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.

Burning Candy “A Fistful of Paint” Exhibition at Tony’s

I visited this the other day, and as a fan of both street art and graffiti I felt overwhelmingly proud to come from East London, a place which this crew of artists have derived from. For anyone living in East London they will have certainly at least a couple of their graffiti about. Burning Candy being one of the most prolific and influential groups to make street art. Having come from London and many of those in the crew having been to art college, it pleases me that artists such as themselves are universally recognised with them even having been in the Saatchi Gallery.
As all Burning Candy works are, they were beautifully done with different pieces of art work including collages, miniature sets of their works done to buildings and my favourite piece which was a painting of a city landscape beautifully done with a train passing through underneath with each of their tags on it; Sweetoof, Gold Peg, Hiboux, Tek 33. The gallery in which itself was being shot in as seen in the video which was shot for the exhibition was the apparently “aftermath of a Western style showdown” using fire extinguishers filled with paint to splatter the inside of the building with different colours and is followed by an accompanying video on YouTube. It was an explosion of beautifully done work and vibrant colours. I’d recommend to all of you who enjoy any sort of Street Art and live in London, as it is a substantially small exhibition it would only take ten minutes if your time. However it closes really soon on the 21st August!

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

I believe I should start using this far more often than I do,

so I've set myself the task of writing at least one or two posts a week, I'm sorry for the non writing and hope y'all enjoy what's going to be coming up because I have a feeling from next week and the next protest there will be a hell of a lot to write about.

Charlotte Stebbing-Boulet xo

R.I.P Brian Haw

Brian Haw, the veteran peace campaigner died on the 18^th June in Germany at the age of 62 after a long battle against lung cancer and ten years of peaceful campaign constantly around the clock with his camp becoming a tourist attraction in itself and a pilgrimage for other protesters. His family announced that he died peacefully in his sleep.

Brian Haw was well known from June 2001 where he set up his protests and camp outside the Houses of Parliament initially to protests against the US and Britain’s bombings and economic sanctions on Iraq and then rose up in profile and changed partially once the 9/11 attacks had finished and especially after the announcement of the war in Iraq to incorporate that into his individual protest. In 2007 he was voted to be the Most Politically Inspiring Figure of the Year in the Channel 4 Political Awards.Despite laws to the government put up to curtail our right to protest outside of the Houses of Parliament, Brian Haw never once gave up and became a familiar site outside the Houses of Parliament, with his many placards depicting scenes of horror and slogans spreading the message of anti-war and peace with artists such as Banksy contributing artwork and banners to the site. Over the years, different legislations were passed to stop his protests which he all but overcame however finally in March of this year, 2011, Boris Johnson Mayor of London won an order to evict Mr Haw and other campaigners out of Parliament Square Gardens which then forced him onto the streets.

Brian Haw was an inspiration to many, and even after his death shall continue to be just that. With his prolific campaigning getting right to the heart of the matter and gaining the public’s attention with his thought provoking messages and constant camping and vigil receiving attention from campaigner’s and politician’s worldwide, such as winning the support and backing of Labour politician MP Tony Benn. Haw showed us what never has there been a man so dedicated and passionate to a cause in recent years, and was an irritating reminder to the establishment on a daily basis of the many innocent lives they were cutting short. Not only did he document and protest against Bush and Blair he also documented the birth defects which occurred after the Gulf War as a result of depleted uranium. He lived at his camp for ten years, with supporters bringing him food when he needed it and built a home for himself as a camp of tents and of horrific war pictures and anti-war slogans to spread his message of peace and against the patriotism of war that England seems to instil to justify the effects of going to war on what was based upon a lie. As Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn wrote: “He stood and camped in Parliament Square for ten years, challenged law and above all reminded MPs daily of the consequences of their decisions, easily made in the warm glow of moral superiority and jingoism, have consequences for our civil liberties and the lives of thousands of innocent people and generations that follow.” Fellow protesters carry on continuing to attempt to spread the messages and retain the camp

I'm stuck

stuck stuck stuck,
i cannot think of anything to write about any more. is this what they call writes block, because if i so, it's majorly unsatisfactory as you may have guessed, and it makes me feel empty inside; like the shell of hermit crab once the crab has departed, or the shell of a snail after it's been long dead.
it's frustrating, it's almost as if it's come to a standstill and i'm waiting for the traffic light to turn green, but it never turns that way, instead it merelt flickers from red to orange, taunting my need to write with my lack of ideas.