Something’s Wrong. What is #NuitDebout, and Why Haven’t I Heard About It?

The whole playground’s been ganging up on dodgy Dave for the last week or so.

Thousands of people participated in a mass demonstration which shut Downing St.

Demos were held in city squares all over the country.

People announced they would stay until Cameron leaves – everybody left, unfortunately…a phat soundsystem dropped some banging drum and bass and some demonstrators were apparently attacked by the police on Parliament Square (again). I couldn’t bring myself to watch the footage of that.

I should be pleased that everybody’s getting off their arse and doing stuff – but I’m not.

Twitter has been on Dave’s case since #ResignCameron started trending a week ago. I made a couple of The Occupied Sun front pages to support the call out and to suggest that getting rid of the Tories might be more productive than just getting rid of Dave…
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The #ResignCameron hashtag vanished quite quickly, but soon returned as #ResignDavidCameron.

#CurseDavidCameron has just started trending. I should be participating in the fun, gleefully composing witty tweets and designing more Occupied Sun front pages, but I’m not. Why?

Something’s wrong.

The Panama papers aren’t really that much of a revelation – but they have placed an unbearably hot potato in Westmonster – where they really are all in it together.

Channel 4 recently asked 20 odd UK politicians whether they had offshore interests – with predictable results. (4 said they didn’t, the rest wouldn’t say).

But everybody is still focused on Dave.

Dave his effectively become a hate magnet. A sacrificial lightning rod for the nation’s anger, which should rightly be directed at the whole rotten system. Getting rid of Dave will accomplish sweet fk all in the bigger scheme of things. To be brutally honest, getting rid of the Tories won’t either (though many of my ‘left’ leaning friends don’t want to engage with this sad truth).

All that would really change if we get shot of #DodgyDave and the Tories is instead of Jeremy Corbyn asking the PM uncomfortable questions, he will be answering uncomfortable questions. Questions like “does Parliament actually have any real power anymore”?

It would be an improvement, for sure, so Corbyn is worth fighting for (or with).

However, even a Corbyn Government would not be able to reverse the rapidly deteriorating state of the UK, the EU and the global economies. Make no mistake – the rolling ‘financial crises’ of the last 8 years are the death spiral of capitalism and economics as know it.

David Cameron is the first British Prime Minister whose background wasn’t in law, or sociology, or politics. Dave is a spindoctor. Knowing this, the last few days starts to look less like a popular uprising against the PM and more like the elaborate swan song of a PR man, who recently realised that the pitchforks and guillotines are coming.

Calls for Cameron’s resignation have drawn a lot of the energy that was building for a General Strike on the 4th July. #GS4July.

What else might we be being distracted from?

NuitDebout – ‘Rise Up At Night’ – #OccupyTheNight

Dave’s financials are all anybody’s talked about for the past week – meanwhile, in France (and rapidly spreading throughout Europe), hundreds of city squares have been occupied as the ‘Nuit De Bout‘ movement has kicked off.

Nuit De Bout roughly translates into ‘Rise Up at Night’ – which, it seems, is exactly what people have been doing. On consecutive nights. For over week. And despite being plugged into as many activist channels as I can find, I’ve heard precisely fk all about it, because of all the noise about whether ‘call me dave’ will resign…

Since March 31st, the nocturnal occupations have spread across France to Spain, Belgium and other European countries.

I think it’s fair to say I’m not alone. A lot of us have been successfully distracted from these important developments – I’m off to read up a bit more on what’s been happening. – it sounds much more interesting than how wealthy Dave is, and whether or not the backlash against him is ‘the politics of envy’ or not…

It’s not, by the way.

The next mass demo against #DodgyDave / The Tories / Austerity is this Saturday. The night before, it’s Anonymous #OpSafe march with the homeless (global).

Let’s hope we see a few squats getting cracked and tents going up.

#OccupyTheLot