Hi Michael,
I share your sense of the shift in feeling on the ground.
Also, love your banners!!!
The Labour party manifesto is the first piece of political collateral in
my adult memory to directly address the interests and capacities of
young people- and to counter the idea that we should regard people as
either selfish, dumb, greedy, lazy consumers or resources to be
cultivated and harvested to feed the wealthy via the markets.
We are witnessing the emergence of a new situation and set of
energies... I am eager for its realisation : )
Thanks to everyone for your support and conversation around recent
events in Finsbury Park - there is also a palpable love reaction in the
area which is heartening.
Warmly
Ruth
On 19/06/17 17:19, Michael Szpakowski wrote:
There clearly has been a rise in Islamophobia recently , fuelled in no
small measure by the government's attempt to scapegoat all Muslims
with the despicable Prevent strategy. We also saw the beginning of an
attempt by May to ratchet this up with her 'Enough is enough' speech
towards the end of the election campaign.
I wanted to say, though, that it's important not to sink into despair.
I've been very active around Stand up to Racism over the last year and
I've experience some interesting and often counter intuitive things.
When Arek Jozwik was killed in Harlow last year the vigil we organised
a couple of nights after was attended by significant numbers of the
white working class poor who live in the area. These will
statistically have been 'leave' voters...
We've campaigned pretty much every week since then, largely around
opposition to racism ,in the town centre on Saturday mornings. It was
certainly not always easy going but there was always a minority of
people willing to engage. ( especially the young, in a prefiguring of
the huge pro Corbyn upswell)
We also held a 60 strong rally against racism in early March -again
very much dominated by the under twenties.
What changed the atmosphere completely was the Labour manifesto - all
of a sudden people had hope, focussed on improving the lives of all
not 'competing for resources' ( a myth of course - stop spending
millions on Trident, on wars of intervention and tax the rich and
resources would be no problem, but a potent myth especially in the
absence of hope that things might change). Even after the two
horrendous attacks in Manchester then London this enthusiasm and this
change of atmosphere was maintained -we heard very little overt
racism and experienced next to no hostility.
This has continued since the election with the humiliation of both May
and UKIP - what was interesting last week though was that although the
racists were in a small minority they were coming out with all sorts
of filth around Grenfell ( but once again large numbers of people were
signing the May must go, people not profit, working class lives matter
,petition ).
In short I'd put forward three propositions.
(1) Racism and Islamophobia are clearly a major problem and one
encouraged by this weak and nasty government
(2) We are not, though, powerless bystanders -whether it's directly
combatting the racists through SUTR or offering hope through agitating
for this government to go and for us to have the very real chance of
one committed to a real improvement in the lives of ordinary people
there is lots of very concrete, very practical work to do.
(3) Although there will be some ways in which artists can bring their
specific talents to bear in this ( I have got very good for example at
making large banners each week:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/35212704985/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34239170983/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34159735663/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34929717326/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34062471264/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34223234740/
)
we should participate along with as many and diverse people as we can
in organising, protesting, demonstrating... This is not a time for any
sort of guild mentality but for getting stuck in.
I particular urge anyone in the UK not a member of Stand Up To Racism
to join today.
http://www.standuptoracism.org.uk/
best wishes to all
Michael
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