Anti-Fascist by Martin Lux

My friend and lone contributor (so far, hint hint) Buzzkill writes:

"I picked this up at a book fair and was so hooked I couldn't put it down. OK, it's not the longest book at only 95 pages but if you're after an account of militant anti-fascism in London during the 1970s, I don't know where else you will find it apart from this book.

Hooray! Death Dealers move to Sunderland!

Here's a report from earlier in the year when BAE moved their Birtley plant up to an industrial estate in Washington. I think this came from the local paper The Sunderland Echo. It is unsurprising that the politically unsophisticated Echo made nothing but positive noises about this and the idea that arms manufacture might not be a good idea never entered the equation.

Lou Mariboff on smoking

Lou Mariboff briefly talks about the urge to smoke in his book "The Big Questions".

"Maybe there's another reason why people smoke. At bottom, it's a spiritual reason. People smoke cigarettes in order to sense their breath. When you inhale a cigarette, you really feel the smoke (and therefore the breath) entering your airways and lungs; when you exhale, you can both feel and see the smoke (and therefore the breath) exiting your lungs and airways. Breathing is the basic fact of your life: It's the first thing you started doing when you were born and drawing your last breath will be your final act in this life. The breath and the spirit are intimately related. By learning to breath correctly, your bring your body and mind under control. Then, and only then, can your spiritual energy manifest fully. So people are right to want to feel their breathing, but you need to learn helpful rather than harmful ways of doing so. You can't fill a spiritual void with smoke any more than with cheeseburgers."

Lou Marinoff, The Big Questions.

Political Groups in Italian Football Hooligans.

I had this email forwarded to me about the political allegiances within the Italian football hooligan scene. Anyone want to do one for the UK? Should be pretty easy as, according to the writers of Casuals United blog, all football hooligans are right-wing nationalist feminists who support Israel!!

Labour - old or new it still stinks!

Here's a great article illustrating one of the many ways Labour is an anti-working class party. Yes, I hate the Con-Dems too but there is no way we should let Labour off the hook!

Newcastle in four movements

The English Defence League (EDL) was planning a march and rally in Newcastle Upon Tyne and there was also going to be three opposing groups in the city that day too. I’d become aware of EDL through the media and on websites like Youtube so I decided I’d have a look for myself to see what they were like close up.

What was all that about? EDL in Newcastle.

In this second part, Buzzkill describes what he thought about the EDL demo and the anti-EDL protests.

AWAY FROM THE NUMBERS

Right, let’s get this out the way. Whenever there is a ‘fight’ between two groups the numbers thrown about are always over the top. Some EDL supporters claimed to have had over two thousand people in Newcastle while UAF had 500. UAF, on the other hand, claimed they had a thousand and EDL only had 700. The local media tended to have the figures even, if a little inflated.