tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706795077889134134.post4999893027734310208..comments2024-03-10T00:58:21.507-08:00Comments on Five Leaves Blog: Left on the shelfRoss Bradshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16566217025078523575noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706795077889134134.post-22988405596804093152013-01-13T15:32:02.160-08:002013-01-13T15:32:02.160-08:00Good piece Ross. Yes the SWP have often hijacked o...Good piece Ross. Yes the SWP have often hijacked others' causes and travails to their own ends. I've never been able to work out if this some kind of undirected collective cynicism or a deliberate policy of building themselves up at the expense of others.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706795077889134134.post-29741331224343929782013-01-13T08:42:41.331-08:002013-01-13T08:42:41.331-08:00Well, that's what you get for being a woolly l...Well, that's what you get for being a woolly liberal, Roland. I got some of that too and once the SWP picketed the bookshop though none of us could work out why - we ignored them, as did our customers and they went away, though they did spray SWP on the shop front once. That helped. Just don't get me started on how they related to other anti-fascist organisations in town (or in Aberdeen). I seem to pick places to live where they are difficult. I don't think that is the case everywhere.Ross Bradshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16566217025078523575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8706795077889134134.post-68351925807956231432013-01-13T08:21:32.727-08:002013-01-13T08:21:32.727-08:00I worked in the early 1980's at Fourth Idea Al...I worked in the early 1980's at Fourth Idea Alternative Bookshop in Bradford. It was on a small back street, between the Co-op car park and the pub where the BNP used to drink. Every Saturday when Bradford City played at home, the fascists would come in to the shop and attempt to attack it and us.<br /><br />One week, the local SWP came to us and said that they wanted to support us. They planned to set an ambush; to mobilise several people to lie in wait in our upstairs room, and then to attack the fascists when they entered. We replied "Yes, certainly. And of course you will come back next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and every other today to defend us against a revenge attack". "Er, no..." they muttered, so we didn't allow them to set the trap. Then they denounced us for not being prepared to confront fascism!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com