“Hillsborough has nothing to do with independence.” That’s what an apologist for Stuart Campbell said to me. Well, I disagree. It has everything to do with it.
What should have been clear to anyone following news of the inquiry is that the Hillsborough tragedy was compounded by the police not coming clean for their mistakes that day. Not only did they not come clean, they spent 27 years blaming the fans, traducing the memory of the victims, and lying about what had happened. Sections of the media joined in. And instead of protecting wronged citizens, the political establishment followed suit. The victims, their families, the Liverpool fans, the city of Liverpool were vilified, ridiculed and dismissed by the establishment. Liverpool became a running gag about a work-shy underclass in perms and shell suits. See my short piece yesterday. See Suzanne Moore’s more expansive piece in the Guardian today.
That was naked class war by the haves on the have nots, in order to protect the powers-that-be. They closed ranks. Not just on one day, but for nearly three decades. And not just for Hillsborough, but on so many occasions that we've heard about, as well, no doubt, as many we haven’t. The whole edifice is rotten.
My support for independence was exactly because of that. It was because I hoped we could start with a clean sheet and do things differently. Not because of where we happen to live, but because people, communities, the over-ruled masses, would be behind that new moment, and we could build something new exactly because we, the people not the elite, would be saying: “We don’t want to do things the same way. This is not just going to be more of the same, but based in Edinburgh”. My participation in the referendum was based on that hope. It’s a hope I still harbour.
But then I see Stuart Campbell, someone who is influential in the pro-independence movement, reacting to the news that the Hillsborough inquiry jury found that the behaviour of the fans played no part in causing or contributing to “the dangerous situation at the Leppings Lane turnstiles” by saying, for example:
“did the police CAUSE anyone's death? No. They just failed to save them from Liverpool fans.”
And “Tell me, who squeezed the air out of their lungs? The police? The Sun? Margaret Thatcher?”
And “My solution is for people not to push each other until they die.”
That’s just a selection. Check his Twitter feed.
My reaction to that is to wonder if an independent Scotland would end up being dominated by people with those sorts of views, those sort of reactions. Because if so, I want no part of it. That’s not just more of the same, because actually the establishment has finally backed down in the face of the truth and appears at long last to be offering up to some sort of justice the police who made those terrible mistakes then covered them up with such an horrific campaign of victim-blaming. No, Campbell is going further: he’s still arguing the toss. He could have said, "actually, I got things wrong", or even simply kept quiet. But no, he’s backing the 27 years of vilification. He’s excusing the Sun, saying they've apologised enough. He’s – graphically and with crass insensitivity – saying the police didn't squeeze the air out of victims’ lungs.
An independent Scotland where the establishment who perpetrated the 27 years of misery for the relatives of the Hillsborough victims, where the establishment who responded to tragedy with naked class vilification is still the dominant force is not something I'm going to campaign for.
Campbell writes a popular blog. Many people have found his analysis useful. But he has no accountability. Don’t get me wrong: he can say what he wants, and can go on saying it. But the problem is that he has done more than just undermine his own credibility here: he has sullied a positive movement. Unless that movement distances itself from his corrosive influence, then it’s in serious danger of more people asking what on earth it is it stands for.
Thursday 28 April 2016
Wednesday 27 April 2016
Hillsborough, justice, and vilification of the working class
Justice has finally come for the Hillsborough relatives; late, and after too much unnecessary pain being heaped on them, too many obstacles put in their way, too much opposition from establishment organisations – the police, the media, political spin doctors - putting their own weasely backsides before the truth. But finally the truth is being told.
There is so much detail to look at, but there are few passages that better sum up the horror of what the establishment did to citizens it had disdain for than this:
"While the tabloid screamed that "the truth" was fans pickpocketing victims and urinating on cops, the real truth was the police probing victims' criminal records and taking blood samples from dead children in the hope of establishing drunkenness."
Take a while to let that sink in.
It’s not my purpose here to go through the details, for that there are better places to look, such as the excellent work done by Eleanor Barlow, here outlining the way the myths were busted by the inquiry: “The Hillsborough myths exposed by the inquests as a tissue of lies”. Please take the time to read it.
As we take in what has been uncovered here, what people are more and more coming to terms with is the fact that time after time, the police and the media have been involved in cover-up and lies. Someone dies, so the reaction of the police is to lie about the victim.
Take Jean Charles de Menezes. Instead of owning up to their failings, the police lied about what had happened and lied about the character of the victim. The inquest jury in December 2008 rejected the official account of events, but was told it did not have the option to return a verdict of unlawful killing.
Take Ian Tomlison, where the police followed that same pattern of cover-up and assassinating the character of the victim. (http://www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk).
Take Orgreave, where the BBC and the police colluded in telling lies about striking miners. (http://otjc.org.uk) - The BBC, it much later turned out, was then, and is still, a member of the CBI. During every industrial dispute it covered, and in which it broadcast quotes from the CBI, it never once declared an interest.
The list could go on. But what we get a picture of is of the resources at the disposal of the elite, the state, weighed against ordinary people.
For the relatives of the 96 Hillsborough victims, this has been a tough 27 years. They have borne it with dignity, dedication and tenacity, while they, their loved ones, their fellow football fans, their city, has been heaped with vilification and ridicule. The open class prejudice with which the media has portrayed Liverpudlians has been overwhelming. Comedians play the stereotypes for cheap laughs. Politicians, such as Boris Johnson, join in. But it’s not funny: what is at the bottom of this is cover-up and smear, and the disdain that the establishment has for working class people.
Remember that lesson when you read media reports of strikes, when you read about the supposed character of someone who has died at the hands of the police, or about the character of people who are on low wages or out of work.
The Hillsborough Justice Campaign
There is so much detail to look at, but there are few passages that better sum up the horror of what the establishment did to citizens it had disdain for than this:
"While the tabloid screamed that "the truth" was fans pickpocketing victims and urinating on cops, the real truth was the police probing victims' criminal records and taking blood samples from dead children in the hope of establishing drunkenness."
Take a while to let that sink in.
It’s not my purpose here to go through the details, for that there are better places to look, such as the excellent work done by Eleanor Barlow, here outlining the way the myths were busted by the inquiry: “The Hillsborough myths exposed by the inquests as a tissue of lies”. Please take the time to read it.
As we take in what has been uncovered here, what people are more and more coming to terms with is the fact that time after time, the police and the media have been involved in cover-up and lies. Someone dies, so the reaction of the police is to lie about the victim.
Take Jean Charles de Menezes. Instead of owning up to their failings, the police lied about what had happened and lied about the character of the victim. The inquest jury in December 2008 rejected the official account of events, but was told it did not have the option to return a verdict of unlawful killing.
Take Ian Tomlison, where the police followed that same pattern of cover-up and assassinating the character of the victim. (http://www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk).
Take Orgreave, where the BBC and the police colluded in telling lies about striking miners. (http://otjc.org.uk) - The BBC, it much later turned out, was then, and is still, a member of the CBI. During every industrial dispute it covered, and in which it broadcast quotes from the CBI, it never once declared an interest.
The list could go on. But what we get a picture of is of the resources at the disposal of the elite, the state, weighed against ordinary people.
For the relatives of the 96 Hillsborough victims, this has been a tough 27 years. They have borne it with dignity, dedication and tenacity, while they, their loved ones, their fellow football fans, their city, has been heaped with vilification and ridicule. The open class prejudice with which the media has portrayed Liverpudlians has been overwhelming. Comedians play the stereotypes for cheap laughs. Politicians, such as Boris Johnson, join in. But it’s not funny: what is at the bottom of this is cover-up and smear, and the disdain that the establishment has for working class people.
Remember that lesson when you read media reports of strikes, when you read about the supposed character of someone who has died at the hands of the police, or about the character of people who are on low wages or out of work.
The Hillsborough Justice Campaign
Sunday 24 April 2016
Brief thoughts on the Daily Record
The Daily Record has a shameful record as a reactionary rag. During the Clause 28 debate it actively campaigned, with whipped-up homophobic zeal, to try to create support for the homophobic Clause 28 which just didn't exist.
The disgraceful role of the Record in the Keep the Clause campaign (which sought to have the legislation banning councils from "promoting" homosexuality retained) cannot be ignored. There was no grassroots campaign to "Keep the Clause", just the homophobic paranoia of a rich man and his allies at the Daily Record and the Daily Mail. Oh yes, and the hypocritical self-loathing of Cardinal Winning.
The Record was trying to sway the opinion of its readers and the population as a whole, not follow it. With that background, the Record's support for equal marriage in Scotland, which it announced in 2013, seemed opportunistic and less-than-sincere.
But that's not all: in 2001 it not only put its racism on show, but also seemed to condone, or at least excuse, the murder in Glasgow, of Kurdish refugee Firsat Dag. "Stabbed Turk Firsat Conned his Way in as Asylum Seeker" raged the disgraceful front page banner. The Record took its information uncritically from the Turkish government, from whose anti-Kurd oppression Dag was fleeing, but that did not deter the Record from describing Dag, in the wake of his murder, as a "con man who came to this country to make a fast buck". That is hate-peddling pure and simple. There can be no justification for this type of journalism. It cannot even be called unconscious racism: it is open, vile and unacceptable.
That level of vileness cannot simply be written off as a mistake. It will take a lot to convince me that there has been a change in culture at that vile rag.
The disgraceful role of the Record in the Keep the Clause campaign (which sought to have the legislation banning councils from "promoting" homosexuality retained) cannot be ignored. There was no grassroots campaign to "Keep the Clause", just the homophobic paranoia of a rich man and his allies at the Daily Record and the Daily Mail. Oh yes, and the hypocritical self-loathing of Cardinal Winning.
The Record was trying to sway the opinion of its readers and the population as a whole, not follow it. With that background, the Record's support for equal marriage in Scotland, which it announced in 2013, seemed opportunistic and less-than-sincere.
But that's not all: in 2001 it not only put its racism on show, but also seemed to condone, or at least excuse, the murder in Glasgow, of Kurdish refugee Firsat Dag. "Stabbed Turk Firsat Conned his Way in as Asylum Seeker" raged the disgraceful front page banner. The Record took its information uncritically from the Turkish government, from whose anti-Kurd oppression Dag was fleeing, but that did not deter the Record from describing Dag, in the wake of his murder, as a "con man who came to this country to make a fast buck". That is hate-peddling pure and simple. There can be no justification for this type of journalism. It cannot even be called unconscious racism: it is open, vile and unacceptable.
That level of vileness cannot simply be written off as a mistake. It will take a lot to convince me that there has been a change in culture at that vile rag.
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