seeing the wood and the trees

the ,eadarticle in the latest issue of mass strike makes amongst many other good points,the point about generalised broad demands such as for"work for all" in the north afriucan struggles over the more defensive demand for "no cuts"in britain.the problem is not a simple matter of snappy words but it is a real issue.

the british con-dem government may not have been quite so physically brutal as the autocratic regimes in north africa but it does have a"slash and burn" approach to its cuts that is just as brutal in another sense.

this effectively means we have to defend everything but we ought to make an opportunity out of a neccessity.infighting against cuts we should articulate what we actually want and need-in demanding services that are worth defending.when i attended a meeting in my own comunity in defence of the local library aweek or so ago i had only a few moments during my spoken contributiion to make a number of points.

i did not have a chance to respond to the platforms focus on being realistic in reviewing the funding options consideredby thecouncil or i would have said,"be realistic-demand the impossible"because we really should not be hemmed in by the terms of debate in which the system is fixed and in which we should not be bound together with the capitalist system.we are only bound together as a working class which needs to realise itself as a self consciius class in and for and of itself.we have world to win.

apologists for the system might be cynical in "allowing"for some anger qand resistance to these swingeing plans but they must also be reflecting some anxiety.their arguments sound tired and cynical and grasp at anything in seeking to assuage argued or implied dissent.

part of the popularimage of britons or at least the english is that we are self deprecatring and don't tae ourselves seriously,buteven i don't appreciate the apologist who in discussing the recent u turn by the government not to sell publicly owned woodland said something like "whilst the north africans struggle over what is important the english are defending their trees".this just trivialises a struggle,in which a concession by government about trees is a concession at a weak point for them which they are might see as a way of fobbing us off.

its not that simple.the apologist probably doe not need anything he is happy to see cut.we should not accept the trivialisation or cuts in anything.

if we have to make cuts lets start with the privelges of those who thgink they rule over us."away with all pests"