So I must talk about the March for the Alternative in London last Saturday and my irritation with the media coverage and the 'moral majority' reaction. Well, I guess it's more than irritation, it's anger.
The cuts are violence. The banks support a financial system designed to keep poor and working class people down. When you are backed into a corner who can blame you for throwing a few bricks? These were not 'random acts of violence' or 'hooliganism'. Smashing the windows of a hotel where you have to pay thousands a night to stay whilst Housing Benefit, Disability Benefit, JSA, public sector jobs, healthcare and education are all being cut for the poorest of us is a reasonable act as far as I'm concerned. Ditto the banks. So Lloyds got their window smashed? Good. They had it coming. It's not a random act of violence, it's very light retribution that will never rival the way in which banks target poor people and keep them dependent and the way the ConDems (or Labour or any fucking government for that matter) support these values of dependence on fucked up financial institutions which revolve around exploitation both at home and abroad. It's not a big deal when we think of the billions spent bailing out the banks and the ridiculous salaries their chief execs get. Fortnum and Mason's parent company dodge 10m in tax and they get some spray paint in their windows. Boo hoo. The cuts are the real violence, the inequality is the real violence and the worse and the more powerful it is, then the more oblivious the media are to it. Because we are told we have to suck it up and let all public space be dominated by buying things and the more things we can buy the better off we are. Well, it's bollocks, I don't want to live like that. I don't want to be told what to do or to be chastised for being disobedient and not protesting in a civilized way when all around me the opportunities for a person who wants to live without screwing other people over are being, um, kettled.
I don't want to sit down and behave and be reasonable. I was not consulted when the ConDems decided to scrap the EMA for half of the kids who are currently entitled to it, or decided to close half the libraries, or to sell off the NHS, or triple tuition fees, or allow people like Philip Green and his business empire to weasle out of paying a 25million tax bill, instead sucking up champagne luxury while the rest of us are being forced further and further out of the cities cos we can't make the rent and new policies are in place to try and get us working like drones every fucking day just to live whilst the rich white Etonian Tory boys pass judgement on our lives and what we can and can't afford. No one asked me whether I wanted the UK to attack Libya and the violence that will lead to is nothing compared to the violence of the demo. I know it's cheesey but it makes me think of the Manic Street Preachers circa 1991 when they sang 'Hospital closures kill more than car bombs ever will'. A bit of damage to property is not a big deal.
I support everyone's right to protest and show their dissent to the ConDem policies of inequality and exploitation, sucking corporate cock, protecting the interests of big businesses over those of the rest of us in whatever way they want. I think it's great 500,000 people turned up to march peacefully through the streets and for a while at least it did feel like we were taking over the streets. I think that is important. I think what UK Uncut were doing in Fortnum and Mason's was great, and similarly I have no problem with smashing the windows or disrupting in whatever way possible the banks and businesses who are protected at everyone else's expense. I don't support violence against individuals that is unprovoked, but I do think obstructing cops is fine if we really are to own these streets. My humble opinion in any case.
Here is an unusually smart article in the Guardian (Comment is Free so not editorial or owt, but who needs that?) saying something similar to what I'm saying I think but more eloquently.
Oh and I really like this letter from 'the anarchists', well, some anarchists, to UK Uncut who do lots of good direct action stuff also...no 'good' and 'bad' protesters! It is the government and big business who are fucked.
The cuts are violence. The banks support a financial system designed to keep poor and working class people down. When you are backed into a corner who can blame you for throwing a few bricks? These were not 'random acts of violence' or 'hooliganism'. Smashing the windows of a hotel where you have to pay thousands a night to stay whilst Housing Benefit, Disability Benefit, JSA, public sector jobs, healthcare and education are all being cut for the poorest of us is a reasonable act as far as I'm concerned. Ditto the banks. So Lloyds got their window smashed? Good. They had it coming. It's not a random act of violence, it's very light retribution that will never rival the way in which banks target poor people and keep them dependent and the way the ConDems (or Labour or any fucking government for that matter) support these values of dependence on fucked up financial institutions which revolve around exploitation both at home and abroad. It's not a big deal when we think of the billions spent bailing out the banks and the ridiculous salaries their chief execs get. Fortnum and Mason's parent company dodge 10m in tax and they get some spray paint in their windows. Boo hoo. The cuts are the real violence, the inequality is the real violence and the worse and the more powerful it is, then the more oblivious the media are to it. Because we are told we have to suck it up and let all public space be dominated by buying things and the more things we can buy the better off we are. Well, it's bollocks, I don't want to live like that. I don't want to be told what to do or to be chastised for being disobedient and not protesting in a civilized way when all around me the opportunities for a person who wants to live without screwing other people over are being, um, kettled.
I don't want to sit down and behave and be reasonable. I was not consulted when the ConDems decided to scrap the EMA for half of the kids who are currently entitled to it, or decided to close half the libraries, or to sell off the NHS, or triple tuition fees, or allow people like Philip Green and his business empire to weasle out of paying a 25million tax bill, instead sucking up champagne luxury while the rest of us are being forced further and further out of the cities cos we can't make the rent and new policies are in place to try and get us working like drones every fucking day just to live whilst the rich white Etonian Tory boys pass judgement on our lives and what we can and can't afford. No one asked me whether I wanted the UK to attack Libya and the violence that will lead to is nothing compared to the violence of the demo. I know it's cheesey but it makes me think of the Manic Street Preachers circa 1991 when they sang 'Hospital closures kill more than car bombs ever will'. A bit of damage to property is not a big deal.
I support everyone's right to protest and show their dissent to the ConDem policies of inequality and exploitation, sucking corporate cock, protecting the interests of big businesses over those of the rest of us in whatever way they want. I think it's great 500,000 people turned up to march peacefully through the streets and for a while at least it did feel like we were taking over the streets. I think that is important. I think what UK Uncut were doing in Fortnum and Mason's was great, and similarly I have no problem with smashing the windows or disrupting in whatever way possible the banks and businesses who are protected at everyone else's expense. I don't support violence against individuals that is unprovoked, but I do think obstructing cops is fine if we really are to own these streets. My humble opinion in any case.
Here is an unusually smart article in the Guardian (Comment is Free so not editorial or owt, but who needs that?) saying something similar to what I'm saying I think but more eloquently.
Oh and I really like this letter from 'the anarchists', well, some anarchists, to UK Uncut who do lots of good direct action stuff also...no 'good' and 'bad' protesters! It is the government and big business who are fucked.
there is some spectacularly bad sentence construction in this article, even by my standards! see? this is what happens when I get my knickers in a twist! I may make it more legible if I can be arsed later...
ReplyDeleteyay, nice post lenster
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