AFTERTHOUGHT
Enter the Baccy Pashas
JOHN WELLS
They call them the Baccy Pashas. To many ordinary people they are indistinguishable from the sleepy-eyed, easy-going, show- business-orientated hippies who stumbled flower-bedecked in the wake of their fallen leader 'Satan' Wilson. To many others they may seem little different from the crop- headed hooligans who call themselves -'Enoch's Angels'. But to established auth- ority, to the cloth-capped mandarins of the TUC. they represent a new threat, the latest in a series of revolutionary movements dedi- cated to the destruction of everything they hold most dear and to laying the axe of radical reform to the established way of life of millions.
For Mr Victor Feather, slow-spoken representative of a threatened society, each new wave is much the same as the last. Standing for the established order, for the old values against the forces of irresponsible disruption. Mr Feather has already made it clear that he is prepared to talk, to listen and to consider the revolutionaries' concrete proposals. What he is not prepared to toler- ate, as he has said on numerous occasions, is violence. 'union-bashing', 'sit-ins'. 'lock- outs'. the `occupation' of buildings, the use of black-uniformed and helmeted 'bouncers', the bending of the law, and all the other familiar devices of militant dissent. For Mr Feather the immense inertia of the established structure is no defence against it being overturned by its enemies: and what is at stake is the right of every working man in this country to live at peace in a free country under the protection of its laws. to give and to withdraw his labour according to his personal whim.
What makes this new threat more alarm- ing is the so far mysterious nature of the new phenomenon. The Baccy Pashas. an allegedly conservative collection of old- fashioned 'yobboes' of both rural and urban extraction, derive their name from the vigor- ous trade that they carry on among them- selves in soft drugs like tobacco and alcohol, as well as other more noxious commodities. Several of them have in fact already amassed enormous fortunes in this way, and with the coming of commercial radio many more stand to make a deal of money. Unlike the vaguely liberal Wilsonite Hippies and the emotionally reactionary Enoch's Angels, the Baccy Pashas openly confess their capitalist ideals, and have produced a series of 'mani- festoes' outlining their intentions of liberat- ing our society from the shackles of Socialist controls, 'walloping the unions' and intro- ducing a new age of freedom and enterprise. These ideals are reflected in their clothing and manners, which imitate the fashions and affectations of the pre-war ruling class.
But how great a threat are they? To the ordinary, decent British working man, stroll- ing perhaps along the front at Southend in a ready-made suit and 'wet-look' casuals, the Baccy Pashas may seem farouche in their expensively-made Saville Row-style clothes: their exaggeratedly striped shirts, monster cufflinks, and their arrogant, aggressive man- ner are not calculated to put their public at their ease. They specialise in strident voices, public mockery of the aged and afflicted, and many of their 'molls' affect obscene hats which are clearly designed to outrage prole- tarian susceptibilities. And yet their honesty in demanding a more openly capitalist distri- bution of wealth, the transference of money from wages to profits. is a refreshing change after the Wilsonite Hippies' hypocrisy and self-deception in pursuing the same objective. Their spokesmen, too, are surprisingly un- dramatic in their choice of language. Self- styled Super-Pasha Ed Heath, of West Lon- don. talks of 'the necessity for some sort of change'. and his lieutenant Bab Carr, widely publicised as 'Number One Union Basher' is a mild man of fifty-three, hard to associ- ate with violence.
What then does Mr Feather have to fear? Are the Baccy Pashas a serious menace after all to the working men of this country and their wives? There is no doubt that threats have been made: they have even been printed in the various 'manifestoes'. The rougher gangs could become extremely nasty if the attack was called off: militant Pashas hale been slavering for a show-down for years. and now that their increased numbers seem to justify action they will be hard to restrain. On the other hand the establishment behind Mr Feather is a powerful one, and a ruthless crack-down on the Pashas now could spell bloodshed, chaos and even civil war. Moder- ate Baccy Pashas talk of turning the frontal assault into a mass nude protest talk-in: but nude or not, there is going to come a time when the talking will have to stop. And then the fat could well be in the fire.
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