Johnny Davis Vice president welfare "attended" the anti fascist protest against the English defense league. A racist group with a largely fascist leadership and strong fascist ties.
Trying to make Birmingham a less threatening city is a great use of time for the guilds welfare officer. Although for the record my idea of "attending" is not turning up 40 minutes late with my shopping in hand.
my main problem with your post is that you accuse the protest and seemingly the anti fascist movement regionally of being "a disguise for the pro Palestine agenda". I don't know why you wrote that and I cannot imagine what hoops your mind has jumped through to get to that conclusion.
With another mobilization for the same cause underway such accusations are unhelpful. The movement draws upon individuals from all walks of life and political backgrounds. Accusing it of having a pro Palestine agenda is tremendously unhelpful to a movement seeking to unite.
Read the post Here
Johnny Davis has clarified his position which is fantastic thank you, obviously there is still plenty of outstanding issues to debate here. It may now be best to do so on his blog next to his clarification message.
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why not post this on his blog where he might read it..
ReplyDeletealso is there any way people can email you? there is no profile or email address or anything? just these comment boxes
ReplyDeleteJohhny davis has comment moderation turned on, I actually do have comment there it just has not been approved yet.
ReplyDeleteyour right about the e-mail thing I'll get it sorted
its E.bauer@guild.bham.ac.uk if you need it
ReplyDeletegutted im not linked to your blog Ed!!!
ReplyDeletex Ed (Sparkes)
this blog is constructive.
ReplyDeleteI dunno ... I bet the UAF/SWP were platforming palestine stuff... but then what is happening in Palestine is pretty fascist-like...its basically ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteSorry Ed I've link you in now my intention was to put in all the officers.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there was at least a few people handing out leaflets regarding Palestine. I saw people doing it for the greens, respect, workers liberty, the usual swp paper sellers. Its the same at any political gathering.
you could pick up any one of those causes and say the anti fascist movement is a disguise for the green agenda. Considering that our VPW is advocating students not attending anti fascist protests it is worth a rebuttal.
What don't you think is constructive? I know I'm being critical but I'm not doing it for the sake of being critical.
ReplyDeleteIf there are any sections you think are not constructive please highlight them and I will either remove or elaborate.
JDavies has clarified its not that he thinks Unite have a palestinian agenda, but that he feels many of the attenders were focusing on that rather than a more general anti-fascism message, and anti fascism in the UK(which considering they were rallying against the EDL would have been more appropriate) like many have said though, who attends and why is clearly not something you can control, whether it be to talk about palestine or to pass through whilst doing their shopping...
ReplyDeleteeither way, its sad that 2 people who are clearly on the same anti-fascist team are arguing here. a little more Uniting would be helpful...
as Hls said in reply to his clarification he treats the protest in very negative way which is off putting for perspective participants. A clarification of course is what I was going for and I'm glad its happened thank you Johnny I will amend this post to say so.
ReplyDeleteJohnny used his guild blog as a platform to take positions on varying anti fascist issues.
He also promises to follow up on these stances by pushing voting, obviously what officers push is a decision for all students and is not to be taken unilaterally.
which is why we should have these debates, from the comments here and on johnny's blog it can be seen that many students are supportive of protesting and are unhappy with any sidelining of a protesting tradition.
Although its sad that we argue its a necessary part of guild democracy. I'm sure when the time comes (that time being now) we can work together and hopefully work together better for the rigorous and public evaluation.