Vampyre Alert!
Lenininny | 03.02.2003 10:45
Hi
A new SWP fulltime hack has parachuted into Brum: already he has tried to wreck independent antiwar activity by getting physically aggressive and by smearing people who dont want papersellers in wrecking their hardwork as 'scabs', 'fascists' and 'police agents'
His name is Simon Behrman and he was previously a fulltimer in London...any info on this creeps previous history would help genuine antiwar activists!
A new SWP fulltime hack has parachuted into Brum: already he has tried to wreck independent antiwar activity by getting physically aggressive and by smearing people who dont want papersellers in wrecking their hardwork as 'scabs', 'fascists' and 'police agents'
His name is Simon Behrman and he was previously a fulltimer in London...any info on this creeps previous history would help genuine antiwar activists!
Lenininny
Comments
Hide the following 15 comments
yeah
03.02.2003 10:57
mau mau
Interesting
03.02.2003 11:25
tell more..has anyone got any internal documents that state this? Has anyone come across this Simon Behrman before? The last SWP fulltimer in Brum, Ger Francis, was sacked as fulltimer due to his inability to control his aggression against anyone he didnt like...and for smearing opponents..he was also notorious for his shoe sniffing fetish..blimey!
Tony Cliff
in oxford too
03.02.2003 11:31
Best thing to do - turn up to the Stop War meetings, get a few of you, sit separately, push for more actions than just mass marches - this they don't like - they are all brainwashed into believing mass marches are the only way forward -
there were some newcomers at the recent Oxford stop war meeting who sat & listened whilst they wibbled on about "organising in the workplace", signing petitions, mass marches & awareness raising by having stalls.
(yes this is useful but it's only a means to an end)
One new person then says "what happens after we've raised awareness?"
"we hold mass marches - they get noticed - even Condaleeza Rice mentioned the last stop the war march in london"
"yes but isn't there something we can actually DO?"
Then someone else starts telling them about Fairford & NVDA,
how direct action on the millitary machine can have results & is very empowering & if enough people did it the airbases would grind to a halt
SWPer's then start talking about this being small groups of
people & how this isn't a mass action - "well it could be & it might actually stop people being bombed"
"we are planning for the march on the 15th at this meetng. Any other events must be discussed another time"
So this is what they are all like - at the end of the day they only support their type of action, & don't even offer encouragement to people doing more direct stuff - go to the meetings & empower the non SWP folks, rather than let them get sucked into the 'mass march mentality'
bob
Agree
03.02.2003 11:46
I recently left the SWP after 21 years of membership as I finally couldnt stomach the constant line from the central committee to rubbish people who were good people but who just didnt want to join the SWP.
I have subject to all kinds of lies from people I have known for 20 years and some degree of attempted intimidation. When I left I felt like a cloud had lifted from my mind..that I had finally escaped a cult like organisation whose only interest is in recruiting people, selling papers, destroying autmonous activity and selling papers.
Dont be fooled by any of their tactics..I dont want anyone else to go through the 21 years of hell and exploitation that I went through.
X
21 years
03.02.2003 13:23
mau mau
blah blah blah
03.02.2003 13:24
Re Oxford: Is this the same Bob who lost the vote against affiliation to the Stop the War Coalition by 27 to 3?
and yes I am in favour of direct action but its so fucking obvious that a massive march will give huge impetus to the direct action movement, and its so obvious that the Oxford meeting brought more people into activity, i just fucking dispair at the posturing of some activists. No one suggested that the march is an end in itself. The stwc has helped to deliver, through working with the ESF, a global demonstration against the war, but hey if it doesnt fit with your pre-packed anarchist ideology fuck it, better to play lefter than though to save face.
dog
what?
03.02.2003 13:25
and yes I am in favour of direct action but its so fucking obvious that a massive march will give huge impetus to the direct action movement, and its so obvious that the Oxford meeting brought more people into activity, i just fucking dispair at the posturing of some activists. No one suggested that the march is an end in itself. The stwc has helped to deliver, through working with the ESF, a global demonstration against the war, but hey if it doesnt fit with your pre-packed anarchist ideology fuck it, better to play lefter than though to save face.
dog
????
03.02.2003 13:27
and yes I am in favour of direct action but its so fucking obvious that a massive march will give huge impetus to the direct action movement, and its so obvious that the Oxford meeting brought more people into activity, i just fucking dispair at the posturing of some activists. No one suggested that the march is an end in itself. The stwc has helped to deliver, through working with the ESF, a global demonstration against the war, but hey if it doesnt fit with your pre-packed anarchist ideology fuck it, better to play lefter than though to save face.
Dog
Bakk to the Question Please!
03.02.2003 14:17
what info do people have on Simon Behrman?
Trot-Head
Trot-Head
Shoes
03.02.2003 14:24
GF
GF
more of the same
03.02.2003 16:00
info-woman
The Doggy one is right!
03.02.2003 16:14
We need both direct action (a la Northwood/Fairford) and mass marches (to build the widest possible movement and wise up the previously politically dormant).
I know for a fact that the national STWC, which has far more people than just the SW-bloody-P in it, fully supports any and every form of non-violent direct action, so lets be rational and support the march as well.
I agree though. Why do so many SWP-ers (and sadly, lefties of all descriptions) have to be such annoying and intolerant tossers?
Suspect that too many people adopt radical posturing out of some deep psychological need, rather than 'cos they actually want to see a better world.
Mad Monk
Back 2 The QUESTION!!!!
03.02.2003 16:26
Can anyone spill the beans on simon berhmans previous political activity/his previous patch? I know he was at the UCL and no doubt was a pain then..or did he only manage to psychologically compensate for his puny physique and lack of social skills on becoming a SWP full timer?
Oh yeah I heard something about a sacked SWP fulltimer and shoe sniffing as well...could this be the same guy?
Marxmachine
Marxmachine
Does True Realist...
04.02.2003 17:47
Don't know much about this new SWP full-timer, other than the fact that he's Jewish and they'd especially asked for a Jewish organiser to readdress the perception that the previous one was anti-semitic. Cynical? Not a bit of it!
But anyway- dish some more dirt; when's this guy been intimidating? And, more to the point, what's with the shoe-sniffing?
Jay-B
Kaustic kautsky
05.02.2003 12:44
well im on 10k a year and work in a crap job and im against war just as much as im against SWP middle class scum
anyway: yeah i know the guys jewish (Berhman!!) but thats hardly relevent (though the emails i hacked into from local SWP hotmail account does say they specifically want a jewish fulltimer..)
he was a fulltimer in London before..
c;mon dish the dirt!
shoe sniffing fetish..it was something like the old fulltimer used to get really agitated when he lost an argument (which was often!) and the only thing that would calm him down was sniffing his favourite pair of slippers..at least thats the rumour going round...
K