Party Vibe

not sure about the other nations but to be fair the London one actually has some folk with sensible ideas (such as renationalising utilities/public transport), though this is something that traditional left wing folk have been suggesting for decades).

in England (I can’t speak for other nations) the problem with burning a high value motor car or someones business is its then very easy to demonise immigrants and their families what own these things through hard work as well as the idle rich, as you don’t usually know who owns that car…

That said even if I had the money and a driving license I wouldn’t buy a piece of heavy overpriced crap like a roller, I’d buy a German or Japanese motor instead..

they do need to turn those thoughts into action but other than these protests the only way of getting that is to create genuine alternatives whilst acknowledging a complete collapse of the markets/banks would be a disaster – for instance most of the components now found in the AV kit we can afford today originated as part of the comms systems for the stock market / banks / big corporates (I found a 10 year old electronics magazine in a box of records)

The manager of my local credit union got sent down 32 months for robbing the customers accounts and if it wasn’t for the cops and the security team at a mainstream (but ethical bank) he might have got away with it. this happens and the customers have a guarantee so they don’t lose out but now if you try to sign up to it there are more security checks/rules what weren’t there before.

I also know for a fact they just put at least a fair proportion of the money in Co-op bank in Princes Street Ipswich as I was going to join up but realised as I bank with Smile/the Co-Op anyway and have done for about 10 years for the same reasons other “middle class” folk are now doing these protests there really wasn’t any gain to anyone (not even the credit union, who get extra admin work for relatively little return – my local one appears to be run by volunteers. Also (perhaps because of the theft) everything is done manually rather than online.

What credit unions do provide is a useful place for securely saving cash for people what either can’t get normal bank accounts or do not want to go into the main town centre perhaps due to age/health or family commitments but many are simply an extension of the Co-Op or Triodos banks which to be fair are already reasonably ethically run.

The credit union “protest” isn’t a bad idea but might also have unintended consequences. if it takes business away from more mainstream/less ethical banks thats good, but the 5th of November is a Saturday and these places have limited opening hours and admin staff. Many would struggle to handle a large influx of new business on a single day like that – there is a risk of errors in customer accounts, a decline in customer service and a loss of confidence in them which the conventional “free market” types will use as a counterarguments. What they should have done is spread out the transfers over a month or even longer and given folk more honest info about credit unions and their potential limitations.

In the early 2000s, a good review in the Grauniad brought down the computer systems of the Co-Op/smile like a sack of shit (they simply couldn’t handle the volume of requests) and peoples accounts were plagued by errors, the customer service staff couldn’t cope and to this day some folk still distrust them (and these are the right on hippy types they were trying to attract). it wasn’t even a marketing gone wrong but a genuine attempt by a independent reporter to spread “good news” – and this is one of the oldest and most successful workers co-operatives in Britain. in this case not even a conspiracy or stitch up or lack of solidarity but folk simply not thinking things through.

I understand the reason for picking the date, (I was once a Catholic :wink:) – but I still think that particular protest (not even the entire occupy movement) has not been thought through properly, especially what happened to Smile. To be fair they are ethical, they do sometimes try to sell extra stuff but last time they did that I instead tried to “sell” the Northern lass on the call centre a stray kitten (there was loads needing homes near where the call centre was). she may well even have rehomed it..

The local credit union is also slighty less strict about ID but does need some, particularly after that chap robbed the place.

He was shown in the crime reports as NFA – but didn’t look like a homeless TBH. I am not sure whether he lost his house after being arrested or whether he was homeless and “given a chance” with that job is the news reports do not say – but the reality was it was one of the “mainstream” but ethical banks – either the co-op or Triodos what unearthed this fraud and tipped off the cops and ensured he was sent to jail.

The credit union still made a large finanicial loss and were lucky to survive.

Co-op (and Triodos) genuinely are more ethically run by other banks but have stll had some of the same problems, in a “bear market” which is going to be a long term economic depression they are going to make losses however they have not been as badly hit as the bigger corporates because of their ethical investment policy. Its hard to explain how it all works without going through a lot of boring financial reports but they are muxh more transparent about what they do, as is the co-op retail shop

There are still also risks from envious/greedy staff – I am not a great fan of football and think that some players are overpaid, but there was about 3 local lads from up North where co-op are based playing for a major team – English lads too (although of different ethnic ancestry) and though they could have put all theiir money in a big London bank they chose the local co-op branch. The branch staff tried to dip the accounts, but were caught and sent down. Down south here some young Asian chaps what worked in a co-op bank staged a fake terorrist scare to try and nick some money but they got caught too.

My point is not that credit unions are a bad thing, they are a very good idea but if you look more deeply into where the money goes to they are mostly a volunteer run offshoot of the Co-op or Triodos banks.

What they do is provide business and profits to these ethical banks whilst taking on a bit of the admin work for free so that customers the more ruthless banks do not want get fair and affordable financial services. Their target customers are those who don’t have access to secure computers with internet or cannot store cash at home for fear of their own housemates or family members robbing it which sadly can be a problem.

but If a bunch of middle class yoghurt weavers suddenly on a whim decide to overload the admin staff of the credit unions with lots of extra admin work (even if it is new business and well meant) they will fuck things up for the people what need to genuinely use credit unions (who will lose out on customer service) and will hand the free market types a tactical victory.

What they should do instead is electronically transfer their money from mainstream to more ethical banks and then the ethical banks can use the profits on this new business to fund the credit unions.

@manaman 456342 wrote:

Also in ireland, the gas board said there was no need for the price to be so high, but that the eu demanded it, to make it more attactive to private investers, the eu is a total con, and if you vote no they’ll only make you vote again

During the “good times” of the 1990s the concept of the EU was hijacked by free market types, and becuase our generation were distracted by good pills, hedonism and stuff like the Schengen agreement making it easy to go and party in places like Ibiza we ignored all this. We too were part of the con whether we like it or not.