We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

“Don’t mourn, organize!”

Such were the last words attributed to doomed American labor activist Joe Hill.

The British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn decided to refresh his message for the new century. Rather than refraining from mourning and going into organization it refrained from organizing and went into mourning.

Labour left humiliated after G4S turns down last ditch plea to provide conference security despite boycott

Labour has been left humiliated after being forced to ask a security company it had pledged to boycott to help police its annual conference – only to be rejected.

G4S, which has provided security at the event for 20 years, is understood to be concerned about staff safety after Labour voted for a boycott over its prison contracts and links to Israel.

It follows a warning from Len McCluskey, the Unite boss, that the conference could be cancelled unless a provider is found urgently.

Sources close to the company warned that the short notice it was given and previous incidents at the event, including staff being spat at and verbally abused, made it impossible for G4S to accept the offer.

28 comments to “Don’t mourn, organize!”

  • mezzrow

    Res ipsa loquitur.

  • RRS

    When socialists try to fly low under the radar in order to be identified as “Labour,” there are always the dangers of flying too low.

    Like the Earth and its features to those flying, political realities remain fixed.

  • pete

    Labour delegates abusing and spitting at low paid security staff?

    They hate the working class more than I realised.

  • Natalie Solent (Essex)

    There was a good comment from “Patch86UK” on the Labour party sub-reddit:

    So, that leaves us with two options. One, give in to Showsec (and royally piss off GMB) by giving them the job without a union recognition agreement. Two, pay police to do it (at an ungodly colossal inflated price).

    Showsec are a rival security company to G4S, and I gather the only serious competitor for a job of this sort. Showsec are also unacceptable to some in the Labour movement, in this case due to a dispute with the GMB union. Patch86UK continues:

    Or cancel conference, for the first time…ever, maybe.

    For the record, I loathe G4S as much as the next man. But boycotting them was one of the stupidest moves in recent party history, and I hope whoever was responsible for that is deeply aware of that.

    We boycotted them for taking contacts with the Israeli government. Israel is officially a UK ally, and Labour Party policy certainly remains that that should be the case. Boycotting them over something which was nothing to do with Labour or the UK or was illegal in any way was a massive political self-indulgence which has now come to bite us in the arse.

  • Andrew

    ### Two, pay police to do it (at an ungodly colossal inflated price). ###

    You’re the party that advocates more government, more government, more government. So yes, stand by your convictions that the state is a better provider than the market. Or change them.

  • Gary

    I am surprised how little attention is given to the fact that they are using ANY private contractor at all. A perfectly good Public Sector providers is willing and able. The Labour Party should not be encouraging the de facto privatisation of policing.
    We should be challenging them to put their money where their mouth is.

  • Greytop

    Labour just being Labour. No change there then.

    As for who polices their chat-bash, can’t they call in the First Regiment Of Anti-Fascists? They’re a dab hand at wearing Guy Fawkes masks and breaking the windows of McDonalds.

  • CaptDMO

    Are we to understand that Socialist Labor (wink wink) is jumping on board with today’s (US anyway)Boycott, Divest, Sanction campaign against Israel , so popular among US University disruptors? And burly men with truncheons are snubbing them?
    Who exactly needs “protection”? FROM who? Or is this just douchey “crowd control via. tee shirts” requirements required for public assemblies of certain size?
    *sheesh* back in the GOOD ole’ days of organised crime blatenly infesting “labor management”, they provided their OWN “security”, from out-of-town. But THAT was for the dissenting members.

  • monster

    I find the funniest aspect of all of this, the fact that the socialist Labour part under Corbyn and his comrades wants to centrally plan for the Whole Nation when they cannot even organise their own annual conference, let alone manage to plan ahead and book a couple of train tickets for their dear leader on his recent trip to visit the workers! haha

  • Laird

    Perhaps they could bring in the Bob Crow Brigade?

  • PhilB

    So let me get this straight … they want to destroy a perfectly legitimate business by arbitrarily changing a legal contract, force unionisation onto them, vilify them and behave in a manner that, if say a constituent behaved towards a “Right Honourable” Labour MP, would lead to a criminal conviction and the bastards refuse the job? How perfectly unreasonable of them.

    (As a Quality trained person, first thing you do is Contract Review – i.e. can we do what the client wants, in the timeframe, to the cost and standard they require. In this instance, asking them to gear up to do the contract in the timeframe allowed is a NO!. They are quite correct to refuse without giving justification).

  • Sources close to the company warned that the short notice it was given and previous incidents at the event, including staff being spat at and verbally abused, made it impossible for G4S to accept the offer.

    If I were in charge of GS4, I’d have said something along the lines of: “First you boycott us, and now you need us. Tough shit.”

    Which might explain why I’m not put in charge of very much.

  • Natalie Solent (Essex)

    Tim Newman,

    Knowing you are good at languages, I’m surprised you missed seeing that the second statement is an exact translation of the first.

  • David

    Tim N you have it partly right.

    The correct response would be, “First you boycott us, and now you need us. That’s fine but the going rate is now 500% on the original quote and all personnel will wear T-shirts with the Magen David front and back”.

  • Runcie Balspune

    Thus lies bare the fallacy of socialism.

    Cooperation is better, working together is better, united we are stronger, it is a powerful, influential message.

    But then you need a leader.

    And if that leader is weak, or disinterested, or corrupt, or mentally disadvantaged with a personality disorder, then it goes bad – really bad.

    And if your version of “democracy” makes sure that the weakest, least interested and most corrupt only ever become leaders, we have a recipe for disaster.

    (you only need deny all this to be considered mentally disadvantaged with a personality disorder. so that’s a given)

    And now, when your leader is bad, you have to force people to cooperate – often violently.

    The ranking goes: 1. cooperation, 2. non-cooperation, 3. forced cooperation. As long as socialism thinks 3 is the better option, then disaster will only follow.

  • Knowing you are good at languages, I’m surprised you missed seeing that the second statement is an exact translation of the first.

    That’s a good point. But I think they should have spelled it out as bluntly as I did. 🙂

  • Watchman

    Just on the policing issue, Merseyside Police don’t seem willing to do it – a comment reported in the Guaradian a couple of days ago (sorry, can’t find the link, because I am crap at remembering where things are on websites) noted they said they did not have the manpower availability to do this, presumably because they are not going to cancel leave or anything just to police a conference.

    So if the socialists are so incompetent that they can’t even get the state to provide security to their conference, they may have a problem. Although personally I would have preferred that they went with Showsec, and then had the GMB picket the event, just to watch them try and work out if they could enter the building.

  • Snag

    Maybe the Hell’s Angels are available?

  • Snag

    So if the socialists are so incompetent that they can’t even get the state to provide security to their conference, they may have a problem.

    They can’t even book seats on trains…

  • bob sykes

    Hells Angels might be available. They have security experience, and their resume includes Altamont:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert

  • Stuck-record

    Why don’t they just occupy the building? Momentum could the police the event, security-checking entrants for ideological purity, throwing anyone they don’t like out, and forcing standing ovations to the dear Leader’s speech.

    Surely the people’s need is greater that any corporate laws or insurance cover? After all, these are University educated middle-class people, there is nothing they aren’t experts in.

  • Reconstruct

    It really has turned into a freakshow, hasn’t it.

  • JohnK

    I don’t know why the Labour Party would need such levels of security anyway. It won’t be surrounded by scum spitting at the delegates, as that is what leftists do to Conservatives. Nor will any enemies of Britain wish to attack a party which will disarm and allow anyone with a mind to, to invade.

    The fact is that the enemies of Britain are the natural allies of Corbyn’s Labour.

  • Natalie Solent (Essex)

    Saved! A new security firm, OCS, has been found who will take on the job.

    But wait a minute …

    New security firm for Labour conference uses zero-hours contracts.

  • TomJ

    IDD, that, isn’t it? That the only company that can provide the service with the square root of sod all notice is one that uses very flexible employment practices…

  • TomJ

    That’s should aave started “Odd that, isn’t it?” Blasted touch screen keyboards…

  • PhilB

    I’m going to enjoy watching the left wing, right on, politically correct labourites and union louts heads explode … sort of like THIS when they realise that an eeeeeeeeeevil zero contracts company is providing the security.

  • Paul Marks

    Union power (what W.H. Hutt called the “Strike Threat System” and showed depended on government granted union powers) can not improve the wages and conditions of all workers. Defying supply and demand (and relying instead on union “picketing” and so on) can only improve the conditions of some workers at the expense of other workers – not just “the capitalists”.

    And, in the end, even the union members lose – as the industries (and cities) they wreak go into decline.

    Whilst the media (including the entertainment media) and the education system continue to make hero figures out of people such as Joe Hill, the West will continue to decline.

    As for the Labour Party?

    I do not care – as both Mr Jeremy Corbyn and Mr Owen Smith are insane.