Happy fucking 2017 people! Deeva is back and she is back with a fucking vengance!
Had a bit of a year last year, moved house, broke up with The Lovely, got with someone I had liked for a VERY long time, lived through my idol's death, learned about myself and survived the fucking godawful European Union Referendum.
It will come as a surprise to precisely NO ONE that I voted remain. I like to take a risk as much as the next person (probably a lot more to be honest) but fuck going into Brexit.
I can't believe I am allowing myself to type the word Brexit, it sucks. It is like shipping two fucking terrible things. Britain and Exit. It is worse than fucking Hiddleswift as a name. I was ready to separate those two just so I didn't have to see that word in print again, luckily the vacuous, other people's art stealing, no credit giving baggage sorted that out for me.
But I digress.
So I was happily farting around on Facebook when I saw thisThis Piece Of Shit. And it is dreadful. Made, it would seem, by the TSSA and being shared around by Momentum, it is, obstensibly, a short film about why we should re-nationalise the railways. I have long been in favour of public ownership of the railways by the way.
It should have been good. It should have told us what the benefits of re-nationalisation were. How it would mean prosperity, and jobs and people being able to actually afford train travel again. If it were proper propaganda it would show us a post re-nationalisation utopia. One where it was always sunny (so not shot in Wales), where all the nations bought the world a fucking coke and there was never any need to sit anywhere but in a chair on a train.
It could have spoken to us like grown ups. Talked about subsidies and cost and who gets the profits and how a public owned railway might just be one that ran on time.
Instead we got a sinister video that spoke to the 52% who did vote Brexit. It had white faces (because obviously TSSA can't show black faces being the enemy, diversity be damned!) smugly telling us THANKS while sitting next to a bicycle, watching football ('talk about a humiliating defeat' ringing out in the background) or not keeping an eye on the very blonde child who seemed a second away from ending up in that canal when she lost control of her Heelies.
The message that Johnny Foreigner is in charge of our railways is beneath you TSSA. Your video would not have been out of place being shown by the Leave campaign last spring and for that you should be hanging your head in shame.
Xenophobic shite is still xenophobic shite if it is only white people appear in it. It is still xenophobic shite if there is a child in it. Still xenophobic shite if it pitches the people of one country against another in any kind of way, especially by portraying Europeans as sitting round talking about how we are all suckers because we don't have cheap rail travel.
Maybe, just maybe, instead of producing this crap, you could have had your actors tell us how they have cheap rail travel BECAUSE their railways are in public ownership.
Badly done TSSA, badly done.
At least it will give you something to watch while you drink bitter tea out of your Labour Party racist mug.
Showing posts with label labour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label labour. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
Friday, 8 May 2015
What Next? - Guest Post
I am lucky enough to live with the man who wrote this.
Here is where we go next.
Going to get a lot of sniping from some about how it's impossible to change things from within the Labour Party in the coming days.
Apart from the fact that the Labour Party has shifted hugely leftwards in the past five years from under Blair and Brown to Miliband (and while it's not been as leftwards as a shift as I and many other people would have liked) the process itself has shown such pessimism to be based on a myth, there is this point: change doesn't happen without action, and if you'd rather sit on the sidelines and duck a very important fight, then that's your shout, though I hope it feels nice and breezy on that high horse of yours.
I spent about 13 years trying to build socialist alternatives to Labour, and each time, history has repeated itself; TUSC is dead in the water; Left Unity, stillborn. I tried. I tried damned hard to, and it just didn't work. All of this clamour that people are crying out for a left alternative to Labour is just hot air and deserved to be consigned to the dustbin of naff history along with the Rabbit mobile network and ice cream flavoured Monster Munch.
Roll up your sleeves and join with me to build the Labour Party we need to see. Sure, it's going to be hard, and there will be setbacks along the way, but I promise that we will motivate each other, I'll try to crack a smile and a joke or two along the way, but it will be worth it.
This is long game town now. No more shortcuts. No more trying to bypass the hard struggle. Game time now.
Also, to those who are going to moan about the Labour Party not being good enough for them:
If it's broken, then fix it.
Enough with the sideshows. Time to turn lemons into lemonade. And not the Tesco Value crap that's mostly artificial sweeteners and water; the good stuff, like you had on holiday, when you sat down by the beach, and took that first sip, and it made you go, "Damn, that's some good lemonade!"
It's not going to be easy, it's going to be a long hard road, with many traffic works and caravans in it. But we'll put on some good tunes, crack some (respectful, friendly, non-discriminatory) banter, but most of all, get somewhere.
The truth is, things like TUSC, Respect etc are very fun in the thick of it. You're moving around, there are lots of noises and people seem to be having fun. It's only when you get off when you realise that you've been on a merry-go-round all of this time. And while you're moving around on a merry-go-round, ultimately you're still in the same place you were before, just a bit dizzier maybe.
On the other hand, I have a coach. It's not full at the moment, and we need more people to get on board with it, because only when it's full can it move. (It's a nice coach, really. I got us one of those posh executive coaches that footballers use, with tables, a toilet, and decent AC - oh, and I've stocked the on-board fridge with that lemonade we made.)
So, come on the coach. The sat-nav might fuck us up a bit, but we'll figure out a map as we go, and have fun getting there.
Click here to join the coach: https://join.labour.org.uk/
OK, so now that I've pretty much alienated many of my followers on here with some harsh thoughts, this is one for everyone.
The Tories are coming. They are coming for our jobs. They are coming for our pay packets. They are coming for our social security. They are coming for our pensions, our maternity and paternity pay and leave, they are coming for all of the meagre concessions we have been able to squeeze out of them over the past few years. And they will not rest until they stand aloft the mountain of broken people, closed workplaces and P45s, gorged and bloated on their own selfish greed.
If you're not in a trade union, join.
Join right now. Stop reading this status update and join one now. Click here to find the right union for you: www.tuc.org.uk/join-union
It's OK, I'll wait.
...
Joined? Super. But here's the thing; that was the easy bit, you probably had your bank details nearby. Here's the hard - but necessary bit.
Recruit your work mates. Recruit your uni mates, drinking mates, 5 a side mates, bowling mates, your neighbours, everyone. But especially your workmates. Because that's going to be the critical bit. Unions are built in workplaces because that's where our true power really is.
Once you've done that, get involved. Become a shop steward. Go down to branch meetings. Speak up in the debates. Write and submit motions. Have your say. Go to conferences. Go to seminars. Get involved in equality groups if you can. Stand for NEC. You'll win some, you'll lose some, but the union will be stronger for doing so.
Think you're in a well paid, decent job with a nice boss? Work for an NGO or for someone like Google where you think you don't need unions? Join a union, because that's the only way you'll still have a well paid decent jobs. Unions are not for 'other people who have it harder'. They are for you too.
Are you an unemployed worker? There's a place in the union family for you too. Join Unite Community, join a union (many will accept unemployed members) and get involved in their community and campaigning work.
But most of all - don't run to the union when there is a problem. Be the union. Wear your union badge with pride, and get others to be a part of the change Britain's workplaces need to see.
Here is where we go next.
Going to get a lot of sniping from some about how it's impossible to change things from within the Labour Party in the coming days.
Apart from the fact that the Labour Party has shifted hugely leftwards in the past five years from under Blair and Brown to Miliband (and while it's not been as leftwards as a shift as I and many other people would have liked) the process itself has shown such pessimism to be based on a myth, there is this point: change doesn't happen without action, and if you'd rather sit on the sidelines and duck a very important fight, then that's your shout, though I hope it feels nice and breezy on that high horse of yours.
I spent about 13 years trying to build socialist alternatives to Labour, and each time, history has repeated itself; TUSC is dead in the water; Left Unity, stillborn. I tried. I tried damned hard to, and it just didn't work. All of this clamour that people are crying out for a left alternative to Labour is just hot air and deserved to be consigned to the dustbin of naff history along with the Rabbit mobile network and ice cream flavoured Monster Munch.
Roll up your sleeves and join with me to build the Labour Party we need to see. Sure, it's going to be hard, and there will be setbacks along the way, but I promise that we will motivate each other, I'll try to crack a smile and a joke or two along the way, but it will be worth it.
This is long game town now. No more shortcuts. No more trying to bypass the hard struggle. Game time now.
Also, to those who are going to moan about the Labour Party not being good enough for them:
If it's broken, then fix it.
Enough with the sideshows. Time to turn lemons into lemonade. And not the Tesco Value crap that's mostly artificial sweeteners and water; the good stuff, like you had on holiday, when you sat down by the beach, and took that first sip, and it made you go, "Damn, that's some good lemonade!"
It's not going to be easy, it's going to be a long hard road, with many traffic works and caravans in it. But we'll put on some good tunes, crack some (respectful, friendly, non-discriminatory) banter, but most of all, get somewhere.
The truth is, things like TUSC, Respect etc are very fun in the thick of it. You're moving around, there are lots of noises and people seem to be having fun. It's only when you get off when you realise that you've been on a merry-go-round all of this time. And while you're moving around on a merry-go-round, ultimately you're still in the same place you were before, just a bit dizzier maybe.
On the other hand, I have a coach. It's not full at the moment, and we need more people to get on board with it, because only when it's full can it move. (It's a nice coach, really. I got us one of those posh executive coaches that footballers use, with tables, a toilet, and decent AC - oh, and I've stocked the on-board fridge with that lemonade we made.)
So, come on the coach. The sat-nav might fuck us up a bit, but we'll figure out a map as we go, and have fun getting there.
Click here to join the coach: https://join.labour.org.uk/
OK, so now that I've pretty much alienated many of my followers on here with some harsh thoughts, this is one for everyone.
The Tories are coming. They are coming for our jobs. They are coming for our pay packets. They are coming for our social security. They are coming for our pensions, our maternity and paternity pay and leave, they are coming for all of the meagre concessions we have been able to squeeze out of them over the past few years. And they will not rest until they stand aloft the mountain of broken people, closed workplaces and P45s, gorged and bloated on their own selfish greed.
If you're not in a trade union, join.
Join right now. Stop reading this status update and join one now. Click here to find the right union for you: www.tuc.org.uk/join-union
It's OK, I'll wait.
...
Joined? Super. But here's the thing; that was the easy bit, you probably had your bank details nearby. Here's the hard - but necessary bit.
Recruit your work mates. Recruit your uni mates, drinking mates, 5 a side mates, bowling mates, your neighbours, everyone. But especially your workmates. Because that's going to be the critical bit. Unions are built in workplaces because that's where our true power really is.
Once you've done that, get involved. Become a shop steward. Go down to branch meetings. Speak up in the debates. Write and submit motions. Have your say. Go to conferences. Go to seminars. Get involved in equality groups if you can. Stand for NEC. You'll win some, you'll lose some, but the union will be stronger for doing so.
Think you're in a well paid, decent job with a nice boss? Work for an NGO or for someone like Google where you think you don't need unions? Join a union, because that's the only way you'll still have a well paid decent jobs. Unions are not for 'other people who have it harder'. They are for you too.
Are you an unemployed worker? There's a place in the union family for you too. Join Unite Community, join a union (many will accept unemployed members) and get involved in their community and campaigning work.
But most of all - don't run to the union when there is a problem. Be the union. Wear your union badge with pride, and get others to be a part of the change Britain's workplaces need to see.
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