Observer, Times and Guardian, October 2011-January 2022

JUST THE ONES THEY PRINTED


To The Observer
Sent: Sunday, 5 February 2012, 10:52
Subject: vested interests

Yes (Ed Milliband on NHS) workers do have vested interests, but not only in how much they get paid. When I worked in an engineering factory, the pride and joy of the shopfloor was not in aircraft or weapons components, but a shining, perforated alloy disc called the Blood Machine. It was destined for the NHS.
On the walls of the same factory were notices that showed two workers talking behind their hands. The motto was 'Dont tell him, tell us,' with 'us' meaning management. More telling was the subtext: workers tend to know and care what they do, how it's done and for whom.
Labour rightly calls for employees to join remuneration committees. This will lead naturally to discussion of what people at all levels are doing for their money. Why not fast-forward the democratic process and get employees properly represented on the boards where working decisions are made and working lives shaped?
It would help everyone concerned if companies were also obliged to state their social objectives on a par with reward for shareholders (as is already happening among some companies in California).

Greg Wilkinson



To The Observer
Sent: Sunday, 22 January 2012, 19:45, printed 29.01.2012
Subject: political economy

If capitalism is unstable (Will Hutton ‘Words wont change capitalism’), it’s not just because it deals with unknowable risk but because it lives by that risk and makes it more unknowable.
Capitalism disconnects wealth, profit and growth from any material or social measure of benefit or improvement. Hutton calls for daring deeds not words, but fails to get much beyond the chimera of monetary growth and GDP. His bold measures treat mainly symptoms not causes, symbols not substance.
The task of government is not simply to quantify and manipulate financial targets, but to enable us to define and deliver the goods and services we most need. Not just to turn the tap marked Growth, but determine what is to be grown, and how.
Human wellbeing is never totally knowable or quantifiable. But we do know we all need health, housing, education, useful employment, peace and care in old age. And a world fit for our children and theirs.
This real market – or political economy - is all our business, central to good life and good government. Our future is not reducible to 'Profit' and 'Loss', or to be left at the door of ‘Good Capitalism.’
Greg Wilkinson


To The Observer
Sent: Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 15:11 (printed 22.01.1012)
Subject: millennium village

In drought-stricken West Africa, John Mulholland describes a joined-up programme to save a single village. Resources and expertise, government and community combine in a co-ordinated approach to health, education, agriculture, infrastructure and economic development.
Why didn't we think of that, in our corner of debt-stricken West Europe?
Instead, we get empty incantations: Cut-more, grow-more, Us-more, them-more. As the global village begins to bake, our tribal leaders bow to mysterious Market forces and our future hangs on the omens of Standard and Poor.

Greg Wilkinson



To The Times
Sent: Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 16:05
Subject: St Pauls

(in answer to report which used night scans to demonstrate that most of the tents outside St Pauls were not being slept in, and accused occupiers of damaging local businesses. Printed a day or two later, and flagged up on front page – the first thing I’ve written for a Murdoch paper)

Sir

I’m one of ‘the nine out of ten campers’ who quits my tent outside St Paul’s from time to time. I do so because like many others occupying the forecourt I have family, jobs and commitments elsewhere. I have spent several nights away from my tent seeing my family in Swansea and arranging a Prince’s Trust event on a community woodland in Carmarthenshire.
During my absence I lent the tent to a couple who decorated it with a poster about sleeping all week in London’s freezing streets – not my choice, but freedom of speech. My ‘tentants’ were not eager to leave when I returned but now I’m back.
During my week hereabouts I have also talked to staff in a café isolated by police railings round Paternoster Square. I asked the police if they could move their barriers to let more customers through. By contrast, the nearest café outside the barriers is doing an unusually brisk trade. ‘There are winners and losers’ as one café manager said.
We campers have no more closed the small businesses than we closed the Cathedral. We regard both closures as quite unnecessary and regret the difficulties caused to staff, customers and visitors
Like the trustees of St Pauls we are very concerned with health and safety, our own and that of everyone on the planet threatened by global warming and social unrest brought about by widening inequality.

Greg Wilkinson



To: The Guardian
Sent: 19.10.2011, printed day or two later
Subject: Between Mammon and old Religion

Some of us camped on the slabs and cobbles outside St Pauls have Capitalism in our sights, others are as reluctant as the Labour party to use the C-word. But we know which direction we're heading in, it's up and this is a sort of base-camp.
Other commentators, less sympathetic than your editorial, have ridiculed our lack of detailed manifesto or demands. But actions may speak louder than words. We're learning as we go and anyone with insight or expertise to share is welcome to join us. Meanwhile - and this we have spelt out in a general assembly - we all know that the present political economy is unsustainable, undemocratic and unjust. It's got to be changed and our presence is a step in that direction.
Like the globalised market, this movement is global. We stand with the others who have come into the streets around the world, and with the millions more who suffer and starve in silence. We support our UK unions as they strike against cuts in pensions, jobs and service.
Camped here between Mammon and old Religion - given sanctuary by the Cannon of St Pauls - I have spent several days talking and listening to strangers who seem like friends. The fact that we're all sorts of people adds to the joy of it.
One slogan on the railings says 'Respect our existence or expect our resistance'. Whatever words we happen to use, we will not let our lives and world be used and spoilt in service of a wealthy few. Nor do we trust politicians who find it easier to play along with corporate interests than stand up for the people who elected them.
We want a more direct democracy. Here nobody pays us, tells us what to do or puts words in our mouths. When the tents are blown down or flooded - as happens elsewhere in the world - we bail out and reconstruct as best we can. We are not dismayed by the stony faces of traders and brokers on their way to work and take heart from the people, local shops and businesses, who come in with food and offers of help.
Between us we can find better ways of doing things.
Greg Wilkinson
19 Trafalgar Place, Swansea SA2 0BU (and/or a dark green tent immediately opposite the Nat West bank outside St Pauls) 01792 455335 07895063030)

PS Ed: The last occupation I took part in was at the British Institute in Paris, May 1968. Cobblestones were for barricades and throwing at CRS, not sleeping on.