A movement builds: on Vince and Vodafone
A couple of things from the anti-cuts movement worth reporting on quickly. First, a group of activists shut down Vodafone’s flagship shop over their £6bn tax dodge.
Watch this film for more:
Secondly, Vince Cable has canceled a planned trip to Oxford after students managed to mobilise an expected 1000 for a demo against him in 1 day.
I was at the meeting at Oxford Uni on Monday night where students planned this protest (among other things. Here’s one of the photos I took:
What interests me about these two events is that both were organised by people who are essentially my age (I’m 25), and, who gained their political experience in the climate movement.
If you are a lefty activist my age, your first taste of protest was probably marching against the war in Iraq. We then went to University, and helped build the climate movement. And now, many of us are the young unemployed – well trained political organisers who have learned skills ranging from facilitating meetings with 100s of activists (see left) to organising (and getting cracking coverage for) direct action (see above).
It may be that the climate movement wasn’t going to be enough to challenge the entrenched corporate power destroying our lives and our planet. Perhaps that same movement, working with the people in this country who’s lives are being hit hardest by the immediate effects of our failed system, might? We shall see.
You noobs will of course be wanting to engage with the remnants of the Anti-Poll Tax movement of course; if only on the basis that you’ll’ve’eard of it in the comtext of ‘There Is An Alternative’?