Or, Munitions, mobs and mobile phones

So here’s a blog I never got around to sharing much back in November 2023…

I am posting it now because of a sudden, someone somewhere is sharing it and it reminded me of the way that day went, and how that story links up what I think are the three most important issues of our times, namely munitions, mobs and mobile phones. (If you know me and my life, you can skip the next three paras – they are a background you know well).

In the Corbyn-led Labour Party, we had an impressive coming together of activists from a range of backgrounds and with a range of stances on this or that. We didn’t succeed in winning the Labour Party but proved to ourselves that a mass movement to restore democracy and human values is possible, and we learned about the saboteurs and, sadly, how not to deal with them. We saw, as it all unravelled, how the Holdfasts used first the antisemitism scam, then Brexit and the women’s rights campaign, to divide and disperse the massive, active following the Corbyn movement built.

Like many of the readers of my blog, I ended up standing down from my role in the Labour Party because I wanted to focus on the women’s rights campaign and, after 2019, that became my main focus. There was already a huge rift, caused by elements of the faux left having so much fun shouting at women they never noticed that socialist feminists had valid points about the dangers of ‘gender ideology’ and ‘the sex industry’ that needed addressing before the left could re-group and recover from the loss of the Labour Party…

Munitions

…That, along with the loss of our NHS and other services Labour under Corbyn would have rescued, was my main focus until October 7^th finally – FINALLY! – brought the appalling plight of the Palestinian people to the attention of the world. Over the past year and a half, many of those new to the #FreePalestine campaign have been learning for the first time just how determined the mainstream media and politicians are to keep their public narrative on the side of the arms industry rather than the Palestinians. It’s good that the world has found that out — at least I think they have. How many people know who the actual enemy is, here?

If you’re still puzzled about why Palestine is a central issue for socialist internationalists, and has been for years, and will be until we solve the problem of the arms industry (and how on earth it connects to a battle ever sex and gender) here’s what you need to look at: if you’re a reader, go for Claire Provost and Matt Kennard’s Silent Coup and/or The Peace and Justice movement’s The Monstrous Anger of the Guns…

If you prefer a film, try Shadow World…

Once you understand what the US and the UK’s protegé Israel does, you will know why the Zionist lobby were so determined to break the Corbyn movement, and why our huge following (many lacking political background and experience) could not defeat them, and you will know why neither Palestine nor the rest of the world will be free until we’ve shaken off the generation of politicians who are utterly (really, utterly, irremediably) in thrall to the arms industry and other big corporate lobbies.

November 2023 – all hands on deck

Like many lefty feminists, I mostly put aside my part in the various feminist campaigns after October 7^th because there was one task that stood out above all others as desperately, desperately urgent. We knew from bitter experience that as a matter of course, Israel avenges Israeli deaths at a ratio of around 100:1. That meant that, if they got away with their initial claim that HAMAS had killed over 1000 Israelis, the response would be cataclysmic. We have the evidence now, now it’s too late, that Israel really did do most of the killing that day.

The IOF have stated that their helicopter gunships made over a thousand strikes on Oct 7^th, killing Israeli and Palestinian military and civilians pretty much indiscriminately. According to their Hannibal Directive, their one and only focus was to kill Israeli hostages before they could be carried off but they have stated their (pretty obvious) truth only now, now that Gaza is destroyed, the West Bank largely annexed, and upwards of a hundred thousand dead (they’re only admitting to around fifty thousand so far, as those lost amongst the rubble don’t count, and nor do West Bank people).

So there we were, flat out lobbying, petitioning, rallying and marching, up against the arms industry’s two greatest propaganda units, the BBC and the UK government. We petitioned every organization each of us were members of, trying to lead them beyond their ‘civilized’, ‘even-handed’ statements on Oct 7^th, trying to get them to understand that Palestine’s troubles did not start on Oct 7^th, and that the task of dismantling that apartheid, settler-colonialist state was what mattered. That task continues.

Mobs

The #FreePalestine movement is not a mob. Like the anti-austerity marches of the Corbyn era, the #FreePalestine rallies and marches have been remarkable for their orderly, non-violent nature. Often led by Jewish socialists to pre-empt claims of antisemitism, their work, along with the sterling efforts made by Palestinian journalists and amateur Tiktokers, has persuaded most of the world that Palestine is the one that needs help. Mobs there were though. Our Jewish contingents regularly find themselves sworn and spat at by Zionists (no, they aren’t the same people – most Zionists are Christian evangelists and/or political opportunists).

If you were on the women’s campaign, you’ll recognize the type but, if you’re having trouble believing it, here’s some footage of Zionists trying to scare off Jewish protesters…

But the mob I came up against that November day was TwitX based. Trouble is, my former blog following were split into two halves – the original Corbyn movement people and then the feminist, women’s rights people. There were already some difficult disagreements between the two and when it came to Palestine – wow! I was used to mob responses – I was, for example, a speaker at that famous Women’s Place meeting at the Labour Conference in Brighton that got mobbed after a call-out from the stage at the World Transformed for misogynist thugs.

I get TwitX-mobbed

As a result of all that division, as far as I can tell anyway, it was a ‘trans activist’ who initially put my blog and some rather muddled attempts at contact details on TwitX, in response to a Met ‘wanted poster’ of a woman with an inappropriate placard on a London #FreePalestine march. Once they’d got people thinking that was me, it was taken up by a feminist who was upset about feminists who defended Palestine and then the daft messages started flowing in in their thousands, making that day a non-starter for me as far as working online was concerned. I deleted most of it a couple of days later in an attempt to find my actual messages but here is a snapshot of a little bit of my inbox.

…. Some of the messages were quite amusing. All sorts of sneaky ways to try and get me to respond, or to do something – and one or two who did appear to be trying to help – thanks for that, folks, but I was inundated. I never looked at all the messages and in fact, didn’t look at any until a few days later. I just did one response for everyone. It went like this…

I’d like to think that our feminist women’s rights movement has gone some way to convincing some people that joining aggressive racist or misogynistic mobs in the street is no way to win a campaign, and I’d like to think that my TwitX post (which got nearly as many hits as I’d had messages) went some way to convincing people that joining online mobs is an equally pointless activity.

You change the world by example, and by talking to people – really talking – you know, as in face-to-face – as in conversations, in which we try to understand each other, not by sending silly, rude messages based on TwitX nonsense.

Mobile phones

I do have a mobile phone – it looks like this…

… it is not SMART. SMART does not mean clever, SMART means under someone else’s control, not yours. One of the very important facts about SMART anything is that however useful this gadget or that app may be, they also add to your feeling that you’re not quite in control of your life, and they add to your sense of insecurity that’s born of relying on things you don’t quite understand, and above all, they add to the vast stockpile of ‘data’ Silicon Valley is collecting about all of us. Never mind how careful you are about what you share online. Your SMART meter, your SMART phone and all your natty little apps are ratting on you minute by minute to people who are getting better and better at misdirecting you, wasting your time and selling your ‘modified behaviour’ to their clients.

Perhaps more importantly, the only way you can get any peace inside your own head these days is to get yourself out of reach of all things SMART. I wasn’t the slightest bit harried by all that kack in my inbox and on my blog on the day of that TwitX storm because all I had to do was switch off my PC. It’s the only route into my home the internet has and, as I had a ticket for a very interesting book launch that evening, I was away out of reach of it all until things had calmed down.

I know some people do good stuff on social media. We used it a lot during the Corbyn years and, while I was sitting munching sandwiches on the train to London for that launch, the social media adepts amongst my friends were busy chasing down the passers on of that attempted doxxing and having words with them, and spreading the news on TwitX that that wanted poster everyone was passing around was not a pic of me. I was very, very grateful for their efforts. I’d had a good chat-through with the local police where I am before I went to London, so wasn’t worried about the dunderheads at the Met trying to come after me (wanted posters on TwitX, for goodness sakes!) but it was great to know that others with a bit more savvy had my back.

There was even a rather wonderful comedy moment (well, it amused me!) The main draw for me at that book launch was that Selina Todd was among the speakers. I love listening to her on women’s history, and so I went up to talk to her afterwards. By that point, I’d completely forgotten about the TwitX mob and had no idea everyone else was still thinking about it.

I said…

“Hi, I’m Kay Green and…”

She said…

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”

I was perplexed – I mean, it’s not that bad being me…

But above all, I’d really like to make the point – for myself and for everyone – that one of our most important duties when bringing up kids these days is to ensure they get enough real, face-to-face social time that they can grow up knowing how to be a living, organic being, comfortable amongst its fellows.

So, to sum up:

Munitions

In order to fix our politics, free Palestine, prevent a global climate disaster and win some real peace and security, we need to get rid of all the politicians who’ve sold their souls to the arms industry – and we have to be aware that that’s most of them, and most of those who don’t belong to the arms industry belong to private healthcare. That’s where the furious drive for ‘gender ideology’ comes from — all those ‘gender clinics’ with guaranteed, lifelong medical cases to deal with. If you look at the list of political issues that generate swearing, spitting mobs — well, I reckon that’s a good way of telling which issues are being led by the clients of Silicon Valley manipulators (you know, those guys who are currently having such fun with their chum in the White House.)

Mobs

I have been ‘the bad guy’. During the women’s rights campaign, we all of us had to face down mobs driven by righteous but wrong-headed indignation, online filth-spreaders and threats to our jobs and political positions. We survived, drew together, got stronger and created a movement. Bullying is not an effective political weapon.

Mobile phones

In order to get some peace in life, avoid bullies and preserve the ability to think, you need to make sure a good proportion of your daily life is lived away from the internet and all things SMART. If you’re worried about keeping in touch with friends and being able to call for help, let me assure you there are still unSMART ways of doing that, and they are cheaper.

And as well as all that, if ever there was a time we needed to nurture independent thinking, rather than herd-following, mob-inducing, emotion-led security-seeking, this is that time.

PS: book prices and pol ed

A good example of that perplexing cross-over I experienced amongst my blog readership happened as a result of me commenting (as I often do) on the price of academic books. It’s one thing saying people need to ‘educate themselves’, it’s another finding an affordable way of accessing the best thinking that’s going on. I absolutely love it that so many of the women in feminist groups buy books and lecture tickets for others when they’ve got cash, and gracefully accept gifts of the same when they haven’t.

In the case of that blog about the book launch, a number of women, including one of the authors, got in touch and offered me copies of the book (so I had to put a note on saying thank you, I have one now!) but the perplexing thing for me was that one of those women followed up her admirable piece of Sisterhood by taking issue with my use of a #FreePalestine tag on a nearby article. That, she said, was antisemitic. Now doesn’t that just show you how much political education work we still have to do in some parts of the feminist movement? Almost as much as we still have to do on ‘gender ideology’ and ‘the sex trade’ amongst lefty groups.

We’d better stop slandering at each other and start listening, don’t you think?

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