‘March for the Alternative’ - 26th March - London

[ymu]

Great blog article from Dan Hind.

The Alternative: an alternative approach


On Monday I posted about on the TUC’s ‘March for the Alternative’. In it I made the case that organized labour now faces a choice. It can either accept gradual extinction in a political settlement that privileges finance over both industrial production and the commonwealth, or it can provide a venue for a discussion about the country’s options that leads in turn to an altogether new political settlement.

The three major political parties are committed to the Thatcher/Blair accommodation of the City. As long as they continue to do so they are intellectually bankrupt. Labour and the Conservatives together devised the tilt towards finance. They both still insist that there is no alternative. The Liberals threw away whatever reservations they may have had the moment they caught a whiff of ministerial power. The government is now adopting the penny wise, pound foolish policies that did so much damage to Britain in the 1930s. Liberals then at least had the sense to champion Keynes’s ideas. Labour is playing for time, as far as I can tell. It is confident that it will reap the benefits of the Coalition’s unpopularity and romp to power in 2015 on a tide of vague talk about change and a new something or other.

The trade unions, not the Labour party, are the only serious obstacle to the Coalition’s plans. At the moment some of their leaders are talking about strikes. I would urge all those who are involved in the trade union movement – from the leadership of individual unions, to the TUC, to the millions of ordinary members like me – to begin organizing unofficial meetings to discuss the current economic and political situation and to formulate a comprehensive alternative to the current, finance-dominated system.


continues ...

 

[ddraig]

link borked

 

[ymu]

Cheers.

http://thereturnofthepublic.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/the-alternative-an-alternative-approach/

 

[ymu]

True. I'd still prefer to punch that supercilious sneer off his face, though.

I agree!

But something that shocked and dismayed me on the demo was the number of people who just wanted fewer, kinder cuts because they don't know that there is an alternative. And this was on the March for the Alternative, backed up by one of the most accessible sites explaining why cuts are stupid right now.

So, I think we have some work to do. The fury of workers screwed over more than their bosses will be as nothing when they - and the bosses of any small-to-medium sized enterprise, and not-so comfortable middle England - find out that it's all a massive con. A 100% bogus, intellectually bankrupt, unutterably stupid, policy - unless you're rich enough to make use of tax havens.

When the IMF convenes 30 top economists - including all the recent Nobels - for a conference and these people who normally disagree about everything come to a unanimous consensus that the US has to spend more and lower taxes (on spenders, not savers) ... you know there is something very fucking wrong when your government - and the last one - are still insisting on cuts, and no paper reports on the consensus, and Washington caves into the Hooverians AGAIN.

It's just too important to fuck around. If it takes too long to kick them out, some of these changes will be irreversible, and our economy will look like Ireland now or Japan ten years ago (and still, now). Fucked.

 

[ymu]

And just to add to that ... we have to stop selling 'leftist' policies as some kind of moral thing. It's pure self-interest for literally everybody outside of the top 0.1%. The middle-class will have to emigrate to ASEAN to find work, and the working-class will have to work in sweat-shops here (once the pound plummets enough to stimulate the manufacturing industry we don't have any more, with the profits being expatriated instead of spent here), or they will have to emigrate for better pay and conditions elsewhere.

It doesn't take a whole lot to tip the balance. 95% of the cuts haven't bitten yet, and we've already got massive impacts showing up in GDP, the housing market, lending and spending.

We're the guinea-pig (with the US possibly volunteering to be one too). And when we fail, we will be everybody else's bitch - with no easy escape routes.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Had a little playful troll of the Telegraph blog.

 

[Corax]

Had a little playful troll of the Telegraph blog.

I for one am delighted that UKIP has organised this wonderful opportunity to protest against the debt that our politicians have got us into, and overjoyed that such an important figure as Ed West has taken the time to champion this fine cause with a quite marvelous article. I'm sure I speak for everyone who will be attending when I say that no amount of facts, statistics, and historical evidence thrown at us from the left will sway us from our right to protest without being animals. The left are either all middle-class wannabe-revolutionaries who are just jealous of successful businessmen or feckless, slack-jawed, tattooed breeders of mewling tax vampires whose only concern is losing the benefits with which they are showered. I am also sure I speak for everyone at the Rally Against Debt when I say that if a few of the poor starve to death through a withdrawal of the state benefit teat, so be it. I bet they'd be happy to dig roads for tuppence then, wouldn't they? Worried about losing their precious public services? They can afford cider, cigarettes and any amount of tacky jewelery, can't they? What makes them exempt from paying their fair share back of this debt that's mainly their fault, anyway? It's not like they pay much tax. The feckless gyppos.

Anyway! The Rally Against Debt! Let's demand we're heard! Politely, though, not like the half-million scum army from March 26th!

If that's you - *applause*

 

[Steel Icarus]

If that's you - *applause*

The name's an anagram of "Tax the rich harder", too.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

 

[DotCommunist]

The troll a tory award of the week goes to steel icarus

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Definitely!

 

[BigTom]

yep great work SI

 

[DaveCinzano]

There is that, and we all know about it, but credit where credit is due. It's nearly up there with The Sun's 'Shoots You Sir' headline about Gianni Versace's murder.

That was the star or the daily sport or some such comic that did the shoots you sir headline.

It was the Sport:

[Then-editor Tony] Livesey told Press Gazette his lasting legacy would be the Cutting Edge Channel 4 documentary about the Sport that showed him coming up with the headline "Shoots You, Sir" about the murder of Gianni Versace. The headline referred to popular comedy sketch show The Fast Show that included a sketch where two tailors said the catchphrase "Suits you, Sir".

 

[Mr.Bishie]

The ordinary ‘anarchists’ and why they went to London

http://www.bristol247.com/2011/03/3...inary-anarchists-and-why-they-went-to-london/

Nuff said.

 

[ymu]

http://www.bristol247.com/2011/03/3...inary-anarchists-and-why-they-went-to-london/

Nuff said.

Indeed!

Some very, very good black bloc articles coming out of this.

 

[rollinder]

not sure if this or the arrestees thread is the right one to post this but somebody from Uk uncut was on Radio 2 (Radio bloody 2 but
about midday /1pm - was in a taxi so only heard part of it.

Presenter seemed neutral rather than attacking/anti,
asked what they were actually doing inside, uk uncut person said it was drinking tea, singing, chanting and making origami flowers. (bloody hippies )
Police were inside the building

I mentioned the the police claiming they wouldn't arrest them only to do so,
taxi driver reckoned that was "typical police"

journey ended just as they were about to play audio of the police talking to the group inside
Did they really expose the police lying about people not going to be arrested on BBC radio?

 

[Blagsta]

Here's the Whois info for rally against debt website

Domain ID: D161898787-LROR
Domain Name:RALLYAGAINSTDEBT.ORG
Created On:29-Mar-2011 15:44:26 UTC
Last Updated On:30-Mar-2011 13:23:11 UTC
Expiration Date:29-Mar-2012 15:44:26 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar: Directi Internet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com (R27-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:ADDPERIOD
Registrant ID: DI_4888385
Registrant Name:Jake Patch
Registrant Organization:SummitWeb
Registrant Street1:Myrtle Cottage
Registrant Street2:Touches Lane
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Chard
Registrant State/Province:Somerset
Registrant Postal Code:TA20 1RY
Registrant Country:GB
Registrant Phone:+44.0146067777
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:jake.patch@gmail.com
Admin ID: DI_4888385
Admin Name:Jake Patch
Admin Organization:SummitWeb
Admin Street1:Myrtle Cottage
Admin Street2:Touches Lane
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Chard
Admin State/Province:Somerset
Admin Postal Code:TA20 1RY
Admin Country:GB
Admin Phone:+44.0146067777
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:jake.patch@gmail.com
Tech ID: DI_4888385
Tech Name:Jake Patch
Tech Organization:SummitWeb
Tech Street1:Myrtle Cottage
Tech Street2:Touches Lane
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Chard
Tech State/Province:Somerset
Tech Postal Code:TA20 1RY
Tech Country:GB
Tech Phone:+44.0146067777
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:jake.patch@gmail.com
Name Server:NS1.DEFAULTNAMESERVERS.COM
Name Server:NS2.DEFAULTNAMESERVERS.COM
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
DNSSEC:Unsigned


it has a name, address and phone number...

 

[butchersapron]

http://www.facebook.com/jack.patch
http://twitter.com/#!/JacobPatch
He's a UKIP carnivaler

 

[Blagsta]

that's a supremely punchable face

 

[ymu]

The really, really obvious counter-rally slogan should be:

END THE DEBT!

TAX THE RICH!

INVEST IN JOBS!

I'll happily produce a leaflet, but have shit printing facilities.

But you'd have to guarantee enough bodies to outnumber them - so it's a UK Uncut collaboration, I reckon.

 

[ymu]

Fuck it. Just Facebook it and Tweet out invites with the suggested slogan and "please bring a placard!" on it. #tag it to #m26 and #ukuncut and the job is done.

Objections?

If not, any volunteers to do the Facebook bit of it so I don't have to join the devil's site?

 

[nick h.]

Did they really expose the police lying about people not going to be arrested on BBC radio?

They had film of a Chief Inspector telling that lie on Newsnight days ago.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Just checking, but everybody does realise that the whole Rally For Cuts thing is basically half a dozen dicks who know each other chatting on facebook and almost certainly won't happen anyway?

 

[frogwoman]

Try and get some dirt on him, lefties. Just try. I dare you.

 

[ymu]

Lying police video

 

[Mr.Bishie]

New thread for this spot of direct <rotten egg> action against the fucktards?

 

[ymu]

*jazz hands*

 

[gunneradt]

Just checking, but everybody does realise that the whole Rally For Cuts thing is basically half a dozen dicks who know each other chatting on facebook and almost certainly won't happen anyway?

ha ha- this is all just a big joke and he's got all you lefties frothing, running around, deleting twitter accounts and near to heart attack it would seem. I would suggest you all calm down.

 

[DotCommunist]

pull the other one, its got veins on it

 

[Blagsta]

ha ha- this is all just a big joke and he's got all you lefties frothing, running around, deleting twitter accounts and near to heart attack it would seem. I would suggest you all calm down.

Wrong end of stick mate.