A BELFAST-BASED Free Speech advocate recently sent us an article from the Belfast Telegraph of 2nd January. The article – by Fionola Meredith – mirrors our view that, and as Salman Rushdie has noted, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”

Fionola Meredith’s article was based on an interview given to the Times of London by Sir Alan Moses towards the end of last year. Here Sir Alan – a Former Lord Justice of Appeal and outgoing chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) – defended freedom of speech, and insisted that the media should be allowed to discuss sensitive subjects, such as religion.

As advocates for free thought, free Free & free assembly for all, we welcome Sir Alan’s comments and Fionola Meredith’s article. This is particularly so when one thinks of the suffocating (yet powerful) woke and Politically Correct times in which we live.

We’d appreciate it if other supporters would keep an eye out for articles which especially appear in the mainstream media (MSM) that support the general idea of free thought, free speech and free assembly for all.

It goes without saying that there are no official links between Fionola Meredith, the Belfast Telegraph and Free Speech: How Do We Protect It?

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There is no right not to be offended: why we must heed the outgoing Ipso chief

Sir Alan Moses is correct, says Fionola Meredith. Freedom of speech is more important than hurt feelings

There is no right not to be offended: that’s according to Sir Alan Moses, the outgoing chairman of the UK’s main press regulator, Ipso. Moses stated that it was vital for democracy that the media be allowed to discuss sensitive subjects such as religion and gender without fear of being censored.

Hurray for Sir Alan! Somebody had to stand up and say it.

We live in a world where people act as if being offended is like kryptonite to Superman: deadly for their personal wellbeing.

Frequently this victim mentality is attributed to snowflakey millennials who have been brought up with an unprecedented level of privilege, entitlement and an overweening sense of their own importance.

There’s no doubt that this toxic seam of intolerance – for that is what it is – runs like a sore through many British and Irish universities, with absurd attempts to ‘no-platform’ speakers that certain students dislike.

However, I’ve seen many old geezers get just as exercised about repressing, shunning or otherwise obliterating stuff they don’t approve of.

If I don’t like it, ban it: that’s the prevailing message.

To be fair to Sir Alan, a former lord justice of appeal, he didn’t come out and say ‘suck it up, cry-babies’.

Admitting that dealing with complaints about offence was one of the most difficult aspects of the Ipso role, he said: “If you’re the victim of something that is deeply offensive, it is the most unpleasant, uncomfortable thing that you can imagine. But what we have to acknowledge is that, in striking the right balance in this country, there is no right not to be offended.”

This message cannot be repeated too often. The novelist Salman Rushdie has more reason than most to take a personal interest in it, given that a fatwa – or execution order – was declared on him in 1989 by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, after the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses.

Mass book burnings, bannings and death threats followed. It was nine years before the author came out of hiding, but Index on Censorship has noted that as recently as 2016, funds were being raised to add to the fatwa.

Rushdie said: “Nobody has the right to not be offended. That right doesn’t exist in any declaration I have ever read. If you are offended it is your problem and frankly lots of things offend lots of people. I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn’t occur to me to burn the bookshop down.”

Similarly, if somebody writes, says or tweets something that conflicts with your own beliefs, you don’t have to go into public meltdown and immediately try to organise a huge social media pile-on, where reason and balance gets trampled into the dirt by the howling mob.

You have options. You could express your disagreement. You could enter into a discussion. Or hey, here’s a radical idea, how about simply ignoring it and walking away?

True, Rushdie’s persecution is an extreme example. Here in Northern Ireland, where offence-taking is practically a national sport, there are numerous instances of self-indulgent huffing about them’uns on the other side. Most of this is low-level yapping and whataboutery.

But one of the most astounding examples that came to light last year was the case of Lee Hegarty.

According to the former Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis, speaking in the House of Lords, Hegarty – previously a Northern Ireland Office (NIO) worker, who then took up a role with the Parades Commission – made a complaint under human rights legislation because he was so offended by portraits of the Queen adorning the walls of his workplace.

The alleged price of poor Mr Hegarty’s hurt feelings? Ten grand in compensation.

That’s a hell of a lot of money to salve Mr H’s wounded emotions. I really hope he didn’t get PTSD or anything from having to see pictures of HRH every day.

If I got a tenner for each time I’ve been insulated or offended as a result of the work I do, I’d be an extremely rich woman. Maybe not as rich as Mr Hegarty though.

I’m no royalist, but to me there’s something almost obscene – yet entirely typical of the way such things are done in la-la-land Northern Ireland – about pandering to outraged political sensibilities in such an extreme way.

There is no right not to be offended. As we enter not just a new year but a new decade, we must reaffirm this fundamental democratic truth.

• READ the original Belfast Telegraph article here: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/fionola-meredith/fionola-meredith-there-is-no-right-not-to-be-offended-why-we-must-heed-the-outgoing-ipso-chief-38829708.html

• READ the original interview with Sir Alan Moses in the Times here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sir-alan-moses-free-speech-means-freedom-to-offend-press-watchdog-insists-nzcsfzj6z?wgu=270525_73669_15797131443162_a22283a29e&wgexpiry=1587489144&utm_source=planit&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_content=30828

• CHECK OUT the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) here: https://www.ipso.co.uk/

• ALSO CHECK OUT Index on Censorship here: https://www.indexoncensorship.org/

• SUPPORT Free Speech: How Do We Protect It? here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1607711629485795/

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• ALSO check out From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – Love Freedom Hate Globalisation https://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-love-freedom-hate-globalisation

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NATIONS WITHOUT STATES – NwS – is a pressure group which seeks to highlight the plight of peoples who aspire to nationhood. Its raison d’être can be summed up in one simple slogan: Self-Determination For All!

Those who seek nationhood may be peoples or tribes based within a state or even across borders that may or may not have been independently organised in the past. They might have a linguistic or historical separateness from their neighbours or fellow citizens. All will aspire to recognition, autonomy or independence.

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As self-determinists, Nations without States supports the right of all such peoples to determine their future whatever they wish that to be.

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This includes for example the English, Flemish, Kurds, Sikhs and Tamils. A genuine self-determinist supports the right of self-determination globally where it is based upon a sound and just position and is supported by the majority of its ‘national’ community. The slogan ‘what is right for me is right for you’ simplifies why genuine nationalism is actually an inter-nationalist creed, quite separate to chauvinism which seeks advantage for one nation at the expense of others.

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For many years now, NwS has sought to unite various groups – some who would have previously operated in isolation from each other – in order to strengthen their claim to self-determination. As we noted in issue 1 of Nation – the Newsletter of Nations without States – ‘the only way forward is for self-determinists to unite and fight. We need to follow a strategy which will be conducted both on the streets and in the corridors of power.’

The call to operate ‘on the streets and in the corridors of power’ was followed up in issue 2 of Nation. It detailed several areas where NwS intended to build ‘counter power’ – a parallel system ‘that belongs to self-determinists and not our oppressors.’ This counter power would involve the following:

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• Build the infrastructure of an alternative mass media of news and entertainment. We’ve made a couple of small steps in the right direction here with the publication of Nation and our street paper Freedom, and the establishment of our Facebook site.

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• Build both a cultural and counter-cultural movement that’ll provide positive alternatives – especially for our youth – to globalism and modern consumer culture, which is designed to reduce everybody to the lowest common level by abolishing all inherited cultures and identities.

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• Build a social support network that can provide help, solidarity and humanitarian aid for our peoples both here and abroad.

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• Build a political movement that engages with various self-determinists with the aim of creating a whole new voting demographic.

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NwS intends to look at – and expand upon – all of these ideas in due course. But for the time being we’d like to concentrate on the idea of building a new voting demographic.

The reason for this is that later our friends & comrades from the National Liberal Party – NLP – will be standing candidates for the Greater London Assembly elections, scheduled for 7th May 2020 (1). The NLP will be standing under the slogan of Self-Determination For All!

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The NLP can field a total of 25 candidates. As of a couple of weeks ago nine candidates had been confirmed (2). Initially, the NLP would like to reflect the widespread number self-determinist communities living in the UK (and who would like to be represented, if elected, at the highest level in London).

With the above in mind, Nations without States would like to help the NLP locate potential candidates from the various diaspora communities living in London. We kick off with the Aborigines, the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands (excluding the Torres Strait Islands).

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We appreciate that it’s hard to know if there are any Aboriginal folks living in London. As far as we’re aware, the vast majority still live in Australia – indeed, almost two thirds of Aboriginal people live in urban areas of Australia’s eastern states (3). However, given that Greater London has an estimated population of 8.17 Million (4) it’s not inconceivable that some younger Aboriginal folks – particularly those from an artistic or sporting background – are living in the capital.

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Even if there are none, both ourselves and the NLP would be interested in making contact with any activists who know about – and support – the Aboriginal Australians.

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We’re particularly interested in what forms of self-determination are being mooted – such as greater recognition, autonomy or independence – as well as cultural issues. Nations without States are also very interested in bringing these issues to the attention of fellow activists (who’re interested in self-determination) via our Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/184919468292372/

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However, with the May Greater London Assembly elections in mind, it’s vitally important that anyone who generally supports the cause of self-determination (and, if possible, the Aboriginal Australian cause) gets in touch with the National Liberal Party as soon as possible.

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As we noted earlier, the NLP wants to use this opportunity to bring the unique idea of Self-Determination For All! to the attention of London’s electorate. If you fit the bill, please contact natliberal@aol.com as soon as possible!

1. http://nationalliberal.org/self-determination-for-all-3
2. http://nationalliberal.org/gla-candidate-meeting
3. https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/aboriginal-population-in-australia
4. http://livepopulationof.com/population-of-london/

WELCOME TO the second debate hosted by Liberal Worker – the voice of National Liberal Trade Unionists.  As with our first debate held towards the middle of September – http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-liberal-worker-debate-1-–-how-should-workers-view-stop-search – this one also looks at an article originally produced by the Independent Working Class Association – IWCA.

Liberal Worker wouldn’t agree with everything the IWCA says.  For instance, it’s reasonably well-known that we’re not particularly ‘into’ restrictive class definitions.  However it’s refreshing to see an organisation of the ‘Left’ so in tune with the thinking of ordinary working folks.  This is particularly so with this untitled article (which was produced at the beginning of this month) which looks at the emotive issue of immigration.

This article exposes the disconnect between much of the modern ‘Left’ (including the Labour Party and some unions) who support open borders and many workers who bitterly oppose mass immigration.  It also proposes a ‘logical circuit breaker’ that – in part – ‘stands where the class stands on immigration.’  With the above in mind, we invite all Trade Unionists to read the article (below) and post any comments up once it appears on the National Liberal Trade Unionist Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/277840098977231/

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“The question is whether we want to be a middle-class party. The middle class has no problem with [immigration]. They don’t really come across it, but the working class live with it. The left hasn’t wanted to look at this problem for decades, so working class people have moved to the extreme right.”

These were the words of Emmanuel Macron, President of France, two weeks ago.

President Emmanuel Macron (left) has shafted ordinary French working folks with his support for capitalism and immigration. Will Jeremy Corbyn (right) do the same here? Liberal Worker - the voice of National Liberal Trade Unionists - is opposed to mass immigration as we feel that it’s an exploitative event caused by capitalism. However, despite the NLTUs opposition to mass immigration we’ve nothing against individual immigrants simply because they wear a completely different style of clothing or pray to another God. In Britain, mass immigration began in earnest in the years following WWII. Here, Afro-Caribbean, Asian and Eastern European folks have been used to plug holes in the British workforce. With Globalisation now in full swing, capitalism has responded and has imported huge numbers of people from the other side of the world to prop up its flagging economies. Whilst the capitalists may be happy with this, ordinary working folks are not. Massive population shifts have made existing economic & social problems much worse. Many areas suffer from great poverty – from the brutal Austerity policies of PIP and Universal Credit (which are destroying the welfare safety net) through to sink council estates that attract anti-social behaviour.

The same question currently faces Labour, and last week’s conference passed a motion in favour of freedom of movement which included giving the vote to all migrants, rejecting any immigration system based on quotas, caps, or targets, and giving all migrants free access to the NHS. Labour’s direction of travel indicates they fully intend to become a middle class first party centred on open borders, identity politics, Islamophilia, and post-capitalism. In this sense, far from being a break with the Blairite project, Corbynism and whatever follows will complete it. In doing so, it will shift into high gear the cycle identified not just by Macron, but by Anti Fascist Action 25 years ago.

Macron is an instinctive neo-liberal, so an open immigration policy is what comes naturally to him. “The arrival of refugees is an economic opportunity, and too bad if it isn’t popular” he declared in 2015. The presence of Marine Le Pen and the concomitant demise of the French Socialist Party, along with forty six consecutive weekends of violent confrontation with the gilet jaunes, have undoubtedly served to concentrate the mind. It likewise cannot have escaped Macron’s notice that one of the few places bucking the trend is Denmark, where the Social Democrats have taken an unequivocal – and unsubtle – stand against hyperimmigration.

If it is the case that ‘not wanting to address the problem for decades’ has resulted in ‘working class people moving to the extreme right’ (or more accurately, the right adjusting to occupy the space deserted by the left), then how is the serious anti-fascist obliged to respond? It cannot be overstated that allowing human labour to be treated as just another commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace, which the open borders position amounts to under extant conditions, is the polar opposite of what the socialist project was meant to envisage.

None of this will be new to followers of this page. So the question is, what happens next? What happens when Labour becomes a fully-fledged middle class party, as the composition of their membership dictates they eventually must?

The dynamic described by Macron is evident across Europe. What hasn’t been attempted is the only logical circuit breaker: a working class first political formation that stands where the class stands on immigration, while out-flanking the liberal left in terms of orientation and out-radicalising the populist right on questions of economics. It is increasingly clear that Labour are unwilling and unable to perform this task, and so a fate similar to their counterparts in France and Germany is what ultimately awaits them.

• CHECK OUT the National Liberal Trade Unionists Words Of Wisdom series here:

From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – Words Of Wisdom – Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-words-of-wisdom-–-eleanor-roosevelt-1884-–-1962

From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – Words Of Wisdom – Bob Crow (1961 – 2014) http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-words-of-wisdom-–-bob-crow-1961-–-2014

From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – Words Of Wisdom – Hilaire Belloc http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-words-of-wisdom-–-hilaire-belloc

From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – Words Of Wisdom – Palmiro Togliatti http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-words-of-wisdom-palmiro-togliatti

From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – Words Of Wisdom – John Kenneth Galbraith http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-words-of-wisdom-–-john-kenneth-galbraith

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‘The ideology of globalisation represents the most emblematic ideological fulfilment of absolute capitalism.  It parades as positive the now realized ideal of capitalism without boundaries or limitations, concealing the muddle of contradictions that goes with it.  Globalisation is the flexible and postmodern form of imperialism: namely, the opposite of the reassuring irenic universalism of human rights displayed by politically correct thought.  In place of the reassuring word “globalisation”, one should rather use the neologism “globalitarism”, signalling how the capitalistice global spread coincides with worldwide totalitarianism that, without boundaries separating it from other realities, does not leave anything outside itself.’

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Extract from Europe & Capitalism: Regaining The Future by Diego Fusaro

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THE CONTINUING arguments over Brexit have brought into sharp focus the amount of goods and food that we import from the EU and further afield.  Indeed, according to the Office for National Statistics – https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/internationaltrade/articles/whodoestheuktradewith/2017-02-21 – in 2016 the UK imported £318.0 billion worth of goods from the EU.  (At the same time the UK imported £243.0 billion worth of goods from the rest of the world.)

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As trade unionists, the NLTU – National Liberal Trade Unionists – support the concept of self-determination.  And, whilst we support free and fair trade, we would prefer to be as self-sufficient as possible.  In fact, we believe that it is absolute madness to be importing goods and/or food and drinks that we can produce ourselves.  (We also feel that the EUs idea of ‘interstate dependency’ is Orwellian in nature – we much prefer a policy of economic sustainability and self-reliance)

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With all this in mind the NLTU has launched a social media-based Buy British poster campaign.  To date, around a dozen posters have been viralled out via the NLTU Facebook site – https://www.facebook.com/groups/277840098977231/ More will be added in due course.

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At the heart of the campaign is the NLTU belief in economic self-determination and sovereignty.  We’ll be expanding on these ideas (in easy to read ‘bite-size’ articles) in the very near future.  However, the campaign can be summed up – as our above quote implies – in the slogan Love Freedom Hate Globalisation.

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• DON’T FORGET to viral out our original e-posters via Social Media:

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From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – For Self-Sufficiency, Sovereignty & Sustainability BUY BRITISH! http://nationalliberal.org/for-self-sufficiency-sovereignty-sustainability-buy-british

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National Liberal Trade Unionists – Protect Our Economy BUY BRITISH! http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-protect-our-economy-buy-british

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From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – If You Were Ever To Buy British Now Is The Time! http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-if-you-were-ever-to-buy-british-now-is-the-time

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From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – National Liberal Trade Unionists Say – BUY BRITISH! http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-–-national-liberal-trade-unionists-say-–-buy-british