One of George Galloway's main preoccupations as constituency MP for Bethnal Green and Bow is to reverse the insidious rise of strip clubs. Here's what he has to say on the issue on the 'information for constituents' section of his website:
George is challenging the apparently enabling attitude the council’s planning department has to strip, lap and pole dancing clubs which are currently operating in Tower Hamlets without appropriate planning permission. The council’s attitude, which seems to be that there is nothing they can do even when planning permission has clearly been flouted, is in contrast to that of Greenwich council which recently stopped a lap dancing club opening an hour before it was officially due to do so because it lacked appropriate planning permission. George is enthusiastically pursuing a campaign to rid Tower Hamlets of these dens of iniquity especially in residential areas and areas close to places of worship.
I rather get the impression that dodging the planning rules is not really what is winding Galloway up. The moral tone - 'dens of iniquity', indeed - seems remarkably strident for a man with such a colourful romantic history. But let that pass.
The real issue here is, what attitude should the left take to these places? Opinion is divided, of course. There is a socialist-feminist argument that strip joints are degrading to women. And yes, I would buy that case.
But consistency dictates that if we favour legalised brothels - and after the Suffolk murders, I am more convinced than ever that is the way to go - then we can hardly call for the likes of Spearmint Rhino to be outlawed.
It all comes down to what should be the role of the local state in regulating the behaviour of consenting adults. Other then ensuring that the 'dancers' are not coerced in any way, that nobody not old enough to be on licensed premises anyway gets in, and that the fire regs are observed, the obvious answer is very little.
Yet Galloway reportedly tells the East London Advertiser this week that activists in his Respect coalition - based on the Socialist Workers' Party, of course - plan to take photographs of men entering strip clubs and then post them on a website. Not the sort of activity most SWPers signed up to the revolutionary party to undertake, I'd guess.
And after the ruling Labour group on Tower Hamlets council blocked discussion of a Respect resolution on the question, the leaflet pictured above was circulated outside mosques last Friday, in what can only be seen as a blatant appeal to religious sentiment.
Footnote for Respect members, especially those that consider themselves socialists: Morality is deciding to live you life by a given code of behaviour. Moralism is trying to impose that code on others.
[Hat tip: former Respect activist Liam Mac Uaid]
Posted at 18:58, 22 December 2006
Comments (30)
Seriously, let's say we did legalise brothels - do you think that would stop some women working the streets? Who would want heroin addicted prostitutes in their brothel anyway?
The issue is drugs, isn't it - not prostitution? I am not sure how legal brothels would have fixed the problem.
Liam has it exactly right:
If, by way of contrast, a campaign initiated by a range of women and women's organisations were opposing this pub's proposal then it would be excellent proof of a resurgence of feminist militancy. But handing out moralising leaflets outside places of worship comes it dangerously close to reactionary populism.
I liked this line as well:
No one in Respect has suggested "naming and shaming", for example, Tommy Sheridan. Rather he gets invited to dinner and to split the SSP.
(But Tommy Sheridan is an honourable man. So are they all, all honourable men.)
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ftssoldier.blogspot.com
www.edwardsaid.org
What the hell is progressive about
raunch culture?
Sex, and shopping are not progressive.
There IS such a thing as unprogressive
Secularism as there is reactionary religion
Just a thought no offense ment
Galloway is to the right of the Ipswich Evening Star which has called for the 'partial' legalisation of hard drugs and legalised brothels.
Honestly, if there's any one out there who backs this rag-bag of racists and reacs that calls itself Respect why don't you just piss off and die?
Maybe Respect could hand out this
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/901002/posts
So members of a semi-Trot group are going to be taking pictures of people in a public place and posting them online.
I can think of only two groups who have adopted similar tactics neither of which should be emulated.
There is the Workers' Revolutionary Party, the semi-Trot group that took pictures of protestors outside the Iraqi embassy then grassed them up to the Iraqi secret police, and the group of hardline Nazis behind the website Redwatch.
I'd love to hear this one explained away by the SWP.
I'd like to work with socialists from any group but the SWP are making this difficult. Who would want to be associated with this bizarre behaviour?
Come on, there is a particular problem on the City of London fringes where a lot of raunch clubs drawing custom from the well off male City employees can make life unpleasant for local residents.
There is no place for name and shame tactics, no need to stoop to the News of the World level, but there are genuine planning and licensing issues here on account of the concentration and high visibility of strip clubs in a high density residential area.
And if you don't agree with me, I'll tell you about my visit to The Old Axe on Hackney Road.
Respect in merger with Daily Mail shocker. Those of us who've seen the fash's newspapers over the years will recall similar pieces about the degradation of women and 'decadance'. How is this any different?
As Dave rightly says, this wasn't what the comrades signed up for, back whenever.
The SWP used to march to legalise cannabis. Too busy this year?
Or do you just take your allies wherever you find them?
The SWP used to march to legalise cannabis. Too busy this year?
Certainly leaves me wondering what they're smoking these days.
There's certainly a debate to be had about the nature of strip clubs and whether they're exploitative Some feminists would argue they actually do more to exploit the men - look at the middle-aged guys in suits, drooling away and handing over walletfuls of cash in order to see no more flesh than you'd get in a copy of Nuts magazine, and one does wonder who's really in the position of power. I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with that argument, but it's a valid argument nonetheless.
However, threatening to photograph and shame people on the internet is not having a debate.
Oh, and have you seen how the East London Advertiser reported the affair?
ttp://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=NewsTowerHam&itemid=WeED22%20Dec%202006%2008:20:31:897&tBrand=RECOnline&tCategory=search
Respect said: "We have not only received a huge number of complaints from residents at the proliferation of these degrading clubs, we have also amassed compelling evidence that the council are failing to use planning and licensing powers effectively to stop their spread.'' See Page 3.
Page 3 indeed...
The various and many semi and actual fleshpots around have always puzzled me. They seem to be a curious mixture of the sexually free and the exploited.
I think the main problem is to separate the two. And bagsy the pleasure bit stays on our side.
There's the small matter of the legality of infringing the privacy (bordering on harassment) of those engaging in entirely legal activities.
Then again, just because Respect have used a prominent local paper to indicate their disdain for 'decadence' to certain groups, it doesn't mean they have to go through with it.
I presume these places are cropping up in Tower Hamlets because property is cheaper there and it is assumed local people would not know how to protest. Perhaps the local council does not give a shit. or does not want to appear ant-business, or maybe it thinks the clubs and strip joints will bring money into the borough.
Local people are entitled to say whether they want these places on their streets, where they may attract undesirables and put off other visitors, and can also price out other, more local shops and cafes, as became an issue in Soho.
The East End has already had to retreat before the encroaching City and the yuppies playing monopoly in docklands, and now I suspect the demand for lap-dancing and strip clubs would come from over-paid City types looking for somewhere to spend their bonuses and flatter their egos by degrading the lower orders.
OK so Galloway is playing the populist and looking for campaigns that don't challenge anything, and what's more keep him in with the imams. It's a bit of a diversion. And it's amusing not to say amazing that SWP members would have nothing better to do. But looked at another way, having their photos taken is the least worst thing that could happen to these strip joint punters going down the mean streets, so maybe Galloway is doing them a favour. Anyway, will all the CCTV everywhere in Britain now I'd have thought the amateurs with their cameras or mobiles were superfluous. I also suspect a lot of the punters staggering from pub to club with their mates will be happy to pose for snaps, and ask for prints and enlargements.
But being as we are all for freedom and all that in this day and age, what a pity all the strip joints and clubs can't be located in more salubrious neighbourhoods. Surely there are vacant properties in Westminster and Belgravia, and in Mayfair the residents are used to it.
You know, I've never been in a strip club in my life. Never had the urge to go in one. But this campaign suddenly makes me want to head down to Bethnal Green, gleefully giving the thumbs up to anyone with a camera.
"dens of iniquity"
What century is he living in?
I live in East London and can assure you that, from the outside at least, these places are of the more tawdry and cheap end of the market, last tenner of the giro kind of places (they list charges outside). Not quite Spearmint Rhino like people seem to be suggesting.
The Nathan Barley crowd appear to have co-opted these 'dens' into their culture as I have read of record launches being held in them. Tacky but harmless, I think.
At the end of the day, I don't see how this impacts on the quality of life for anyone living around them. What evidence is there that the clientel do anything other than arrive and leave? As for offending 'religious sensitivities', none of the state's concern. If they don't like it then live somewhere else.
As regards the photographs, there is one type of customer that might be upset by the idea - the one who likes to be seen as strict and pious in their place of worship. and lays down the law on dress codes etc for the female members of their family or community, but then sneaks along -purely out of curiosity, of course (which has to satisfied each week). You get them in all religions. So Galloway's opportunism might yet misfire!
But getting back to our friend who says "if people don't like it they should live elsewhere", I suppose you could say the same to people who don't like aircraft noise, or having their kids buried under coal tips. Unless our friend is merely assuming objectors are all Muslims, and this is his way of saying "if you don't like it why don't you go back where you come from?"
I don't know of any community that has said "what we really need round here is a whorehouse or strip joint". Where you live in Britain as any other capitalist country is largely determined by money, and in places like the East End there has been a recurring battle between working people trying to keep what they consider a "poor but respectable" community and other interests.
"Freedom" is freedom for people with money and property to rxploit us and tell us what we must put up with. Incidentally, as a pub user I would object to my local being turned into a strip joint, and yes, I'd have to find another pub. In the same way, I am objecting to my current local being taken over by some posh restaurant chain that will transform it from being a villagey-type place and social centre for all into yet another pretentious middle class snobbery - with no guarantee the food will improve. Am I prejudiced? You bet I am!
You can tell people if they don't like something in their neighborhood they ought to move, I say they are entitled to try something called local democracy. It is what those people on the council were supposed to be for, though nowadays I wonder how they expect people to vote for them.
George Lansbury Jr is doubly wrong. The places he talks about range from the corporate/bland/expensive (think Wapping, George, does the place name ring any bells?) to the cheap and uncheerful. The whole range.
The problem is one of location , which is itself determined by money as Pottins rightly says. The high density, low income City Fringe residential areas have a perfect right to prevent the sex industry taking over. Any campaign, so long as it is successful, runs the risk of collapsing into puritanism and/or vigilantism, but that's a political judgement to be made and discussed.
So you wouldn't authorise a brothel opposite a secondary school, and you'd support the parents in getting it closed, but you might license one on a run down, secondary shopping parade and another in a purely commercial street. The public has a clear interest in the safety of the workplace and the need to avoid excessive or downright provocative external signage.
High income neighbourhoods take these rights for granted. Working class neighbourhoods have to struggle for them. Can I take it that we are with them?
[by an ex-resident of City Fringe]
Galloway presented it as a moralist issue to be tackled by the local planning process.
Others on here have presented it as a planning issue with a class bias.
In the topsy-turvy world Respect now occupies, it doesn't surprise me that others on the left are falling for this ridiculous trap being laid for them by more sinister elements.
As for Charlie Pottins' point, I'd say that equally to those in Barking or wherever who object to living alongside new immigrant populations. If you don't like it then there are plenty of estate agents who'd appreciate the business.
George - what you're proposing is telling people to shut up and get out of political activity. I think we need more politics - more debate, more confrontation between opposed views - rather than less. And yes, I do support the right of Dagenham racists to express their views politically, just as I support the right of the Dagenham anti-racist majority to express itself. Apart from anything else, you aren't going to be able to argue with BNP voters unless you listen to them.
As for whether local community organisations have a right to campaign against strip joints - of course they do. The question for us as socialists is whether we support particular campaigns, & the answer to that depends on how the campaign's pitched. I don't think addressing a campaign to religiously-observant people and talking about 'dens of iniquity' is a particularly socialist approach.
My response is just that -- a response. What other response is there then, "Oh yeah, you're right, perhaps we ought to consider repatriation then..." ? I would dearly love to believe there's an amicable solution around the corner but history alone suggests there isn't, so bald logic is all we have.
This 'campaign' actually strikes me as a win-win for all concerned -- the childish left get to feel good about having a pop at those City 'fat cats' getting their jollies over some poor girl who is being demonised for daring to want to earn more than she can in Superdrug; while Muslim elders and their fantasist allies also on the left get to lash out at decadence.
To be fair though, I don't regard Galloway and Respect as having a monopoly on ignorance and sinister purposes here. The Daily Mail tendencies of the first commenter are glaringly apparent (as are their preferences for who should be staffing brothels, should they be legalised).
This sort of cheap, reactionary, populalism, is waht "respect" is all about: see my stuff about their opposition to the Red Route in Sparkhill, Birmingham at "Shiraz Socialist".
[Come on, there is a particular problem on the City of London fringes where a lot of raunch clubs drawing custom from the well off male City employees can make life unpleasant for local residents.]
Brynley, what specifically are you talking about here? I cannot think of a single East London "city fringes" strip club which is predominantly frequented by "well off male City employees", unless you are going to count back office clerks on decent but not exorbitant money into that category. When I worked in the City, people specifically did not go to the strip clubs in Galloway's constituency because they were dog-rough. They might have had a big makeover in the last eighteen months but I doubt it, and the big openings of places like Spearmint Rhino (which IIRC is in Frank Dobson's constituency) will most likely have creamed off their best customers.
I admit that the preceding paragraph was mainly a setup for its last sentence and can only apologise.
I covered this story in passing on 21st in supporting Salma Yaqoob's Comment is Free piece re HMD (http://chrispaul-labouroflove.blogspot.com/2006/12/respectcoalition-muslims-need-to-take.html). Obviously the Labour Group did this thing for reasons other than their marxist analysis or their desire to boost these clubs. Just keeping respect mob in place. Their next move incidentally may be to ally with tories! Galloway and Co also slammed Walk the Plank's Nov 5 show for being based round a Bengal tiger rather than the jolly old tale of a Catholic Dissident having his bits cut off and severally burned as other parts of him watched agog.
As an aside, the tactic of photographing clients going into sex clubs was I beleive sucessfully employed by the Unite union in New Zealand, who used is as a form of industrial action in a reconition fight with club owners in Aukland.
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