[NetBehaviour] Finsbury Park attacks..

[ruth catlow]

Hi Michael,

I share your sense of the shift in feeling on the ground.
Also, love your banners!!!

The Labour party manifesto is the first piece of political collateral in 
my adult memory to directly address the interests and capacities of 
young people- and to counter the idea that we should regard people as 
either selfish, dumb, greedy, lazy consumers or resources to be 
cultivated and harvested to feed the wealthy via the markets.

We are witnessing the emergence of a new situation and set of 
energies... I am eager for its realisation : )

Thanks to everyone for your support and conversation around recent 
events in Finsbury Park - there is also a palpable love reaction in the 
area which is heartening.

Warmly
Ruth

On 19/06/17 17:19, Michael Szpakowski wrote:
> There clearly has been a rise in Islamophobia recently , fuelled in no 
> small measure by the government's attempt to scapegoat all Muslims 
> with the despicable Prevent strategy. We also saw the beginning of an 
> attempt by May to ratchet this up with her 'Enough is enough' speech 
> towards the end of the election campaign.
> I wanted to say, though, that it's important not to sink into despair.
> I've been very active around Stand up to Racism over the last year and 
> I've experience some interesting and often counter intuitive things.
> When Arek Jozwik was killed in Harlow last year the vigil we organised 
> a couple of nights after was attended by significant numbers of the 
> white working class poor who live in the area. These will 
> statistically have been 'leave' voters...
> We've campaigned pretty much every week since then, largely around 
> opposition to racism ,in the town centre on Saturday mornings. It was 
> certainly not always easy going but there was always a minority of 
> people willing to engage. ( especially the young, in a prefiguring of 
> the huge pro Corbyn upswell)
> We also held a 60 strong rally against racism in early March -again 
> very much dominated by the under twenties.
> What changed the atmosphere completely was the Labour manifesto - all 
> of a sudden people had hope, focussed on improving the lives of all 
> not 'competing for resources' ( a myth of course - stop spending 
> millions on Trident, on wars of intervention and tax the rich and 
> resources would be no problem, but a potent myth especially in the 
> absence of hope that things might change). Even after the two 
> horrendous attacks in Manchester then London this enthusiasm and this 
> change of atmosphere was maintained -we heard very  little overt 
> racism and experienced next to no hostility.
> This has continued since the election with the humiliation of both May 
> and UKIP - what was interesting last week though was that although the 
> racists were in a small minority they were coming out with all sorts 
> of filth around Grenfell ( but once again large numbers of people were 
> signing the May must go, people not profit, working class lives matter 
> ,petition ).
> In short I'd put forward three propositions.
> (1) Racism  and Islamophobia are clearly a major problem and  one 
> encouraged by this weak and nasty government
> (2) We are not, though, powerless bystanders -whether it's directly 
> combatting the racists through SUTR or offering hope through agitating 
> for this government to go and for us to have the very real chance of 
> one committed to a real improvement in the lives of ordinary people 
> there is lots of very concrete, very practical work to do.
> (3) Although there will be some ways in which artists can bring their 
> specific talents to bear in this ( I have got very good for example at 
> making large banners each week:
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/35212704985/
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34239170983/
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34159735663/
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34929717326/
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34062471264/
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/34223234740/
>  )
>
> we should participate along with as many and diverse people as we can 
> in organising, protesting, demonstrating... This is not a time for any 
> sort of guild mentality but for getting stuck in.
>
> I particular urge anyone in the UK not a member of Stand Up To Racism 
> to join today.
>
> http://www.standuptoracism.org.uk/
>
>
> best wishes to all
> Michael
>
>
>
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