99% of Nothing: Can change ever come from below?
Discussing Occupy and the recent protest movements

Writing On The Wall Festival
The Bluecoat May 10th 2012

Review and photos by Tracey Dunn

Panel:
Lyndsey German: Stop The War Coalition and author
Danny Dorling: Professor of Geography at Sheffield University and author
Peter Hitchens from the Daily Mail cancelled at the last minute.

Danny Dorling has written books on social inequality, housing, health, employment and poverty, and his latest book is called Fair Play. His first words spoken to the packed out audience were "The 1% are making us ill". To inform us how this is true he showed us many scientific maps and diagrams displaying the inequalities that take place in countries where there is a wide gap between the rich and poor. In the UK this gap is one of the widest in the world. Apparently if you earn over £120 thousand pounds here then you are at the bottom of the 1%.

Lyndsey German told us that from a peak of 13 million members of Trade Unions that number is now down to 6 million. We were told how we are informed by Governments that we are democratic and can change policies with our votes, but we all know this isn't happening. In Greece 60% of people voted against austerity cuts and yet there are now 50% wage cuts there and in Athens many are claiming food parcels to feed their families. In the recent Mayoral elections in London only 19% of the electorate voted for Boris Johnson - is that real democracy to have him 'running' London when so few people voted?

Lyndsey states that change has always come from below giving examples as votes for Women and civil rights for Blacks in the US. She felt the Occupy movement was important as they are saying they are NOT prepared to put up with this sham of society. The fact that they are prepared to squat empty buildings like disused banks is saying something about the waste and destruction going on especially by Governments. People feel that they have no voice, and that their educational qualifications are not useful. In the 18th Century, before Trade Unions, London was the riot capital of the world where poor people were expressing themselves.

It was stated that the 1% only own the world because we have allowed them to and that we have to challenge them holding onto their wealth. Economic growth comes from exploiting vulnerable countries. For example 3/4 of people in the UK and US want an end to the war in Afghanistan. After the post war period here in the UK we got good at organising ourselves with gay rights and disability rights groups but now there is more division on the 'left'. Can we become united over a whole range of issues? It seems we do need to get more organised together.

Things we can do are support strikes and boycott companies. It was also mentioned that in Iceland the government was got rid of by its citizens although this isn't in the mainstream news.

There was a short Q&A debating Male dominance - how women are hit hardest especially with public sector cuts, UK uncut - how the 1% only pay 27% income tax and the focus on the Murdoch's dodgy dealings that have been occupying the news lately.

All in all for me it was quite a tame discussion that just scratched the surface and didn't really go deep enough. There weren't many young people in the audience and I only saw one person I recognised who had camped at Occupy Liverpool and that was only for one night. I think it would have been good to have had some student activists and occupiers actually on the panel. I discovered a much greater appreciation for my activist friends, a few who were in the audience, as I realised how they are the ones who have been on the streets week in, week out for years fighting with courage and deep wisdom to challenge, shame the 1% regularly and try to improve not just the UK but the whole world. These are my unsung heroes who have made huge sacrifices to make change from below by putting their lives on the line at great risk to themselves.

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Sorry Comments Closed

Comment left by Tracey Dunn on 12th May, 2012 at 7:56
Occupy London's May 12 action and information about Banks, Crisis profiteers, policing, financial services firms, government, hedge funds, stock exchanges and more.http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12206

Comment left by Minnie Stacey and Casey on 12th May, 2012 at 18:28
If the discussion was tame, why was it allowed to be so by the reviewers' 'heroes' in attendance? If they can't intervene successfully at a friendly meeting, I don't rate their chances against the capitalist enemy! How naive to think that the 99% could be 'shamed'!

Comment left by Minnie Stacey and Casey on 12th May, 2012 at 18:32
Apologies for the mistake in the above comment... here's the correction, it should have read "How naive to think that the 1% could be shamed!."