Cold/War

Right, what's happened over the last few days? Most of it seems to be politics.

There was a Stop The War seminar, aimed at attracting students to a 'relaunch'.
STW has become tierd and despondant, due to three years unsuccessful campaigning against governments who seem adamantine in their committment to a stalled war (Iraq) and an unstable occuption (Afganistan). Demos get smaller, petitions get to seem routine, the whole exercise feels as pointless and stuck as the war iteslf.

Some vocal resistance is necessary, just so the government can't claim the entire nation is on it's side, even if we're just going through the proverbial motions. It was a surprise therefore that a meeting of about 30 should be mostly students, and half of those new faces.

They seem switched-on and up-for-it, which is a pleasant surprise - even though plans for a 'die-in' with white sheets and fake blood aren't exactly my scene.
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Oh yes, Alan was there too. He's our mole. That is, he's an infiltrator from the RCPBML - Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) - trying to edge STW towards the painfully convoluted politcal analysis of that tiny party. He also has no idea that we've all been on to him from the start.

What is it with entrism? It didn't work when the RCG tried to take over the SWP by infiltration, or when Militant tried to influence Labour from the inside. In fact, I don't think it ever works - it's more likely to destroy the entered group by generating infighting than anything else. And it's not like we'd have turned him away if he'd been honest, so it's completely unnecessary.

Actually, I think Alan's quite sweet. Vulnurable and bookish [cough].
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A year ago, I was asked to sit in on a student seminar on art fraud, and contribute whatever I could remember from my BA thesis on the subject. Well, there's another one on Monday, so I'm doing some revision becuase I've been asked to this one too.
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I've just come back from helping leaflet the main local mosque. All quite easy - half an hour of handing out A5 sheets printed with antiwar messages of solidarity. There were at least 500 muslims, mostly from Bangladesh and parts of Africa, but including maybe 10 white faces - one of which belonged to an off-duty policeman who's far too clued up and thoughtful to be in the force.

They're a friendly bunch, happy to chat about the burning political issues of the day in the freezing cold with a group of overweight atheists. But they're almost invisible - you rarely see them on the streets or in pubs.