Taking to the streets on March 26th - Cuts protest

[llcoolphil]

Im on my phone but can someone post the ian tomlinson video so we can see some masked up thugs wreaking violence on the streets of london

I assume tthese were the people may was reffering to this afternoon

[llcoolphil]

The quetion is irrelevant as it is based upon the past. Our past is violent, our present doesn't have to be.

Nevertheless, I could answer it.

[worm]

Violence has been a part of every human society we know. Im not sure its going away

[worm]

It's maddening when people say "that's how it's always been"

[llcoolphil]

It's maddening when people say "that's how it's always been"

should we be putting ten year olds down the mines? should we still outlaw homosexuality?...

I could go on

[worm]

Neither are per se inherent parts of the human condition. We just exported child labour and buy its result on the high street. We've moved the problem not moved forward

Edited March 28, 2011 by worm

[llcoolphil]

That's part of an ongoing process that is seeing child labour diminish too. It's unwise to see something as not evolving because it hasn't ended yet. We're part of a process, the main problem is that it's consumer led so it's not about action and immediate response but about choice and eventual change.

You can't just stop the mechanics of modernism, you can only alter them as they continue. Tiz all process.

[rabid]

sadly, such things require a govt that is willing to act on behalf of the people's views no less than it does for 'the people' to ask that it does.

We do not have such a govt in this country. The majority in this country are clearly in favour of the people who caused the crisis to pay for the crisis, but the govt will not act on that.

[eFestivals]

I don't see that action as 'asking', more holding a knife to their wallets

oh, you mean like they haven't held a knife to our wallets?

How the f**k have they ended up getting £880Bn (plus some more - i lost count) out of the govt - US!!! - to cover their debts, if they've not held a knife to us?

[worm]

We've exported the problem and id like some evidence its diminishing please.

[rabid]

oh, you mean like they haven't held a knife to our wallets?

[eFestivals]

Erm, no.

Really? Then how come they've been given £880+Bn when less than just one percent of that was refused to be added to the health service budgets?

What you're saying is that it's OK for people to die because of lack of drugs &/or treatment, but it's also OK for the best earners in this country to have a massive bailout that dwarfs the NHS budget because of their own incompetence, an incompetence that comes to mean that they're a financial drain on this country and net contributors.

They held a knife to our throats. They said "if you don't bail us out, the wrath of god will come down on you all". And our govt stupidly believed the same people who said they could never lead us into this problem.

[rabid]

What you're saying is that it's OK for people to die because of lack of drugs &/or treatment, but it's also OK for the best earners in this country to have a massive bailout that dwarfs the NHS budget because of their own incompetence, an incompetence that comes to mean that they're a financial drain on this country and net contributors.

[worm]

Am I?

[rabid]

No.

[eFestivals]

there were 400,000 people on the CA march in 2002...how many will be on this one...?

more than the fox-hunters used lies for to get people on the streets that day.

Oh dear. More people care about the tory anti-democratic destruction of this country than care about killing foxes. Who'd have thought it eh?

[eFestivals]

No.

more of your fraudulent empty headed trolling. Do keep it up.

[eFestivals]

Am I?

Ultimately, you are, yes.

You're saying that 'the people' are trying to hold a knife to the bankers (when they're not - democracy is never a knife), when nothing similar is done for the things of real need such as the NHS, while the bankers can extract from the govt a hugely greater amount than the NHS can by the use of threats of doom and without the backing of 'the people'.

The people marching against the cuts are asking for very little compared to what the bankers asked for and got. And the simple fact is that only 35%(ish) of people in this country voted for the cuts we're getting.

[worm]

more of your fraudulent empty headed trolling. Do keep it up.

[rabid]

Ultimately, you are, yes.

You're saying that 'the people' are trying to hold a knife to the bankers (when they're not - democracy is never a knife), when nothing similar is done for the things of real need such as the NHS, while the bankers can extract from the govt a hugely greater amount than the NHS can by the use of threats of doom and without the backing of 'the people'.

The people marching against the cuts are asking for very little compared to what the bankers asked for and got. And the simple fact is that only 35%(ish) of people in this country voted for the cuts we're getting.

[eFestivals]

All I'm saying is that hitting them where it hurts (their wallets) can be an effective method of non-violent protest.

absolutely. It needs no knife, it just needs public backing - which it has - and a govt willing to implement it.

It's with the government that the idea fails.

The ING customers in Holland certainly weren't asking for the bonuses to be cut, they were demanding.

yet they have no power to enact that demand. That demand only happens if they have a govt willing to enact it (which luckily they do).

We need a govt willing to do the same. We don't have one - so we need to protest more, and in a way that will be listened to and not ignored.

History tells us that only disruptive protests are able to bring that about in the UK.

[rabid]

yet they have no power to enact that demand. That demand only happens if they have a govt willing to enact it (which luckily they do).

We need a govt willing to do the same. We don't have one - so we need to protest more, and in a way that will be listened to and not ignored.

History tells us that only disruptive protests are able to bring that about in the UK.

[eFestivals]

The UK government have shown that they will act to stop banks from failing which is what the Dutch goverment have been forced to do.

Yep.

And the Dutch govt has gone further, and listened to its people and acted on their wishes, by limiting the pay and bonuses of bankers.

The people of this country would like the same. Our govt are ignoring the people.

A part of why they're ignoring it is because the myth has been spun that the banking sector are a massive tax contributor - yet the bail-out money is greater than the tax they contributed over the period that the bank debts were created in - and too many (not the majority, but too many) have fallen for this myth.

[windy_miller]

I seem to have been in a news vacuum the last few days, I didn't even find out about the violence on the weekend until yesterday

Did anyone see the interview with the UKUNCUT "spokesperson" on Newsnight last night. Talk about sitting on the fence. She basically refused to either condone or condemn the violence, and answered one question with the line "I refuse the premise of the question".

[diddly-dee]

I seem to have been in a news vacuum the last few days, I didn't even find out about the violence on the weekend until yesterday

Did anyone see the interview with the UKUNCUT "spokesperson" on Newsnight last night. Talk about sitting on the fence. She basically refused to either condone or condemn the violence, and answered one question with the line "I refuse the premise of the question".