6. Revolting Commoners
This blog is 6th in a series that I will release weekly which will end with the release of the Utopian Manifesto covering Land and Property.
Earlier blogs in this series can be read here:
In earlier blogs we saw that land used to be common land, common land used by Commoners, people who weren't the landed aristocracy or royalty. But common assets were taken away from Commoners, taken away by the wealthy, this used to be royalty and aristocracy, but the wealthy has expanded and I listed these people in The Overclass and their enablers in the Middle Classes. And its no longer just common land thats being taken, but more on that next week.
As you'd expect, when this theft of the commons becomes too much commoners have fought back. I will try and focus in this blog on class struggle alone, although race and gender struggles are part of that, but I will not touch on those here.
Wrapped up within the fightbacks are a whole host of social changes that I cannot cover and in fact, I cannot even do justice to these stories, but I mention them briefly so we can appreciate the sacrifice made by commoners to fight back against things being taken from us.
Revolting Behaviour
As always, language is important. When Commoners rise up and get angry, it's called protest, it's revolting, it's criminal. People deplore violence and Commoners are portrayed as lawless violent thugs. When it's The Overclass sacrificing Commoners for their own ends, it's called A Great War. The words are carefully chosen to portray good or bad and commoners being violent are bad.
As The Overclass control the levers of state violence in the police and army, and implant their people within Commoners groups, violence can easily be manufactured and started by The Overclass which inevitably escalates. No one wants violence, but often violence suits The Overclass so they can add to the narrative about lawless Commoners who needs laws to oppress and control them, the majority. Once the violence has occurred the Media supports The Overclass in parroting and creating the negative narrative.
This is the game. It's occurred over centuries. Our history is presented to us on an Overclass plate to swallow. Just a brief look at what's going on tells us it doesn't quite smell right. And once you look, you see the pattern of control and protection of wealth and power for the benefit of the few, against the many.
The pitchforks have been raised a few times, not often, which is understandable given the great sacrifice it generally involves commoners making, but the stories stand to inspire us, here are a few:
Harrying of the North
In the first instance of Harry versus the Crown, this story is now quaintly known as the Harrying of the North. In British schools today you will be taught about the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and if you're lucky enough you'll do a school trip to France to see the Bayeux Tapestry. What you're not told is that some commoners up north were not happy about being conquered.
William got a bit narky about people not liking him as much as he liked himself, so he gave an order to wipe out every single person, animal and crop in the north of England. In this he was effective, delivering what some historians describe as a genocide. To ensure people knew the extremes of his petty anger he salted the fields so nothing could grow for some years to come, a death sentence for any commoner or animal remaining. It remains the reason why the area from York to Durham remains one of the least populated areas of England today.
The bravery of commoners to stand up against such violence is immense. And whilst this is not the best example of a highly successful fightback, it does show the lengths The Overclass will go to to crush, kill and control commoners, whilst the glorious history of The Overclass gets fed to us.
Magna Carter and the Charter of the Forest
Whilst the Magna Carter was a document that restored the rights of some of The Overclass who felt that the King was overstepping the mark, their victories would have come from the sacrifice of commoners. It was commoners blood that gave rise to the Magna Carter.
The Charter of the Forest tried to turn back the tide of forests which, as noted in earlier blogs was the Kings private hunting grounds.
The Magna Carter itself does give foundation to some fundamental freedoms that do benefit commoners today, protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice. Although its surprising today how much The Overclass can still sidestep the law whereas the commoner has it used against him. Stop and search being a great example. I don't see many cocaine snorting financiers being stopped and searched in the City of London.
Gangs of Lads Wearing Hoodies
A more well know story, is the one which we still tell ourselves today and thats the story of gangs of lads wearing hoodies who rob people, although the modern equivalents are still vilified by The Overclass Media.
A more historical gang became famous for stealing from the Sherriff of Nottingham and giving the money back to peasants. Giving it back because the money was 'taxes' taken from commoners in the first place. Tax is a euphemism used by The Overclass at the time for money they took off Commoners to pay for their own disastrous wars and campaigns.
The Overclass have tried to clean this story to distance it from modern times, but what's the difference between the hero in green and the green activist smashing the windows of Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf?
The Peasants Revolt
The Peasants Revolt, 1381 a reaction to a significant amount of social change at the time but it had a few themes, see if these sound familiar:
The increasing amount of tax being demanded from the commoners to fund expenditure by the Overclass on things that suited them, today thats banks and oil companies, back then it was foreign wars.
The shortage of labour due to the Black Death. In modern capitalist terms, this means they could demand higher wages, and they did. How did The Overclass react? They made that illegal. Today they make striking illegal and companies cry out for cheap exploitable foreign labour from Eastern Europe.
They wanted an end to serfdom, the form of slave labour of the commoner where people would have to work for very little wage if any, a bit like working for Amazon, Deliveroo or Uber.
The 14 year old King Richard II, agreed to all the commoners demands, before getting to safety and going back on all this and killing them all. When you have it all, you don't want to give it up.
The English Revolution
The English Overclass don't permit people to think that the English can be as revolting as the French, so when we overthrow the Monarchy and become a Republic, it's called a 'civil war', not a revolution.
I'm including this here reluctantly because, whilst the Monarchy was overthrown temporarily, this event was was the 1% fighting amongst themselves and sacrificing commoners to do it. Cromwell did not do much to improve the lives of Commoners, although it was helped along by Pride's Purge. Probably a relatively.
Gordon Riots
Although these riots were largely about anti-Catholic sentiment, I include them here as they were at a time when England stood on the brink of revolution, although Gordon Riots sounds much less significant even though this was probably the most destructive riot in the history of London.
Before a police force existed, the Army were called in to quell the uprisings and over 200 people were shot, 200 people injured and other commoners tried for treason.
The Midland Revolt, The Diggers, the Levelers and the True Levellers
All different in some way, and all with a lot of similarities, these were movements that tried to return common land to commoners and commoners fighting back. Do we get told about them so we can try and continue this struggle?
The Luddites
History has been unkind to the Luddites. We use the word today when someone cannot use or understand the latest technology. It makes us think that the Luddites were stuck in the past and unwilling to change and go with progress.
The Luddites did attack the most technologically advanced machinery in factories, at a time when the industrial revolution was changing the face of society at an unimaginable pace. But they were not against change or the technology. John Thelwell, one of the emerging radicals said:
"Monopoly and the hideous accumulation of capital in a few hands carry in their own enormity the seeds of the cure."
This is nothing to do with technology, but it still sounds really familiar.
The French had revolted and the English Overclass looked on in fear. The Prime Minister had been assassinated by a merchant who had just been on the receiving end of capitalism and made bankrupt, the whole economic system was enriching some on the back of the efforts of many. The Luddites were not against progress, but they were against the unfair treatment of the commoners and the inherent unfairness within capitalism. Weaving machines that created wealth became an easy target to attack.
Smashing a machine was an offence for which you could be hung, but in a measure of the fear the Luddites struck into The Overclass, 12,000 troops were sent to violently crush the rebellion. At the time, a piece of Overclass history which we venerate today in statutes and Abba songs today, the Duke of Wellington, in his battle with Napoleon, had less than 12,000 troops available to him for this war, such is the measure of the fear, and the violent force sent to oppress the Luddites, these unarmed, disorganised commoners who just wanted things to be better for everyone.
The Luddite rebellion was crushed, but its movement led to todays Trade Unions and serves as a stark reminder to The Overclass of just how much they should be worried when people unite together to improve things.
Yet all we remember is the fact that Luddites smashed machines and were therefore idiots standing against progress. Thats Overclass history for you.
Peterloo Massacre
This event relates to a protest in Manchester in 1819. What were people unhappy about? The economy being a disaster and our politics being a disaster, so it may as well have been yesterday.
How did The Overclass react? They charged the crowd with soldiers on horseback with swords drawn an estimated 400 - 700 people were injured, a reported 15 people were killed, if only this was a one off.
The Charterists
Charterism was essentially about the voting system we recognise today. Full sufferage for men, and eventually women. No property qualification to be an MP. MPs pay. A secret ballot. But these things were resisted violently at the time by The Overclass. Perhaps the lesson from the Charterists is that whilst you may not see change in your lifetime, doesn't mean you've not contributed to a positive direction of travel. The downside is that having won votes for all, the Overclass have now changed the system so that there is no point in voting anyway, because whatever you chose suits them, plus power resides with the banks and corporations, not politicians.
Revolting Women
The division between men and women was an Overclass creation. Women used to work Common Land with men and share the spoils. Many women would run the organisation of that common wealth with the men being a provider of labour. One fantastic way in which to create division within Commoners is to divide men and women. So The Overclass church decrees that it's ungodly for women to work. And women owning land are clearly witches. It doesn't take long before women are subjugated and common men are resentful.
Boudicca
One woman who had her land taken away from her by the powers that be was Boudicca. Not quite a commoner but she did fight back against the odds so I am including her.
“I am fighting as someone like you who has lost their freedom. I am fighting for my bruised body. The gods will grant us the revenge we deserve. Think of how many of us are fighting, and why. Then you will win this battle or die. That is what I, a woman, plan to do. Let the men live as slaves if they want. I won’t!”
From a speech leading to an uprising which nearly led to the Romans giving up on Britain.
For Boudicca to fight the Roman army is a brave move. The bravery of a commoner to go against the law, against a police force or against a highly trained and equipped army is immense. To win against them is almost so unimaginable that these events rarely happen. But happen they have, and some wins have been secured by brave common men and women who sacrifice themselves for justice.
Mary Barbour
Mary was born a Commoner and lived in Glasgow at a time when the Highland Clearances were increasing the population of the city. Glasgow itself has its sectarian divisions as it does today with populations in different parts of the city living along side each other in mutual hatred.
Despite the increase in population, house building was low and landlord speculators kept property empty demanding high rents, sound familiar? The First World War had started and there was no longer a young male population to agitate against the problems in the city.
Mary, and other women formed the Glasgow Women's Housing Association and a Rent Strike began where tenants refused to pay the latest increases in rent forced upon them by the greedy Overclass. There were violent confrontations in protests and when tenants were being evicted with the women fighting police. Woman from all across the city, from all sides of the religious divide joined Mary in the fight.
Mary also gained the support of men left behind to work in factories, making the things essential for warfare. The Trade Unions said they would strike unless the womens demands were heard.
As a result the Government froze all rents at pre-war levels and in December 1915 the Rents and Mortgage Interest Restriction Act was passed.
And lets remember that in all protests, its men and women together, often under brutal attack so back to some of these.
The Kinder Scout Trespass
The Forests taken from 1066 removed commoners from their land, but the Enclosures and Highland Clearances sped that up because The Overclass were making money from wool and wool needed sheep to have the land.
In 1932, angry about being blocked from being able to walk over moorland, a group of ramblers staged a mass trespass.
Trespass was not, and is not a criminal offence in England, yet these ramblers were met by gamekeepers with sticks and were attacked for being on empty land, land that was once common land. On their return to, the Ramblers were met by over 1/3rd of the local police force where some of the ring leaders, and others who looked foreign, were arrested and tried for riot. Today, less than 10% of England is open. However, Scotland has more sanity.
Right to Roam in Scotland
Perhaps in one of the nicer twists of fate, Scotland, whether its to bloody the nose of politicians at Westminster or not, has taken steps down the road to land reform. In Scotland, there is no such thing as trespass. You have the right to wander anywhere, a statutory right in law, no matter who the land belongs to and no matter the land owners desire to keep you off. The Scots modern kick back against the wealthy land owning English, all done legally, through elected representatives.
In addition, the Scottish government has said that estates being sold must first be offered to community groups. The Island of Egg and Ulva have been purchased by the community and are being successfully run for the benefits of all the people living there, not an aristocratic owners.
Coal Miners
Neoliberal capitalism took hold when Thatcher came to power in 1979. She preached neoliberal free market capitalism. Coal mines were inefficient and therefore needed to be closed down. In fact this was not true and today, many people are arguing for some of these mines to be re-opened so that our fuel bills might fall.
The miners strike was something I watched on TV news as a kid. Not really understanding the politics of it all, I remember vividly the scenes of violence and the men in donkey jackets.
The real reason for shutting down the coal mines was to break the control of the Union. Miners could bring the country to its knees because, like Putin today cutting off gas, you need electricity for society to function in the way it does. Neoliberals cannot stomach workers being in control and demanding higher wages or better conditions. The audacity!
The alternative to coal was oil and gas. With both these fuels, very small numbers of workers are needed to extract it from the ground. Virtually none to move it about as its pumped through pipelines. Its a neoliberal capitalists wet dream. The mines had to go.
The Police were unleashed. The police effectively became a paramilitary organisation operating against miners. The tactics and violence unleased were not that of an organisation who should be supporting someones right to strike and protest. Obviously the Media at the time made it clear that the miners were dangerous thugs.
One event remains as the defining story of what the miners face and that was the event which has become known as the Battle of Orgreave. Wikipedia summarises this as follows:
Having corralled the pickets into a field overlooking the coke works, the South Yorkshire Police positioned officers equipped with long riot shields at the bottom of the field and mounted police and dogs to either side.
A road along one side of the field allowed the mounted police to deploy rapidly, and a railway cutting at the top of the field made retreat by the pickets difficult and dangerous.
When the pickets surged forward at the arrival of the first convoy of lorries, South Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Anthony Clement ordered a mounted charge against them. It was "a serious overreaction" and the miners responded by throwing stones and other missiles at the police lines.
Clement ordered two further mounted advances, and the third advance was supported by "short shield" snatch squads who followed the mounted police, "delivering baton beatings to the unarmed miners".
There followed a lull of several hours, during which many pickets left the scene. The coking plant had closed for the day and no more lorries were due to arrive. Those pickets that remained in the field were sunbathing or playing football and posed no threat to the police or the plant.
By now "massively outnumbering" the pickets, the police advanced again and launched another mounted charge. Officers pursued the pickets out of the field and into Orgreave village, where Clement ordered a "mounted police canter" which Hunt describes as an "out-of-control police force [charging] pickets and onlookers alike on terraced, British streets".
In 1985 The Guardian said the events:
"revealed that in this country we now have a standing army available to be deployed against gatherings of civilians whose congregation is disliked by senior police officers. It is answerable to no one; it is trained in tactics which have been released to no one, but which include the deliberate maiming and injuring of innocent persons to disperse them, in complete violation of the law."
Yet we laugh at the Americans and their 2nd Amendment right to arm themselves against an oppressive ruling class.
The battle has been described as:
"almost medieval in its choreography ... at various stages a siege, a battle, a chase, a rout and, finally, a brutal example of legalised state violence"
One final point to mention from this event. The BBC were filming it of course. They captured these events. They filmed the police charge on miners peacefully and legally striking, and they filmed the miners throwing stones in retaliation. The narrative presented to the country in the evening news showed the miners throwing stones, then cut to the police charge. Funnily enough, this matched the narrative from the police who said that they were under attack and therefore charged to stop and prevent further violence.
In 1991, the BBC said:
The BBC acknowledged some years ago that it made a mistake over the sequence of events at Orgreave. We accepted without question that it was serious, but emphasised that it was a mistake made in the haste of putting the news together. The end result was that the editor inadvertently reversed the occurrence of the actions of the police and the pickets.
Wikipedia also says:
Independent Television News (ITN) also filmed the events, and part of their news bulletin that evening showed a policeman standing over a prone picket and repeatedly striking him in the head with his baton. The picket was beaten unconscious and the policeman's baton broke in half.
In the BBC's report, filmed from the same vantage point, the footage was cut just before the policeman began beating the picket. In 2014, a spokesman for the BBC claimed that the crew had "failed to record some of the violence due to a camera error"
Inadvertent mistakes and camera error, such is the acceptable way in which The Overclass can explain away their actions 10 or 20 years after it being called into question, and long after the narrative of violent and disorderly commoners has been lodged into our consciousness.
Battle of the Beanfield
The miners weren't the only ones in Thatchers sights during the 1980s. The unemployed and travelers were also persona no gratia in new England.
In the Battle of the Beanfield police were up against men in vans with wives and girlfriends, some pregnant, others with babies and young children. But the police had tried and tested tactics that had worked on the miners.
ITN report Kim Sabido was on the scene at the time, Wikipedia gives us this:
"Reporter Kim Sabido was at the scene and recorded a piece-to-camera in which he claimed that he had witnessed "some of the most brutal police treatment of people" that he had seen in his entire career as a journalist. He also remarked on the number of people that had been "clubbed" by police including those "holding babies in their arms". He felt that an inquiry should be held into what had happened. Sabido later claimed that when he went back to the ITN library to look at the rushes, most of the footage had "disappeared, particularly some of the nastier shots."
Parents and Relatives of Hillsborough Victims
97 people died as a result of events at Hillsborough Football Stadium in 1989, over 30 years ago now. These were ordinary families, two daughters with their dad, a father and son, brothers, future Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrards cousin, aged 10, just watching a football match and who never returned home, but one that was also being policed by the same South Yorkshire Police force that dealt with the miners.
The first coroner (a bit player in the protection of The Overclass) ruled the deaths as accidental in 1991. The second one, in 2016, nearly 30 years later classed them as unlawful killing due to gross negligence by the Police. This led to criminal charges against some of the police officers involved, charges of manslaughter, gross negligence, misconduct in public office, and perverting the course of justice, but, of course, The Crown Prosecution Service (another bit player in the protection of The Overclass) dropped the charges.
In those decades since, we have learnt that without the mismanagement of crowd control by the police their deaths could have been avoided. To this day, no one from The Overclass has lost their job over it, or stood trial for their deaths.
However, at the time, The Police, and the Media, both key parts of The Overclass colluded to create a narrative. That was one of drunken violence by Commoners. Football hooligans and thugs. The Sun newspaper obliged with a bold headline of "The Truth" with an article saying that drunk Liverpool fans urinated on the bodies of dead people on the pitch and robbed them.
People buy into this narrative. UEFA President described the Liverpool fans as "beasts". UEFA, an organisation that generates wealth for The Overclass and could easily be described as a money laundering criminal gang but has the audacity to vilify commoners who help make it rich!
The narrative of Liverpool fans being in the wrong was swallowed by the general public, by the establishment, by everyone. The Police and their links inside to Overclass media friends had the mouthpiece, they created and drove the narrative. The people at the ground, or their friends and family had no such access to tell their own stories.
The Police account of what happened has been shown to be totally fabricated. The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police eventually resigned on an £83,000 a year pension.
The Sun newspaper and its editor at the time, Kelvin MacKensie, have admitted that it was all lies (MacKensie has never apologied, maintaining he was misled). To this day Sun reporters are not allowed into the ground at Liverpool FC, and sales of the paper remain low in the area.
Credit to the Hillsborough families who continue to campaign for justice. They have spent decades fighting. They didn't accept what was being leveled at them. They fought the Overclass, the Police, the Media and the establishment. They fought them peacefully and to some extent have scored significant victories, although the victories never bring back the family members killed.
Grenfell
Commoners. Wrapped in flammable material to save money and not to upset wealthy neighbours. Told to stay inside while a fire rages. The Overclass has ordered an enquiry. This effectively kicks things into long grass in the hope that everyone forgets about everything.
This one isn't over.
Yellow Vests and Pension Riots in France
As much as the British Overclass can control the media narrative, the EU have become masters of their own PR. France, subject to ongoing riots for nearly 5 years now and yet only occasionally something surfaces in the press, there is no significant media coverage on this. Heaven forbid that something is published which inspires other commoners to push back.
Full respect to the Yellow Vests and the ongoing push back against pension reform in France. We need role models and the French commoners have done that in the past, and continue to do that today.
Occupy Movements, XR and Stop Oil
I have run out of time to write about these modern protests, but remember the formula, vilify them in the media, belittle them and treat them as fringe loonies, use tried and tested myth statements against them such as "the economy needs growth for us all to be better off". Infiltrate their groups. Engineer violence during any protest. Arrest and imprison as many as you can.
I have got us up to present day, but I am going to step back one last time and bring the story back to Bristol.
Queens Square Riots
In 1831 the House of Lords rejected the second Reform Bill, designed at giving Commoners better representation in Parliament. Protests began in Bristol when 500 to 600 men confronted Sir Charles Whertherall, a strong opponent of the bill. He was cornered in Queens Square but escaped.
The Mayor, Charles Pinney, called in the army to quash the protests and restore order. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brereton used a squadron of Dragoon Guards to disperse crowds but fearing it would inflame feelings further ordered the soldiers out of the city. For this decision he was later Court Martialed and he shot himself before the trial ended.
Unfortunately, the rioting didn't stop and the Dragoon Guards were ordered back into the city. In Queens Square they led a charge into the crowd with swords drawn. Overclass accounts say that 4 people died. Other accounts say up to 500 people were killed by the soldiers.
4 commoners were subsequently put on trial and hung for taking part in the protests.
The Reform Act was eventually passed into law increasing male suffrage to 1 in 5 of the male population.
Bridewell Brutality
Lets now bring the story up to date, Bristol and the protest known as the "Kill The Bill" protest on 21 March 2021, in reference to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and act which makes protest close to illegal, we are reassured that the police need these powers for extreme use only.
The backdrop to this protest was that on 3 March 2021 a serving police officer stopped a woman, he identified himself as an officer with his warrant card, he handcuffed her before putting her in his vehicle, raping her, killing her and setting fire to her body. That woman was Sarah Everard. You may think that this is a very rare event, but the officer was later confirmed to be a known sex offender and within the Met Police at least 1,000 others were also identified.
Many men and women turned out across the country to protest and show their grief and anger including the current Princess of Wales, who laid flowers at the bandstand on Clapham Common.
Someone from the top of The Overclass is praised and fawned over in the press for this. The other women who peacefully gathered there, who are not in The Overclass, were arrested for public order and other offences.
Avon & Somerset Police had even more heat coming their way. On 7 June 2020 a statue was pulled down in Bristol and thrown into the docks by a group of people on a protest about police racism. To the credit of the police on that day, they did not move into the crowd and they did not stop it, partly because the people of Bristol had wanted the statue removed for over 40 years but nothing had been done.
Behind the scenes the Chief Constable must have been under pressure from the hard right, zero tolerance Home Secretary, Priti Patel. Imagine the discussions they must have been having. Her demanding that Chief Constables crack down on protesters, refusing to approve or increase budgets unless they do, demanding that the Police do not show more soft approaches to civil disorder. Chief Constables must have left meetings like this with the clear view that their political masters have given a green light to hard policing of demonstrations and protests and that they need to deliver.
The Kill The Bill protest took place on a day where Covid restrictions made gathering illegal. The Police spent a week beforehand putting out PR via helpful media that gathering would be reckless and irresponsible as well as illegal. Around 10,000 people peacefully marched through the city in the outdoors where to this day there is scant scientific evidence that covid passes between people without intimate personal contact.
Then a strange thing happened. In early afternoon people sat down outside the glass fronted police station. They were peaceful. Nothing untoward. The police formed a line in front of the station. All normal for a protest, and people were being contained within the area and in fact people were being allowed to join them, slightly unusual given that the Police had previously wanted them to disperse because of its illegality.
As time wore on a number of things started to occur. Police started using the bottom edge of their riot shields to hack at people sitting or standing. They do this for a minute or so then stop for a bit. Clearly they were being told to agitate the crowd. A police van got parked and left near the crowd, clearly a deliberate decision. Two nearby car parks with no protesters near were ignored.
Police dogs approached the crowds with their handlers, why? Thats unclear as there were not enough police dogs to get rid of the crowd, but they walked towards the crowd and lashed out at anyone near. Clearly they were told to do this.
Next it was the turn of the Police horses. They appeared and cantered towards the crowd. Nothing too significant but if you were in their path it wouldn't have been your best day. Clearly they were told to do this.
In the days after the protest, a lovely young police woman wearing an Avon & Somerset Police fleece, standing next to a horse in a stable saying how scared she was that her horse, Florence or something very humanising, might have been hurt. In that case, why don't you question the orders you were being given by your superiors as to why you were doing it? Of course the narrative left with the general public was that these thug commoners are prepared to hurt innocent animals because they are animals.
This was occurring over the hours in which the crowd were continuing to be subject to hacking from the shields.
Hours had passed and enough time had passed for riot police from Wales to fill the city. Any Bristolian who has ever been to a football match or on a protest knows that when you see Heddlu on the back of a riot policeman, you're in trouble, they're brought in to be the fighting squad. A gang of people who just love to wreak havoc on Bristolians and who have been promised free reign on a day trip to beat commoners.
The crowd and police were now having scuffles close to the police line. A line that had been held successfully for over 4 hours and reinforced at various times. Inexplicably the line withdrew from one section of the plate glassed police station. The crowd seized the opportunity given to it and smashed the windows. The van conveniently left in the crowd was set alight. Everything the Media needed to create the narrative the police wanted was in place, vans burning, smashed glass. In was now late, the police wanted to go home, so the clearance of the crowd which arguably ould have happened hours earlier had people not been hacked with sheilds began.
Heddlu swept through the city clearing people violently from the streets. The media weren't spared. Despite having identification a point came in the evening when inexplicably anyone filming and broadcasting live was taken out and off the streets on bogus charges.
The next morning a most upset Chief Constable was standing outside the broken glass. Of course he was, what a backdrop. The Media were all around him. Of course they were. What were the facts, that facts that only a Chief Constable could have because his officers were there on the ground.
Commoners were violent, 2 of his officers were in hospital with broken bones. Awful stuff. Only it turned out a few days later that this was a complete lie, but by then, the news had moved on, most people are left with the thought of poor policemen getting beaten up by violent thugs.
When I think of all the images in my head from when I was young of young men on the streets of Northern Ireland during 'the troubles' armed with petrol bombs to throw at police, it's amazing to think that there are more young Bristolians in jail for this event on this fateful day in March than what was essentially civil war in Northern Ireland.
Kids who were subject to assault by the police, then taken into a system where a Home Secretary has given an order to say 'commoners need to be taught a lesson and put down'. And the legal system obliged, the Media vilified them, and our Politicians ignore them.
And what of this new law, rushed through before a Coronation? The Police used it to arrest someone who they thought, not who had committed a crime, but who they thought might, was arrested. The period during which he wanted to protest passed, and they released him without charge and with an apology. Perhaps we need to re-visit the Magna Carter.
Milgrim
The famous psychological experiment where subject administer increasing electric shocks to other people who in fact turned out to be actors. Why is this here, it's not a revolutionary event.
This experiment has been widely taken as showing how people can be pushed by those in authority into doing unspeakable things. But there is another reading and its this, it shows how far people will allow themselves to be pushed around by those in authority before realising that the people in charge are harming them and people around them.
I wonder how long it will take us on a collective level to realise this and then come together to say, no more.
Pitchfork Fear
These fightbacks were good, they do lead to change. Clearly whilst the landed gentry remain in charge, that change would always be limited and over time, as anger subsided, the status quo would try to return, but the wealthy elites to this day remain acutely aware that they are not the largest number. Should the commoners rise up again, they are at risk.
John Caudwell, an English ‘businessman’ and billionaire, one of the few willing to allow limited public exposure of his lifestyle talks in a Channel 5 documentary called ‘How The Other Half Live’ about the wealth gap and shows how the super rich are very aware of the potential for commoners uprising and the threat this poses to them. He also accepts that he would be willing to accept a wealth tax whilst at the same time acknowledging that it would be impossible to achieve. I’d also be willing to accept something as as long as it would never happen. Hardly a tough choice nor a very self aware attempt at claiming any sort of move towards fairness.
This land is common land. As commoners, if we're being nice, we've been excluded from it, at worse it’s been taken and stolen from us. So let’s not forget who really has the power.
Another promise, another scene Another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed And all the green belts wrapped around our minds And endless red tape to keep the truth confined
Uprising - Muse
Clearly today we're not looking at fields and famlands being taken from us anymore. So what are the modern versions of the commons today?
Next week, the Modern Commons.
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