I want to make a broader argument, but first need to deal with a small point raised by Owen Jones in his front-page piece in the New Statesman this week.
“[Labour] are missing the boat,” John McDonnell MP tells Owen Jones on the issue of the occupations. Editor of Occupied Times Steve Maclean tells him: “I think a lot of people are very disappointed that there’s this grass-roots movement and sentiment, and Labour isn’t leading or driving it.”
I’m sorry but this is highly naive.
Ed Miliband is fully aware of the #occupy movement, here and in the United States. He keeps a track of online conversation better than many assume. The other day on PMQs he was channelling #OWS language:
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/1...dnt-have-to-endorse-occupylsx/#comment-327452
Hundal hasn't got a clue. First he tells people to vote Lib Dem and then when the LDs are in power with the Tories, he becomes a Labour (EdM) supporter.eh, if Labour was leading or driving it then it wouldn't be a grassroots movement? Christ alone knows what Ed is "channeling" but it's more like the spirit of someone who hasn't a fucking clue.
Of course they wouldn't lead it, what do you expect? you're being a bit unrealistic if you expect them to do so!
Isn't that exactly what you want your party to do though? You are to all intents this boards hundal.
No Gunpowder. No Treason. No plot.'March to Parliament
Speakers:Caroline Lucas MPJohn PilgerSeumas Milne – GuardianKate Hudson – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)Josie Long – UK Uncut & award-winning comedian
Aaron Kiely, NUS Black Students’ CampaignStef Newton, NUS LGBT Campaign & National Campaign Against Fees & CutsWeymam Bennett, Unite Against Fascism'
oh dear, haven't they learn't anything in the last month? it could be a STW roster...
You're the 'radical' PR face of the we must open up ideas and people outside of labour that MIliband has put forward, hundal is the middle of the road face. Same function. Same end in aim - join labour,vote labour, labour lead us. Stop lying to yourself.
Keep them in the background, their presence will not help the party. Let them come to us organically. Gotcha.I'm arguing specifically against "Labour lead us" - that Labour leadership of extra-parliamentary struggles is neither feasible nor desirable... But then you're not actually engaging with me, you're involved in some kind of psychotic conversation with another creature of your imagination.
Do the Occupy LSX protesters seriously think they're the British equivalent of Syria's rebels?
Nothing wrong with supporting the Syrian uprising, of course, and it’s interesting to see how technology can be used against authoritarian regimes (although the technology failed this time). But, once again, all sympathy for the Occupy movement disappears when they open their mouths: one activist is heard saying of the Syrians that “all our movements are components of the same thing”, while another claims that “Syria is part of the Occupation movement.” And a Syrian responds that they’re “similar causes”, claiming that “they’re fighting for their freedom against capitalism; we have our fight for freedom”.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/e...ian-opposition-are-part-of-the-same-movement/
No Gunpowder. No Treason. No plot.
Why not?
This beast truly lives btw, he strides the land, he offers congrats to slimy blairists on promotion whilst talking left on here.
Another intra-skull debate going on I see...Keep them in the background, their presence will not help the party. Let them come to us organically. Gotcha.
LM associate Ed West, chips in with another smear. This time he says,
Trust West to be dishonest. The neoliberal system that allowed the bankers to behave as they did has us all in chains. In that respect we are both fighting a similar fight. In Syria the fight is against a tyrannical regime and in the West, we're fighting against a capitalist system that may as well be a tyranny. I mean, no one asked to have services cut or privatised. In that sense alone, we live in a tyranny and if people like Ed West had their way the #Occupy camp would be broken up with extreme force.
Issue two of the London Occupied Times:
http://theoccupiedtimes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/OT-ISSUE-02_small.pdf
Tell you what teahead. Say something. If you're not going to, then don't.No idea. Wine. Fury.
This isn't the Guardian bollox you know...
Or it didn't used to be.
But yes fair enough. And goodness how far I'm having to reach back into this thread to find something to respond to. You old grouches. Gimme a second Mr Butchers. What is there to be said? A rhetorical sitaution hardly resides on some margin message board that believes it's well regarded by some poxy Grub Street.Tell you what teahead. Say something. If you're not going to, then don't.