Slogans?

Hello everyone. I'll helping to make placards for Saturday's demo to save Bombardier.

Any suggestions for slogans?

So far I'm a bit stuck. Best I've got so far is

'ConDems - off the rails'

and the rather more prosaic

'Save Bombardier workers'

I'm sure you can do better - help me, intertubez!

H/T to Tony Burke for the flyer - my scanner's buggered at the moment...

Bombardier: La Lutte Commence (ou possiblement, Continue)

I've just come from an open organising meeting called by the RMT to kick off the campaign to save 1500 jobs at Bombardier (and thousands more support jobs) in the wake of the decision not to award the company the Thameslink contract.

There was an amazing display of solidarity tonight. As well as speakers from RMT, GMB, and TSSA, MP Chris Williamson was there, who has been circulating a petition that in less than two weeks has got more than 34,000 signatures.

In addition, there were statements of support from the city's Trades Council, Unison, NUT, climate change activists, LMHR and workers from Birmingham. There was also mention of unusual cross-spectrum support, which even extends as far as the *shudder* Di'ly Sexpress.

The main thrust of this post is the stuff you can do to help. Here's a list:

• Sign Chris's petition - it's paper, and the deadline is this weekend so turn up to the Carribean carnival on Saturday where there will be a stall for you to put your name to it.
• Go to the Right to Work meeting on Tuesday - at The Quad in the Market Place, 7 pm. This is a broad front meeting with speakers from Right to Work, Labour, SWP, the Green Party, the Indian Workers Asociation, Climate Change and trade unionists. This meeting is to help build public support for the Bombardier workers, all are welcome.
• Sign Unite's petition here.
• Lobby your MP. The Bombardier issue has received unusual levels of cross-party support, even within the Con-Dems, so tell them you want the decision to give Siemens Preferred Bidder Status revoked NOW, before any final decisions are made.
• Go to the rally on the 23rd. This rally is sponsored by all four unions at Bombardier - Unite, TSSA, GMB and RMT. Meet on Saturday 23rd at Bass Recreation Ground, 10.00.
• Lobby the Con-Dems during conference season. Info on the Right to Work campaigns on that here.
• Any other suggestions welcome - just put them in the comments.

Dear Internets. Yesterday I was on a great big march...

... and I had a great time. Still blown away by it. I think sheer size was what impressed me most. Size and the sense of anger. Size, the sense of anger and the huge variety of groups. Size, the sense of anger, the huge variety of groups and the great placards. Size, the sense of anger, the huge variety, the great placards and the bands. Size ... I'll stop there. I'd love to upload my pictures but like a fool I forgot my camera and my phone doesn't talk to other electeronicamal devices very easily. I'll work it out soon. Highlights of the day:

• The girl with the 'only one man can save us now' placard with a TARDIS on it The girl with a huge homemade banner that looked a bugger to carry, emblazoned with 'This banner isn't big enough for all the things I'm angry about!'


• The anarchist brass band. They weren't attempting to play anything, which is probably for the best. I have no idea how a band would sound, founded on the principle of anarchy, but I'm guessing this would sound better...


• The brass band who struck up the Internationale when passing the bust-up LloydsTSB that had been vandalised.


• The vandalised LloydsTSB. Banks have never been funnier than when someone's chucked something through a glass door then stuffed a baguette into the hole. When I can get hold of the photos I'll update this post and then you'll see. Then YOU'LL ALL SEE! You know, if you want.


• The 'Big Society - compensating for something?' banner.


• The various 'build a bonfire' chants. Some were quite inventive.


• The fact that the back end of the march still wasn't visible near Trafalgar at gone 4 o'clock - more than 5 hours after it first started.


• The number of times that I heard comments along the lines of 'this needs to be the start of something, not the end'.


• The number of people carrying SWP placards calling for a general strike (mine's leaning against the bookcase as I type).

Ahem. Worst points of the day:

• The Kindness Revolution or whatever they were offering free hugs near the National Gallery. It wasn't just the unsubstantiated demands, it was that they were actually from the White Stuff clothing company. Fuck off, White Stuff clothing company.*


• The bloke with the 'Socialism is Theft' banner. Yeah, that's why we're here guys! Let's start a fight during a display of solidarity.**

I would like to end this post with a simple message: GENERAL STRIKE NOW. We run this country, not the Condems or the bankers. We make everything, we do all the work. Let's remind these motherfuckers just whose indulgence they play on when they tell us they're the voice of authority. Build for a general strike.

--------------------------------

*Also, at what point did people start charging for hugs anyway? You need to get better friends, White Stuff Clothing Company.

**Also, brief shout-out for all the 'Tory Scum' banners. It's good to see the old classics getting a play.

There is literally no snark left...

I've not updated for a bit, partly because I've been to busy with ... you know ... stuff ... and partly because I generally want to post on here in order to snark at news stories that make the little veins in my eyes start throbbing with greater urgency than a diarrhoetic in a 10 items or less queue at Boots*, but the absurdity event horizon seems to have passed me by. I mean, look at this:

George Osborne said he would be watching oil companies "like a hawk" to make sure there was "no funny business" following his budget decision to cut 1p from fuel duty.

Honestly, where do you start? It's times like this I am painfully aware that I can never make a great satirist. I can't see it with ironic detachment. It's just a matter of - this is utter, nonsensical madness. What's the right response to this? A clever gag, a series of bullet points explaining the various levels of hypocrisy and untruth at work, or what?**

I know everyone else has pointed this out as well - if even the shadow chancellor's got it then it's a fair bet few are fooled, but Jesus. They really do think we're a Burkean mob, don't they?

We'll see how well this 'stability' that Gideon's created works on Saturday I suppose...

-----------------
*Yes, at Boots. Look, if they were in Tesco's how would you get the cue that they were buying imodium? Look, just forget it.

**Note how I avoided the obvious 'a series of bullets' line there. Never go for the easy punchline, kids. Unless it's funny to do so, obviously.

Pleasing Directions in the Opiniosphere

It's been an interesting few days for democracy, I'm sure you'll agree. For the first time since Iraq there's a strong public protest on the streets whose aims, at least, are backed by a big majority* of the public. Only this time there seems to be a cross-section that are supportive of the elements that the PM is calling 'hell bent on violence' and 'feral thugs'.

On a purely anecdata level, it's been brilliant to see the short shrift that a lot of the hand-wringing 'BUT TEH SNOOKER BALLZ' gang are getting. I have quite an insulated life in some ways, as I don't bother with the tabloids or the right-wing broadsheets, and I stopped that soppy 'got to read opinions from BOTH sides' crap years ago, on the same basis that I don't bother getting the Discovery Institute's reaction to every new fossil find. But the normally centrist people I know through work and through social media (I don't really have enough of a social life at the moment to canvas IRL people) seem at the very least disoriented and frequently openly sympathetic to direct action.

It's a basic tenet of Marxist thinking that revolutions offer points where people's perception of themselves and normal social truths begin to shift, and although we're obviously not at the point of storming Whitehall yet, we are witnessing people normally safely esconsced within establishment notions of 'democracy' and 'peaceful protest' genuinely questioning themselves. I think that at the very least, the Tory attempt to re-write history so that the entirety of Labour's period in office was a disaster is dead in the water. Admittedly, at least one person I know has reaffirmed today that they are 'still proud to be a Lib Dem', just 'disgusted at the leadership' - but I can't take that too seriously, 'cos what does 'being a Lib Dem' mean, exactly? And at least it's in the right general direction.

Anyway, interesting times ahead.

*H/T Adam Bienkov

Are they really this obtuse? REALLY?

Currently on teh Beeb's news site:

THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING SOMETHING MORALLY REPUGNANT AND DEEPLY UNPOPULAR. Jesus, are they a bit slow or something?

It's Happening, Reg! Somthing's Actually Happening!

Today was awesome for anyone who likes to see proper angry protest in a progressive cause. Aaron Porter might think those who smashed windows were "despicable", but as someone who's been on one too many protests where you see too many of the usual faces, a demo like this says something that 'peaceful' (let yourself get kettled by the cops and don't say so much as a bad word about it) protests don't quite so well: we're really angry. I think people in power tend to get more sleepless nights about angry protest than peaceful protest.

Always good to see a bit of people power and a progressive cause taking control of the streets, anyway. And if you wanted a demo without dickheads you might as well wish for a police force full of paragons of virtue. Just accept that people REALLY don't like Condem policies, guys.

Not that it needs stating, but just for the record: I don't think violence is to be welcomed, but if you're pushing through policies that hurt people, people can't always be relied on to wait for deliverence from a Mediator. Besides, as a revolutionary I tend to think that only the co-ordinated power of the working class can overthrow the class system itself and bring an end to the conflict inherent in class societies - and I don't expect the bourgeoisie to give up easily.

Not that I was on a demo, mind. I work for a living, me.

Upcoming Attractions

Just a couple of upcoming demos/events:

Farewell to All This

I'm changing location. I'm leaving my beloved North East behind and going to the midlands. Obviously there are a lot of problems with this, chief among them being that I won't be in the North East, with its vibrant music and political scenes, cool buildings and sea view.

Instead I will be in a miserable, accent-less limbo that for reasons best known to themselves, quite large numbers of people have chosen not to leave. So I thought I'd mark my leaving with some photos of my last weekend on Tyneside, which it has to be said was as close to perfection as you can get. Dear reader, I know you're fascinated, so I will tell the story in stages.

SATURDAY



Saturday kicked off with the anti-EDL demo, which was the largest and most confident that I've ever been on in Newcastle - and one where we outnumbered the racist scumbags. This is a good thing, obviously. Also they were effectively contained by the rozzers and there was no violence, at least during the day. Certainly though their boasts of getting 2,000 hooligans to the Toon were idle ones. It's hard to estimate numbers accurately but when I and a comrade left our demo to have a quick snoop it looked like there were 4-500 tops. Still a lot, but considering how big they've been trying to make this, not as bad as it could have been. I'd say there were about a third as many again of us on the UAF demo, and there were another couple of hundred or more up at Monument where the TUC were doing their event. So all in all a successful day, and hopefully the twats won't be coming back.

After that, on to the Doctor Who exhibit at Centre for Life. This was ace. You must go. YOU MUST GO.

Following which, Evolution Emerging was on - a load of free gigs down the Ouseburn. Got to see the amazing Let's Buy Happiness again and the even more amazing Mammal Club, followed by the lovely Soundtracks for a B-Movie, who once their technical problems were sorted out turned out to be purveyors of beautiful instrumental music.

SUNDAY
On Sunday the weather was manky but Evolution proper had started, and luckily I'd got my grubby mitts on one of these...
Which meant I could actually see and hear the Futureheads, unlike people who were inside the venue...

MONDAY
Then Monday, it was Slow Club, Brilliant Mind, Mammal Club again and De La Soul. Fucking ace.

So, although I'll deeply miss Tyneside and all those who've been kind enough to put up with me at various points over the last decade, seriously: what a way to go.

Stop Climate Change - Demo in London and Copenhagen

Troops Out Now

Upcoming Events

I've been apprised of a couple of events (one thing about doing this course: you have no time to do anything remotely fun*) coming up in Toon shortly.

1) May Day march. Aiming for a big, noisy political crowd. Starts 10.30 at Centre for Life. Be there, or be like me and finishing a research essay on PowerPoints.

2) Public meeting next week: Wednesday May 6th, Royal Station Hotel. Capitalism in Crisis: The Case for Socialism. Should be good - Martin Smith (CC) and Michael Lavelette (Preston Council) are both really good public speakers, I've seen them both at Marxism and Party Conference and I've seen Martin on Venezuela at a public meeting a couple of years ago. Well worth a look, and if I can justify a couple of hours off from planning I'll defo be there.

*My definition of 'fun' may be slightly different from yours.

Protest the BBC's DEC Decision

5.30 outside BBC North, Barack Road, Newcastle.

Called by Tyneside Stop The War Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

I know I'll be there even if all I can do is cough at them. Please join us.

Upcoming Events

This Friday will be a demo in South Shields at a dinner being attended by David Miliband to protest against the British Government's refusal to take action or condemn Israel's aggression and murder in Palestine, and refusal to halt arms sales* to Israel. Meet outside South Tyneside College at 6.30 pm.

There will be a march and demo in Newcastle on Saturday at 12. Start at Civic Centre and move down to Monument.

Update: here's a pretty poster all about it!

This Week's Protests

On Wednesday evening there was one outside the local BBC studios about biased coverage - not a bad crowd (although my reliance on the mobile for pictures is a problem in the dark):






Then there was one at Monument yesterday. A sit-down protest was held that was quite good. There was also music - it was quite lively, really.

Main Local Protest

The other event, the big one, is a march that's being planned for this Saturday. We'll be having a bit rally at noon at the Civic Centre, then marching down to the Monument for a mass die-in and closing rally. There should be music, speeches, chanting, the works.

Anyone who can make this, please make the effort to do so. After London last week it's really important to try and keep up the momentum.

[guilt trip]I know it seems like the Israelis are winding down - there were only 12 airstrikes last night, after all, instead of the more usual 40-60 but for some reason the death toll keeps edging upwards.

'910 people have been killed in Gaza so far, of whom 292 were children and 75 were women.'[/guilt trip]

I'll follow up with details later as things are confirmed.

Local Protest - BBC

Continuing my new blogging theme of all Gaza, all the time, there's a couple of local protests in addition to the one a week Friday against Miliband.

First up, there's a protest against the pro-Israel bias in the Beeb's coverage this Thursday, the 15th. There's been a fair bit of interest from some Newcastle Uni students so it's hoped that we can have a march starting from the campus at 5.00. The main demo will be at 5.30 outside the Beeb's offices.