Harry Paterson

Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court was an unsettling place to be on March 20^th. It was here that current far-right bête noire, Azhar Ahmed, appeared to face a charge of committing a ‘Racially Aggravated Public Order Offence’.

As previously reported http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/azhar-ahmed-and-scott-mchugh-a-tale-of-two-states/, Ahmed took strong exception to the blanket media coverage of the six servicemen from the Yorkshire regiment killed in Afghanistan recently, compared to the scant attention given Afghan civilians killed by US and UK occupation forces.

It’s difficult to see his arrest and charge as anything other than a deeply sinister move by the state to punish anyone daring to question the morality and validity of the illegal campaign in which the UK is involved.

Maybe something of the obvious hypocrisy of the charge and the transparent political persecution it represents was a factor in it being withdrawn and replaced with that of ‘Posting a grossly offensive message on Facebook’, the clumsily worded replacement reeking of a kind of make-it-up-as-you-go-along justice. Incredibly, though, it seems the offence is covered by the 2003 Communications Act. Ahmed has now been bailed and will stand trial under the new charge at Huddersfield Magistrates Court on July the 3^rd.

The far-right were on hand to vent their collective spleen as Ahmed arrived at court and some three dozen members of the EDL, Casuals United and assorted lumpens and neo-fash detritus brandished placards demanding the jailing of the hapless teen and of anyone else committing the heinous crime of insulting British troops. They were controlled by some fifty police officers complete with four video vans.

The obvious class spite of Ahmed’s arrest contrasted with the, so far, absence of any action against the pro-troops racism and bigotry of McHugh and his supporters, not to mention their clear and overt threats of violence and death, and reflect well the current viciously reactionary period.

As the UK becomes increasingly draconian in its attitudes to protest and ever more brutal in its handling of those involved, the oft-vaunted claims of a classless society are exposed for the hollow sham they really are.

When a drunken youth can be jailed for two years for jokingly advocating a riot on Facebook (a riot that never even took place) and Azhar Ahmed is hauled before the beak for voicing an inarguably and unmistakably political opinion, then it’s time people woke up and started thinking.

As the austerity measures of the coalition make themselves felt and job losses escalate, further protests are inevitable. As we saw last year, following the summer riots and the shooting of Mark Duggan, not to mention the cases of Alfie Meadows, Ian Tomlinson and numerous others, the state is more than ready to use its extensive panoply of powers to keep the moaning proles down.

Powers that were originally introduced under the guise of aiding the state in its ‘War On Terror’ have already been wheeled out to crush political dissent and protest from unions, students and NHS workers, among others. This will only continue as the crisis deepens.

It’s clear that Cameron’s government will stop at nothing to make the poor pay for the sins of the greedy elite. And as if that weren’t enough, Ahmed’s case makes clear that they are also prepared to give their class allies in the police service and judiciary the necessary power to penalise legitimate political protest. Nye Bevan once perceptively observed that you never hear the Tories talking about class war because they’re too busy fighting it.

We are all Azhar Ahmed now…