Turning away for a moment from Labour's squalid donations fiasco, it was good to see protestors out on the streets demonstrating against the disgraceful decision by the Oxford Union to allow Nick Griffin and David Irving to spout their racist bile.
Inevitably, this led to comments from more reactionary commentators about "privileged" students grandstanding. Well, I was glad to see a bit of a revival of student radicalism.
At Cambridge in the 1970s, we weren't all swanning around in Brideshead Revisited mode.
Rock Against Racism and the original Anti Nazi League were in full flood. Coaches of women students went down to London for a Reclaim The Night march in Soho in 1978 ( on similar lines to the one held in London on Saturday night) .We even had a rather bizarre "Blue Jeans Day" in which we all wore denim to show solidarity with gay men. As someone pointed out at the time, as we all wore denim anyway, how would anyone know....
Still, we were pretty solidly egalitarian at my college though I daresay some of my former comrades have long gone over to the dark side and become very rich. But not all.
In fact, two of my exact contemporaries in COLS - Cambridge Organisation of Labour Students - are now on the National Committee of the LRC. Which, statistically, is pretty extraordinary. One of our other contemporaries, " Red Andy" Marr, used to sell Socialist Action in the market square and sport a Lenin cap. Well, we all know what happened to him....
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4 comments:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5aHn0DOA12g
red front on you tube
great
how do you get to find out what they are spouting if you are denied the opportuntiy to hear them? - its as stupid as stopping anyone listening to Gerry Adams. Are we only allowed to hear the views that you approve of?
It's well known that David Irving denies the Holocaust ever happened. Nick Griffin is a racist and fascist - well documented.Do your homework, anonymous. These people are scum and should not be given credibility by the Oxford Union. Former members Boris Johnson and Edwina Currie agree with me on this one......there is such a thing as human decency and these two ( ie Irving and griffin) nboth transgress it.
Who defines what is "decent" or "fascist".
A quote from O-level history has always stuck with me. From memory:
"Of course we believe in free speech, but you must take our opinions into account".
Joseph Goebbels.
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