(en) Britain, Glasgo, Anarchist Federation - Herding unicorns : ?West of Scotland Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation?

Yesterday there was a march in Glasgow about one of the most rousing, galvanising issues 
for years; a few thousand people quick stepped from Glasgow Green to George Square along 
back streets to oppose the bedroom tax. It was called by the ?West of Scotland 
Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation? which seeks to ?unite community and other anti-Bedroom Tax 
campaigns into a West of Scotland federation of opposition leading eventually to an all 
Scotland campaign of opposition? 
(http://socialistunity.com/bin-the-bedroom-tax-campaign-launched-in-glasgow/) ---- Given 
the widespread anger that the bedroom tax has evoked, why were there relatively few on the 
march? Where were the hundreds of thousands in the West of Scotland who are passionately 
opposed to the bedroom tax? Well not under the empty umbrella of the ?West of Scotland 
Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation? which called yesterday?s demo, that?s for sure!

For years now we?ve had a familiar pattern of lefties deciding that what is needed is to 
?Unite the Resistance? in order to coordinate the wider working class as we fight these 
latest attacks on us. Worthy figures like Tony Benn head up a ?Coalition of Resistance? as 
an ?umbrella organisation to bring together the local and national campaigns to defend the 
education, NHS, pensions, housing and the Welfare State? 
(http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/2012/03/appeal-from-tony-benn-president-of-the-coalition-of-resistance/). 
Surely what we need to be doing in these days of austerity and assaults on our living 
conditions is to network groups together, to make the connections and work with ?trade 
union, student, pensioner and community opposition to austerity measures? 
(http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/2011/05/what-is-the-coalition-of-resistance-and-what-does-it-do/)?

The trouble is that ? well these local campaigning groups that the lefties have rather 
self-importantly decided that they will coordinate ? well they barely exist. At least in 
Glasgow they are scarce, meagre, barely existing on the ground especially compared to the 
size and scope of the attacks. These semi-mythical creatures that the lefties seek to 
unite from the top down, are actually rare pearls in an ocean of passive despondency. This 
?trade union, student, pensioner and community opposition to austerity measures? that the 
legends speak of is so pitifully rare that it is the same campaigns that get drawn on over 
and over again.

In Glasgow we have the Save the Accord campaign which was actually just a handful of 
carers and service users of a day centre for adults with learning disabilities that 
Glasgow City Council (GCC) decided was less important than a coach park for the 
Commonwealth Games. The campaign itself is incredibly important and inspiring as the 
Accord Centre was a vital service for a very vulnerable group with a high level of need. 
Many of the carers are elderly (their children with learning disabilities grew up but have 
never stopped needing their parents) and just being a service user or full-time carer 
precludes much time, energy and other capacity for campaigning. However similar assaults 
by GCC on services for vulnerable people throughout Glasgow have passed without a flicker 
of a fightback and it is to the credit to the Save the Accord campaign 
(https://twitter.com/savetheaccord) that this attack was forced into wider awareness. 
However this does not excuse the almost parasitic relationship that lefty umbrella groups 
have had with it.

Instead of pompously deciding that we will sit on some Glasgow/West of Scotland organising 
committee from which lofty heights we will steer the local platoons around the battlefield 
like players in a giant game of Risk, what is actually needed is the basic work of 
building from scratch local groups and campaigns that can be the genuine grass-roots buds 
of a better world. This is not glamorous. It does not give us grand titles such as 
?interim secretary of the West of Scotland organising committee? 
(http://socialistunity.com/bin-the-bedroom-tax-campaign-launched-in-glasgow/) but rather 
involves spending hours knocking on thousands of doors, talking to ? shock horror ? people 
who aren?t already politicised and don?t know the rules of the game of revolution (for 
Marx?s sake don?t ever mention the emperor?s nekkid!) It means listening more than 
talking. It requires transcending the existing, fruitless habits of lefties with their A-B 
marches, meetings organised online and predictable speaker lists with choreographed 
applause and cheers. It means not just trying to educate our wider class about how you 
cannae trust politicians and bosses with patronising, dishonest and disingenuous 
mock-surprise when politicians are shown to be the lying self-serving bastards that 
actually everyone in the working class already knows them to be. But working to build up 
the empowerment, hope and solidarity in ourselves, our communities and our wider class. 
After all this is probably the reason why people decide to not bother wasting their energy 
in the assumed to be vain hope that we can make a difference.

Rather than using the few and far between local campaign groups to attempt to legitimise 
an empty umbrella, organise in your own community, workplace or around the issue that gets 
you truly going. If you feel this is beyond you, give genuine support and get involved 
with something already existing. Please get in touch with us glasgow@afed.org.uk if you 
are in this position but don?t know of any suitable local groups and we?ll try and help 
you. Because in our experience of local organising there is never a shortage of practical 
tasks that need done.

Liverpool is leading the way in genuinely combating the bedroom tax with ?tenant-led 
community groups organising for themselves?. ?It is up to us, our friends, our neighbours, 
our communities to stand together in working class unity, without politicians or 
councillors, and combat this attack on working class people, on what it means to have a 
home and to be a human being. Tenants have reached the point now were they are swerving 
the disempowering and ?traditional? methods of protest ?And we don?t need parliament 
stooges calling us to action. We?ll do that ourselves.? 
(http://combatbedroomtax.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/combat-bedroom-tax-in-liverpool.html)

Then, once we have actual, real local and campaign groups, then is the time that these 
groups can make contact with each other and organise themselves into a genuine federation 
that can support each other?s struggles with the practical solidarity that is really 
needed. And we can really start to not just fight back against the bedroom tax and other 
austerity measures, but blossom communities of strength, resilience and hope for a better 
world.

***

Also exemplifying how out of touch the West Scotland ?Federation? are, one of the speakers 
at yesterday?s rally was rape apologist Dave Sherry. When some women in the crowd heckled 
him they were leapt on by the official stewards. 
http://athousandflowers.net/2013/03/31/this-is-a-tax-demo-why-dont-you-go-back-to-your-rape-demo/