The i newspaper and journalism

I wrote to the I newspaper questioning Keir Starmer's decision to sack Rebecca Long Bailey. The letter was not published but nor was any other letter criticising Sir Keir. Instead there were two letters slating Rebecca Long Bailey and repeating the smear of anti-semitism.

I will of course write to the i again, where would they be without me?

"I do not wish to tell you how to do your job but surely a journalist would:

a) find out whether the American police were trained by Israeli Defence Forces

b) find out what the training included

c) investigate whether the IDF have a spotless record in treatment of unarmed Palestinian women and children.

d) stop publishing letters accusing Rebecca Long-Bailey of anti-semitism when Ed Miliband and Keir Starmer have both said she is not anti-semitic.

All the best...

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now defined journalism as "telling a story someone does not want told." Not all journalists have such high standards.

My page on Amazon

Tax Amazon page

My books are published by Amazon but that does not mean I don't want them to pay tax or even be expropriated for that matter.

John Major from the Nasty Party

On the Today programme on Radio Four this morning they gave free rein to John Major to talk about life after the pandemic.

The government's measures to accommodate rough sleepers to prevent the spread of infection came in for particular praise.

He also talked at length about those wonderful and underpaid people in care homes and our marvellous NHS.

What the former Prime Minister could not explain was why the rough sleepers had to sleep out throughout his time in office, why the wonderful people in care homes and the NHS remained underpaid under his policies.

It seems hypocrisy just comes with the territory for Tories.

Incidentally, how long will support for homeless people continue beyond the pandemic? 
The government are a bit quiet on that issue.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-McMillan/e/B009FUXHWY

Sir Keir and the Israeli Defence Force

Sir Keir's sacking of Rebecca Long Bailey blows out of the water any pretentions to unite the Labour Party.

The left were saying that he wanted to ditch any radical policies to make Labour more acceptable to fleet street and to do so he would sack anybody with links to Jeremy Corbyn. The left were saying that he was too subservient to the interests of the Israeli state. Why did he have to go and prove them right?

The American Police learn all their dirty tricks from the Israeli defence forces. According to an Amnesty report:

"Baltimore law enforcement officials, along with hundreds of others from Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington state as well as the DC Capitol police have all traveled to Israel for training. Thousands of others have received training from Israeli officials here in the U.S."

The full text is here

The Israeli Defence Force has its own way of dealing with unarmed Palestinians and these are the methods they are passing on to the American police. Perhaps Rebecca Long-Bailey has a point. Perhaps Sir Keir should not be so quick to defend them.

Twitter

Tweets by Derek McMillan

Why the Tories won

The electorate voted to leave the EU. The majority was greater than that of any party in Westminster. The Tory slogan was ‘Get Brexit done’. This appealed to those who voted for Brexit. It also appealed to those fed up to the back teeth with the whole bloody issue. 

The ‘leadership issue’ was Blairites who preferred a Tory victory to a victory for Corbyn. The disingenuous report issued by Miliband, an expert on losing elections, translate this as Corbyn’s leadership putting off the voters. They want to have it both ways. 

If there is to be a party of the working class in the UK it is clear that Labour is rapidly becoming a ‘second eleven’ for the bosses. Trade unionists need to seriously consider the need to break from the class compromisist position of Keir Starmer. 

James Connolly said that the working class is strongest when it matches under its own banner. That is a thought worth pondering. 

Rob the pensioners

The state pension in the UK is among the most miserly in Europe. The plan to make pensioners pay for the C-virus crisis is the action of a skinflint and a bully. 

There are enough billionaires who ought to be paying their whack but instead employ accountants so they can dodge tax. The government plans to do nothing about them.

Pensioners have votes. The Labour Party ought to be moving heaven an earth to defend pensioners against this disgraceful attack.

I am a pensioner, how did you guess?

Defending memorials by peeing on them

One of the fascists who were ostensibly "defending statues" ended up urinating on a memorial.

They have their own ways of going about things.

I notice his sentence was more like a slap on the wrist - a fortnight in jail. A woman got seven months inside for urinating on a war memorial. Why are neo-Nazis treated with kid gloves?

Even Andrew Marr thought it odd that someone with a swastika tattoo was "defending" the Cenotaph.

Tolerant Daily Mail?

"The tolerant Britain we love?" Well, that is a far cry from "Hurrah for the Blackshirts". The Daily Mail has been spewing out hate for a century.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-McMillan/e/B009FUXHWY

British History Matters

"British History Matters" is the slogan of the far right to counter #blacklivesmatter. It is the concept that the statues of long-dead racists are more important than the lives of people living here and now and encountering hatred and prejudice.

Hatred and prejudice precisely arises from the myths of colonialism which constitute a fake "British History".

For many years the history books have excluded those thousands who struggled and gave their lives in the fight against colonialism while glorifying imperialists like Cecil Rhodes and Baden Powell.

Oh and don't take my word for it. "British and Gurkha troops massacre hundreds of unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar Massacre" was the headline on the History website recalling the massacre which was carefully excluded from traditional History Books..

Baden Powell was an admirer of Hitler. Modern revisionist historians have sought to obscure this. They have failed to explain his admiration for Mein Kampf. He said it was " A wonderful book with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organisation etc'. (This was all "a misunderstanding" apparently). The revisionists have failed to explain why he sought to meet with Hitler. Was it to tell him he disagreed with the Nazis? And the old boy scout badge, have you ever seen it? It incorporates the Fleur de Lys with a swastika.

Supporters of the old Imperialist claim that the Swastika is just an innocent good luck symbol. The Nazis adopted it in 1920 and Baden Powell would know from his beloved Mein Kampf (p497) that "the swastika is an exclusively anti-semitic symbol". The Scouts dropped the symbol in 1935, a little late.

You see. British History is quite interesting, isn't it?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-McMillan/e/B009FUXHWY

Self-serving Sophistry

Louise Richardson, vice chancellor of Oxford, has defended racist statues. She insists that "the views of the past had to be seen in the context of the time."

She defended Cecil Rhodes on the grounds that Imperialism was a popular view in his day.. Popular with whom? With those who benefitted from Imperialism or those who suffered?

Her arguments are difficult to distinguish from self-serving sophistry. We need statues of slavers so that we remember slavery? That is a bit like saying we need a statue of Hitler to remember the holocaust.

Professor Richardson has no plans for a Hitler statue in Oxford as yet. 

Racist Statues come down

The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph think that getting rid of statues which celebrate slavery is "taking away our history". This is an interesting piece of sophistry.

When I was at school there was a text book which said, "It is important to remember that in those days nobody objected to the slave trade." I don't think so. I doubt if the slaves were consulted. Or did their opinion not matter?

Getting rid of rubbish history books like that is not "taking away" anybody's history. It is just trying to improve on the teaching of the subject. What lessons do the Mail and Telegraph think can be learnt from racist statues? Is it perhaps a way to justify the archaic opinions of their readers and journalists? 

I do not define bringing down a statue as violence. I expect even Priti Patel would think twice about having a statue of Hitler in Parliament Square. People have been asking the Bristol council to remove the statue for decades. Nothing had been done. It has now. The Chartists had a slogan: "Peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must."


Removing the statues is a start. Removing racism will take longer but as the song says, we shall overcome.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-McMillan/e/B009FUXHWY

Anti-racism protestors face tougher police action

‘Anti-racism protestors face tougher police action‘ because the police need to be told to attack black people?

Remind me again. How did these protests start?

The police would need to be trained to treat people like this. hat will put a smirk on the Home Secretary's face.

Government U-turn

The government is dropping plans for all primary school pupils to return before the start of the summer holidays. Apparently this is because the schools don't have the space for safe social distancing.
It is surprising that the government couldn't work this out beforehand. It does suggest a certain lack of planning.
Teachers and parents have been telling the government this all along. It seems to take a lot to make them listen.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-McMillan/e/B009FUXHWY

Friend of Slave Traders

According to this morning's news the smirking Home Secretary thinks slave traders are OK but pulling down statues to them is not. She has her priorities. We have ours. #blacklivesmatter

The BBC reported that most of the protests were
a) non-violent
b) socially distanced
and most protesters wore mask.

For some reason the Daily Mail had a different impression.

Bristol Council have had decades to remove the statue so it is hardly surprising that people felt they had to take matters into their own hands.

And how would Priti Patel think if there were a statue of Hitler in Parliament Square? Would she be OK with that?

Do what you can to oppose racism

If you can't join the protests on the streets you can do what you can from home. Use email, twitter, facebook (other social media platforms are available) to support the protests.

Show the racists that the working class will not be divided. The racist thugs in or out of police uniform cannot win.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-McMillan/e/B009FUXHWY

Stifling Dissent

Smirky Patel uses the #COVIDー19 virus as an excuse to attack legitimate protest. This is the sort of thing that happens in Hong Kong.

She will blame #blacklivesmatter for a new spike in the pandemic. Better than blaming Bojo? And she expects to get away with this tripe? 

Organisers were shown handing out face masks and urging social distancing but Patel turned a blind eye to that fact.

Blindness to facts is a big part of her job of course.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism regards Marxism as a totalising narrative.In effect they reduce Marxists to the role of Max Bygraves "I'm going to tell you a story". This is false.

Indeed Lyotard's denunciation of Marxism as a "grand narrative" has been seen as a totalising narrative in its own right.

Postmodernism grew out of a frustration born of the failed French revolution of 1968 when philosophers concluded they were not only unable to change the world but even  to explain it. And this frustration came about because of the historic betrayal of the French Communist Party which had power in its hands but chose to hand it back to De Gaulle.

It would make sense to try to bring postmodernists down to earth because the real social issues which led to the explosion of working class anger in 1968 still exist and not just in France. The outpouring of anger in the USA at the present time ought to teach them a lesson. 

Socialists can relate to that very real anger but racism is a consequence and by-product of capitalism and Socialists treat it as such.

George Floyd

"Violence Flares Across America" and "Peaceful protests across America" are both true but you can guess which story the media chose to go with.

The police and the national guard can easily turn a peaceful protest into a "scene of violence" without any help from protesters. Then the media can report it as such.

The photo shows the killing of George Floyd. There is a widespread perception in Minneapolis that the police are trained in restraining suspects in this potentially lethal way. The denials from police chiefs are not particularly convincing. If the perception turned out to be true, it is the police chiefs who should be in prison so it is no surprise that they would deny it.

The next photo shows one of the many peaceful demonstrations. The National Basketball Association joined in the protest.

 ABC reported that some police officers knelt in solidarity with the protest.

It is clear that Trump has no solution to police racism apart from brute force and ignorance. Brute force and ignorance are more causes than solutions.

American Socialists have supported the protests. The article in The Socialist is here

After detailing the repeated failures of the Democrats to tackle the problem, they say:


"As Malcolm X famously declared: "You can't have capitalism without racism." Capitalism is a system built off the backs of slaves and the genocide of indigenous peoples. It will not end racism of its own accord. We need a new party run by and for working people, free of corporate influence, that can dedicate itself to fighting against all forms of bigotry and against capitalist exploitation. 

Such a party could help build a fighting anti-racist movement out of the recent protests.

To win, the movement must put forward a bold programme that challenges the racist foundations of capitalism and unites the working class by fighting for the gains we all need - a living minimum wage, affordable housing, universal healthcare, an end to discrimination and violence."

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-McMillan/e/B009FUXHWY

100 words and 101 words

https://101words.org/ 
is a great website for very short fiction.

http://www.100wordstory.org/
is another.

Now it comes to counting the number of words in your flash fiction.
Simple?
All wordprocessing programs come up with varying totals.

I went to https://www.wordcount.com/  and they confirmed my story was 100 words

I went to https://wordcounttools.com/ and they made it 108.

Other sites had various figures between 100 and 108.

https://thewordcounter.co.uk/
concluded that the same story actually had 93 words.

Incidentally I could get https://wordcounttools.com/
down to 100 words by stripping out all the punctuation.

Flash fiction? It's a piece of cake.