By Any Other Name--wow!
Loyal friends and followers!
I discover that the mighty Micky H of Scandal fax infamy has posted a whole long piece just about little old me and my political past...some of which is wrong, but only I know which bits and if Micky does then I must have talked in my sleep when he slept with me!
Wow, I didn't know I was that intriguing! And he got at 5.01 to write it...
Mikey
9 comments:
Can anyone tell me what is going on here? What is Scandal? I googled it and Micky H but got nothing that was helpful.
Thought I'd post what you are talking about here so that people can see what's going on!
From Micky H's Scandalfax blog
Friday, March 30, 2007
By Any Other Name
For those who bother to check in on my blog and read it with closer attention than most, you may recall various comments from and about Mike ‘Beret’ Calvert, Assistant Branch Secretary of the Islington UNISON branch and a member of Worker’s Action – a ‘current’ within the Labour Party.
I have some history with Beret, going back into ancient times and I don’t intend to go into it. For one thing it’s SOOOOOO boring, for another my memory isn’t all it was, and I only have a tiny archive to rely on to prompt me. Anyone who is that interested can seek out the exchanges on my blog and his over the past few months.
Any road up, Mikey’s been getting very incensed of late, putting open letters to me on his blog, emailing me privately, and so on. So much so that I genuinely began to fear for his sanity. In a spirit of as much goodwill as I could muster towards this bed-sit revolutionary, and in as subtle a way as I could manage, I wrote thus:
Hi Mikey,
Or should that be Sherlock?You are clearly getting far too carried away with all this and you really would do well to just let go. This mad Nettles, Clara and co stuff just shows you are losing your grip. Try to settle down, relax, and forget you ever knew me. Don’t check in on my blog. Don’t write about me on your blog. Leave all that nonsense to ET, AKA, Soapdodger and the others. Now, for your own sake, I think it’d be for the best if I didn’t deal with you direct in future. It clearly upsets you and that’s not at all good for a father-to-be. Don't even THINK of naming your offspring after me. You know I’m right, and I’m sure that all your real friends agree. Please don’t think of it as being dumped. I’m doing my best to let you down lightly, for your own good. And please don't plead - it's undignified. Just recall it as a curious moment in your life. Probably won’t be seeing you. But, hey! Them's the breaks.
Yes, yes, I know, maybe a little too kind or a little too sarky depending on your take on things, but I did my best. I won’t go into the detail of everything my comment relates to – you can check it out on his blog if you want. (His blog, when not obsessing about me, containing mainly old Trot documents, pictures of cats and a weird sci-fi story he was trying to use as a metaphor for the class struggle in Islington until I persuaded him to abandon it.)
But he just wouldn’t let it lie!
He writes in his blog an open letter - I'm flattered! -to yours truly:
“….. Micky, the fact that you use the word credibility in the same breath as signing something anonymously is a little bit rich. Here are a number of points to correct your lies and distortions, written from home as Mikey, not in work time!1. At least we--the officers named below-- all sign things we believe in, in our own names (whether we use the tagline Personal capacity or not) and will not hide behind pseudonymous anonymity!.....”
(Relevant extract only - full text on his blog.)
But Mikey, me old mucker, I don’t quite understand.
You see, on your blog you quite helpfully point people in the direction of a Wikipedia article about the Socialist Labour Group. Now, I accept that Wikipedia suffers from all sorts of subversion and sabotage, but you are clearly happy enough with the article to publish it in its entirety offering no comment or correction other than to say you did not write it.
You are also clearly proficient enough to work out how to make amendments - if you weren't happy with the content, if it was inaccurate etc. - to Wikipedia articles. And I'm sure one of your Worker’s Action chums could help you out with any technicalities.
And in that article's final paragraph, it very clearly states
“Mike Calvert (sometimes known as Frank Wainwright) worked closely with John Archer at that time but later had his own differences with the Lambertists.”
“Frank Wainwright” hmm? – a name suggestive of an honest wagon-builder, perhaps? Or maybe a sly reference to the Wainwright who wrote the pamphlet “Clear Out Hitler’s Agents – an exposure of Trotskyist disruption being organised in Britain”? (I only have a small archive, but it’s perfectly formed.)
So a pseudonym of yours, eh, Mikey? As for the other branch officers of Islington – the ones that you have sought so stoutly to defend - I have no knowledge as to whether they have produced material under pseudonyms.
But, let’s be fair, maybe it was a party name? After all, with the secret squirrel, state-threatening, revolutionary work that the obsessive-compulsive disordered left go in for, it is surely important for those involved to mask their identities “for fear of retribution”.
Unfortunately, though, your pseudonym wasn’t just for chats between comrades, was it?
Because you wrote a long letter to the lefty ‘What’s Next’ journal about the obscure Trotskyist ‘Lambertist’ sect. (Named after Pierre Lambert, whose real name was Pierre Boussel). It was titled ‘Towards An Assessment Of Lambertism”.
And you signed it ‘Frank Wainwright’.
Sad to say the story doesn’t end there.
However, the letters of issue 15 and subsequent issues contained epistles from lefties who criticized in no uncertain terms the letter from ‘Wainwright’. I print below a few choice extracts from those letters:
Extract 1
“And there was another contribution by someone calling himself Frank Wainwright. This was real tongue-in-cheek stuff, though. A bit like the kind of support that a rope gives a hanged man. As, whoever your correspondent was, Frank Wainwright is a name that one of our leading comrades, Daniel Gluckstein, uses in some of his writings.”
Extract 2
“This discussion in the pages of your journal should cease. It was begun by a former associate of the Fourth International, Mike Calvert, now a renegade from Trotskyism, writing under an assumed name that he knew would harm us. John Archer was right not to associate himself with such an enterprise. Militant cadres have better things to do than indulge the fantasies of Michael Calvert and the other renegades and enemies of the Fourth International. We hope this will be an end to it. As Trotsky once observed on the passing over of a militant to the enemy camp, we note his contribution and his betrayal, now let us move on to more serious business.”
Extract 3
“Re the letter.....I would like to make the following remarks as a former supporter of that political current. Frank Wainwright is clearly a follower of Pierre Lambert, either a real one or a sympathiser/fellow traveller. His assessment suffers in many areas.....
The "exposure" of Earl Gilman.
Wainwright, on a minor issue, dishonestly exposes Earl Gilman. Gilman is an ultra-leftist, who produces a publication single-handedly in California.“
I haven’t included all the vitriol poured on Lambertism by the correspondents. It’s merely another typically nasty spat between the disunited left.
But - let's be kind - 'borrowing' Gluckstein’s pseudonym? Oh, Mikey, Mikey, Mikey.....
And dishonestly revealing -although stupidly getting it wrong - Earl Gilman's pseudonym? (In your original letter you indicate that Earl Gilman’s pseudonym is Jack Davis. A serious mistake which the What Next? Editor had to correct in a later edition).
Hardly cricket, is it, old chap?
Issue 18 of the same journal contained an epitaph for - under your real name - for ‘John Archer’. Presumably his real name, but how can one be sure in these murky waters?
Now, I’ve said it’s a murky old world so maybe you've been the victim of an elaborate hoax? Someone from an obscure faction trying to discredit you?
And certainly, surely, a matter which you would want to challenge and refute – for the sake of your own political ‘credibility’ - with all your fine skills of penmanship and debate? It would at the very least call for a witty and cutting riposte from you in the pages of ‘What Next’?
But. Not. A. Dicky. Bird. (And that’s not the umpire, who didn’t need a pseudonym with such a champion birth name.)
Or maybe you wrote a defence but they wouldn’t publish it as they thought your credibility in tatters?
I would point out that in putting this post together I wish only to encourage you, Mikey, my old compadre, in a comradely way to a) reconsider your statements:
“….. Micky, the fact that you use the word credibility in the same breath as signing something anonymously is a little bit rich. Here are a number of points to correct your lies and distortions, written from home as Mikey, not in work time!
1. At least we--the officers named below-- all sign things we believe in, in our own names (whether we use the tagline Personal capacity or not) and will not hide behind pseudonymous anonymity!.....”
And b) take my advice, step back and relax before ending up on medication.
Before I close can I apologise for having tried the patience of my regular and loyal readers with this lengthy post over what must seem some mighty arcane minor politico-archaeological points of interest to just two Michaels.
Or two old blokes claiming to be Mikey and Micky.
(Thank you Comrade Antonov for some of the research on this item.)
Thanks, Andrew, but I still don't understand what this is all about. Is it just two friends who have fallen out with each other. Doesn't seem to warrant all this to-ing and fro-ing really, does it? Why can't Mikey and Micky just agree to differ? Or is there more to it than I can see? From earlier comments it looks like they could at least talk to each other.
Maybe I'm trying to say 'grow up'!
janet...hello
I am the Mikey facet of this and I am bored by it too.
He--Micky H--is nasty and has posted some very unsavory stuff on his blog about women UNISON members.
I have never hidden behind any tag in UNISON.
I may have written silly stuff in the past about a lefty group I was in, but I always respected that group in the morning, unlike him.
But, I agree, as I am about to be a daddy I should grow up...
Mikey
oh, i am no bed sit revolutionary and never have been. Always lived in shared houses:
Micky:While I have been in London...
Q: who was the first person I shared a house with? This was in Streatham. She was a teacher, a Trot--IMG, a Lambeth Councillor and is now a very senior manager in Lambeth?
Q: Whose couch did I sleep on...she was a Trot--a Milly-- and a Lambeth Councillor
Q: What care wokers' house in Streatham did I nearly move into 1995, the night the IRA bombed Canar Wharf?
Q: The second, in west norwood, he was a nice guy?
Q: the third...where do I live now?
Andrew and Jane know the answers to these questions...Micky, do you?
Mikey
how boring
Hi Mikey,
Just a hello following meeting you two again at Greg's funeral. I will send my Trotsky Tendency - Minority Elaboration doc to you if you send me your e-mail to me at Gerdowning@btinternet.com
Gerry
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)
Post a Comment