Representatives of the Stop The War Coalition, Friends of Palestine, Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain all gave speeches. It was good to see that many people out on what was billed as Merseyside’s hottest day since records began, but we should be under no illusions that we helped stop any wars this evening.
The organisers of Stop The War Coalition are well-meaning, but they keep leading us on impotent marches, vigils, and letter-writing campaigns. On 15th February 2003, around 1.5 million people marched against the planned invasion of Iraq. On 20th March 2003, that invasion began. Our principles were right, but our tactics couldn’t have been more wrong. We played into the hands of the powerful.
We may not like it, but money currently makes the world go round. To stop a government doing something, we have to make it unprofitable. Some people are calling for a boycott of Israeli goods, which means no Jaffa oranges, no Jacob’s crackers and definitely no shopping at Marks & Spencer, whose trade with Israel is worth hundreds of millions per year.
But wherever we shop, we are still putting money in the UK government’s coffers, and they bend over backwards to build up trade links with Israel, as well as exporting much of the weaponry that is being used this minute to kill people in Palestine and Lebanon this very minute. Unless we steal, we are funding murder.
So what can we do? Well, we’ll know we’re making a difference when the police are after us, and the politicians are bad-mouthing us on the news (instead of praising our use of ‘democratic rights’). We can begin to organise in our workplaces, and walk out on the day the next war starts. We can start civil disobedience on the streets, blocking traffic (it’s all about the oil industry, remember), and disrupting government buildings with sit-ins or die-ins or parties or anything.
There is a "Ministry of ‘Defence’ bills agency building on Drury Lane (near James Street). That could make a great target.
Yes it’s scary, and it goes against everything we have been taught since we were knee high to an adult. But it’s a lot more scary being under those bombs, and one day there could well be a bomb or a bullet with our names on it.
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One way to fight Blair- get Blair out of your children's schools
19.07.2006 23:22
-No PR or propaganda visits from the police while the police thugs are allowed to smash protests, and murder unpunished.
-No visits from any aspect of the military.
-No visits from any member of the New Reich, Conservative or Liberal parties by people acting as official members of those parties (especially including MP's or ministers).
-No teaching pro-Israeli, or pro-Empire, or pro-Elite history
-No RE (an automatic right)
-no drug-testing
-no propagandising in assembly without you first being allowed to inspect the proposed words
-no New Reich medical programs (as in the recent 'fat kid' meme)
-no participation in any so-called charity events associated with Blair's mass media (especially the BBC), or any other tainted body.
As an individual parent, you can demand the above with respect to your children, which means that at worst, you children are withdrawn from any contact with the above.
HOWEVER, if a few other parents join you, it will soon be easier for the school to just stop permitting these abuses, as many schools already do.
Don't wait to respond to abuses by the school- lay down the law right from the beginning, and encourage as many other parents as possible to do the same thing. Remember, they do not have to share the exact same political position as yourself in order to demand that the school limits itself to education.
It may shock you that you have the right to restrict school activity to plain and reasonable eductation. You should also make it absolutely clear that you will tolerate no interference in the political or religious views of your child, or the reasonable expression of those views. Schools should not be factories of indoctrination, but places where individual minds can reach their full early potential.
Every push at the top (like a demo in London) should be matched with powerful pushes at the 'bottom'.
twilight
Learn to work with people
20.07.2006 00:12
What's the best way to make people to encourage people already aware to do something more?
Bad mouth there actions for not being radical enough, because what they are doing is tokenism and supporting the system.
Or
Work with people where they are at now politically, as tedious as it may be.
Sure working by example is good too.
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Twilight makes good points
20.07.2006 08:35
"Schools should not be factories of indoctrination, but places where individual minds can reach their full early potential."
Well yes, arguably they SHOULD be, but they have never been and were never intended to be. Schools are the places we programme the young to fit into society. This is their only purpose, the rest is PR.
Pragmatic