“When I say bankers, you say wankers”
Thursday 16 October 2008 at 07:30 UTC
My colleague the video journalist Jason Parkinson has posted on his website a four and a half minute film taken during the recent anti-banker demonstration in London. It’s just a shame it took the so-called Socialist Workers Party to organise this show of popular disgust with the actions of those at the pinnacle our plutocratic (and some would say kleptocratic) society.
© 2008 Jason Parkinson. All rights reserved.
Click on the video still to be taken to Jason’s website. You may not be particularly impressed with video of a noisy left-wing street manifestation, but it was a significant if fairly small-scale event, and one little reported by Britain’s mainstream media.
As for the title above, which derives from a mildly funny chant heard during Jason’s film, I would say that this captures the zeitgeist among the lower orders of our dysfunctional society. One could of course interpret it as typical Trotskyite sloganeering: “I say bankers, and you, comrades, will respond with ‘wankers’. By order of the Central Committee.” After all, the SWP is a standing joke among the thinking left. But in this case, credit where credit’s due.
An even more amusing take on the banking crisis, and in particular the government’s response to it, comes from Olly. All power to his Onions!
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Friday 17 October 2008 at 22:40 UTC
At the risk of sounding all “bloody hippies”, but what did minimum wage coffee shop workers at the Royal Exchange have to do with Lehman Brothers? A quick jolly scuffle on the streets, and then back for afternoon classes.
Plus, I suspect it is more likely that others organized this flash protest, and Swuppies saw it as an opportunity to come along with Troops Out! placards. Yeah, tacking on multiple issues worked so well the last time…
Friday 17 October 2008 at 22:50 UTC
That’s why I say it’s a shame it took a bunch of Swuppies to organise the protest. The impression I gain from the media is that the protest in many ways represented the vox populi. The problem is that most Brits are happy to whine among themselves down the pub. Or to passing journalists, especially if they can get their mugs on the telly. But otherwise the vast majority of Brits cannot be arsed to do anything about the things they so like to complain about.
Saturday 18 October 2008 at 00:25 UTC
Shurely, a shame that this spontaneous outrage amongst genuine Left protest groups was hijacked by a bunch of politically parasitic cranks with the aid of tacking on their own personal gripes?
It looked good humoured, though.
Saturday 18 October 2008 at 00:31 UTC
“It looked good humoured, though.
Which in itself is an advance for the SWP. Shurely.