- France vs England Archived Message
Posted by Ian M
on March 24, 2023, 11:29 pm, in reply to "Fraudian leading with Charlie and his bint cancelling"
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King Charles’s visit to France postponed amid protests Emmanuel Macron says it would not have been ‘serious or good sense’ for next week’s visit to go ahead Emmanuel Macron has defended the last-minute postponement of King Charles’s state visit to France next week, saying it would not have been “serious or good sense” for it to go ahead as it clashed with another national day of mass strikes and social unrest. Vs: Due to today’s news about the passing of Queen Elizabeth, the Rebellion Planning team, and other groups involved, have made the difficult decision to postpone the Festival of Resistance this weekend in London until further notice. It was felt that the risks to our mobilisation efforts outweigh the desire to continue, and occupying a Royal Park at this time would not be practical. The decision has not been made lightly and in full appreciation that it will impact so many who have put much time, heart and commitment into making this festival the beautiful reality it was gearing up to be. This message comes with immense gratitude and respect for everyone involved and every single person who was about to attend Rebellion for the first time. This decision comes as multiple groups who had protest plans over the coming week make similar announcements. - https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1662728573.html How embarrassing... re: India I always go back to John Newsinger's 'The Blood Never Dried' for a reminder of the limitations of Gandhi's movement and all the other actions - some decidely not nonviolent - which led to the British empire finally quitting India. Some paragraphs I copied out years ago: ***** On 6 April [1919] there were general strikes in most Indian towns and cities with widespread displays of Hindu-Muslim unity. The protests were generally peaceful, although there were some clashes, particularly in Punjab, where the governor, Michael O’Dwyer, was a strong proponent of repression. When Gandhi was arrested (he was soon released) to stop him travelling to Punjab, however, serious rioting broke out. In Ahmedabad the textile workers took to the streets, fighting with the police and burning down government buildings, offices and police stations (51 buildings were destroyed). By the time the police had regained control of the city, 28 people had been killed, including a British police sergeant. There was a two-day general strike in Bombay on 10 and 11 April that went off without violence, but in Calcutta on the 12th troops machine-gunned a crowd, killing nine people. Gandhi was appalled by the violence which he blamed on the people rather than the police. According to his doctrine, there should never be retaliation against police attack. indeed, on 14 April he wrote to the viceroy to condemn events in Ahmedabad as “utter lawlessness bordering almost on Bolshevism”. He expressed “the deepest humiliation and regret” that the people were not yet ready for non-violence, that he had “underrated the power of hatred and ill will”. This completely ignored the fact that deaths and injuries were overwhelmingly inflicted by the police and troops. And, of course, he had not yet heard of the massacre at Amritsar the previous day. (p.111) [...] One particular episode best demonstrates the British response to the Congress campaign of civil disobedience. On 5 May [1930] Gandhi informed the authorities that he would be leading a protest at Dharasana salt works later in the month. That same day he was interned under a regulation dating from 1827. The protest went ahead without him on 21 May when some 2,000 Congress supporters confronted the police at the salt works. A horrified American journalist, Webb Miller, reported that in “18 years of my reporting in 20 countries, during which I witnessed innumerable civil disturbances, riots, street fights and rebellions, I have never witnessed such harrowing scenes as at Dharasana”. He described how: "In complete silence the Gandhi men drew up and halted a hundred yards from the stockade. A picked column advanced from the crowd, waded the ditches and approached the barbed wire stockade…at a word of command, scores of native policemen rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on their heads with their steel-shod lathis [long bamboo sticks]. Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off blows. They went down like ninepins. From where I stood I heard the sickening whack of the clubs on unprotected skulls… Those struck down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing with fractured skulls or broken shoulders. And after the first column had been beaten down, another advanced and once again the police “rushed out and methodically and mechanically beat down the second column”. This went on for hours until some 300 or more protesters had been beaten, many seriously injured and two killed. At no time did they offer any resistance. Irwin [Lord Irwin, viceroy of India] wrote to the king, “Your Majesty can hardly fail to have read with amusement the accounts of the several battles for the Salt Depot at Dharasana”. " While the spectacle of the police savagely beating unresisting demonstrators rallied support for Congress, the fact was that most of those who took to the streets were not prepared to stand by and be beaten. (pp.142-3) [...] The non-cooperation movement’s increasing militancy and popular involvement caused Gandhi serious concern. Its potential for radicalisation and for spilling over into violent struggle led him to decide to call the whole movement off. The occasion was provided by a clash between police and peasants at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh. After the police had beaten one of the peasant leaders and opened fire on demonstrators, a crowd, chanting “Long Live Mahatma [‘Great-Souled’] Gandhi”, burned down the police station and killed 23 policemen. Gandhi responded by calling the movement off on 12 February. … The movement that had seriously shaken British rule collapsed almost overnight. When at last the British moved to arrest Gandhi on 10 March 1922 and sentenced him to six years in prison, there were no protests. (pp.115-6) |