Squatters

It seems the Keens have developed squatters - I know this because the barman in my regular haunt is a black bloc anarachist involved in the squat.

The Keens are a pair of Labour MPs who have a house they list as their main that has been empty for seven months or more - they say it is being renovated (slowly, it seems).

The interesting thing this bloke told me was that the anarchists involved are trying to get local independents to stand against the couple at the general election - back to non-partyism.

I explained I think that parties are useful and important for accountability, but we agreed to disagree.

It's positive that it is turning into a political movement, but the craze for independents (usually Tories in Disguise) illustrates it's a negative movement. But, we shall see.

Learn the buggers...

On a coach going through Manchester I saw a blue plaque, once. It told the world that it marked the site of St. peter's field, the scene of the infamous (to anyon immersed in labopur movement culture) Peterloo. My heart skipped a beat, there, in what is now basically downtown Manchester was the place where 15 people were killed and hundreds injured. I'd read about it so often, thanks to the poetry of the radicals laureate Percy Bysshe Shelley.

One. Small. Massacre - nearly two hundred years ago, now. Still remembered, still an aninimating force. It spurred on the chartists, it burned in the hearts of the labourites and the socialists. Castlreagh and King george didn't fall that day, nor shortly afterwards, but it created a cultural bond for the workers' movement taht has since gone on t hound the likes of Castlereagh et al.

In Iran the dead will not be forgotten - the Ayatollahs will not fall this week, nor, I suspect, even this year, but the memory of this month will remain, and may even be remembered in Persian verse. It might read something like this:

XC
'And these words shall then become
Like Oppression's thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again - again - again -'

XCI
'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.'

Because they're worth it

The British Chiropractic Association v. Simon Singh (a relatively well reported news event) takes a new turn, the BCA have now released a list of citation showing evidence for chiropractic treatment.

This list is torn to shreds here, here, and particularly here.

To add my small contribution, as a librarian I looked to see what I could find of the journals cited - Journal of Manipulative Physiological thereapy (the most frequently cited) is not held by any major research university in the UK (so far as I can see). Spine (another cited) appears to be published by chjiropractors, and the reputable sources, as other bloggers have noted, appear to be irrelevent.

Chaff is the only way to describe that list. The BCA have exposed themselves, pass the word, let the world know, and if your friend is comtemplating chiropractic treatment, just remember - the BCA had the chance to put up solid evidence, and demonstrably failed to do so.

Sarky again...

M'Lord Rogers is an interesting man, with interesting things to say:

"I think that anyone who uses his power due to birth [like Prince Charles', whose views on the Chelsea Barracks redevelopment saw it stopped] breaks a constitutional understanding - it's not a law, it's a constitutional understanding - and a trust we have within our society about the role of people who have received power in that manner."

Again, we find replicated the debates of yesteryear, a true bourgeopis finding arbitrary authority of a Royal getting in his way.

To say I'm no fan of M'Lord Rogers is an understatement. His best achievement is his remubneration package, which, according to Private Eye is calculated on a post tax basis (i.e. his gross pay increases when direct taxation goes up to protect his net/take home pay). he's an inspiration to us workers on how to avoid the burden of taxation falling upon us.

Nonetheless, he is but one bourgeois, but we still see the old class struggle, and its root causes played out in this merry little drama. Prince Charles did stop a development, when so many other individuals who object to schemes are overridden or ignored by the planning process. Doubntless, he had a quiet qord with the Qatari royal family, but it's enough to show aristocratic power still remains.

Should we celebrate M'Lord Rogers' stance? No, we just laugh that the constitutional lash up once again shows creaking signs, and hope that teh end to both rulers and robbers is at hand.

Recent activity

Sorry for radio silence, been blogging over at Vaux Populi. Herein my list of recent posts:

Change you can't believe in
Greenwash
Surveying the field
Candidate admits error
Putting the case
Caring
Presenting our candidates

So, see, I have been blogging, and like a fiend!

And they're off!

Our European election address has been approved, and we're going to contest the London region list in the Euros. Vaux Populi is back up and running, expect exciting commentary on delivering leaflets in the rain, again.

On a personal note, this will be my first ever opportunity to vote for a socialist party candidate, I'm so happy.

Seize the bank and seize the tower

...As some bright feller once writ.

The steady media drum beat announcing impending violence and mayhem is part of a strategy of detterance, deterring people from protesting (cos they don't want to be in the violence) and allowing a sucker punch if none occurs ("the police took effective action that stopped the violent minority, your honour").

Over the weekend, Donal Macyntire, on radio 5, had an interview with a journalist, who had infiltrated the Gleneagles movement. Such unbiased questions of the "was there a secret hierarchy" sort, and the journalists on facetious and contemptuous comments guaranteed that it would be ten minutes of supporting the charicature of anarchists. Did the bloke in black really have a bodyguard, or just a heavy mate? Hmmmm.

Of course, that today's protests will in all liklihood be swatted away easilly by such cheap media tactics demonstrates jst how futile and worthless they are: anarchy is a game at which the police will beat you.

It might be fun to protest, I was there at the great May day riot a few years ago, it was great fun, honest. What is needful, though, is the slower, grass roots, boring job of organising politically: education, meetings, networks, votes. That would scare the bejaasus out of the powers that be. Really, we should try it.

With a bit of luck soon I'll have news on a Euro election bid by the Socialist Party, maybe the Euro elections would be the place to start?