Local and European Elections May 2014

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Saint Etienne - Who Do You Think You Are?

Sunlight has beat down on my goth-pale skin all day, and yet lobsterish hues have not set in. Yes, it's the final push for the local and European elections. I am quietly confident that Newcastle-under-Lyme, our next door constituency, will see returned a net gain of Labour councillors. I'm going to stick my neck out and go so far to say Labour will top the polls in Newcastle and Stoke-on-Trent both. But of that another time. Right here, right now I want to get lazy. And you know lazy here normally means a music feature. On this occasion, you can chillax. It's not trance. Instead grab your feather bowers and shimmy those hips into PVC pants. Let's take a trip to the indie disco.

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Near Future Fiction: Two Novels

I've taken time out from highfalutin social theory to read some science fiction. So a visit to Hanley Library at the weekend found me check out a couple of books: Heaven's Shadow by David S Goyer and Michael Cassutt, and Descent by Ken MacLeod. They are both examples of near future fiction - the former set five years hence, the latter between 10 and 30 years from now. Sadly, that is where the similarity ends. .

The Goyer and Cassutt effort. Where to begin? I'm afraid to say it's an awful book, so what follows will be replete with spoilers. In 2019 two ships, one American, the other a Russia/India/Brazil collab race each other to reach a Near Earth Object. But upon landing and following a series of eerily-timed eruptions from the asteroid's surface, it becomes apparent that our NEO is a UFO. Jeepers! The intrepid crews find a passage to an interior that switches on at their presence. And what greets them is a rapidly evolving biological environment. Why do plants begin growing? What's that pyramidal structure in the distance? Is that something pupating in those hexagonal chambers lining the wall?

Up until here the story is passible, albeit one in which a cliche stands behind every sentence. It quickly goes south from there. One of the chambers is growing something, something alive! It comes out, sheds a layer of skin and takes a breath. The creature is human! But not just any old homo sapiens - she's the dead wife of the leading character! Rather than piquing my curiosity, this was more a roll eyes moment. The long and short of it is the alien civilisation behind the ship are post-biological beings who can manipulate the quantum structure of the universe. It turns out that sentient creatures create impressions in the sub-atomic foam and these, more or less, constitute our souls. What the aliens, or 'the architects' can do is read the space/time grooves and fashion appropriate bodies for them. However, there is a malevolent force abroad in the galaxy that wants to systematically scrub this information and, you guessed it, only humanity is the species that can thwart it. Not, it seems, millions-of-years-old super-civilisations.

There's nothing wrong per se with afterlife themes in science fiction. But when it has been done before, the words imagination, flare and aplomb come to mind. See Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, for example. What I find most objectionable about Heaven's Shadow is not so much the plot or dreary writing, but the narrative structure of the book. You see, Goyer is a screen writer, video game storyteller and sometime director. Gassutt is a TV writer and occasional SF novelist. And after five minutes with this book, you're struck by how desperately it begs to be made into a movie. Unnecessary tension, unlikely disasters, improbable cliffhangers - they pile up on one another in a gangly, unreadable mess. To think there are two more books in the sequence after this too. Ugh. File Heaven's Shadow as 'Phil has read it so I don't have to'. You'll thank me for it.

In a different league altogether is Ken MacLeod's Descent. Right, I'm going to embarrass myself now. Ken, if you're reading this you might want to look away. As far as I'm concerned, Ken is the finest exponent of near future fiction writing anywhere. His work has a warm, sharp, dynamic quality. He is our most contemporary writer too. No one else has the knack of seizing the present and shaking it until social and technological trends spill all over the place. What his novels do is track them to all possible destinations, be they banal or profound. And, of course, for us lefties there's lots of Trotty, trainspotterly references too that somehow add to the urban glamour of Ken's writing.

As the cover implies, Descent is about UFOs. Sort of. Unlike this review's other book, I'm not going to spoil a single thing. Except to say it involves lots of conspiracy construction and unravelling - Ken has great fun playing with alien abduction, men in black and cover-up tropes. This world is heavily surveilled by drones and netbots, but think more social media's voluntary self-surveillance than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Sure, the powers that be might be monitoring too. But they could also be objects scrutinised by rival elites, revolutionaries, or their own. Sounds messy? Yes. Yet Ken's exploration of a world in foment as it segues from neoliberal depression to Keynesian expansion is absolutely flawless, and everything ties up with a little bit left to the reader's imagination.

Near future fiction is a tricky genre to pull off because real world developments habitually threaten speculation. Yet Ken's novels, even the stuff he published in the 90s, remain endlessly contemporary and just slightly beyond our time; out of reach but all the more tantalising for it. Descent is an excellent novel and an excellent way into Ken's works. If you see it, pick it up or download it and leave the likes of Heaven's Shadow well alone.

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Calling UKIP Racist Won't Stop Them

It's become a daily thing. Every day a new UKIP candidate is exposed as a racist, a homophobe, a Holocaust denialist. It's like we've been here before. The establishment is all sixes and sevens as an upstart far right party makes waves, but this is 2014, not 2009. The debates that have rippled across countless Twitter feeds and clogged up party and paper-branded blogging platforms are retreads of arguments had about the BNP. Yet every screwball and screw up leaves UKIP spotless. Just how do you deal with them? There are two broad schools of thought. There's one camp devoted to pinning the racist tail on the bigoted donkey. And there are those who think that will do nothing to stymie UKIP.

In the former camp we find strange bedfellows indeed. We have my favourite Blairite blogger Dan Hodges, who as recently as Friday decided Farage was finished off the back of that now notorious interview. Far be it for me to rain on anyone's parade, but looking at things from the perspective of Monday evening the wheels of the UKIP bandwagon are still turning. More's the pity.

Sharing the tent with Dan are our friends the Socialist Workers' Party. Keen to be the best builders of something - anything - that can help stave off their terminal demise, we have a new front group: Stand Up to UKIP. Now, to be fair to the SWP, their literature is better than what I expected. Unlike Unite Against Fascism material that was all about exposing Nazi Nick and chums as such, SUtU takes aim at UKIP's opposition to same-sex marriage and dalliances with overt racism. Okay, there's more to it than that. The flat tax, banks, scapegoating immigrants, it's a roll call of left touchstones the SWP thinks would resonate with Farage fans. Also, SUtU have protested outside UKIP meetings in scenes reminiscent of UAF pickets. Unfortunately, while it's a more active opposition than Dan urging people to vote LibDem, I don't think it will do much to dissuade prospective UKIP voters.

Many comrades, such as Sunny, argue that highlighting UKIP's racist hues is not likely to smoke the 'kippers. There are two reasons for this, in my opinion. First, voters have already factored in UKIP's less-than-PC approach to a range of issues. It's part of their appeal. It's how voters can rank them the most racist but the most honest of the parties. They are the only ones who will say the unsayable. And second, when immigration is the biggest self-reported reason why UKIP voters will be voting UKIP, any racism row makes the party look tougher on this issue. When this is stirred with a widespread anti-Westminster nihilism, you have a potent mix. Pulling the rug from under UKIP is not a case of aping them, but addressing the contradictions, problems and anxieties that feed their support. That cannot be done with a few soundbites; it takes patient, methodical work and demonstrable policy delivery.

It's obvious which approach I prefer. But the 'UKIP is racist' campaign need not be a waste of time. The key point is a matter of focus. Instead of addressing putative UKIP supporters and trying to shame them into voting for one of the mainstream parties, it would be more effective if the campaign targeted non-UKIP voters and mobilised them to give Farage a kick in the ballots. Because European election turn outs are so low, so UKIP's strength is exaggerated. Yes, it's not ideal to try and drag voters to the polling station by wholly negative appeals. At best something like this can only a stop gap, a temporary tactic while politics gets its act together. And by politics, of course I mean Labour. Because looking at the rest, the Tories and LibDems both remain committed to the privatisation of everything, and insecure, low-waged labour markets. They aim to deepen the social pathologies from which UKIP draws strength. Only Labour has the policies and the capacity to turn this around.

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Godzilla's Love Letter to the US Military

Godzilla and I go back. When I were but a nipper in the early 80s, one of my favourite cartoons was this. I used to crouch by the family Betamax and flick the record switch before we left for the Satday morning shopping trip. However, in a confession what may strike a telling blow to my geek creds, I never bothered with the rubber-suited Japanese originals. They just didn't appeal. I did go and see the 1998 Hollywood reboot but it was all very meh. When you can remember the Godzilla toy egg merchandise better than the movie, you know you're dealing with something eminently forgettable. So expectations weren't too high when we went to the multiplex this afternoon to see the latest iteration.

Thankfully, 2014's Godzilla is miles ahead of the late 90s effort. It doesn't have Jamiroquai for a start. Totally mindless, of course. But beautiful mindlessness. As a top drawer blockbuster, it was a tour-de-force of perfect cinematography and special effects. The acting is never allowed to get in the way of the action, as hunt-the-monster gives way to scraps between Godzilla and the baddies. These are the MUTO monsters, giant creatures from the Earth's deep prehistory who consume radioactive materials. Reactors, nuclear warheads, they're cheese straws to these things. The plot, such as it is, involves stopping all three monsters before they lay waste to the USA's West Coast. Only very late in the day do the powers that be realise Godzilla is a good guy - as per the cartoon and original films.

One thing that fascinates about Hollywood is how it plays fast and loose with real tragedy for thrills and spills. The opening scene has a Japanese power station going into meltdown and collapse after a monster-induced earthquake hits. Fukushima much? Then when the beasties run wild in Honolulu, Vegas and San Francisco, collapsing and pulverised skyscrapers fall with the redolence of a certain pair of towers. However, it's long been observed that the profusion of over-the-top explosions in video games and anime is a trauma that's been working its way through Japanese culture since 1945. Have American studios been more willing to trash their cities since that September morning?

Naturally, there are a number of angles Godzilla could be read from. A cautionary tale of tampering with nature. Of the fear of the atom. Or if you want to get a bit religious, our gargantuan saviour is basically Raptor Jesus. Or are the MUTO's global capital run amok, and Godzilla the great scaly leviathan of Keynesian interventionism? There's something to be said for a feminist reading as well. The earthy Godzilla vs the pregnant MUTO and her weird cravings for fissile materials. And then there is the destruction of her brood by the masculine GI hero.

Ah, the army. You see, if Godzilla is anything, it's a $160m love letter to all three branches of the US military. This isn't because they're particularly effective. Just like the Japanese originals, the puny efforts of humans count for naught. MUTO monsters can take bazooka blasts to the face with nary a scratch. Depleted uranium-tipped shells fired point blank do nothing. You might as well launch candy floss. Nor do the military have a handle on the situation. Their plan is to lure the monsters 20 miles north of SanFran to nuke them, but it goes awry at every step. They're as helpless and they are hopeless. Not a great advert for the armed forces, you might think. On the contrary, the film is stuffed with vignettes of military courage. Faceless GIs are offed by the wagonloads. Ships, jets, helicopters, tanks - someone do a tally of the totalled hardware. But time after time, despite certain death, the military puts itself in harm's way. The MUTO monsters can disable electronics with their own EMP blasts, but still jet fighters fly at them. Ordinance is so much a minor irritation, but tanks and infantry interpose and fruitlessly fire away as those jaws chow down on their positions. The military does not stop. The scenes are slightly reminiscent of Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Taking on the baddies, be they radioactive behemoths or Martians, maybe hopeless for heroes, but they'll gladly do it.

You can't buy spin as good as this.

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Revisiting No2EU

If it wasn't for UKIP, it's fair to say most people wouldn't know European elections are in the offing. Yet while the media buzzes about Farage's one-man party and what the mainstream are doing about it, the ballot paper is littered with anti-EU also rans. Here in the WestMids there's the BNP and English Democrats fare. We are also blessed with sitting ex-UKIP MEP Nikki Sinclaire for 'We Demand a Referendum' and Mike Natrass - another former 'kipper - for the naughtily-titled 'An Independence from Europe - UK Independence Now' list. Hopefully, this Little England gang bang will see them take a few UKIP votes and cost them a seat. After this quivering mass, there is one other slate. I am talking about the only leftist participant who was prepared to toss its keys into the salad bowl: No2EU. Or, to give its full title, No2EU - Yes to Workers Rights.

Yes, it's back to provide a left Eurosceptic option for those who do not read the ballot paper properly and put their cross next to No2EU instead of UKIP. Again, just like 2009 it is a cobbled-together slate of the RMT, the Morning Star's Communist Party of Britain and the Socialist Party. And no doubt the folks involved will be looking to get a better vote than last time. Five years back No2EU polled 153,236 votes - one per cent of the total cast. That's at the bottom of the 1-2% range far left challenges can typically expect at election time. Nonetheless it was a disappointing outcome for those of us who worked hard in that campaign. A cheeky cameo from Tony Benn in the party election broadcast, the endorsement of former Labour MP Alice Mahon and the hearty backing of Bob Crow did naff all. Even the name, which you might expect to be an asset among Eurosceptic naifs who don't follow politics, proved to be nothing of the sort.

Also, No2EU got a barracking from within the labour movement. Its vote share in the North West was greater than the difference separating Nick Griffin and the Greens' Peter Cranie. No2EU was made the whipping boy, the reason why the BNP won a seat. A case, in other words, of voting far left and getting the far right. That argument doesn't really stand up to scrutiny, though it's an easy enough supposition to make. It was also criticised by others on the left for its opportunism, its fossilised programme, its lack of seriousness. Remember, these elections came after the brouhaha of MPs' expenses. Perhaps the sharpest arrow in No2EU's quiver was ex-Labour Militant Tendency MP Dave Nellist, who won wide recognition in the 80s for refusing an MP's full salary and taking only the average wage of a skilled worker. Instead of running with something like 'a worker's MP on a worker's wage', No2EU pledged not to take up any seats in the European Parliament in the unlikely event of their winning. A bizarre own goal that fought shy of the public imagination.

Given the low vote, what was the point? At that time I was an enthusiastic and active SP member. For instance, here's me putting a brave face on the results. Nevertheless, there was a certain logic to No2EU from where I was then standing. The SP's immediate strategic objective remains the foundation of a new workers' party to replace Labour. This will come about not by cobbling together "the sects" but via trade unions breaking with and moving into independent electoral activity. Therefore, when the RMT and CPB approached the SP about standing with them on an anti-Labour, anti-EU slate the SP's exec jumped at the chance. Here was an opportunity to influence the country's most militant union, deepen its break with Labour and demonstrate to other labour movement activists that an independent political existence was possible. The questions surrounding No2EU's politics (in all essentials no different from the official Communist Party's platform circa 1974) were spun by the SP as "not ideal" but the party was prepared to accept them as its participation was asked for "at a late stage".

The election came and went. A "marker was put down", "new layers of workers saw No2EU material", and it was "a step toward a new party". But how did the SP's perspectives bear out? There was immediate excited talk of a new project involving the SP's partners and other trade unions. If memory serves, these mysterious organisations were the FBU, POA and (leading SP members in) the PCS. However, very quickly the fading CPB dropped out and union backing did not materialise. So by the time the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition launched in January 2010 all that remained was the SP, Bob Crow with some leading RMT'ers, and a few senior people in the POA. Since then there has been progress of sorts. The RMT and SWP have formally affiliated, the coalition has contested quite a few elections - including a seminal beating by Elvis Loves Pets in the Eastleigh by-election - and, um. that's it. Also, TUSC are making a big effort at this year's local elections, but more about that once the votes have been counted.

In all essentials, No2EU fulfilled its objectives. It cemented a good relationship between the RMT, CPB and SP. It nicely slots into the SP's narrative of unions breaking from Labour, and paved the way for a successor organisation. So why is it getting another outing after five years of accumulating mothballs? Consulting my former comrades is no use. You could be forgiven for thinking the SP have forgotten they're affiliated. TUSC is everywhere on their website. No2EU, on the contrary, is conspicuous by its absence. There is no article justifying its existence. No explanation why it is just as provisional and amateurish as last time, despite having five years to prepare. Deputy general secretary Hannah Sell has served some warm-ups on the EU, but there is no linking of No2EU with an overall strategy, apart from a desire to "exit from the EU on the basis of socialist policies". But when No2EU's site can't be bothered to list its own candidates, why should anyone expect its affiliate to take up the slack?

Needless to say, I think it's all a waste of time. But if you're going to challenge Labour, at least be serious about it. As local council elections are taking place on the same day as the Europeans, every party has the opportunity to benefit from "double-ticketing". For instance, as UKIP are projected to do well they have stood as many council candidates as they can. They know people who will vote for them for Europe are likely to vote for them in the locals too. They are using one to leverage the other. And this, of course, is common practice. The splitting of the far left ticket into No2EU for the Europeans and TUSC for the locals won't make much of a difference to the usual poor results, but betrays a basic amateurism, if not incompetence. If you're the proletarian vanguard you do yourself no favours being seen to lag behind the "bourgeois parties" on political ABCs.

To be fair to the SP though, this is a matter of positioning rather than sound politics. There are some in the RMT leadership who, unlike most leading trade union tops, detest the EU. While the scepticism and critique of the EU's constitutionally embedded neoliberalism is widespread in the labour movement, there are leading RMT comrades who combine this with a left Little Englandism. This is reflected in No2EU's points on the repatriation of powers independent economic policies, unequal trade agreements, etc. As the SP historically has comparatively little to say about constitutional matters, and think stuff like sovereignty is so much flim-flammery (socialism is always the answer to such things), it is quite prepared to indulge their partners' proclivities to keep the show on the road. Since the sad passing of Bob Crow there is a fear the RMT might withdraw its formal backing from TUSC in the absence of good results. If carrying on with No2EU is a price to pay for continued good relations and influence, the SP will do what it takes.

There is a whiff of groundhog day about all this. But I suppose I ought to be grateful for No2EU. Despite the furious spin I gave it at the time, the experience did focus my mind on the problems of socialist strategy in Britain, and the relationship between Labour and the labour movement. It led me to conclude there is no political room for a mkII Labour Party. It also eventually dawned that Trotskyism and revolutionary politics are not just ill-suited to an advanced capitalist society like ours, but absolutely incompatible with a socialist strategy appropriate to it. If there are SP activists who get disillusioned because of No2EU's poor results, I hope they find alternative ways of building the labour movement rather than retreat into private life.

Image from the No2EU Facebook page.

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Stoke Central Labour Party Arrives

On that there Twitter?

Want all the latest Labour info from Stoke-on-Trent, the axis around which world politics pivots?

Then this might turn out to be the best news you've seen all year:

This is Stoke Central Labour Party calling.
— Stoke Central Labour (@StokeCentralCLP) May 15, 2014

You know what to do. Press follow. Get your friends to press follow.

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