[OccupyComms] Fwd: Fyi

[Mark Barrett]

Meanwhile, back in the real world

The establishment have milked it for all it’s worth but tomorrow, after the
last stage-managed event surrounding that diamond jubilee is over, for the
vast majority of the population it will be back to reality with a bang.

For the jobless teenagers bussed
in<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed>from
Bristol, Bath and Plymouth to sleep rough and work for nothing as
stewards during the Thames procession on Saturday, it will be back to
grinding poverty and a total absence of a worthwhile future.

For the unemployed it will be another week of fruitless searches for jobs;
for those with disabilities, it will mean fending off intrusive medical
tests (run by a private company on a pay-by-results contract) intended to
force them into menial jobs.

For tens of thousands of homeless households tomorrow will mean another
night in temporary accommodation, disrupting children’s education and
making it impossible to bring up a family in a sustainable way.

For public sector workers, it’s the start of another month of jobs cuts and
increased pension contributions deducted unilaterally on the orders of the
ConDem government. And another year of a pay freeze while food prices, in
particular, continue to soar.

For those lucky enough to have jobs, Wednesday will for many see a return
to a hostile work environment where management makes sure everyone knows
their place, getting to work on an overpriced, overcrowded transport system.

An unprecedented, co-ordinated state operation, incorporating the media and
led by the BBC, has driven reality into a corner in favour of relentless
pomp and pageantry that has gone on for hour after hour, day after day.

No matter that people are being slaughtered by the Assad regime in Syria,
or that the Obama administration is using drones to execute at will in
Pakistan, or that the global economy is irreversibly heading for a second,
far worse crash. More important, beacons are being lit across Britain,
loads of boats are struggling down the Thames and some pop stars are
holding a concert outside Buckingham Palace.

The last few days have seemed virtually authoritarian in atmosphere, with a
contrived “celebration” organised to mark what? The fact that a privileged
woman, a huge landowner with several palaces, immense wealth, including a
hidden collection of masterpieces, has held an unelected position for 60
years.

Discredited politicians have tried to use the occasion to create a sense of
flag-waving Britishness that died with empire and is not particularly
supported by the citizens of Wales and Scotland, let alone the minority
population in the north of Ireland.

The ConDem government, perhaps the most despised in recent history, no
doubt hopes that the queen’s diamond jubilee has taken some of the
attention away from its austerity policies which have helped to deepen the
recession triggered by the financial crisis of 2007-8.

Of course, the monarchy is not the all-powerful ruler who cites divine
authority from God. That period of history ended with the execution of
Charles 1 by Cromwell’s parliamentary forces in January 1649.

But it symbolises the fraudulent nature of what passes for democracy
despite the immense struggles of the Levellers of the English Civil War,
the radical movement of reformers of the late 18th century, the Chartists
of the 19th century and the Suffragettes of the 20th century.

Present democracy is little more than a show, a façade behind which
corporations and financial institutions, markets and bond dealers, call all
the shots. The monarchy is part of that theatre, with Her Majesty’s
government the accomplices who direct the state to give big business what
it wants and needs.

A fresh constitutional settlement is urgent to meet the aspirations of a
disenfranchised majority of working people, replacing the power of the
corporatocracy. Such a democracy could never include an unelected,
hereditary head of state but would instead express the power of those whose
labour actually makes society possible. Tomorrow is as good a time to start
on this project as any.

Paul Feldman
Communications editor
5 June 2012
http://www.aworldtowin.net/blog/meanwhile-back-in-real-world.html

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device


-- 
Apathy is Dead !
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