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Ben T Profile picture
Ben T
@IrateBen
'pointless self-indulgence' ~david blunkett / @labfreemvmt cofounder / @workersliberty / @campaignuyghur / unison / local govt worker / make mars red again
Nov 4, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Brooks claims "Competence, Credibility & Compassion" but his bar for the last is no higher than not running an actual concentration camp at Manston and an out-of-touch citizenship exam. He's more interested in deals to deport refugees to states that already accept more than UK. His whole column is a good illustration of what happens when you treat the abuse and exploitation of people on the move primarily as a game in opinion-poll-point-scoring, with actual lives and the principles of solidarity and humanity as distant, disposable, subordinate concerns.
Jun 19, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The sectarian paranoia & badjacketing peddled by some ppl is utter poison. We can only hope it's mostly confined to the terminally-online & doesn't sink campaigns.

For the record @workersliberty is not behind @dontpayuk. I only heard of it yday, but it sounds a decent initiative Reminds me of when a former "Straight Left" stalinist tried to tell people not to donate to a strike fund collection for sub-living-wage workers because, he claimed, the strike was a front for the AWL.

(How a major strike can be a front for a socialist group was not explained.)
Apr 9, 2022 • 12 tweets • 9 min read
John Moloney, Asst General Secretary of @pcs_union, on the #UnionsStandWithUkraine march, condemning the UK government's appalling treatment of refugees fleeing Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and fleeing persecution and destruction around the world. #RefugeesWelcome Labour MP @NadiaWhittomeMP says Russian antiwar protesters are heroes and "will go down in history". She, too, highlights the British government's hypocrisy in obstructing, vilifying and mistreating refugees. It's not good enough to wave flags if you won't waive visas.
Mar 30, 2022 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
So @wesstreeting, you can pander all you like to rightwing bigots like Hartley-Brewer, but don't dress it up snidely as a pseudo "biology lesson" you are evidently unqualified to give.

You sound like homophobes who lecture "it's just science, only men & women can make babies". The kind of smug performance put on by @wesstreeting here is vacuous nonsense that fundamentally misunderstands what science is. It is not possible for a "biology lesson" to tell you definitively where the boundaries of "man" and "woman" are. Science is not a dictionary.
Mar 14, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Denys Pilash of Sotsialniy Rukh speaking from on the ground at the @UkraineSol rally now, slamming the hypocrisy of the UK govt posturing over the war but not opening its borders for refugees.

He hails the squatters who seized the oligarch's mansion in London today. Image Another Sotsialniy Rukh activist, Vitaliy, speaks about their call for seizing the wealth of Ukraine's own oligarchs, and put it to use defending, feeding and healing the Ukrainian people. "The war does not cancel the class struggle," he says. @UkraineSol
Feb 25, 2021 • 25 tweets • 6 min read
Kicking off now! @MomentumInt_ us02web.zoom.us/j/83717779466?… First @Pete_Radcliff kicks off by explaining the foundation of @labsolidarityhk - motivated by the need to raise the voice of the left and the workers' movement in support of democracy, distinct from the right-wingers using the issue to attack socialism.
Aug 21, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
A cowardly, dishonest take. You can't tell people that ending western wars can simply "stop refugees". Not only will the damage already done (and climate change) continue to force ppl to move for decades, but there will still be other tyrants, imperialists & exploiters to flee. There is no way out of the reality that the coming decades will see huge numbers forced to move. The left has to win the argument that we can and must offer the safe harbour, security and equality. Anything else is dogshit pandering to racists.
Apr 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Hodges has a point, just not the one he thinks he does.

In general, the problem with this government (and its predecessors) isn't that it's forgetful, or stupid, or misinformed.

The problem is they *consciously* choose to prioritise capitalist profit at the expense of life. The Tories weren't too stupid or too misinformed to know that a pandemic (or even a bad flu season) could exceed the capacity of the NHS.

They simply calculated that the benefit to their class of cutting all spare capacity (and then some) was worth the hit we would take.
Sep 28, 2019 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The idea that scientific innovation requires the profit motive is detached from reality. Pharma capitalism is totally reliant on the basic research done by academics in universities, funded by the state and charities. BUT @francesweetman has some points about the pharma companies' need for exclusive rights if they want to maintain both R&D and profit (though they could be squeezed further than presently). But the obvious problem here is profit. Corbyn's proposals *don't go far enough*.
Aug 8, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The point is, labour should be waging an aggressive campaign in the country right now that makes this argument at the centrists, to create pressure on them to suck up voting in a temporary pre-election minority labour govt. Labour is the second largest party w 40% of the last election's vote, it would be pandering to the height of self-important delusion - and setting a precedent - to let stray tories, and a rump liberal party w 7.4%, think they get to dictate who governs in this parliament.