Axe the Act

Since the Scottish National Party has prevailed to power, one group of people has continued to be suppressed, and victimised. This is the working class.  Salmond, Sturgeon, and pseudo socialists alike may paint a picture of Scottish Society being open and tolerant, yet their draconian decisions in government has bear witness to a deluge of destitution. There is no more act, symbolic of the Tartan Tories than the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Communications Act.

In this essay, I will

A.    Explain the extrinsic nature of the Act

B.    Highlighting the importance of the media in sustaining the Act

C.   Analyse the statistics behind it

D.   Highlight specific case examples

A.     

“An Act of the Scottish Parliament to create offences concerning offensive behaviour in relation to certain football matches, and concerning the communication of certain threatening material” is how the Scottish Government define this Act.

Definitions in politics are we know are deceitful. The upper classes who drafted and passed this bill share no affinity with football. They have not followed their team to dreary defeats in Dingwall, or enjoyed elated adventures with their friends in Aberdeen. The petit bourgeois and bourgeois who promoted this policy are out of touch from the working man, and in a sense are alienated from his activities in the same way Marx spoke of in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.

This Act to the petit bourgeois combats hooliganism, sectarianism and violence. Yet there is already established government legislation which offers a solution to these problems. In fact, fresh schemes are produced frequently, such as the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) On Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion.

Why then introduce another in the form of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Communications Act? The answer lies at the root of the problem in Scotland. This policy deliberately targets working class men from Govan to Gorgie, from Parkhead to Peterhead. No other act solely focuses on this one demographic, yet as I explained in my essay Scotland and the National Question, a core feature of the SNP’s success has been the oppression of the working class.

This Act was not brought in to prevent Sectarianism- as I have explained, several other policies cover this. Instead, this Act grew out of the petit bourgeois’ growing influence in Scottish politics, and growing influence in the SNP.  There are plenty of foul slurs to be heard at Murrayfield, yet Rugby is the Middle Class’ pleasurable lust, so the SNP stay clear of upsetting their most trusted and loyal group within society.  Passionate, young, working class dissenters are the SNP’s worst enemy, so much so that they have constructed a charter to isolate and scrutinise this type.

B.     

The role of the media is fundamental factor to understanding why this Act has been maintained, despite the glaringly obvious resentment from the masses. As I have reiterated the point, it is not necessary to mention once more regarding the isolation between the bourgeois’ and the working man’s football, but the media’s portrayal of football fans, as racist, violent thugs is a key aspect of why this Act has remained in government.

 To outsiders, to those who have never been to a football match, there has been a vicious, false, and damaging stereotype of football fans. Hooliganism from the far right in the 1980s has left its mark, and for some reason, football fans the world over have been tarnished with this reputation. Yet only in Scotland, are fans oppressed in this manner.

The Green Brigade, the left wing ultras of Celtic, Scotland’s most successful club. They regularly hold food drives, football tournaments for refugees, and have just recently raised almost £200,000 for two Palestinian charities. Yet very few of these charitable acts are pinpointed by the media. Instead, since a banner revealing the group’s rightful resentment of a blood-stained poppy on the Celtic jersey, newspapers across the country have swindled Scots into accepting this age old fallacy that football fans are evil brutes, and to going to extreme lengths to do so. Instead of focusing on the incredible generosity of the Celtic fans to raise so much money for the Palestinian cause, or producing some credible journalism for once, the Sun (which one should never, ever, buy), made the ridiculous argument that these funds would finance terrorism. This is the same Sun which made the disgusting claims over the tragedy Hillsborough disaster, so one should not be surprised, yet this still remains a revolting remark.

The media’s manipulation has led to many out with the game assert that ‘both sides are as bad as each other’. Yet there is a clear difference between the songs of Glasgow Celtic, and of the Newco Rangers. Celtic fans, sing songs of oppression and resistance, Newco Rangers fans songs of brutality and repression. As the minority, Irish Catholics were subject to slanderous sectarianism, which the Protestant majority bathed in. So whenever people make this claim, you have to ask them if they have ever been to a match, which one presumes is not the case. A song about freedom for Ireland, should never be treated as the same as a song whose lines include “we’re up to our knees in Fenian blood”’. This point is imperative. However, the spotlight being shone solely on Rangers supporters is ridiculous. Anti-Catholic racism has plagued Scottish society for well over a century, from within media, and within politics, yet why only now does a ruling party claim to set out to end it?  The answer again lies at the issue of class. Working class Rangers supporters are being targeted for this behaviour- quite rightly, yet this disease is not just present in Ibrox and Protestant council estates. It is present in bourgeois establishments, who escape the wrath of the powers at be on the basis of their class, and their class only.

A final point with regards to the media  is that if you ask Celtic fans, and Rangers fans whether it is religion or politics which divide them, and the vast majority will say the latter. The media cunningly painted a picture of Catholic Celtic fans and Protestant Rangers fans who hated each other because of religion, yet fans of both clubs will tell you otherwise. It is easy to call somebody sectarian and make a scapegoat of them, something the Scottish media has thrived in doing.

C.    

The misuse of taxpayers’ money on this Act alone should be enough to see it rescinded. As anybody who follows their club frequently can tell you, the increase, and intensification of policing has not only drained football fans, but drained the funds from the SNP’s seemingly infinite budget.

-       Where does the money for increased policing in and outside football grounds come from?

-       Where does the money which is invested in intensive profiling of young, working class men come from?

-       Where does the money which is invested into court cases come from?

The answer to all three is of course, the taxpayers’ money. The working class’ money. And still, the SNP portray themselves as a radical left alternative.

In 2013/14, 161 people were prosecuted under the legislation. In all, 86 were found guilty; a conviction rate of just over 53%.The conviction rate for murder last year was over 80%. The total conviction rate across Scotland was 85%.

With a conviction rate so low, why is it that heavy handling of football fans, and intensified arrests are growing under the SNP government? I once again focus on the issue of class.

This is not a case of what team one supports. It is rather the opposite. Fans Against Criminalisation (FAC) have united teams the nation over, and yet still, working class men are being woken in the middle of the night for a song they sung months ago. Sectarianism is not a 90 minute problem. It is not restricted to social media, it is not restricted to football grounds, and it is not restricted to the working class. Yet as I have explained, the media, in collaboration with the bourgeois have manifested this illusion in order to strengthen their grasp on the masses.

D.

Though the story of a German tourist being arrested for singing about the IRA without knowing the lyrics’ context may bring some temporary hilarity to this topic, for the majority of the fans oppressed by this legislation, there is a very contrasting emotion.

The one case which always remains in one’s mind is that of Comrade Sean Millar, a fellow season ticket holder at Celtic. During an away game to Hearts, Sean wearing a Free Palestine t-shirt was spoken to, and reprimanded by police.

The past weekend saw other incidents of heavy policing. Celtic fans were watched by eagled eyed officers, who clearly had targeted sections of the support beforehand, and were prepared to pinpoint these marked individuals.

 It is time that this Act was banished from government, along with the fools who implemented it. The real criminals are not football fans, and sectarianism is not restricted to football stadia. Instead sectarianism, used by the ruling class to divide, has been overlooked for so long that the easy option now is to connect the dots between football fans and sectarianism. This is not an issue of Celtic vs Rangers, or Hibs vs Hearts. This is an issue of rich vs poor, and it is us who are losing the battle.