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Chris Knight suspended for making G20 comment on Radio 4

BBC | 27.03.2009 12:13 | G20 London Summit | Repression

Apparently The University of East London have published a statement about their suspension of him from his job but I couldn't find this online, below is an extract from the BBC article about it which contains a transcript of the words he was suspended for uttering.

Mr Knight, who was organising protests next week, said [on Radio 4]: "We are going to be hanging a lot of people like Fred the Shred [Sir Fred Goodwin] from lampposts on April Fool's Day and I can only say let's hope they are just effigies.

"To be honest, if he winds us up any more I'm afraid there will be real bankers hanging from lampposts and let's hope that that doesn't actually have to happen.

"They [bankers] should realise the amount of fury and hatred there is for them and act quickly, because quite honestly if it isn't humour it is going to be anger.

"I am trying to keep it humorous and let the anger come up in a creative and hopefully productive and peaceful way.

"If the other people don't join in the fun - I'm talking about the bankers and those rather pompous ministers - and come over and surrender their power obviously it's going to get us even more wound up and things could get nasty. Let's hope it doesn't."

BBC
- Homepage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7967096.stm

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

Unprecedented?

27.03.2009 13:03

" Police have warned known activists are planning in an "unprecedented" way and that groups active in the late 1990s are re-emerging and forming new alliances. "

lol


Comment

27.03.2009 13:33

To be fair, it does sound like a threat. I know and you know he's talking about the danger to the movement itself of losing its self-restraint and its constructiveness, but to a naive ear it sounds like he's making a calculated threat of executions. Of course, the bosses almost certainly understand what he means and are just exploiting the rust on his silver tongue to get rid of him...

Kaze no Kae
mail e-mail: alanstevenson@hotmail.co.uk
- Homepage: http://kazenokae.blogspot.com


Not sympathetic

27.03.2009 13:48

I'm sorry but I'm not comfortable with the whole Chris Knight thing. I respect what G20 Meltdown are doing and intend on participating in the fun on the 1st and 2nd but I have 2 major problems with this Chris Knight phenomenon:

1. He has become some sort of figurehead. Maybe it's the media that made this happen (latching on to a strong personality to form a narrative) but I'm uncomfortable about the notion of having some sort of 'leader' as well as the cult of personality that has developed.

2. The focus on bankers is a distraction. The problem is not the bankers, it's the system. Lynching Fred the Shred isn't going to change anything. Gordon Brown used derivatives to fund public spending and cover up borrowing, as did many of the Eurozone governments. It is capitalism and the notion of unlimited growth that have gotten us here and an obsession with bankers is not going to help.

DW


thank god someone has the balls to talk like this

27.03.2009 14:04

I've never heard of this guy before, but thank god someone has the balls to stand up and openly say these kind of things that a lot of people are privately thinking.

On the other hand, it doesn't surprise me that he got the boot from his job - people who stick their necks over the parapet usually do.

Smash the banks! Hell, smash the whole financial system!

anon


Excuse

27.03.2009 18:13

yeah, I heard this radio interview and they were still banging on about it today, followed, predictably enough by assurances that the Police would be dealing with it. Ken Livingstone said that where people might be hurt (surely that's any and every circumstance) civil liberties would just have to take a back stand.
This Chris bloke got carried away and forgot he wasn't down the pub and his 'having the balls to talk like this' just gives public support to the filth when they come down really hard. Not that they need the excuse, but you know what I mean. I've got no problems with his politics, but this isn't just about Chris and he should have saved the Big Bloke talk for after the event.

anon


The guy's a fucking dick

28.03.2009 03:06

the guy's a fucking dick. He's speaking on behalf of no-one but himself (and his sordid little ego). The guy's a aging academic, and fossiled intellectual, an upbeat middle class lecturer.

He is not an anrchist and london anarchists are more than willing to distance themselves from him. If he is speaking for his class it's the very class we are fighting to eliminate.

If we are being kind it was a kind of johnny rotten moment grasping at the last final moment he will have in the limelight.

As a middle class tosser he makes makes me fucking lucky to be working class.

underwhlemedclass


divide and rule

28.03.2009 15:34

whilst the working class fight the middle class the ruling class sit back and laugh- very good

dogfish


At DW Comment Part 2

28.03.2009 15:50

I totally agree the system is CORRUPT. The stock market is nothing but another gambling arena. The men and women in smart suits and degrees want to tell the rest of us that the market is complex with complex products that only they understand but we all know that are trying to create something out of nothing and speculation is another word for gambling.

Look at those that have been and are behind the banking system and you will discover why such things were allowed to happen. Look the people behind this and how much influence they have over the governments.

Countries should hold gold, silver and other commodities with an intrinsic value rather than the toilet paper that is the paper currencies.

There is nothing complex about any of this. A gourp of very wealthy powerful people decided they would make stuff up to trade and make rules up fully knowing the flaws and potentional and evrntual collapse. But they do not care they have stashed away their millions by the time all is exposed.

Even as we discuss the situaton the government continues to prop up these banking crooks and in the process every single one of us now carrying more of their debt.

The Government should have let the banks fail. With the money that they have invested so far they could have taken over the assets and liabilities and had a fully nationalised bank. Let those bankers go down!

John Smith


gold and silver have no intrinsic value

28.03.2009 19:23

John Smith said: "Countries should hold gold, silver and other commodities with an intrinsic value rather than the toilet paper that is the paper currencies."

Surely gold and silver have no more intrinsic value than paper? Well, they are more useful for making some things, but not to the extent of the price difference. They only have value because our society puts an artificial desirability on them.

anon


@ John Smith

30.03.2009 12:02

"Countries should hold gold, silver and other commodities with an intrinsic value rather than the toilet paper that is the paper currencies."

Gold and silver have little intrinsic value - what practical value they do have is dwarfed by the essentially arbitrary social prestige which has been assigned to them. And regardless, as capitalism backed by gold is still capitalism, I'm not really sure what difference it makes.

In another note:
- Who is Chris Knight?
- Why should I, or anyone else, care what he thinks?

anonymous