Money is the root of all evil.

Even Geoffrey Chaucer said so in The Canterbury Tales. And why is that we all love money so much. Possibly because of the massive impact that capitalism and consumerism has had on us all. The division of the classes, all trying to survive and become wealthier than the other. The unfair competition of trying to get a better social standing in life. The distorted distribution of the wealth, to mostly the upper classes while the lower classes suffer. 

With the ideals of money, people plunder our resources, murder and exploit just so they can be wealthy rather than thinking of the greater good. In our society, money equals everything. Now we have money, we have greedy bankers and stock brokers who try to create more profit for themselves and essentially completely piss on those, the proletariats, who have less money. Let’s not forget, we have alternatives to money and years before we had money, people traded. Money in reality is of no real value. People lived in a lot more harmony with each other because there was no need for competition and who owned the nicest house. 

Oh and lets not forget, the love of money causes spiritual damage. We want more than we need, if we truly want happiness all we need to is look inside ourselves. Money is not the meaning of life. Oh and lets be honest money causes more crime than any other factor combined, a statistic i read claimed it caused 90% of all crime. Burglaries, rich bankers stealing from us. And ridiculous laws stopping you from becoming a freegan despite all that food going to waste, when in fact we could use that to feed those in need. We’ve turned ourselves against each other. And for what? To have more money than others.  

Why the Socialist Worker Party, is most probably NOT for me!

So recently, I joined the socialist worker party. I'm not a socialist, no. However I suppose I would describe myself as a social anarchist, I decided to make the move not because I'm interested in becoming a socialist, but rather I find myself realising more and more just how radical some of my view points regarding both the government, the economy and feminism become more and more extreme as I become more learned in all these areas. Although the economy part is debatable, as I'm quite sure "shareholder" is a term I shall ever really get myself acquainted with! Quite purely, the reason was to be able to talk to more like minded people like myself, to interact with those who do direct campaigning such as the work I should like to be able to one day go into myself and most importantly to learn.I suppose you'd ask, why not join up with an anarchist group such as ALARM, and I've thought this to myself and that although perhaps I'd enjoy it there a lot more, but first I think I want to be able to understand socialism completely, considering that yes I have much to learn being only seventeen, and my viewpoints as many tend to fluctuate. Three years ago, I had only just started discovering politics and believed I was a supporter of the LibDems. It's safe to say, I now have no respect for them.

Drawing from the fact that, I am a social anarchist, socialism tends to come into it, and while at the utmost I consider to be an anarchist, I wish to broaden my mind and to be able to understand the basics of socialism, anarchism, communism and all the other left wing theories. To be able to understand, why perhaps I'm not an advocate for their cause and so far concerning socialism I think I've found quite a few points that have ingrained into me that I am most definitely not a socialist!

A flaw I have found within the party was that keeps on coming back to me, is their definition of working class. They would define the working class using Marx's term as one of who has only but their labour to sell, however they would consider even those who many would believe to be middle class as working class if they have but their labour to sell, making a figure of about 80% of the population. Broadly speaking, I think this is an incorrect definition of the working class, myself coming from a pretty working class family in its roots and both household income today, I actually find it rather offensive, having known plenty of people who can afford a much better lifestyle and more possessions than I, have not had to know the hardships of not being able to afford school books and buying them for about 1p of Amazon. The class struggle is not over, with their now being described as what is known as an underclass... This means to me only that the gap between the rich and the poor is now actually widening. While in theory, you may be able to say even those of the middle class are also working class, I believe it to be a huge understatement and shows a lack of understanding to what working class means. Working class is a whole different attitude to the middle class. Just as the skinheads and punks held different attitudes... so do the working and middle classes.

Why you ALL should watch Taking Liberties

Touched upon basic civil liberties such as:

• Right to Protest.
• Right to Freedom of Speech.
• Right to Privacy. 
• Right not to be detained without charge. 
• Innocent Until Proven Guilty. 
• Prohibition from Torture. 

And through these six illustrated how through the New Labour government how they destroyed all these rights, and how we have very little freedom with all them. It depicts the stories they didn’t want you to know, such as innocent men and women being arrested. How the right to protest has been stifled, how the rights of which have been fought for over centuries beginning with the  Magna Carta have been abused and demolished in the space of a decade. The lies Tony Blair and his government fed us and how in ten years he created more laws than any other government before him. One day we’re going to wake up with no rights and wonder how we got here, how we got to this stage and then it’ll be too late. I believe everyone needs to wake up from their slumber and realise we have no rights, we have no say in matters. It us against the government. The police are meant to be SERVANTS TO THE PEOPLE, yet the only persons they are serving are the government. 
British people need to wake up and protest for the right to protest, protesting shouldn’t be something to be feared it should be something which is celebrated and the documentary shows how we can win, but also how the government can make us fear going into protest. It was an emotional, gripping documentary and I’d recommend it to everyone, especially those interested in politics as it may open your eyes a little bit.

Tox faces the Box spurs the argument: Is Graffiti Art or is it Vandalism?

With the recent arrest of graffiti artist Tox aka Daniel Halpin who has been convicted for thousands of pounds worth of criminal damage and the debate between other “graffiti” artist “Eine” deciding whether or not Tox’s work was art, it begs the question is graffiti vandalism or is street art?

Tox a.k.a Daniel Halpin, 26 years od age, has been responsible for thousands of po unds worth of damage in the past ten years since he got started. He’s accessed places those who work for the London Underground have admitted they have no idea of how to access and is notoriously prolific tagger who now faces going to prison after his work was considered to be vandalism and not art. Ben Flynn aka “Eine” whose work has been showed to Barrack Obama at the White House was called to Blackfriar’s Crown Court as an expert witness to give evidence, refuses to accept that Tox’s graffiti has any value, describing his work as “incredibly basic” and lacking in “skill, flair or unique style.” However others who enjoy graffiti and taking part disagree and has been hailed as an urban legend. Tox has managed to get his name up into many different places, some impossibly hard and risky places and has got his name all over London, some even ranging as far as Paris. Others would describe his work as meaningless and unlike other’s who do graffiti such as Banksy, Tox as little to say apart from his tag “Tox” folled by “09” the two last digits of the year, with “Eine” saying that “his statement is Tox, Tox, Tox, Tox, over and over again.”
Other graffiti artists and even those who just enjoy the form of graffiti itself hail Tox as an “urban icon” for his graffiti, Tox being one of the most prolific taggers in London. One graffiti artists said, “He has embarrassed the police, outwitting all their CCTV and security schemes. He is a genius and an inspiration to all artists.” Others would argue that rather than spend time on more artistic based dubs, he uses a simple style to be anti-art, yet he is swell known for having got his tag out there in many different places whilst getting people to think and talk about him. In 2009 he sold canvases bearing is tag on them for around ｣75 which yet again provoked a debate over whether he could be prosecute from profiting from crime. With his sentence soon to be coming up at a later date of July 1^st, you can’t help but think if his work had been deemed has having far more artistic value, such as works by the likes of Banksy, Eine and Roa, then perhaps he may have have even been facing such a long sentence, if a sentence at all. All the three graffiti artists mentioned haven’t been prosecuted or have face minimal prosecution, but if private property has been defaced why do the likes of Banksy get away with it due to their works apparent artistic merit? The question itself gets right into the heart of the debate what is art, and can graffiti ever be art? Let us know what you think