| Onleesbaar | Ikke - 09.08.2011 19:55
Can you please, please do something about your blog's appearance, it's unreadable. Big fonts, small fonts, random paragraph's. I can not make sense of your ramblings.
| | I don't understand | dearkitty - 09.08.2011 20:52
I don't really understand your objections to the blog layout.
In the England item, the word SHOCKING is indeed in CAPITAL letters. But that is because it is a quote from the YouTube text where it is in CAPITAL letters as well.
There are not really "random paragraphs". The indented paragraph is indented because it is a quote. That is rather usual on the Internet.
Now, how about the contents of the England item?
 Website: http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/
| | No ideals | NN - 10.08.2011 06:34
There are no ideals here:
Many small shops have been destroyed at random. Working-class people have been defending what they've worked on for so long. Turkish shop owners -among others- have organised themselves to try and stop the GREED-driven looting.
Many looters are wearing expensive (sport) clothes. These aren't poor people at all. They just want what they can get because for a while they COULD. It's more about the sense of power than anything else. This is hardly different from police officers who abuse the power given to them.
Normal citizen's are attacked and robbed. See Youtube film footage of a 21 year old foreign student who was first attacked and then robbed my a mob.
The family of the man that was shot (Mark Duggan) explicitly asked people NOT to follow through with riots in his name. Instead of supporting these people, they are disgracefully ignoring their plea.
Trailer trash making random death threats in front of BBC cameras. "You haven't seen nothing yet", "People will get shot", etc.
Yet again, all you see here is people complaining about the police. It's incredibly NAIVE to think that people are actually ready to live together in harmony and peace without law and order. Sad but true.
| | nn | nn - 10.08.2011 07:26
"There are no ideals here:
Many small shops have been destroyed at random. Working-class people have been defending what they've worked on for so long. Turkish shop owners -among others- have organised themselves to try and stop the GREED-driven looting. "
These arguments were also made at the beginning of the Egyotian uprising, as with the Greek December uprising. We have all seen these to be false. Of course there might be some elements trying to get some stuff by looting: big deal! If you will look closer only specific *big* shops are being looted.
Of course police provocateurs might try to give the riots a less social/revolutionary look and do there looting in front of cameras to som esmall business, trying to change the idea for the media at last that its just a random bunch of 'bandits'.
This however (like your comment about "there are no ideals here") totally ignores the real grievances people have against the police, and against the government. Being poor, and harrassed on a daily basis by cops, its not fun at all!
| | Hoodies | NN - 10.08.2011 12:37
I fear that a lot of anarchists and trots are getting a good deal excited by these riots in the UK. What most of you don't realize is that most of the violence and looting is being done by what people here in England call the Hoodies. Young white and black angry boys with no political mindset whatsoever.
They are bored, depressed and want all the cool stuff people in advertisements have. Is this part of anti-capitalist thought? True, it's capitalism that makes them not get all the expensive stuff that the rich middle and upperclass do have, but still it's not equality that they want.
Having lived in a council estate in London I know that these Hoodies are basically the neighbourhood bullies. In the Netherlands you have the same. Young boys and men on scooters or in tuned-up cars standing on streetcorners hissing at girls and passersby, terrorizing neighbours and other kids their age who do not want to be streetcorner hoodies. Sexist, homophoob and very conservative in many aspects. Most are part of football hooligan firms...not exactly the people you want to let remake a society...
Getting robbed and/or beaten up by these Hoodies is a every day fear...and a justified one at that. It is dangerous for the political revolutionaries thinking that these are the spearhead of a revolution. The same was seen in the Banlieus in Paris. Small shops and businesses were attacked, people were mugged, public transport destroyed, etc.
And dont forget that most these boys, lacking a real job, have ties to the drugworld. A lot of the stuff being looted right now will end up in the hands of big capitalist criminal gangs.
Again, these are not the kind of people you want to let remake a society. Great chances are that if you go out and try to talk revolution with them they'll laugh at you and rob you after they break you nose...just for being a stupid fag cunt!!
This is not anarchy, this is capitalism at work. They act like capitalist and share their mindset. Rob, steal and destroy with impunity.
| | .. | nn - 10.08.2011 13:09
It's rather pathetic how on indymedia, many experts on social change, are denouncing the situation as if it would be un-political.
On the 26th of march London was met with 1000 middle class white kids that broke away from the unionist demo to smash up the central business/shopping district of London. Only banks, major chain stores and sex(ist) shops were attacked. Something that quite surprised me, I guess I liked it like that, given the fact that we're a bunch of youth philosophising about social revolution and think and act consciously around this matter.
But we were 1000. A number uncomparable to the amount of people taking the streets in the UK right now. So you want social revolution? Well, guess what. Most people that want to bring down the state and perhaps capitalism are not anarchist, communist or whatever ideology you would like to mould them in. It's the kids that are faced with state repression, with poverty, with boredom and so much other bullshit, on a daily basis.
They don't have any idealogical idea about what they are doing, no, and no-one can expect them to have this either if you ask me. But any 'revolutionary' that doesn't realise that this very situation poses a huge threath to the social order as a whole should take of his/her blindfold. If you can not see the actual potential of situations like this it's probably better if you just give up on the idea of revolution, because it won't look like you learned in history class, the destructive aspect of revolution is not going to be 'pretty'. And if you have gotten yourself brainwashed into thinking that revolution is a pretty proces then I suggest you study revolutionairy history a bit better and put it into the context of our contemporary society.
They like to tell us that the times of revolution are over, that our generation has lost all interest in ideology and that capitalism will be the 'final' stage of the political structure of civilization. And they've managed quite well to keep political ideas away from the biggest parts of society. But they've colonised every single aspect of our lives, we can't go anywere without feeling the breath of control in our necks. They've made a mould for our lives that we are being forced into and it's not a very pretty mould. Those who are 'lucky' enough go to school, get a job and basicly spend there entire live working/paying bills/working/paying bills. If you're less lucky you won't get both of them and end up scrapping money together and stealing. All that's left of 'life' in contemporary capitalist society is survival.
And you don't need to adhere to any ideology to release that the lifes that have been set out for us are nothing but shit and develop a desire to attack every aspect of this society that represses you.
And sadly enough it seems like all that's left for the ideologists is to downplay the happenings, denounce them, watching down from their moral highground. While capitalist society is cracking more and more and in the recent year not a week has past without huge outbursts of anger against the state, sometimes political, sometimes not.. The only important thing about them is, especially because it's not only the 'political' parts of society, that society as it is is crumbling apart more and more. Whether it is an economical crisis (or an ecological one perhaps) or a more and more generalized social tension that will bring it down is hard to tell but, maybe in 2 days, maybe in 2 years, maybe in 10, it will happen in our lifetimes. Because they less and less manage to keep this bullshit running and they manage less and less to let people believe that they can't change their lives for the better.
And don't get me wrong, I don't see these riots as revolutionary situations, they're at most a clear indicator of the fact that capitalism is more and more falling apart. So no, not revolutionary, but political? Yes, definetly. Small scale revolts like these can at most destabalise the belief in the currect political system but should meet the support and participation of any radical that actually wants social change (something you can't really take for granted these days). Otherwise they will remain what they are, anti-political riots with merely a destructive aspect to them.
So stop being a stuck-up politician, get on the fucking streets and get involved in these situations, put some political presence in these supposedly mindless riots, whether that be an anarchist presence, a communist one or whatever, who gives a shit what colour your stupid little flag will be.
All that radical groups and individuals can do is to participate and, besides a mere realisation of destructive desires, come with proposals and tactics of, first of all, continuing this destructive tendencies untill every last repressive institution is destroyed and start experimenting with new ways of living together, organizing, sustaining ourselves.
Anyway, to much blablabla, you can't put heaps of theory in a little indymedia comment. Just trying to explain why people that conceive themselves to be radicals should realise whats the worth and potential of these situations. Because most comments on indymedia are even more disgusting then on regular news sites. Idiots on mainstream media sites ranting on about the riot scum is one thing.. but radicals denouncing it because they don't riot the way YOU want them to? Oh, please..
"There are no ideals here" - There is none indeed.
They're revolting against their bosses, not asking for new ones. The only good thing about black/red flags on demonstrations is the stick attached to them.
| | there we go again | activist indy-reader - 10.08.2011 14:58
Every few weeks we are being lectured in agressive english, and often insulted at the same time, by someone and I have the idea it is always the same guy (it is always the same tone anyways). We don't understand anything, have to 'go on the fucking streets' or something and the only good thing about our flags is the sticks. Don't you understand that your insulting ranting is counterproductive. As for the content of you thing above: you're doing the boring old trick of trying to count on your side every broken window and burnt car the media bring you. In reality it is all quite confusing and allerminst eenduidig. Of course there is a political background to this, but that is an open door. You would probably get roughed up if you would try to "put some political presence" there, as happened a lot during the French uproar. It is good to also have an eye on the darker side of these events, and I don't want to be censored by you or told what I can write or think.
| | .. | the supposedly male author - 10.08.2011 15:54
To be honest I very very rarely write on indymedia. And actually the emotion behind the comment is not so much agression. It's frustration with so much radicals spending more time on pointing fingers and scream, that's wrong! instead of seeing how they can participate and try to steer things in a direction they'd rather see things going. 'This has nothing to do with anarchy!', saving the name of anarchy rather than creating anarchy. And for sure the dark sides need to be pointed out, but a lack of ideology might even be a good thing. And I'm in no-way stating that we shouldn't be critical about these hapenings, but critiques can only be shaped sensefully through participation, not while leaning back from your desk chair.. Oh, and about the frustration cq. agression, I think a bit more emotion in politics with be healthy indeed, so perhaps the things I write breathe this atmosphere, because I care about it.
And no, I don't want you to agree, I don't think we don't understand. Clearly, we disagree. But my political struggle is not about convincing others but rather about finding truths for myself as an individual and form/organise collective theory/action with people that I see I have affinity towards.
And in this way you're right, a medium like this is far to impersonal to have a discussion like this as it becomes to abstract and lacks relevant context.
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