brianwhelan.net

Just one month after walking free with a community order for an...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:03:00 +0000

Just one month after walking free with a community order for an assault that left a Good Samaritan with a steel plate in his head - Thomas Lane gloats on his blog about his ‘proudest moment’.

Joseph O’Reilly was set upon by Daniel Chrapkowski, Thomas Lane and Oliver O’Neill while on a night with his girlfriend after asking the trio why they were kicking over bins. Their response was to beat him so severely he suffered bleeding on the brain

Unfortunately his pal Daniel Chrapkowski’s online behaviour isn’t suitable for a family-friendly blog.

Don't be that guy

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:06:00 +0000

The post that was here has been pulled, it revealed the personal details of a troll who left an awful comment online. They have learnt their lesson, received a severe shock and promised to apologise to the journalist they targeted.

Thousands of people have already seen his personal details, I don’t feel the need to expose him further.

Apology Tweeted:

Back to Twitter.

Another spread in Sunday World, based on my work with leaked...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:48:00 +0000

Another spread in Sunday World, based on my work with leaked files from Operation Blitzkrieg - a top civil servant at the DFA was featured on the customer list of neo-Nazi linked company Thor Steinar and ran a bizarre skinhead porn site.

My Nazi maps make a splash in Ireland’s biggest-selling...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:45:00 +0000

My Nazi maps make a splash in Ireland’s biggest-selling tabloid.

Mapping #OperationBlitzkrieg

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:54:00 +0000

The map below shows all the Irish locations listed in the recent #Operationblitzkrieg leaks. I have removed names and exact addresses (house numbers, etc.)

View Operation Blitzkrieg map of Ireland (redacted) in a full screen map

The map draws together data from 4 leaks, revealing the spread of far right support across the country. There are 58 listings for Dublin with many based in Tallaght, Clondalkin and other west Dublin suburbs. Cork has 22 listings and Galway has a surprising 18. A number of addresses appeared several times for different verified names, indicating clusters of activists living together.

An unredacted version of this map including full names, addresses and email contacts has been shared with a number of Irish newspapers.

Details of a senior civil servant, secondary school history teacher and business professional are all included in the leak alongside those of known far right activists. Contact details lead to Facebook accounts revealing trips to Auschwitz and international hate sites run from obscure backwater villages.

A previous leaked list of Blood and Honour forum members from 2008 showed over 200 Irish members with just 20 active users. This leak reveals a new level of neo-Nazi activity in Ireland including scores of activists who have migrated from eastern European countries, many previously unknown to myself and anti-racist organisations I have shared the files with.

Some of my previous work on the far right in Ireland -

The Irish Nick Griffin

Nazis infiltrate Irish army

General’s niece trains for ‘race war’

BNP sets their sights on Ireland

Stormfront moderator unmasked

Irish National Party leader exposed

Previous B&H exposé;

This happened.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:49:43 +0000

This happened.

North Korean arms links to Ireland

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:09:00 +0000

Sunday World piece on Xmas day following up North Korean links to Ireland;

A piece I wrote for Sunday Mirror in October 2009 about North Korean links to Irish politicians. Reposted after the death of Kim.

FORMER Official IRA members have revealed the group’s links to Communist North Korea, where members received military training in the late 80s.

Official IRA volunteers have admitted making trips to the totalitarian regime during the same period that the Workers Party, their political wing, had seven elected TDs in the Dail, including current Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore and former leader Pat Rabbitte.

North Korean agents also supplied the group with a shipment of weapons, which are believed to still to be in the hands of people loyal to the organisation.

Official IRA men have detailed how they traveled to the Far East where they were trained in assassination techniques, the use of heavy machine guns and intelligence gathering by the North Korean army.

Over a dozen Official IRA men, nicknamed Stickies, received training in early 1987 with two others having traveled to the country the previous year. The group included men from Belfast and Dublin.

Two younger operatives traveled to North Korea initially and trained alongside specialist units of the Korean People’s Army. The following spring a dozen more members traveled to Pyongyang for several weeks of intensive weapons, combat and intelligence instruction.

The group traveled via USSR, according to IRA sources, and were assisted by the KGB with elaborate measures were taken to conceal their real destination from western intelligence agencies.

Each man was forced to write a series of postcards and letters while in Moscow which they dated over the coming weeks; a Moscow-based IRA member sent these greetings on during their stay in North Korea.

During the same period the book claims the Official IRA were involved in bank robberies and other illegal fundraising schemes, which helped pay for the Workers Party.

The Workers Party was represented in the European parliament by Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who now holds the same position for the Labour party.

However, the Official IRA men say they were not training to fight the British but defend members from the Provos and other paramilitary killers.

Some volunteers believed it was “just an exercise in keeping them happy” while others claimed they were informed the training was to establish an elite “assassination squad”.

While in North Korea the Irishmen mixed with soldiers from African countries who were also being trained by the secretive North Korean army.

The revelation is contained in a new book “The Lost Revolution – the story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party”.

Historian Brian Hanley, one of the authors of The Lost Revolution, explained the men were committed to socialist ideas and believed that they needed to be trained so they could protect the Workers Party from republican rivals.

“The training in North Korea was actually part of a plan to stand down the Official IRA and finally allow their movement to give up the gun,” he stated.

The book also reveals the Official IRA continued to receive weapons supplies long after their 1972 ceasefire; the Russian secret service, the KGB, and other international groups supplied the Officials with guns into the late 1980s.

Among those who supplied arms were the Middle Eastern guerrilla group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Unlike other Northern Irish paramilitary groups the Official IRA have not decommissioned any of their weapons including two dozen hand-guns which were delivered by North Korean agents in the late 80s.

While the left was sleeping the EDL enter party politics

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:46:00 +0000

Imagine the streetfighting thugs of the EDL joined forces with an organised and well funded far right political party, a terrifying prospect isn’t it? It has already happened and everyone seemed to miss the whole thing.

Last Saturday EDL leaders met in the West Midlands where they agreed a tie-up between their group and the British Freedom Party, with the EDL serving as the street wing and BFP as the electoral front.

You might remember the BFP from the recent limp ‘expose’ of Nick Griffin on Panorama, it’s a group full of disgruntled ex-BNP members, led by former UKIP member who believes white English people are being ‘ethnically cleansed’.

The BFP recently announced former UKIP candidate Paul Weston as its chair, but if you look behind the scenes you’ll find people like the BNP’s former legal eagle Lee Barnes, BNP fundholder John Savage and their old Cornwall organiser Peter ‘rivers of blood’ Mullins.

Chairman Weston can hold his own against these seasoned racists though, in one blog post about the supposed ‘ethnic cleansing’ of white people he explains; “many Muslim men in Tower Hamlets routinely have four wives each, all “legally” supported by the British State in order they may father up to twenty-eight children in a literal tsunami of polygamous demographic warfare”. Charming stuff.

The BFP are now the political wing of the EDL, with EDL members urged to join the party en masse. The bully boys will be on the streets as the movement’s muscle, and Weston and his ilk will be the ideological leaders and strategists contesting elections.

You might scoff at this alliance of the far right, but the EDL are capable of mobilising in worrying numbers and have developed a serious appetite for scuffling with the police, anti-fascists and Muslim youths. For their part, the BFP have experience of running a far right party that has previously won more than half a million votes and seats in the European Parliament.

Reports indicate the alliance is already thriving. The BFP claim they are struggling to cope with the number of membership requests they have received and the EDL is supportive of the move towards contesting political power.

In a dubious splash last February The Daily Star previously announced that the EDL were to ‘go political’, but this didn’t ring true with EDL leader Tommy Robinson’s comments at the time;

“We aren’t ruling it out. I think this country needs a party that’s not afraid to say things some would consider unpopular. We are a single issue group and at the moment we would rather have a dialogue with the other political parties – but that could change.”

Now things have changed. Robinson has explained the merger as “an opportunity for EDL members to move over to BFP and for the first time provide input and promote the views of the British working class within a British political party”.

He added that the EDL will use their divisional structure to support British Freedom. What form this support takes remains to be seen but there has been a recent swing in EDL activity. Not content with bi-monthly drunken marches some divisions have taken to attacking left wing groups and meetings.

Occupy Newcastle was one recent target of attacks by EDL thugs, while previously a gig by punk band the Oppressed in Leeds had been targeted along with a handful of SWP meetings. Earlier this month 179 EDL members were arrested in central London, they were thought to have been preparing to attack the Occupy London camp.

A number of EDL divisions have now declared that all left wing events regardless of their cause are legitimate targets for attack. Some have even set their sights on the November 30th strikes.

This new alliance is unlikely to last, but while it does it could do serious damage. Robinson has said in the past that he hopes the presence of the EDL will force parties to take a harder line: “My hope is still that the Tories will take a tougher stance.”

Commentators claimed the BNP was ‘defeated’ in Barking in 2010, they received 563,000 votes that year, some defeat. They didn’t take any seats but their constituency within the disaffected white working class remains - one the Labour left fail to engage but an EDL/BFP group could find fertile ground with.

The campaigns to defeat the BNP focussed on their divisive politics, legalistic challenges to their constitution and attempts to ban the party. In a recent interview with seasoned anti-fascists I highlighted their stance that unless ‘the left could undermine the far-right’s political constituency in the white working class they would never be truly beaten’.

EDL members come from backgrounds many on the left could never relate to, members often moan about not having the meagre £15 it costs to take a coach to a demonstration. They claim that austerity means more of the same to them. They never benefited during boom years and are now openly hostile to those fighting the cuts, asking; where were they before?

This group could become very hard to ignore, some have already speculated Robinson could run for Mayor of London, he could never win but it would ensure the EDL and BFP grabbed the headlines and received a platform to spread their anti-Muslim agenda.

The BNP was met with vocal and even physical opposition everywhere it went, Robinson has no intention of falling victim to the same tactics; “Nick Griffin got two million votes and he’s an MEP but he didn’t have anyone supporting him when he went on Question Time.”

“Get me on…I’ll have 10,000 people turn up to support me”.

#NOV9 London Student Protests on Yahoo! covered by myself along...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:04:00 +0000

#NOV9 London Student Protests on Yahoo! covered by myself along with Yahoo! news reporter Adam Parris Long.

Fool's gold: How Stuart Hughes tricked the global press

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:23:00 +0000

This is the man who has tricked some of the biggest global news organisations into running fake stories about the world’s most expensive homes, yachts and cars.

Hundreds of stories about fantastic gold products manufactured by Stuart Hughes have appeared in respected publications over the last 4 years.

He has previously been praised for; selling a gold iPhone to Victoria Beckham, selling the world’s most expensive house ($12.2bn) and flogging a gold yacht that would have been too heavy to float.

This week his latest fantastic product, a £5million gold and ammolite iPad with dinosaur bones, has been covered by at least 77 newsrooms including; Sky News, Daily Mail, Discovery News, Gawker, Perez Hilton and MSN Money.

I can now reveal that the supposed international gold and diamond dealer Stuart Hughes is a father of two who lives alone in a modest apartment in Merseyside, Liverpool and regularly moans about the state of his finances.

Stuart runs two websites filled with gold and diamond plated tat costing millions of pounds with pages and pages of international news clippings featuring his fantastic products going back over 4 years.

However, almost all of the images are computer generated and Photoshopped, with few actual pictures of the real life products - something many media outlets have failed to notice.

Last night when confronted with information I had gathered about the real state of his finances Stuart confessed that he had made up the stories about selling the world’s most expensive house and yacht.

However, he insists the gold iPad with T-rex bones is real and is being kept somewhere in Russia so is unable to show it to me. His story appeared to fall down when asked about the source of his T-rex bones.

He explained: “(I source them in) Arizona…they’re not rare, well they are rare but you can pick these fossils off Southport beach, you know what I mean?”

More recently Stuart has claimed to have entered a business partnership with minor celeb Jo-Emma Larvin, following difficulties with his former partner.

However, last night Stuart confessed the pair had never met but swore she had agreed to have her name and image associated with his products.

Asked why he would bother to place such obviously fake stories in the press he claimed “I’m just trying to make a wage here” – although he failed to explain what part of his business he was making money from.

When asked why a man who carries out some of the biggest gold and diamond transactions in the world has trouble paying his car insurance and needs to return pegs to the shop for a refund he proved evasive.

He swears his business is legitimate but was unwilling to discuss how much money it generates.

He claims the media are often aware that he is telling tall tales but are more interested in getting a good story.

“This is how I work…I keep things real, I buy second hand, I drive a Bentley,” he explains.

“I was on NBC last night, its just a wow factor, they don’t believe it but guess what – it sells their…I get personally on average about 20-25 requests from all the glossy magazines.”

“It sells their gear, that’s what it does.”

Stuart was equally evasive about the source of the pictures on his website and when asked to produce some real pictures emailed me a picture of a bmx spraypainted gold.

Previously his business was put under serious scrutiny by The Age, emails posted to the website of Computer Choppers seemed to cast doubt on the legitimacy of his images and his gold yacht was claimed to be a hoax.

A page on Stuart’s website offers members of the public a chance to become part of his franchise explaining; “Once the initial start up fee is paid, there are no further payments due to Goldstriker or Stuart Hughes.”

It is not currently known how many people, if any, have signed up to be part of Stuart’s business.

I have the tapes, documents, pictures, etc. to stand this story up. If you want to correct your stories with this information feel free to make contact.

Some of my snaps from the Irish Presidential election 2011.

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:13:00 +0100

Triumphant Michael D

Pint-sized Gallagher

Dejected Dana

Some of my snaps from the Irish Presidential election 2011.

Interview with protester at #Occupylsx

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:53:07 +0100

Interview with protester at #Occupylsx

Julian Assange at #OccupyLondon 15/10/11.

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:33:00 +0100

Julian Assange at #OccupyLondon 15/10/11.

Ireland's Harigate: Examiner journalist plagiarises Spiked Online

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:33:00 +0100

Earlier this year I helped expose Johann Hari’s dishonest and lazy journalism techniques. I have since been contacted by a number of people who hold suspicions about certain journalists stealing work and cutting corners. One of these instances was so shocking I could not skip over it.

While the Irish Examiner’s Dr Steven King is not as widely known as Johann the extent of his plagiarism is mind boggling and his political background as former chief political advisor to Nobel Peace Laureate and First Minister of Northern Ireland David Trimble marks him out as someone who should have known better.

A colleague of King’s has confirmed the details posted to his online profile, he has worked as Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) negotiator on equality, human rights, security and cultural issues in the multi-party peace talks leading to the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.

King was Educated at Oxford, Queen’s and the University of Ulster, holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, a Master of Social Science in Humanities and a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science.

I will show below that he has been extensively passing off the ideas of Spiked Online’s Brendan O’Neill as his own. I have contacted O’Neill who says he has never met King and never gave permission for any of his work to be reproduced by him.

Let’s begin.

Steven King writes in the Irish Examiner on the 6/7/11;

The crusade against trafficking looks less and less like a serious attempt to assist migrants and increase their options, and more like a super-moralistic fantasy campaign against evil and perverted Johnny Foreigners

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/crusade-against-trafficking-may-be-missing-the-point-on-sex-industry-160058.html#ixzz1ZvU3w3nt

Brendan O’Neill writes in Spiked online 31/1/08;

The crusade against trafficking looks less and less like a real-world attempt to assist migrants and increase their freedom of movement and choices, and more like a super-moralistic fantasy campaign against evil and perverted Johnny Foreigners.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/earticle/4389/

King continues;

The anti-traffickers paint a picture of Conradian darkness, where women and children are bought and sold by evil gangs, and then forced into labour and kept in their place by threats of murder or voodoo vengeance.

O’Neill;

The anti-traffickers paint a picture of uber-Dickensian global squalor, of Conradian darkness, where women and children are bought and sold by evil gangs, and then forced into labour and kept in their place by threats of murder or voodoo vengeance.

King continues;

This distorted depiction portrays foreign women, especially those who end up working in prostitution, as objects rather than as active subjects. These women do not simply move around the world; rather they are trafficked across borders, smuggled and shifted like pieces on a chess board.

O’Neill;

Anti-traffickers patronisingly describe foreign women, especially those who end up working in prostitution, as objects rather than as active subjects. Apparently these women do not move around the world; rather they are trafficked across borders, smuggled and shifted like pieces on a chess board.

I could go on. But I have a lot to get through. On Wikileaks the similarity between King’s copy and O’Neill’s are shocking.

Steven King, December 1, 2010;

Today’s information incontinence among the powers-that-be in much of the Western world — which is now so bad that a couple of years ago an internal US government document about the problem of leaking was later leaked — springs from institutional incoherence amongst the political class.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/he-is-irritating-but-wikileaks-founder-is-no-enemy-of-the-state-138047.html#ixzz1ZvX4WkUb

O’Neill writes July 27, 2010

Today’s information incontinence amongst the powers-that-be in much of the Western world – which is now so bad that a couple of years ago an internal US government document about the problem of leaking was later leaked – springs from political disarray and institutional incoherence amongst the political class.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9348/

If you take your time and pick through it there are scores of matches throughout this article, at least four paragraphs match up almost word for word. To save space I’ll continue to another example.

On war crimes:

King writes October 5 2011;

The transformation of The Hague into a gossip chamber, complete with quotes from the Oprah Winfrey Show, was an act of extraordinary cynicism. It was a transparently desperate attempt by The Hague to drum up some international interest in its trial.

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/two-celebrity-witnesses-make-war-crimes-trial-look-like-bad-movie-set-128106.html#ixzz1ZvaAyFhw

O’Neill wrote on August 6 2010;

The transformation of The Hague into a Hello!-style gossip chamber, complete with quotes from Oprah and info about Ms Campbell’s love of diamonds, was an act of extraordinary cynicism. It was a transparently desperate attempt by The Hague to drum up some international interest in its trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9389/

I can count seven more paragraphs in King’s story that reproduce O’Neill’s ideas or exact wording.

On liberals and Breivik:

King writes on October 5, 2011;

I say ‘most of us’ because where Islamist terror strikes, from 9/11 in New York to 7/7 in London, prompt in some supposedly liberal observers dithering and mixed emotions. On the one hand, there is a desire to condemn the violence but also a need to somehow ‘understand’ it as a natural reaction to ‘evil’ Western foreign policy. Anders Behring Breivik is someone they can straightforwardly and unambiguously hate.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/breivik-a-lone-killer-not-part-of-terrorist-organisation-thankfully-162951.html#ixzz1Zvbhd5IH

O’Neill wrote on 25 July, 2011

This means he is the kind of person we can unambiguously hate. Where Islamist terror attacks, from 9/11 to 7/7, induce in some liberal observers torn and tortured feelings, where they want to condemn the violence but also feel the need to explain it as a natural reaction to evil Western foreign policy, Anders Behring Breivik is someone they can despise in an uncomplicated way.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/10923/

On the far right:

Bizarrely King went back as far as 2002 to plagiarise Spiked’s easily identifiable article as his own in 2011.

King writes on April 20, 2011;

Is Europe slipping into the abyss? Are we really heading for a new Dark Age, with Europe’s Nazi past coming back to haunt us? Are fascistic far-right parties really ‘on the march again’ everywhere from Greece to France, from Italy to Holland? In a word, no. The current obsession with the rise of the far right tells us far more about the European elites’ crisis of confidence and legitimacy than it does about any Nazi reality.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/far-right-threat-exaggerated-despite-hysteria-of-some-media-151932.html#ixzz1ZvckNZMe

O’Neill wrote 12 June 2002:

Is Europe really heading for a new Dark Age, with its Nazi past coming back to haunt it? Are fascistic far-right parties really ‘on the march again’ everywhere from Greece to France, from Italy to Holland? In a word, no. The current obsession with the rise of the far right tells us far more about the European elites’ crisis of confidence and legitimacy than it does about any Nazi reality.

http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/00000006D931.htm

Throughout the rest of King’s article similarities abound.

On overpopulation:

King writes on September 21, 2011;

So, resources are not static in any meaningful sense. Resources have a past and a future, just as human beings do. The issue of what we consider to be a resource changes as society changes.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/dont-be-afraid-the-earths-seven-billionth-arrival-is-good-for-humanity-168185.html#ixzz1ZvdPLma2

O’Neill wrote November 9, 2010;

Resources are not fixed in any meaningful sense. Resources have a history and a future, just as human beings do. The question of what we consider to be a resource changes as society changes.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/lowgraphicsarticle/9867/

On the Chilean Miners;

King writes October 20, 2010;

These are the same army of professionals who saw fit to control the men’s emotions, even to censor letters from the miners’ families, lest they trigger unhelpful emotions. They always know best, you see. One of the miners had asked his wife during a video link-up: “why don’t you write to me anymore?’ In fact she had been writing every day, but her letters were awaiting ‘psychological approval’.

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/chilean-miners-bring-a-lesson-for-all-of-us-from-the-bowels-of-the-earth-133953.html#ixzz1ZvZUnRDC

O’Neill writes October 13 2010;

Early on, every time a family member wrote a letter it had to be submitted for psychological evaluation first, before being sent down the so-called umbilical cord to the men underground, so that any material judged ‘psychologically inappropriate’ could be removed. There was uproar when the families discovered that there was a backlog of letters waiting to be okayed. One of the miners had asked his wife during a video link-up: ‘Why don’t you write to me anymore?’ In fact she had been writing everyday, but her letters were awaiting ‘psychological approval’

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9785/

I could continue but I doubt many have read this far. I’m not a pedant by profession, I am a journalist and am proud have worked at some of the best names around including Sunday Times, News of the World and currently Yahoo! without resorting to any great acts of plagiarism. Feel free to reproduce the above or follow up the story.

Another blogger has some interesting comments on King over here.

I always welcome scoops; brian.whelan.journalism@gmail.com

Meet the EDL

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:46:00 +0100

This footage was shot in collaboration with brighttyger.com at the September 3rd EDL demonstration on the edge of Tower Hamlets.

White Riot; a critical account of punk’s racial history

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:15:00 +0100

I interviewed the authors of a new book from Verso Press exploring the complex, contradictory ways in which punk has interacted with the politics of race. You can read it over here.

Brian Whelan interviews the authors of a new book from Verso Press exploring the complex, contradictory ways in which punk has interacted with the politics of race.

From its birth punk rock has been obsessed with identity, exploding into the mainstream in the late 70s with filth and fury proudly exclaiming ‘no future’, the movement has traveled across the globe surviving four decades and many premature pronouncements of its death.

A new book hopes to trace the history of punk rock’s racial identity, following the legacy punk has created from its origins in the white rebel music of the late ‘60s through to the thriving scenes today in Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.

‘White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race’ brings together leading critics and personal reflections charting the deeply buried connections between race and punk. The authors, Stephen Duncombe – associate professor at NYU, and Maxwell Tremblay – drummer for the band The Sleepies, set out to produce a book that challenges the idea that punk was just a white-dominated phenomenon.

White Riot doesn’t shy away from exploring the co-opting of the culture by white supremacists or highlighting how punk, while striving to be seen as outside of society, continued to mirror dominant racial prejudices. Punk’s white image is due in part to its role as a place for ‘white identity to form in opposition to mainstream white identity,’ Stephen Duncombe explained to Look Left.

“We’re saying there is a reason punk rock has been seen as predominantly white. We’re also trying to tell the story that from the get-go there have been punks of colour – but what happens is you have memories of punk and those tend to get whitewashed out.”

He stresses that there have always been black, latino, asian and women punk rockers, and claims that compared to the other similar scenes there were always more. However, they were still a minority. When he got into punk it was about ‘pure rebellion’ and only later began to take on its political formulations; “It was in a pre-political phase,” he says.

“It was very much like a riot, and then that riot starts to take on political articulations with groups like The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers – it started to take on a left political articulation. Amongst young whites you had solidarity with people of other races and other ethnicities and people fighting struggles around the world.

“With bands like Skrewdriver it took on white racism and supremacy and so on but there’s this moment in the 1970s probably best exemplified by bands like The Sex Pistols or X where you have an inchoate whiteness where its not sure what it wants to be, it’s a lot of rebellion the filth and the fury but its not sure what it wants to be – that was my punk scene.”

Maxwell Tremblay’s experience of Punk came almost two decades later, long after the initial headline-grabbing cultural explosions in London and New York. When he arrived into the punk scene the politics were seemingly already hammered out.

“It was like you walked into the shows and were handed a membership card to some sort of anarchist group or it was very lefty and progressive,” he explained.

“It was interested in anarchist thought without any historic sense of a time in punk rock when its politics were much more ambiguous and up for grabs. With their wildly differing experiences of the punk culture the authors says they are able to paint a more complete picture of how racial identity has progressed in punk culture.

Maxwell explains that “the two generational moments colliding give us the most complete historic picture of how race has been negotiated in the punk scene.”

For Stephen the failure of the left coming out of the radical upheaval in the 1960s played a big part in punk’s birth, he explains how at the time it seemed there was no vent for frustration with society.

“In the 1960s that [the left] might have given us a way to talk about our displeasure, our rage, our dissatisfaction but really right now we don’t have a vehicle, we don’t have an identity in which to be rebels,” he explains.

“We can borrow the identities of others but we really don’t have one of ourselves and we’re white and we’re pissed and we want to riot and I think that that ‘White Riot’ really captures that moment and that feeling.”

Punk gave people an outlet for their rage, it provided a cultural canvas young people could use to find their voice and express themselves and it wasn’t always pretty. “What one did with that rage – what direction one went – was then open,” he explains.

“It could go into white supremacy and racism, it could go into the left politics that The Clash articulated or it could stay in the white nihilism ‘no future’, ‘I want to destroy the passers-by’ Sex Pistols moment.”

To understand punk you have to see it as something not frozen in time but as a tradition that existed in bands like MC5 in 1960s Detroit and in articulations like Norman Mailer’s ‘White Negro’ polemic and continues to this day.

For Maxwell taking into account the long trajectory of punk debunks the dominant punk narrative and its cultural biases ‘…that it begins in white English speaking countries and then travels to other parts of the world’.

“Theres definitely quite a bit of bourgeois white-kid fuck you mom and dad reactionary stances happening as people get into punk rock,” he explains.

“But when you look at something like the documentary Afro-Punk there are kids that find themselves at a distance from mainstream status quo black identity and the punk rock identity is a way of working through distance that they feel.”

“Then what happens is coming to the punk scene they find themselves distanced from other white punks because punk rock tends to replicate certain white power structures of dominant society at large”

Speaking to the authors against the backdrop of the rioting that hit the UK comparisons are inevitably drawn between the ‘pre-political’ phase punk went through and the nihilistic outpouring from Britain’s underclass.

Stephen complained how people remarked that the riots weren’t political, explaining how he found they simply reflect the dominant ideas in society.“Of course they aren’t political and of course they’re looting every store because they’ve just adopted the general politics of the last 30-40s years, which is; I’m in it for myself.”

“They’re pissed off and they see that there’s no future – why would the people think that they could express a politics entirely separate from the dominant culture?”

He explains that while they express a rage different to the dominant culture in order to have a political vision that looks different they must find a new way to express it.

“Punk rock becomes a stage in which to talk these things out or yell these things out to become a much more mature way to think about race and about power…at their best these cultures can work as a platform to have these discussions.”

As a people’s history the book offers a powerful alternative view of punk, bringing to the fore its ever-present obsession with identity.

The authors believe that like all identities punk is slippery and can be adapted by anyone to take on their accents, so Bad Brains can bring reggae and their Rastafarian roots, while in Indonesia Muslim punks take a break for prayers in the middle of gigs.

In Chicago Los Crudos use the Spanish language to talk about latino issues with their overtly political style, so what was once an articulation of white rage, like all cultural forms, becomes adopted, adapted and takes on new meanings.

Punk struggled for a new outsider white identity, at its most extreme this grew into the confused idea that whites were a ‘persecuted minority’. This ambiguous idea was present from bands like Sham69 to Minor Threat but at its most extreme gave birth to punk’s neo-Nazi offshoots.

The book hopes to become the ‘ultimate reader’ on the subject and certainly offers a comprehensive view of the topic, but if you think punk’s relevance ended with The Sex Pistols you might find it all a bit pointless

For those now on the outside of punk looking back White Riot is a fascinating read. Personal reflections from punks such as the notorious neo-Nazi Ian Stuart sit in stark contrast alongside people like The Clash’s Paul Simenon.

In an overcrowded market of punk retrospectives, introspectives and anthologies, White Riot stands out as a book with a definite purpose that makes an for insightful read.

Nasa scientist refutes Hari's prize-winning article, media awards drag their feet

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:11:00 +0100

As revelations emerged about legal threats received by the Orwell Prize from lawyers at the Independent last week I made an unpopular statement about how nobody would want to win the prize again.

How could anyone want to win this award when it allowed Johann Hari’s bad journalism to go unnoticed? Well, it could be worse, the Orwell Prize have spent weeks working to investigate and correct their error, leaving other media awards conspicuous by their silence.

Hari isn’t just a former winner of the Orwell Prize, he has received quite a few awards over the years and after taking a look through the list, it looks like he might even be able to hang on to some of them. Some, not all.

In 2010 Press Gazette awarded Hari story of the year in the Environmental Press Awards for his work on Bangladesh. I contacted Dominic Ponsford, editor of PG, to ask if they had considered checking Hari’s work.

He explained; “When Press Gazette was sold by Wilmington in June 2009, they insisted on retaining the rights to all the awards which we used to run - including the Environmental Press Awards”

“On memory, Hari was awarded the prize for a piece which he wrote Bangladesh being at risk from flooding. And as far as I know, no questions have been raised over this piece so

“I don’t think stripping Hari of this award is an issue.”

The Bangladesh piece was sold on the back of a claim that the area would be buried under 25metres of water, a claim credited to Nasa scientist Jim Hanson - I spoke to Jim last week and he confirmed that he had not said that.

He explained to me; “The last time that Earth was 1-2C warmer than today, in the early Pliocene, sea level was about 25 meters higher than today. So that is where we are headed if we follow business-as-usual or even the European target.

“However, this could not happen this century. I have talked about “multi-meter” sea level rise this century, which means at least 2 meters. Indeed, if we were so foolish as to follow business-as-usual, I believe that 5 meter sea level rise is likely within ~ 1 century, i.e, it may occur before 2100.

“But the rate of sea level rise is a very difficult non-linear problem. It is more likely to be non-linear, better approximated as exponential than linear.”

Not dishonest journalism, perhaps, but certainly shoddy work and not award winning. Climate change is a serious issue, its important to get figures right. Dominic now says he will take a close look at the article.

“At present we have no plans to strip him of the prize. But I will now take a close look at the piece.”

Next stop the Comment Awards, where Hari has taken away both Cultural Commentator of the Year and Environmental Commentator of the year.

They say that they have “obviously talked about it and concluded that as his award was for comment rather than reporting or reportage then we would leave things as they were.”

I am not aware of which pieces he submitted and as such have no rebuttal. Although I hope his disputed version of events at the Copenhagen summit wasn’t involved.

Next up Amnesty International who awarded Hari Newspaper Journalist of the Year in 2007 and 2010.

Amnesty say “We are aware of the allegations being made about Johann Hari’s work and we are monitoring the situation closely.”

“The Independent is itself investigating some of these allegations and we will await the outcome of that in the first instance.”

I received no reply from the Marth Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, which Hari won in 2009. The award is for “factual journalism in English that exposes establishment propaganda.”. Funny then that one of the pieces Johann submitted was dubious “The dark side of Dubai”.

Andrew Gilligan received a reply from the Gellhorn Prize explaining they are waiting for the results of the Indy’s investigation. Why would they need to when the evidence is already there in black and white?

Telegraph:

A man interviewed by Johann Hari says the celebrated Left-wing writer “twisted,” “misquoted” and “misrepresented” his words in an article which won him a major journalism award.

Usman Raja, a counter-extremism expert for the Government’s “Prevent” initiative, was interviewed by Hari in 2009 for an article on those who have renounced extremism. He was described as a man who had “begged to become a suicide bomber” and quoted as calling himself a “papier-mâché Muslim.”

We still do not know whether the Indy will be publishing their findings or even sharing them with the people who, trusting the paper had checked the work, awarded Hari.

Given their aggressive attitude to the Orwell Prize it seems unlikely.

The EDL have been making a lot of noise over the last few days...

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:25:00 +0100

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

The EDL have been making a lot of noise over the last few days about how they aren’t violent like their Norwegian comrade. This video, showing horrific race attacks on the London Underground, was posted on Facebook profiles of EDL members on 21 June 2011. Manchester AFA speculate on the source here.

For more, follow me on Twitter.

David Samuels' serious factual errors about Sean Garland

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:37:00 +0100

In August of 2009 the Independent published an article entitled ‘Counterfeiting: Notes on a scandal’ by US ‘non-fiction writer’ David Samuels. The piece contains a number of serious factual errors that damage the reputation of a 77-year-old Irish man currently facing extradition to the US under disputed charges.

The article was published a long time ago, I am aware, but many journalists will no doubt be working from clippings when his court case resumes this Wednesday. Thanks to the Web any article with good SEO can linger for years spreading mistruths. All the worse when hosted on the website of a highly respected newspaper.

I wrote to the Indy outlining the errors last week. Why they won’t just take the piece down baffles me. I know they’re not keen on admitting when they’re in the wrong but perhaps they might if enough people ask nicely on Twitter.

Using another article published in the Indy I’d like to show them how wrong Samuels has got this story. I won’t speculate on his motivations.

Samuels’ second par reads;

“Garland was a lifelong terrorist who had personally engaged in deadly attacks on British soldiers and police in Northern Ireland since the 1950s, and whose exploits were said to have inspired Tom Clancy’s novel Patriot Games (1). As the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) entered into fitful negotiations with Protestant groups in the 1990s, Garland served as chief of staff for “the Official IRA” or OIRA, which rejected the idea of a peace deal in favour of the continuation of bombings, bank robberies and other politically-motivated crimes (2).”

Pretty serious charges;

(1) The reference to ‘Patriot Games’ is a mistaken reference to the popular Irish rebel song ‘The Patriot Game’ by Dominic Behan. That David Samuel can’t tell the difference between a fictional spy tale about the CIA and this song shows a worrying lack of research.

(2) Here Samuels mistakes the Official IRA, who began their ceasefire in May 1972, for the Real IRA, a splinter from the Provisional IRA – themselves a splinter of the Official IRA in the 70’s. The OIRA are now a historic footnote, the RIRA continue an unpopular terror campaign.

The Indy was already aware of both of these facts surely, having published a lengthy piece on Sean Garland in December 2005 by David McKittrick, who gets it right;

In the 1950s he (Garland) joined the IRA, who then instructed him to infiltrate the British Army to procure arms. He carried out his mission successfully, the IRA seizing guns from an Army barracks with his inside help.

In his own words, he was “actively involved in organising and participating in a number of major operations from 1955-56”. The most famous of these was when he led an IRA squad that attacked a police station in County Fermanagh where two IRA militiamen, Sean South and Fergal O’Hanlon, were shot dead. A republican song acclaims, “Another martyr for old Ireland, Sean South from Garryowen”. Garland was seriously wounded in the incident. In the years that followed, he was imprisoned on various occasions in both parts of Ireland for IRA activities.

When the organisation split into traditional and Marxist factions in the late 1960s he opposed the “narrow nationalism” of the Provisionals, and pursued a left-wing political path as one of the leaders of what was known as the Official IRA. That faction announced a ceasefire in 1972, but for years remained intermittently involved in violence.

The OIRA did continue to be involved in violence, just not a sectarian war or national liberation struggle against the British state. I wrote in Sunday Mirror, 2009;

OFFICIAL IRA gunmen were given military training and arms by communist North Korea…The Official IRA, which was linked to the Workers Party, admitted making trips to the totalitarian regime during the 80s - at the same time the party had seven elected TDs, including current Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore and former leader Pat Rabbitte.

That would be the same Gilmore and Rabbitte who are now in power as part of a coalition government in Ireland. The former is Táiniste (deputy PM), the latter a minister.

Further on Samuels makes another serious error;

Garland was a self-proclaimed Marxist who dressed like a professor and served as head of a far-left faction called the Irish Workers Party that had never elected a single one of its members to any mainstream political body.

Contrast with McKittrick;

The Workers Party once held a number of seats in the Irish parliament, but its strength has been greatly reduced.

In fact, the Workers Party at their peak had seven members of parliament (TDs) in Ireland along with an MEP and dozens of councillors. Up north they held ten seats in the early 70’s and elected a number of councillors over the years. The party still has two elected councillors in the south.

Again, Samuels seems to be thinking of another group, most likely Republican Sinn Fein (political wing of the Continuity IRA) a group whose entire outlook opposes everything Garland argued for in the republican movement.

A decent history of the Workers Party was published in 2009, you can read my write up on it from my local newspaper days here.

Given his inability to get the basic Wikipedia facts right, allowing Samuels to go on to make claims like the following is editorial madness;

…needed foreign currency to fund an estimated $100 million a year in donations to Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations - who, as it happened, were being trained in bomb-making in Lebanon by Sean Garland.

Sean Garland’s campaign against extradition has the backing of politicians across the political spectrum both north and south of the border. I have no involvement. For more information on his extradion you can read this blog - http://seangarlandextradition.wordpress.com/

(Disclosure; in January 2010 I built a website, wrote copy and did some layout for the relaunch of Look Left magazine, funded by the Workers Party along with a million other publications I was writing for at the time.)

The Iron Lady: Thatcher's Screws obit

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:15:00 +0100

This NOTW supplement cover will never see the light of day so I thought I’d share it here. I suppose it is now something of a rarity since the paper has closed.

There were fears earlier this year that Thatcher would go the same Saturday night as a big UK sports celeb. Of course its standard procedure for papers to have pre-made obits for major public figures.

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