Britainis a very strange country. For a nation which boasts in the chorus of the famous song ‘Rule Britannia’, ‘Britons never, never, never shall be slaves’, we seem strangely immoveable when it comes to dealing with so much that does, in fact, enslave us. What our government is doing is not unique to Britain; it is part of a wider, global, neoliberal agenda for a corporate take over of the world’s people and resources. Responses to this across the world have seen bloody and desperate fighting on the streets, mass protests and violent attempts to suppress them, yet in Britain whilst people are certainly angry, the much needed will to oppose the government and corporations is strangely muted.
Violence must always and only be the position of last resort, when all other options have failed, and is not something that should be used lightly or hot headedly. Vengeance or revenge is still a meal best eaten cold.
The government has embarked on the worst oppression of the British people in our history, people are going hungry, falling into poverty, food banks are increasing daily and, with the bedroom tax, many now fear homelessness whilst many thousands have already died in despair. Not only is the government deaf to the many voices of reason raised against them, they continue to pursue policies of oppression with complete disregard and, indeed, scorn for the suffering they are causing.
Britain’s docility has much to do with our imperialist past and a general deference to royalty, the nobility and the government. I hear daily from people who don’t know what to do or who think someone should do something. It is a hard thing to say, but there is no rescue party this time, no one is in place to act on our behalf. The only people who can save the people and the country are the ordinary you and me people of Britain. Yesterday someone suggested that the army should save us. The army obeys orders from the government and for the army to save us each member would have to decide to oppose those who issue their orders. Soldiers would have to act, as we must find the resources to act, on their own conscience and of their own volition.
It falls to us to choose what we each can do and to find the courage to stand on our own moral sense and sensibility. The 6th to the 13th of March sees an international week of action against the global neoliberal agenda. There is a peaceful option available to anyone who wishes to take part: non-compliance and withdrawing our participation in society. It doesn’t matter how we achieve this, whether booking holiday time from work, or simply disengaging from all commercial activity. It places the responsibly for protest on each of our own shoulders, it is a choice. It is the exercise of our own inalienable personal power to oppose what the government is doing. It is cheaper than protest, as there is no travel or extra food or posters to pay for. It is not power conferred upon us, it is power we each have and the only issue we face is the choice to refuse to comply, nor is it an act of last resort, all options remain open and arresting or kettling those who stay at home and have withdrawn their labour and financial activity is impossible. Loafing for liberty is an elegant, simple and sustainable solution.
https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/17/atos-attack-emotional-commons-debate
https://www.channel4.com/news/bed-tax-forces-people-out-of-homes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19953938
https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/26/working-people-in-poverty-report
