Sorry to break into this RTS discussion, but I was wondering if anyone had
any comments/responses to the article in last weeks Guardian concerning the
e-mail ballot (or 'straw -poll') used by NATFHE concerning the lecturers pay
dispute in the UK. There seems to be a lot of confusion over exactly what
it means (especially since our branch here, that wasn't included in the
'poll', has so far suggested firstly that it meant nothing and the pay
dispute still stands, and then more recently argued that it was used to
provide an indication of members views that were then endorsed by the HE
conference last Saturday and the dispute is now over).
Similar confusion/outrage elsewhere?
Duncan
____________________________________________
Duncan Fuller
Division of Geography and Environmental Management
Lipman Building
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
UK
Tel (Direct): (0191) 2273753
Tel (Division Office): (0191) 2273951
Fax: (0191) 2274715
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Wood [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 12:15 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Reclaiming the Streets
>
> This is a very interesting debate and one that also takes place 'inside'
> the movement. I have a few points:
>
> 1. I wrote 'inside' this way, because it is actually very difficult to put
> an exact boundary on where inside RTS (or other like dis-organisations)
> begins or ends. Like Earth First! UK, People's Global Action (PGA), or
> similar style groupings the name is no more than a banner under which
> anyone who shares the same aims and methods can congregate at any
> particular time or place. It is therefore somewhat structureless or
> amorphous. There are obviously some people who are excluded, particularly
> those who would use these groupings as a platform for racism, fascism,
> sexism, honophobia and so on. You could describe it as broadly
> left-libertarian (anarcho-socialist is perhaps too tight).
>
> 2. As far as where 'the streets' are, this is another nebulous one. I
> would
> agree that in some ways the term is symbolic, but in some ways it is
> simply
> a historical accident - RTS did start off largely a agroup fighting to
> reclaim public space (roads) from private cars. However the agenda has
> shifted to a more fundamental one, stemming from a number of factors - the
> rise of the globalisation debate, the Debt issue, and increasing
> polarisation of the broader 'green' movement in conventional left-right
> terms (or at least a realisation amongst many groups that they could no
> longer avoid the issue of where they were in left-right terms). In this
> country this has largely meant the whole movement has moved more overtly
> leftwards (a good thing as far as I am concerned). In others, like France,
> there has been a movement of some groups to the right, and a movement of
> rightist groups into green political territory. There have also been
> increasing links forged between greens in the North and groups fighting
> TNCs in the South (for example, the Karnakata State Farmers, Zapatistas,
> and Ogoni freedom movements). This has begun to close a big gap in green
> political activity and discourse, and has lead to the creation of umbrella
> groups like PGA.
> In short, 'the streets' have increasingly become a symbol or a metaphor
> for
> corporate property / capital. And, groups have always reclaimed more than
> just the streets anyway - office occupations (including DIY stores on
> occasions) have become more common, as have occuaptions of virtual space
> through fax and e-blockades of corporations and supranational
> corporate-oriented bodies (WTO, IMF etc.). On June 18th far more than just
> actual streets were occupied - banks, offices, corporate HQs, Stock and
> Futures Exchanges to name but a few.
>
> 3. Finally, who is doing the reclaiming? Well, if you combine the two
> points above, you'll see that it can be anyone opposing corporate
> globalisation in favour of broadly green,liberatory alternatives. That's a
> a growing number of hte world's people, more than it looks from the UK,
> and
> includes Unions, Green, Left and Communist parties, Southern peasant
> movements, Indigenous Peoples, mainstream and radical environmmental and
> development NGOs etc. In practice the groups that actually go onto the
> streets or into offices, and those who write letters, organise conferences
> and so on, can be differentiated - clearly the people who come to RTS
> events tend to the radical end of this broad grouping, IN THIS COUNTRY.
> Howver you look at the huge anti-WTO, and anti-Monsanto moevments in
> India,
> and you have a whole different picture. THe media tries to make out that
> June 18th / N30 type events are totally different from 'respectable'
> anti-globalisation, but anyone whose been on both ends, or who has a foot
> in both parts, know that this cannot ultimately be sustained.
>
> This is not to say everything is hunky-dory and that there is this massive
> coherent opposition to global capitalism actually existing, but we're
> getting there I hope.
>
> I'll be interested to see some repsonses!
>
> David.
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
> David Wood
> PhD Research Student ('Intelligence Sites in Rural North Yorkshire')
> Centre for Rural Economy
> Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
> University of Newcastle upon Tyne
> NE1 7RU
>
> 0191 222 5305
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
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