Anti austerity march...urb meet up?

[Zabo]

I would have liked to have attended yesterday's demonstration but alas illness prevented me from going.

That aside, if nothing it was a good test of the Nation's pulse. Sadly no matter how sincere each individual was these bastards will pay no heed. Their proposed anti Trade Union legislation and the changes or dumping of the ECHR along with the curtailment of other civil liberties tell you where they are coming from and going too.

While demonstrations have some value the only positive act is a National Strike by those who can call power to account. The Scottish TUC have said that they will ignore any of the proposed anti-union legislation. Will the others follow?

As for Labour. It's akin to being invited into an ossuary. No thank you.

 

[treelover]

well it wasn't like they were going to go 'hang on, you lot have a point. I'll just do the decent thing and top myself'

I still don't see how those figures add up though, even by treating under 25s like total scum isn't going to save that muych money.

I wonder if all these under 25's had voted labour would it have made a difference.

 

[DotCommunist]

presumably burnahms all up for the community service plans they want to roll out on the unemployed and under 25. In an economy which they know, the fucking PPE cunts, they know is designed to have a pool of unemployed labour to keep wages down.

 

[treelover]

good film, lots more to come I imagine.

 

[andysays]

He said...

​

Anyone else, particularly the young, is fair game.
Scum.

If this chancellor thinks it is acceptable to take benefits off disabled people who can’t replace that income, or if he is coming after the tax credits of people on low incomes in work, then he is going to have a fight on his hands

My prediction, capitulation, capitulation, capitulation

 

[DotCommunist]

I wonder if all these under 25's had voted labour would it have made a difference.

I doubt it, aside from a few principled members they mostly listen to their own voices and the r/w press.

 

[ddraig]

I wonder if all these under 25's had voted labour would it have made a difference.

made a difference to what?

 

[andysays]

made a difference to what?

maybe we'd have a Labour government making cuts. Does that count as a difference?

 

[Pickman's model]

I didn't say "we are all in this together". As a disabled, ill, unemployed trade unionist who relies on benefits, I am completely in the sights of the Tory filth, so I have strong personal views and reasons why I want to see a large protest march and why I celebrate the fact that hundreds of thousands of people came out to indicate their disapproval.

Peaceful protest has its place. Its place was yesterday.

I welcome the fact that the press cannot focus on a minority action, and to condemn those people, but are having to accept and acknowledge that a lot of people do not agree with the austerity policy of this government.

as a union steward who was made redundant at the start of the year i've no great affection for the tories either, and i was pleased to see so many people out yesterday. but i am surprised that the atoses and the a4es of this world whose fortunes are built on austerity, on shafting the disabled and unemployed - that the businesses who gain from prison slave labour (like wilkos) or from dolee slave labour through the work programme - should not be seen as part of the political issue of austerity, where people in work can have their positions eroded by the use of free labour: where people's work can be based around zero-hour contracts, resulting in any attempt to gain better pay or conditions losing them their work: and where people on benefits build up the profits of some of the largest companies in the country. yes, the government sets the tone: but who pays the piper calls the tune.

 

[Pickman's model]

good film, lots more to come I imagine.

gil scott-heron wrong i see

 

[Artaxerxes]

Photos uploaded, was an interesting march, whether it'll achieve anything... well, we'll see. Maybe a first step.

Parliament Sq by chiron3636, on Flickr

 

[LDC]

So definitely listening devices?

No, HD picture links antennaes as has been pointed out, stop getting all conspiratorial.

 

[J Ed]

as a union steward who was made redundant at the start of the year i've no great affection for the tories either, and i was pleased to see so many people out yesterday. but i am surprised that the atoses and the a4es of this world whose fortunes are built on austerity, on shafting the disabled and unemployed - that the businesses who gain from prison slave labour (like wilkos) or from dolee slave labour through the work programme - should not be seen as part of the political issue of austerity, where people in work can have their positions eroded by the use of free labour: where people's work can be based around zero-hour contracts, resulting in any attempt to gain better pay or conditions losing them their work: and where people on benefits build up the profits of some of the largest companies in the country. yes, the government sets the tone: but who pays the piper calls the tune.

Yes, there are ways to make workfare unprofitable for these companies very quickly, though the more effective ways may not be legal.

So many have become so conditioned to seeing things through the perspective of themselves as individuals, and those who have wronged them as individuals rather than institutions. If someone in authority is to blame for sending them on a slave labour placement it's the jobsworth wanker from the job centre not the DWP or IDS or the workfare-using multinational corporation, and anyway why are they getting such poor treatment when the people sitting near them at the job centre are obviously so much worse than them? The second we lose that mentality we can stop this. The current situation is a lot more fragile than it looks.

 

[Sprocket.]

I thought that as well, but then thought that maybe OU was saying that the posh students don't even do the smashing?

Surely one would have one's man do that sort of thing.

 

[Guineveretoo]

Well, it looks like Burnham has changed his position on austerity, possibly not unrelated to the turnout on the demo yesterday.

Could it be that a politician had pause for thought as a result of the demo?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics...osborne-call-labour-support-12bn-welfare-cuts

 

[butchersapron]

Wow.

 

[andysays]

Well, it looks like Burnham has changed his position on austerity, possibly not unrelated to the turnout on the demo yesterday.

Could it be that a politician had pause for thought as a result of the demo?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics...osborne-call-labour-support-12bn-welfare-cuts

We've already had a link to the story you've just discovered.

Burnham isn't saying he's anti-austerity, he's just saying he won't be quite as austere as Osbourne. If you're arguing he's changed his position as a result of the demo, you'll have to demonstrate that he was previously going to do exactly what Osbourne is doing, and he's now changed his mind*.

And despite what he's saying today (in an obvious attempt to win the Labour leadership) I predict that he and his party will continue to acquiesce in the imposition of austerity.

ETA *and that his change of mind actually means something of substance

 

[Zabo]

I find it impossible to believe anything they say when they haven't got the moral guts to expel Blair from the Party. Lots of hot air.

Words - cheap as chips.

 

[Guineveretoo]

We've already had a link to the story you've just discovered.

Burnham isn't saying he's anti-austerity, he's just saying he won't be quite as austere as Osbourne. If you're arguing he's changed his position as a result of the demo, you'll have to demonstrate that he was previously going to do exactly what Osbourne is doing, and he's now changed his mind*.

And despite what he's saying today (in an obvious attempt to win the Labour leadership) I predict that he and his party will continue to acquiesce in the imposition of austerity.

ETA *and that his change of mind actually means something of substance

Sorry - I was busy doing things offline.

Certainly, it is implying that he is no longer going to support the Tory line on the cuts, which it was previously believed he would.

I am not presenting any evidence that the demo changed his mind because I don't have any evidence. I am merely suggesting that quarter of a million people marching in London may have given him pause for thought, not least because a fair number of them will be Labour members or supporters, who will have a vote in the Leadership election.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I find it impossible to believe anything they say when they haven't got the moral guts to expel Blair from the Party. Lots of hot air.

Words - cheap as chips.

Why should they expel Blair? I wasn't aware of him doing anything without the support of the party.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

No, HD picture links antennaes as has been pointed out, stop getting all conspiratorial.

No one's getting "all conspiratorial" - just trying to determine wtf they were.

Stand easy.

 

[butchersapron]

Why should they expel Blair? I wasn't aware of him doing anything without the support of the party.

Wow. Are you a member Guineveretoo? You want to get that blood on all of you?

 

[Hocus Eye.]

I find it impossible to believe anything they say when they haven't got the moral guts to expel Blair from the Party. Lots of hot air.

Words - cheap as chips.

I had never thought of that but you are right.

 

[Guineveretoo]

Wow. Are you a member Guineveretoo? You want to get that blood on all of you?

It was a genuine question.

I believe that he had the support of the party when he went into Iraq. It is one of the reasons that I left the Labour Party.

 

[butchersapron]

Do things - it might help a carreerist groveler in his plans.

 

[butchersapron]

It was a genuine question.

I believe that he had the support of the party when he went into Iraq. It is one of the reasons that I left the Labour Party.

What on earth makes you think that though? The massive drop in membership? The continued internal votes against the war?

 

[Guineveretoo]

What on earth makes you think that though? The massive drop in membership? The continued internal votes against the war?

I meant the Parliamentary Labour Party.

 

[Guineveretoo]

But good point, he certainly didn't have the support of any Labour Party member that I knew at the time!

However, if they expelled him, they would have to expel a lot of current and former MPs as well....

 

[brogdale]

It had aims, and those were political aims, and they were not commercial aims, and they were not seeking to attack big business.

And it does matter to the politicians if people demonstrate, particularly if the demonstrations are peaceful and can't be dismissed as the actions of a minority of troublemakers.

That really reads like wilful mis-interpretation. Big business, in the form of globalised, financialised capital, funds and directs its political puppets. How could yesterday be anything but a demonstration against such economic power?

 

[andysays]

Sorry - I was busy doing things offline.

Certainly, it is implying that he is no longer going to support the Tory line on the cuts, which it was previously believed he would.

I am not presenting any evidence that the demo changed his mind because I don't have any evidence. I am merely suggesting that quarter of a million people marching in London may have given him pause for thought, not least because a fair number of them will be Labour members or supporters, who will have a vote in the Leadership election.

Where was it previously suggested that he would, ie that he would follow exactly the same cutting policies as the Tories? Labour have fairly consistantly said they agree with the need for cuts, but disagree about their severity, unless you can demonstrate specifically where Burnham has said otherwise.

But your previous post suggested he has deffo changed his position and that is the result of yesterday's demo, which seems to me a naively simplistic way of looking at it, to say the least.