Yesterday saw the Merseyside Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation take one more step towards irrelevance when it voted to allow the Knowsley Fight the Bedroom Tax group to affiliate. This group contains and is guided by a number of prominent local fascists, members of the Liverpool “Scouse” Nationalists group. One such member, Kurtis Cawley, was exposed as the vile individual that he is by this story in the Liverpool Echo. He claims to have won damages from the paper over these allegations. However, if this is the case, why is the story still on the Echo website? The filth of the Liverpool “Scouse” Nationalists is available for all to read on their blog, which I won’t be linking to here. This has included the posting of pictures and personal information of people who have been involved in the anti-bedroom tax campaign from the beginning.
All this despite the anti-oppression statement which was adopted by the federation a few weeks ago. Suddenly, at the behest of certain individuals within the federation, and despite the vote on its adoption, this statement is no longer binding and has now become “something the federation should work towards”. I don’t think I need to point out how ridiculous this is.
The claim is that the federation is an inclusive group and that this means anybody who disagrees with the bedroom tax should be allowed to take part. But this leads us to the obvious question – if fascists are allowed to affiliate to and play an active role in the federation, who are we including and who are we then excluding? Because effectively the inclusion of fascists logically leads to the exclusion of people of colour, LGBTQ people and other minorities targeted by fascists.
The lack of class consciousness and the utter disregard for the feelings of people of colour, LGBTQ people and anti-fascists already involved in the federation is disturbing. The inclusion of the Knowsley group puts these individuals in particular in serious danger and also jeopardizes wider working-class organization in the city. The individuals involved in pushing for the inclusion of the Knowsley group are very fond of talking up their “35 years’ experience of campaigning and organizing” (I call this the “Roy Hodgson mantra”). Indeed, this has in the past been used as a tool to undermine the opinions of younger activists and tenants among the federation since its inception.
The constant undermining, belittling and ridicule of some members of the federation has been an issue for a while. At a meeting a few months ago, I was on the end of this myself when I suggested that if the fascists were allowed to stand among us unchallenged, they would inevitably gain some kind of traction with tenants who may already be harbouring certain (false) resentments and prejudices. I was literally laughed at by these “long-time campaigners”.
Yesterday though, this aspect of the federation took a very ugly turn. One person who was arguing against the inclusion of the fascists was being undermined and patronized by having her name constantly and deliberately mispronounced and her arguments dismissed by these “long-term campaigners”. Eventually, this became intolerable for the individual and for other members of the federation, who felt they could no longer remain in the room.
Ironically, all of this has taken place in a building named after the prominent local trade unionist Jack Jones, who was wounded while fighting fascism in Spain. Indeed, there is a memorial plaque in the reception area of the building dedicated to all the local working-class people who fought and died fighting Franco’s fascists.
This isn’t the only problem with the federation, however. Almost immediately after their election as mandated officers of the federation, these officers met in secret with no input from and no output to tenants. This is behaviour clearly outside the mandate of the officers and has disturbing implications for the democratic nature of the federation. The direction of the federation and the control of the campaign MUST remain in the hands of the tenants and their local groups. We can’t allow certain ambitious and highly politically motivated individuals to begin pulling the entire campaign around by its nose. I don’t believe the tenants want to lose control of their campaign to these people.
In line with the original motion behind the federation, and the anti-oppression statement the federation adopted (both summarized here), I’m calling for the immediate recall of all of the recently elected officers and the immediate expulsion of the Knowsley group. A federation-wide meeting needs to be held as soon as possible and a condemnation of the recent behaviour of Celia Ralph and Freddie Taylor towards the individual mentioned earlier must be issued. An apology from Celia and Freddie must also be forthcoming.
The campaign against the bedroom tax across Merseyside has been one of the most encouraging things to happen for working-class organization for decades. We can’t let the good work of the past six months be in vain.
Anarcho-bastard 
Q 1. Who are you?
Q 2. You want control to cede to yourself?
Q 3. Are you on the IDS payroll?
“Wirral” you should be fucking ashamed of yourself if your first thought having read this is to impugne the motives of the writer rather than join them in demanding fascists be removed from an organisation that is supposed to be fighting for the rights of all.
Instead of asking patronising questions of the author, why not engage with the actual points he/she makes?
I have not personally been involved in these campaigns but I am very worried by the knowsley situation. It sounds like people who should know better are allowing these vile people, the ‘scouse nationalists’, a foothold in the bedroom tax campaign and turning a blind eye to fascism. To those who do not understand the importance of isolating and booting out the EDL/BNP/scouse nationalists etc. from campaigns, then I suggest they take a look at the scouse nationalists website and then compare this to the writings of a certain Adolf Hitler in mein kampf. You will find remarkable similarities. These people are pathological liars, bullies and racists. They want to remove all non-white people from this country. They believe that all the problems of the world are down to ‘the left’ and whichever non-white ethnic group they choose to attack at the time. Presently this is muslims, but in reality they hate all non-white folk. They will use violence and thuggery to intimate opponents, to lie their way to power and control. You cannot debate with these people, they do not understand the meaning of the word. They want only a platform to speak their bile.
The people in Knowsley anti-bedroom tax are either naive or, worse, complicit with allowing these filthy ‘human beings’ any standing whatsoever within the campaign. And shame on the federation too.
Don’t worry Tomj. Even if it sounds like it, it’s not. There’s much experience here. These are fully engaged battlers who have fought and headed off fascism for decades in its many guises. They can be relied upon to carry on doing that. Rumour, innuendo and hyperbole doesn’t cut it when up against their know how.
I assume when you talk about experience you’re referring to Celia and Freddie, who haven’t been seen on a single anti-fascist action in the past 3 years involving Liverpool activists, both within the city and in other areas in solidarity with other anti-fascist groups. They have also not been involved in Liverpool Antifascists at all during that time. So while the far-right has been on the rise in Liverpool and across the country over the past few years these people have done precisely zero.
Reblogged this on Andy Carrington.
Reblogged this on Wessex Solidarity.
all a load of crap by the way, do people really believe this? laughable!!
Perhaps you could offer some evidence to the contrary
the knowsley group are NOT facists, its just that simple dear!
Do you deny that Kurtis Cawley and Stephen Dumont have been involved in the Knowsley group?
i know for FACT dumont attended ONE small protest and at that time the group werent aware of who he was until the police told them, since then neither dumont or cawley have been anywhere near, you lot should have spoken to the group as i suggested then you would be armed with the facts and not bullshit and rumour! you have ruined the knowsley group now and for that you should be ashamed.I hope they continue to fight and are left alone to get on with it without being persecuted
The group has been spoken to on numerous occasions. The responses were withering.
they have been accused of being facists for gods sake, they clearly arent and for one who is supposed to be educated you do lack common sense. i think you know you are wrong but wont back down
Thanks to whoever wrote this our local groups are coming under EDL joining attacks. Two ways of looking at it – this is like an advert for EDL to join our local groups, secondly as a statement refuting the accuracy has had to be released, for any EDL that have seen that it’s made our groups a target for attack by them. Cheers for that.
If you could explain how you think this blog opens any local group to targeting by fascists, that would be a start. But turning this around and putting the blame on people who are pointing out the very issue you’ve raised is ridiculous.
In fact, this seems to portray an attitude of “if I can’t see it, it doesn’t affect me”, somewhat like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. If you don’t like fascists hanging around the bedroom tax groups, don’t blame it on myself and others who point them out to you. It’s a bit like calling the person telling you your arm is on fire a dickhead instead of looking for the fire blanket.
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I am asking you politely to take this down as it is all untrue,
I will be ‘politely’ re-blogging this elsewhere
This is an Advert for the EDL?……what a load of bollocks….. A pan of corned beef hash could provide a better analysis than that
I have walked away from bedroom tax protests due to these other groups attending
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