To Goldsmiths! …on Saturday morning for the inaugural meeting of the South London People’s Assembly. This was the Transpontine gathering of the wider social movement looking at how to fight back against savage Tory cuts, and how to mobilise on a hyperlocal level.
*some* may split hairs over the South East location. But we’re all in this together, Comrades – Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth folk were well represented for the early morning start.
The setting of the Lewisham surrounds was fitting for a campaign that aims to cut through the austerity crap and show what is possible when you take direct action. The Lewisham A and E victory remains the proudest achievement yet in the post-2010 Transpontine struggle.
Entering the grand hall at Goldsmith’s resembled walking back into a glorious past of badges, banners and slogans. Or maybe this is the future? It wasn’t too far removed from the #forfuturefootball celebration of activism that is growing by the game down at Champion Hill.
Delegates [oh yes] were given an agenda for the day ahead. It included a quote from Tony Benn, taken from the first People’s Assembly back in June of this year:
“We have a plain and simple goal: to make the government abandon its austerity programme and if it will not, to replace it with one that will.”
There’s always been a DIY ethos to my campaigning, Comrades…
The opening plenary saw various platform speakers address the issue of where do we go from here?
An easy question to ask, but somewhat trickier to answer. The perennial problem of the Left – whatever that might mean in the fag end days of 2013 – has been to overcome the divisions. Only last weekend and Left Unity was forming under the banner of a unified alternative to austerity.
We heard from Kevin Courtney of the NUT on how the People’s Assembly needs to have confidence in what we stand for. The mainstream media fails at every opportunity to report objectively on the struggle.
Warm applause, but a few whispers of descent from the floor, concerned that the Union leadership doesn’t exactly have a decent track record on walking it like they talk it. Pumping your fist from the privilege of an amplified platform is the easy part. Taking people on board with you is a different political plan altogether.
John McDonnell MP spoke continually of how:
“It’s kicking off.”
IT'S KICKING OFF is the main morning message @pplsassembly. Cripes, Comrades.
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) December 7, 2013
Fighting talk from the MP, but once again from the position of The Establishment.
“The Tories don’t want to talk about Class War because they are too busy engaging it. We’ve got to beat the bastards.”
Try repeating that during PMQ’s, Comrade.
listen to ‘.@owenjones84 offers message of hope @pplsassembly. PASSION’ on Audioboo
Owen Jones was as articulate as ever. Style, and possibly substance. Yer man Owen is growing as a leading figure of the Left, and one that is capable of setting up these events with a near perfect plenary opening address.
He was the warm-up man ahead of the main show; the pocket warmer before the big freeze. The cheekily little swig from a hip flask before taking on the world.
Chin chin.
How the Labour party would love to have the spokesperson of his generation [arf] back on board.
Like Red Wedge never happened.
“We have a great tradition of protest and social disobedience. We are not here to let off steam – we are here to organise.”
Cue mass applause from the delegates, before being told that the organisation of the South London People’s Assembly was running roughly 45 minutes late.
Whoops.
The Revolution will be subject to delays.
And then it was time for the morning workshops. I got a little lost along the endless corridors at Goldsmiths as I struggled to find the session on Protest Films: Making Our Own News.
The familiar face of Lee Jasper held the door for me as I entered the Gents.
A *ahem* private joke followed, but no sign of the punch line of the Nu Labour Poster Boy. Probably too busy back in Croydon. Probably for the best.
The Battle for Education @pplsassembly. Hearing about threat hanging over #Lambeth College and how to organise.
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) December 7, 2013
Having failed to find the Protest Films, I opted for a busman’s holiday and a session on The Battle for Education.
Mandy Brown spoke well on how Lambeth College continues to be squeezed back in SW2.
Steph Newton argued that it is wrong to simply dismiss students as not being angry anymore. Some useful background listening comes via @novaramedia and a discussion on whatever happened to the mass student protests around Millbank in 2010.
"And so where is the chuffing NUS?" Quite.
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) December 7, 2013
Delegates were then invited to add contributions or ask questions. Performance related pay for teachers, Academy betrayals and endless testing for students all featured.
“There has to be a better model”
…as one delegate put it.
“Put the pupil at the centre of education.”
This wasn’t a self-congratulatory smug discussion. Criticism came the way of panel member and NUT Leader Kevin Courtney, and the perception that his Union has a right wing agenda and doesn’t do enough to support its members.
There was an agreement that mainstream media has an agenda of portraying industrial action as a simple pay and conditions issue.
“We need to communicate the message that this is an attack on the whole ethos of education.”
The luncheon entertainment consisted of the screening of an ACE trailer for a forthcoming film documenting the Miner’s Strike, plus what I think was some pop-up Comrade-ly acapella music, with a charming picket line for hire gracing the Goldsmiths main hall for a sing-a-long.
Any old iron…
I skipped the Banner and Placard Making workshop in the afternoon. My Dulwich Hamlet masterpiece in the making will just have to wait.
Instead I opted for an incredibly thoughtful session entitled: Challenging the Austerity Story.
Entertainment for the afternoon: Challenging the Austerity Story @pplsassembly. TELL IT LIKE IT IS.
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) December 7, 2013
Students of semantics would have loved this. You say tomato, I say tomatoe; you say Workfair, I say Welfare etc.
Sounds trivial, but how can you construct a rational debate about the economy when it is constantly framed with the language of productivity and profit, as so beloved by the BBC and others from The Establishment?
Doreen Massey from the Kilburn Manifesto [ACE] argued:
“The public political discussion in this country is catastrophically narrow. We can choose what type of TV to buy, or if we can afford it, where to take a holiday. But we can’t choose the type of political system that we want.”
Ballot boxes, blah, blah, blah and all that bollocks.
The Kilburn Manifesto woman had half-decent a point thought.
“We need to change the terms of the debate. There is an assumption that markets are natural – we are all competitive as individuals. This isn’t true.”
Ahhh – but how to change the direction of the debate, Doreen?
Language and semantics was the answer:
“What exactly is the economy? What do we want it to achieve? Why are taxes talked about as though they are bad? They offer us a collective responsibility.”
@MsJackMonroe then delivered an incredibly moving discussion, taking the challenging of austerity argument down to the personal political level. Jack unwillingly found herself having to respond to right wing arsewipe Richard Littlejohn, who attempted to demonise Jack in a horrid, horrid smear piece in his poxy newspaper.
Thank the chuffers for the power of the modern interweb.
Jack was able to respond via her blog, pulling apart every single argument that Littlejohn had so crudely attempted to construct about a lifestyle that he doesn’t like, let alone understand.
We are all journalists now…
Austerity is actually poverty, was the key message in Jack’s presentation. Having picked up a platform in which to speak after putting down Littlejohn so eloquently, Jack is now bravely continuing to try and personally change the POVERTY debate.
"Food banks are not a photo opp for MP's" explains @MsJackMonroe.
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) December 7, 2013
An online petition was published last week, calling for a Parliamentary debate on the scandal of Food Banks. Over 150,000 signatures have been collected in less than a week – more than the number of members that the Nasty Party is able to boast.
This has led to a debate being triggered in Parliament, scheduled to take place just before Christmas.
Dontcha just LOVE the modern interweb?
Solutions were searched for come the end of the session. How do we shift this mainstream media misguided message about the rhetoric of austerity, as pushed down from the politicians?
Hyperlocal media and telling your own story was a strong theme. Plus the power of face-to-face conversation.
The personal became the political for me a couple of weeks ago whilst I was sitting in an Essex spa (c’mon – you’ve all been there, Comrades.)
Two ‘good old Essex boys’ [yeah, right...] were banging on about those ‘bloody foreigners.’
I was getting pretty tired of their complete lack of facts and knowledge. Plus I was getting slightly over-cooked in the spa. I politely pointed out the absolute folly of their argument and pointed them in the direction of recent research that shows that immigrants contribute more than they take.
Just wait until I hit the Essex steam rooms.
The penultimate session for the South London People’s Assembly concentrated on breakout groups along borough boundaries. The Lambeth Comrades had the pleasure of the Goldsmiths cinema as the location for plotting the Glorious Day.
But sadly there was to be no happy ending.
Pay Day Loans had been suggested by the group leaders as a cause in which to take the fight back to Brixton. To be fair on my *cough* Comrades of Lambeth Labour, this is something that the Nu Labour luvvies are actually doing rather well.
What followed was a classic Left split, where the arse didn’t know its elbow. Or even it’s funny bone.
Ha, bloody ha.
Shame.
Oh dear. We have a major SPLIT in the #Lambeth breakout session @pplsassembly. 'Aint it always the case, Comrades.
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) December 7, 2013
A sobering thought came from the chap from Lambeth Greens, who without any cynicism predicted that Labour would win 100% of the seats at the local elections in May.
What was needed was a pick up.
The final plenary session for the inaugural meeting of the South London People’s Assembly saw all of the borough tribes reuniting in the main hall in search of some optimism.
Josie Long got plenty of laughs from her speech about having the balls to be different.
listen to ‘.@natalieben confronting the myths of radical politics @pplsassembly’ on Audioboo
Green Party Leader Natalie Ben confronted the myth of a ‘radical’ Left agenda, giving evidence as to how there is widespread support for re-nationalisation policies.
A South London day of action has been called for next Saturday. A *shhh* silent protest [Mmmm...] is being organised outside The Ritzy in Brixton.
Such an approach often reminds me of the end of assembly time back in the day job when the kids are asked to close their eyes, and then ponder silently for a few seconds about what the main assembly message has just been.
It’s all about the ACTION, isn’t it Comrades?