I happened to be in Westminster today and as Blogville's token Socialist felt it my duty to show solidarity with the public sector workers (teachers, nurses, et al) whose pension pot the government used to bail out the bankers and pay their unearned multi-million pound bonuses.
Imagine you're a teacher nearing retirement. You've paid into the pension fund your whole working life and now the Tories have told you it's worthless because they've given it all to their friends.
Lovely …
Right … Tool up with some suitable reading material and head to Parliament to exercise my democratic right to moan like fuck about injustice.
The fact that a good demo is always GREAT fun has nothing to do with it … er …
I want to pick the prime spot and join the march at the junction between Whitehall and Parliament Square. I intend to stand in the middle of the road just past that … er … "AVOID AREA" sign.
By the looks of this policewoman I'm going to have to deal with some unbrutality on the way.
Well, here I am in the middle of the road. I've found that strolling casually where you're not supposed to be as if you owned the place usually works pretty well as the police assume you are supposed to be there.
I love the smirk this officer gave me (click the pic for a bigger smirk). It's his "I really can't be arsed climbing over this barrier to arrest you so I'll assume you're supposed to be standing in the middle of a cordoned off Whitehall" smirk.
Damn! I knew I'd forgotten something. I should have brought a megaphone.
Balloons! Yay!
For any Colonials among you, NUT is the unfortunate acronym of the National Union of Teachers.
International support.
The return of the vuvuzela (oh, crap).
You know I'm a sucker for polka dots. She was singing at the top of her voice; a version of the old "Where's Your Mama Gone? (Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep)" from the seventies that started "Woke up this morning and my pension was gone …" Splendid stuff!
Right … the crowds are thinning out, time to join the march. I got chatting with a lovely guy from the British Library who had taken a day off to come down and show solidarity. I think the average IQ of today's marchers was stratospherically greater than that of the government.
Poor old Nick Robinson (the BBC's Political Editor in case you're not a Brit TV watcher) was getting increasingly pissed off, trying to file a live news report in the face of some determined and hilarious megaphone heckling.
I don't think he was too pleased that I was laughing my ass off while I took his photo.
More vicious police unbrutality. If the news reports this evening say there was trouble at the demo they are lying out of their right-wing arses. Look at it! It was bloody lovely!
So off we stroll, singing and chanting as we go. A splendid day out that will do no good at all but it's our right to march and strike and protest so until we can vote these fuckers out of office that's just what we'll do.
Right … Tool up with some suitable reading material and head to Parliament to exercise my democratic right to moan like fuck about injustice.
16 comments:
Hey do you want to come over here while you're at it? I'm a teacher and my pay is frozen. The fuckers are trying to take away my pension. My school sponsored health care coverage covers less each year. The gov. of NJ called us welfare queens. Fucking republicans and I guess any conservatives who want tax cuts for private jets. I will march with you if you march with me.
Great pics there Dive! I have a few friends who are NUTs :) Looks like you had a thoroughly enjoyable day, dear. Pretty girl in that last photo - nothing wrong with polka dots either, hee hee.
Very interested in your photojournalism and commentary of the day's protest. (Perhaps the National Union of Teachers should adjust their name so to have a better acronym).
As Neetzy mentioned, there have been a lot of protests here, too. Instead of penalizing the greedy financial "geniuses" who created this economic disaster, the conservatives are punishing teachers, firefighters, police officers, state workers, etc. -- any public service worker group that is unionized.
And of course the conservative bastards won't raise taxes on the rich to help pay for budget shortages.
GRRRRRRR...
Neetzy, I know how lucky I am to live this side of the Pond. Our own right wing government is politically on a par with your Democrats (we call US Democrats centre-right - there has been no left wing in US politics since the Wobblies and a creature with both wings on the same side of its body is never going to fly).
The Republicans in the USA are so far to the right it beggars belief that any sentient being could ever be that stupid. They've made your country a laughing stock and the fact that dumb suckers still vote for them against their own interests is sickening.
March. Strike. Organise resistance. Good luck with that in your insane political asylum.
Mme, you've got me sussed. Left wing political demonstrations are THE best place to find pretty (and intelligent) girls.
Ms.M. Crapitalism will eat itself and drag the rest of us screaming down into Satan's cell pit.
America - like all right wing Nationalist "empires" from the Romans to the Nazis is going to crash and burn and all the rest of us can do is watch in horror.
Grrr indeed.
I agree mostly Dive but of course the government we have voted out got us in a lot of mess, which has to be sorted, but maybe they need to look at all the bankers etc first and not the lower ranks...
Me... well I worked all my life, and was lucky enough to have jobs for nearly everyone in those days , and now have my own and a bit of Dad's pension to manage on, but when I hear about how much money some people are getting it really makes me sad...
Glad you did not get arrested though!! tee he
Hee hee. Mum, you're a much-loved fixture at your local Conservative Club so having a Socialist son is tough enough, let alone trying to survive on a pension smaller than a banker's shoelace allowance.
Hey, I tried to get arrested. Clambering over the barriers and walking right down the middle of an empty and cordoned off Whitehall merely got me smirked at. The police were hugely sympathetic to this march as it affects their own pensions, too.
Ms.M. I am afflicted by typos this morning … That should have read Satan's CESS pit.
Sheesh …
Hurrah for you, Dive! I'm so glad you went, I was there in spirit and, though our politics differ, this protest was so right. People who have paid in, had amounts taken from their salaries for a pension, now have it taken from them. Are they going to give those payments back? Nooo. So well done you! Great shots too. xx I too am glad we didn't have to come up to the capital to bail you out of jail somewhere!
Thanks, Lynn. I think this issue really does have cross-party support. Everybody but Cameron and his Eton clique of banker friends hates the bankers and the fact that they've got away with a monstrously huge bailout using taxpayers' money, kept their multi-million pound bonuses even though their incompetence and greed led to this economic collapse and escaped jail, which is where they should be. And it's the rest of us who suffer and pay for their new yachts while they laugh at us. It's happened before and it will happen again as long as people are blind enough to vote against their own interests.
Great photos of the event!
I'm not surprised the police were chatty and smiling around the protesters. They must know their own pensions are next to go.
Dive, thank you for this peek into British rebellion! The international sector particularly intrigued me. Your absolute civil disobedience and the cops' unworried smirking were priceless. I suspect marching teachers would be a fairly safe group.
I can't believe the government is cheating people out of pensions already paid for by teachers. That is pure robbery.
Oh stop. Edit. I can too believe it. Unfortunately.
Thanks, Robyn. Yes, the police and indeed all public sector workers (teachers, nurses, police, firemen, civil servants) have suddenly found bankers buying yachts and houses with the money they saved all their lives to support them in old age.
Katherine, Socialism knows no boundaries. We are workers of the world and we are united.
This demo was indeed a very polite and good natured one. But what else would you expect from a bunch of teachers, university lecturers, and public sector workers (and the guy from the British Library and me)?
The Guardian was gently mocking us today, happy that the demonstration was a peaceful and well supported one but also giggling at the fact that we cleared up all our rubbish and were very "nice" all day. But hey, what's wrong with that? It gains more public sympathy than burning cars and smashing windows. There were a lot of schoolkids along, too (with their parents), singing songs in praise of their teachers and holding banners such as "If you can read this, thank a teacher."
It was a lovely day.
The Guardian would have mocked you no matter what you did.
Great post, Dive, and wonderful comments.
The problems we're facing are rooted in governments past; today's legislators are still trying to appease the rich to solve problems that can only be solved by taxing them. This will go on, as you say, as long as people are blind enough to vote against their own interests.
As long as people are willing to be fooled by TV "news" that uses fake video footage, for example (FOX), as long as we expect journalism to be more entertaining than informative, etc. Present company excluded, of course.
Thank you, Petrea. You are too kind.
The truth is becoming increasingly difficult to find these days, and we certainly won't find it on major news channels. I cannot watch them any more as they have dumbed down to a grim mix of vox pop pap, z-list celebrity gossip, political soundbites and puff pieces for TV shows (and that's just the BBC … What I've seen of Fox News makes me long for the days when I didn't have a TV at all).
My only rule is "Read the original source material. Never trust what somebody else has to say about it".
Everyone has a spin, and that of course includes me, so don't believe a word I write either. Hee hee.
We don't hon, but you agree with me on just about everything!
Hee hee, Neetzy.
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