Big Flame - Lotta Fuss

There seems to be, on the internet at least, a revival of interest in the 70s revolutionary socialist group Big Flame. BF was part of a current at the time that styled itself "libertarian" although I failed to see the libertarian content of much of the politics and felt that "non-aligned" might have been a better description. There are others I know who would be a lot less generous but there were some good people around and often the politics was confused rather than malign. Certainly the emphasis on the personal in politics and the importance of sexual politics was very positive. Having said that, there was a strong vanguardist element in this so called libertarianism. I well remember being berated by one of North London's finest for doing (or not doing) something or other, I can't remember what, when as she put it,"there's a whole working class out there waiting to be organised". I can still feel the hackles rising now after all these years.

One of the hallmarks of this strand of politics was almost fetishising activity. It was essential to be doing something, anything. Lotta Continua sent a group over to London and was much admired. This was in a way understandable as they did tend to look like Italian film stars. They were rumoured to be the children of wealthy families. I don't know how true that was but they certainly had some very expensive looking clobber. But boy! Were they active. 

Almost any political movement that could be considered at all left-wing seemed worthy of support, especially if they hailed from the Third World. I mean people like myself, pro-sit anarcho stoners, we may not have had the most razor sharp critical faculties but at least we knew that our politics had nothing to do with North Vietnamese Stalinists, Roman Catholic Irish nationalism or Third World dictatorships in waiting of any sort; no matter how oppressed  the people they claimed to represent. I could never watch Citizen Smith. Too close to the truth mate.

Big Flame itself bit off a tad more than they could chew when they crossed swords with Solidarity. Accusing the likes of Joe Jacobs and Ken Weller of being "middle class pamphleteers" was a big mistake and the response was "Solidarity and the Neo-Nerodniks" a devastating hatchet job on vanguardism, third-worldism and a few other isms besides. Good old Solidarity. They may have been small, but perfectly formed.

Does any of this matter to anyone other than a small group of balding political anoraks? Probably not. Certainly that object of such unrequited adoration,the working class, soldiered on as before. I am confident that today's young militants will make a much better fist of things then we did. What happened in the 70s is of interest only to the extent that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Finally here's a quote from someone who had more influence at the time than Big Flame, Solidarity and the rest of us put together.  

".......... absorb what is useful".   Bruce Lee.

Lindsey workers on edge of victory.

It's early days and we don't want to be counting chickens, but it looks like the Lindsey Refinery workers are on the edge of a victory with the reinstatement of sacked workers. This is good news, and not just for the Lindsey workers. We could be seeing the rebirth of something that we have not seen for some time; an organized and confident working class that are ready to take on the bosses.

An immigrant by any other name.......

"Hard times in Spain sends expats home" the BBC tell us. Fair enough, but then I got to thinking about that term "expat". It somehow has a harmless, almost warm ring to it. Quite unlike some other terms such as "immigrant" or "asylum seeker" or worst of all, "failed asylum seeker". Interesting stuff language I'm sure you will agree.

Bercow, Bercow, He's the man for me.

I have no idea what kind of House of Commons Speaker little Bercow will make but if his first TV interview is anything to go by the meedja, not to mention us punters, are in for hours of entertainment. As I live and breath, were do they find 'em?

England's Women show the way.

English women's cricket is really setting an example to the blokes. With both the World 20 twenty championship, the World Cup and every chance of beating Australia in the forthcoming test the girls also have an infectious love of the game and a team spirit that is just great. Look and learn Kev. Look and learn.

A Highland Visit.

Just got back from a few days in Mallaig at the top end of the West Highland Line. The B&B we stayed in served one of the best black puddings I have ever had and when the landlady confided that it came from the local Spar her indoors set off post haste to secure a sample returning with a 18 x 3 inch specimen that we later smuggled across the border. All part of a most enjoyable  Scottish Experience that also included pints of McEwans, loads of fish and chips, walking the glens, Scottish Pies, a trip to Skye and witnessing a full on punch up outside Glasgow Queen Street Station. 

The trip was also incentive to learn something more about the Highland Clearances, a part of British history that I was shamefully ignorant about. The Clearances were of course a terrible episode of betrayal and cruelty and in many ways just another example of how little a people can come to be valued when they stand in the way of profit or 'progress'. And don't run away with the idea that "it couldn't happen now". You only have to look at what is going on in Amazonia today (or for that matter the Isle of Dogs not so long ago) to see the error of that assumption. Never trust an elite and don't ever think that just because they are members of your own tribe, clan or class that they won't sell you out and sacrifice you on the altar of 'modernization'.  Oh yes! and it rained four days out of the five.

The last refuge of a tired old anarchist?

Not for the first time Ian Bone has put the cat among the pigeons, this time by suggesting that being a bit fond of England does not necessarily make you a raving fascist. He has gone on to make the point that there is still much to admire in the kind of love of country that was expressed during WW2 and epitomised by the writing of George Orwell, Humphrey Jennings' films and Frank Newbould posters. I tend to agree and think that for too long anarchists/progressives/the left have, in an effort to trumpet our (quite correct) internationalism, allowed a simple love of place to be hijacked by the Right.

Those of us who were young in the 60s tended to sneer at the wartime and post-war make do and mend camaraderie of all those seemingly dull people in their demob suits and co-op socialism. What did they know of rock 'n roll and The Beats? How cool we were, and how ignorant.

The truth is that in wartime England there was not only a love of the old place but a real determination that once the Nazis were beaten there would be no going back to the old world of greed and privilege but the creation of a new kind of society. All right of course it wasn't perfect. The injustice of Empire. The wartime black market. A top down rather than bottom up socialism after the war. We could go on but the fact remains that during the 40s there was a kind of patriotic collectivism that we will be hard pressed to surpass. The message of all that propaganda that Ian was talking about comes down to something that bears repeating today. We can get through this, if we pull together we can get through this and when we do we will build a better future. It is not nationalism and is based on a generosity of spirit that the likes of the BNP would not begin to understand.