Punk

I’ve had an absolute nightmare of a week.

Here’s the worst of the many hateful comments I have received:

“I feel sorry for your children…maybe you should of [sic] thought twice about having kids if this is how you behave, you’re [sic] mother should of [sic] flushed you down the toilet because that’s where you belong, vile human being.”

Pretty sic, huh? Very vile. So, why all the hate?

Until a few days ago, I had never heard of the singer known as Michale Graves. I found out that he was due to perform in my home city, and more to the point, I found out about him.

Graves describes himself as a “Proud Western Chauvinist” and a member of the Proud Boys, a “far-right, neo-fascist militant organization that promotes and engages in political violence.”

I am a councillor. I emailed the owner of the venue to politely ask him to cancel the gig. This was in the knowledge that Graves had already been cancelled by 11 venues across the UK. The venue owner ignored my email and decided to write a press statement. I was contacted by the press and basically reiterated what I said in my email.

Last November, the council of which I’m a member passed a ‘Hope Not Hate’ motion, which encourages ‘councillors, council staff, and residents to stand together against racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and all forms of hate.’ Fascism is hate.

In November 2023, I proposed a ‘Ceasefire in Gaza motion’, which was passed. I support the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to help end support for the apartheid, colonialist, genocidal Israeli regime. Shamefully, Graves showed his support for this regime by performing in Tel Aviv nine months into the genocide in Gaza.

Giving a platform to fascists gives them credibility. Normalising fascists does not end well – history tells us that. Karl Popper’s ‘paradox of tolerance’ theory can be summed up as follows.

“The paradox of tolerance (suggests) that if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.”

“¡No pasarán!”