The press and politicians seem to have made their minds up already. According to Lib Dem’s Vince Cable on the BBC Politics Show today “We’re not going to change the basic economic strategy” and, “No government – coalition, Labour or any other – would change its fundamental economic policy simply in response to a demonstration of that kind.”
Is this a challenge? It begs the question of what exactly would change the government’s mind? Certainly Notts SOS will stick to its call for “No Cuts” which means we will need to carry on the work of making the politicians aware of our demand. But we have already lost a lot and there will be more to be lost in the new tax year if we do not stand up and fight. So let’s all get involved.
Feel free to share your personal stories of the day, and links to your articles, blogs, photos and videos by adding a ‘comment’ to this article. You can also do the same on the Notts SOS facebook page.
A selection of images of the day:
Videos by Notts SOS/Uncut contingent on Oxford Street:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQY1oaAJFwA]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFOWjZoDWE]
Also watch: Video of the deception by police on UKUncut occupation of Fortnum and Mason, leading to their ‘record’ number of arrests on the day: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/mar/28/fortnum-mason-protesters-uk-uncut-video. Not surprising to hear they will be taking legal advice …
It was a great march, a blend of carnival and anger. But it also begged rather than answered the question ‘what is the alternative?’ Miliband certainly didn’t have one. But whilst there were many with answers – available preferably at a solidarity price, the prevailing mood was indignation at injustice rather than root and branch critique. But this, is seems, is where the anti-cuts movement is at – trying to cohere an elementary solidarity between union and community based activists, and across a wide range of particular issues. The challenge to the anti-cuts movement is to build links and to mobilise a self-active anger, whlst encouraging this righteous indignation to develop a more political understanding. There is a long way to go yet. the movement is still in a minority. The danger of trying to bring a more articulate politics to this moral indignation is that the anti-cuts movement starts to fragment into the usual leftist bun-fight. The challenge to the left then is to rethink their traditional practice: they have an important part to play but they are not a set of competing leaderships. In contrast, the so-called auto-gnomes of the ‘black bloc’ seem to lack even a limited sense of place and appropriateness. For sure, mega-marches like this are easily recuperable into a politics of containment – peaceful demonstrations demonstrate the freedoms of liberal-capitalism whilst leaving the decision making process largely untouched. (We all remember the million strong Anti-War march). This is particularly the case when the public platform is dominated by TU bureaucrats and Labour Party leaders. Yet whilst running wild through London may show that the BB is not for recuperation, it also reveals its fundamental indifference to a social movement still in its early stages and an inability to negotiate the tensions and uneveness of this movement. For now, it was important to have a mass peaceful rally, one able to link across the different communities and groups involved. If our common ground is simply a loud multiple ‘NO’, the politics of this anger are open and to be played for. In their infantile macho arrogance, the BB chose to showcase their self-conscious ‘refusal’ rather than to engage in the hard local work of encouraging confidence and militancy and developing a critique ‘in-and-through’ action. As the cuts cntinue to bite, there will be a place for Stop The City style direct action, but 26th was not it. The mainstream press has responded predictably, and the post-march talk as off the ‘violence’ not the huge size and diversity of the rally. Next time there will need to be a clear and well-stewarded message to stay away. But hopefully they’ll have learned their lesson.
Contrary to the moralistic bullshit of the press and trade union bureaucracy, the black bloc were hugely inspiring. Far more so than Ed fucking Milliband.
Were it not for the violence the mainstream media would have largely ignored the march. A few broken windows has forced them to pay attention, just as Millbank forced the anti-fees campaign into the headlines.
To suggest the black bloc was macho merely shows your own ignorance. It was obvious to anybody who saw them in action that a large proportion of them were women.
Had the march passed off peacefully, it would have meant the TUC had managed to strangle the militancy out of the movement. We’d be consigned to marching from A-B with the odd set-piece strike for the next decade.
This is a basis for moving forward. It is clearly not enough, but it is a start. Now we need to being some of this militancy back into our communities.