was possibly a fringe new-left group, but it's entirely possible. A lot of far left groups are cult-like.

yeah i was wary of that, but that's the way it's being reported and, given the place these women were held captive, and the length of time, i think it is possible. but then, they might have been new age hippies for all we know, or it might be entirely unrelated to anything that is currently being reported.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Nah, I think anyone at all familiar with the history of the Left - not just the New Left but the left in general - will be familiar with political and bureaucratic cults. Given that the abuse endured after the collective had dissolved, however, I think there is more to this than shitty cultist politics.

you'd be surprised by how ignorant people are and how defensive they can be of even the ugliest elements of left culture

[ed miliband]

the telegraph - yes, yes, very right-wing - report seems to confirm without quite confirming it is the group linked above:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ollective.html

[Flying Purple People Eater]

you'd be surprised by how ignorant people are and how defensive they can be of even the ugliest elements of left culture

Just rofl.

I'm pretty sure slavery is not an element of left culture. That doesn't even make any fucking sense. It doesn't make sense in the root origin of the term, the modern usage of the term, or anywhere else.

I'm insulted that you would group millions of people with slavers because they claimed to be maoists.

Actions speak louder than words.

[Oenomaus]

Just rofl.

I'm pretty sure slavery is not an element of left culture. That doesn't even make any fucking sense. It doesn't make sense in the root origin of the term, the modern usage of the term, or anywhere else.

I'm insulted that you would group millions of people with slavers because they claimed to be maoists.

Actions speak louder than words.

I'm pretty sure that that's not what KJI wanted to say. The thing is, weird bureaucratic cults are not exactly rare on the left - I could name four or five major ones just off the top of my head. These cults aren't leftist, but they're part of leftist culture.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Just rofl.

I'm pretty sure slavery is not an element of left culture. That doesn't even make any fucking sense. It doesn't make sense in the root origin of the term, the modern usage of the term, or anywhere else.

I'm insulted that you would group millions of people with slavers because they claimed to be maoists.

Actions speak louder than words.

You don't get to pick and choose which elements of left culture are truly "left". Cults are a part of left culture and huge part of left history. That's historical fact, sorry.

[o well this is ok I guess]

I bet most posters in this thread will take offense to your implication that this was possibly a fringe new-left group, but it's entirely possible. A lot of far left groups are cult-like.

we've had threads about weird left wing cultism no one ever seemed mad in them. Except towards the cults, of course.
let's all just relish the fact that, as far as we're all aware, we're not cultists.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

oh god clicking that link to their publications .....they are fucking mental! And they talk in that same 'academic' language that so many others on the left talk in. Quite scary, actually!

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Just rofl.

I'm pretty sure slavery is not an element of left culture. That doesn't even make any fucking sense. It doesn't make sense in the root origin of the term, the modern usage of the term, or anywhere else.

I'm insulted that you would group millions of people with slavers because they claimed to be maoists.

Actions speak louder than words.

I think what he's saying is that people can spout and even believe far-left discourses while participating in reactionary social institutions. Like slavery.

Saying this kind of shit isn't possible within leftwing culture because it's rare is like saying Wahabism isn't really within Islamic culture because most Muslims are not Salafists. The point is that some people in leftwing circles are easily influenced by charismatic assholes promising a better tomorrow, and some people in leftwing circles who are charismatic assholes who fill that role and end up exploiting their victims.

[Peterloo]

Can't wait for someone to bring this up next time they ask me about my political beliefs

[ed miliband]

oh god clicking that link to their publications .....they are fucking mental! And they talk in that same 'academic' language that so many others on the left talk in. Quite scary, actually!

idk, i don't think there's anything academic - pseudo or otherwise - about it, just seems like run of the mill maoism-by-numbers rhetoric. but yeah, very weird stuff, i love this part:

... our comrades are trained to actively participate in battles of annihilation at the ideological and theoretical front against the antics of the revisionists, the trotskyites and in particular Enver Hoxha – the modern day Trotsky – and his anti-China chorus...

hoxha, the modern day trotsky

[brigadista]

No one knows yet but foresee more swivel eyed loon ranting about immigration because the alleged perps are Indian and Tanzanian - even if they are part of some group their behaviour has nothing to do with politics

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

If you haven't spent some amount of time in a political cult, I question your dedication to the cause comrades.

[Sasha]

One of the Maoist splinters here also turned full sect, funny enough the other half of the split eventually ended up as what is now the Socialist Party, one of the biggest parties in the country: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communi...rxist-Leninist)

[Popular Front of Judea]

A married couple suspected of holding three women as slaves for more than 30 years are former Maoist activists Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda, the BBC understands.

According to Marxist archives they were leading figures at the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre based in Acre Lane, Brixton, south London, in the 1970s.
It was raided by police and five people, including the pair, were held.

Mr Balakrishnan, 73, and his 67-year-old wife were arrested on Thursday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25084830

[Oenomaus]

I think what he's saying is that people can spout and even believe far-left discourses while participating in reactionary social institutions. Like slavery.

Saying this kind of shit isn't possible within leftwing culture because it's rare is like saying Wahabism isn't really within Islamic culture because most Muslims are not Salafists. The point is that some people in leftwing circles are easily influenced by charismatic assholes promising a better tomorrow, and some people in leftwing circles who are charismatic assholes who fill that role and end up exploiting their victims.

I am not sure "charisma" is to blame - have you ever seen Bob Avakian speak? Or LaRouche? Or Healy? All of these people had the charisma of a wet mop. I think "get rich quick" (or rather, "start a revolution quick"), organisational loyalty, bizarre politics (often those that want to erase the boundary between the personal and the political), and the element of personal commitment (if you've spent 30 years with the WRP and Gerry Healy barges in one day and eats your kids, you'll be angry - but at the same time, you'll be throwing away 30 years if you quit), are to blame.

Can't wait for someone to bring this up next time they ask me about my political beliefs

Well, feel free to point out that there are liberal, moderate, conservative, and fascist cults as well. In fact the politics of many of these cults are not that extreme. Chairman BOB (I wonder if anyone will get the reference) can sound like a CPUSA member at times.