On the death of a protestor / The time I almost felt sorry for a (minor) capitalist / Ho hum

On the death of a protestor

Late at night, a few hours after the first report of the death of a (then unnamed) protestor at the G20 demonstrations, I posted this at Lenin's Tomb -

... My condolences to his family and friends...Scanty reports are suggesting he was beaten by the cops. Others say 'natural causes', which could be a host of things. e.g. what may have caused a heart attack or something else. I’m not going to point a finger yet.

But IF the cops are involved, or indeed if they don’t yet know whether they are involved, this is what has already happened.

At an emergency meeting at Scotland Yard, their PR people will have already had it made clear to them that they need to leak whatever they have on the dead protester to the media, ASAP - he went there for a trouble, maybe a youth caution for shoplifting, that sort of thing. Spurious accusations - e.g. ‘was he my rapist?’ (as happened to Jean Charles de Menezes) will occur later.

Elsewhere, a cop detail will have destroyed all forensic evidence relating to the death, already met to collaborate on how they write it up and will have managed to 'lose' other bits of evidence.

Somewhere else, cops will desperately be trying to see from their intelligence video etc, which protesters or journalists may have captured events around the death as photos or video.

As soon as they identify them, they will seek straightaway to seize this video, and there is a possibility that this will later be destroyed, in an 'accidental fire' or similar. About as accidental as Steve Biko ‘falling out’ of police station window, that is.

I really, really advise anyone who may have such evidence to immediately post it, online and anonymously, at Flickr, YourTube, indymedia, etc so that we at least have a copy when the cops seize the originals. Post links to it in many Left and anarchist sites. Such photographers should do so from a web café and may also want to stay elsewhere for a few days.

If, and I stress if, the cops have killed, it will be the first time they have done this to a demonstrator in Britain (save NI) since they murdered Blair Peach in 1979 and Kevin Gatley in 1974. The time previous to that was in the 30s.

It will be a whole new ball game. It will be a declaration of war by the pigs.

Let us not be found wanting.

We should view any 'official version' with a healthy dose of scepticism, before making up our minds independently.

And then, in the early hours, I wrote -

"News Front Pages, 0400 - Lead story headline:

Man collapsed and died in G20 summit protest - Telegraph

Man dies during G20 demonstrations in London - Guardian

G20 leaders get down to business – BBC (Britain’s most popular news website) No mention of the death, at all, on front page."

Nice one, Beeb. Are such actions what it takes to keep your government charter?

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The police pump out a never-ending succession of arrests of young men with Pakistani origins, in which out heroes foil ever more elaborate master plots to slaughter us all in our beds.

The press fawn and regurgitate whatever the pig press officer has just vomited all over them. Meanwhile these ‘Al Qaeda desperados’ are all released without charge, nor with a column inch, a few days later.

Just don’t let them play the usual ‘it was just a bad apple’ card, if anyone, in blue is ever done for the violence the state inflicted on the G20 protestors.

They’re all guilty and the mainstream media (a front page story on the BBC News website as I write – ‘Barack Obama unveils the First Puppy’) are their accomplices.

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The time I almost felt sorry for a (minor) capitalist.

Maybe as an excuse for activity, or, as I like to think, in addition to it, I make full use of whatever regulatory apparatus there is.

(Do you remember all that ‘light touch’ regulatory regime in Britain - the one that was keeping us nimble in contrast to our ‘over-regulated’ European competitors with their inflexible workforce and their banks tied up with red tape? I wonder if that worked out well - with the Pound sinking against the Euro, and unemployment rising a lot faster here).

I’m pleased that my reporting to the local authority has seen Tesco prosecuted at least twice for overcharging and selling unsafe goods. I’m pleased that action has also been taken against at least one dubious college (they are always called the Oxford or Cambridge College of Canning Town, or similar) that I reported for falsely claiming affiliation with prestigious universities; so as to attract and then fleece foreign students.

I should do more. Still at least a recent spam email to me started matters moving.

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Feb 17, 2009 at 4:29 PM

Dear Southpaw,

I am writing to you about...

Then followed a long email that, in short, was trying to get me to pay for something that it is illegal to charge for – the standard services of an employment agency.

Best regards,

Alan Ashley, Executive


Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 6:05 PM

Dear Mr Ashley,

Thank-you for your brochure about your services. I may be interested in taking the matter further but I notice the document doesn't appear to give a contact address for your company.

I'd be grateful if you could supply same so that I may further consider the matter.

Kind regards,

Southpawpunch


Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 5:32 AM

Hi Southpaw

Thanks for your reply.

The contact detail of our companies MD is given at the end of the broucher. i suggest that you should read the broucher for the payment system and let me about you decision to utilize our service asap so that i can forward your details to my manager who will contact you further process.

Looking forward to hear from you

Regards
Alan Ashley



Wed, Feb Mar 18, 2009 at 2:55 PM

Dear spammer,

Thanks for confirming the details.

I will be passing them all to the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and will be telling them that I suspect you are breaking the law by attempting to illegally charge job seekers.

Now just fuck off.


Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 4:48 PM

Dear Southpaw, I just wanted to mail to say that how we work is entirely legal. We charge executives for various xxx services. There are many comapnies that provide such services in the UK. - would be happy to discuss should you wish, We do the same thing as such firms as X. I am sorry that you have been upset by Alan’s approach, and if there is any way that I can compensate you for your time, I of course will. My personal mobile is X. Best regards, Bill, Managing Director.


Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 5:31 PM

Couple of examples.

Hi Southpaw, just thought I'd send you a couple of examples of similar firms. (4 x websites) Many of these companies have been working for years. Even so I would like to send you a bottle of wine for your trouble. Best regards, Bill


Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 6:19 PM

Another one – (another website). I'll leave it at that. All the best Southpaw. Another alternative would be to offer you inclusion in our services for gratis and you can see what we can deliver. Best regards,


Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 7:16 PM

You were right...
Southpawpunch, my huge apologies. You were right. I have contacted BERR and reread the employment regs, and although reg does mention X is ok, it is grey to say the least. We will now look at totally changing the way we work. I just assumed that as all these other companies were doing similar things, that it was ok. Please don't contact anyone - I would be grateful. We will change the way we work asap. Thank you for alerting me to this. Best regards, Bill. p.s. We are not scammers!

I didn't reply. But sure enough, they completely changed what they were doing.

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Ho-hum

I find it quite strange that Labour are so amateurish as to allow liabilities like Derek Draper to play a role in their work. But that is the party that is sleepwalking towards electoral defeat, in part, because they can not see what a liability Brown is for them now and don’t even have the self-preservation instincts of the average sloth to jettison what damages them.

You’d have thought the prospect of losing all their second home mortgages, spouse’s salary and access to god knows what personal indignities they will expect their young interns to provide for them, would concentrate the minds of their MPs a bit more but, as I’ve said, I think parties lose power, not gain it, and Labour were just lucky, and soon, so will be the Tories.

I also don’t think we can leave Draper without mentioning, as others have, how non-news was the revelation that one political party was planning to tell lies about members of the other one. I think it is all these BBC political journalists, Tory bloggers, policy wonks and the like think that the whole country is interested when some in their charmed circle of a few hundred fall out with each other. We’re not.

Such near non-news wouldn’t be so readily inflicted on us if these people didn’t have power. The whole of the Easter weekend news agenda was taken up with their tittle-tattle while stuff like the killing of Ian Tomlinson and whatever is happening in Sri Lanka (How many civilians are trapped there in the Tiger area?) didn’t get a look in, particularly on our loyal state broadcaster - the BBC.

I still think Draper could make the cabinet though, although I personally look forward to seeing him in a six-foot long wooden box instead.