Billy Bragg & Martin Smith: Politics of National Identity

[Basterfields]

It's thanks to cretins like this that the terms racist/fascist/nazi are now totally meaningless, and as for this crooked old cunt 'acquainting someones head with the pavemnent' and 'killing fascists' he's even more stupid than he looks, and thats saying something.

[welshrawbit]

I have twittered and emailed Martin Smith and the UAF for two years and asked time and time again why he REFUSES point blank to condemn the FASCIST, NAZI Anjem Choudary... I've never had an answer!! Nick Griffin is scum... but Choudary is far worse.....WHY DOES SMITH NOT 'LABEL' CHOUDARY.... ANYONE WHO BELIEVES THIS PRICK SMITH IS EITHER STUPID OR HAS NO PULSE

[Thinker341]

Look at him, the left are always spineless, he cant stand straightm he takes with a hump, hes jittery. Weak and pathetic, so they try to drag everyone down to their own level...

[mrst269]

The audience clap to much. 

[franzfaramir]

damn i wish i lived in Britain and i could attend the Marxism conference next year. good on the SWP.

[YeOldeDogge]

LOL. Does Smith seriously think the BNP have such paper-thin skin that they hate being called 'nazi' and 'fascist' ? 'Nazi' either means a member of the National Socilaist German Worker's Party from the 1930s, or it is just a modern colloquial insult meaning little more than bad person.

[BanastreTarleton1]

@warriorprince1010

Politics is a circle and the far right and far left do, I agree meet at some point....

[LOWLON]

Billy Speaks for the youth of the commonwealth... We AREN'T ashamed of our BRITISH ancestory... The REASON we are involved in UNIONS, ANTI-FASCIST ACTION, and PROGRESSIVE PATRIOTISM is because we believe that the BRITISH ideology of A UNION of IDENTITIES!!!

As a BRITISH - CANADIAN, we have the same ideas, and beliefs... REMEMBER... NAZIS, AND FASCISTS WORLDWIDE FEAR ONE FLAG...THE FLAG THAT NEVER GAVE IN...THE FLAG AGAINST ALL ODDS FOUGHT BACK... THE UNION JACK!!! AT NORMANDY OR BARCELONA....

[BanastreTarleton1]

LOW LON the Union Flag was long gone from Barcelona by the time Mola and co marched in, and the British battalion of international brigades was disbanded before madrid fell, learn your history before harping on with your empty cliches, I cxan recommend a good book if you wish to learn..... or google Spanish Civil War at least!

[mts1977]

@LOWLON

Bloody great post. Couldn't agree more.

[mts1977]

Martin Smith is a fool. UAF and the Socialists really need to get a better speaker than this guy. He is laughable. Bragg is impressive though

[ForASocialistChange]

swp become so engrossed in racism that they forget the class struggle which is the root of racism- they'd have you voting the tories inseatd of the BNP- they don't propose the socialist agenda in these campaigns, and consequently allow the root of racism to manifest from below

[BanastreTarleton1]

The 'socialist agenda' is what has divided the working classes in UK, and is led from the middle classes who have hijacked socialism. Socialism is a failed ideaology because of human nature, look at EVERY socialist/communist who has gained a position of power, Once their noses are in the trough (New Labour) their beliefs seem to disappear The left-wing in the UK is led by the middle class chattering classes and people like Smith, Bragg etc are just the puppets of the ruling (middle) classes

[lndac02]

good posting, you sound like someone who also lived through the Thatcher/major years? New Labour was supposed to be the wind of change. Billy bragg has moved to the west country into the green landscape. I would like to do the same so make no criticism. I just wonder if its for the same reasons as me though.

[warriorprince1010]

Brown is old labour, new labour were centralist and Brown is old labour radical far left.

[BanastreTarleton1]

@warriorprince1010

Brown is more a careerist than a dedicated and principled politician. He stepped aside to allow the Nu Labour takeover of the party and betrayed Labour voters old or new alike

[wilburystand]

he quotes Trotsky who talked of " acquianting fascist's heads with the pavement " i.e defeating the threat of fascism physically as well as politically

[mangaissofun]

what does he say at 2:46 when hes quoting trotsky?

[neosoc]

I notice that this video has suffered a Nazi invasion: all the anti-nazi comments and pro-marxist comments have been voted down, and all the fascist comments have been voted up. Why don't we go and do the opposite on all the nazi/fascist videos? Better yet, why don't we pay those psychopaths at Stormfront a visit, and harass them (seriously, they deserve it? Let's have our first victory over fascism by expelling it from cyberspace.

[csno1]

@neosoc Try looking at it analytically!

[remixguru3]

You should go and tell that to the indigenous aborigines in australia, the americans, canadians, south africans. the british flag has a history of colonial rule, rape and mass murder, martin smith was telling the truth,your just too stupid to realise that

[neosoc]

that's right!

[oasis856]

'we're not here to discuss Billys music or political commitment', thank god for that, I think I'll stay.

[kernowoggie]

BNP = 2 EU seats

Socialist Workers Party = zero

mwoahahahahaahaaahaaaaa

[jokaesco]

@kernowoggie The SWP don't stand in elections...

[Misunderstood246]

The first guy is great. He knows man. Marxism is the answer.

[blackblock14]

Marxism was the seed of most of the mass-murders in the 20th century. It has been tried and tested in dozens of countries and invariably leads to totalitarianism. "Marxism is the answer" for those who would murder and oppress millions of people.

[warriorprince1010]

100% true. The EU,Brown BBC pact are marxists and are hell bent on creating wealth for themselves and poverty for the masses, that is socialism.

 The UK economy cannot grow due to the anti business 50% tax and massive borrowing.

[gooner364]

What a bunch of tools, these are the people that have ruined this country over the last 50 years. 1st guy is a complete and utter spineless numpty suggesting the union jack represents all these evils, he's just annoyed we ain't flying the red flag of communism.

[loudmouth64]

I couldn't agree more with the dude below me. What differentiates the BNP from Nazism?

1. They're all white.

2. They demand a pure race of Brits... Hitler demanded pure Germans.

3. I'd be the Jew... I'm Muslim.

4. Just like in Nazi Germany I'd be the first to go.

5. The BNP tell me to go home... yet I was born here. Where the fuck is home?

Go on... tell me differences. Hitler's moustache doesn't count.

[xInToTheValley]

You're a fucking retard if you honestly think muslims are taking over the country. Where are you getting your information from? The same racist cunt who dismissed the gas chambers in the holocaust as a total lie i.e Nick Griffin?

And don't even get me started on the oxymoron that is 'Nazi Ahmed', you tosspiece.

[JackBrindelli]

lol i think we can assume from his stunned silence he didn't have anything to back his tabloid spew up with, well done for calling his bluff

[Olekander]

@xInToTheValley Only word you know Nazi? Nazi is last resort of a conversationalist coward. 

[xArmagideonTime]

@Olekander And if you'd actually read the comment properly, you would have seen that the word 'nazi' was resorted to by the person they were criticising, wouldn't you?

[VodkaTonic1976]

Billy Bragg moved out of dagenham and now lives in Devon....whats the matter Bragg?....To many africans?

[anthonyrussell84]

1. He lives in Dorset

2. Who is anyone to tell anyone else where to live? Billy is big enough and ugly enough to decide where he wants to live.

[lndac02]

No problem with Billy living in Dorset Anthony, its a lovely part of the UK. its not exactly multicultral central thought is it. Billy sings a good song about enriched multicultral UK , but wants it for you and me, he prefers to live amongst good white folk in the west country.

[lndac02]

good honest post

[WenhamLongington]

This is hilarious. Who are the BNP? And who gives a fuck? The BNP will all be dead (all twenty five of them) when the Islamists take over your country. Oh, but don't forget to mention Adolf Hitler, who poses such a clear and present danger to your land. OMG you just did!!! LMFAO

[xInToTheValley]

You simply haven't a clue about British politics have you?

[WenhamLongington]

No, of course not, absolutely nothing. I left the UK two years ago, and things have obviously changed. But perhaps there is a reason why the BNP are such a force to be reckoned with (if, in fact, they really are). Perhaps that issue ought to be seriously addressed. Many expats like me (who haven't got a clue about British politics) still have the vote, don't you know?

[oclandestin]

Very interesting speeches. Billy Bragg seems alot more progressive about nationalism than Martin Smith. I think Martin Smith's rejection of the union jack is the kind of extreme political correctness that actually feeds into BNP claims that "British identity" is being marginalised. I'm a British Muslim and I don't feel uncomfortable with anyone wearing the union jack. It may have once been a symbol of British imperialism but now it just represents the British nation which is no longer all white.

[oclandestin]

When someone like Amir Khan wears the union jack out of his own sense of pride, people don't see the BNP, they see the successes of an ethnically diverse nation. Hindus haven't stopped using the swastika symbol because the Nazis co-opted it, so why should British people abandon the union jack because of a bunch of fringe fascists? I've never been into flag-waving, but British people need to reclaim the union jack from the fascists or design a new one.

[kerakcast]

Actively encouraging 'fringe Fascists' to wave their symbols of bigotry in public does not mean the Nazis will simply disband.

The union jack or cross of St.George are seen by many people as symbols of alienation and fear; fliting with the ideas these symbols represent can be very dangerous as was seen in Europe during the 30's and 40's.

[oclandestin]

The Union Jack is not a "symbol of bigotry", it's the British national flag, just like every other country in the world has a national flag. Are you going to stop British sportsmen and women or state institutions or any British person from waving the British flag but ban only BNP supporters from doing the same? Flags are just part of a nation's identity, internationally recognised symbols. Ignore the fascists, or you're only pandering to them.

[RogetKing]

here here! well said mate

[DEVRIMCI2007]

if the left doesnt gain the british flag then the far right will use it as a propaganda tool.

[kerakcast]

The BNP have used the British flag since their inception into politics and have always used it as a propaganda tool.

[oclandestin]

All flags are propaganda tools. The majority of British people are not racist and not BNP supporters, so the meaning of a flag should not be dominated by a minority who attach something negative to it. This is exactly why British people need to reclaim the Union Jack and stop being politically correct about it. Even if you get rid of the Union Jack, you'll have to replace it with something else. Symbols are always open to having their original meaning subverted into something negative.

[straightchris]

I think our Billy has been smoking too much pot with former head of the Institute for Public Policy Research and quote "friend and comrade" Matthew Taylor.

Did Matthew's mother-in-law Eliza Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5, have any knowledge of the rubber-stamping by British intelligence of the Bush administration's forged yellow cake uranium dossier from Chad by this Italian con-artist that boosted the case for war with Iraq?

[straightchris]

Sorry for "Chad" read : Niger

check out the scoop on Democracy Now August 13 & August 14, 2008.

Ron Suskind Reveals Bush Admin Ordered Iraq-9/11 Fakery, House Judiciary Chair John Conyers Opens Congressional Probe.

[swanziegirl]

Well done Mr Smith you did a superb job in confusing class with culture!!

[DropZoneRecords]

brilliant, you should check out e scottish musician Eastbrn, not to get hits or anything, but because he keeps what Billy Bragg does alive and to the younger generations.