On 16 March this year, around 112,000 people marched in Melbourne, Australia, against the policies of its government that are clearly against any principles of decency, fairness, social justice or just plain humanity.
It was one of many marches across Australia that day for the same purpose – some of the largest in the country’s history – yet you probably never heard of it. No surprise – even the Australian media chose to almost completely ignore the protest, focusing instead on the St Patrick’s Day revelries that took place the following day.
All the while, state governments are pushing through laws against protesting with penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment.
In October 2012, I was one of hundreds of thousands of people marching through London in protest against our own (excuse for a) government’s policies of victimisation and demonisation of ordinary people to smooth the way for draconian penalisation of poverty and infirmity in order to fund tax cuts for the richest.
‘Our’ media almost entirely ignored the protest, except for the few that chose to highlight booing of one section of a speech by Labour leader Ed Miliband by a tiny section of the crowd.
Last year, well over 50,000 people took to the streets of Stafford to protest against the government’s decision to close an absolutely essential local hospital. I posted spine-tingling images of that crowd on this blog – but the mainstream media ignored it almost entirely. Plans for its break-up proceed.
This is the tactic. This is how the ‘powers that be’ hope to get away with robbery-writ-stunningly-large. Press ahead, then either pretend it isn’t happening at all, or else try to twist our thinking into accepting it’s justified.
Don’t let them get away with it.
I wonder about the whole future of our ‘right to peaceful protest’ when I read articles like this …
and this one on policing tactics at anti-fracking protests at Barton Moss in Lancashire …
http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/david-cullen/barton-moss-policing-in-absence-of-democracy?utm_source=OurKingdom+Weekly&utm_campaign=be3d0cbce9-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cb5cf7dd0a-be3d0cbce9-407839013
and this one on the rapid rise in the use of 300-year-old joint enterprise laws which allow groups to be collectively convicted of a crime, including people who didn’t commit it…
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/maeve-mcclenaghan-melanie-mcfadyean-rachel-stevenson/serious-concerns-emerge-over-joint-e?utm_source=OurKingdom+Weekly&utm_campaign=be3d0cbce9-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cb5cf7dd0a-be3d0cbce9-407839013
It all seems like a global system that seeks to silence dissent against those who are already powerful.
Reblogged this on glynismillward189.
The same thing happened last year at the Tory Conference in Manchester: over 50,000 protestors, not a peep from mainstream media. The local Police Force said it was the biggest demo they’d seen.
Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.
BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS – APATHY – ITS NOT APATHY WE ARE FED UP WITH YOUR BS – AND POSTERIOR POLITICS
The Public Purse Thief Maria Miller I am glad to inform all has had a complaint made against her to the Met Police .Give the Police their due there has to be a complaint first before they can act .Her Ex Campaign manager sums her up with the comment “she would claim for parking in her own constituency “ .She epitomises Posterior Politics to their fullest description .
A greedy person that self- deludes themselves into believing they are better than anyone else she is only in her position similar to the rest of them because we voted them into Politics – and we are very Limited to choose Decent Honest people who would like to Represent a collective of the Population for the Right Reasons so we try to make the most of a bad situation from the start .
The Media Falsely Bolster Politicians ego’s and supplement their self -worth with ‘our opinions’ and the poor deluded insecure halfwits believe them ,they do not realise our opinions were those of the Office Tea Lady and the Office boy .Similarly Politicians tell us what the General Public are Thinking it’s all a Game .
That’s why Politics are today a Joke if there was another System in Place this Shower on offer for Election at Present would not get a look in .
http://brokenbritishpolitics.simplesite.com
Reblogged this on Vox Political.
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
The Skwalker here shows how the mainstream media ignores mass anti-government protests, like those against Tony Abbott in Australia, and David Cameron, and the closure of a local hospital in Stafford over here in Blighty. Thus the authorities then claim there’s little opposition to their policies, and carry on. The Skwalker concludes by urging that they shouldn’t get away with it.
They’re right. They shouldn’t. This is a conspiracy of silence by a heavily biased media, who should be held to account for their omissions and distortions. It’s one reason why the Beeb and other TV and print media journalists are worried. People are increasingly turning to the internet for their news. This also raises immense problems of bias, accuracy, and integrity that shouldn’t be ignored either. But if people are abandoning mainstream news for the internet, then the news corporations must recognise their own fault in driving at least at least a section of their audience away with their bias.
Most people do not read the news, nor watch it in the UK. So the fact that the media do not cover one event or another, is actually a mute point to the vast majority of the population. Only when Austerity and Welfare Reform is experienced by you and your family do you seek news about hope.
Well all those petition signers and protesters by the million need to do something different. Join as members of the Left Unity Party http://leftunity.org/ as no party offers me anything as a pensioner short of a state pension, nil benefits, no ability to work, disabled, chronic sick and nil council tax benefit:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
I will vote for this party for the 2015 general election. No other party offers over 13 million who struggle to make ends meet each day, in the sole nation on earth with food banks only giving food 3 times in a year, instead of a daily cooked meal and hot drink as elsewhere all over the world and throughout Europe.
In Australia, they had Labour in power but decided to vote for Abbott, now they complain by the hundred and thousands. Too late.
Socialism is life or death for the working class that are the working poor paid below a living wage, disabled, chronic sick, pensioners and only a tiny minority that are the unemployed.
Most people I know fire up their pc’s, laptops, tablets and ‘phones first thing of a morning, and go straight to the news of whatever their choosing. They get news bulletins sent to them throughout the day and most ignore newspapers now.
I haven’t bought or read a newspaper in over 10 years and never will do again. If all they can do is hide what is going on in the country, or lie about what is going on, then they are not giving the important news that we get from the internet.
Newspapers and the TV ought to be worried as people are beginning to turn to other places for the truth. Come the future the newspapers will have disappeared and the tv channels will have to tell the truth or disappear as well.
Demonstrations are only reported in the mainstream media when they turn into riots and/or smash things up.
Reblogged this on Psychim's Blog.
Reblogged this on Citizens, not serfs.