KCL occupation

Just heard from Simon (and he is over there now) that KCL is now in occupation.

Solidarity!!

UCL occupation press release on police tactics in central London

Looks like the cops are up to their usual tricks, this time preemptive kettling.

ALL PRESS – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UCL Occupation unconditionally condemns the police attempts to pre-emptively kettle a peaceful protest. Students gathered in Trafalgar Square for a protest agreed by police, including many involved in the UCL Occupation. Less than ten minutes later, before the march had begun, police began moves to kettle protesters. This understandably caused chaos as students fled to avoid being held in the cold for an indeterminate length of time.

We have received reports from our students of aggressive over-policing including the Territorial Support Group chasing protesters down the Mall. One UCL student is reported to have been rugby tackled by police into railings near Westminster Abbey. There have also been reports of police being armed with CS Spray.

It is a sad day for democracy in the UK when students who accommodated every police requirement and were given permission to march are treated like criminals, with no provocation. We lay the blame for any disruption, distress or injury squarely at the feet of the police.

More to follow as events progress

For further comment contact ucloccupation@gmail.com or follow http://www.twitter.com/ucloccupation

(H/T Carl)

And bizarrely Vince Cable may abstain from vote on tuition fees.

Solidarity with students protesting today in freezing snowy temperatures. Keep warm. Keep safe.

Vive Le Resistance!!

Frost

Well, a blast of cold air did the nasal cavities some good as I wandered around the park.

Ducks… slipping, sliding and skating on thin ice on the pond.

Icicles

Frustration…..

Feel kinda frustrated and guilty lately as not been able to do many things such as protesting and demonstrating especially as things are hotting up politically. I have missed a couple of demos including the student protests, visiting occupations and anti-war one. Missed so many photo opportunities and ability to protest, being part of the resistance and showing solidarity. The reason is for the past month I have been experiencing severe sinus infection in the left side of my face, my face literally hurts due to this. It’s not improved instead it has got worse.

Have suffered sinus in the past and after a couple of days goes but this time unbelievably it is lurking around and taking residence in my sinus. So I feel guilty and frustrated feeling left behind and not being able to get out there to demonstrate, visit occupations and so on. I take each day as it comes as I can’t plan. I have tried everything from steam, Olbas Oil, over-the-counter meds and the GP has prescribed me with different kinds of antibiotics (if none work he is going to send me to an ear, nose and throat specialist), the latest ones are kinda strong as I feel washed out and drained, want to sleep all the time, combined with the depression it’s horrible.

So I hope to get back into the swing of activism soon (am very frustrated at the moment) as I do want to be back to normal (whatever that means…..)

Show some leadership, Mister Ed!

So much for the long game…..

Ed Miliband said this about the students protests,“I was quite tempted to go out and talk to them [protesters],” he said. “I applaud people young people who peacefully demonstrate. I said I was going to talk to them at some point, I was tempted to go out and talk to them.

Asked why he had not, he explained: “I think I was doing something else at the time, actually.”

Though don’t despair, Mister Ed said,  As to joining students on future protests, he said “we’ll see what happens”. And asked whether he would actually lead a march in sympathy with students, he said “don’t overdo it”.

So on the one hand Mister Ed, applauds people young people who peacefully demonstrate but on the other hand couldn’t talk to the protesters because he was doing something else at the time.

If Mister Ed wants to engage with these student protesters and show some leadership then he needs to get down to these demos and speak to them not be distracted by other things. Get yourself down their Mister Ed, visit the students in occupation as well. Show solidarity as opposed to being the usual mealy-mouthed spineless contemptible sell-out. It may sound harsh but if Mister Ed wants to encourage students (and school students who in the 4-5 years will be old enough to vote) to vote Labour then he needs to ditch his establishment friendly politics. Yes start developing ideas for government in a few years time but get a democratic structure for making sure that this debate is based in the rank and file of the labour movement.

But Mister Ed you must have something to say to the people who are resisting the ConDems in the here and now….?!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

So the police were kettling school students for many hours, and resorting to brutality and violence. Nothing changes then even after the supposed soul searching the cops went through after G20.

Advocating major reforms in the way such marches are handled, Denis O’Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, said national tactics for policing protest were “inadequate” and belonged to a “different era”.

“What the review [of policing protest] identifies is that the world is changing and the police need to think about changing their approach to protest,” O’Connor said.

The impact of “kettling”, or containment policies that trap thousands of people inside police cordons for several hours, should be “moderated” by providing officers on the ground with greater discretion to allow peaceful protesters and bystanders more freedom of movement.

(via Guardian – Adapting to Protest

Kettling is collective punishment by containment, and when you are allowed to leave the kettle you have to give your details and have your photo taken. Under what legislation? And especially in light of containing school children, what legislation were they using to do this? And also from a civil liberties angle you are denying freedom of movement. Containing people for containing sake. And what about basic human rights like access to toilets, water and food? ‘Kettling’ is a fundamental way of attacking the right to protest, criminalising and penalising people in the process. Hemming people in will lead to frustration and anger. The State provoking a reaction and the cops responding with a disproportinate amount of thuggery and brutal violence. Indeed, the State is criminalising the right to protest.

The 2009 judgement from the House of Lords regarding the ‘kettling’ at the May Day demo on 2001:

37.  If measures of this kind are to avoid being prohibited by the Convention therefore it must be by recognising that they are not within the ambit of article 5(1) at all. In my opinion measures of crowd control will fall outside the area of its application, so long as they are not arbitrary. This means that they must be resorted to in good faith, that they must be proportionate and that they are enforced for no longer than is reasonably necessary.

This is Article 5 (1)

1.Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be deprived of his liberty save in the following cases and in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law.

The courts like the rest of the establishment are wary of attacking the police as this judgement shows. If the law represents everybody then we should be able to bring anyone to account. That includes the cops!

On Twitter yesterday I saw some comments from people who were in the kettle saying that protesters were chanting “Let us out”. That sent a chill down my spine as I remember only too well that chant ‘cos that’s what was being chanted in the kettle of the G20 protests around the Bank of England. I can only imagine what it must have been like for school students to be trapped in a kettle not knowing when they will be allowed to leave. The media continuing to blame the “violence” on a minority namely anarchists or the SWP!! Along with describing violence by the police as “skirmishes” or “scuffles” (which diminishes the reality of brutality) ,while emphasising protesters smashing up a cop van though at the same time remaining quiet about the violence dished out by the agents of the state. So much for investigative & impartial reportage. Fortunately with the power of Twitter and other social networks the actual truth of what was really happening was being heard as opposed to swallowing the media line.

And now today Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson says we are, “entering a new era of street protests” and that the police need to “change to meet the threat”. What threat? The threat to property outweighs the right to protest. Also, yesterday it was evident that the police were looking for revenge after being caught on the hop two weeks ago at Millbank and revenge they did. With the attacks on the public sector and welfare state, expect more demonstrations, protests, strikes and acts of civil disobedience, it seems to me that Paul Stephenson is asking for more powers therefore expect to see more kettling and police violence because from a historical perspective the police always defend the rights of the establishment when it comes to political protest and social unrest.

Also there’s this report from the MPA – Responding to G20

Thanks to Simon in the comments take a look at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Interesting reading it is too.

Via Lib Con – This video shows cops on horses charging students (and again the media have been quiet about the use of horses along with police denials). I doubt if the ConDems will feel a sense of shame and outrage watching students and school students being attacked by the agents of the state. This lash-up of a right-wing coalition with a mandate nobody voted for (or in the case of the scheming Lib-Dems reneging on the promises they made) are attacking the very core of the right to protest and human rights. We are being punished for protesting.

The unseen damage of the riot of the rich…

Cuts, job losses, pay freezes, reduction in benefits, recession, money worries, soaring living costs, debts, misery, repossessions, stigmatisation of the poor, more misery…. And so it’s no surprise there’s an increase in depression and suicide.

Rates of suicide and depression are rising in a dramatic demonstration of the human cost of Britain’s economic downturn. The “alarming” evidence of the darkening national mood comes as David Cameron draws up plans to measure the sense of “general wellbeing”across the country.

The Independent can disclose that, after falling for years, the suicide rate began increasing as the credit crunch hit Britain.

A Health minister has warned that the Government believes levels of suicide and mental illness are likely to climb further as dole queues lengthen.

The number of people committing suicide rose by 329 to 5,706 in 2008 – the first increase since 1998.

The rate of suicide among men went up from 16.8 per 100,000 people in 2007 to 17.7 per 100,000 in 2008; the suicide rate among women rose from 5 per 100,000 people to 5.4 per 100,000.

New figures yesterday also underlined the financial cost of depression caused by economic pressures.

The mental health charity, MIND, published a survey in May this year about the recession, the findings included:

• 1 in 10 had visited their GP for support
• 7% had started a course of medical treatment for depression
• 5% had seen a counsellor
• Half said staff morale was low
• 28% were working longer hours
• A third said staff were having to compete against each other.

Furthermore

Mind’s findings prompt fears for the mental health of hundreds of thousands of workers who face debilitating pressure as businesses tighten their belts. Many staff are working longer hours, competing with colleagues to keep their jobs and facing a slump in morale.

With the slash-fest ongoing (but hey, we are all innit together, aint we?) expect more pain courtesy of the Con/Dems by way of massive searing public sector cuts. This means changes in working practices and conditions, modernisation, restructuring, liberalisation, contracting-out, outsourcing and what other words used as a code for privatisation will have a massive emotional and psychological negative impact on people, which will affect their health as we have seen. Recession means depression, with a swirling mix of  a potent cocktail of anxiety, fear, alienation, pressure, stress and atomisation.

We have an epidemic of depression as the kind of society we live in isolates and alienates. The sticking plaster approach, courtesy of meds, will only be able to look at the surface rather than examining the underlining reasons. We live in a debt-ridden insecure world where the ideology defines human beings in terms of material consumption. A dog-eat-dog society that devalues and demeans human beings. The global working class suffer the consequences of neoliberal ideology, people driven to the edge some pushed over the edge. No doubt the global ruling class see the increased misery and depepression as collateral damage as part of the recession. And things will get evidently worse……

 

Thatcher’s legacy: And where there is hope, may we bring despair

Twenty years today was a momentous occasion, Margaret Thatcher was PM no longer. I remember working at Sussex University and there was rumours that Thatcher was going. And then the news announcement that she was indeed going. Funny how it is such a vivid memory. There were tears…. tears of joy and jubilation. Thatcher was gone. And there are many, laughably, who lament…still…about her resignation.

But back to 1990 and that day in November , there were many parties around Brighton and you could hear the strains of this memorable song from 1980 being played everywhere, with its anti-Thatcher and anti-Tory lyrics.

Stand down Margaret – The Beat

I said I see no joy
I see only sorry
I see no chance of your bright new tomorrow

So stand down Margaret
Stand down please
Stand down Margaret

I say stand down Margaret
Stand down please
Stand down Margaret

You tell me how can it work in this all white law
What a short sharp lesson,
What a third world war

Oh stand down Margaret
Stand down please
Stand down Margaret

 

Thatcher decimated the working class. She started to dismantle the welfare state with full throttle neo-liberalism. She caused untold misery, anger and a collective trauma on the psyche of the working class. She was a jingoistic racist and imperialist; from the Malvinas war, blood on her hands over the North of Ireland, backing vile right-wing terrorist organisations like the Contras, her support for apartheid South Africa, allowing America to use UK bases to bomb Libya in 1986….to name a few of her crimes against the international working class.

Her other crimes against the working class was smashing the trade unions….But at least the miners took her on and there was a glimmer of hope yet that was snatched away…..Though the Poll Tax was part of her downfall and the many drunken parties that happened simultaneously across the UK when Thatcher stepped down…’Stand Down Margaret’…

Thatcher on the steps of Downing Street when elected in May 1979 infamously quoted from Francis of Assisi. But the reality was the opposite to those words quoted, “And where there is hope, may we bring despair..”

 

Leave the Lib Dems in the mire…

I am very glad John McDonnell has responded to this Guardian piece about Labour reaching out to the Lib Dems with a letter. The original article actually snapped me out of a depressive fug with some utter journalistic gems:

The influential campaign group Compass is attempting to create a progressive alliance on the left, balloting its supporters on whether it should open its membership lists to members of other political parties including the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, as well as non-aligned.

How can it be progressive to make alliances with the Lib Dems, I can understand the possibility with the Greens but the yellow Tories? Also, I never really understood the function of this “influential” group Compass, what precisely is it?

As John points out:

The Guardian’s team of political correspondents, who gave us Blair, then Brown and backed Compass‘s pre-election call for tactical voting for the Lib Dems, which gave us the coalition, is at it again (Labour and Lib Dem members call for grassroots alliance, 17 November). Your political reporting seems to be only interested in the desperate attempts of the remnants of New Labour to survive. It may be emotionally hard for some of your journalists and commentators to accept, but it’s over. Just a mention of Progress‘s founder Peter Mandelson, Compass’s role in securing support for the Lib Dems, or Jon Cruddas‘s backing of David Miliband is enough to demonstrate their lack of credibilty as the core around which a new, broad alliance of the left can be established.

There is a grassroots alliance emerging, but it is an activist coalition being forged on demonstrations, rallies, occupations and picket lines, between trade unionists, students and lecturers, tax justice campaigners, climate camp greens, angry pensioners and local community groups campaigning to save their services.

Indeed. That’s what is imperative not campaigning to bring together forces like the Lib Dems, are we going to see a creation of a SDP type political party.  The Lib Dems represent who? Certainly not the interests of the working class. The Labour Party evolved out of the trade unions precisely because the Liberal Party didn’t back the interests of working class people, there was a political space for a party that defended those interests. Hence the creation of the LP.

The Lib Dems will always go over to the right. They loathe the Left, they are toxic. The grand  alliance of the liberal tradition and the labour tradition was a pipe dream for Tony Blair before his dreams of neo-con glory took over. The grand alliance of  the Lib Dems and Labour still is a pipe dream. Put into practice it will neuter any future Labour government. Good if you want to impress the establishment that apart from being an ickle bit nice to the unwashed you are an entirely trustworthy bunch of spineless wonders.

July 1981…A song that captured the political moment…

I remember the summer of 1981 very well. I was 11 finishing primary school and off to secondary school. Politically…. Thatcher was PM, there was social unrest, unemployment, recession and the racist ‘sus law. Living next door to Handsworth I remember the riots too.  But there was an impending royal wedding to distract us from those economic woes, who cares if the taxpayer was paying for this pointless wedding between two dynastic royal inbreds to carry on their bloodline…. But lets all marvel at Di’s crumpled lavish hand-stitched dress…

Though what was number 1 at the time of Chas and Di’s spectacular nuptials at the end of July 1981 but The Specials “Ghost Town”… (and the lyrics capture the political moment especially the line, “The people getting angry”…). Though unfortunately… Shakin’ Stevens knocked The Specials off the top spot with the
excruciating, “Green Door”…

So fast-forward 30 years own, Chas and Di’s son is gonna marry next year sometime, and we have the ConDems aka Bullingdon boys club waging ideological class war on the working class by slashing and burning the public sector and the welfare state. Recession, unemployment and social unrest…but methinks it will be worse than 1981. Hopefully, “the people getting angry” will be the political sign of the time. Will the wedding serve as a  distraction from the woes of the economy as we all like a wedding, apparently, between 2 rich parasitical nobs screwing the tax payer! How much will it cost? Who is footing the bill? Let’s hope there is massive social unrest, strike action, protests, mass civil disobedience and …. let’s get Ghost Town to no. 1 at the time of the wedding (as suggested here)…30th anniversary!!

Viva Resistance! Down with the monarchy! Sod the royal wedding! Vive la République!