Monday 14 November 2011

Occupy - Politics Rant


So, 
I made a massive train booking fail that meant Faye and I were taking trains home that were 2 hours apart. I attempted to change it but apparently this was going to cost over £50!!!! To take the train 2 hours earlier I wouldn’t/couldn’t do it and so I had 2 hours to kill.

Lovely place!

I went to visit the Occupy Leeds protest in City Square. We walked past on the Friday but they hadn’t set up yet and I hadn’t been in that area of the city since. So anyways, I arrived, was greeted with a friendly hello, a safe place to store my bags while I hung out with them and a cuppa!

We chatted about all sorts, there was an ITV Journalist there who conducted an interview, there were people coming to and fro, there were members of the public who were asking about the camp, or wanting to discuss the politics behind it, wanting to express solidarity, donating food or just saying Hi.

So yeah, the overwhelming feeling was that of being invited into a family as soon as I arrived. My overwhelming feeling from the movement is that we want more equality; whether people are there for financial, political or social reasons they want a fairer society. Whether Socialist, or Communist or anti-capitalist, or anarchist or whatever, they want everyone to be happy, they are unhappy with the current stratified system whereby the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.

It was wonderful to feel so welcomed, and I loved the feeling of acceptance, I highly recommend that you go check it out! Take some soup, or biccies, or just yourself!

Apparently they have enough teabags
(The ranty bit)
People tend to ask what the point is, when the system can’t/wont/might not change, to them I ask, what other choice do these people have? How can someone trapped within make a difference? When we live in a society where it costs more than 1 million (I can probably dig out a reference from somewhere if anyone needs it) to become an MP. A country where 1 vote makes naff all difference, and when we do get out and vote 50% turnout is unmanageable, where violence is condemned yet  peaceful protest is thought of as ineffective and pointless. What are we meant to do when the rich wish us to feel powerless and lucky to gain the handouts we can, to clean the crumbs from the table and to be thankful for it?

This is what we do! This is how we make ourselves heard, Louise Mensch said that if you embrace coffee, that if you benefit from capitalism or any system one assumes, that you cannot complain about it. To her I ask whether she would try the same logic on a slave, that if you live in a house owned by your owner, that you eat the food given to you by them, that you wear the clothes given to you by them then you must necessarily be fine with being in bondage?!

Quite frankly, Bollocks! That is the most ridiculous logic I have ever heard!
Apologies if this is a bit fragmented... I’m feeling headachy on a train and I don’t have a coherent head!

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