To The People's Assembly and Beyond

So last Saturday we all headed for London and our Summer Solstice day of action. Full of anticipation and schemes of action, we headed to the meet up at Trafalgar Square, we soon bumped into “Megaphone” Mitch amidst a queuing crowd. Unfortunately Trafalgar Square had been taken over by a huge West End Show day and this hindered meeting up somewhat! I got down into the square by queue-jumping an angry crowd and decided to make us seen. I put up a huge #WaveOfAction banner in a sea of musical fans and removed my dress to reveal a very fetching BorisWatch baywatch costume and hoped we'd soon be spotted.

As much as I love a bit of the Phantom of the Opera and I really wanted to occupy the show with a mass meditation, I felt, spiritually, it was not the ideal venue to relax and enjoy the mediation for the Summer Solstice, World Prayer and Peace day, so we relocated to Leicester Square. I cant help but feel it blessing, as we found a nice grassy area and some trees to sit under. It was so peaceful, serene and, after the initial police interest, very uninterrupted.

David Wright led the meditation again with his Tibetan Sing Bowl, which produces the most amazing tones. He spoke a few words about meditation and things we might like to visualise and want to see more of in the world, such as like peace, change, hope, love. And for a moment in unity we became at one with each other, the busy London Street, the world and the change we all desire so badly.

After a hour or so and a regroup, we started preparing for the tube ride. We had a really great group of people with us dressed in various amusing beach wear. We handed out #WaveOfAction wavers, bubbles, inflatables and headed to the tube station. With such a witty bunch we soon had great slogans and chants flying around. We enjoyed a police escort to the Charring Cross tube station until the radios no longer had signals ;) lol, and gained a lot of attention from other commuters. On the actual tube ride passengers joined in clapping and blowing whistles, in fact, our chant of 'If you hate Boris Johnson Clap your Hands!' received a lot of claps from spectators throughout the march on the streets of London.

When we arrived in high spirits at the BBC and the People's Assembly we had planned to hit the Paedophile Statue above the main entrance, but security was far too tight to get close (we had a giant 'BBC fixed it for me' badge for the little boy to wear). We did, however, use poles get the badge high up on the side of the BBC. The numbers were already high when we arrived and people kept coming for a hour or more, as we waited in the blistering heat to march on to parliament in a mass show of our discontent to Government austerity and corruption. The march was jubilant, with chants bellowing out the whole way. We did a good job at leading our section until the voices caved in from shouting. We gave out bubbles and wavers to the kids along the way and bantered with the spectators.

We stopped by Downing Street and voiced our feelings. A spontaneous chant of 'David Cameron is a wanker' soon erupted across the masses and various groups made statements here. The whole march was good spirited and without trouble, which is the real reason for no mainstream media coverage, because plenty of media and news teams WERE THERE... We photo bombed them enough to know. They were there in case riots broke out or stand offs with police happened. They were there to demonise any action we take but when no such opportunity arose, they fucked off and never reported the tens of thousands of irate citizens, pushing for the democracy they were promised and the change we all so desperately need.

At Parliament Square we managed to occupy a patch of shade for the day and chilled, listening to the various speakers, catching up with old friends and plotting. We really had a fantastic day and everyone who attended should be proud to have made a stand. Big up the People's Assembly for getting it so right.

So That’s The Narrative Of Our Day, But What Has It Achieved?

For me it has achieved so much, it has confirmed what my heart has been telling me all along. Starting, as the day did, with meditation: our spiritual growth is fundamental, the more we open up to the realisation we are spiritual beings and take time to be be still, to contemplate our decisions, remove our egos and have empathy, the more just our actions will be. The more we understand ourselves, the better we understand others and the less we put them on pedestals or hold unrealistic expectations that can only lead to conflict and let down. The more we feed our spiritual need, the less we use consumerism to fill a void in our lives and the more we crave freedom and a return to nature. More than any march, that is our ultimate power - self reliance and non-compliance. Once people have regained these on a mass scale, the power balance will tip in our favour.

Loosing ego and brands, that's what Saturday was really about, and what I have been saying for a long time. Let us forget our group names/union/brand/who came up with what idea, and come together to support as much as we can. The People's Assembly did a really good job at reaching out and connecting the many different groups and unions, and united us were there should never have been divisions in the first place. If the NHS, Teachers, Occupy, The People's Assembly, Anti Cull are marching next week there is nothing stopping you/your group and banners joining to show that your group supports them. We need to support others more. We all have a common goal and common enemies - most of which falls under 'Anti Corruption'. Not one person is going to save us from the system, not a single group, even, but a collective of people and groups. A simple change of thinking by humanity as a herd can reshape the entire future and society for the good. We just need to connect and reach out.

I know I've said it before, but I'll keep on saying it till it sinks in: let's start connecting locally, join a local group or union, and if there's nothing near you, then start one! How many like-minded people like you are there searching your area for the same thing? Connect, talk to people about your views, lets get government corruption and conspiracies into everyone’s days-to-day conversations. As cuts get deeper and the cost of living continues to soar, fewer and fewer people are going to be able to afford to keep travelling to London for demos. But if we form local collectives, we can chip in for buses and cut costs. We can mobilise across the country for combined national action and hit areas not used to dealing with sizeable protests. The People's Assembly has regional groups, as does Occupy, Anonymous, and various unions. Join in!

We need to adapt fun, quirky methods of reaching out and engaging with the masses. Our flashmob tube ride was a great success on that front. We made a political statement in a non-threatening, funny way. We disrupted no one, but people questioned and joined in. This is very much our way forward. We will attend and support events, but start doing more flashmobs and political stunts, that may make people laugh and share online, therefore reaching people who maybe would not think of attending a protest.... Well, not just yet anyway ;)

This also helps with the lack of mainstream media. If tens of thousands can march in Manchester or London and not make the news, maybe we need to find alternative ways to reach the people. Think along the lines of 'the Revolution will not be televised' and the fun we can have and the numbers we may reach. If this sounds up your street, get in touch about getting involved or set out and do your own.

A Final Word

Hats Off to the organisers and volunteers last weekend, you put on a great march. We really hope people continue their support and the momentum just keeps growing! 

For more great photos click here 

Don’t take your eyes off the ball!

By that, I don’t mean football. I mean, don’t take your attention from what is going on behind the scenes - of the game and in the world at large. 

Enjoy the game, I’ve nothing against the game itself, it’s fun to watch. But what it has become about, what FIFA have done, including bribery, evading taxes, being a non-profit organization with over a billion in the bank, and riding roughshod over countries’ laws – such as overturning a law in Brazil which banned serving beer because people died. Budweiser said, 'but we’ve got a right to sell beer' - is no less than criminal.

Watch The Poke for a good analysis of FIFA.

Underneath that layer of corruption, is the horrific scale of violence that has also gone seemingly hand-in-hand with a world cup in a country, at various times in history – take the Argentina World Cup in 1978 at the same time as the military junta were torturing and killing dissidants. In Brazil, in 2014, the police have been violently clearing away slums, evicting 250,000 from their homes to make way for stadiums not ever to be used again, most likely. They shoot at protestors disgusted with the amount of money it’s cost - $11 billion - when they haven’t even got health care or a decent standard of education. Horrible twisted capitalist corruption and violence that I hate seeing happening again. I really feel so many of us now agree, this time it's: ‘not on my watch’. Together we are speaking out about the injustice, corruption and greed. It is wrong and we want real change for the better, more compassionate in these turbulent, intense times.

So how do we stand against it, especially if we still want to watch some matches? The World Cup is exciting, after all, unites many (but not all ) of us – behind a mere team, but together, in one moment, jubilant, joyous. We crave that, that’s why sport is seen as a religion!

For a start, don’t buy into the nationalism – it's just the bit of earth where you were squeezed, in agony, or pulled, out of your mother’s womb, after all. Don’t let football become a chance to spread stupidity – and I was gonna write violence, then disease popped into my mind. Yeah, dis-ease, where you feel uncomfortable, at :

• the serge in testosterone;
• the shit merchandise sold in its name – too many vile, sexist, objectifying women t-shirts on sale (the St George’s flag painted on a bum crack?); sign the 38degrees petition to get them taken off sale.
• the increase in violence against women that happens during a world cup, and
•  the violence and murder taking place because it is coming to that area.

Too many things sit uneasily with me about this World Cup more than ever before. It seems an example of all that is bad about the world, hidden under a glorious game, which attracts massive corruption – and paying top footballers all that dosh shouldn’t be allowed. For kicking a ball around? You are joking. The world’s askew with who gets paid and who doesn’t. Anyone teaching, caring, doing a service gets a kick in the teeth, all those fucking them over get the doe. Arrrrggggghhhh!

So, interestingly, this is a happening right within the Wave of Action. So now is the time to get active. What is being done to highlight all this, to show them we do have the power? Anonymous hacked into the Military Police of Sao Paulo website, yesterday, with more hacking in protest today at the corruption behind the World Cup. It seems anyone sticking up for what is right, or fair, gets targeted and killed in some countries, watched in others. From war to fracking to austerity, if you’re against the government – who protect big business more than anything else, in too many countries now – expect the police not to be protecting the people, who pay their wages, but to be the henchmen of that government, to lesser or worse degrees. They are expecting some unrest, clearly – Boris ordering a water cannon?!

Whatever. We won’t go away quietly. We are allowed to protest at what our government does in our name and with our taxes. I’m sick of mine being spent on war and want it used for community and peace. 

So that’s why I’ll be going to meditate in Trafalgar Square on 21^st June, to bring the peace to the place and set the intention. Water cannon that and there will be serious trouble! Then, there’s the beach theme flashmob on the tube. Again, two fingers up at that Boris. And the march against corruption and austerity, with unions there, many, many people - and you can try to hose us away but you can’t dampen our spirit of rebellion, in countless different ways.

There is a movement happening – following in the vein of the Stop the War Movement documented in this film. People are united in wanting to do things differently and not wanting our governments to be such bullies. We’ve all been being the change for a while now, doing little things differently in our own lives and it all building up together to create a positive force for good. Well, now it’s time to get together, in solidarity, in thunderclaps – such as the one today for No More Page Three, after the Sun was distributed to 22,000,000 homes in the UK (exclusing Liverpool of course, cos they hate the Sun). I hate the Sun, but I flicked through it. I’m going to send it back, though, to the Freepost address (The Sun, London, E98 1AX) – as I don’t want it in my house, really, muck-spreading, celebrity baiting bollocks, and want them to know that I will NEVER buy it so you haven’t got a popular propaganda machine.

Two things I liked about it – the front page, with all those well loved British celebrity faces. It was heart-warming to see Mo Farrah and Jessica Ennis, alongside Banksy and Daman Albarn – I name these two because they are anti-establishment, and there was of course a lot of the establishment in there, of course, as they are the news. But I couldn’t find Russell Brand, which is interesting....

But anyway, first, I thought, are there any black people? A few, yes, enough, hmm. How many women are there? And are they all models/actresses/dolly birds, as my grandparents would call them? Well, there could have been more serious contenders, to be honest, but hey, they weren’t all stunners depicted today. An it’s that attitide that upsets me most about the Sun, and much of the mainstream media, that women must look good, that they are just there for men’s pleasure and entertainment. Which brings me onto the second point that I liked about today’s paper – No Page Three! Yayyyy! Not family-friendly enough for dropping through everyone’s doors? No, because it’s soft porn. It is too much for a daily newspaper. It sends the wrong message to our kids, that men do the important stuff and women stand around looking pretty, ideally in their pants. To be honest, in today’s issue, page three still had some pretty girls on, but it’s a vast improvement on bare breasts, which should not be with news or displayed in shops at child level (go to Child’s Eyes to join their successful stopping of supermarkets displaying soft porn in kid’s eyeline - and more anti-sexualisation of our children campaigns.)

Where was I? Oh yes, anyway, football, girls, girls and football. Back to those t-shirts again, and the distraction of football coming at us from today, a very exciting, thrilling, emotional distraction, yes. But there is always stuff going on in the background. So beware and pay attention. Whether behind the scenes at the event itself, or at the same time in the world at large, it’s a good time to ‘bury news’ as politicians like to do. But then we always find out eventually. Look at Iraq now, what a messed up situation that we who marched back in October 2003, tried to stop but couldn’t. Doesn’t mean we have to stop trying. Beware brutality appearing in governments all over the world, it has to be seen and stopped.

So if meditating, creating, expressing ourselves, marching, petitioning (like this great one to raise awareness of deforestation in Brazil), boycotting, even knitting for peace and change is our best way to get through it, to bring about possible change, it’s what we have to do, continually for a while, and we have to find the energy from somewhere. Summer solstice is when lots of exciting stuff is planned, plus it’s the day of Unity peace and prayer day, well worth tuning into, and the ancient pagan greeting the sunrise at dawn to welcome in the lightest, longest day. It is significant. It’s an incredible nod to the light, letting the sunshine into our beings to transform the dark once and for all. Or at least it could be a good laugh, spread a bit of happiness, and increase the love in the world. And the happiness generated from the world cup can add to that, and maybe, here’s hoping, be a force for good.

www.fotothing.com

State of Realisation

Musings on State Power

While blogging here, I’ve also been editing a law PhD thesis for someone (ooOoo get her! Hey, I’m not showing off I’m just telling you about a big smack in the face I got from it – in a good way). Writing, editing, that's what I do. The first time I’ve done a thesis though. Needed the money. Big project, hard work and daunting to go through a 300-page serious, traditional, precise manuscript – but I’ve done it. And bless the writer, it’s important work, I think, about the public/private divide – what the State should pay for, basically, and not make money from. Last job to do is to go through it all and capitalise State where it’s not. It’s a formal thing, say all my dictionaries and reference books (not everything’s found through wikipedia). Spotted it late on, as was reading for sense first, then realised: it’s capped. So, stick with me here, I’m doing search and find for every ‘state’ and putting in the capital S. State State State State State State State State State State State State State State State State

And it hit me (even though I had seen it coming), I mean really got me. On top of so many recent events from spying, to war-mongering, to wrecking the economy, the list goes on: What a sorry State indeed. When did so much State corruption pass off as being okay? Something we all agree with (not). Something we want to happen – oh, right, like sending drones to countries to spy and drop bombs on anyone, or provoking warfare in Ukraine, parts of Africa? Urrr, no thanks. In fact: Get the hell out? Or holding secret trials?? Err no thanks, seeing as we’re all enemies of the State, cos it sucks so much. Going all out for fracking? 74% of Britain’s people (94% in today's Daily Mirror poll in fact), and millions more around the world, say, “not on your life!”

The military machine of money making and earth/life destroying has to stop. 

Right.

Now.

An opposing feeling/energy/movement, is building up, thought, you can feel it. A rebellion of the masses, in many different ways. Come on! We can do this! We can make it our world, not theirs. Take the power back people, the time is now! So many people are saying it. 

So, if you’re not doing much on the summer solstice, join this ancient time for gathering with us. We’ll be sharing where we’ve come and dreaming of where we want to go, sitting in peace, having a laugh, letting the fullest day of sunlight soak into our beings and bring us together in positivity. It really is happening, so come along to:

No to Austerity (in every way)

(What is the Yes?): Yes to Love

Time for the love wave to rise up and Come Together!. As part of the wave of action and part of a wider scene, a worldwide movement. It's gonna be a big day, bring water and snacks to keep you going! In the morning, there's the meditation in Trafalgar Square and bound-to-be funny beach-theme flash mob. Then there’s the big N Austerity demo, full of the unions and all in solidarity with no cuts. And later on in the evening Wake Up London are doing another flash mob meditation to round off the day beautifully. It will be magic. Which is very apt seeing as the day on the 13Moon calendar is called: White Cosmic Wizard! Seriously.

 picture courtesy of resonant truth

And of course, synchronistically the Wizard is John Lennon’s sign. Same day as when I sat around the CND sign for peace and sang Imagine with Wake Up London and other groups back in September 2012. He was an avatar, to me, a true leader of the people. One I’d have voted for anyway.

So, I'm proud and happy to be writing for this wave of inspiration. Hopefully together we're bringing you some life-changing, enlightening, helpful blogs, and sharing the links to countless others who are doing the same. We are all in this together – but not as the likes of Cameron think (in the shit together) -  many of us want it to be different. We are here for the rise of a deeper ‘hippie’ spirit of peace and love, guided by the likes of Lennon, Martin Luther King, all the great musicians, artists, deep-thinkers, questioners of our shared ancestry. That energy is described as returning in the astrology of the time too – the ongoing Uranus Pluto Square - google it, youtube it for good background info such as this by Steve Judd Astrology. It’s not insignificant - and certainly not to be ignored. Doesn’t it feel like we’re part of the change we want to be? Surely we’re getting there? We’ve just got to keep going now.

One key question good to ask (although not always easy) and a direction our governments need to take, for everyone's sake:

Author, philosopher and happiness expert Robert Holden, in his book Loveability, asks, 'what would love do?' 

His work comes from years of following A Course in Miracles, much like Louise Hay, Gabrielle Bernstein, and many other great thinkers of our time, explaining that you create miracles whenever you change your mind – towards love. Not just positive thinking and affirmations – cos I’m always full of doubt when I repeat stuff at my face in the mirror and don’t fully believe it, haven’t lived it – but by changing the way you look at the world, as if from the position of love.

Where love comes first.

What a force that would be. 

How to #ResetTheNet

 The problem

The NSA is exploiting weak links in Internet security to spy on the entire world, twisting the Internet we love into something it was never meant to be: a panopticon.

The solution

We can't stop targeted attacks, but we *can* stop mass surveillance, by building proven security into the everyday Internet.