Désenchantée

Tout est chaos
A côté
Tous mes idéaux des mots
Abîmés…
Je cherche une âme, qui
Pourra m’aider
Je suis
D’une génération désenchantée

The Right To Protest Is Not Absolute

The UK’s Home secretary Theresa May banned all marches in 5 of London’s boroughs for a period of 30 days. This was carried out under the pretense of taking into consideration a petition signed by 25 000 persons asking for the EDL march through Tower Hamlets on the 3th of September 2011 to be banned. This kind of ban has little effect on the demonstration the EDL is still planning to have tomorrow. Instead of an out-and-about march they’ll have a static demonstration but still be allowed to parade through Tower Hamlets under police escort since they will have to move from their meeting place to their final destination where the static demo will take place. The fact remains that the EDL will have their demonstration and that there will be counter protests.

Since this specific ‘ban’ didn’t work it’s extremely unsettling that whilst they should be mobilising to stand with the local community against the racist and Islamophobic EDL, the left chooses to enter into a nonchalant and rather confusing ‘debate’ on ‘The Right To Protest’. All in an effort to scrutinise the government’s manipulation of a specific event, the EDL march, and a specific request by a minority, the petition to ban the EDL from marching, and to delegitimise protest as a whole. The Government should be attacked for reacting in such an over-the-top manner and trying to curb civil liberties in a covert manner. It’s still nonchalant to make a connection between the ban on marches by the government, the right to protest and the EDL march as has been the usual way of conducting the ‘debate’ by the left. Because by using this connection it is implied that the EDL has a right to protest. And this is where it gets confusing.

Confusing since linking the EDL with The Right To Protest does not make any sense at all. The framework within which Human Rights operates is one where rights are not absolute, but rather relative. This means that the Right To Protest is a right, as long as it does not infringe upon other rights. The EDL has shown in the past that it’s more than comfortable with its racist aim of marginalising and demonising the Muslim minority in the UK and elsewhere to fit their racist political agenda. Their previous marches have also made clear that the EDL’s invasion into majority Muslim boroughs have an objective of seeking violent confrontation with those hated ‘others’. This means that the EDL has no interest in local communities’ rights which their presence violates in the worst manner. The local communities’ rights that are infringed upon include The Right to Religious Freedom, The Right not to be Discriminated Against, The Right to Equality and The Right to Safety.

There’s no doubt that the debate’s topics must be separated and handled with care. Shouldn’t we be clearly stating that the EDL must be opposed and that this racist group has no right to protest nor the freedom of expression to spread hatred and disruption in local minority communities? Shouldn’t the government’s efforts to curb rights rather than to facilitate those rights, as is their role in the HR framework, be treated separately from the EDL ban, so as to not give the impression that a Conservative government has our best interest at heart?

And finally shouldn’t we mobilise to the fullest for the counter protests tomorrow in Tower Hamlets? The national demonstration against the English Defence League on 3 September will now assemble in Whitechapel. The new assembly point is 11am, corner of Vallance Road and Whitechapel Road, London E1.

Nous Sommes Le Pouvoir

Speechless

(pic copied from here)

Tuition fees demo ‘may be hijacked’

London Calling

Typ “protest” in at Google Turkey to find an appropriate pic for an article and this comes up.

And since Devrim means Revolution in Turkish this makes for the conclusion that any kind of protest will lead to a revolution in Turkey (according to Google Turkey at least)

I Also Shouted Push

I know I’m extremely late in proclaiming my solidarity. I thought about putting this online the moment the “I also shouted Push” campaign started but somehow I didn’t get around to actually putting it online. And with today’s news that the 2 Climate activists have been found guilty of inciting violence against the police during the “Reclaim Power” action during last years COP15 held in Copenhagen, it only felt right to post this now.

I was there. During the “Reclaim Power” action. I also shouted PUSH. One of the mere thousands who were trying to push through the police barriers and hold a people’s assembly inside the Bella Center where our supposed leaders were disappointing the world by not coming up with a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement to tackle Climate Change.

I witnessed firsthand how brutal the Police itself was in treating the protesters. They head butted, kicked and pepper sprayed activists whilst they were protesting in a non-violent manner. I myself got pepper spray in my eyes and multiple kicks in my groin for being in the first line to try to get in the Bella Center. Nicely squished between police and the activist force.

Therefor this sentencing of the Climate activist is too ridiculous for words. Because if there were any that had trouble breathing it were the activists present, not the f*cking cop’ers with their gasmasks.

If you’re going to break a window, smack it near the corner not in the middle. People don’t realise this. I am definitely not advocating breaking windows.

No Comment – the Pic says it all.