LM group
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The LM group is a loose collection of individuals and organisations characterised by an anti-environmentalist, apparently libertarian ideology and a common heritage extending back to the British far-left in the early 1980s. It takes its name from 'LM Magazine', formerly Living Marxism, the organ of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Contents
Background and ideology
The LM network opposes all restrictions on business, science and technology, especially biotechnology. The group's pre-eminent ideologue is Frank Furedi, a professor of sociology at Kent University and a leading figure in the contemporary Marxist movement in the UK. The group, grounded in an academic idological framework provided by Furedi, use the media and various self-created outlets to lambast the 'precautionary principle'. Environmentalism, sustainable development and legal regulation are attacked by as holding back humanity and positive change. New technologies, especially biotechnology, and massive industrial development are eulogised:
- "What are the risks?" and "what are the side effects?" are questions posed to an ever-expanding list of subjects. Such concerns are not merely expressed in relation to the high-profile dangers - BSE, nuclear radiation, potential environmental catastrophes. Every new product, from the mobile phone to computer games, is invariably put through an anxious calculus of risk. There is a compulsion to anticipate and pre-empt adverse outcomes. - Frank Furedi, "Why Do We Live in Terror?", Guardian, 26 July 1997
The relationship between Furedi's theories on risk and the LM group's ancestry as a revolutionary political fringe movement is explained by former RCP member David Webb:
- As [the LM group] see it, the failure of previous attempts to change society, such as Communism and the labour movement in the West, has undermined 'historical thinking', which emphasises man's ability to create history. The result is a morass of fundamentally negative ideas. Anti-globalism and environmentalism assume that all change, all progress, will inevitably have destructive consequences that we cannot foresee. The rise of speech codes, political correctness and other forms of official regulation of interpersonal behaviour are also seen by the LM group as a reflection of negative assumptions about humanity as a consequence of the loss of consciousness of man's history-making potential. All these cultural developments are therefore explained by the Furedi group as a function of the failure of alternatives to capitalism. In the words of Frank Furedi, the demise of historical thinking is 'simply a generalisation from the empirical recognition that, at present, there is no ideological alternative to liberal capitalism'. [1]
The group has had remarkable success since the mid-1990s as a campaign of entryism into British media and scientific circles began to bear fruit. This has run in parallel to the continued use of various front groups by the organisation, a technique long practiced by the Revolutionary Communist Party and developed by the network during its long journey from the far-left of the political spectrum to the far-right.
Primary platforms for the group are currently the Institute of Ideas, Sense About Science and e-zine Spiked Online. Prominent members of the network include the Times columnist Mick Hume, Sense about Science director Fiona Fox, her sister Claire Fox and former Living Marxism publisher Helene Guldberg.
LM group members and sympathisers
LM is not an officially consituted group.
Pseudonyms
The use of pseudonyms by associates of the LM group and the Revolutionary Communist Party is extensive. The primary function of this would seem to be to allows the group to promote its ideas widely in the media without being recognised as a relatively small ideological clique. Nom de guerres can also compartmentalise areas of a life, protecting an individual and their career. Fiona Fox is now head of the Sense about Science. One can only presume her current colleagues are unaware of her writings as Fiona Foster, denying genocide in Rwanda [2].
- Aidan Campbell = Andrew Clarkson
- Ann Furedi = Ann Bradley = Ann Burton
- Barrie Collins = Barry Crawford
- Claire Foster = Claire Fox
- Daniel Ben-Ami = Daniel Nassim
- Duleep Allirajah = Joe White
- Eve Kaye = Eve Anderson
- Fiona Foster = Fiona Fox
- Frank Furedi = Linda Ryan = Frank Richards
- Helen Searls = Helen Simons
- James Heartfield = James Hughes
- James Woudhuysen = James Woods
- Joan Phillips = Joan Hoey
- John Gillott = John Gibson
- Kate Abley = Kate Moorcock
- Keith Teare = Keith Tompson
- Kirk Leech = Kirk Williams
- Mark Birbeck = Mark Butler
- Michael Fitzpatrick = Mike Freeman
- Phil Mullan = Phil Murphy
- Rob Killick = Rob Knight
- Sandy Starr = Alexander Starr
Leading personalities
Others
- Thomas Deichmann
- Kenan Malik
- Tracey Brown
- Ellie Lee
- James Heartfield
- James Woudhuysen
- Fiona Fox/Fiona Foster
- Ceri Dingle
- Kirk Leech
- Carlton Brick
- Barrie Collins
- Daniel Ben-Ami/Daniel Nassim
- Duleep Allirajah
- Jennie Bristow
- Andrew Calcutt
- Rob Lyons
- Michael Fitzpatrick
- Tony Gilland
- Rob Killick
- Aidan Campbell/Andrew Clarkson
- Anne Furedi (nee Bradley)
- Helen Searls
- Mark Ryan (LM arts editor)
- Phil Mullan (technology)
- Andrew Calcutt (culture)
- Julian Morris (now at Institute of Economic Affairs)
- Jennifer Cunningham (anti-councelling, anti-paranoid parenting)
- John Gillott (Science editor - contributor to Against Nature)
- Peter Sammonds
- Austin Williams
- Michael Fitzpatrick/Mike Freeman
- Peter Sammonds
- Bill Durodié
- Juliet Tizzard
- Kerry Dean
- Charles Longford
- Vanessa Adams
- Keith Teare
- Ian Abley
- Kate Abley/Kate Moorcock
- Mark Birbeck/Mark Butler
Related organisations
The following organisations have been established by the Revolutionary Communist Party, and various associates and sympathisers of the LM network. These platforms take a variety of forms, including think tanks, charities and fake "grassroots networks". A interesting discussion of RCP/LM front groups was held on usenet in 1998.
- Africa Direct
- Audacity.org (active)
- Campaign Against Militarism (defunct)
- Campaign for Internet Freedom
- Channel Cyberia (defunct)
- Families for Freedom (defunct)
- Feminists for Justice
- Freedom & Law (defunct)
- Global Futures
- Institute of Ideas (active)
- Irish Freedom Movement
- Libero! (defunct)
- Litigious Society
- London International Research Exchange
- Parents Against the Charter
- Sense about Science (active)
- Spiked Online (active)
- Transport Research Group (active)
- WORLDwrite (active)
- Workers Against Racism
External links
- Discussion of RCP/LM front groups, from usenet, April 1998.
- David Pallister, John Vidal and Kevin Maguire, "Life after Living Marxism: Fighting for freedom - to offend, outrage and question everything", Guardian (UK), Saturday July 8, 2000.
- Andy Rowell and Bob Burton, “Rising Rhetoric on Genetically Modified Crops, PR Watch, Volume 10 No 1, First quarter 2003.
- George Monbiot, "Invasion of the Entryists", Guardian (UK), Tuesday December 9, 2003.
- David Webb, "Liberalism - Let's Spike It!", 2003,
- Andy Rowell and Jonathan Matthews, "Strange Bedfellows", The Ecologist, May 2003
- Andy Rowell and Jonathan Matthews, "[3]", Living Marxism (LM) profile by GM Watch.