Where were you when?

Suffering from mind block today probably induced by a hangover I can't really think of a topic to blog about with minimal effort. So I have decided to do one of these 'Where were you when' things which I have stolen from someone else's blog, Although from the questions they do seem to be considerably older than myself so I don't know how good this will turn out.

So, this is where I was when.......

1) Princess Diana's death - August 31st 1997

I remember going downstairs in the morning to watch TV with my little sister,it was fairly early and my parents were still in bed. I remember announcement coming on the TV that Princess Diana had died in a car crash and soon it was all over the news. I remember waking up my parents as it seemed to be huge news over every channel instantly. My parents seemed only to be interesting in the sense that it was a huge news story but soon the novelty wore off and they didn't seem to be all that bothered. The more I think about this in many way this way my very first political experience if you could call it that. I remember thinking why does everyone care so much she is just one person and people die every day and nobody cares what was so special about her? I put this question to my mother at the time, she told me it was because she had done so much good, charity work etc. But that explanation didn't really sit well with me. She was rich, she didn't have to work like everyone else so I didn't see that she had done that much to help people other than having fun travelling the world. I guess this really was the first time I thought the world needed changing in any conscious way and was the very first step on the road to where I am today

I also remember the wave of mass hysteria that engulfed the country. The funeral that happened the following week seemed a voyeuristic affair and I remember the events around it for the way the royals showed how far out of touch they are with the public and Blairs sycophantic 'Peoples Princess' routine.

2) Margaret Thatchers resignation - 22nd November 1990

I was only 5 at this point and had only started school in the September so although I would like to say I celebrated that day. All I remember is hearing different adults saying that she had gone and they seemed pretty happy, so I guess I was happy because everyone seemed to think it was a good thing, but I couldn't say I really understood what was going on.

3) Attack on the Twin Towers - 11th September 2001

If the death of Diana was my very first political though then 9/11 re-opened that gateway and it has never closed since. I was 16 and on the 11^th September 2001 I started college, it was a new strange environment, most of my friends stayed at the 6^th form in school and only 2 of us had chosen to do our a-levels in college. As I was in a strange new environment when people started telling me what had happened I thought it was a joke, it soon became apparent that so many people were saying it that it was likely to be true. I went for a spliff with a guy I met that day, who is still a friend today. We talked about what had happened. I remember that he said 'America has got the bloody nose it deserves, but so many innocent people have died' I remember agreeing completely with the sentiment I thought they deserved to be taken down a peg or two but not like this. In the afternoon we had a tutorial and although I was quite stoned I can still remember what happened. Someone asked if we could have a minutes silence and light a candle. From this point on I have always hated the idea of a minutes silence. I remember thinking what good will saying nothing do? At that point I said something like, we shouldn't be silent for the dead we should shout to protect the living, the ones who will be attacked next. It didn't go down particularly well but it wasn't long before Afganistan was invaded so I feel vindicated.

4) England's World Cup semi final - 4th July 1990

All I can remember are some vague scenes on the TV during the news, but I can't even remember whether I actually do remember that or if it is some memory I have planted in my head retrospectively.

5) President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963

My mother was born the year before that

No Cuts, No Closures

Despite huge job losses, widespread pay freezes, plans to increase tuition fees and cutbacks in universities, colleges and schools Alistair Darling announced that the recession was over. The Chancellor made this announcement the day after Bosch announced plan to close their Miskin factory with 900 job losses and three days before Chevron announced that 1400 jobs could go in Pembrokeshire, all of this with the prospect of huge public sector cuts after the election.

All this has happened at the same time as the banks being GIVEN billions to carry on lining their own pockets whilst the government have stood back and done nothing when workers are faced with job losses. It is quite clear what the chancellor meant when he said the recession was over. He meant that the rich were beginning to recover at the expense of the rest of us! The Welsh Assembly are guilty as well. I went to the demonstrations in Merthyr to save the Hoover factory but all the AM’s that were there did was offer kind words, no practical action. The same could have been said for Anglesey Aluminium, but even more so as the Assembly was in a position to actually save jobs but didn’t.

This situation is particularly hard for young people who are twice as likely to be out of work and bear the brunt of the education cut backs which have led to a reduction in university places. Despite unemployment figures going down there has not been an increase in employment and can only be attributed to people simply giving up on looking for work and who can blame their when there are 5 times more unemployed workers than there are job vacancies and that is according to the official stats which are not an accurate reflection.

This is why Youth Fight for Jobs has organised a demonstration outside the Welsh Assembly, to protest for Jobs, training and education for young people. The demonstration will take place on Wednesday the 17th of February at 2pm. Meet on the Senedd steps, outside the Welsh Assembly Cardiff Bay.

These are the Youth Fight for Jobs demands
· Nationalisation to save jobs: take into democratic public ownership workplaces that are threatening redundancies.
· No public-sector job-cuts to pay for bankers bailouts: nationalize the banks and cut millionaire bank bosses pay instead
· No education cuts: give us what the bankers got! Invest in Universities, Colleges and Schools to guarantee a future for young people.
· For free access to education for all: scrap tuition fees and bring back grants

Age and Ageism

It is clear that in Europe there is an ageing population with a significant amount of people of retirement age, in Britain this stands at around 20%. This growth in the elderly can clearly be attributed to advances which the working class have taken over the last century, through the introduction of the NHS and other gains won through the welfare state. Which has helped rise life expectancy to an average of 79.

The picture in Wales is slightly different though, the life expectancy is lower particularly in towns such as Merthyr. Now it would be ridiculous to just assume some kind of random geographical anomaly, but a real class distinction in life expectancy, you only have to look at the deprivation in Merthyr to see that. Despite this the elderly population in Wales make up approximately 1/6 of the overall population, yet still face severe discrimination, but why?

It is clear that elderly people are worse of than those of working age and worse than the elderly of 10 years ago. This is the case despite the government allocating more funds than previously to the provision of services for the elderly. This is clearly not just bad accounting but an ideological offensive, it is widely known that the New Labour policy of tendering out public services to private tender is not only more expensive but offers less. Hence more money is spent but less help is available for the elderly.

Throughout history we can see this disdain for the elderly, in most class societies this is something that we can see quite clearly. In Roman society the elderly were tossed over a bridge into a river when they had outlived their usefulness and in Britain we need only to look back at the experiences of the workhouse to see how the elderly were treated here. This is a clear feature of a class society were everyone is determined by the economic worth. Whilst an elderly working class person is deemed as worthless because they are unable to work effectively, the elderly of the ruling class are held in high regard as nothing has changed for them; you can live of the profits of others however able you are.

With this as the background we have a situation where 65% of pensioners survive solely on the pitiful state pension The savings they have been able to scrape by on throughout their lives are swallowed up to cover the gaps in their income and as we see the continuation of the privatisation and closures of state funded facilities for the elderly such as care homes, this again helps to swallow up any money they were able to put aside. The elderly along with single mothers constitute the poorest sections of British society, yet both these groups are among the most in need of help.

The discrimination against the elderly is not simply felt economically but it is also cultural. Elderly people make up the main body of TV viewers but are hugely under represented. The elderly are marginalised in most spheres of leisure activity and there is a huge emphasis in modern society on the appearance of the body and how it should look, with particular emphasis on looking young, something of course which the elderly have significant difficulty in doing. In fact the only sphere in which the elderly have not be marginalised is within organised religion, but that itself has become extremely marginalised.

In modern British society we can see the almost complete disenfranchisement of the elderly who are virtually tossed on the scrapheap when they have outlived their usefulness but even workers approaching retirement age who find themselves unemployed are likely not to find employment again. Those who are in employment are in most cases forced to leave upon reaching the retirement age. This is the background in which we find the rise of 'grey power' or pensioner power. But how significant is this power? Over 55's make up 30% of the electorate so it would seem to be a significant power particularly as this demographic is more likely to vote than any other. This poses the question most starkly in a marginal constituency, where a campaign amongst pensioners could shift the balance of power.

The media particularly around election time always go out of their way to show that grey power is extremely strong but in reality it is not that strong, While they may be able to change the winner in a marginal constituency they slit have the same choice of the major parties that everyone else has, they still face 5 years of lies from politicians after the election as everyone else does. Even more of a factor though is that 5 years on many of them may either have died or face heath problems which seriously restrict their abilities to carry on actively more so than any other demographic.

For this reason the government is very unlikely to take the concerns of pensioners seriously, and why not, in the logic of capitalism they are no longer useful and are a drain of resources. We can see the governments attitude to the elderly displayed quite obviously. £4.6 million in benefits lay unclaimed by pensioners every year, some of this will be accounted by pride getting in the way of pensioners claiming these benefits but it is also attributed to ignorance about what are entitled to, for 2 reasons, there is simply not enough helped offered to explain this and because most government information about benefit entitlement is now on-line, the elderly are the least likely to have access to the internet. It is clear that there are some in the ruling who want to make it even harder for the elderly with recent proposals revealed in the Telegraph that children should be forced to care for the elderly so the state does not have to.

Outside the Border Agency

Earlier today there was a demonstration outside the UK Border Agency in Cardiff to coincide with a demonstration outside the Nigerian Embassy in London. The aim of the protests were to highlight the plight of Nigerians who are facing the prospect of a chartered flight back to Nigeria. Many of the deportees are victim of cult and gang violence, torture, rape, female genital mutilation, armed conflict and state oppression, however as Nigerian is deemed as a safe country, the asylum application of a Nigerian national are almost automatically rejected. For more information check out the No Borders South Wales Blog.

Flames were added to the fire by an article in today's Guardian which highlights the internal culture within the Border Agency offices at Cardiff. In the article an ex-worker there said there was a culture of hatred and anti-immigrant feelings running throughout the workforce. That if they were faced with a difficult case they would simply deny the application and leave it to a tribunal to sort out. More worryingly though, the article goes on to state that there was a canteen culture of intolerance, that those who accepted applications were mocked and taunted and the aim was to refuse the applications as if was simply a game rather than the life and death situations which they really are. As one of my ex-housemates works there I can definitely see this as the internal culture there, he wasn't the most likeable or understandable character you are likely to meet in fact quite the opposite,

The protest itself was good with somewhere between 30-40 in attendance. Pretty good considering the demonstration started at 4.30pm when many people would still be in work and it was raining quite a bit as well which always harms the turnout. The railings outside the border agency were absolutely covered in anti-immigration control banners. Most importantly though out of everyone there there was obviously the usual faces that you expect to see at demonstrations but there was also a lot of new faces that I had not seen around before and a significant amount were young activists.  

Some things never change

Once again the ex-nazi officer Pope Benedict is causing a stir, when he accused the UK Government of pursing unjust equality laws. Surely a contradiction in and of itself. The Pope argues that the government’s new rules limit religious freedom. While there is some truth in this the law only limits the freedom to discriminate. One of the few freedoms I cannot support.

At the same time I do have some sympathy with the position that the Pope outlines, in that these laws may violate their religious beliefs. They maybe be bigoted religious beliefs but they are religious beliefs none the less. If the Catholic Church feels it cannot have homosexuals in the clergy then I guess ultimately it is up to them. I can’t quite understand why any homosexuals regardless of their belief in Catholicism would want to enter into an organised religious institution with such beliefs anyway. However if the church wants to pursue a policy along this lines then I certainly would object to their charitable status and any state funding which they so often request for church building repairs and other Catholic buildings such as schools, village halls etc.

This opens up a whole other issue as it is not just clergy who are employed by the Catholic Church. There is administration staff for the church, maintenance workers etc. Also there is a whole other issue of Catholic run Schools. It has been questioned as to whether the church has the right to only employ a head teacher who shared their faith. Clearly this is discriminatory to oh so many. Ministers have also wanted to force faith schools to take a quarter of their pupils from other religious backgrounds. Although I would a oppose such a quota system for entrance into a school I think it is ridiculous that you can only be admitted to the school on the basis of your religion in the first place. Well in reality the religion of your parents as the whole ethos of the religious schools is to brainwash young people into following that religion.

So while I think it is fair to say that the church has the right to decide who their clergy are, in essence who their spiritual leaders are, whoever bigoted that may be. I do not see how on that basis or on any other basis for that matter how the Catholic Church should be able to maintain it’s charitable status. I also cannot see any argument to allow the continuation of religious schools in this manner for several reasons, if they cannot except the equality bill as a guide to who is employed is is clearly unacceptable. The whole purpose seems to religious teaching and to teach the idea that homosexuals are not equal is intolerable, although the Archbishop of Cardiff words it slightly differently when he said.

“But I think there is a misunderstanding, because sometimes in government legislation equality seems to be that we are equal in dignity, beyond that each of us is unique.”

He seems to be able to find some dignity in being discriminated against because of your sexuality, (a situation which is hard to deal with generally because the prejudices of society) in a way that I cannot. Clearly the Catholic Church continues to show what they really stand for again and again. All Catholics should break with the tyranny of organised religion and find their spiritual beliefs in solace, free the shackles of bigotry.

TAG - A Reply to Matt Higgins and Matt Smith

I have just read the latest copy of TAG the University of Glamorgan Students' Union newspaper and two things in particular stand out. The front cover leads with an article by Matt Higgins which is a report from a demonstration in Swansea, however I don't remember things quite the same as he seems to. He says

Our Students' Union recently sent a bus full of lecturers, students and members of the Student Union Executive Committee to protest outside the Welsh Labour Party leadership hustings in Swansea

Firstly yes there was a coach from Uni Glam to Swansea however it was not the Students Union who arranged it was the UCU branch. The coach was nowhere near full in fact it was over half empty. Now this is not simply nitpicking. Clearly the article is meant to showing the students union to have done something but this is in stark contrast to reality. It was UCU who organised the coach and approached the Students Union to help build for the demonstration, which they agreed to do but in reality did very little, the real reason why the coach was over half empty. The only reason why there were as many students on the coach as there were was not because of the SU but because of the hard work of Socialist Students who held campaign stalls and leaflets sessions giving out close to 1,000 leaflets in total. Much more than the SU was prepared to do with their massive resources!

He goes on to talk about the proposed 5% cut in the budget of Higher Education in Wales and the impact this could have on students. Whilst everything he says in true he neglects to mention that the University of Glamorgan is proposing cuts of up to 16%. The SU gives the impression that they do not want to build a campaign against the cuts whilst at the same time appearing as if they are! It seems that the only reason they came to Swansea was for the photo opportunity, the photo which now appears on the front page of TAG.

 The other article which caught my eye was an article by Matt Smith the chair of Glamorgan Student Liberal Democrats . The only thing which Matt says which makes sense is that our vote does not count, but he then goes on to say its all because of the choice between Labour and Tory and the bad policies they offer, plus labour and tory have been caught out in the expenses scandal as crooks. However he goes on to explain that the Lib Dems are not the same. Matt must be a member of a different Liberal Democrats than the rest of us know about. This would be the same Liberal Democrats who were equally exposed as crooks in the expenses scandal. The same Liberal Democrats who have equally promised savage cuts after the election, the same liberal democrats who in Cardiff council are already promising huge cuts now. The same Liberal Democrats who have already back down significantly on abolishing tuition fees before an election, how much further will they go afterwards?

You can get the picture it is clear that the picture Matt Smith paints is a very fake one, and even clearer that all the main parties are out for themselves and offer us ordinary folk nothing but cuts!

Moving forward in Wales

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You are a Liar and a Murderer!

 Yesterday Tony Blair faced the Chilcot Inquiry over the Iraq war. An issue which had a profound effect on me personally as it was what turned me into an activist, so with my hatred of Blair all clear and out in the open what happened?

The enquiry from start to finish has been a farce declaring from the outset that the findings would not result in any prosecutions. Which brings into question the whole point of the inquiry, if not charges will be brought, if it won't result in a troop withdrawel and it obviously cannot reverse the damage caused to millions already.

Despite this Blair showed absolutely no remorse and the inquiry did not really push him all that much. Afua Hirsch from the Guardian said: 

He responded to a question about the controversial intelligence dossier with a speech about how seriously he takes the nuclear threat from Iran. He responded to a question about weapons of destruction in Iraq with a a reply about military action taken joinlty with Bill Clinton in 1998.

It wasn't restricted to simply avoiding the questions put to him George Galloway went as far as to say 

He was allowed to report that Iraq was in breach of UN resolutions in general and 1441 in particular. But in fact, they weren't in breach of it. There were no weapons of mass destruction..... Blair was allowed to tell a blatant lie.

The whole thing was clearly just for show and it was put incredibly well by Haifa Zangana when she said

Undergrads would have asked more probing questions.

Of course she is absolutely right and as an undergrad myself here coming the more probing investigation albeit confined to my blog. The whole argument about the legality of the invasion puzzles me as it was taken as fact previously that it was. Despite a vote in parliament agreeing to the invasion, the British government had no jurisidcition within Iraq and the UN didn't saction it. Not that the rights and wrongs should be determined by the law of the land.

I guess the argument about whether it was legal or not is focusing on whether the infomation provided was correct or not, but once again wasn't this blatantly obvious to anyone at the time. Blair said the 45 minute claim was a minor point so didn't really matter but it was picked up by the media. Now that may be true except for one important detail, Blair nor any other government official tried to correct the misinformation of the media. Quite happy to ride it out with a Lie. He also stated that it wouldn't have made a difference if the weapons inspectors had been given more time it would not have made a difference, well he's got that right they certainly would not have found any weapons.

By looking at what Blair actually said he made it clear that this was only able to happen in the post 9/11 era and that it was possible to gather the forces to do so! That despite there being no evidence between Saddam Hussien and Al'Qaida (and how would you find a link between a secular regime and religious hardiners?) that he could no longer take the risk with countries who wanted to aquire weapons of mass destruction.  Then went on to say that they did everything to stabilise Iraq, to stop attempts to distabilise the economy by protecting the oil fields.

So it's there that Blair gives us the real reason, Oil its the only explanation why so many barbaric regimes are left alone or become good 'friends'. Throughout the whole process Blair makes it quite obvious to anyone seriously looking at it that here knew what was really going on at the time and just lied for the sake of war. He claims that it has made the world a safer place but once again this is a blatant lie and doesn't really compare well up against the facts

Blair did however tell a couple of truths, the first being that the cabinet were well informed and made the decision collectivey, it is clear that they were all in on it and Blair is just being seen now as an individual to take the blame, not that he doesn't deserve it but the rest of them do too.

The other truth which he tells is that we shouldn't ask the questions of 2003 in 2010, we should be asking the questions of 2010 in 2010. So let's do it. Why are there still 7 years later imperialist troops occupying Iraq as well as Afganistan causing terror and destruction!

Meanwhile it is clear that Blair will walk free without any problems or a care in the world, unfortunately the same can not be said for Joe Glenton who is facing a 2 year sentence for going awol and  refusing to fight in these imperialist wars

No Shelter

This post is abit late but I thought I would comment on the Christmas No. 1 fiasco. Inspired to write this by my recent research on counter-culture and the resistance against consumerism.

Whilst even Rage Against the Machine jumped on the band wagon and saw this as a way of 'saving' music in Britian, they should really be reminded on the lyrics to their own song No Shelter

The main attraction, distraction
got ya number than number than numb
Empty ya pockets son, they got you thinkin that
What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin'
From the theaters to malls on every shore
The thin line between entertainment and war
The frontline is everywhere, there be no shelter here
Spielberg the nightmare works so push it far
Amistad was a whip, the truth feather to tar
Memories erased and burned to scar
Trade in ya history for a VCR

Cinema, simulated life, ill drama
Fourth reich culture, Americana
Chained to the dream they got ya searchin for
The thin line between entertainment and war

There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere

Hospitals not profit full
The market bull's got pockets full
To advertise some hip disguise
View the world from American eyes
Tha poor adore keep feeding for more
Tha thin line between entertainment and war
fix the need, develop the taste
Buy their products or get laid to waste
Coca-Cola was back in our veins in Saigon
And Rambo too, we got a dope pair of Nikes on
Godzilla pure motherfuckin' filler
Get your eyes off the real killer

Cinema, simulated life, ill drama
Fourth reich culture, Americana
Chained to the dream they got you searchin for
Tha thin line between entertainment and war

There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere

American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothin behind

American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothin behind

Just stare!
Just stare!
Just stare!
Just stare!

and live the nightmare!

In Particular the line of the song which goes like this

What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin'

It is in this line we find the crux of the problem. We were told that buying a 1992 single which everyone already had either legally or illegally would be able to save musical culture. As if at some point in the recent history we already controlled it!

But what was achieved? Bigger sales and free marketing for the x-factor winner, and huge sales for Killing in the name which is already a huge track played regularly internationally. As both were signed to Sony subsidiaries all we saw was sony cashing it in with loads of free publicity.

Far from being described as a blow against the music industry this couldn't even e described as culture jamming as the track chosen was a worldwide hit and a classic still reguarly played of rock radio and tv stations and clubs throughout the world. The only thing achieved was an illusion in consumerism.

I will keep it short as a discussion on this woud be interesting, but I will post more on counter-culture and culture jamming in the future

A Special Kind of Dilema

I now find myself in what I have termed 'A Special Kind of Dilema'. The Dilema in question is not really special at all but I found it to be a much better title than simply'I am very lazy'.

The problem orginates from the very reason I started the blog in the first place the reasons for which are outlined in my first post Everyones Favourite Comrade. However this is where the problem began. It was at this point that I was unemployed and had given up on looking for employment due to my iminent return to education. That in itself was one of the motivating factors behind the blog, as I had not had to write in a structured way since dropping out during my A-levels in 2004.

Upon begining University my blog went very quiet and until a few days ago hadn't been updated since October! I felt I had no need to in someways I guess and in other ways as I am generaly lazy I just didn't bother as I was begining to write essays and so was already back into the habit of writing through this anyway.

However the university setting so far has caused a lot of frustration on my part. This is partly self-inflicted due to my laziness but also because of my distain for the education system. I chose to study Sociology hoping to get a lot out of it,as I did previously studying at both GCSE and A-level (which is where I came into contact with marxism and the Socialist Party). However a number of factors it has not led up to my expectation so far and those factors in no particular order are.

1. The production line layout of education, while i find many of the lectures interesting I find myself at the end of 1 hour thinking "is that it! just 1 hour on the topic and we come back next week to do it all over again" and this is compounded by the fact that it is geared towards answering specific essay questions which I have found very restrictive in the main, and become disinterested in the subject because it is not the subject that I want to write about.
2. Seminars- hate is too strong a word to describe this but I have grown to dislike many of my seminars. Not because I do not like the concept of seminars but because it doesn't seem to be working. Instead of a discussion amongst the students more often than not it becomes a disussion between myself and a lecturer with maybe one or two others joining.
3. Complacency-I have become very complacent with much of the work I have handed in because of the advantages I have over many of my peers having studied sociology for 4 years previously and been an active marxist for 7 years now I appear to  have the edge over the others straight away. Whilst this is true and my grades so far have reflected this my writing style could do with much improvement and my sociological knowledge outside the realms of marxism are less than desirabe.
4. Most importantly and for all the reasons above I have become lazy and lack drive, putting in little effort or time into assignments which has been aided incredibly by my laziness, and although up until now my grades  have been good I can't sustain this forever and neither will it  improve my understanding.

So after recently reading Blogging, Academia and Sociology over at A Very Public Sociologist it got me thinking about how I can rectify this and how blogging can play a part. It got me thinking and the answer was simple. If the lecture subject is interesting blog about it! If the essay questions are too restrictive, as well as writing the essay, blog away free of the restrictions of the question itsef! If the seminars are simply a back and forth between me and a lecturer then blog about the topic hoping a discussion will follow free from the parameters of the amount of people sat in the room (although restricted to whoever looks at the blog) I hope by doing this and reaching out into the world of political and sociological blogs I will be able to over come my complacany force myself to put the effort and research in which is so lacking and can be noted by my last blog entries Youth Culture which was simply one of my essays I uploaded onto the blog. Although I got a first from it, It is quite evident that it lacks so much. I hope that by putting either some of my work into the public domain or writing articles specificaly for the blog it will improve my work over all and overcome my laziness and complacancy and everything else which I have become dissatisfied with.

So I guess the point I have been getting at is that along with the original 'mission statement' I put forward for this blog. Which is admittedly a very broad scope.

"What topics will this blog cover, well its a political blog but as capitalist society effects every aspect of culture and human interaction in someway that means that this blog will be open to covering any subject matter."

But now my aim is not only to reboot that up but to delve more into sociological aspects as wel and to update much more frequently time permitting.

Youth Culture

I haven't made a post for awhile so I have decided to post one of my recent essay's as I beieve it could be the starting point for an interesting discussion. The essay is not a definitive answer to the question by any stretch of the imagination as ever with academia I was limited by time and space as well as by the nature of the question it self.

Nevertheless I feel that this could be a good starting point for a discussion on the changes of youth culture and its relationship with capitalism.

The question of youth, is one that is ever changing, by the very nature of youth being a stage of life that everyone goes through. A question however of great importance for a very obvious reason pointed out by Giroux 

Any discourse about the future has to begin with the issue of youth because more than any other group, youth embody the dreams, desires, and commitment of a society’s obligation to the future.
(Giroux, 2004)

However the youth are not simply developed in isolation from society as something to mould it in future. On the contrary young people are born into a society already in existence moulded and developed by the material realities around them as explained by Pierre Bourdieu

 '’youth' has been an evolving concept, layered upon layers with values which reflect contemporary moral, political and social concerns'

(cited in Jones, 2009)

It's for this reason that the question of youth cannot be discussed in isolation of previous events that have moulded and developed them and their outlook and expressions. I will explain here how the collapse of the Soviet Union along with the destruction of the manufacturing industry led to a major crisis in youth culture in the early 90's through the rave culture that had developed. Due to the increased alienation and lack of a ideological outlet. The Rave Culture emerged as a political act of defiance, creating their own society their own norms their own values, with sheer disregard for the laws accepted by society as a whole. But as this died down through the enforcement of the Criminal Justice Act and the rise of the legitimate club scene there arose a conflict in youth.

The crisis which arose was on one hand a dual fragmentation into the overtly political in the form of the anti-capitalist movement and the apolitical with the development of chav culture, both of which in reality were very political reactions to the alienation felt most acutely by young people. Alongside this was a stark contradiction, the young people were further fragmented, lost without their own identity, simply holding the identity that had been thrust upon them.

The big change, in fact probably the biggest change which will have changed youth culture forever, is the spread of the internet, which has opened up contemporary as well as historic ideas, values beliefs and norms to a generation who grew up with the internet as the norm. This coupled with the biggest economic crisis for nearly 100 years has had a profound effect and leads to major changes to come.

As the 1990s began the Berlin Wall had fallen and the rest of the Soviet Union had either collapsed or was on the verge of doing so. Their followed a huge ideological extravaganza that capitalism was the only way forward in which society can be run. Encapsulated by the Wall Street Journal which in 1990 simply declared as the headline 'We Won' (cited in Taaffe, 2009). This did not however match the reality of the experiences of young people at the time.

During this period of the so-called global triumph of capitalism the manufacturing industry in Britain had begun to decline and replaced with service sector jobs or unemployment (REFERENCE) in the recession of the early 90s. Leading to increased alienation, as Marx explained they do not see their work as part of their life but merely a way in which to gain the earnings necessary to for subsistence and leisure. (Marx, 1999) Hannah Sell brings this into a modern context by showing that young people were further alienated

The description of working life would apply just as much to the workers in McDonalds. Tesco, call centres on modern building sites or in factories, as it ever did to the weavers and labourers Marx was describing. Instead of making life easier the increase in automation has reduced ever more jobs to mind-numbing repetition and boredom.
(Sell, 2002)

 All this happened in the backdrop of the ideological offensive that capitalism was the only way. Young people had been cut off from a political voice by the closure of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1988 which previously would have filled out with working class youth.Young people who were alienated and denied a political voice, being told that this was the only way and growing up in Thatcher's Britain to be told 'There is no society' set out to create their own society. In both a form of escapism from the mundane routine of employment or lack of and a political response to their own space, or norms, own values etc. In essence they tried to create their own society and so the burgeoning rave scene filled out.

It was a movement of the abandoned who found a space for themselves in the spaces and gaps left by society in the wake of abandoning a generation.
It occupies the ‘cracks and vacancies’ left by the state, including abandoned industrial complexes, - the detritus of Euro-American post-industrial society. As manifestations of the TAZ, raves are utopian social formations temporarily convened in Turner cracks, crevices and interstices of social structure - in the margins of society.
(John 2004)
It is clear from this that the emergence of the rave culture was an attempt to reinvigorate the abandoned and betrayed areas of society which had alienated young people so much. However this was not simply a case of young people trying to re-establish the forms of society that had been destroyed this was a case of young people trying to create a new society based on their own norms and values as Steve Redhead points out.
It can be used and usually not affect the person’s ability to work the next or the following day. It is associated with politics of pleasure, a hedonism (in hard times) – a pleasure for its own sake in times when moral regulation of youth is pervasive and deep economic crisis is rife.
(Redhead, 1993)
Whilst functionalists would argue that this deviance is necessary in order to maintain a functioning society even going as far as to say 'anomie does not cause deviance, it is deviance which is the solution to anomie' (Blackman 2004) I would turn this on its head and say that the isolation is both the cause of the deviance and that the deviance is also the solution to isolation. Not however that this is the only way in which society could function, but simply that this is the only way in which the current order of society can be maintained. It was for this reason and that the rave culture was seriously questioning the power and authority of society that it was eventually controlled and stamped out. Through the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act which clamped down on illegal raves and through the legitimisation of rave culture in the commercial scene. 
It was through this discourse that young people were conflicted, the young were fragmented and no dominant sub-culture was there to encapsulate the hopes and dreams of a generation. This can be summed up by the rock band Pitchshifter, who point out the alienation felt by youth and the searching for a voice, for a generational statement.
The jobs we get when we graduate from school are stupid, boring meaningless and a dead end to insanity..... Every generation has a statement they wanna call their own, tattoos, piercings, that’s for mums and dads.
(Pitchshifter 2000)
It is in this period which prompted Steve Redford to proclaim that youth as a genre is fast becoming a cliché (Redhead 1995). Whilst this was partially true there was also during this period two phenomena’s that changed things forever.

It was around this period in which the anti-capitalist movement developed, due to the lack of political organisation in workplaces but the relative political freedom and individual wealth that had developed an unique situation developed where young people alienated from society decided to fight back against the capitalist order directly
The kind of workplaces that young people work in often do not have unions. Politically-conscious youth are expressing their politics outside of work, through anti-fascism, through defending their right to party, through involvement in a counter-culture (in which the internet plays a large part). The internet gives young people contact with the world. They form ideas about their place in the world, without attending meetings. The internet makes it possible for young people in the UK to define themselves in relation to struggles for emancipation in Korea or Mexico, without the mediating role of an organisation in their home town or even home country. Lots of internet kiddies know more about the politics of the Zapatistas than they do about the political systems they live under. The Zapatistas are exciting rebels, even the best of the politicians available at home are either dreary careerists or patently unserious.
(Workers’ Liberty, 2001)
This clearly displays that young people are clearly and overtly searching for a political alternative to run society and this happened because of the spread of the internet opening up global ideas to a lost generation who now have the ability to search out those very ideas. It has led to the development of a youth culture with is anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist in nature and one which embraces and even celebrates their differences. This can be summed up in a nutshell by the anti-capitalist musicians Sonic Boom Six who point out that the differences between then are in essence meaningless it’s just about finding your own identity in a failing world. 
Well I remember at the party, a couple years ago, when I saw an MC. He ripped the mic and passed it to me. I learnt a little lesson he helped me to see. It’s not about choosing guitar or the decks it’s about doing it yourself that get’s the respect. So punks say Oi! B-Boys say Bo!
(Sonic Boom Six, 2006)

This form of culture amongst youth has undoubtedly developed because of the rise of the internet which encapsulates all the history and culture available and the click of a button which has led to the acceptance of other styles of youth culture.

Conversely however this was a dual process and the other main trend to flow from this was the emergence of chav culture which has also been a political reaction by this change has occurred in a covert nature. Chavs have also taken an anti-authoritarian stance but one of intimidation coupled with a desire for commodities previously adorned with the middle class. (Atkinson, 2008) ‘Chav culture’ has taken the alienation and frustration of young people in a consumer society and manifested itself in a disregard for authority and a yearning for those consumer goods which they see as defining their status.

Both these dualities which have appeared in youth culture over the last decade are a reaction to the alienation and abandonment felt by young people in the modern world.
One of the worst things of all experiences in capitalist Britain is to be a young person who cannot get work – to have been thrown on the scrap heap before your teens are over.
(Sell, 2002)
Yet these different sub-cultures have manifested themselves in opposing forms. One seeking to change the world and one seeking to simply change their own circumstances. These differences are likely to be exacerbated in the next few years as the economic crisis will further beat down on an already battered generation and it is for this reason that the subject is so interesting as the ideas and objectives of the youth will be the ideas and objectives of the future. 

I have outlined here the developments of youth culture in the last two decades, starting from the conflict in young people, alienated from a society that they were told was the ‘only way’ which manifested itself in a merger of cultural resistance and of a political response in the form of rave culture. But once this began to disseminate there was a crisis in youth. There appeared a young generation angry and disposed with their isolation but with no obvious outlet neither political nor cultural. But this began to change with the fast paced spread of the internet opening up the world to young people and a duality in youth developed. 

Young people were increasingly isolated from society and manifested themselves into to opposing ways, one in which they attempted to change society and another in which they attempted to change their own position in society. These differences are likely to exacerbated in the next few years as the looming economic crisis deepens and the dominant ideas which emerge amongst the youth with be the dominant ideas of the future leading to more changes.

Where now?

On the 17th of October the Fascist English Defence League attempted to march through the streets of Swansea. Fortunately this did not materialise and there was a very good reason for this.

400 anti-fascists turned up in Castle Square which is exactly where the EDL wanted to be. Due to the fact that they were outnumbered by atleast 10-1 they were easily prevented for getting anywhere near the square and were forced to hide away in a near by pub.

It was clear when they emerged that the idea of an actual demonstration was no the intention at all, they had no placards, no banners, no megaphones or anything else to highlight any kind of demonstration. It was clear that all they aimed to do was cause racial tension and have a punch up.

However as they were outnumbered by 10-1 once the police attempted to march them on everyone surrounded them and the police instantly they were unable to do anything for a whole hour and once that time was up they had no choice but to except a police escort to the train station and out of Swansea with their tale between their legs!

After the humiliation in Swansea, the EDL 'officially' called of the demonstration in Newport. I went on the EDL forum and whilst it also said that it was called off many EDL members said they still intended to come to Newport and it appeared that calling it off was simply just a tactic to damage the turnout of the Newport Communities Against Racism demonstration.

Luckily this tactic failed completely and several hundred anti-fascists turned up in John Frost Square where various organisations participated. When the time came the EDL did not show their face at all. So victory was ours on the day!

There was a rally throughout the day in John Frost Square with various speakers in between music, life performances and chanting. I was one of the speakers at the rally and I think its important that I mention what I said because I think it really sums up the situation facing us now and how we can effectively fight it.

I spoke about how it was not enough to just oppose fascism, how It isn't enough to organise counter-demo's everytime the EDL announce a demonstration. The EDL came out of no where and started organising demonstrations not long after the BNP gained two MEP's. The 2 organisations are clearly linked. The fact they have those MEP's has obviously given them the confidence to feel they can get away with racist marches on our streets.

Unfortunately Griffin did come across well on Question Time because despite the panel attacking him at the begining and in general Griffin made a fool of himself. When it came to the issue of immigration and jobs all the main parties were quick to blame immigration for unemployment, none of them were willing to acknowledge the problem was the mainstream parties, the bankers, and capitalism in general. That without a real political challenge the BNP will continue to grow.

I said that the BNP was a political entity and they need to be taken up politically. If there was a New Mass Workers' Party it could have effectively exposed the BNP's scapegoating of immigrants and for that matter the all three of the main parties who are responsible for the rise in the BNP by using the same tactics. It is only by exposing the main parties and capitalism, it if only by offering a positive alternative and articulating in the correct manner the concerns of working class people about job losses, unemployment and public service cuts that we can stop the growth of the BNP and send them back to the gutter! 

I finished by urging everyone to come to the Youth Fight for Jobs demonstation - For Decent Jobs, For Free Education. To Actively take up these issuesand expose the capitalist system and fight for our future!

We won the battles of Swansea and Newport but the war continues.