Brüno

Anal bleaching, when you learn about it for the first time, is one of those things that make you think life is passing you by, though not enough to make you want to investigate in more depth.  It turns out that people pay for it and others get paid for doing it – probably not nearly enough. Anyone wanting to find out more about the subject can learn as much as you reasonably need to know in one of the more decorous scenes in Brüno, Sacha Baron Cohen’s telling of the commonplace story of a gay fashion reporter seeking to make himself famous in the United States.

If your first test of a comedy film is “does it make a few hundred people laugh out loud on several occasions in a cinema?” then Brüno works. Better still they were laughing at all the right things. Maybe this is because the targets in Baron Cohen’s sights are the idiots who work in the higher levels of the fashion industry, fame seekers and militant homophobes. He manages to get one model to share that she feels she has the hardest job in the world on account of having to remember to put the left leg in front of the right let and then turn around and points out to a pastor whose mission is to make gays straight that he has “terrific blow job lips”. His words, not mine. The pastor we should note says that his lips are there only to praise Jesus.

Baron Cohen’s commitment to method acting makes Marlon Brando look like an extra on Emmerdale. The bleaching scene when he’s talking to his agent at the other end of the phone seemed real enough and judging by the expression on the face of the medium as Brüno orally pleasures the spirit of the dead one from Milli Vanilli the actor was really in the moment. He even tries to bring piece to the Middle East though his makeover of the Hasidic outfit into hotpants and three quarter length shirt is not likely to catch on in Jerusalem.

Mrs Mac was of the view that Brüno lacked some of the depth and subtlety of Borat. Maybe so but it avoided the temptation of stretching the concept out too long which is the ruination of many a good film. Now even though it’s absent from much of the publicity I think you can make a defensible case that Brüno is quite a subversive piece of work taking potshots at notions of race, celebrity culture and mostly homophobia. Having adopted an African baby Brüno interviews parents  who want to launch their own kids’ modelling careers in a  photoshoot which will involve stinging insects, operating heavy machinery and handling phosphorous. They all agree. The result was worth it and we get to see the black child on a crucifix with the white kids dressed as Roman soldiers. On so many levels it was funny, subversive and inspired.

Brüno rampages through some of the most homophobic intuitions in the United State, churches, that weird phony wrestling and Alabama hunters. It’s the audience reactions which makes the film. As the gay hating wrestling fans break into tears of rage and start throwing everything they can grab into the ring Brüno starts getting on with his fight partner. The cinema audience was completely on the side of the two gay men and the homophobes were left looking like dinosaurs. Isn’t that progress?

 

Ecoloyalism

Not content with creating Orangefest everyone’s least favourite festival is now taking an environmentalist turn. It’s what we’ll have to get used to calling “ecoloyalism” and history will record that this site’s visitor Jodley coined the word.

As if the old style bonfires were not scary enough with the UDA getting drunk and expressing strong views on transubstantiation there was always the risk that the whole damned thing would collapse in an avalanche of old pallets, tyres, bits of furniture, effigies of the pope and Irish tricolours.

One of the least enviable jobs in European local government must be that held by David Robinson. David is Belfast City Council’s Good Relations Officer and he’s been tasked with replacing the old style sectarian and environmentally detrimental bonfire with a more pro-planet version. It’s described as a “custom-built beacon – a pyramid-shaped metal-cage filled with willow wood-chips, and set on a base of sand to protect the ground below.”

Now my first thought looking at the picture is that they have left a big space into which you could put a couple of Roman Catholics or Romanians after beating them unconscious and that’s a well loved 12th tradition. The council does not seem to have though about that but they are trying to reduce the number of tyres incinerated and displays of loyalist regalia by offering £1500 to fund street parties for communities who want to tame things down. When asked  “is this a form of community bribery?” John Howcroft, a community worker who is part of the Conflict Transformation Initiative in north Belfast said “absolutely not.” Either he had a huge smirk on his face when answering or he’s very stupid since “community organisations” tied to the loyalist gangster groups and the Provies are constantly having money chucked at them to buy them off.

Now as Socialist Resistance has discovered in its efforts to bring a bit of ecology into Marxism people aren’t always too keen to listen. Admittedly we aren’t in a position to offer £1500 to anyone who expresses an interest but Belfast Council has only found six communities willing to limit their carbon emissions while celebrating the 12th. Some lefties have said we are trying to cosy up to the Greens and some loyalists see the new style bonfire as an attack on loyalism’s right to build damned big fires. New ideas often scare people when they challenge the old certainties.

When rummaging around for more about this item I came across the headline in the Belfast Newsletter “Loyalists cite ‘green agenda’ for withdrawal”. It turns out that the UDA thinks the Police Service of Norn Iron is being too nice to Fenians. That’s what ‘green agenda’ means. You are left wondering what rabbit is going to be pulled out of the hat next year. Orangefest. Ecoloyalism. Maybe an alcohol free 12th? That might work.

Leading the fight back?

This interview has been sent to me by the editors of Left Luggage. If my recent experience is representative, and I’m confident that it isn’t, the answer to the fourth question from the end has not thoroughly filtered out.

In the first of what we hope will be a series of profiles and interviews with groups and activists, we interviewed Ben Robinson of Youth Fight for Jobs about the campaign’s aims and tactics, as well as the challenges it will face. Ben is writing here in a personal capacity, and his opinions do not necessarily reflect those of YFfJ as a whole.

Please tell us the main aims of Youth Fight for Jobs and how it is seeking to achieve those aims?

The Youth Fight for Jobs campaign was launched in January 2009. As we saw it, youth unemployment was set to continue rising, with the situation of mass youth unemployment becoming the norm for a whole number of years. Not only that, but the main parliamentary parties were still committed to an agenda of privatising and attacks on the working class. Education privatisation and a lack of decent services were also set to be a feature of young peoples future. After a general election university fees will almost certainly be raised, cutting out many working class youth from education. So the campaign was launched, not only to combat youth unemployment, but also to fight for a future for young people. So the headline aims of the campaign are for the right to a decent job with a living wage, for apprenticeships with jobs at the end, and against university fees. There is also a broader set of demands that appear on the website and on the leaflets.

Those aims can only be achieved through mass action of young people and workers. Labour, the Tories or the Lib Dems will not introduce these measures if just asked for it. It will be a question of building a mass movement in order to make it clear that this is what the majority of people want. I think the example of the French youth movement against the CPE is the best recent example of how that strategy can win victories, but also the anti-poll tax campaign in the early nineties, the school student strikes in the mid eighties in Britain, but also in France and Spain. These show very clearly that it is possible to fight and to win.

YFfJ seems to be a campaign with very ambitious goals. What would constitute a success for the campaign?

This campaign is going to be around as long as mass youth unemployment is! I think there are a number of battles which will take place over specific issues. In September, many universities and colleges face savage cuts in their budgets, with whole courses going in a lot of cases. In addition, tens of thousands of young people will be excluded from university because of a government miscalculation. In January, the government are introducing compulsory working for some unemployed young people – there will have to be a battle to ensure that young people are not used to drive down workers wages and conditions. There is clearly going to be a massive battle over pay in the public sector. I’ve already mentioned the prospect of university fees going up as well. I think that activists from the campaign will be involved in all of these struggles, and clearly a victory on any of them would be a success. Local groups are getting together and forming demands locally for the campaign on the question of youth unemployment and lack of opportunities in those areas as well. But those examples are defending young people and workers from attacks on our present conditions. The stated aim of the campaign is to win a decent future for young people, and we will fight until we achieve it.

There is also a question over whether capitalism can achieve our demands. From the point of view of those in power, the vastly wealthy ruling class, unemployment is good as competition for jobs can help drive down wages. The recent news that ‘bonuses are back’ shows just how little the rich have had to pay for the present crisis. But for a programme of socially useful job creation, to end unemployment and provide decent jobs and education for young people, and the population as a whole, would take a massive struggle. I think that some of the demands can be won under capitalism. After all, the NHS and other reforms were won on the basis of a mass movement. But I also think that there’s a fundamental divide in society between the interests of the tiny rich elite and of the mass of the population. If capitalism cannot afford to implement and maintain a decent future for young people, I think young people can’t afford capitalism.

So the first w*nker said to the second w*anker….

My Italian chums just tend to weep uncontrollably at the very mention of Silvio Berlusconi’s name. He has given them a television system that is unwatchable for anyone who is not moronic or under heavy sedation. His wife walked out more or less accusing him of paedophilia and it’s strongly implied that he’s been buying in prostitutes for his guests. To be fair he retorts “I never understood where the satisfaction is when you are missing the pleasure of conquest.” Oh yeah and he lost a court case for defamation for the Economist’s front page with the strapline “Why Silvio Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy”.

Only one man stands convinced that an appeal to Berlusconi’s better nature will turn him around. Only one man feels that he is the moral behemoth whose words by themselves have the power to make Mussolini’s heir see sense and start behaving like a decent human being.

My Irish chums just tend to swear uncontrollably at the very mention of Bono’s name. Here is what the Financial Times says he told a concert audience in Milan earlier this week.

“Italians have given many gifts to the world, modern physics, the renaissance . . . the piano, the gift of singing from Pavarotti to Puccini to Jovanotti to Zucchero. You have so many gifts.

“Well in the next few days . . . your leader will decide where he stands on the gift of life that lives beyond these shores.”

I’ve a passing familiarity with Zucchero’s oeuvre. It’s more merda than sugar unless portentous ballads in a Michael Bolton style are your tazza di té. Jovanotti is a rapper whom you can research for yourself but don’t build your hopes up. In any case both men’s gifts to the world count for rather less than Fermi’s, Marconi’s or Da Vinci’s. It’s a bit like saying “England has given the world Shakespeare, Milton, Norman Wisdom and the Noel Edmonds”. It may be true but it’s a bit of an incongruous ragbag.

This site’s pre-eminent hate figure is troubled by the Berlusconi regime’s contempt for anyone who is not a white small business owner or tax dodger. Italy is meeting a mere 3 per cent of its overseas aid commitments and while Bono can but feel a certain comradeship with Berlusconi’s tax dodging base his brand image relies heavily on him as the billionaire champion of the poor doggedly speaking for the voiceless in the halls of power. And in concert venues where you have to pay at least £60 a ticket to finance an entourage larger than the Irish army

Bob Geldof prefers to be the nasty multi-millionaire Dublin philanthropist in their bizarre double act. The way he put it was “What’s the legitimacy of this crowd of shysters to run the G7 this year? How dare they? How can you possibly trust any government that promises something, does nothing, and expect them to lead the world. How dare they?”

Ok the second “how dare they?” is a bit redundant but his point is a good one. Venomous contempt is about the only tone that is right to use when describing a creature like Berlusconi. If the BNP came to power in Britain with Robert Kilroy Silk as its leader the result would be something analogous to Berlusconi’s Italy. The outward appearance of parliamentary democracy would be preserved but the state would be run as a private kingdom and every sort of backward racist idea could be openly expressed. There is no better nature to appeal to and once again Bono struts the world stage like a pontificating imbecile.

Pro-Israel Lobby Alarmed by Growth of Boycott, Divestment Movement

Art Young is a member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto.  He has sent me this article which looks at how friends of the Israeli state are starting to get worried by the boycott movement. It’s rather longer than a normal post on this site which is why I’ve split it.

The movement to call Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people is growing, it is “invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel.” It could eventually threaten the existence of the Jewish state by undermining the support it receives from its strongest backer, the U. S. government.

That was the message of alarm delivered by the Executive Director
of the American Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Howard Kohr, to the AIPAC Policy Conference on May 3.

AIPAC is one of the principal organizations that lobby publicly on behalf of Israel in the United States, where it is an important influence on foreign policy. Among the 6,000 dignitaries who attended its policy conference were more than half of the members of the Senate and a third of the members of the House of Representatives. Featured speakers included Vice President Joe Biden, Senator John Kerry, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Get ready to party for Orangefest

What do you do when you have a product that has gone out of fashion, is deeply unpleasant or has been discovered to have harmful side effects? Lard sellers must despair every time some smarty pants doctor tells a patient that it clogs up the arteries and will kill you quick even if it does make nicer chips. Only some dark art could persuade a drinker with any sense of taste that Fosters lager is more palatable than tepid three day old urine. This is where advertising and rebranding come into their own.

The Orange Order has a fairly serious image problem. Somehow the message that its core principles are tolerance and piety don’t seem to have been widely grasped outside its membership. This may not be unconnected with the fact that many of the brethren, as they refer to themselves, are under the impression that the Catholic Church is not even Christian, this despite the fairly large prominence Christ is given by the Romanists. Rather helpfully Brian Kennaway, author of the book The Orange Order A Tradition Betrayed explained on the BBC that the Order itself has never expressed this view. On the other hand neither has it been contradicted. You can’t help thinking that if the Order’s leadership were to find that many of its members were heading off to a gay sauna to unwind after a hard day’s marching that they might express an opinion.

From the title and much of what he had to say on the radio Brian Kennaway yearns for the golden age when the 12th of July was not tainted by bands celebrating the achievements of the loyalist murder gangs and was free from any hint of sectarian aggression. That only really existed when the Fenians in the north of Ireland were so cowed that they dared not raise a whisper of complaint, so at the very latest you could say that this golden age ended in 1967.

On the same programme David Hume, speaking for the Order, regretted that these bands were taking part and that preventing them from marching with the Orange parades was a slow process. In the event that a group of Dutch, bi-sexual alcoholics turned up with garish outfits and dreadful music (check the video if you don’t believe me) to celebrate King Billy as one of their own we can speculate that there would be no slow process getting rid of them.

David Hume explained with no obvious irony that the Orange Order is now working with the tourist authorities to develop the Orange marches as Belfast’s answer to the Notting Hill Carnival or Mardi Gras. This implies that Belfast City Council’s key tourist demographic is now hard drinking, tone deaf European and north American white supremacists. Is this really a group worth courting? The extra policing costs, court time and clogged casualty wards would probably offset what little economic benefit they brought.

Gladys Ganiel makes her living at the Irish School of Ecumenics, whatever that is. She’s an academic teaching “Reconciliation in Northern Ireland” who inflicts a trip to Belfast on the 12th of July on her students. This is surely the action of someone with unresolved aggression issues against her own teachers. When asked to comment on the viability of Orangefest as a tourist moneyspinner she displayed superb comic understatement saying of her students’ reaction to Orangefest that “it’s not something they would do as a holiday. Some find it scary and the drums are intimidating”. These are major negatives for any aspirant tourist flagship event.

Billy Mawhinny, the event’s development officer has his work cut out. ‘The festival means come and see us, come and see that we are not the quasi-fanatical Protestant organisation that hates everyone outside us.’ Apparently last year some Poles and Romanians turned up but that’s probably rather less likely next week since they have just been given a vivid demonstration of the very mindset that Billy describes so well.

Has the Ku Klux Klan thought about launching “White Fest”?

 

The unions – a reality check

This piece by Tim Webb appeared in Saturday’s Guardian. It’s a corrective to some of the boosterism, described so well in this piece, that passes for analysis.

As talks over pay and conditions at British Airways broke down this week just days after the long-running Lindsey oil refinery dispute dominated the headlines, it looked as if Britain was heading for a summer of discontent. But unions say the recession has actually made many workers more reluctant to go on strike because they fear they will lose their jobs.

Union representatives are reporting far fewer strike ballots than 2008. Many workers also say they cannot afford to take home the reduced pay packet if they take action.

The recession has seen staff opting to take a pay cut or to work part time instead of occupying the picket lines to save their jobs. Almost 7,000 British Airways staff – a sixth of its workforce – have responded to pleas by the chief executive, Willie Walsh, to volunteer for unpaid work, part-time hours or unpaid leave to help keep the airline afloat.

The recession has so far seen unions increasingly having to negotiate with companies about freezing or even cutting members’ pay to save their jobs rather than withdrawing labour to force the hand of unco-operative employers. The downturn has brought into focus many of the challenges faced by trade unions in 21st-century Britain and how they should adapt to the changing circumstances.

Last week, union leaders and their traditional foe – management (in the shape of human resources directors) – held an unlikely gathering at the TUC in central London. The aim was to bring the often warring sides together for a friendly debate on the future of union and employer relations.

The old tensions were never far from the surface. One human resources director grumbled to a colleague that one of the union speakers who had railed against the private sector was a “cross between Arthur Scargill and Gandhi”. But on the whole, it was the union representatives who found themselves on the defensive. Freddie Josland, of the British Transport Police, told them: “The trade union movement has a desperate need to relaunch and refresh itself.”

There was humour, too, for the company representatives at least: the head of human resources at the security conglomerate G4S (formed by the merger of Group 4 and Securicor) told fellow company representatives that if they thought British unions were extreme, they should count themselves lucky that they didn’t have to deal with members in developing countries, who often kidnap G4S managers in an effort to secure improved terms. It brought laughter – but only from one side of the room.

Unions are still a force to be reckoned with in the UK, particularly in the public sector and former nationalised industries such as power and transport. After a dramatic slump in the 1980s, membership has levelled off at about 27% of the workforce – just under 7 million employees.

But Mike Clancy, the deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, says that unions’ traditional two key selling points to members – collective bargaining on pay and personal representation – are under threat as never before. Employment law, which unions helped to push through, protects workers from unfair dismissals and other forms of employer abuse.

Clancy said unions played a key role in helping to enforce employment law for members, but they found themselves competing with lawyers or organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureaux.

On collective pay bargaining, he said many employers, particularly in newer industries and those which rely on temporary workers, were very reluctant to recognise unions’ right to negotiate a deal on behalf of all workers. Activism in general had also declined, with new causes such as climate change also competing with the trade union movement, said Clancy.

In some respects, unions have failed to move out of their traditional heartland and some are out of step with modern Britain. Of the 60 TUC affiliated unions in the UK, only 13 are run by a woman, although this is a marked improvement compared with a decade ago. Nevertheless, Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said last week that the movement still had an appalling record on appointing women to senior roles.

On ethnic diversity, unions are worse: there are no black or Asian leaders. Other speakers made noises about electing more leaders from ethnic backgrounds, but one young black woman at the event said change was much too slow. Her personal experience of being a union representative had put her off working full-time for a union. When she was elected as her university’s black and ethnic minorities officer, the graduate said that unsuccessful white candidates claimed the vote had been rigged. She is now thinking of working in human resources.

Trade unions are by no means the only organisations to be over-represented by middle-aged white men. But Andy Cook, managing director of industrial relations consultancy Marshall-James, said the profile of many union leaders meant most failed to connect with a younger audience.

“When you look at union leaders, most are white and male in their 50s, who talk about class struggle,” he said. “That is fine but are they representative of the workforce? Probably not. There is a big issue of how to attract young people who have grown up under Thatcher’s Britain to unions, when the leaders are not talking their language.”

Official figures appear to support this assertion: since 1995, the number of union members aged 40 or under has dropped significantly.

The drop in official strike action also demonstrates that unions are proving effective in protecting members’ interests, as well as being a symptom of the recession and workers’ changing attitudes. When a company is in genuine financial difficulties and needs to make cuts to secure its future and that of its workforce, the chances of convincing staff of the need to accept a pay freeze are much higher if they have good relations with the union.

Adam Lent, head of economics at the TUC, admitted this had not been an easy adjustment for unions. “It’s turning the normal process of pay bargaining on its head,” he said. “But unions always try to avoid redundancies and, if a pay freeze can do this, then unions will always opt for solidarity.”

Mike Emmott, the employee relations adviser for the human resources industry body CIPD, claimed the confrontational trade union model was “bust”.

He said: “Private-sector unions have little purpose if they don’t think their members will come out on strike. The fact is, many employees are not that cross about their employer and, in this recession, most staff don’t hold their management directly responsible for their company’s financial problems.”

However, many workers are unlikely to recognise this rosy view of employer-employee relations, particularly the growing number of temporary workers on the minimum wage who do not enjoy the rights of permanent employees.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, the UK’s largest union, said the anti-union legislation passed under Margaret Thatcher weakened the movement. “There is no doubt that it has allowed trade union leaders to be cowed,” he said. “It has allowed our members to feel, what is the point of being in a union because they are not being represented?”

All the unions fear another Conservative government, worrying that compulsory union recognition in the workplace, which came into force in 2000, could be overturned by a new Tory administration. Unions may be adapting to the recession, but they know they would be forced into much more painful changes under the Tories.

Two resolutions

These two resolutions were passed at a conference over the weekend.

Resolution on the formation of the new organisation

We hereby form a new organisation, which will continue to be called Socialist Resistance, which will comprise all current members of the International Socialist Group (ISG) and SR, unless they indicate otherwise, and all those who are not members of those organisations who decide to join at the end of the conference or have indicated beforehand and have sent their apologies. The new organisation will affiliate to the Fourth International.

Resolution on dissolution of the ISG

(for ISG members only)

The International Socialist Group members present at this meeting today (all members are entitled to attend) declare that the ISG as an organisation is hereby dissolved into the new organisation which is being created today under the name Socialist Resistance. This includes its property and assets of the ISG including its bank accounts. ISG CC members are charged with taking whatever steps are necessary to facilitate this changeover.

Velkommen til Danmark – til arbejde efter danske overenskomster

Here’s a story from the left-wing anti-EU election campaign , which organised dockworkers and other trade unionists to give breakfast, leaflets in Polish and a warm welcome to migrant workers arriving from Poland a few days before the EU elections last  month. Thanks to Duncan for the translation. The original is here,

Welcome to Denmark – To work within Danish agreements

Upon the arrival of this morning’s Polish ship in Copenhagen Søren Søndergaard, an MEP and a leader of the People’s Movement against the European Union, demanded that the parliament and government should ensure that foreign labour is not subjected to unacceptable and highly dangerous working conditions.

As the 8 am ferry arrived from Swinoujscie, Poland, on June 3rd, more than fifty activists from a number of trade unions welcomed it with red flags, sandwiches and leaflets in Polish.

There were two speeches by two candidates of the People’s Movement against the EU. Ole Nors Nielsen, a leader of the dockworkers’ union, and MEP Søren Søndergaard, the lead candidate. “I welcome the Polish and Eastern European workers to Denmark. The People’s Movement against the EU support the workers’ right to go to other countries in search of work. But we can not accept that foreign workers are abused by social dumping and subjected to unacceptable and often fatal workplaces” said Sondergaard in his speech. “Unfortunately, the EU today means the under-payment of foreign workers. It must be stopped. That’s why the People’s Movement therefore calls on the government and parliament to decide that foreign workers must work according to Danish standards. Work performed in Denmark, must be performed by existing Danish agreements.”

There should be equal work on equal terms: that is the clear message from Søndergaard.

Blur at Hyde Park

If you think about it long and hard it’s obvious that Damon Albarn is the most intelligent, imaginative and personable British musicians of the last three decades. He’s equally at home with Chinese opera, dance and one chord punk. Any front man who takes the risk of shortening Song 2, one of the finest pieces of music created since homo sapiens saw off the Neanderthal menace, is confident of his repertoire.

So he should be. Sometimes with music a bit of distance is useful, allowing you to sort out the drunken infatuation from real romance. Thursday evening’s set took in all the highlights and even if the sound system was a bit ropey you’ll not often see a band get such an emotional response from its audience. One of my companions reassured me that it would be a pretty relaxed evening with “an older crowd in their late 20s and mid 30s”. Quite. And so it was.

A quick word about the support act Foals. They seem to have been given access to a cache of songs co-written by the Gang of Four and Joy Division, songs which the writers felt were too dull to be played in public. They should have respected the creators’ wishes.

Albarn was moved by the occasion. He reminded the audience that in 2003 two million people had marched into the same park to stop a war and you felt that it was one of his life’s defining moment. The park seems to be one of his defining places. Park life was inspired by the place and Phil Daniels’ performance was on the money.

Until this evening I would not have thought it possible to get slushy about a band that made its mark through Brit pop. But Blur and Albarn are the epitome of everything that is great and creative about English music. They evolved, they were thoughtful, they wrote great songs and you just know that if they get back together properly they can do it all again.