“The Tiananmen Question”

It is probably one of the most iconic protest photos in history. A single human facing down a huge, ugly symbol of totalitarianism. China’s recent history has shown that capitalism is more than capable of thriving in the absence of human rights and freedoms that many in the West have long contended go hand in hand with economic liberalism.

Why Tories might be happy to cut police

As I have already written, these cuts could create strange bedfellows. Its odd to think I could defend the rights to work of a desk admin who has processed the stop and search forms from a demonstration I have attended. But is there a reason Cameron and Clegg might be happy to lose a front-line police that shows they have, in fact, learnt from the history of the 1980s and the miners’ strikes?

Why I’m not watching the World Cup

Whilst the rest of the World seems to be going mad over the current ongoing sporting event, I’m neither joining in, nor totally disinterested. I just can’t seem to get in the mood when I’m abundantly aware of the immense social damage, not to mention environmental damage, that this event is causing in South Africa, and the false images being put out around it.

Police twisting facts over EDL & BNP in Bolton?

I’m guessing mostly people reading this will have heard about the English Defence League/Unite Against Fascism confrontation that broke out in Bolton on Saturday. Above and beyond what happened on the street, a curious war of stories seems to be raging about the way the demonstration occurred, with very different tales being told by all 3 sides.

Should the Church work for social or political change?

This is a question I’ve been wrestling with a lot over the last few months, and in Copenhagen it became a lot more of a sharp issue running around in my mind, as it did in the row on this blog over Women’s Roles in the Church. Social change does not involve a decision by a ruling body, it involves shifting the consensus, convincing a wider group of people to make smaller attitude and behaviour changes.

Branding of Hope and Repression

I tried to not put too much emphasis on this in the last post, but I think its worth taking a broad and all encompassing view of what happened, one that doesn’t divide the repression on the streets from either the actions of the Danish Government and United Nations staff inside the negotiations or from the issue of Climate Change.

The News: Is Vanity Fair?

Curious to discover why such a thing might happen, I read an article on the censorship of Enid Blyton by the BBC. It was rather amusing to note the short sightedness of the controllers of the airwaves and their own personal opinions on the author. I did wonder why this was news. Its hardly current celebrity gossip either. No, despite the disguise as a news article, it was an advert for a program. I was pretty pissed off to be honest.

Words without actions mean nothing

The last 48 hours have seen some huge statements, from Cairo to Westminster and far beyond. We’ve had Hilary Clinton’s demand for a full disclosure on deaths in Tiananmen Square, Obama’s words of peace and his hope for a 2 state resolution in Israel/Palestine, and of course, we’ve had the war of words at Westminster enhanced by the James Purnell has sent round, calling on Brown to resign as Prime Minister, and the subsequent responses.

The Camera Revolution World wide

Spare a quick thought for this team of intrepid camera-folks, not filming in the City of London, but rather on the streets of Burma 18 months ago. For all the importance of pushing cameras around during protests in this country, I feel the gravity of working on the streets of Rangoon and elsewhere in that country, and the work done in Tibet months later, were both far more commendable.

Olympic Torch protests too successful?

The BBC reported some time ago that the Olympic Torch procession around the world that occurred before the Athens and Beijing Olympics will not be repeated, mostly because of security issues, i.e. because the protests last year were too much to handle.