Double Standards Over Political Violence Exposed

Yunus Bakhsh - spokesman for violent SWP

Northumbria Police in Newcastle have issued an appeal to help them identify ten individuals caught on CCTV as they attempted to gain entry to a meeting of the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) at a city centre social club.

Det Sgt Rob Ridley said: " We're trying to establish exactly what happened and who was involved in this incident."

Apparently, between twenty and thirty men tried to gain entry to the meeting but when they were stopped by club stewards disorder broke out inside the club.

Six men have already been bailed and arrested in connection with the incident.

Self-styled 'revolutionary' and Wolfie Smith lookalike, Yunus Bakhsh, who wasn't at the meeting, but is the SWP's full-time organiser in the North East, told the local newspaper: "The police have been great. These individuals who decided that this was a good idea need to be found."

He added: "We were just trying to have a meeting. Our meetings are about debating and discussing ideas."

The SWP is a trotskyite communist organisation that believes there is "no parliamentary road to socialism" and thinks that violent revolution is the answer to society's various ills. It also believes that political opponents should be banned and stopped from organising meetings and activities and has actively disrupted and attacked many such events in the past.

Bizarrely, Bakhsh also said: "We want to change the world. But not by beating people up and assaulting them."

Members of the SWP were recently involved in the violent disturbances at a student rally and demonstration in London where police were attacked and windows smashed outside the Conservative Party HQ in the capital. Ironically, Conservative Party leader and coalition Prime Minister, David Cameron, supports the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) group which is controlled by the SWP and holds violent protests against political opponents such as the English Defence League and British National Party.

The Northumbria Police Authority also funds an extremist far-left group, the Tyne & Wear Anti-Fascist Association (TWAFA), which works closely with Yunus Bakhsh and the SWP/UAF on Tyneside. TWAFA is run by Unison shop steward Paul Gibson from the Unison offices inside Newcastle Civic Centre. Until recently, Yunus Bakhsh was a Unison shop steward but was expelled after a power struggle within the union which also cost him his job at a local hospital. TWAFA monitors political dissidents in the North East of England using public money from the Northumbria Police Authority and local councils in Tyne & Wear. It also works closely with the sinister Searchlight organisation which is closely linked to the Labour Party and various trade unions. Searchlight is organised by former members of the Communist Party and 'neo nazi' groups such as the League of St George.

Civil Liberty is opposed to political violence and terrorism in all its forms.

However, do those who shout loudest for it against political opponents and who advocate violent revolution deserve our sympathy and support when it is visited upon them?

 This article is courtesy of Civil Liberty.