A Cry for Democracy
On my other blog (http://thoughtsfromthefourthestate.blogspot.com/) I've covered what was my opinion of the Occupy protests, through my open letter to Occupy Wall Street. I was of the opinion that while a good idea, what they needed to be really effective was a manifesto. A set of desires that could be used as a stepping stone to an actual debate and actual change.
I've changed my mind. Read the last paragraph here and you'll understand why.
There comes a time in every country, every nation, every society's history where certain people - people fed up with a oppressive government, a corrupt system - stand up and say No. Where people realise that the time has come to draw the line and say No More.
We see it in British mythology with Robin Hood. We've seen it spreading across the Middle East like wildfire. Thousands upon thousands of people throwing off the yoke of opporessive governments. Now it's reached the West. Maybe we're not being oppressed by our governments like in Egypt and Tunsia. We still have basic rights like the right to vote democratically. But we've had enough of the 1% controlling all the money, all the buisness. Had enough of the Government being run by Eton and Oxford educated suits who have no interest in actually representing the people who elected them. Who have no idea what it's llike to have to surivive on hand outs and benefits.
But are we already too late to change things?
There's a statement from the Second World War called "First They Came" that goes like this
"First they came for the Communists. And I didn't speak out because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Trade Unionists. And I didn't speak out because I was not a Trade Unionsist
Then they came for the Jews. And I didn't speak out because I was not a Jew
Then they came for Me. And there was no one left to speak out for Me."
I fear that we are bludering towards that sort of situation once again. I think that statement can be perfectly adapted for now. Let's give it a try.
First they came for the Trade Unionists.
The Trade Unions, the united voice of the working man who you never see or do not consider - the Printer, the Train Driver, The Coal Miner and the Teacher - have had their powers gradually eroded over the last twenty years or so. Margaret Thatcher broker their power, Tony Blair pushed them out of the Labour Party - the party less you forget that was founded by and for the Unions. The ability to strike is more and more difficult to achieve and every time they speak out they are villified by the Press.
And it's not just happening here. It's happening in America where Unions in Wisconsin lost the power to bargin over pensions earlier this year.
If this carries on and more and more people ignore the importance of the Unions, who will be left to look after the man you never see?
And I didn't speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Students
It's true that the Student Protests late last year did not achieve what they set out to achieve. Those morons vandalising Millbank Tower overshadowed the genuine message of the protests. But that doesn't mean that what they had to say wasn't important.
Wit the Tuition Fees going up to £9000 next year Higher Education is quickly becoming the preserve not of the intelligent and those with the desire to learn but of those with the fattest cheque book and bank balance. And with the cuts Further Education Colleges and Appreticeships more and more young people will find themselves with no choice but to go on the dole.
=In America Higher Education is already inching closer to being the preserve of the well off. But the Government doesn't seem to be doing anything either.
The Government is cutting off the chance for the best and the brightest of the next generation to obtain a good education and make a difference. What will happen to our country then?
And I didn't speak out because I was not a Student.
Then they came for the Journalists
Yes the phone hacking scandal was a terrible terrible thing that should never have happened. Yes it is a reason to look at the concept of Media Plurality and why we let one man have so much control over what we read and think. But the Government have taken this as opportunity to take a look at the issue of Press Regulation.
While some like Heather Brooks and Joanna Cash are for leaving the Press to regulate themselves and the Prime Minister and most figures in the industry are fine with the Press Complaints Commission handling regulation, some such as MP George Eustice are for tighter regulations, essentially smothering the press' ability to chase after stories that might be considered "in the public interest."
Our Press may not be perfect, but it does a lot of good. If it was curtailed as harshly as some would like and desire it to be imagine what people would be able to get away with.
And I didn't speak out because I was not a Journalist.
Then they came for the Protestors
We saw this with the Student Protests late last year. Even with all the chaos going on around Milibank Tower who in the name of sanity KETTLES sixteen and seventeen year olds. It's not like the majority were gun toating Anarchists. They were people with a legitmate grievence expressing their democratic right to protest.
In the US those in authority have been trying to dispurse the Occupy protests by any means they can think up, mostly revolving health and sanitation. The Corporation of London which controls the Square Mile is now trying something simliar, attempting to remove the St Paul's protests via traffic regulations on the grounds that they "obstructing a public highway." Of course the protestors are happy to come back once they have taken down the camp. They just can't bring their tents back. Something I have heard said by both New York Mayor Michael Bloomburg and the Coroporation of London. Meanwhile in Oakland California, Iraq veteren Scott Olsen lies in hospital with a fractured skull. A fracture caused by police firing a tear gas canister right at his head as they attempted to remove the Occupy Oakland protestors.
David Cameron has said that he doesn't understand why people having the right to protest means they have the right to put up tents all over London. I would say to the Prime Minister that it's because they don't believe that a one day protest is enough. A one day march through London may get them a few column inches in the nationals but once that day is over the issue they were trying to highlight will be forgotten.
But a permant protest? A protest that people have to walk past every day? That gets noticed. People start to ask questions. That's how change happens. When people ask questions.
Why are the Governments so afraid of people protesting? Are they afraid of what might happen if the people's voices become too loud to drown out?
And I didn't speak out because I was not a Protestor.
So what you going to do? Are you just going to sit at home, flap your newspaper and complain about the rise in fuel prices before you go to pick up David and Daisy from school? Or are you actually going to go out there and show the FTSE execs, the Wall Street CEO's, the Governments that you aren't going to stand idly by any more.
Because you know what happens next.
Then they came for Me.
How long till we wake up and realise that the Banks, the Business, the Governments are all controlled by a tiny miniority looking out for themselves, yet we can no longer do anything because all our means of protests, all those democratic rights we held so dear are useless. They haven't been removed oh no. Instead they've been netured right under our noses and are as pointlesss as if they had been abolished.
Then what are you going to do?
And There Was No One Left To Speak Out For Me