Yesterday in the City April 1-2009

Yesterday in the City April 1-2009

At least 3 members were out yesterday to hand out leaflets and sell the Standard. It would be nice to think that the "Abolish Money" banner reported in today Times was a reference to us:
"But until the eruption in Threadneedle Street the protests had been remarkably good-natured. United by a ragbag collection of grievances, they carried banners that ranged from the extreme ("Abolish money") to the faintly humorous ("Capitalist bwankers" and "Swindlers' list")" (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/G20/article6018682.ece).
In any event the leaflets handed out by the comrade at London Bridge were headed "A Moneyless Society -- Now!". Besides handing out hundreds of a leaflet headed "In Place of Capitalism", the comrades at Liverpool Street also managed to sell 5 Standards.
Most of those on the marches from the 4 London railway stations to the Bank of England were not the usual Trotskyist types but more greenie/climate protestors, etc. In fact the other leaflets being handed out at London Bridge were from currency cranks advocating the abolition of "debt money" not your usual "Make the Capitalists Pay" and "The Working Class Must Do This" stuff.
Knowing that you can't beat the State and what the police tactics would be if any demonstrators departed from what had been agreed with them (coral these demonstrators into a dead-end street and only let them out -- and photograph them -- one by one) we stayed away from the "eruption" in Threadneedle Street, leaving the boys in black to have their usual ritualistic confrontation with the boys in blue.

G20 Report

Seven comrades attended this event to distribute leaflets, sell Standards, talk to people, etc. Not enough to side a soccer time but still enough for seven-a-side rugby. Both the start at the Temple and the end at Speaker's Corner were covered. About £25 worth of literature, mainly Standards but also a couple of pamphlets and DVDs were sold, about par for the course.
The posters (theirs, not ours)proclaimed "Jobs, Justice and Climate" and "Put People First". This last is never going to happen under capitalism of course but at least this slogan was better than the SWP's "Make Capitalism Pay".

Jobs? Fair enough for the money, but it's still a demand to be exploited. Justice? I'm sure the supporters of capitalism would say their system is just. Climate? Agreed, we could have done with an improvement in the weather, as we packed up when it began to rain and hail.

Seriously, our presence on these events is useful because it reinforces the fact that we still exist and are still at. We also meet some interesting people such as ex-members and SWP ex-Polituro member Ian Birchall. Ex-comrade Baldwin, who was trying to sell our 1948 pamphlet on the Communist Manifesto, saw us but blanked us.

A banner was taken along and attached to the lit table. Actually, it doesn't say "Capitalism Isn't Working" if only because the crisis is an example of capitalism working normally. As is pointed out in an article in the April Standard headed "Capitalism is Working".
Forget to add that there were trade-union delegations from France, Belgium, Germany and Holland. If we'd known we could have bought along some leaflets in French, Dutch and German. We will do next time.