coverage of Greek uprising

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PMM P
PMM Dec 22, 2008 12:42:21
Replying to handofdave

I agree with that too. I joined the Labour Party when I was a teenager, and quickly became part of one of it's more radical factions.

One of our maxims was "Educate, agitate and organise". Our aim was to attempt to harness the discontent and channel it into some kind of effective activism. That, in my opinion, is the task of all radical organisations, whether official political groups or grassroots single issue campaigns like Plane Stupid.

A few scant years after young people had been torching cars in a run-down suburb of Liverpool, they were joining and working for political organisations that eventually got radical politicians into public office. The Labour Party's response? They expelled the radical politicians in their headlong rush to court the middle class vote.

But the anger didn't go away. Who should we vote for to bring about peaceful change? If that question has no answer, I can understand why people turn to other means.

H handofdave
handofdave Dec 22, 2008 12:58:53
Replying to PMM

Your creative efforts were positive, no matter if they were stymied by the system. There are clear positives that emerge from educating and organizing. It's one more step in winning the war, even if it's losing the battle, if you will.

This is what separates an intelligent civilization from a merely power-based one, is when its progression is driven by reason that's informed by humanitarian sensitivities.

Kids burning cars is, on a smaller scale, the same basic impulse of outwardly directed rage at an 'other' that you see when a government goes on the warpath to avenge some slap in the face.

"I have been wronged! I think I shall: A- Burn some strangers car... it's justified because I'm angry! or B-Invade some foreign country... it's justified because we're angry!"