Tescopoly goes to war with Bristol estate

Economy tanks, replete with the trademark blue stripes, have moved into the sleepy estates of Bristol. Residents last night saw a riot unfold in front of them as aggressive police tactics against a peaceful protest escalated.

Pic h/t Bristol resident Ian Bone

A two year campaign against Tesco moving into this area of Bristol culminated this week as Tesco moved in despite the desires of residents.

It appears that heavy handed policing including the use of dogs and riot police against a peaceful protest led to injuries and arrests that need never have happened.

Three eye witnesses to what then happened are really worth reading. There's the Indymedia report, an account on Our Kingdom, and at Neuro Bonkers. It's also worth checking out Ian Bone.

The press seem remarkably reluctant to report these incidents although the local paper could hardly avoid it.



There's one group of people who can really create a riot where none was before - and that's the riot police

Further reading: Adam's facts about Tesco. Sam Allen on why the council should support the community.

Hustings report: Edinburgh Southern

It was a beautiful sunny day today, so what better place to spend it than in a church hall listening to politicians. Glorious. This time it was the Newington Churches Together hustings for Edinburgh Southern and we had Andrew McPake from the SSP list, Gavin Brown the Tory constituency candidate, Jim Eady the SNP constituency candidate, Margo MacDonald the respected independent, Mike Pringle, the outgoing Lib Dem MSP and Paul Godzik Labour's constituency candidate.

Alison Johnstone for the Greens (pic from here)

Oh, and Alison Johnstone for the Greens who was the best of all of them (pictured).

I'm going to be nauseatingly pleasant for a moment and say I thought they all came across well, in terms of speaking style and personability. In other words there were no 'duds' on the panel, but there was a great deal to disagree with. I wrote sporadic notes throughout but wont attempt to give a blow by blow account, just a flavour.

Alison (Greens) started off and managed to set the agenda of the initial discussion by raising the cuts, whether they are actually necessary and the amount of social harm that they will do. She praised groups like UKUncut for their sterling work against corporate tax evasion and talked about the need for tighter legislation to ensure even the richest companies and individuals have to pay their fair share of tax. As she said the private sector will not fill the jobs gap when public sector workers have been laid off.

Andrew (SSP) said how we used to have a colourful parliament. Full of different parties that represented different view points and this was good for democracy. He hoped to see a 'rainbow parliament' again, with SSP members in it. Like Alison he railed against the cuts and felt that in order to tackle tax avoidance we needed an 'independent Scotland with teeth'. We didn't need cuts but increased taxation revenue, and that was to come from the rich.

Gavin (Conservatives) listed all the money the Tories were giving to various small business schemes and market organisations. For me this came across as hand outs for businesses and we'll close your library. Later he also said that the cuts were *not* savage, but more a gentle rebalancing of the books.

Jim (SNP) was a competent speaker but lacked detail I thought. So for example he said the cuts weren't necessary but I was never sure why he thought that, unless it was his comment about using the wealth oil would bring in - which I'm pretty sure is not a sustainable model. Certainly though he came across as a steady social democrat, but I did drift off a bit when he was speaking. Sorry.

It was good to hear Margo (Independent) in the flesh as I'd heard nice things about her. I was very disappointed then when the main thrust of her opening address was on how essential the cuts were, and that they needed to be deep. She claimed that the politicians (including herself) did not understand the current situation (which I took to mean she didn't) and that we needed to get the election "over with as soon  as possible". Frankly I think the date is set at May 5th and it would be a bit of a hassle to change that now.

Mike (Lib Dems) agreed with Margo about how necessary the cuts were but that his priority at this election was police numbers, and opposition to the merger of the Scottish police forces. He stated very clearly that he was against free prescription charges and opposed to a council tax freeze (at least I can agree with him on that last one).


Paul (Labour) made quite a motherhood and apple pie introduction talking about protecting jobs and "frontline" services, although he was opposed to getting extra revenue from taxation. I wondered how he was going to achieve this, well, "efficiencies" in the "backroom" (where clearly nothing useful happens because the public can't see them) and "Scottish solutions for Scottish problems". In particular he wanted further efficiency savings in the police, fire-service and health. That's all sorted then, job done, no harm to anyone.

Of the highlights of the debate I'd say there were three. First on crime. The Lib Dem and Margo MacDonald both came out against mandatory sentencing for carrying a knife and although the Labour guy tried to defend it he just sounded like someone who likes locking people up and doesn't mind if they deserved it. It was Andrew from the SSP who took it up a  notch getting very impassioned about the low conviction rate for rape in Scotland and noted that it was time we thought about lowering the evidence threshold on rape. I'm not for that, but it was a strong point well made.

The Conservative, Gavin Brown, felt that we weren't sending enough people to prison and that we were letting them out too soon. I should have heckled that Ken Clarke didn't agree with him, but was too lazy.


The second was on renewable energy. Now this is an area which I think is difficult for the Greens (at a hustings). Everyone expects us to be good on this, it's our topic as it were. So if we shine - well, that's as it should be - and if the others all say they like turbines, sun and wave (as they all say they do these days) it's harder for us to be distinctive on this unless we're prepare to really hammer the record of the other parties.

So we had a few comments about how windy and wavy Scotland was and that the SNP were going to make us 100% renewable powered. Then Alison stepped in and, I think, blew the others out of the water. It's all very well arguing for new wind turbines, she argued, they're ok I suppose, but the key problem is that we're using too much energy, not simply that we're producing it in the wrong way.

If our home insulation scheme was rolled out properly (unlike the half hearted scheme the SNP proposed) it would have a phenomenal impact on our energy *needs* as well as making the poorest households warmer. Without tackling waste and reliance on oil fancy renewable technologies wont take us nearly far enough. I thought that was great, as it challenged the idea that green ideas are something you can just buy in and carry on as normal.

The last highlight (there were lots of other questions) was on what party the panelists would be a member of if they couldn't be in their own. It's a great innocent sounding question that is an incredible minefield for all the parties, but especially the Greens.

SNP Jim got in quick with his "The Margo MacDonald Party" which was promptly banned as an answer for further panelists. Then Labour, Lib Dem and the SSP candidates all said they'd be in the Greens (the SSP candidate pointing out that many members of his party had actually been expelled from Labour so might find it hard to go back).

Alison for the Greens, faced with all this love, had to do some quick thinking. She basically ran through the fact that we like some of the policies of other parties and work with them (for instance the SNP and nuclear) but would have real problems digesting some other policies (for instance SNP and road building). In the end she plumped for the Green Party of England and Wales - which in no way answers the question, well dodged that woman.

That only left the Tory who made some weird remark about Solidarity... but I don't think he was considering joining them.

Anyway, those were my impressions. I'm sticking with the Scottish Greens for the list vote, as you might expect, but you'll have to wait and find out who I vote for in the Constituency list where the Greens aren't standing.

From the archives: The Anti-Capitalist Hustle

The following is one of my reports from July 2005 from Edinburgh during the G8 GlenEagles protests. The rather fun film Kung Foo Hustle was showing in cinemas at the time (just to explain the title's context).

The Scottish Socialist Voice front page summed it up when it said "They came in intimidating dark colours with accents that marked them out as outsiders, armed and intent on violence. The Metropolitan Police, the West Yorkshire Police, the Humberside Police." The press has been whipping up the fears of the Scottish people for over a fortnight now and, as the way it goes now, the media first makes people afraid and then interviews them about their fear.

If they were to be believed, scenes of anti-capitalist protests would be more like scenes from the film Kung Fu Hustle. Also, those naughty, naughty embedded journalists from the BBC had been telling the world that the protests had been cancelled. Tut, tut, that's not very neutral - or factual. It's interesting, if not surprising, that the BBC was happy to broadcast news that there was no evidence for, simply in order to try to do the G8 a favour and turn protesters back from the demonstrations.

Today has been a day when the anti-capitalist movement has fought a good battle on many fronts and the disruption that they've caused to the G8 summit is not one tiny fraction of the disruption and devastation that the policies of the G8 countries create. The day began with anarchists, in true Che Guevara style, taking to the hills in order to rain chaos down upon the forces of their law and order.

Early morning road blockades and skirmishes with riot police resulted in a real headache for them and only a handful of activists arrested. One set of such activists at the Dissent rural convergence centre in Stirling were confronted by police the moment they attempted to leave their encampment. But they were still able to block a key road, preventing bowler-hatted apparatchiks getting to the summit on time. Other black-clad activists were able to disrupt Dunblane train station preventing other G8 summit goers getting to their appointments.

By this time G8 Alternatives had organised numerous coaches from all over Scotland and were attempting to converge on the pretty village of Auchterarder. The police had been practising their tactics of disrupting transport yesterday at the Dungavel protest and they did their best to prevent activists even attending the demonstrations. This made a mockery of police assurances that they would comply with the Scottish Parliament decision to allow the protests to take place.

Many coaches were detained outside of Stirling at the Broxden roundabout. Protesters became more and more frustrated but as their numbers built up the police found it far more difficult to contain their potential anger. They were given an ultimatum: let us protest at Gleneagles or we protest here, cutting off western road links for the whole of Scotland.

The police had tried various tactics to explain why they thought it necessary to detain the coaches, claiming that the anarchists had blocked off the road leading into Gleneagles. This was completely untrue and a blatant attempt by the boys in blue to create divisions within our ranks. At last the coaches were allowed to set off but only with a police escort chugging along at ten miles an hour.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh, thousands of protesters had been prevented from even getting on their coaches and in frustration a vigorous blockade of Princes Street took place with 2000 angry anti-capitalists. The police moved in and arrested the stewards because there's nothing they hate more than an orderly demonstration.

At Auchterarder, the several thousand protesters who had managed to make their way through earlier in the day, despite the police preventing anyone getting off at the train station, were soon joined by the really impressive convoy of coaches released from the police blockade. There must have been around fifty coaches, including double-deckers, parading through the village. The villagers' response was heart-warming to say the least. Smiling, waving, with thumbs up, time and again the villagers showed they had not bought into the bullshit.

Thousands of protesters then assembled and marched down towards Gleneagles. One of the protest organisers, Chris Nineham of Globalise Resistance, estimated that there were 10,000 protesters at the scene and we marched down to the steel fences that surrounded the conference centre. Some protesters took themselves into a nearby field as they were watched by rows of well-armed mounted police.

The scene was that of a well fortified encampment with lines of police and watchtowers with searchlights and Chinook helicopters circling overhead. The protesters rattled the fences and some, though not many, breached the outer defenses, if only momentarily. Police then set dogs loose into the fields and the mounted police beat some demonstrators back with brutal force. Police at the back of the demonstration, unbeknownst to the rest of us, harassed and intimidated and in some cases detained protesters. Whilst we were not able to get any further, we were within spitting distance of the world leaders.

What do these demonstrations prove? That the movement's very diversity is our strength. Whether we're black-clad, red-clad or white-clad, we all have a positive contribution to make. But it also shows that, in a sane society, the rings of police surrounding the conference centre would not have been facing outwards, opposing the demonstrators for peace and social justice, but would have been facing inwards, smashing up the meeting of those responsible for the impoverishment and murder of countless thousands of people around the globe.

Caroline Lucas on Fees

Yesterday Caroline Lucas MP made two sterling performances on tuition fees. First of all in the House was short and sweet. The constrained debate time and number of MPs wanting to speak makes it a stroke of luck she got to say anything at all.

"The hon. Gentleman rightly spoke about the importance of employers paying their contribution towards higher education. Does he therefore support the University and College Union's proposal for a business education tax that would essentially be a corporation tax on the 4% biggest companies that benefit directly from graduates? That would generate £3.9 billion for higher education and would mean that we could scrap tuition fees altogether."

Tax the richest to enable equal access to education? Seems reasonable to me, thanks to UCU for the plan. The second was a speech to the crowd outside where she got to speak for slightly longer and you can watch it here;



Good stuff. There's also some views on the all important EMA here.

Today's climate change demo

I'm fast turning into rent a mob as I've just got back from my third demo this week. I guess things are hotting up, despite the snow. The climate change demo today was well attended and well behaved. I've taken some pics of the crowd (I don't really do speeches and went for coffee with a friend at that bit) so no pictures of famous people I'm afraid, they're boring.

If you have a use for any of them - feel free to fill your boots - apologies if I missed your banner. It was bound to happen.

Guest Post: Coaltion of Resistance thoughts

I wasn't able to make the Coalition of Resistance conference on Saturday as I was in a meeting across London discussing a very different deficit. However, Natalie Bennett has kindly written up her experiences of the day for me. By the nature of these things her impressions are very much shaped by the sessions she attended;

The Coalition of Resistance national organising meeting on Saturday saw a packed Camden Centre with 1,300 registrants spilling from the main hall, a strong and determined mood, and lots of solid work in the breakout sessions...

I've written elsewhere about the Women Against the Cuts session, and I unfortunately couldn't make the morning session, when Jean Lambert reportedly gave a storming speech, but I was impressed in the afternoon plenary by the argument of Dot Gibson from the National Pensioners' Convention, who said that her generation had a responsibility to account to the youth of today - to account from "where we came in and where we got to".

In 1945, she said, there was a general determination in society not to return to the pre-war situation where everyone had to pay for education, pay for medical services, and there was widespread unemployment. Universal provision was meant to prevent poverty. "But now my grandchildren don't know if they can get a job or can get somewhere to live."

She said: "A compromise was made after the war. That compromise was the mixed economy. The private sector - the pharmaceutical industry, the rail stock manufacturers - could use the public sector for profit. That laid the foundations for what Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown have done since."

Rapper Lo Key had an interesting suggestion: MPs supporting the rise in tuition fees should retrospectively pay £9K a year for the free university education they had enjoyed.

Kate Hudson from CND put it plainly: "The redistributive state has been the liberator for millions of people."

She dismissed the argument that Britain's nuclear weapons could in any way be defended as job generators - "There are a maximum of 7,000 jobs in our nuclear weapons systems, which means it costs millions of pounds per year per job. If you invested the same money in sustainable industry you would create many thousands of jobs. Nuclear is a dead end in every respect."

For other reports on the Coalition of Resistance see: Natalie on women against the cuts, Liam's uncharacteristically positive thoughts, Derek's thoughts, Permanent Revolution, Luna17, lots of images and videos and things on the CoR site.

Round-up: Students getting hotter

In London I managed to follow the smoke signals towards the protests outside Downing Street and find several thousand students and police blockading the way. Lots of police horses and demonstrators who ranged from school age to uni age and then there was a big jump with a handful of old politicos, like me, seeing what we could learn.

The police had kettled quite a few protesters when I'd arrived. I don't know what they were burning in there but it smelt pretty acrid - glad I wasn't cooped up with that bonfire. They're saying on Whitehall they could be kettled until midnight - and it's freezing! I don't envy those poor kids.

Much of the anger seems to be around the EMA, or Education Maintenance Allowance, rather than the fees hike, which is presumably why we saw so many school kids in uniform (eg here) sometimes accompanied by teachers. I don't know who was escorting who.

BBC has some calming footage from round the country, and the Guardian was following the event ('live blogging, wooo). Anti-Cuts has followed many of the protests today, and you can see my favourite placard of the day here, from Edinburgh where they don't even have fees.

Written reports: Birmingham (pics), Brighton (plus), Bristol, Cambridge (also, statement), Cardiff (tweets, blog), Durham, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leeds (pic) (also), Liverpool, Newcastle (blog), Nottingham, Manchester (blog), Oxford (plus, pics, blog), Plymouth, Roehampton, Royal Holloway (blog), Sheffield, SOAS, Southampton, Southbank (also), Stroud, Tottenham rally, UCL, ULU, Warwick uni (pic).

Video reports: Cambridge, Hastings, Manchester, SOAS, Southbank, Sheffield, Westminster Kingsway, The University of Strategic Optimism (Llyods TSB London), Whitehall as they move the kettle, London being young and jolly.

I was also enjoying twitter where I found out that there were chants "Your Jobs Are Next!" at police. However, what's interesting is that twitter seem to have been censoring the protest tag to stop it 'trending' (ie being seen by everyone in the country) and here are the stats to prove it.

Advise: The Activist Legal Project has a good set of direct action guides which are also fun to read.

Late entries one: Really Open University, Next day of action Nov. 30th, Met Police information, Indymedia thread, French solidarity demo, Socialist Workers' reports, Bright Green picture round-up

I'll add more when people tell me about them / I spot them. Email me or leave a comment if you want your stuff included and I've missed it here.

Late entries two: Mark Steel on Gove's guide to social class. NUS official response, sorry about this but the Daily Mail has some nice pics, particularly if you lke smashed up police vans.

Late entries three: Adam Ramsay on whether the protests worked, Doc Richard on preparing to be kettled, Molly was protesting in Cardiff, Simon in Newcastle, as was Mark, Journeyman's daughter led a student walkout, Alisdair has more photos from Edinburgh, PR reports from John Roan school - where-ever that is.

Late entries four: Edinburgh uni against the cuts, useful discussion of whether the police van was a 'plant', video of anarchist whacking protester at said van, Jonathon Warren has some top notch photos.

Late entries five: Indymedia - prepare to be clubbed on the head, one police view, do read the comments, Coalition of Resistance pics. The South Yorkshire Star, Clegg forced off his bike, Brighton university still occupied, BBC runs 'your pictures', The Great Wen looks at how the kids have always been vilified.

The Telegraph photography blog describes how difficult it is to take a good pic of people smashing up a van when so many of your colleagues surround the vehicle, and they post their results. Herald Scotland sums up protests north of the border, The Liverpool Daily Post says protesters went too far because someone threw an egg.

Last lot?: Infinite thought, New Internationalist, more on Oxford, new from the Guardian, BBC on continuing occupations, police chief predicts disorder, Cambridge student punched by cop, Ben Duncan reports from Brighton. Communist Students in Manchester.

Students: they've all done very well

If you're not already following the twitter hashtag for demo2010, and Lord bless those not in the grips of twitter, then I'd like to recommend it. It's a moment by moment update of events happening up and down the country from students protesting the government's education policies.

It probably comes as a surprise but students can actually speak for themselves and articulate what they're protesting about without the BBC or Guardian having to speak for them.

Today's actions are extremely impressive with occupations, marches and lobbies seemingly in every town and city across the country - maybe even Bishop's Stortford... no, no, that would be asking too much of the sleepy market town (prove me wrong Stortfordians!).

I know in Cambridge and Hackney the protests have seen school kids, in uniform, with their teachers!

It's early in the day and I'm not the person to ask about what's going on - but hopefully I'll round up some of the events later today. Feel free to forward suggestions of blog posts and comment from students if you spot them, or write them.

Photo credit to Adam Ramsay.

Student Revolt

If there's a lesson in life we should all learn is that students must never break windows unless they're members of the Bullingdon Club. You see, you get a better class of vandalism at Oxford, for example not a single student at today's protest was sporting top hat and tails, nor was any on horseback - pathetic.

There's a number of excellent reports from today's demonstration from Adam Ramsay, Sofie, Jamie Potter, Whirled Peas, Political Dynamite, Nina Power and Red Pepper are among them.

The day before John Harris told students to avoid anyone 'leery' and the BBC reinforced this on the day although the video is lovely. It seems that the story is now going to be students smash some glass rather than government smash education, but that's a decision they choose to take.

Many students who attended the demonstration today, where students occupied Tory Party HQ, have been puzzled at how little the reports of the day in the press resemble their experiences. I really don't think it's the job of the media to condemn the protests - surely that's the NUS's job.

It seems particularly bizarre to see students condemned for a broken window by the same people who justify the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan. It seems to me that some people in British politics have got things all out of proportion.

Current reports say that there were 35 arrests and the police say they're very embarrassed at how they handled the situation claiming they were taken by surprise by the students. You've got to get out of bed pretty early to get one over on students... possibly.

I suspect and hope that this will be the first of a growing wave of increasingly militant demonstrations, occupations and actions against the cuts. Blair taught us that if you just march the government will ignore you and the Lib Dems taught us that you can't change policy by voting for change - all their pledges have turned to dust. So it looks like we need to turn it up a notch. Well done everyone.

French protests continue: some photos

French protests defending the attack on their pension rights have been continuing today, and for once I was privileged enough to catch the tail end of the demonstration in Paris. Sadly I didn't get there for the main event, but saw the end anyway.

I don't go on holiday very often, but for the last five days I've been away in rural France chilling out, eating cheeses and looking over Roman and pre-Roman archeology. As it happens we were coming back through Paris today, the day of the big mobilisation against the right's attacks on workers rights. I just had to get my camera and check it out.

The Socialist Party (Labour) holding a mini-rally to cheering supporters

Anti-Sarkozy hot dogs were for sale

We stop and harrass some Greens, who in turn were very happy to see us

If you have information on Eric the Worst please call crime stoppers

The CGT, one of the trade union federations in France, were the largest contingent that we saw. All the unions and parties had these hot air balloon things. They all had flags too, which were much cooler.

This man is an angry archeologist.

One union had these equal rights posters.

This sort of thing made me feel at home. Man with home made screed.

Some protesters took a rest break on top of this statue.


I saw a fair few of these for the NPA (New Anti-Capitalist Party) but didn't see a block of them, so this woman dutifully waving her flag will have to represent them all.

I did however see the Lutte Ouvierre (Workers' Struggle) block complete with paper sellers (their hot air balloon is out of shot, but they did have one).

I can't tell you how big the main thing was but I can say that the local papers were covering the event days before Saturday and even in a sleepy and very small rural village we saw a CGT sticker advertising the campaign - so I think it was big, although whether it's big enough to win we shall have to see.

Certainly they are facing the same problems in France as we are here, it's just they're more advanced than we are. They've been able to keep more rights and when they're threatened they're able to mobilise in a very serious way. I'd love to see thousands upon tens of thousands of people wearing TUC stickers denouncing the government's cuts... is it just a dream?

Camden Labour Leadership Hustings

There was a very strong turnout in Camden Town Hall tonight to hear a joint Labour Leadership and London Mayoral hustings. I was only able to stay for the leadership bit but thought it was rather interesting.

Almost the first thing that happened was the mere mention of Oona King provoked a stirring boo from the crowd as she'd pulled out at the last minute, something that a fellow attendee told me "She'd been making a habit of round London."

That doesn't seem very wise as, with a room full of Labour members, losing a dozen votes at a stroke (if you discount all the Ken supporters) is just a bit silly and arrogant.

We then heard that Andy Burnham had pulled out at last minute too which left just Diane Abbott as the only candidate present. The other pretenders to the throne were represented by substitutes of varying quality. David Miliband pulled in Charlie Faulkner, which I think counts as a big hitter and taking the hustings seriously, but the other candidates had more modest substitutes.

Ed Miliband even had a spokesperson who said *three times* that he'd already voted Diane 1 Ed 2. My partner thought this was a tactic and about winning second preferences, personally I thought it was just a poor, poor choice of advocate.

Anyway, as to content it was all a bit of a disappointment. Abbott was strong on name checking all the bugbears of the left: ID cards, the war, ten pence tax, detention of children, bankers are evil, housing et al. As she said in her closing statement "On all those big issues I called them right and every other candidate got them wrong."

Faulkner/David Miliband essentially put up a defence of the Labour government's record and made a clear pitch as the continuity candidate. Balls' speaker was very strong on the economy and robust in her advocacy of more investment, not less, as well as surprisingly supporting the Robin Hood Tax.

It was left to Diane though to say that Labour "should not roll over and die in the face of Tory assaults" and accept the idea that cuts are inevitable, nor that *these* cuts are inevitable. She said "we will not cut our way out of the recession, we have to grow our way out of it." I agree.

Compare that to Faulkner who said a) he opposed all the Tory cuts he'd heard about b) cuts were inevitable and c) if only it was Labour doing the cutting! Both morally reprehensible *and* logically inconsistent, good work Charlie.

The excitement of the evening came with a sharp question on youth justice and the failure of the criminal justice system when it came to young people. "Andy" and Diane made good cases for economic and social justice reducing crime although it was only Diane who got a round of applause for her very clear "Prison - does - not - work".

Again Faulkner defended the record of the government and was duly rewarded by a slanging match from the floor. Frankly it was good to see some passion and good to see a room full of Labour members uncomfortable with Labour's record.

All in all it was clearly Diane's (and Ken's) audience, and not just because she was the only candidate present, but because the audience liked what she had to say. When she finished with a rousing speech about whether she "looked like a Labour leader" I can't have been the only person to have been surprised at the vociferous applause she received.

Sadly she's hardly got any MPs backing her so she can't win, after all what would a leadership contest be if it wasn't stacked massively against individual members having a proper say? I'll give her this though - she was much stronger than I'd expected and I would not be surprised if she did well in the membership part of the ballot.

If you want to know what happened in the Mayoral half check out Richard Osley's tweeting.

Building a coalition of resistance

I attended a friendly 'organising meeting' for the Coalition of Resistance this evening which was put on to help organise both for the conference in November and help bring together a network of anti-cuts activists. Although it started the latter there wasn't much movement on the former, but perhaps that was an impossible task with so many people at the first such meeting.

Roughly one hundred and fifty people squeezed into the basement of Birkbeck College all of one common purpose - to oppose the economic policy of the government and make a modest start at organising that resistance.

Contributions by the likes of Paul Mackney (former union leader), Lindsey German (Stop the War Coalition), Dot Gibson (National Pensioners Convention), Lee Jasper (all round live wire) and others gave proceedings the required seriousness and weight. However, while we heard some interesting thoughts on what the consequences of the cuts would be, I do tend to think this was time wasted in a room full of anti-cuts activists. I've never been to an organising meeting that spent an hour or more on why we're involved in the campaign.

However, there were contributions from people like Steve Sweeney (Cambridgeshire Against the Cuts) who talked about the trade union campaign he'd been part of organising which showed what was practically achievable and were very useful.

Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper made easily the best contribution of the day bringing the discussion back onto what, practically, such a national umbrella group could usefully *do*. She described how we should be providing resources to the plethora of anti-cuts campaigns up and down the country. More than that we need to be listening to them (I think she used the phrase that we need "an enquiring element to our work") finding out what cuts are going on and where the resistance lies rather than preaching down to them from a centre that we have invented for our own benefit.

This theme was taken up by others, arguing that we need "policy orientated" resources to give people the arguments when their local campaign is accused of being "unrealistic". Anne Grey, from Haringey Greens, talked about how we have lived in age of TINA for too long and that project to provide alternatives, like the Green New Deal, is the area where a national group can provide the most help to local campaigns. Something Lindsey German had earlier described as addressing the "political deficit".

I'm a bit cynical sometimes and I have to say when people said things like we should "give a voice" to local campaigns I thought "Don't you mean your voice?" or that local campaigns "need to be pulled together" I think "For what purpose and do they need to be pulled together by you?" However there wasn't too much of that kind of discussion and some people even talked about non-hierarchical organising, which was nice.

Guy Taylor, who had the practical the idea to [censored in case it happens], gave people a dose of how practical could be fun and was one of a few people present who advocated "creative" protests - something I've previously described as "recreational activism", that's both an important part of our arsenal, keeping people motivated and they're good for media hits, although beware over-use as it can become an end in itself, substituting for more substantive work.

Other practical suggestions included John Rees' (Counterfire) proposal of a day of action and another person, whose name I didn't catch, immediately suggested that this should the 20th October - the date of the national budget review - to help get local and national media to take seriously that there is a whole political movement that thinks the cuts are not necessary.

I'm aware there's quite an interesting discussion going on about about what kind of anti-cuts coalition we need, and I'll be posting on that soon I hope, but for now it's good to see people from different traditions in a room with each other, listening with respect and agreeing on our common aims. Hopefully there will be a bit more focus on practical organising next time.

Apologies to anyone whose name I've spelt wrong.

Blog Nation: left Lib Dems

At the Liberal Conspiracy blog nation event yesterday one speaker from the Social Liberal Forum told us that the biggest threat in this Parliament will be tribalism. He continued to predicate everything on the inevitability of Parliamentary mathematics and the idea that the Lib Dems had no choice but to support the coalition.

Well, I don't agree. Like my friend Dave Osler who gave a spirited rant in response I think the biggest threat posed by this Parliament is a slash and burn economic policy under pinned by a right-wing anti-state ideology.

It's estimated that between half a million and 1.3 million people will lose their jobs, millions of families who rely on public services will find their lives harder and many people will literally find themselves on the streets - all cheerfully supported by the Lib Dems en bloc, en masse, en tribe.

Anyone who saw the beleaguered Vince Cable on Question Time this week will have seen the shonky dishonesty of the Libs Dems on proud display. He weakly tried to justify this budget as progressive and good for the poor. He claimed to have changed his mind about VAT, coincidentally at the same time as being given a cushy treasury job, even he didn't believe it.

If Lib Dems want to dissent from the party, argue against the budget and other parts of the coalition deal then they're welcome to pride of place in any campaign I'm part of, but you don't get to posture as part of the left while supporting these extraordinary measures of mass impoverishment.

The speaker told us that if we rock the boat too hard it would "jeopardise the referendum on AV." Well, big deal. AV, like FPTP, will leave millions unrepresented in Parliament and millions more massively under represented. As carrots go it's pretty rotten.

The AV referendum is the Tory strategy to prevent PR, damn right I want to jeopardise it but not half as much as I want to challenge the down right villainy of this budget.

If Lib Dems want to hang out with the left then they need to buck up and stop pretending that they're taking part in some sort of "progressive coalition". Our job is to thwart the intentions of this government, not give excuses to its embarrassed supporters.

Blog nation: it's the economy, clearly

I went to the Liberal Conspiracy blog nation event today which was, generally, very excellent and my commendations to Sunny for putting it all together. Frankly I could have done with a few less Lib Dems trying to justify their shoddy government and their shoddy budget, but that aside very good.

I missed most of what sounded like a very useful discussion on abortion rights under the Tories but one of the interesting themes that came up that I didn't miss was about how to most effectively oppose the budget cuts, as bloggers.

As always with Liberal Conspiracy there was a bit too much of a focus on 'framing' and 'narrative' for my tastes, but I'm not criticising that - it's just I find that kind of language a little bit alienating. Anyway, just to riff on the theme for a moment it seems to me that there was a kind of soul searching about whether we should be presenting things in a far more emotive way, which could be accessed by more people. Someone characterised this as a left-wing Daily Mail style.

Of course the Daily Mail tells lies and goes out of its way to be controversial for paper sales, both of which are the hallmarks of political bankruptcy and, more importantly, make it particularly ineffective at speaking to the middle ground. You really do have to be a gullible, reactionary fuck to believe everything you read in the Mail and there's no value in copying that method if we're hoping to win over those not already within our ranks.

More interestingly some people were talking about using anecdotal "stories" that help personalise the cuts and demonstrate the effect they have on people's lives. I think there is value in that, but it can only go so far. The problem is that both the Lib Dems and the Conservatives are happy to admit that cuts are painful and cause hardship - this is not contested. What is contested is whether the cuts are necessary. That's economics, not story telling - which may help illustrate your point, but it cannot be the point your making.

What we need to articulate in a more accessible form is the case against cuts, which is broadly a debate between the economics of Hayek and Keynes, certainly in the mainstream of the debate. However, in 'our' camp we have three different approaches to this question. First we have the approach that the cuts are too deep, too soon, but deficit reduction along these lines is inevitable. These people want to slow the cuts, and ensure they don't hit critical services.

Second we have those who oppose cuts as a deficit reduction measure on the basis that we can use equality and growth to combat the crisis. Savage cuts will wreak the economy, at a time when we should be investing, boosting jobs and raising extra funds from progressive taxation and schemes like the Robin Hood tax. These people argue that cuts full stop are bad for the economy, that laying people off as the dole queues grow is a recipe for a vicious cycle of decline.

Lastly we have anti-capitalists. This group steals arguments from the other two but essentially places the blame for the crisis on the economic framework itself and seeks to challenge that in a more fundamental way. Splenetic venting about bankers and fat cats is part of that, but it actually goes far further. The crisis was not caused by Leaman Brothers or Freddie Mac but the priorities of a system where profits come before people, and the millions come second to the millionaires.

Actually many people are mix of the three, but I think the categories stand.

How to find a unified voice then? Well it's not as tricky as it sounds as long as you don't expect everyone to sing from the same hymn sheet all of the time.

As of right now there are probably hundreds of campaign groups set up, formally or informally, up and down the country to defend local communities against specific cuts. All these groups will be alliances and, on the whole, they are an embryonic eco-system of resistance. Bloggers can be part of linking those campaigns, putting them in touch with each other and creating a more conscious movement against the cuts.

Those campaigns will be providing the arguments on the human cost of the cuts, these are useful for us all to remind us what we are fighting for. What that network of citizen journalists and campaigners should be doing is providing a digestible economic alternative that shows not just why cutting public services in dangerous and painful, but also why it is the wrong economic strategy. They can also provide resources, some fun some serious and weighty, that are useful campaigning tools that can be used and adapted across the country.

To my mind this approach needs to be supporting those resistance campaigns from the bottom up, rather than attempting to create a national army of clone campaigns under the auspices of a central command. I don't think that will work and it's not necessary because those community groups are already springing up 'organically'.

The left Keynsians and the anti-capitalists (I hope you forgive the crude generalisations there) can actually unite pretty easily on this and the wet left who think cuts are being managed poorly will find it harder to fit into that framework than they will when they become involved in the local campaigns to defend specific services. We can't play to the lowest common denominator so they'll just have to catch up.

Weyman Bennett arrested on anti-fascist demo

Weyman Bennett, the joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), was arrested this weekend in Bolton along with dozens of other anti-Nazi protesters. John Millington reports in the Morning Star that "Around 1,500 UAF members had descended on Bolton to oppose an EDL rally in the city's Victoria Square" where they were confronted by a police force determined to target UAF activists.

The BBC footage shows protesters shouting "shame on you" at the police as they pull demonstrators out of the crowd and at one point seize a dangerous looking Peace flag which they disarm by snapping its pole in the cause of justice and order.

It states that the police made 74 arrests and sent two UAF supporters to hospital with head injuries. Protesters were described by the police as coming with the "sole intention of committing disorder", which for anyone who knows the UAF is simply not credible.

The English Defence League (EDL) had organised an anti-Islam rally in Bolton with the sole intention of inflaming tensions between our communities. The anti-fascist protesters were absolutely right to ensure that they could not get away with this, even though they understood that the police and the far-right would be less than welcoming.

However, that does not excuse the behaviour of the police who, as this picture from the Daily Mail shows, like to choke young people who don't fancy seeing their fellow citizens scapegoated.


The Mail is surprisingly very supportive of the UAF who interviewed "Second World War veteran Bertie Lois, 89, who lives in Farnworth, Bolton, protested with the UAF. He said: 'I fought the Second World War against these Nazis. What did I fight for if we let them [march]? The EDL are the enemy. I would say to them 'you are the guys we fought for, what are you doing?'"

That question could equally be applied to the police. We can at least hope that the war veteran that the police knocked over (footage here) was alright.

A few other places not already mentioned: Dave Osler, Rivers Stream, Mancunian Green, Ian Bone, Permanent Revolution... Expose the BNP, Counter-fire, Third Estate, feel free to let me know of others I should know about.

One Dimensional Woman

I went to the book launch of Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman at Housmans tonight. Nina spoke alongside Lindsey German (who wrote Material Girls: Women, Men and Work among many other things) on feminism today. Very engaging it was too.

Stupidly I forgot to bring a pen so didn't take notes as there were a few things said that I thought were particularly interesting, but inevitably I've forgotten most of them. However, where I thought Nina's approach was very worthwhile was that she took as her starting point a wider social and economic context.

Any discussion, whether its on childcare, Hillary Clinton or the wearing of the veil can only be abstract and sterile if you separate it from everything else. We can't understand these things on their own but only when we take in the place each issue has in the world at large.

For example, does the fact that Condolezza Rice and Hillary Clinton were able to rise so high in the US government prove that the glass ceiling has vanished and discrimination is at an end? Nina used a rather neat little phrase saying that we shouldn't describe these women as tokens but rather as decoys that act to distract us from the large scale differential between men and women.

I'm tempted by this argument because it's quite true that one version of feminism essentially fights for the improvement of the lot of middle-class women without touching the lives of their nannies and cleaners. I still lean towards more representation for woman on boards, cabinets and top management positions because a) it's fairer, b) whilst women can't reach certain positions it reinforces divisions across the spectrum and c) the struggles are connected, even if some have tried to decouple them.

As a member of the audience pointed out if you simply look at lap dancing, for example, in isolation it really boils down to a purely moral question. However if we don't consider the economic options that many women face and the choices they might make when faced with those options we end up prioritising one kind of oppression over another. Essentially if lap dancing provides a better wage and better conditions it can't be seen as a simple and clear cut example of exploitation but has to be seen in a more nuanced or sophisticated way.

Anyway, it sounds like an excellent book but I don't have time to read at the moment so may never get to find out for myself. Glad I went to the launch though as it provided some excellent food for thought.

Protests of different kinds

Phil has an important report of the protests against English Defence League in Stoke today which, sadly, is one of the sharp edges of the fight against racism in Britain today. The upside is that the far right seems hopelessly split in the city.

Another kind of protest is Billy Bragg's ongoing campaign against the bonuses for Royal Bank of Scotland's executives. Bragg links the bail-out of the banks with the government's refusal to hold them accountable for their actions, particularly in the light that our money is now going towards these extreme pay offs they have elected to pay themselves.

Another protest, this one in Brussels, has taken things even further. Striking firefighters have taken their views direct to the government and, to spice up the day and ensure they were heard they decided to bring along their equipment.

That meant lighting fires (and responsibly putting them out again), spraying the cops with thick foam and assaulting government buildings with their hoses. Glad to see they were having fun!

The Wave: tens of thousands against climate change

I think it was the largest anti-climate change demo I've ever been on today. It was extremely jolly and noisy, with plenty of people with faces painted, in silly costumes and oh so many musical instruments.

Despite wearing my usual sensible gear (warm dark hat and warm dark coat) I didn't begrudge the carnival atmosphere for a change.

I met up with lots of pals, had some excellent Japanese food in the middle (to stave off the cold, of course) and filmed yet more video footage which I'm attempting to edit.


I see Stuart was taking pics, Liam reports, and I'm eagerly awaiting the other blog updates from my regular reading list of thousands; Camden Green Party has posted a picture of me, as has Green Ladywell. Crafty Green Poet gives some numbers. Indymedia has created a feature.

Update: Random Blowe, Save Vestas, Third Estate. Brussels demo. Adrian Windisch also has a pic of me, as does the Green Party itself. Plus Joseph, Ruscombe Green, Matt Selwood, Wilson.

The People's Charter

I attended the People's Charter event today at Camden Civic Centre. The Charter is a rather neat idea to collate the ABCs of left policy into six main points, like the original nineteenth century Chartist document, and then get lots of people to support it.

That means it includes loads of good stuff that happens to be part of Green Party policy already (green jobs, renationalising the railways, scrap trident, that sort of thing) and is pretty much the left-wing version of motherhood and apple-pie.

There were a whole host of interesting speakers from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Trade union leaders like Matt Wrack of the FBU and Bob Crow of the RMT gave the affair some solidity whilst people like Pregna Patel from Southall Black Sisters and Colin Prescod from the Institute of Race Relations provided a more social, community focus.

There was far too much said to give a full and proper report back but I do remember one speaker from the floor defending the Labour Party's record by saying "The Labour Party has had no influence over government policy for some time." Well, that's inspired me to join then!

Perhaps more accurately a PCS speaker described the three main parties as "in fact, three factions of the same party." Although I'm not sure about that, as factions implies there are real differences.

Another speaker put forward the idea that not only do we have a broken society with a broken economy, we also have a broken democracy and, he said, he'd like to see the Charter adopt some demands around democratising the country - in just the way that the original Chartists had been a movement for working class political representation.

If I have criticisms it's probably that in the effort to be uncontroversial the Charter may well be considered a little bland to some, which may explain a lower than expected turnout. The other difficulty - which is not a criticism but a problem - is that, as a set of general demands that few people have as yet heard of, you can't just wander up to people in the street and say "sign up to the People's Charter?" and even if they did what would it actually mean?

You really need to move from the specific to the general. In other words you're campaigning over the closure of a local nursery and you raise the Charter within that to deepen the politics of the campaign - this way the demands have more substance because they are connected to something directly tangible.

I'd also say the crisis of political representation was the driving force for the original Charter and, in very different circumstances, that's exactly why the left needs to popularise its demands today. It's because common sense ideas that are held by millions - like renationalising the rail - are just not represented in Parliament that the need for the Charter and other initiatives arises. The Charter by its very nature has to skirt round this issue, and that blunts it as a tool.

Anyway, I'll continue to argue for the demands of the Charter, and more, and if this document helps bring to life some of these basic socialist ideas then that's all to the good.