There are, at this moment in time, multiple movements across the US and the World to occupy financial districts in major cities in protest. Indeed, Occupy Wall Street has already being going on for about two weeks now, with estimated numbers of occupiers at 300-700, and estimates of people joining the protests daily at up to 5000+ (with estimates set to get higher as more unions take to the streets.) But the message has unfortunately been blurred. People are confused as to what these protesters wants and, with Occupy the London Stock Exchange coming up, I want to clarify quite what my intentions are when I am protesting.
This is not just about workshy hippies moaning because they can’t get a break, although of course that does come into it. My participation is for one goal and one goal alone; the removal of corporate power from our Government. The removal of ‘lobbyists’ - whereby lobbying is essentially corruption but given a silly name so people don’t think of it like that. Corporations, and particularly banks have far too much power and influence in our political systems to the extent that we are living in a virtual dictatorship. If you go to London today you will find Transport for London (a government organisation) have for-hire bicycles all over the place. This is a very good idea. What isn’t a good idea is the fact that this scheme is sponsored by notorious tax dodgers ‘Barclays’ - who are a bank. No government initiative should have corporate sponsorship, this is not acceptable. Particularly when the sponsorship would not be required at all if the companies actually coughed up their taxes. It is disgusting, it is amoral, it is unjust, it is corrupt and it has to stop.
With the country operating at a huge deficit, and the people. The good, honest, hard working people, being pressed more than ever due to higher prices, higher taxes, even a fucking increase in VAT - The least equal tax of all because all of us have to pay it! - Companies like Vodafone get off paying BILLIONS - Yes, BILLIONS - of pounds in taxes thanks to cushy deals being instrumented behind closed doors, without public consultation, without professional consultation with the Inland Revenue’s own lawyers and tax experts! This is a country that is working AGAINST you, not for you. You are being squeezed ever tighter so that the vile financial institutions who made the mess our economies are in at the moment can be bailed out time and again. The reason you are being used as collateral is simple. Sure, banks could lend to each other to get themselves out of trouble. But all the banks are broke. So they go, cap in hand, to your governments for help after having caused the mess themselves and use your tax monies to pay them because, well if banks lend to each other and one bank forecloses and can’t pay, no one wins. But if an individual can’t afford their bill to the government, well then you can see all sorts of legal proceedings against that person. You cannot, unfortunately, be a conscientious objector to taxes.
So what can you do? You can protest. It has got to a stage in our political arena whereby the supposed ‘democratically elected’ officials are no longer working for we the people as they are obliged to do so. They have become so comfortable in an atmosphere of apathy and bullshit two party politics that they’re happy to take turns. Left wing, right wing, it doesn’t matter, the Imperial Eagle needs both to fly and that Eagle’s name is finance. Whichever party gets power in the UK, they will always serve the financial institutions and large corporations. There may be a little more union give-and-take from Labour, there may be a bit more mollycoddling of the middle and upper classes from the Conservatives but they both shall always work in favour of the banks and large corporations. This has to stop.
This is why we need to occupy. To let it be known that this is OUR country, that we, the people, are the power base here. We elect our officials to work FOR us, not to control us. The Prime Minister is not our ‘leader’ he is our BITCH and he should do what we, the people, want. You only have to look at the country to realise what a shambolic mess it is in, but if you’re not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Apathy never solved anything. Doing nothing never achieved it’s goals. Political change and reform never came from sitting on your arse watching football, X-Factor or bloody soaps. This is not beyond your control. This is not just ‘how it is’ - You have the power to change it. David Cameron is not an immortal, he is not a God, he is not a superman, he is a human being, like the rest of us. He is a man. He was born a crying baby, he bleeds red, and he shall one day die, like all of us. He has no more power than you or I besides that which we believe he may have. Stop believing. Stop thinking he has power when it is you who truly have the power. Take your country back. Before they ruin it for all of us.
Occupy the London Stock Exchange - October 15th until we win.
To all the occupiers worldwide - There is no defeat. You’re already winners. I love you.
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