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All out in Birmingham 18 Sept + Manchester 2 Oct

John Smith | 14.09.2011 00:05 | Culture | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements

Even the mainstream right are admitting the Coalition have betrayed democracy. The next 2 major protests will lobby the Lib-Dem conference, 18 Sept, Birmingham, and the Tory conference, 2 Oct, Manchester. We're defending our right to receive services we've ALREADY PAID FOR through decades of Income Tax and National Insurance payments and VAT...




It's perhaps not surprising that Colin Leys wrote in The Guardian on Sept 8, that, in relation to the Coalition government's continued insistence on pushing through stealth privatisation of the NHS, "what Wednesday's vote on the Health and Social Care Bill shows more clearly than anything is that many, if not most, of the political elite no longer care whether they are carrying out the wishes of the electorate, and barely pretend that we are any longer a democracy".

What's more surprising is that senior Daily Telegraph correspondent Charles Moore admitted on July 22 that "the rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything".

Even more dramatically, as long ago as April 2010, The Daily Mail admitted that in our capital city - London - the gap between rich and poor is widest than at any time since the abolition of SLAVERY, and in Nov 2010 The Daily Mail admitted that more than a third of UK land is still owned by "a tiny group of aristocrats". These are not headlines in (what's left of) Britain's radical press, these are lead articles appearing in Britain's mainstream hard-line right-wing newspapers!

As we all know, the Lib Dems and Tories campaigned for votes by promising they would not make the cuts they're now forcing through, and although these parties abused democracy to get their MPs elected, because the government those MPs formed is (as a Coalition of minorities) even less democratic, they're rushing through cuts and privatisations whose purpose is to serve even less accountable tax-dodging multinationals and to wreck basic social infrastructure forever.

The government is dominated by a political class who exploit the goodwill of the British public, by observing the letter of democratic procedures while deliberately abusing the spirit of that democracy, and NO-ONE who (for instance) defends the NHS is really arguing for "free" healthcare, what we're defending is our right to receive services we've already paid for through decades of Income Tax and National Insurance payments and VAT.

Corrupt MPs will fight long and hard for the billions their sponsors stand to make from privatising services and abusing democracy, so it is vital we step-up and maintain the pressure, actively supporting as many resistance campaigns as possible. The next 2 major protests are against the Lib-Dem conference, this Sunday 18 Sept in Birmingham (11am, Granville St, B1 1JW), and against the Tory conference on 2 Oct in Manchester (12 noon, Liverpool Rd, M3 4JR). Please e-mail / ask EVERYONE you know to join us on these protests.

No disrespect to anyone with strong ideological convictions, but please DO NOT bring flags and banners which advertise radical ideologies. We need to divide our former opponents, engaging disaffected Daily Mail and Telegraph readers etc by exposing the Coalition as the real extremists (we do not need to discredit protest movements by resorting to the perceived extremism that State agents constantly troll Indymedia to try to encourage).

ACTION...

 http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/Protect_our_NHS_Petition

 http://www.nhsalert.org.uk/page/speakout/will-you-email-your-mp-now

 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/5911

E-mail a Tory (use anonymous e-mail accounts and IP shielding) -
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/481463.html

RESOURCES...

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/08/nhs-health-bill-private-sector

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8655106/Im-starting-to-think-that-the-Left-might-actually-be-right.html

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267778/London-unequal-city-Western-world-gap-rich-poor-widest-slavery.html

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328270/A-Britain-STILL-belongs-aristocracy.html

John Smith

Comments

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Pensioners robbed by Lib Dems AGAIN...

14.09.2011 07:37

The Daily Express isn't exactly left-wing either - "A revolt was growing last night over a swingeing stealth cut in private ­pensions that could cost savers about £800 a year in retirement. Up to 12 million members of final-salary ­pension schemes face up to 25 per cent lower incomes as a result.... Liberal Democrat pensions minister Steve Webb slipped out the change in a Parliamentary written statement on Thursday" -

 http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/186095

438,101 signatures on the 38 Degrees petition!!

Belle and Sebastian

and Occupy! Manchester

14.09.2011 14:56

is also happening after the TUC demo. We will occupy Albert square and turn the space into one for organising and building a movement against the Tories and the cuts and for social justice.

Occupy! Manchester
mail e-mail: occupy.manchester@gmail.com
- Homepage: www.occupymanchester.org

They Will Not Control Us

14.09.2011 15:52

"No disrespect to anyone with strong ideological convictions, but please DO NOT bring flags and banners which advertise radical ideologies. We need to divide our former opponents, engaging disaffected Daily Mail and Telegraph readers etc by exposing the Coalition as the real extremists (we do not need to discredit protest movements by resorting to the perceived extremism that State agents constantly troll Indymedia to try to encourage). "

That paragraph is a threat that TUC will again employ a private security firm to oppress the march but that this time they won't only be attacking any worker who takes effective action but even any worker advocating any idea of effective action. These security thugs will be working with the police. We will defend our right to protest.

Union Member (Not the Police Federatioon!)
- Homepage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqT81cWQZJQ&feature=player_embedded

short answer to the last paragraph

14.09.2011 15:53

has to be 'no fucking chance'. A longer response will appear tomorrow.

not a state agent

Re - They Will Not Control Us

14.09.2011 17:53

No this is not a threat nor is it from the TUC, this is a plea from the ordinary member of the public who posted this article - myself - who is sick of CPGB Stalinists displaying symbols that celebrate brutally violent authoritarianism at anti-cuts protests and rallies (and if you don't believe the CPGB are Stalinists, check the description they put on their You Tube channel)

John Smith

Proper channels

14.09.2011 19:32

Much as I've no time for them, the CPGB are really not Stalinists.

Meanwhile, if you want to protest, please do so in the authorised manner with banners that engage with Daily Mail readers (summat on asylum seekers or gypsies should be reet) and don't forget to make sure you go through the proper channels.

King Pleb

Radical Ideology

14.09.2011 20:35


Put it this way - do you think the front page of The Daily Mail accused Anarchists of hijacking the Dale Farm campaign in order to HELP that campaign, or do you think The Daily Mail accused Anarchists of hijacking the Dale Farm campaign in order to WRECK that campaign? Which of these 2 options is most likely… really?!

If you think The Daily Mail was trying to help the campaign at Dale Farm by publicly associating that campaign with radical ideology, then go ahead and fly Anarchist or Communist flags at the TUC rally. If instead you think The Daily Mail was trying to hurt the campaign at Dale Farm, then consider the possibility of leaving ideological symbols at home as one possible strategy ;)

Aloha

Reply to King Pleb

14.09.2011 21:35

I had a go at CPGB activists for flying Hammer and Sickle flags, which I pointed out to them are (rightly or wrongly) associated by much of the general public with being symbols of Stalinism, and their response was to tell me to my face that they are Stalinists, and if you look at their You Tube channel, it describes their "schools" as (quote) "Marx, Engels, Lenin, STALIN, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara"....

 http://www.youtube.com/user/ProletarianCPGBML

Ditto for morons like the Revolutionary Communist Group chanting in support of Colonel Gaddafi at demos - totally wrecking any sympathy those protests might attract from 99% of passers-by in the process. However if by the "proper channels" you mean that I'm advocating public protests should try to successfully engage with the general public, that'd be correct, that is what I'm advocating. If instead protests just become some sort of wanking circle for people who are already inside the radical ghetto, then political failure is the guaranteed long-term outcome. A certain Monty Python sketch springs to mind...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE

John Smith

Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

It is a statement of fact.

14.09.2011 22:27

>> Put it this way - do you think the front page of The Daily Mail accused Anarchists of hijacking the Dale Farm campaign in order to HELP that campaign, or do you think The Daily Mail accused Anarchists of hijacking the Dale Farm campaign in order to WRECK that campaign? Which of these 2 options is most likely… really?!


I think they reported the news as a statement of fact.
Anarchists were there. They did hijack the protest (like they do at lots of protests).
Fact. It is not a question of whether the Daily mail "tried" this or "tried" that.
It is a statement of fact.

anon

How about...

14.09.2011 22:27

...we just say, "ConDems out, vote Labour... TUC, get off your knees and... erm..."? Oh, wait...

Does anyone really think the average Daily Mail or Telegraph reader will be backing something like this? Last strike, I had to deal with arsewipes like this who were scabbing all over us. And anyway, do we really want to pander to the lowest common Daily Mail reading denominator with all this softly softly shite? Do we become more like them or should they become more like us?

Nah, let's just get all our "behold your future executioner banners" at the ready :-)

King Pleb

Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

slight under-estimation of what you are up against

14.09.2011 22:45

>> Nah, let's just get all our "behold your future executioner banners" at the ready :-)

1. Most intelligent people know that writing of this nature on a banner is always just a load of hot air that is not acted on. However.....

2. The Daily Mail has a circulation of around 2 million which is the third-largest circulation of any English language daily newspaper and one of the highest in the world.

3. Exactly, how many "future executioners" are at your rally? 30? 50?
If it comes down to a physical fight, you are going to find it very, very difficult to take on 2 million people. And no, your name is not Leonidas.

anon

communism

14.09.2011 23:28

>>>
I had a go at CPGB activists for flying Hammer and Sickle flags, which I pointed out to them are (rightly or wrongly) associated by much of the general public with being symbols of Stalinism, and their response was to tell me to my face that they are Stalinists, and if you look at their You Tube channel, it describes their "schools" as (quote) "Marx, Engels, Lenin, STALIN, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara"....


Hilarious!!! I din't realise people like this actually existed.
That Ranjeet Brar is some piece of work. Quoting Stalin like he is jesus
Embarrassing to hear him say "comrade" all the time

anon

Stalinism

15.09.2011 08:18


There may only be a handful of these people, but they do untold damage to the protest movement (from their website)...

"After visiting the birthplace of Kim Il Sung and the deeply moving Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery we visited the Party Founding Museum. This holds the office used by Kim Il Sung from 1946 and a conference hall where the first ever WPK congress took place, the latter being decorated with portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Kim Il Sung."

"The newly formed Red Army won splendid victories and proved that the leadership of such great leaders as Stalin, Voroshilov and Budyonny made the Red Army invincible."

"The congress hall was decorated with portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Khalid Bagdash, the historic leader of the Syrian Communist Party. The prominent slogans displayed on the walls included: ‘Workers of the world, unite!’, ‘Free country, happy people’ and ‘Defending the country, defending the interests of the people'."

As for the paranoid nonsense about TUC "threats" 1/ although I am a trades unionist, posting here in a personal capacity, I reiterate I'm not from the TUC, 2/ I regularly attended the TUC-sponsored MayDay rallies, and on the strength of the (disgusting) Stalinist, Leninist and Maoist portraits displayed there, I'd say sections of the TUC seem to encourage people like this. Anyone who thinks this isn't an issue is living in cloud cuckoo land, but still let's focus on the bigger issue - on making the forthcoming demos a SUCCESS

John Smith

Reply to King Prole

15.09.2011 08:29

"Behold your future executioners" banners were first flown by Class War in (if I recall correctly) 1984 or 1985, and an article on Libcom admitted the London Class War group recently folded with just FIVE paid-up members and the last remaining organiser insulting supporters who dared to ask what had happened to the merchandise they'd paid for. Class War achieved a grand total of absolutely fucking nothing in the long-term, please DON'T go ahead and repeat that failure.

Lifeline

Daily Mail

15.09.2011 08:36

I personally know an elderly life-long Daily Mail reader who protested on March 26 and has never bought the Mail since because he was appalled by their selective focus on the black-block aspect of that protest. So, yes, Daily Mail readers are affected by cuts and privatisations and of course they need to engaged by anti-cuts protests. People can retreat to the safety of tried and tested formulas for political failure, or they can do the hard work of trying to engage people who's opinions have been poisoned by decades of right-wing tabloid bullshit... working out how to do the latter isn't easy but the old strategies are worse than a waste of time

Lifeline

blah blah blah

17.09.2011 18:14

If you don't want stalinist stuff why not just say 'stalinists don't bring your flags etc'

Now you've got everyone who isn't labour/swp thinking they aren't welcome and now they're all going to turn out because of this stupid post.

stop the 'just an ordinary member of the public' shit too, everyone knows swp run london indymedia now.


And as much as I hate the tankies, i think the swp and labour are just as shite.

blah

Try to keep up mate

18.09.2011 21:10

* If you don't want stalinist stuff why not just say 'stalinists don't bring your flags etc'

That's exactly what this post DID say (if you want to criticise a post, bother to read it first)

* Now you've got everyone who isn't labour/swp thinking they aren't welcome

This post did NOT refer to "everyone who isn't labour/swp" (except in your mind) and did NOT say anyone isn't welcome, it asked people with strong ideological convictions to think twice before bringing what could be perceived as extremist flags etc

* stop the 'just an ordinary member of the public' shit too, everyone knows swp run london indymedia now

This post was not made by an Indymedia person, or a Londoner, or an SWP supporter, you're talking bollocks

GO TO THE PROTEST IN MANCHESTER OCT 2

Not the SWP

1,500 join TUC anti-cuts protest

18.09.2011 21:23


 http://www.birminghammail.net/news/2011/09/18/lib-dems-in-birmingham-1-500-join-tuc-anti-cuts-protest-97319-29444324/

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJzrlINiaEk

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz3YWwTdKnM

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTCdgqqe6I

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbcOfCIHI4c

Congratulations

CPGB-ML - now that's what I call "bourgeois"

20.09.2011 23:14



Unsurprisingly it turns out the CPGB-ML* not only publishes a newspaper called "Proletarian", which urges its readers not to vote for "bourgeois parties", but the CPGB-ML's run by businessman Harpal Brar, who lives in an expensive house in Hampstead and makes a killing selling Pashmina shawls which (according to his website) "START from £450". I wonder how much of that revenue goes back to "our kashmiri craftsmen", sorry, Harpal's PROLETARIAN COMRADES in Kashmir?

 http://www.trehearneandbrar.com/about

He's an unapologetic Stalinist, and like most Fascists, indulges in historical revisionism to deny atrocities carried out by his glorious leader. Like some other small parties (notably like the NF in the 1970s and 1980s) the CPGB-ML make up for their dearth of actual supporters by flying MASSIVE flags on all the demos they fucking ruin. So, not content with making a mint selling knitwear to the ultra-rich, this jackass spends his down-time dissing other people for being "bourgeois"

* The Communist Paty of Great Britain Marxist-Leninist, not to be confused with the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Communist Party of Britain, or with the Communist Party of Great Britain Provisional Central Committee, all of which are different groups

Kilburn

where is the stalinism bit?

26.09.2011 09:21

"No disrespect to anyone with strong ideological convictions, but please DO NOT bring flags and banners which advertise radical ideologies. We need to divide our former opponents, engaging disaffected Daily Mail and Telegraph readers etc by exposing the Coalition as the real extremists (we do not need to discredit protest movements by resorting to the perceived extremism that State agents constantly troll Indymedia to try to encourage)."

I STILL CAN'T SEE WHERE THIS SAYS YOU ONLY MEAN STALINISTS SHOULD LEAVE THEIR BANNERS AT HOME.

"DO NOT bring flags and banners which advertise radical ideologies"

Please define radical ideologies and explain why it is up to you to tell people what is acceptable on (presumably) your march.


I will be at the march, with my 'radical ideology' flag so look out for me!

me

Muppetwatch

27.09.2011 00:58

Reply to "me" -

> I STILL CAN'T SEE WHERE THIS SAYS YOU ONLY MEAN STALINISTS SHOULD LEAVE THEIR BANNERS AT HOME

You're right, it doesn't say only Stalinists should leave their banner at home, nor does it mean that

> Please define radical ideologies

Stalinism, Anarchism, Maoism, y'know - ideologies that are radical

> and explain why it is up to you to tell people what is acceptable

It isn't "up to me" - the above post is an expression of a personal opinion, which it is open for anyone to comment on and agree or disagree with as they see fit

> on (presumably) your march

I'm not the TUC, it's not my march

> I will be at the march

Great!

> with my 'radical ideology' flag

No, really, please leave it at home, unless you WANT to drive wedge between protestors and members of the public and actively discourage ordinary people from joining the march

John Smith

who are normal people?

27.09.2011 14:26

I am a normal member of the public you tool, so I can bring my extremist flag with me if I like! you'll love it, it's a picture of Stalin on one side and Hitler on the other. I support neither, I just don't like being told what to do by by daily mail appeasers.

me again

musn't upset the daily mailers

27.09.2011 14:30

Please don't bring anything that might upset daily mail readers - so all you non-whites, dolies, lefties and gypsies stay away!!!

john smith mk2

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