Life beyond politics
May 17, 2009 at 9:22 am (cults, literature, Max Dunbar, political groups, sectarianism)
I always wondered what Kevin Williamson has been up to after unleashing Irvine Welsh upon the world in the early nineties and now, thanks to Gene, I’ve found his blog. As well as a revealing post on the unpleasant and stupid John Wight, there’s also his letter of resignation from the Scottish Socialist Party. Read the whole thing. There is a good analysis of the Sheridan libel case and the prospects for Scottish independence. But this is Williamson’s main reason for leaving the party:
After all those years of boring meetings in cold and drafty halls I’m looking forward to the freedom that being outside of a political party will finally give me. I might even get involved in some real politics now. It will also mean the freedom to get involved in causes that I chose rather than the lost causes that sections of the left persist in choosing.
But most important of all it will give me the time and space to do what I should have been doing for these last eight years, which is to write books. My last book was published way back in 1997 – the year before I joined the SSP. The SSP has taken up so much of my time, energies and headspace for such a long time. But no more.
Books are important. The language and the culture of resistance is important. It is not political parties – as many on the left mistakenly believe – but a country’s radical writers, musicians and other creative individuals who piece together and preserve the often hidden or censored history of working people. It is these same people who have the intellectual freedom and rigour to come up with radical new ideas. In this respect one Alasdair Gray is worth a hundred Tommy Sheridans.
Politically, I am only now beginning to catch up with the likes of James Kelman, Alison Flett, Tom Leonard, Iain Banks, Irvine Welsh, Duncan McLean, Hector MacMillan, Edwin Morgan, Janice Galloway, James Robertson, Carl McDougall, Liz Lochhead, Angus Calder, Elspeth King, Jim Ferguson, Sandie Craigie, AL Kennedy, Joy Hendrie, Raymond Ross, Thom Nairn, James D Young and so many more in our fine tradition of engaged independence-supporting Scottish writers.
Back in that pivotal year of 1992 – when the Scottish cultural and political resistance to Westminster rule moved up a few gears – these engaged writers were light years ahead of almost all of us who would eventually found the SSP. Scotland owes these writers so much more than any political party for where we’re at and for where we’re going.
Shiraz Socialist 
Jim Denham said,
May 17, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Why do sections of the “left” tolerate lumpen thugs, anti-semites and hooligans like Wight and his south-of-the border opposite number, Ger Francis? The crude sexism and anti-semitism of these characters would not be tolerated in any halfway civilised union branch, and yet the ‘Socialist Unity’ blog hosts both of these scumbags,and the ‘Morning Star’ carries frequent articles by Wight (they haven’t -yet- demeaned themselves by carrying anything by Francis…but it’s probably only a matter of time).
Lobby Ludd said,
May 17, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Who are ‘Wight’ and ‘Ger Francis’? I think I would like to know more about them before even thinking about them again.
Something ‘personal’ is it?
maxdunbar said,
May 18, 2009 at 9:21 am
I’m not sure who Ger Francis is, but Williamson’s post tells you all about Wight that anyone needs to know.
John Wight said,
May 18, 2009 at 10:38 am
Yes, and the fact that not one word of WIlliamson’s post is in fact true and that even former friends and associates of his have rejected him as a result of it is neither here nor there, is it?
Simliarly, the tone and content of your last post, Mr Dunbar, tells me all about you that I need to know.
Harry Tuttle said,
May 18, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Max –
There’s more on Mr. Wight here.
Alec said,
May 18, 2009 at 6:35 pm
The sad fact is, Jim, that when a lot of people think of left-wing politics and causes, they think of what John Wight represents.
Do you disagree, John? Or will you simply threaten to discuss matters with me personally?
Vengeance and Fashion said,
May 18, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I’m sure the loss of Comrade Williamson is incalculable, and that the left will struggle to fill the gap (chortle, snigger)…
Alec said,
May 18, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Yes, V&F, because socialist parties in Scotland really have gone on with leaps and bounds since the events which Williamson cites.
Not that I would have voted for them beforehand, but there were many good and committed individuals present who didn’t deserve to have all their efforts pissed on to permit one man to maintain his cult of ego, or to have them to be continued to be pissed on just to score a cheap point on a blog.
When people say that Wight’s the problem with the Left, they’re missing the point somewhat. He never was on it, except in the loosest sense. The problem *is* those who can’t recognize it or think it’s a matter for sneering, eg you.
John Wight said,
May 19, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Alec
For a man who pontificates as though he knows me well, you certainly reveal that you in fact know very little, if indeed anything at all. The point is that you and others of your ilk hate my politics and therefore do your utmost to discredit me in any way possible and in so doing hopefully thereby discredit my politics.
You ask me if I would wish to speak to you personally. As someone who seems to derive a morbid thrill in occupying blogs during which you assert the right to describe people in such pejorative terms as lunatic, moron, anti-semite, thug, idiot…and so on, I would suggest that it’s entirely right that you should have the guts to face up to the object of such ire and say it to their face.
But, no, yours is the way and the method of the coward. You would rather throw stones and run away.
That’s fine, this is your right. But it’s also my right to respond to such abuse in any way I see fit, including the demand that the person who obviously holds me in such distaste should be man enough to let me know that to my face, so that I might offer a reply, perhaps even succeed in disabusing said person of their opinions.
As for being on the left in the ‘loosest sense’ – well, this is a matter of opinion. But I would suggest that for someone who is on the left in the ‘loosest sense’ as you describe, you certainly seem to devote a lot of time and effort in poring over my articles, speeches, press statements, and anything else with my name attached.
Perhaps your energies may be better directed at looking at the cause of such obsessive behaviour.
maxdunbar said,
May 19, 2009 at 2:31 pm
So next time you criticise, say, the Israeli government, you should actually fly to Israel and read out your blog posts to Bibi’s face.
Alec said,
May 19, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Good one, Max.
Compared to rushing a hapless attendant at a vigil on the Mound and threatening to rip his face off? With the current state of defamation laws in this country, it should be relatively easy to issue some sort of writ to order the retracting of Williamson’s claims. Rather like Tommy was doing when you’d drive him to court.
Alec said,
May 19, 2009 at 7:20 pm
PS John, please give one good reason why your posts here should be tolerated when mine are systematically Kronstad’d at Socialist Unity.
voltairespriest said,
May 19, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Alec: because I say so.
Alec said,
May 19, 2009 at 7:48 pm
And to you, Voltaire’s Priest, I, of course, defer. But, not to John.
voltairespriest said,
May 19, 2009 at 8:01 pm
No-one’s asking you to defer to anyone: he does have the right to reply though.
Presumably it’s Andy Newman whom you should be asking about the policies on his Socialist Unity Blog?
Alec said,
May 19, 2009 at 8:15 pm
My point is that my attempts to post to the recent thread on the EIFF at SU were immediately deleted, and I have no reason to doubt John was behind it (it was his thread) just as I suspect he was behind the open communiques from Hamas which were appearing, without comment, at SU during January. Thus, dissent is air-brushed out of SU, whilst John comes to other blogs to avail himself of their hospitality.
The Interweb has been making stupid people clever since 1993, and John is no exception. He states that all I do is pontificate on blogs. This surely extends to 99% of similar commenters. Except John, of course. John is a Right Man. John has a vision which is not imparted on mere pontificators such as myself. This is why John can link to CODOH or speak of something called “International Jewry”, and then wipe the slate clean with a simple apology. This is why John need no provide any refutation of Williamson’s (presumably verifiable by witnesses and Police) allegations of his threatening to “rip the face off” someone he’d got into a barney with on the Internet.
Ben said,
May 19, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I had an email corrspondence last year with Bruce Kent re Wight after Wight linked to the holocaust denial site CODOH.
Here’s what he said about Wight
“If this Wright is the man who announed that ‘ we are all Hezbollah now’ at a rally in Edinburgh that I spoke at about two years ago I distanced myself very clearly from his remarks at the time and went on to praise the courage of Israeli army refusniks and the Women in Black.I do not believe that violence solves problems– usually it creates even more.I hope I also said,as I usually do,that to equate the cruelty of the territorial Zionists with the best of Judaism is a disgrace.To criticise what the State of Israel does in relation to the Palestinians is not to be anti semitic. To use a phrase like ‘international Jewry’ is racist abuse which I condemn as strongly as I can.”
” Anyway I agree with you. For anyone to use the term ‘international jewry’ is so offensive that it casts an anti semitic light on all he says.Bruce”
Alec said,
May 19, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Thanks, Ben. I’d forgotten about that.
Voltie, let’s put it down to poetic license. I ain’t suggesting that you censor anyone. That you permit John, or me, to post here reflects only well on you. That John authors a blog which Kronstads dissenting posts, but comes to other blogs to practice his ‘right of reply’, reflects only poorly on him.
John Wight said,
May 19, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Alec:
This is why John need no provide any refutation of Williamson’s (presumably verifiable by witnesses and Police) allegations of his threatening to “rip the face off” someone he’d got into a barney with on the Internet.
Reply:
You see, Alec, this illustrates the problem when you accept the ramblings of a well known delusional nutcase like Williamson as fact. What he purposely concealed from his post is the fact that the ‘someone’ he described was in fact himself. You see? This is the method of a liar and a coward. In seeking to seize some moral high ground he lies and obfuscates. This individual issued a personal threat against me on the SU blog, which ended with him letting me know that he would ‘see me later’ at a demonstration against the attack on Gaza that very evening. I duly arrived, saw him there, and made an approach, A sharp exchange of words ensued, during which the words ‘I’ll rip your face off’ never at any point left my lips. I have witnesses who will verify this.
But this I suspect will mean nothing to you or your like on this blog.
As for Hamas, I support them in their resistance to ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and the murder of men, women, and children completely. As to their political programme, this is another matter. However, as someone who believes implicity in the laws of physics, among which is that of cause and effect, I hold to the view that Hamas constitues a symptom and not a cause of the conflict in that part of the world. Oppression breeds resistance. As to the nature of that resistance, this is largely governed by conjunctural historical factors.
What do you think?
Ben said,
May 19, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Here’s Hirsh taking the piss out of Wight.
engageonline.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/crema/
Hirsh : “John Wight is, himself, responsible for a number of these kinds of antisemitic “cock-ups”. He pushes antisemitic conspiracy theory. He uses racist language against Israel and Jews. He links to fascistic antisemitic websites. In fact John Wight does it so often and is so resistant when this is pointed out to him, that perhaps in his case my comment is not really applicable.”
Wight : “Well David At least in your libellous rants you remain consistent.”
Hirsh : “So sue me”
Wight : “Already looked into it. The cost proved prohibitive.”
Hirsh : ” Yer right. You went to a lawyer. You told her that you’d written: “The state of Israel is a hydra-headed monster, comprising Zionist ethnic cleansers, US imperialists, and Arab collaborationist regimes. Arrayed against this monster are the forces of human progress.” and “As soon as the scales fall from the eyes of international Jewry with regard to the racist and fascist ideology that is Zionism, the world will begin to emerge from the iron heel of war and brutality in the Middle East.” “The … comment re Israel being a hydra-headed monster I stand by.” http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=1627 You asked your lawyer if you could sue David Hirsh for characterizing these comments as antisemitic. Your lawyer told you: “Of course John, sue him. You’d be bound to win. There is no way that these comments could be characterized as antisemitic. But it would be expensive.” And so you decided not to sue. You’re priceless John. “
Alec said,
May 19, 2009 at 10:10 pm
I note, John, you’re avoiding mention of the time you saw nothing untoward about CODOH literature. Unfortunately, that wasn’t posted to SU or the SPSC site so, unlike the time Mick Napier linked to Radio Islam, you couldn’t excise reference to it.
No, this illustrates the problem you have with parsing sentences and words such as “apparently”.
Why, because you say so? His post has been up for one month, and you have had additional opportunity to clarify matters over the past few days. That you have waited until this point strikes as a conscious attempt to mislead.
Linkages? Bearing in mind this is a blog which publishes unsubstantiated allegations against a Police of Jewish-background called Dreyfus, under the headline of “J’Accuse, the End of the Dreyfus Affair”. You have posted remarks on Harry’s Place against me which left very little doubt as to an abusive temperament and desire to intimidate me. In your stated capacity as press officer for the SPSC, you have published the text of the following email sent to the EIFF:
You are a bit of a thickie, ain’t you, John? Do you think this is a sign of a calm and rational temperament? D’you think this will dissuade observers from believing Williamson and me?
Hamas is a religio-political organization, you twit. The two are inseparable. At least have the intellectual courage to admit to supporting it.
This is like the time you spoke of “Arab collaborationist regiemes“! What glorious logic: Israel, wrong; Fat’h, wrong; any Arab voice which doesn’t agree with Hamas, wrong; anyone who doesn’t agree with John Wight, wrong.
You have also called Israel a “hydra-headed monster” against which are “arrayed the forces of human progress”. That is, Israelis are not just wrong; they’re of as much value as insects. Have you asked the world what it thinks? No you have not. That doesn’t stop you alluding to Acts 9:18 when decreeing what much occur for this “progress” to be effected and International Jewryr to, presumably, cast out its fly-blown phylacteries; or when you called the call for an academic boycott “a transcendental initiative”. You see, John, this is why observers think you’re an antisemite… because you use Christian antisemitic and quasi-religious imagery.
I think you’re speaking even greater post-modern twaddle than usual. What goes on at the atomic and sub-atomic level does not translate to the macro, as anyone with a rudimentary understanding of physics *would* know. I think you have taken one or two OU sociology courses (maybe with that bearded, pot-bellied Adrian… has he got a job yet?).
Oh, and I also think your shirt is as brown as the turd I am about to flush down the toilet.
Alec said,
May 19, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Oi, Ben! Stop stealing my thunder!
Do Threats of Disorder Work? « A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North said,
May 19, 2009 at 11:58 pm
[…] – Over at Shiraz Socialist, John Wight can be seen explaining that he supports Hamas when they are fighting Israelis, but not when they’re […]
maxdunbar said,
May 20, 2009 at 7:35 am
Love Wight’s excuse for linking to CODOH.
As told by Modernity:
John Wights defence is:
“30. In the course of the exchange that followed on their site, amongst others, I indvertently posted the url of a far right site devoted to Holocaust Denial. I didn’t even open the link to the site, as I was looking for the site: Campaign For An Honest Discussion Of Zionism (CODOZ) and instead ended up on (CODOH). This was an honest mistake, which Engage, and certain contributors on here, have sought to capitalise on. I offered an immediate and unreserved apology for this mistake, which I fully admit was a case of intellectual laziness on my part
…
Comment by John W — 7 February, 2008 @ 5:52 pm”
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=1687
which is strange, because if you use google and type in:
Campaign For An Honest Discussion Of Zionism (CODOZ)
nothing relating to that appears out of the billions of pages, even permutations such as “CODOZ zionism” produce nothing
it is not a very convincing excuse
John Wight said,
May 20, 2009 at 7:41 am
Max, I’ve read some of your work and I have to say that no one could ever accuse you of having a giant intellect.
Be that as it may, I’m all in favour of a man doing whatever it takes to get him through the night.
Ridley the Monkey Hanger said,
May 20, 2009 at 7:51 am
Oh, Harold Robbins, I thought you said Harold Robinson
Alec said,
May 20, 2009 at 7:59 am
Gads! I dreamt about John last night!
John, you’re hilarious. Why have you not sued me or Williamson? Is it, as David Hirsch would say, because of the cost (didn’t stop Tommy with the NotW)? It cannot be because, after showing what you’ve said, it was explained that some people may see you as guilty as a puppy dog sitting next to a pile of poo.
John Wight said,
May 20, 2009 at 8:09 am
Alec
As I said, you need help with that. I do offer autographs and private seminars, for which I charge a very reasonable fee, so if you ever get to the point at which feel your fan obsession cannot resist it any longer, watch this space for further details.
As for suing you, whither such notions of grandiosity? You’re about as important to me as jobbies.
Oh, and by the way, I most definitely did not dream about you last night.
resistor said,
May 20, 2009 at 8:22 am
I had a big dream and a big wank last night. Me and Wighty were in charge of an ‘anti partisan’ operation in Lvov, 1941. And we got to shoot Jewish women! It was amazing. But then I woke up. John, send me some of your links to get me back in the mood.
Alec said,
May 20, 2009 at 8:39 am
Probably wise that you don’t sue, John. Much as I’m sure you’d like to strike a blow for the working-man, as Tommy tried, there’s the snag about documented evidence of your persistently using antisemitic imagery and calls to perpetuation of violence – in Israel or Norn Ireland.
Now, I ask this more out of hope than expectation, why did you link to CODOH?
maxdunbar said,
May 20, 2009 at 8:39 am
John is using a lot of sarcasm, but is just coming off as deranged.
Alec said,
May 20, 2009 at 8:48 am
He’s probably still sick with excitement after his recent trip to Buenos Airies, Max.
NGC 891 said,
May 20, 2009 at 8:51 am
John, as you searched about on Holocaust denial sites, did you get a wee stiffy?
Alec said,
May 20, 2009 at 8:55 am
It was a mistake, NCG! Just as the money was resting in Father Ted’s account!
Is it wrong of me to imagine John and Hasbara Buster, in their matching Tweedledum and Tweedledee outfits, being locked in a room with half a dozen members of the Golani Brigade?
Alec said,
May 20, 2009 at 9:07 am
Failing the Golani Brigade, this fellow. Even funnier than krav maga.
Now, I have to depart, but please don’t be too beastly to John. He always gets a bit crotchety after he has a bath.
Wibbly Wallywellies said,
May 20, 2009 at 9:11 am
This is a monstrous outrage! You lumpen scum are not fit to lick John Wight’s polished boots, or the cuffs of his brown shirt. You are not even fit to lick his gleaming helmet.
John understands the molten serenity that will engulf all when the last Jewmonster rattles his finalt breath. He understands the urges that course through me and the extansible joy, unbound in it’s droniquity, that shudders my body mass when I confront the ultimate solution.
As the Argentinians showed, the hunt will soon start worldwide, and as it’s leaders John and I will ascend to the plateau of divinity, were we will roil in ecstasy and blood.
Mea Culpa, John Wight « A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North said,
May 20, 2009 at 12:32 pm
[…] fighting the Zionist worm to cast those scales from their eyes! As Wibby Wallywellies, over at Shiraz Socialist, has just cause to happen to me! This is a monstrous outrage! You lumpen scum are not fit to lick […]
John Wight – Man of (Not So Much) Violence (?) « A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North said,
June 3, 2009 at 6:16 pm
[…] and, as far as I can see, during which time there was no response to them – the matter was discussed again at Shiraz Socialist. During this heated exchange, Wight denied… or was it […]
Steve said,
June 20, 2009 at 4:32 am
Great post I learned alot! Thanks =)