Kmflett's Blog

Remembering the two 9/11s. Not yet ready for the history books

Few will need reminding that it is the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, 11th September 2001.

Rather more might need a reminder of the other 9/11 in 1973 when a democratically elected socialist Government in Chile was brutally ousted by a US backed fascist coup.

Both the 9/11s are not yet history. The US is still intervening in the South of the Americas and the aftermath of the Iraq War which developed from the dreadful attack in New York is still firmly with us.

For the most part the Twin Towers attack saw ordinary people quite unconnected to the US policies which provided the pretext for the attack left dead and injured.

Many others will be able to remember with more than usual clarity where they were on that September day 19 years ago. I was at the TUC in Brighton. This was well before the days of instant access to the web via a smart phone.

It became clear in the hall that something had happened. That year’s TUC Chair Bill Morris made an announcement that a plane had hit the twin towers. At that stage the extent of devastation was unknown.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was due to address the gathering immediately after lunch. He appeared briefly said a speech would be inappropriate and hurried off to London. Business was suspended.

Delegates were stunned. Indeed so dazed was I that I recall shaking hands with the then General Secretary of my Union, not a normal event by any means.

I then retired to the Evening Star pub. After all when the world falls apart some things stay in place and it was definitely one of those days. Unexpected and unfathomable for the moment.

Blair of course had a very distinct reaction to those events. Afghanistan was in the frame for the start of what became the ‘war on terror’. That eventually led to an illegal war in Iraq and the biggest demonstration ever in British history against it on 15th February 2003. I was of course there.

As for Pinochet and Chile his bloody regime eventually met its end but the US even after Afghanistan will still be ‘intervening’ in other countries

Not All Our Yesterdays: Remembering 9.11, 20 years on

It is the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, 11th September 2001.

Some will have lost friends and relatives in the attack, for the most part ordinary people quite unconnected to the US policies which provided the pretext for the attack.

Many others will be able to remember with more than usual clarity where they were on that day. I was at the TUC in Brighton. This was well before the days of instant access to the web via a smart phone.

It became clear in the hall that something had happened. That year’s TUC Chair Bill Morris made an announcement that a plane had hit the twin towers. At that stage the extent of devastation was unknown.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was due to address the gathering immediately after lunch. He appeared briefly said a speech would be inappropriate and hurried off to London. Business was suspended.

Delegates were stunned. Indeed so dazed was I that I recall shaking hands with the then General Secretary of my Union, not a normal event by any means in those now fairly far off days.

Blair of course had a very distinct reaction to those events. Afghanistan was in the frame for the start of what became the ‘war on terror’.

Historically speaking it is too soon to draw a balance sheet of the impact and significant of Bush & Blair’s wars though the many thousands who have died on all sides and their relations may feel that judgement has already to some extent been made.

Socialists are sometimes accused of being found wanting by events. This was not one of those occasions.

Within 10 days on 21st September 2001 the original forces that became the Stop the War Coalition had called a meeting to protest about an impending attack on Afghanistan at Friends House in central London. The meeting was packed to overflowing in the garden outside.

That led on 13th October 2001 to what was in effect the first Stop the War demonstration and that carried through to the biggest demonstration in British history, against war with Iraq on 15th February 2003.

There are other points too.

Marxists look for material explanations for events so there is a continuing need to counter the views of those who believe the events of 9.11 were the result of a conspiracy by someone or another.

More importantly the activities of Bin Laden were a counsel of despair, the thought that ordinary people would not act so terrorism was needed.

20 years on the dreadful events of 11th September 2001 are not yet for the history books but they deserve to be remembered. Both those that died and were injured on the day and the many more that suffered the same fate because of wars launched on the back of that day. Then there is the constant need to organise to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The Queen endorses Black Lives Matter: roll on the red republic

According to a report in the Murdoch Times (10 Sept) based on information from a ‘Royal Insider’ the Queen supports Black Lives Matter.

This will certainly annoy Boris Johnson and Priti Patel who don’t.

The Queen has however not made a late conversion to Marxism (which by the way is not anyway specifically linked to BLM except by the right-wing media)

However the realities of sloganizing and fine words are underlined here.

Very few employees of the Royal Household are from ethnic minorities and the very limited target to employ more has not been met.

Black Lives Matter is about economic and social equality and the Queen as one of the wealthiest people in the country is not on that page whatever she may say

Cricket: politics, money, racism

It’s been a difficult day cricket wise for those  who argue that politics should be kept out of sport because today’s cricket headlines have been all about various kinds of politics

First came the announcement that India were pulling out of the 5^th Test at Old Trafford, 2 hours before the start of play. Good timing if you want to make it impossible to do anything to resolve it and get the match on.

India said they couldn’t field a team. However none of the players had tested positive for COVID in the last 24 hours so that seems rather questionable. Some members of the Indian backroom team have COVID (and in most cases since the Oval Test) and the media reported that the players were worried about catching it. Indeed anyone should be worried about this but with vaccination one hopes the impact will be limited.

The context of course is that the rescheduled IPL starts again in 10 days and if any player tested positive that would rule them out (at least initially). Whether the players were that seized on that is one thing but the BCCI who run Indian cricket certainly would be. The IPL is the world’s biggest cricket tournament and has big money behind it.

In other words what is really being said here is the IPL is more important than a Test series. Perhaps that’s where we are. If so it might have been sensible to say so and call the match off some days back.

Meanwhile as all this was making the news Yorkshire released their much-delayed report into racism at the club:

https://www.yorkshireccc.com/news/view/9525/statement-from-chair-summary-of-panel-s-report-recommendations

There are some fine words and good intentions at the end but no one appears to be in line for disciplinary action and there are no specific actions or targets to sort matters out either….Not really work in progress

Time to remember Robert E Lee but not with statues or pub names

A statue of the Confederate General Robert E Lee has been officially taken down in Richmond Virginia.  Numerous attempts to get it taken down had been resisted until the pressure of the Black Lives Matter movement finally saw it done.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/08/robert-e-lee-statue-confederate-general-richmond-virginia

The statue was one of many put up not immediately after the US Civil War but decades later to remind people who was in charge in the Southern US- slavers. Donald Trump called the removal of the statue ‘desecration’ and later claimed that if Lee had been in charge in Afghanistan the US would have won. The kind of view of history that makes even Boris Johnson’s efforts look tolerable

Statue defender in-chief Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden does not appear to have opined and neither does the hard right sect Save Our Statues.

It wasn’t just in the US that racists venerated Robert E Lee though. A few minutes from where I’m writing this at Tottenham High Cross there was for some years a pub named after him. The attached nightclub Charlie Browns was better known. The late Dale Winton DJ’d there and mentions the pub in passing without comment on Lee. Then again Winton who died in 2018 backed Trump in 2016.

Robert E Lee does however still deserve to be remembered as the Civil War General who led the military fight against the abolition of slavery. Remembering and cheering on are not the same things

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

9th September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year (Classic). Round Two open as Hackney Tap wins Round One

The Beard Liberation Front has said that the delayed vote for Beard Friendly Pub and Bar of the Year is now open.

The Hackney Tap won Round One with Bubs in Cardiff the runner-up. It will go through to a final round later in the month but Bubs could still feature as the highest second place

The on-line poll will feature three rounds each consisting of four of the most beard friendly pubs. A final beard off vote will feature the winner of each round.

Because of the circumstances of 2021 with many pubs only able to full open in the last few weeks, the poll is largely focused on Beard Friendly Classic pubs with the addition of a few notable newcomers.

The Beard Friendly Pub of the Year is an annual feature in January each year.

However in the extraordinary circumstances of 2021, the Beard Liberation Front has decided to run a vote in September with most pubs now being open post the easing of COVID restrictions

The decisive winner in the Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2020 poll which saw 11,000 votes cast in 10 days was the Bumble Inn micropub in Peterborough. The runner up was the Cock Tavern in Hackney

Both of these pubs are automatically on the poll.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, with pubs re-open at last there is a chance to discover which is the most beard friendly in an exceptional year. Round Two sees past winner The Cock Tavern E8 challenge three other well known beard friendly bars and taps

The criteria for the Award include:

A safe environment for all.

Beard Friendly Pub: a pub that welcomes the hirsute and often has a significant number of hirsute customers, including but certainly not confined to those with modern styles of beards.

Beard Friendly Ambience: a pub that may have fewer hirsute customers but is welcoming to the hirsute through some bearded bar staff and beard friendly beers, plus has a generally relaxed atmosphere for all.

The campaign group says it welcomes diversity in both appearance and drinking. The truly beard friendly pub will have a genuine mix of customers not just a load of old blokes grumbling about life.

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year(Classic) Round Two

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year Round Two

— keith flett (@kmflett) September 9, 2021

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2021

Shortlist

Tom’s Tap & Brew, Crewe

The Cock Tavern, Hackney

The Bumble Inn. Peterborough

The High Cross, Tottenham

Bubs, Cardiff

The Maltings, York

The Three Horseshoes, Bradford on Avon

Crafty Devil Cellar Cardiff

Exale Taproom, Walthamstow

Cloudwater Unit9 Manchester

Lost & Grounded Taproom Bristol

Hackney Tap

Beard Liberation Front

9^th August

Contact: BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard of the Year Michael Rosen praised for follicular safety while opening library

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has praised joint Beard of the Year Michael Rosen (with Michael Sheen) for adopting follicular safety measures when opening a new library in North London.

On Tuesday Rosen opened a new library at the Haringey Learning Partnership in Wood Green. This involved him flourishing a pair of scissors to cut the tape to declare the Library open.

Rosen has assured the BLF that full follicular safety measures were in place to avoid any possibility of beard/scissors interface.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Beard of the Year is all about positive images of beard wearers and what could be more positive than opening a library? The fact that full follicle safety was in place is absolutely what we’d expect from Michael Rosen and from Haringey which was led by one of the great modern beard wearers Bernie Grant and has in Adam Jogee an hirsute Mayor in 2021

On Twitter

Yesterday we celebrated the grand opening of Haringey Learning Partnership’s first ever library at Commerce House in Wood Green. Attendees included David Lammy MP & Haringey Leader @perayahmet, while renowned children’s author and Haringey local Michael Rosen cut the ribbon!

@haringeycouncil

The scissors were kept well away from the beard at all times. Follicular safety measures were in place, Fletty. @michaelrosenyes

John McDonnell is 70

Former Shadow Chancellor and Labour MP John McDonnell is 75 today. Coincidentally on the other side of the Atlantic Bernie Sanders is 85 today:

While Sanders no doubt has been influenced by Marx, McDonnell is an unequivocal Marxist

Both men are veteran socialists with McDonnell’s activism dating back to the days of the GLC in the 1980s.

McDonnell has never run to be Labour leader but Tony Benn thought he could do a good job back in 2006:

Tony Benn’s Diary July 5^th 2006. To the Campaign Group. John McDonnell wants to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party. I think that’s a good idea. He’s done a wonderful job in setting the Labour Representation Committee up. He’s doing meetings all over the country

Sadly like Sanders, McDonnell has never had a beard.

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders the veteran US socialist representative for Vermont has been in London talking about class war. The Guardian’s account is here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jun/04/saying-trump-is-dangerous-is-not-enough-bernie-sanders-on-biden-billionaires-and-why-the-democrats-failed

Arguably one of the great nearly men of US politics he continues to press for US domestic policies in favour of working people. His position on international issues is much less certain and not always progressive however.

He has been over the years a disliked figure on the right both in the US and the UK on the basis that while certainly not offering revolution he proposed more radical change than those making good profits out of the status quo felt entirely comfortable with.

In 2009 Sanders met Tony Benn:

Tony Benn Diary Monday 10th November 2009

Bernard Sanders the Socialist Senator for Vermont came by with his brother Larry Sanders who is a Green Councillor in Oxford. Bernie is 67 and Larry 73. We went over everything- Obama’s victory, a possible surge in Afghanistan….

Unfortunately Bernie Sanders has never had a beard..

Boris Johnson on NHS ‘reforms’ (July 2000): where is the toast?

Boris Johnson has announced a new Health and Social Care tax to help fund the NHS. I don’t have any issue with the NHS being funded by taxes but of course Johnson is proposing one where the least well off will pay proportionally more than the better off. As he would.

The tax would not be required in the first place if the Tories had not spent the last 10 years cutting the NHS.

Johnson also said that the pandemic was not in his Manifesto. A rare true statement. However it should have been because Government planning for just such an eventuality took place the mid-2010s and the Tory did little to implement changes.

Johnson while rightly praising the NHS for his COVID care last year is not someone who has made to say on it down the years.

An exception was at his selection meeting to become Tory candidate (and then MP) for Henley on 13^th July 2000. He was asked what his plans were for NHS reform? His answer was to refer to an incident when his then partner Marina Wheeler had been in hospital. He had eaten some toast she had been provided with while she was sleeping. He then complained there wasn’t more for her when she woke up. He went on to argue that this was a key reason to reform the NHS. His biographer Sonia Purnell (Just Boris) notes that this did not go down well with some of the Tory members present.

The reception for Johnson’s latest effort at NHS reform has been much worse.