Bang bang, you're dead

[denny]

Well that was shitty news to wake up to, if not entirely unexpected. Just to make it even more fun, I've got a fuck-off cold too.

There's a timeline on the BBC News site, which is updated when significant things occur.

Right, what was all that about strikes then?   *goes to read the Stop The War website*

Apparently we're supposed to be on strike as of now. I'm not sure I can do that and keep my job, given that I worked from home yesterday and have tomorrow booked off. I hate to say it but I don't think I can afford to stand up for my principles with my finances in the state they're currently in  :(

I don't yet know if I'll be able to attend the demo in London on Saturday - it depends on what happens tomorrow to some extent. If I can, I will be there - will post when I know. Is anyone from here definitely going?

Update: on a lighter note regarding current affairs, read today's User Friendly

Comments

What if we might be useful in our jobs?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

Apparently we're supposed to be on strike as of now. I'm not sure I can do that and
keep my job, given that I worked from home yesterday and have tomorrow booked
off. I hate to say it but I don't think I can afford to stand up for my principles with my
finances in the state they're currently in :(

What happens if we work somewhere that is helping this stop-the-war effort? If everyone doing jobs like mine (Telco/ISP tech) decided to go on strike for awhile, you wouldn't have any Livejournal, any connectivity for your stopwar.org.uk, any broadband or narrowband at home, any websurfing at work, any email, any of what you're using to organise your protesting with.

So should I stay, or should I go?

Is it more principled to walk out and join the demos, or stay in to give us all (reasonably) free and egalitarian communications, instead of just mass-media broadcasting?

(that even assumes I entirely agree with stop-the-war)

Nicolai

Re: What if we might be useful in our jobs?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I don't think my 'net connection would drop dead the second you left the building. Unless you committed acts of sabotage on the way out  :)  I found out where my local demo for this evening is from a friend who isn't online, so there are still other lines of communication open to us.

Re: What if we might be useful in our jobs?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

I don't think my 'net connection would drop dead the second you left the building.
Unless you committed acts of sabotage on the way out :)

Clearly not, I have no such delusions of importance. It's not my style to engage in sabotage.

However, all the communications networks we're using to swap these messages, as well as most others, are held together by a smallish number of very smart people and a lot of coffee. If they all down cups (and keyboards) and walk out and don't come back, it all stops working, for us (but not nearly so quickly for military forces). Is the gain of an impressive demonstration of public discontent, worth the loss of most of the communications for your cause?

I often wonder about this general question in the context of general strikes, etc. It applies to the person driving the train taking you to London just as much as it does to the angry fat man behind the keyboard here. Shouldn't they be demo-ing instead of working? But you wouldn't be demo-ing if they work?

(posted, removed, reposted with better example. Sorry, I'm not very awake)

Nicolai

Re: What if we might be useful in our jobs?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would still be at the demo without a 'net connection (or sandwiches *smile*). Without a train to London, I would probably still reach the demo using my motorbike, although I wouldn't fancy the odds on getting a car into London with everyone else trying the same thing. If reaching the capital was too difficult, people would organise more local demonstrations, and those already organised would be larger in size.

You're making an interesting point, but the way I look at it is this: if enough people striked to bring the Internet and our public transport infrastructure to a point of not working, I'd call that a very successful demonstration indeed... because it would most certainly get noticed.

Re: What if we might be useful in our jobs?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

It would indeed get noticed. I get twitchy when I hear people advocating "mass protest" and "everyone go on strike" without an accompanying "and I know this is going to do serious damage to our country". General strikes and similar, if ongoing, do serious damage to the social and economic fabric of a country (c.f. Venezuela). If someone thinks that pulling down most of the country onto the government, the collapse of the first causing the collapse of the second, then... well, sometimes they're right, some governments and countries are that bad (Iraq wouldn't suffer much loss if that happened, actually). However, I don't believe that causing serious disruption to how a country works, will bring down a government with little collateral damage to the country and its people and their prosperity. It might persuade the government to quit, but that's not the same as forcing them out.

("people" here isn't particularly aimed at you, in case you feel this is a strongly ad-hominem attack; you're thinking harder than the average)

I think we will continue to differ slightly on this point.

FWIW, I'm really incredibly angry with the stupid Texans in the White House. I'm certainly no fan of them.

Nicolai

Re: What if we might be useful in our jobs?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

General strikes and similar, if ongoing, do serious damage to the social and economic fabric of a country

So perhaps what we need to do is erm, to borrow a phrase, strategic strikes? Or is it 'surgical strikes'? I watch so little TV that I'm not entirely sure what the correct PR term actually is for a bomb that hopefully hits what you're aiming at  :)

Anyway, to put that more seriously, the intent (or my intent/hope) is not to strike until the economy collapses and the government are dragged into the road and shot. Erm, honest. Although as I typed that there was a certain vicarious thrill  *grin*  What I would like is for it to continue to be made obvious at regular intervals that the majority of the people in this country disagree with this war, as long as that continues to be the case. Short but effective demonstrations (such as, for instance, a couple of hours with no working public transport) are good for making this kind of point, without causing hideous damage in the process.

I'm fairly much resigned to the fact that this won't make any immediate difference to what political decisions are taken over the next few weeks. But I'm hoping it will be remembered afterwards. At the next election, perhaps.

I think we will continue to differ slightly on this point.

That makes for more interesting discussions...