It's happening! But it's not happening on television, except a by-the-way item on the News. It's like the late, great Gil Scott-Heron once sang - 'The Revolution will not be televised.' It's happening! Yet you'd hardly know it from the newspapers. I search in vain 'The Observer' and the 'Sunday Times' (not mine) for one column even.
You begin to question, begin to wonder. Yet Youtube and Facebook tell a different story and there you can read and witness the postings.
At first, the pictures seem strangely dark and oppressive and it makes me think of times of the Depression.
But no, this is New York City on Saturday and there's an occupation of Wall Street. It's a massive protest replicated in many other places across the USA, against the bankers, the share-gamblers who trade in people's lives; who shift money round the globe without caring about the consequences.
Against the ones who caused this whole economic crisis in the first place, given total freedom by Bush , Blair and then Brown, to play the markets with their 'Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed' to quote the folk band Show of Hands.
700 protesters were arrested as they tried to stall traffic on Brooklyn Bridge, but you'd hardly know about it. And elsewhere, inspired by it, plans are afoot in Canada for similar occupations. They may well have
chanted ' The people united.....will never be defeated!' in the States instead of 'Workers', but they have had enough like many others across Europe.
And, like the students when they marched in London, the many public service Trade Unionists who rallied and even ( whatever their motives) the rioters in England over the summer........they have nothing to lose.
Why has this been given so little coverage? If it were part of the Arab Uprisings things would be different. Is it a fear, under Government pressure, of all this spreading? Or is it just that it doesn't fit their formula, like the recent protests in Egypt against the military government there, who are acting just like Mubarak before them, with a ruthless totalitarianism? This too , has been given scant coverage.
Yet the British media over-estimates its influence. They should know from the huge impact of Facebook and Twitter in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya that people will get to know things far quicker now than any of their cameras and presses can deliver. Already , a similar occupation is planned for London on Oct. 15th, with a call to occupy the Stock Exchange.
Where will all this lead us? Cynics might say, I've seen it all before and it comes and goes away. In the 1960s we witnessed widespread rebellion, often based on student protests, anti-Vietnam War marches and Civil Rights movements. In N.Ireland and the USA, these have had lasting repercussions.
Today , things are significantly different. Although the so-called 'underclasses' ,who are most seriously affected by the cuts and price rises,
have yet to take to the streets, there is a much wider force for change which comprises green activists, Trade Unionists and students. Once these rise together, they could prove the most potent force since the opposition to the war in Iraq.
The ConDems responses are minimal, of course. They are committed to class warfare and their scathing attacks on the Welfare State, public services and pensions are just a part of this. Just as Thatcher used unemployment as a weapon to beat down the workers, so Cameron and Clegg are using the deficit to cover an onslaught on
those who struggle most.
Labour cannot be trusted to take a lead. Ed Middlengland and his cronies fail to back the very Unions who placed him in power and , like Blair and Brown before him, he woos the 'squeezed middle' while completely ignoring those at the bottom whose poverty and daily grind is worsened every minute.
Here in Wales, Plaid Cymru offer no solutions. They merely advocate private investment rather than the immediate nationalisation of Welsh water, railways and all energy suppliers at the very least. How else can we be expected to control the exorbitant prices now being charged? There isn't even any competition and share-holders and executives are the only ones to gain.
I'd like to think that the uprising of the people will overtake the politicians and take them by surprise, as many reject the traditional notion of party politics and take history into their own hands. As someone posted on their Facebook wall - 'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.' ( Desmond Tutu )
IT'S HAPPENING!
It's happening now
people
in cities in squares
sitting down to stand
occupying
trespassing
chanting
singing
in unison
facing the Feds the cops
their helmets and truncheons
their water cannons
their CS canisters
mouths bandaged
with dollars pounds -
showing their features
unafraid
of secret cameras
it's happening
in the places
where it all began
the money markets
where the gamblers
with lives far and near
risk someone else's skin
shop-floor sweat shop workers
thrown out
binned
not to be re-cycled,
flung onto landfills
of bodies
toxic troubles
almost incinerated,
they have risen
from piles of debris
waving the flags of new-found flesh
ripping the bills the notes
from their lips
and uttering
'Yes! It's happening!
We are ourselves and one!'
You begin to question, begin to wonder. Yet Youtube and Facebook tell a different story and there you can read and witness the postings.
At first, the pictures seem strangely dark and oppressive and it makes me think of times of the Depression.
But no, this is New York City on Saturday and there's an occupation of Wall Street. It's a massive protest replicated in many other places across the USA, against the bankers, the share-gamblers who trade in people's lives; who shift money round the globe without caring about the consequences.
Against the ones who caused this whole economic crisis in the first place, given total freedom by Bush , Blair and then Brown, to play the markets with their 'Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed' to quote the folk band Show of Hands.
700 protesters were arrested as they tried to stall traffic on Brooklyn Bridge, but you'd hardly know about it. And elsewhere, inspired by it, plans are afoot in Canada for similar occupations. They may well have
chanted ' The people united.....will never be defeated!' in the States instead of 'Workers', but they have had enough like many others across Europe.
And, like the students when they marched in London, the many public service Trade Unionists who rallied and even ( whatever their motives) the rioters in England over the summer........they have nothing to lose.
Why has this been given so little coverage? If it were part of the Arab Uprisings things would be different. Is it a fear, under Government pressure, of all this spreading? Or is it just that it doesn't fit their formula, like the recent protests in Egypt against the military government there, who are acting just like Mubarak before them, with a ruthless totalitarianism? This too , has been given scant coverage.
Yet the British media over-estimates its influence. They should know from the huge impact of Facebook and Twitter in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya that people will get to know things far quicker now than any of their cameras and presses can deliver. Already , a similar occupation is planned for London on Oct. 15th, with a call to occupy the Stock Exchange.
Where will all this lead us? Cynics might say, I've seen it all before and it comes and goes away. In the 1960s we witnessed widespread rebellion, often based on student protests, anti-Vietnam War marches and Civil Rights movements. In N.Ireland and the USA, these have had lasting repercussions.
Today , things are significantly different. Although the so-called 'underclasses' ,who are most seriously affected by the cuts and price rises,
have yet to take to the streets, there is a much wider force for change which comprises green activists, Trade Unionists and students. Once these rise together, they could prove the most potent force since the opposition to the war in Iraq.
The ConDems responses are minimal, of course. They are committed to class warfare and their scathing attacks on the Welfare State, public services and pensions are just a part of this. Just as Thatcher used unemployment as a weapon to beat down the workers, so Cameron and Clegg are using the deficit to cover an onslaught on
those who struggle most.
Labour cannot be trusted to take a lead. Ed Middlengland and his cronies fail to back the very Unions who placed him in power and , like Blair and Brown before him, he woos the 'squeezed middle' while completely ignoring those at the bottom whose poverty and daily grind is worsened every minute.
Here in Wales, Plaid Cymru offer no solutions. They merely advocate private investment rather than the immediate nationalisation of Welsh water, railways and all energy suppliers at the very least. How else can we be expected to control the exorbitant prices now being charged? There isn't even any competition and share-holders and executives are the only ones to gain.
I'd like to think that the uprising of the people will overtake the politicians and take them by surprise, as many reject the traditional notion of party politics and take history into their own hands. As someone posted on their Facebook wall - 'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.' ( Desmond Tutu )
IT'S HAPPENING!
It's happening now
people
in cities in squares
sitting down to stand
occupying
trespassing
chanting
singing
in unison
facing the Feds the cops
their helmets and truncheons
their water cannons
their CS canisters
mouths bandaged
with dollars pounds -
showing their features
unafraid
of secret cameras
it's happening
in the places
where it all began
the money markets
where the gamblers
with lives far and near
risk someone else's skin
shop-floor sweat shop workers
thrown out
binned
not to be re-cycled,
flung onto landfills
of bodies
toxic troubles
almost incinerated,
they have risen
from piles of debris
waving the flags of new-found flesh
ripping the bills the notes
from their lips
and uttering
'Yes! It's happening!
We are ourselves and one!'
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