2 Kinds of Fool

Seems each Tuesday we meet
With shrapnel in our jeans
At the same storefront
With no better place to be
Than idling on a dream
Disappointed that we
Weren’t so hard done by
Yet evermore ill-at-ease
Why does a man like me
Have to be convinced
That I’m not the man
You promised I’d be
- If I could meet myself
I’d tell him the truth
There are two kinds of fool;
Me and You.

Chance would be a fine thing
But I don’t have the means
To harness my soul
On a desire to succeed
Granted, I’ve quietly
Nurtured this guilt to breed
A crisis of faith
To crush a wayward esteem
Why does a man like me
Have no sympathy
For another man
Though brothers we’d seem
- If I could see myself
I would recognise
There are two kinds of fool;
You and Me.

All Quiet On Easy Street

I've worn down my nails; I’ve been playing real tame,
To support your talk of a middle way;
Out in some foreign field, but I’ve been thinking,
Get your head out the sand, ‘cause honestly.
As I write the debris is swept from sight
Mister, I can’t swallow your crooked smiles.

In sound-bites that roll off your tongue
For what it’s worth, in hollow words
You tell me that this war is won
Well one time I saw your winners

And it was all quiet on easy street

Treasure a lie close to your chest
‘Til the winds of change blow you free
And lay your head in shelter, ‘til
It’s all quiet on easy street

While you kick your heels in acclimatised breeze
Have yourself the trappings of rank, and please
Don't trouble your conscience with the human tab
'Cause fortune's wheel runs on spokes of broken backs
Watch it in Technicolor vision
And you’ll find belief behind the reason

From reel-to-reel of glut and greed
No-one shy to the warning signs
As lament brought me to my knees
I watched them with their winning smiles

And it was all quiet on easy street

Give each promise an escape clause
Spin by sin, start sowing the seeds
And soon you’ll find there’s no more talk
It’s all quiet on easy street

Whatever happened to Ian Tomlinson?

Remember this?

Ian Tomlinson died from internal injuries after he was assaulted by police officers during the G20 protests in London, in April this year.

The police originally stated that he had had no contact with police officers before his collapse. Sadly for the Met, footage obtained by the Guardian emerged a few days later, showed Ian Tomlinson being hit with a baton and thrown to the ground by a masked officer from the Territorial Support Group.

Footage also emerged putting the lie to the police claim that medics were attacked by protestors as they went to his assistance.

Further damaging revelations emerged in the following days, including the fact that police routinely concealed their numbers and insignia on their shoulders. More footage came to light showing further violence meted out by baton-happy pigs at the expense of protestors' exposed limbs and heads.

The details of the cover-up into Ian Tomlinson's death are now well known, including the deliberate misinformation (read: lies) fed by the Met's media laison in the immediate aftermath of his death, and the bent pathologist they used to conclude that he had died of a heart attack.

A second inquiry ordered by the IPCC in the face of a public outcry concluded that he had, in fact, died of internal bleeding. The balaclava-clad cop shown in the unprovoked assault on Tomlinson 'gave himself up' after he realised it was not going to just blow over, and was questioned under caution on suspicion of manslaughter.

Crucially the Daily Telegraph then came to the timely defence of the beleagured Met with their publication of the sordid details of our honourable MP's expenses.

And the rest, or so the Met must be hoping, is history.

What we have here is a display of the power of the media to direct the public's consciousness according to the whims of the media kingpins. It is in the nature of the mass media to search out ever greater scandals - doubtless in their drive to sate the public's desire for a free press that keeps a balanced scrutiny of the government - but it is inexcusable, though not surprising that stories like the death of Ian Tomlinson are ditched without compunction, in order to cash in on the latest drama courtesy of our ruling class.

So what happened to the Ian Tomlinson story?

Well, in the Guardian - the paper that broke the video of Tomlinson's death, though he has been mentioned in passing several times in articles related to police repression, the last full piece devoted to him appears to have been on May 15th - the announcement that the IPCC was to investigate whether the police deliberately misled the media.

The situation is the same at the BBC, with their coverage of the IPCC's statement here.

The sad truth is that, like Blair Peach, the full story of what happened to Ian Tomlinson will be buried by the police, and, just two months after the event, abandoned by the media.

The extent of the public's rapidly diminishing interest in the issue of police repression raised by the G20 protests was highlighted at a protest organised by the United Campaign Against Police Violence at Scotland Yard on 23rd May.

The intention being for the protestors to "kettle" Scotland Yard - forming a human chain around it. The abysmal level of public interest was revealed by the fact that there were only just enough people to complete the chain.

With the obstinacy of the police, the government and the IPCC when it comes to the hundreds of police-related deaths and especially the experience of the execution of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube Station, it is clear that all those with a stake in fighting the encroaching militarisation of the police and the increasing state-sponsered surveillance and repression must form the vanguard of the fight for justice for Tomlinson, Peach and the less-celebrated, though no less deserving others.

The tragic death of Ian Tomlinson was a setback for the Met's much-vaunted methods of crowd-control. But as we have seen, the increasing and disproportionate level of police repression towards demonstrations is part of a trend, since the anti-Bush demonstration in Parliament Sq in June 2008.

The pressure of the public response to the bungled shooting of Jean-Charles de Menezes forced - if only after several years - the government and the police to reveal the extent of incompetence, lies, misinformation and cover-ups enacted by a police force intent on acting as a law unto itself.

Truth is gonna come, but it is up to us whether we deliver justice now, when it matters, or in 3 decades time at the conveniance of a new generation of honourable MP's.

Prostitute

A virgin canvas: Sullied
Now through transaction -
Of market forces: compelled
To curtail Passion
- And surrender your sympathies

By right of culture: Lauded
And yet, dilemma -
By way of ambition: Led
To acknowledge favour
- And Prostitute your sympathies

And the internet rumour mill goes into overdrive...

MJ taken to hospital after cardiac arrest. He was treated with CPR by paramedics, and thus Tinseltown powers up the grapevine's generators:

I've heard he's dead, in a coma, in the pub, addicted to peanut butter sandwiches...

Listening to the news now, a hysterical American women is imploring us to all "light a candle" and assuring us that it "will be worse than when Elvis died."

According to city law enforcement officials Los Angeles times has just reported that MJ died at 3:15pm at the UCLA hospital at the age of 50.

Demonstrate in support of the Iranian people

Join the rally in London to show solidiarity with the Iranian people oppressed by the brutal Islamic republic.

Friday 26th June

Assemble @ 12:30-1:30pm outside Iranian embassy

Saturday 27th June

Assemble @ 2pm at High Street Kensington Station

Proceed @ 2:30pm towards Iranian embassy.

Days of protest against President Ahmedinejad's regime are being brutally repressed by security services, including paramilitary militias and Revolutionary Guards. The disputed election result has led to popular demonstrations that have far outstripped simply being support for 'Reformist' candidate Mousavi.

Thoughts on Abercrombie & Fitch's attitude to disability

Naff US clothing chain Abercrombie & Fitch is under scrutiny after a former employee tells a tribunal about the discrimination she faced due to her prosthetic arm.

Law student Riam Dean, is seeking compensation from the retailer for her experiences under A&F's "oppressive regime".

Dean was born without a left forearm, and has worn a prosthetic limb since she was a baby.

The facts of the case are seemingly simple: Dean alleges that she told her employer about her disability, whereupon they agreed she could wear a cardigan to cover the connection between her prostehtic forearm and upper arm.

However, she was soon told that, because of the cardigan, she was in breach of the companies' "look policy".

Dean contends that the A&F head office suggested she stay in the stockroom "until the winter uniform arrives".

While there has been some dispute over elements of her claim, including allegations that her claim that A&F management had repeatedly asked her to remove her prosthetic arm was false, the central issue of discrimination over her aesthetic incompatibility with the firm's near fascistic obsession with manifestations of physical perfection remains.

A&F's "look policy" states that employees "represent Abercrombie & Fitch with natural, classic American style consistent with the company's brand" and "look great while exhibiting individuality".

Clearly the individuality envisaged by the A&F head office does not extend to the possibility that not everyone - be it staff or consumer - will conform to the sculptured, wholesome, aryan-master-race package that Abercrombie & Fitch purveys to the an image-conscious US and latterly, British teenage market.

I can assure you that this writer is not kept awake at night, flicking through A&F back catalogues, conjuring conspiracies out of the marvellous similiarities between said catalogues and the Hitler Youth's propaganda. However, despite the other complex issued dragged out in the tribunal, the fact remains that A&F's valorisation of aesthetic perfection sets the bar for moral bankruptcy, in the pursuit of corporate profit, and defence of commercial image.

After all, they probably couldn't conceive that a sales assistant with a prosthetic arm would not in fact imperil the management's christmas bonuses. Their social conditioning and orientation towards such a shallow, commercialised market meant that those concerned with profit-strategies couldn't comprehend the fact that in an ordinary world, people are born with disabilities, and it is not acceptable to shun them, or to display callous disrespect for disability-discrimination acts, by employing someone and then taking pains to ensure your customers don't know that, shock, horror, up-market A&F employs somebody with a prosthetic arm.

To be sure, Abercrombie & Fitch aren't the only ones at fault in a fashion industry whose disdain for reality, and creation of an aesthetic dystopia, is documented in daily accounts of rising eating-disorders, objectification of physical appearance etc.

However, if the tribunal takes a firm line against A&F in this case, then that would send a message out to retailers that, no matter the social status of their clientele, no fasion label is above the right to work in a discrimination-free atmosphere, without the physical and psychological detriments of disability being compounded and exploited by image-conscious head-office bureaucrats.

In fact, though the fashion industry could do itself a huge PR boost by changing its attitudes to the disabled workforce, any such attempts would for the foreseeable future be seen as the PR stunt it would inevitably be, rather than a longed-for sea change in attitudes.

In the event of student protest

In the wake of a fresh occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies over a raid by immigration officials and the deportation of several cleaners, I thought I'd share this from Indymedia. It's a copy of emails sent between SOAS admin and a legal firm, detailing the legal recourse available to institutions facing 'trespass' by protesters.

There seem to be 3 principal ways of evicting protestors from private property:

1. Under Common Law, the owner can physically remove the trespassers, using no more force than is reasonably required.
2. A Possession order may be aquired though an emergency High Court injunction whereby the administration must show that they have a greater right to the land than those occupying it.
3. Police can order trespassers to leave a property (and arrest those who do not comply) if:

• at least two people are trespassing on the campus with a common purpose of residing there for any purpose
• the institution has taken reasonable steps to ask them to leave; and
• any one of them has damaged property, or used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards a member of staff.

Pertinently, the advice picks up on the fact that after occupations, negotiations or concessions granted by the administration with the purpose of ending the occupation are not pursued with the same level of efficiency, and tempo as during the occupation:

"In some cases, it appears that the original organisational energy is not sustained post occupation and the follow up actions are not pursued as rigorously by the students."

While some occupations gained notable concessions, and many universities have initiated processes for disinvesting from arms companies, granting scholarships to Palestinian students etc, the failure of many occupations to consolidate the demands of their occupation - even where successful - was an important feature of workshops during the National Student Co-ordination conference in April.

The email shows that the university administrations were legally well prepared for the January Gaza solidarity occupations, even if the initial occupations at SOAS, Kings, and LSE may have come as a surprise.

Over the next 3 months, occupations spread to over 30 universities from Sussex to Strathclyde and while technology allowed the occupations to maintain contact and disseminate tactics and ideas, it did the same for the university vice-chancellors.

Many would no doubt have been aware that conceeding to '"negotiations" after putting up a show of token resistance, would have been the policy best suited to dispersing the anger, and hoping that the students would not apply the same dedication to protracted rounds of "talks about talks" as they did in the initial demands stage of the occupations.

In many cases they have been proved right.

With a wave of actions, including occupations, sit-ins, demonstrations, speaking tours etc, planned for the autumn term, it is vital that students utilise all the resources at their disposal to organise effectively on campus, form cross-campus links, and fight to consolidate the smallest of victories.

This email proves that the administration was preparing for protest during the depths of nearly two decades of dormant student activisim.

We must likewise prepare for the coming struggle in autumn.

No Mean City

Here's one from the vaults, 2005 or thereabouts.

From Paris to Texas, you'll walk the line,
Never to your tune, though least you're still alive.
When you bite the bullet, you swallow it tough;
Another shot sunk, don't look into the sun.

This is my hometown;
It's no mean city
Hey you strangers, welcome to the city,
Clicking your heels, at ease with sitting pretty.
All you strangers, I'm just a sinner;
Trying to sell a story.

She ain't from my town, but she's walking the streets,
Like she was born in the cracks, and she's keeping the beat.
All you strangers, all you deadbeats,
Buy into my story.

Hey now strangers, there's dust in the air,
There's something on the streets,
but I can't say where;
And all you strangers, you can't play fair,
So she sells you my story

If you came out of the town, another piece of meat,
With a hellhound on your tail, you're nothing on the street.
All you strangers, and you deadbeats
Buy into this story

This is my hometown
It's no mean city

Awrite now mister, in the Emperor's clothes;
You've made it rags to riches, but here's the end of the road.
All you strangers, like you don’t know
Who’s swinging from the willow

Hey now strangers, there's dust in the air,
There's something on the streets,
but I can't say where;
And all you takers, you can't play fair,
So she sells you my story

We’re livin’, livin’, livin’
In no mean city
This is my hometown
It's no mean city

Come down strangers, get your blood-on-blood.
The poet in the streets, said it ain't so tough,
And all you strangers, there whipping it up.
I say it's no mean city.

We’re livin’, livin’, livin’
In no mean city
This is my hometown,
It's no mean city

#29

Alienation follows interpretation of questions
through a prejudiced lens
but you can't placate your conscience
and instil selfish concessions
that serve your enemies' ends.
No barriers sprung from hatred's shallow foundations
can endure
A determination to deliver ourselves,
our brothers, our sisters -
beyond cancers of colour and tongue.
so you might still blame Thatcher,
and you might easily blame your neighbour
but as our stricken leaders clamour
choleric, and clamber from our pockets
-choose carefully your loyalty
Parasites' chorus in hysterics
in suited ranks of Sirens, chastised
cannot temper Brutus's reflex;
Many hands at the tumbril,
many more to the blade.
Cast in tint of victory now-
resolve to interpret the world, for what it is,
and better still, for what it could be;
- Awaiting 'cross the barricade.