I had forgotten the joy of pay day, for the first time in over a year my bank account actually went up! That's such a nice felling, I had almost taken it for granted before. I know its just number on a screen but looking at those numbers go up put a big old smile on my face.
I also had my first moment where I felt Melburnian, someone asked me for directions and I actually knew the way.
Out of interest I went to a Socialist Alternative meeting again, for about half the meeting I was bored and the other half I was cringing at how bad these guys where at public speaking. What they where talking about was a really interesting subject, important things that happened in history that are almost being covered up by the education system/media. Its just they presented it in such a bad way I struggled to stay focused.
They tried to get me to give them $150 dollars to get on a bus to go to Sydney with them, they also wanted me to buy lots of over priced pamphlets and because of my salary donate $80 a week! I get the feeling I was about the only non student or pensioner there and they wanted me to bank roll their cell. Well that's not me, I agree that the current system has some pretty big holes in it, but it mostly works. I really don't think having a revolution and starting again from scratch will help much.
There will always be people that seek to exploit whatever system we have as John Lennon said If you want to learn to lead you need to learn to smile while you kill.
Showing posts with label Socialist Alternative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socialist Alternative. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Revolution, Revolution!
It was Sunday, I didn't have any particular plains today, so for fun I went the Anti Nuclear march, I'm not particularly against Nuclear power or weapons it just I've not been to a protest before. Its a hot topic in Australia at the moment as it contains about 25% of the world Uranium reserves, but doesn't have any nuclear power stations or weapons.
To make things more heated they have just discovered vast amounts of Uranium under the small tracts of land the already heavily persecuted Aboriginal population owns. Apparently John Howard the Australian prime minister (Ultra right wing, think Margaret Thatcher meets George Bush) has just sent the army and police in to take control of the areas.
I joined the march, their was a contingent in the march waving red flags and they had some drummers with them. I marched with them mostly because I really liked the drumming, they also gave me a red flag to wave, I've never held a flag before so I waved it with a lot of vigor ... I was really enjoying myself marching to the drums waving my flag, chatting to the odd person.
It was interesting to hear lots of people chanting different things, but occasionally a single chant would catch on and the crowd would unite as one to chant it. I didn't join in, because well I really wanted my flag waving and marching to do the talking. This was noticed and a couple of other red flag bearers came up to me and asked why I wasn't joining in. In an all to typical moment I had to think of an intelligent reason as I didn't think my flag waving would cut it. Especially under the circumstances, they might take my flag away and I was becoming really rather attached to it.
'I don't really know enough about whats going on to chant, I'm not the type to just chant just because other people are'
For some reason they where really impressed by this, and set about trying to recruit me for their movement. I probably should have just told them about the flag and drum thing. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, they where meeting in a pub after the march and offered to buy me a drink if I came along. The other thing that really swung it was I got to send a text message to whatever girl I was meeting on that day saying.
'Sorry can't make it today, I've joined Socialist Alternative we are going to fix the world!'
She didn't reply ... ever again! Oh well, it was worth it, how often do you get to send a text like that?
The meeting started off fun, lots of lively debate, I seemed to be stuck in the role of devils advocate. Some people would make wild claims that just didn't ring true, I know language well enough now to tell when someones trying to pull a fast one. I think they welcomed having someone to get annoyed at.
Anyway for an anti capitalist organization they tried to sell me a lot of stuff, as the meeting progressed and more beer was drank, talk turned to the Socialist Revolution, this is where they lost me really. For starters I'm a big fan of Capitalism and all its many benefits, besides am I allowed to start a Revolution on a 417 working holiday visa?
To make things more heated they have just discovered vast amounts of Uranium under the small tracts of land the already heavily persecuted Aboriginal population owns. Apparently John Howard the Australian prime minister (Ultra right wing, think Margaret Thatcher meets George Bush) has just sent the army and police in to take control of the areas.
I joined the march, their was a contingent in the march waving red flags and they had some drummers with them. I marched with them mostly because I really liked the drumming, they also gave me a red flag to wave, I've never held a flag before so I waved it with a lot of vigor ... I was really enjoying myself marching to the drums waving my flag, chatting to the odd person.
It was interesting to hear lots of people chanting different things, but occasionally a single chant would catch on and the crowd would unite as one to chant it. I didn't join in, because well I really wanted my flag waving and marching to do the talking. This was noticed and a couple of other red flag bearers came up to me and asked why I wasn't joining in. In an all to typical moment I had to think of an intelligent reason as I didn't think my flag waving would cut it. Especially under the circumstances, they might take my flag away and I was becoming really rather attached to it.
'I don't really know enough about whats going on to chant, I'm not the type to just chant just because other people are'
For some reason they where really impressed by this, and set about trying to recruit me for their movement. I probably should have just told them about the flag and drum thing. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, they where meeting in a pub after the march and offered to buy me a drink if I came along. The other thing that really swung it was I got to send a text message to whatever girl I was meeting on that day saying.
'Sorry can't make it today, I've joined Socialist Alternative we are going to fix the world!'
She didn't reply ... ever again! Oh well, it was worth it, how often do you get to send a text like that?
The meeting started off fun, lots of lively debate, I seemed to be stuck in the role of devils advocate. Some people would make wild claims that just didn't ring true, I know language well enough now to tell when someones trying to pull a fast one. I think they welcomed having someone to get annoyed at.
Anyway for an anti capitalist organization they tried to sell me a lot of stuff, as the meeting progressed and more beer was drank, talk turned to the Socialist Revolution, this is where they lost me really. For starters I'm a big fan of Capitalism and all its many benefits, besides am I allowed to start a Revolution on a 417 working holiday visa?
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