In the 60s/70s, a fellow trainee teacher told me, the tactic at demos when the police arrived was to call "Chicks up front!"* and have the girls form a protective cordon for the male hairies. The assumption was that the police wouldn't beat up girls (not a safe bet in France, I think).
Now, in London, near the Mother of Parliaments, a 17-year-old girl can be arrested, charged, taken to a police station and regularly woken up at the low point of her circadian rhythm in order to tempt her to make a statement without the benefit of legal representation. All this, simply for carrying a placard. My country shames me.
Anybody reading, who has any influence with the powers that be, please communicate our shame, chagrin and anger.
*corroborated here - and either inspired by, or inspiring, the Viet Cong according to "DreadPirateRoberts" (see his April 30, 2008 5:04 pm comment here)
8 comments:
:-) Thank you for this post. NOW I know where you are :-)
Pretty shocking all round, Brown's 'moral compass' & his paean to Liberty last year, all ring truly hollow
( On the Chicks tactic, I can report another variant, witnessed first-hand
in the mid '70s the National Front marched on Oxford, and a remarkably stylised set-piece battle unfolded, all parties obviously knew their roles
- the NF gathered loosely in a side-street and the Police cleared a main road for the march
- the NF suddenly formed up and wheeled out, chanting, in a tight phalanx
- a small squad of Chicks rushed past the barriers and hurled themselves, like berserkers against cavalry, at the feet of the front rank of NF
- pre-positioned leftist cameramen stepped forward and snapped the fascists trampling fair ladies underfoot
- Police closed in and batonned everyone within reach
- Finis: everyone repairs to pubs, job's a good'un )
ND: interesting - do you think they're all in the Sealed Knot now?
ND: That ties in nicely with something I have been writing at the GF blog about Orwell and the Gramscian left.
The approach of the Gramscian left has always been to avoid directly opposing the establishment, by figting at the ballot box or even by armed revolution. Instead the Gramscians attempt to lie, confuse, propagandise, revise, corrupt and dissemble their way to power. They are far more dangerous than other revolutionaries as their scorched earth tactics lead to mistrust of people, history and culture. I think people would prefer to believe that such things were not going on here, but as you have seen they actually happen far more than we might hope.
Ryan: are you saying that the Gramcian left have taken over? Because it does seem to me that there's been a kind of coup that few realized they had voted for.
Ryan: can't find your "GF blog" - where are you?
Answer to previous post: Yes. The intellectual left (such as it is) is typified by the Guardian. The people that vote Labour have little in common with the Guardian. Yet the Guardian is the media mouthpiece of Labour and the same minority left-wing thinking invades many aspects of the media, the education system and the criminal justice system, primarily because Gramscian "gatekeepers" controlled teaching and political influences in British universities (I understand they are now attacking the Australian university system in the same way).
By GF I was referring to "Guido Fawkes" - I had a long discussion there with "Tory Boys Never Grow Up" on the "Profundity of the Punditry" post.
Thanks, R.
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