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Original poster

Occupy London

288 replies

glasnost · 07/10/2011 12:38

p.twimg.com/AbGk1-FCQAAjoi7.png

Well, why not MNers?

What have your kids got to lose? In NY there are alot of families with children protesting and occupying that doesn't get mentioned in the mainstream press.

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aliceliddell · 12/10/2011 18:55

I still think the whole thing needs a more detailed plan. Say what you like about Lenin (and we very often do like), he did have a plan. And that plan worked, if only in the short term. After which we did get Stalin, but apart from the famine, the repression, the purges and the wars....

Original poster
glasnost · 12/10/2011 16:45

Was Ghandi wot said it alice.

And we WILL win. They're bricking it.

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aliceliddell · 12/10/2011 15:47

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. As someone said. Hopefully, this time-honoured pattern will be followed again.

Original poster
glasnost · 12/10/2011 10:58

If the police are being instruceed to be more heavyhanded it's a sign the powers that be are on the backfoot and are rattled. First they ignored us, then they ridiculed us, now they're resorting to bully boy tactics. Thank god for the internet in getting the truth out.

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Disputandum · 12/10/2011 09:57

Press report from ctv about arrests in Boston

Peachy · 12/10/2011 09:42

I don't know that strikes are all that effective tbh, not above the grass roots 'please reinstate mr smith, that sacking was more about you fancying his wife than his work' level anyway.

But they are the only accessible form of protest often, and that has value. Not that I ahve ever sriked mind: I have worked for big, sometimes Governmental organisation and felt deprived of a voice however. So can understand I think.

Original poster
glasnost · 12/10/2011 07:52

You need to know this. There was a violent police crackdown against the 99% movement in the middle of the night in Boston in the US. As the occupy Boston movement ? now in its second week ? grew beyond its original campsite in Dewey Square ? demonstrators moved into a new space a block away yesterday ? prompting police to shut it down. Among the first line of people to be arrested were those with the group Veterans for Peace ? war veterans who had their American flags yanked from their hands and thrown on to the ground ? before being tackled themselves and arrested. Then police moved on to the rest of the demonstrators who were seated peacefully ? arresting them ? then dismantling and trashing their campsite into nearby garbage trucks. Upwards of 100 people were arrested last night in the one of the largest mass arrests in the history of Boston. But as we?ve seen following crackdowns in New York City ? this sort of police action has only strengthened the movement. More than 900 cities across the nation have hosted some sort of meet-up in support of the 99% movement and until there's some real change we can believe in, it's not going away. The powers that be are getting scared. Even more reason to press on.

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Original poster
glasnost · 12/10/2011 07:45

updated info on occupation

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Disputandum · 11/10/2011 16:41

I thought Ben and Jerrys dropped the pay cap about 15 years ago?

aliceliddell · 11/10/2011 12:02

Most union Gen Sec's are overpaid and should have their pay c losely tied to that of the workers they represent. Likewise, that should apply to CEO's of private firms (like Ben & Jerry's). Their profits come from us too.

HoneyMomster · 11/10/2011 11:58

'six figure salaries...that is all'

Rather reductive don't you think? i'm no fan of certain unions/practises/tactics but wholeheartedly support the principle of collective bargaining. Without it few of us would have the pay and conditions, such as they are, that we enjoy today. If you don't have money you need numbers, that's always been the way of the world.

'In the late 80s just after leaving school I lost a job because of strikes. Couldn't get to work, end of story.'

So your work fired you because of political circumstances you couldn't control? Shock And the unions were the 'Evil Ones'? You should have looked into a claim for unfair dismissal. TG workers rights are advanced enough in this country that young school leavers are afforded a bit of protection against those much more powerful. Tht's thanks to the unions, you know.

Original poster
glasnost · 10/10/2011 21:34

No hand wringers. But as I posted previously there are unions and unions. Any union that continues to fund New Labour isn't credible. RMT par example doesn't and is.

And strikes are the only effective means of mass protest.

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TwoIfBySea · 10/10/2011 21:17

Unions give their chiefs six-figure salaries. That says more about them than anything. Supposed to represent the "workers" so should have a cap on wages same as there should be a cap on all top public sector wages.

A few less top dogs on £250,000 plus and there wouldn't be a problem.

Union answer to everything is strike. Damn the rest of us, we'll strike regardless of the rest of society.

They haven't prevented low wages have they? They haven't prevented employees being taken for a ride by profit hungry bosses? In a world where the wages and pension pot of the top earners is so far removed from the regular workers that it isn't funny anymore - what answers can the unions come up with other than...strike. Progress should mean they have intelligent alternatives.

In the late 80s just after leaving school I lost a job because of strikes. Couldn't get to work, end of story. Thanks for that.

aliceliddell · 10/10/2011 15:26

'Red' Ed has shown he is more concerned with the City than the people who founded and funded the Party; hopefully pcseuston.org.uk/n30 will disabuse him of the notion that we're too apathetic to resist the demands of the Coalition to pay for their crisis

Original poster
glasnost · 10/10/2011 13:04

Yes alice but what about the unions politically compromised viz New Labour?

There are unions and unions.

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aliceliddell · 10/10/2011 11:09

Of course! The Unions! What have they got to do with it? Possibly that the role of Unions is to represent the interests of working people, like the ones being made redundant in public sector cuts to pay for a crisis caused by banks?

Original poster
glasnost · 10/10/2011 08:17

That's a moot point 2If. Jury's out on that point. (My jury anyway fwiw).

If you'd care to elaborate.................................................................

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TwoIfBySea · 10/10/2011 08:05

Once the Unions stick their oar in it's time to back away. Supposed to be a protest at the financial heart of a city not a day out for the usual rent-a-professional-protestor crowd. When they turn up you've lost the argument.

TwoIfBySea · 10/10/2011 08:05

Once the Unions stick their oar in it's time to back away. Supposed to be a protest at the financial heart of a city not a day out for the usual rent-a-professional-protestor crowd. When they turn up you've lost the argument.

Original poster
glasnost · 10/10/2011 07:37

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047165/We-wont-lying-Thousands-demonstrators-force-Westminster-Bridge-close-protest-Government-health-reforms.html

This is just for claig's delectation! At least they're covering the protests but their use of young unwashed types looking enraged doesn't help the cause really.

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Original poster
glasnost · 10/10/2011 07:29
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Original poster
glasnost · 10/10/2011 06:50

Am still waiting for an apology whomovedmychocolate. I refer you my post of 20.55 yeserday. "Rent a gob" (twats) was an insult used by your fellow rightwing hater, swc. You have no arguments and to top it all when you make a glaring howler of attributing insults to the wrong peope you don't even have the good grace to apologise for it.

Kind of sums up your defective mindset. I'm still waiting for an apology and will come back to this.

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Peachy · 10/10/2011 00:04

(and that the MA will have taken four years and more of part time slog, so frankly cuts or not cuts I am not giving up for anyone at this last stage! That would be a waste!)

Peachy · 09/10/2011 22:03

(plus I ahve 3 with ASD and the course has already enabled me to get the best school place for ds1 so already worth it, MAs surprisingly cheap here)

Peachy · 09/10/2011 21:51

Yes, plenty wrt asd- research, carer support- mky own background is charity sector (fundraising etc)

DH designs and builds (and indeed repairs) electronic consoles for different applications, he specialises in stage electronics but has also qualified as an electrician whilst at uni and has a small internet shop selling linked items that he plans to grow- a lot of arts groups are struggling and prefer to buy DHs recondioned units or have their own repaired.
It's a transferable skills abse though, he's a whizz with any circuit really.

I saw a job at an ASD charity that I could do with my eyes shut: I need some business experience but it paid well, so am thinking about getting that experience by setting up my own not for profit supporting the carers of chidlren with ASD through the diagnostic period- idea being that I sell blocks of time so people don't have the uncertainty of private and at an accessible level: use the same pay scale that I used in my charity days. I worked for homestart so it's an adaptation of that model in a niche area really. The stumbling block is the website as DH does not have the time with study and working, so going to see new business advisor at council soon.

The original idea was to train as a teacher but with redundancies locally I am not sure that the fact that the training base for my subject has moved too far away is necessarily a bad thing. Crucially I could not ahve worked the past few years anyway due to the caring, and the youngest starts school next eyar so have spent those caring years acquiring decent skills which has to be worthwhile (I hope). We are close enough to Bristol that it's accessible so just fingers crossed really!