A ramshackle bunch of organisations, many leaning to the extreme right has come together to organise the March for Free Expression this Saturday.
Seemingly inspired by the publication of the childish, racist cartoons in the Jyllands Posten earlier in the year, this misguided organisations has invited speakers from uber-capitalist the Freedom Asoociation and the Libertarian Alliance.
a quick glance over their websites reveals an adolescent level of argument normally found only amongst spotty, tory boy undergraduates.
The Libertarian Alliance seem to busy themselves with campaigning to repeal the drink drive laws, abolishing the Equal Opportunities Commission and scrapping the Campaign for Racial Equality with a press release stating policies such as
“No controls of any kind on the expression of opinion on matters of public policy;
The repeal of all laws that make it illegal to express opinions on matters of race, religion, sexuality, or any similar matter;
The repeal of all laws against discrimination and incitement to discrimination on any grounds whatever;
The abolition of the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission, and all similar bodies; ”
then adding, without any hint of irony
The cutting off of all tax-payer funding for any group that disagrees with the above
see, free speech only goes one way to these little England nazis, who in a further press release disuss the comments made by Denis MacShane, the European Minister, who said in an interview with the Telegraph that the English were characterised by “a dark streak of xenophobia and racism” and “offensive xenophobic hatred”.
In a defiant and valiant effort to prove Macshane right, the LA goes on to explain the real nature of thieir own brand of Euro-scepticism which is merely concern over “its destruction of British liberal common law and civil liberties and their replacement by the illiberal Code Napoleon, its roots in Nazi, Fascist and Communist thinking, its crackpot socialist and economic interventionist policies”
what comes next almost had me laughing out loud
“There can be no place in the public and political life of this country for a man of Mr. MacShanes’s ilk. He should do the decent thing and resign, or the Prime Minister should sack him. We also call upon the Labour part to expel this hate-mongering racist from its ranks.
The Libertarian Alliance is also formally reporting Mr. MacShane to the Metropolitan Police, with a request that he be investigated for possible prosecution under the Public Order Act. ”
So, like many on the right, their thinking is dripping with crazed meanderings which reveal all the signs of pathological paranoia. The continued persecution complex which seems to inform their every act renders them as impotent and powerless as a pre-pubescent boy and they follow much the same level of argument.
Revealing their standard right wing’s paranoic delusions the LA show the true level of their argument when calling for the repeal of the Sex Offender’s Register, claiming it is the product of a conspiracy between “man-hating lesbians, sex-obsessed God botherers, empire-building social workers, corrupt and oppressive police officers, and the usual vote-hunting political trash.”
Meanwhile, the Freedom Association are a different matter entirely. Founded by apartheid supporter and part time children’s entertainer Norris McWhirter, this sinister group have long been politically active in more insiduous ways. Famous for strike breaking activities in the 70’s (presumably the freedom to withdraw labour not coming within their remit), the sweet FA accepted funding from the South African apartheid regime and campaigns for anti-immigation policies (freedom of movement being another bugbear we assume).
Former council members of this shadowy bunch have included John Bercow, the former Shadow Treasury Minister, who was secretary of the racist, tory Monday Club’s Immigration Committee in the ’80s, when he called for the voluntary repatriation of black and Asian people, as well as the repeal of the Race Relations Act and abolition of the Commission for Racial Equality.
Meanwhile his mate Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, another former FA council member has been quoted as saying “If you say I am a racist, yes I certainly am, and proud of it.”
Slightly more coherent then their juvenile counterparts discussed above, it only takes a more in depth search on their website to discover their anti-immigration and neo liberal tendencies, complete with eulogies to those bastions of liberal thinking Reagan and Thatcher as wll as links to far right rags such as Right! Now.
The Freedom Association’s policies include closing down public sector pension schemes, making all public services dependent on private insurance payments, and banning public sector strikes.
Meanwhile back to this Saturday’s march, except it’s not a march anymore because, after a bit of leaning on from the old bill they’ve rolled over, stuck their legs in the air and agreed to just hold a rally instead.
Not seeming to have thought out what why they are actually marching (standing) they are only now asking their supporters for some ideas as to what their actual demands are.
“We have asked for suggestions about what concrete proposals we might campaign for in the aftermath of the rally on Saturday. The repeal of the blasphemy laws has been suggested several times. “
err, Ok that’ll do, what else ya rebelling against Johnny
err … nothing.
Except perhaps the right to march through Central London carrying placards which will cause upset and offence to many, lead to a yet further breakdown in community relations and give liberal hand wringing credency to the far right. At least one far right organisation has so far sent a message of support. (Civil Liberty campaign, a fascist front organisation headed by the BNP’s North East organiser Kevin Scott)
Meanwhile on the rally website, actually it’s a blog (nothing wrong with that tho’) team leader voltaire seems to be having a hard time at keeping the BNP from his door, continually emphasing this is not an anti-muslim event and that the BNP should stay away.
Trembling skinheads have posted responses begging them to be allowed join the fun, but Voltaire is adament
“We are actively seeking endorsements from almost all kinds of people… but not from fascists. This will be a march in favour of free expression, not a march against Muslims.”
before adding
“It would be disingenuous, even dishonest, to pretend that the Danish Cartoon Affair has nothing to do with this movement – on the contrary it absolutely was the event that galvanised us into action”
Showing his true (blue) colours here Voltaire admits, that what was a highly provocative racist act has been the spurring point for his fearless band of libertarians desperate to support the actions of a downmarket rag slightly to the right of The Sun.
I wondor if he’s realised why the fash are so keen to join him on his merry journey, if you cant beat ’em, join ’em Voltaire mate … oh, you already did.
Joining them to march (stand) for freedom of (my) expresssion (and ban everyone else’s) are religious nutters Third Way magazine and ekklesia as well as long suffering cannon fodder UKIP and pro-lifer Lord Alton of Liverpool who recently voted to make magic mushrooms illegal. A bunch of woolly humanist organisations make up the numbers in the sorry bunch.
More worryingly Peter Tatchell, Maryam Namazie, Sayyida Rend Shakir al-Mousawi and Lib Dem wannabe Evan Harris have now all agreed to speak, adding left wing/liberal credency to this gobbledygook..
Now the Lib Demmer is not so much of a concern, probably too wired, shagged out, pissed to even know where he is but the other three speakers are more worrying.
That stalwarts of leftist, progressive thought such as these three should share a platform with homophobes, bigots and extreme right wingers should send shockwaves throughout those in the UK left.
Calls have already been made for them to pull out as Alan Johnson of Democratiya has already decided to do upon realising the involvement of the ‘Freedom Association,’
the void only hopes that this is not the beginning of an unholy alliance of extreme left and right ideology brought together under an anti-islamic platform, under cut with extreme free markets policies and a heavy dose of nationalism … because history well attests where that can lead…
more likely this movement will be reviled and ridiculed for the public school joke it is and the world can begin to move on and heal after the publication of those puerile cartoons.
Not voltaire though, who’s more than happy to support an organisation on his site selling t-shirts sporting slogans such as ‘Islam is a blast’ and “Up Yours Religion of Peace.”
We can only say to voltaire, if it looks racist, if it sounds racist, if the whole damn thing smells racist … well then it’s probably a bunch of well meaning liberal nitwits naively leading us down the road to hell for the want of something to do.
Fascists support ‘March for Free Expression’ from islamophobia watch.
the void 
Of course the Far Right will attempt to jump on this bandwagon. They have also tried in the past to exploit popular concerns over American cruise missile bases in Britain, animal vivisection, and ecology.
Does that automatically invalidate any of those particular causes? Of course not.
I find it interesting how you are much more concerned with criticising the publication of a few lame, not especially offensive cartoons in a Danish newspaper, than with the death threats regularly issued by Islamist fanatics against those who dare question them.
but there lies the rub, these cartoons are highly offensive to those of an islamic faith, the depiction of the prophet in any form is considered a great sin, this is basically about a misunderstanding of the faith of islam by liberal westerners
having said that were the cartoons clever, funny, inciteful or in any way artistically valid (such as rushdies satanic verse’s), then there may well be a stronger case for supporting their publication
however the sub-bnp style of them shows that they were deliberately published as a racist, provocative act, making mockery of all those who claim that this is about free speech
this is about respect, respecting other cultures with whom we share our lives and building unity in a fractured world
the muslim baiting artists who have suffered at the hands of fundamentalist, well im sorry and i dont support the actions of their attackers
however if someone donned a kkk uniform and walked the streets of brixton shouting white power slogans, i would be equally unsympathetic when they were given a roundly deserved kicking
the western press is chock full of anti-islamic properganda on a daily basis, without supporting the rights of racists who condemn all muslims as suicide bumbers, or seek to mock strongly held beliefs
this cause has been hijacked by the far right because it is their natural territory, and no amount of token muslims on the stage or speeches by the like of Tatchell are going to change that
Would Joe90 also fight for the right to publish the cartoons that demonised Jewish people in the 1930s and insist that this sort of ‘freedom of speech’ was worth defending?
If you think that the series of crude cartoons published by a Danish right-wing rag were ‘not particularly offensive'(cartoons that included the implication that Muslim = terrorist)then I think you do not have much capacity to empathise with a group who are without doubt this generation’s scapegoats.
If there was not the day in and day out killing and subjugation of Muslims and the hysterical anti-Muslim frenzy in the Western media (all in the name of the lie that is the ‘war on terror’) then the reaction of some Muslims to these cartoons would indeed have been over the top. The fact is they were not printed as some great symbol of freedom of speech – the same paper that printed them refused to print cartoons ridiculing Jesus – they were printed in a reactionary paper in a country that has adopted some incredibly racist, anti-immigration laws.
I wonder if the same people in the UK defending the publication of these cartoons would do so if the Sun had been the paper that printed them?
Far from a wave of Islamophobia, all I can see is an establishment eager to fall over themselves in trying to please Islamists. It seems to me that Tatchell and co have got it right and you have got it massively wrong.
The libertarian left needs to add it’s voice to those who campaign in favour of free speech and association. We’ve got the most authoritarian government ever in the UK, and all you can do is mouth off in support of those who want even more restrictions on what we can say.
Far from promoting tolerance, it promotes resentment and intolerance.
“An establishment eager to fall over themselves in trying to please Islamists” – you don’t keep up with Western foreign policy much, do you?
mc … couldn’t agree more
anonymous, hits the nail on the head
“We’ve got the most authoritarian government ever in the UK, and all you can do is mouth off in support of those who want even more restrictions on what we can say.”
and about the only thing not under threat is freedom of speech, why not attack the government over its attacks on our civil liberties rather than get het up by perfectably understandable anger to deliberate racist provocation
You guys make me feel like swearing. Joe90 is someone who loves to screw with people for his own jollies rather than make a valid point, so his actually making one almost has me in awe, especially since I agree with him. Void, your blog sucks wind from a camels ass. I can only assume you must be Islamic. You know full well that Islam is not a race. It’s a religious doctrine that is practiced by all races. Muslims are not a race. Muslims are people who practice Islam. It’s the Islamic extremists and the apologists who keep claiming “racism”. And the traitors to their democratic countries.
“Void, your blog sucks wind from a camels ass. I can only assume you must be Islamic” – Dickhead alert!!
….and that’s before I saw his/her site name: islamanazi.com – oh dear, poor little bitter, twisted “rastaman”!
Must be a nice relief for people like you having access to the internet since you wouldn’t dare express any of those not-at-all-racist views out in public, right?
>>Now the Lib Demmer is not so much of a concern, probably too wired, shagged out, pissed to even know where he is
Who’s the one with the schoolboy type arguments again?
rastaman is right. race and religion are different things.
Good post.
Johann Fucking Hari is banging on about it in the Indie today as well, if anyone needed more examples of smug stupid self-important liberal journos missing the point.
David said: “race and religion are different things. “
When people are so eager to bash Muslims, lets be clear – they are bashing a very large group of people around the world most of whom are dark-skinned, most of whom are poor. You can try and justify being nasty and crude about ‘religion’ all you want but when the religion-followers in question are the victims of such hideous prejudice already today – stemming from a very specific political agenda whose interests it is in to perpetuate this fear and prejudice – then you really aren’t behaving in a very enlightened way at all. On the contrary, to bash those who are already very bruised, is pretty cheap I would say.
Is anyone going to answer the above question raised by another poster by the way, on whether they would defend the cartoons demonising Jewish people in the days of the Nazis?
joe 90 said at the beginning of this “debate”, “Of course the Far Right will attempt to jump on this bandwagon… Does that automatically invalidate any of those particular causes? Of course not.”. I find this to be a valid point.
The very fact that people are attempting to join together to defend the right to freedom of expression MEANS that you will be left with people holding vastly different views to others. This doesn’t automatically make every person within the group a racist, nor does it glorify them all as good-willed peace-lovers.
This argument is nothing to do with race. To ASSUME that all people of one faith, such as Islam, are all the same race, and then to go on to say that anybody who might cause offence to people holding Islamic beliefs is therefore a racist, is fundamentally racism in itself. Race does not enter into this – it is about belief.
It is perfectly understandable that a muslim could be offended by the danish cartoons. That goes without saying. And it is perfectly understandable that someone who has been offended would wish to express their discontent. But I am unable to understand why people who have been offended by them could argue against the freedom of expression – would they prefer it if they were denied the oportunity to express any outrage against the cartoons at all? This is what freedom of expression is all about. People are allowed to think what they want; hold their own opinions.
To bring the KKK into the argument seems to me to be utterly ludicrous. The KKK were an organisation commited to the idea of the colour of someone’s skin dictating their status as a human being. The cartoons are something entirely different.
The original article is teeming with insulting imagery such as, “a quick glance over their websites reveals an adolescent level of argument normally found only amongst spotty, tory boy undergraduates”, and “the Lib Demmer is not so much of a concern, probably too wired, shagged out, pissed to even know where he is”. This I find particularly interesting. This author is claiming that people who contest the views of fundamentalist Islamists are racists, and blanketing them with insults. This is utterly prejudiced. The author is happy to judge an entire group of people who will not even EXIST as a group until saturday, based on “a quick glance” over a couple of websites.
The former quote held further interest for me when i came to read this page of comments in addition to the article, since the level of argument held within the window in front of me could not possibly be described as even adolescant. It consists mainly of unfounded insults of a (dare i say it?) playground level, suggesting a desperate attempt of defence in the absence of any openness to actually even attempt THINKING about what has been argued.
I would defend the right of the jews to speak out against cartoons demonising them in Nazi Germany. If noone speaks out, if noone is allowed to express their view, then they are not offered the chance to be proved wrong or right. Without the freedom of expression, there would be no opportunity to prove prejudiced viewpoints to be unfounded, or founded viewpoints to be valid, and no opportunity to challenge, reject or embrace viewpoints of your own.
“The author is happy to judge an entire group of people who will not even EXIST as a group until saturday, based on “a quick glance” over a couple of websites.”
not at all, im quite specific which of those groups the insults are directed at.
this is what ive just posted on the free expressioners site, so im not repeating myself
“”Many organisations claim to nominally be in favour of ‘free expression’ while actually being quite the opposite. “
absolutely, including some of the rightist organisations on this march the freedom association and the libertarian alliance to name but to, as im sure youll agree, bigotry and respect for freedom of expression do not make easy bedfellows
now i am not in favour of the banning of these cartoons by any means and at the risk of being accused of promoting my blog (which is now dripping with more than one racist comment since i posted here) i point you to Cartoon Warfare Breaks Out should you be interested in my opinion
now if you read my original piece you will see that my anger is directed at those who argue this cause is somehow progressive or liberal
if you on the right wish to hold an anti-islam march then go ahead and i hope youre met with a fierce unity of antifascist and islamic resistance much like the bnp have been in burnley, bradford etc
my comments are directed towards those who see themselves on the left/radical left
and my question remains, what are your demands?
ive said on other places, these cartoons wre not banned, and for those whove bothered to read their website this is not a demand of global civility, who really wish for an amendment to the Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice.
we currently have a system of free speech in this country, which includes the right to demonstrate against publications who print material you find offensive
i here all this talk of our free speech being under threat, but i see no evidence of it … you point to an organisation whose demands you misrepresent, a few complaints to the bbc about a musical two years ago, and a play being pulled after complaints in the local community … much the same as happened to the sex pistols and countless hip hop and other performers since, and we didnt see the right getting all het up about that … or the criminal justice act for that matter which criminalised events playing a certain type of music, where were the freedom association then?
and as freedom of speech is far from under attack, as this website, my blog and global civilitys site clearly show, then what is the purpose of this march unless its an attempt by the right to build an anti-islamic coalition with the handful on the left sucked in
i notice a distinct lack of leftist commentators supporting this event on this site by the way … why do you think that might be?”
Right, so because Muslims are oppressed and mostly brown-skinned, that means any criticism of Islam is racist?
Or because some racists criticise Islam, then any criticism of Islam is racist?
You need to learn some basic critical thinking, MickyD
David, why don’t YOU answer the question about the Jewish cartoons referred to above? Would you defend the right of the publishers/cartoonists who demonised Jewish people in the 1930s to do so?
Funny how not ONE person in favour of the freedom to insult Muslims has answered this yet, isn’t it?
The analogy between the cartoons in the Danish newspaper and the anti-semitic cartoons from 1930s Nazi newspapers like Der Stuermer is too far-fetched to take seriously.
The anti-semitic smears of the 1930s were outright lies told with the most virulent intentions, not simply stereotypical exaggerations. Jews were accused of spreading syphilis, Jewish dentists were alleged to rape little German girls once they’d been put under anaesthetic, Jews were even accused to drinking the blood of slaughtered ‘Aryan’ infants. Disease and vermin metaphors were common currency.
The Danish cartoons do not even begin to come anywhere near this.
I want to ask those who cry ‘racist’ or ‘bigot’ at any mention of the deficiencies of militant Islam a simple question.
How would you represent the issue of the death threats, bombings, murders and general bullying tactics which extreme Islamists have been responsible for?
Or would you prefer not to mention it all?
What, the implication that all Muslims are terrorists is simply a ‘stereotypical exaggeration’ is it Joe90? I think you are beginning to show your true colours here.
I went along to see what was being said today and was absolutely gobsmacked to hear Peter Tatchell make a plea to the police to stop being ‘afraid of upsetting the Muslim community’ and to not allow them to be ‘above the law’. Perhaps Tatchell has failed to notice the existence of Woodhill and Belmarsh prisons, of the 300% rise in stop and search of young Asian men, of Guantanamo Bay, and of the government desperately wanting to the power to lock up ‘terrorist’ suspects (ie, Muslims) for 90 days with no evidence of wrongdoing.
Tatchell’s rant was like something out of the pages of the Daily Mail – I did not until today realise how divisive and blinkered the man actually is and felt absolutely angered to hear him jumping on the bandwagon of bashing a very vulnerable group of people in our society.
To say I am disgusted is to put it very mildly.
hmmmm, makes you wonder, for all his free speech chat it was him trying to get reggae singers prosecuted only a couple of years ago
ill see if i can get hold of a transcript of his speech
Here is the largest collection of demo pics:
http://nordish.net/blog/london_25march/