Kremlin O’Tankie

One of the people quoted in this Birmingham Sunday Mercury report about the sad story of a man who set fire to himself outside a Job Centre is Stalingrad O’Neill of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), who said of the burns victim: “Presumably he was in a bad state to do this.”

No wonder the CPGB(M-L) has such a reputation for intellectual stringency.

O’Neill, a photographer, has quite a life story. He describes himself as “a gifted draftsman who spent his youth drifting through the twilight of Birmingham’s slums mixing with its labourers, artisans, drug-users, prostitutes, rent-boys, criminals and musicians”. He “studied politics under the revolutionary Urdu poet and community leader Jogman Joshi”.

The CPGB(M-L) is also quite a remarkable organisation. Its organ, Proletarian Online, is currently campaigning under the slogan, “Hands of Syria! Victory to Assad!”

I cannot say it because it is on the Banned List, but anyone who could make up such a political party and populate it with such a cast of characters would be a genius.

Thanks to David Hayes, who spotted the Sunday Mercury story.

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