Remembering the start of something...

Remembering the signs that made the sense that led to this:

When I went to the London Stock Exchange on 15th October 2011 - I did so because I'd reached a personal 'enough-is-enough' moment. I'd seen the government bail out the greedy, gambling, irresponsible banking sector again and in the next breath... speak of austerity and cuts for 'we, the people'. They talked of 'trickle down' and that's just ridiculous - why give money to the very sector that created the problem and then HOPE they will trickle it back into society? Then they said... "it's ok, they will probably lend it back to businesses and people" ...grrrrrrrrr! Why wouldn't they build in an INSISTANCE that they at least ensure the money makes its way back out of the vault? They didn't build in a clause or requirement or anything. So... along with my sister Julie Daniels and a tent we went to join Occupy the London Stock Exchange.

It was clear that 'our' government wasn't actually ours at all - that somewhere along the way we had not only let the corporate lobbyists in... but we had grown so used to this, we weren't noticing that something needed to be done about it. Those lobbyists are still there and we didn't get them out - this is clearly evidenced in the fight we are having to ensure dangerous, extreme energy extractiontechniques like FRACKING - are not done in our country. Key lobbyists and those PERSONALLY invested in the industry itself... walk the corridors of our houses of commons and lords: John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley (Lord Browne), Baroness Hogg, Lord Howell (Chancellor George Osborne's father-in-law), #Balcombe MP Francis Maude and others. They have hijacked democracy.

BUT... the amazing coming together of individuals from all walks of life and all sorts of places, for all sorts of reasons... that became a worldwide Occupy Movement - was a fertile space and time; many of us, freshly informed and empowered - went on to discover symptoms of this 'DISease' of our democracy, this corruption of our government - all over the place. We joined other groups or made our own and became merged with campaigns tackling poverty, disability rights, employment, environmental and community threats, saving the NHS, exposing insane economics and for my sister and I, RAFF - Residents Action on Fylde Fracking.

It's not our UK Occupy anniversary until next month but it was Occupy Wall Street that placed a seed of an idea in me 2 years ago - the idea that I didn't have to accept anything so intolerable as watching communities be put at risk for some investor's profit or the ceaseless hacking away at the quality of our education and health care systems or the vile disregard for the dignity of our elders when they most need and deserve it or the slashing of our rights to object to any of this.

I DON'T accept these things and I am making time... for my outrage as it has a purpose and I owe it to the next generations. I am in the best company, alongside the finest individuals I have the fortune to meet - activists are people who give a damn and that makes them gorgeous.

The 50 Best Signs From #OccupyWallStreet

Need You...

Our Government NEEDS us...

...it is a victim of abuse and WE must come to the rescue

Currently, daily and for the longest time - bullies, liars and thieves have sent sharp-suited, slick-talking Lobbyists into the place where our laws are made. These Lobbyists buy, cheat, manipulate, blackmail and bribe their agenda in – masquerading as democracy. 

THIS isn’t democracy – our democratic SYSTEM of government has been beaten out of shape - to serve the powerful, the wealthy and the greedy; it is now so broken and so ugly that only the worst, can function within it. 

Those lower-down the heirachy who claim to represent us are mere mouthpieces, part of the charade; feeble MPs, too weak, too threatened, too ambitious or too corrupted to do the job we trusted them with. They are NOT speaking out about the abuse and are therefore facilitating it with their compliance. Gutless and worse than ineffective; they serve as the phoney face of this fiction.

The system though is JUST a structure - NOT an ideology, NOT set in stone and NOT (yet) out of reach. It just requires fixing or redesigning so that it reflects the honesty, fairness and justice we should be demanding of OUR democratic system of government.

WE are the many and the bad are the few

Up until the internet came along, those holding office and wielding power had the loudest voices through control of media; now though, we connect, we broadcast, we get informed and are buoyed by the realisation that so very many share our discoveries and dismay...as well as our hopes.

We KNOW that trusting politicians is a stupid thing to do, we KNOW each government (all parties) will break their election promises, we KNOW that there is a revolving door that sees politicians end up with great roles in the private sector after complying with Lobbyists throughout their terms, we KNOW our academic institutions are having their research bought, tampered with and paid for by those industries with a vested interest in the outcomes and we KNOW we are lied to daily... so, WTF?

I often hear: “You know there’s nothing you can do to change it don’t you?”
THIS is the saddest thing because it reflects complete submission to a system we KNOW to be lying to us; an acceptance that the abuse can continue and that we WILL be passing this on to the next generation.

I also (more and more frequently) hear: “You know all we need is for the others to join us – then we CAN change this.”
THIS is the source of my optimism and certainty that our individual humanity (when combined) is the home of the solution. 

We are divided, fragmented and encouraged to turn on each other by applying labels and making assumptions and judgements we really have no right to make - but I KNOW when we come together with a shared need to solve a problem, a unique connectivity brings about unique solutions.

It IS time for each of us to be the honourable people we are at our core – time to get a whole lot louder and the only way to do that is to become an *activist.
(*Activist = someone who acts on their concerns).

So what DO activists do? They research, they gather with others who feel the same, they write letters to politicians, they put themselves in the way of bad acts, they dance in protest, knit in protest, chalk in protest, perform in protest, be loud in protest and sit in silence when that suits.

Knitting Protest

You can be the activist YOU choose to be... alone, in secret, in public, with others or at a mass demonstration. Recently I have seen noble individuals, standing alone with simple signs in simple acts of protest at appropriate locations; I have seen little knitted droplets shaped to represent water, hanging from trees in a town threatened by big energy; I have camped in the mud with 300 others because it was worth it for the opportunity to share plans, resources, humour and determination;  I have been amongst a mass of Anonymous-masked others taking to the streets because they ARE our streets and I have sat in deep conversation with a ‘Knitting Nanna’ from Australia who travelled across the world to help inspire and charge those facing a shared fight with a hugely powerful industry.

Deciding to do something about the wrongs you see is an individual choice 

~ but a universal obligation

Remember that scene in that movie where the angry newsman finally loses his ability to put up with the masquerade any longer and screams: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it!” I had this surge within me in October2011 – my own, personal ‘enough-is-bloody-enough’ moment brought on by bailouts and cutbacks that were so absurd - I felt it a huge insult to ask us to swallow it. 

Because our government isn’t OURS, it can watch the suffering of those facing ATOS assessments that de-humanise them beyond comprehension – all under the guise of weeding out the tiny, tiny fraction that are not legit; it can steal away OUR NHS that we and our parents and their parents paid for dutifully, imagining it would be our legacy, that the taxes and NI contributions might ensure it; it can turn a blind eye to the desperate needs within our communities for investment in the things that matter like respectful, dignified care for our elders, a more generous teacher-to-pupil ratio for our young and a way of meeting our energy needs that doesn’t sacrifice our health and well-being.

Today... is a good day to become the activist you choose to be

You are NEEDED x