While You Were Hypnotised by the EU ReferendumB…

I’ve deliberately stayed right out of the EU neverendum ‘debate’ because I recognised it’s apocalyptically divisive potential when it was first announced.

Slowly but surely, it has been taking over my newsfeeds ever since. The 1% media has broken new lows for xenophobic fear mongering. Jo Cox MP has been murdered by a Britain First Terrorist. Windows with referendum posters have been smashed.

The ‘mass debates’ have been absolute bollocks. An all encompassing smokescreen, distracting everybody from the fact that the world is burning while dividing us so we can’t take action together. Bez from the Happy Mondays agrees with me on this, but I feel we might be in a tiny minority…

I’m intending to post this blog after the polls close at 10pm this evening. There’s no point posting anything non-EU related before then. Almost nobody would read it, because almost everybody’s become an obsessive EU expert, interested only by data which either validates their perspective, or which invalidates their opponents’.

For example, I shared ONE spoof The S*n front page by @TechnicallyRon which was marginally pro-remain, and the reach for The Occupied Sun on fedbook suddenly hit 1.1 million.

It was liked and shared thousands of times. Hundreds of comments – heated ‘debate’…

All other posts, like those about the ongoing month of action against Trident, blockading the AWE Burghfield nuclear weapons factory have barely reached tens let alone hundreds and gathered very few likes or shares, if any…

I could have switched gears and milked the ‘BREXIT/BREMAIN’ phenomenon to gather more ‘likes’ and ‘build my audience’ but I think it’s been absolutely pathetic to be brutally honest with you. The last few months have depressed the living shit out of me.

Almost everybody’s psychology seems to have been hijacked by the 1%’s bullshit narratives. It has honestly felt like a zombie apocalypse.

I’ve mostly been trying to stay offline, away from everybody, keeping quiet about my thoughts and feelings on it all, because there was literally no point trying to communicate with any of you fuckers until now(ish).

Ultimately, I have to respect everybody’s right to engage with this charade, even if they cannot respect my right to flick the finger at it all.

I didn’t register to vote, because I don’t negotiate with terrorists.

If it were a vote on something substantial like say, fracking, trident or bombing the crap out of other countries, I might have considered participating in it. If it were a routine, regular opt-in parliament of the people, organised democratically using digital technology, or organically on the streets, I might have been interested.

However, this EU debate has never been about ‘giving the people of the UK a democratic choice’ it’s been carefully scripted theatre from start to finish. Fearmongering on a mass scale. Almost everybody I know is only voting because they’re absolutely terrified, for one set of reasons or another. Very little of the debates have had anything at all to do with reality.

As I’m doing the last read through of this, reports are coming in that a bloke’s just been stabbed outside a polling booth in Huddersfield. 

If ‘voting’ actually changed anything substantial, they’d make it illegal.

If we had a real democracy, corporate lobbyists would be illegal as would a host of other unethical, yet standard parliamentary practices.

If the 1% don’t like the results tomorrow, they will work around them, or change them. Whatever the results are, desperate homeless men, women and children will still be dying on our streets; in this country, in the EU and all around the world.

So. The following list is a recap of some other, infinitely more significant happenings which seem to have been drowned out by all the referendumB noise over the last month.

It could be that people just don’t want to engage with the actual state of the world today. It is pretty fucked. I suppose it’s easier for some people to just have the prescribed debate than face reality…

Personally, I can’t pretend to be interested in whether or not Michael Gove leaves government. I can’t pretend that we aren’t living through multiple converging global crises. War. Extreme weather events worldwide. Civil unrest. Fracking. Industrial scale pollution. Rising sea levels, flooding and loss of whole island nations. Extreme poverty. Extreme decadence. Hypnotic mass entertainment ‘culture’…

I would rather face these realities than suffer the indignity of cognitive dissonance and ‘oh dearism’, – living in fear of the known and the unknown.

Old White Patriarchy + End of Empire = Class War + Genocide + Ecocide

If you’d rather keep your head in the sand, stop reading now!

The EU referendum has opened up a ton of spurious debates which have tragically radicalised a few while hypnotising almost everybody else. Meanwhile…

Tomorrow, (Friday 23rd June),

Anti-fracking nana, Tina Louise Rothery will be in court facing a £55k fine from the terrorist fracking corporation, Cuadrilla. There will be a twitterstorm to let the fracking industry know that if you frack with one of us, you frack with all of us.

People all over the world have been posting selfies with the hashtag #IamTinaRothery to express solidarity with the legendary nana-in-chief.

Thursday 23rd June – ‘EU neverendum’ day…

At least 5,000 migrants rescued from Mediterranean sea.

78 dead after tornado strikes east China 500 injured, 200 critically.

Thousands take to the streets in Wukan as democracy village leader, Lin Zuluan ‘confesses’ to corruption charges

85 people arrested at latest anti-labour law demo in Paris

Food is running out in Tasmania following floods

Floods in Sri Lanka claim over 100 lives and left thousands homeless

3 more dead in Nepal floods

US: Democrats’ gun control sit-in continues overnight, into 2nd day

UK: the National Union of Teachers announced that 9/10 teachers voted in favour of strike action on July 5 – Flash flooding ‘chaos’ continues

Wednesday 22nd June

Indian farmers demand action as lightning kills 93 people in two days. Storm in eastern state of Bihar killed at least 56, while 37 died in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand and Madhya Pradesh.

Colourful Revolution – Mass anti-government protests in Macedonian capital

East Rand‚ SA: 7 Arrested as Makause squatter camp in Primrose blockaded roads protesting over lack of suitable land, basic services.

Central Java floods and landslides: death toll rises to 47

US: Democrats stage sit-in on floor of the house for gun control. Cameras shut down, broadcasts continue on fedbook, twitter and periscope.

California goes nuke-free

Tuesday 21st June

‘Exhausted’ French police plead with unions to postpone protests so they can recover.

At least 3 dead in Japan; landslides, floods

Germany bans fracking – (BUND and Friends of the Earth Germany call bullsh*t later in the week)

Widespread flooding hits Bangkok

LA wildfires, thousands evacuated

Monday 20th June

87% of Venezuelans say they don’t have money to buy enough food 

SA: Pretoria townships burn in protests over mayor

Indonesia: landslides, flooding, death toll rises to 47

US: Record breaking killer heatwave, wildfires continue; tens of thousands of acres still on fire – heat warnings in effect across Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, affecting 25 million Americans. Temperatures hit 120 degrees.

Sunday 19th June

50,000 people attend simultaneous anti-U.S. military base rallies across Japan

Eight people killed in Oaxaca, southern Mexico as Government represses protesting teachers. More than 100 other people injured.

2000 people march in Wukan, China to protest illegal land grabs and to demand the release of their democratically elected leader, 70-year-old Lin Zuluan.

7 climate records already broken in 2016 – more to come “They did not just break the records, they obliterated them”

Record breaking heatwave kills at least 4 people in Arizona 

Saturday 18th June

21 arrests as protesters in Vancouver, Canada delayed five trains blocking the BNSF Railway line which transports oil and coal in the Northwest.

China: Democracy village leader, Lin Zualan detained on ‘bribery charges’  as authorities seize village of Wukan ahead of planned demonstrations.

Friday 17 June 2016

Floods, landslides in southern China kill 25 people and displace more than 33,000

Bailiffs seized five ambulances  in West Sussex as private firm went bust.

UK: Birmingham and the Midlands flood – Mini Tornado rips through the Cotswolds

‪Thursday 16th June – RIP Jo Cox, murdered in cold blood by a Britain First Terrorist.

Over 400 people have been killed in Ethiopia since November in a crackdown on anti-government protests, according to a Human Rights Watch report entitled, “Such a Brutal Crackdown”. Tens of thousands more were also arrested by security forces in “widespread protests in the Oromia region since November 2015”.

UK floods: Macclesfield, Milton Keynes, Staffordshire, Norfolk, Sheffield, Birmingham, Wigan (continues…)

Wednesday 15th June

Ghana flooding; death toll rises to 10. Residents in the central region rendered homeless.

Thousands of Greeks protested outside parliament against the government and the latest wave of austerity measures demanded by the Troika. Buses torched by ‘anarchists’. Two arrests, no injuries.

US: 14 arrested at teacher protest in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina

Tuesday 14th June

#GeneralStrike demonstrations violently stomped on by militarised police in Paris (again). Tear gas, clashes, arrests. RT Ruptly livestreamed almost 4 hours of the demo, but the camera was smashed by police. 26 injuries, 21 arrests

French activists redecorate tanks at arms fair with red paint

India: Protesters torch buses, clash with police, teargas in Jammu after desecration of sacred temple.

Monday 13th June

Ghana flooding; death toll rises to 8

Protests over food shortages in Venezuela leave 3 dead

Sunday 12th June

5,000 people have been left homeless after floods in Ebonyi, Nigeria destroyed or damaged hundreds of houses.

Zimbabwe: Police Crush Occupy Africa Unity Square Protest

UK: Wrexham and Flintshire flooded

Saturday 11th June

5000 Germans formed a 5.5 mile human chain, surrounding the US base in Ramstein, to #‎MakeWarsHistory‬

Thousands rallied in the Serbian capital against demolitions in a popular Belgrade area marked for a real estate project financed by the United Arab Emirates.

In Egypt, 7 people are each sentenced to 8 years in prison for ‘illegal’ protest against the government’s decision to surrender to Saudi Arabia control over two Red Sea islands as part of a border demarcation deal.

UK, Manchester and Cheshire flooded

Friday 10th June

Greek state workers block privatization agency offices to protest ports selloffs

Yamaha workers at UP plant in new Delhi protest for wage hike

Tasmania floods: 3,000 residents and 800 businesses advised to evacuate

Thursday 9th June

The University of Papua New Guinea obtained court order banning student protesters from further demonstrations following violence on Wednesday.

Striking workers in Ondo State stage peaceful protest over non-payment of 5 months’ salaries

UK: Surrey, flash floods close schools, two sinkholes open up

Wednesday 8th June

4 students killed by police firing on student protest in Papua New Guinea

420 pairs of women’s underwear were spread out during an anti-rape protest on Rio’s Copacabana Beach to represent the number of rapes perpetrated every 72 hours in Brazil.

Tuesday 7th June

Flash flooding in London. 3 rescued from submerged cars

Kenyan Government bans protest marches against electoral commission

25 people injured after the Delhi Police launched a charge on Manipur Tribal Forum protesters massed outside Manipur Bhavan.

Monday 6th June

Two people died in the western Kenyan town of Kisumu during protests calling for the disbandment of the national electoral commission over allegations of bias and corruption.

Australia floods, death toll rises to 3

Sunday 5th June

Thousands gathered in downtown Tokyo on Sunday to call for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to resign and for a law allowing the military to fight overseas to be overturned

Karachi: Water crisis draws a large number of people to take to the streets in protest

More than 1,000 people attended a rally of a pro-Kurdish, opposition party in Istanbul to protest against the abolition of immunity of some Turkish members of parliament.

Police in Vietnam broke up peaceful environmental protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City over an estimated 100 tons of dead fish along the central coast

Saturday 4th June

Hundreds evacuated, thousands call for help as floods hit New South Wales

Texas floods death toll rises to 16, prisons evacuated

Hundreds march through Dovercourt, UK to protest cuts to fire service

Two people dead, five injured as violent storms and floods hit east coast of Australia

Friday 3rd June

Venezuelan security forces fired teargas at protesters chanting “We want food!” near Caracas’ presidential palace

German floods, death toll rises to 6, more missing

Thursday 2nd June

Paris flooded, thousands evacuated, 2 dead. 30 year high of five metres above normal levels. Heavy rains across Europe have left at least 10 people dead, most of them in Germany.

If you can support the action, please sign up to one of the action days listed here: tinyurl.com/BurghfieldAction

The Grand Finale, is scheduled for 30th June.

2016 has been a record breaking year not just for climate change but also in the struggle for peace and justice in the face of all this madness, brilliantly summarised in this inspiring article by Kara Moses for red pepper.

“As tens of thousands of people took direct action in the biggest ever global wave of civil disobedience targeting the world’s largest fossil fuel infrastructure projects, energy produced from renewables soared to new heights while coal collapsed to an all-time low, multiple global temperatures records were smashed by the biggest margins ever and Arctic sea ice fell to its lowest ever extent for May.”

Whether you voted or not, however you voted if you did, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, KEEP IT LIT and BRING ON #POSTCAPITALISM!