Every Saturday we go to demonstrate in Paris. Georgia Pouliquen, Alternative View 10 lecture, ‘The 21st Century French Yellow Vest Revolution, Youtube 1.11.49
I want to provide a testimony from France to the world about massive domestic oppression in my country France and violence of our government. ibid. Georgia’s video testimony
Yellow Vests are a humanist movement, a beautiful movement, and now we suffer massive domestic oppression … This is about freedom, and government commits violence of fundamental human rights here in France. ibid.
That’s not crowd control: that’s massive and bloody repression, and the French government try to hide the truth. ibid.
Macron passed a law to prevent us to demonstrate in the streets: now it’s an offence … We don’t have freedom of assembly any more. ibid.
A lot of young people lost an eye. ibid.
We have no choice: that’s a survival movement. ibid.
‘For the third time. I kind of got used to it by then. Why are we still together? What a question. I dunno. I just think obviously your family’s your family’ innit, you’ve got to like stick by each other through thick and thin. He’s the kid’s dad, and when he is around, he’s good. He’s not around as much as he should be.’ Prisoners’ Wives: Visiting Hour, wife, Channel 5 2019
We need unity. We need solidarity. Solidarity! Solidarity! Solidarity! … Solidarity: it works for all of us. The Irishman 2019 starring Robert de Niro & Al Pacino & Joe Pesci & Ray Romano & Bobby Cannavale & Anna Paquin & Lucy Gallina & Stephen Graham & Harvey Keitel & Stepehanie Kurtzuba & Katherine Narducci et al, director Martin Scorsese, Jimmy Hoffa
‘First there’ll be the blacks and Asians. Then the Jews and Irish. And this ain’t easy speeches – this is true. And then it’ll be the unions. Oh ar make no mistake. The Labour Party: that’ll do. The others too. All in the interests of the nation. And to save the nation, they’ll destroy the nation. All of it except themselves. And if we let ’em, we’ve got ourselves to blame. Our fault. We turned our back.’ Play for Today: Destiny, BBC 1978
Mrs Thatcher came to power on a promise to middle England. But she saw one big obstacle in the way … How she dismantled it: the cunning, the ruthlessness as she weaponised the police. And the killer instinct … Thatcher vs the Miners. Mrs Thatcher v The Miners: The Battle for Britain, Channel 5 2021
Thatcher watched on as Ted Heath made a fatal mistake. Heath called an election on the question, Who runs Britain, the Tory government or the Miners? Heath lost. ibid.
‘Scargill and Thatcher deserved each other; absolutely no-one else deserved either of them.’ ibid. Neil Kinnock
Spurred on by his first brush with Thatcher, Scargill demanded a pay rise for his miners towards the end of 1983. The government refused. So the miners stopped working overtime. But Scargill had miscalculated Thatcher’s determination to stand firm. And on March 6th 1984 when news leaked out that Cortonwood colliery in Yorkshire would be shut down, and the men would all lose their jobs, Scargill was taken by complete surprise. The men walked out on strike immediately. A few days later, it was announced that another twenty pits would close with 20,000 job losses. Caught off guard, Scargill went for the kill and called for a national strike. ibid.
When the men walked out of the collieries, Scargill didn’t call a national vote. This was his next big mistake. ibid.
On March 12 1984 Scargill’s call for action resulted in almost 165,000 men downing tools and walking out on strike. Over 35,000 others remained at work. ibid.
Those on strike had nothing; they weren’t entitled to benefits. Families were really struggling. ibid.
One thing Thatcher did underestimate was their resilience. ibid.
The Christmas bonus really worked, and it became clear that the strike was nearing its end game. ibid.
What was happening in his beloved Spain was beginning to change his [Hemingway] mind. It was now being torn apart by a civil war. Early in 1936 reactionary elements of the army eventually led by a fascist general named Francisco Franco and supported by wealthy industrialists, great landowners and the Catholic Church joined forces to try to overthrow the duly elected socialist government. Hitler provided Franco and his rebels with bombers and fighter planes and German pilots to fly them. Their goal was to terrorise the civilian population. The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini dispatched tanks and nearly 80,000 troops. Within weeks, Franco’s forces had seized one third of the country from those faithful to the government … Between 30-40,000 men from more than 50 countries would answer the call. Hemingway III, BBC 2021
Part of something that had started 200 years before with the French Revolution: it was the idea that through revolution you could break through to a new kind of world. Something beyond the corrupt reality of this one. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head VI Are We a Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? ***** BBC 2021
His [Tupac’s] message was simple: that suspicion was just another form of control. ibid.
Kids don’t have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don’t have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organised; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that. That’s why I sing these songs, damnit! No roots, no fruit! Utah Phillips
The real threat to democracy is a government that crushes our rights and silences, our solidarity. Jeremy Corbyn