Bollocks To Indymedia UK And Bollocks To The Climate Camp
I have had it up to here with goddamn self righteous fucking hippies.
Recently on Indymedia UK there was an open letter to the Climate Camp from Dave Douglass of the National Union of Miners expressing concerns about the Climate Camps aim to shut down Kingsnorth power station next month. Dave was rightly concerned that in the propaganda put out by the camp there is little about the fate of workers in the industries targetted by the camp. The letter was well thought out, polite and looked like it could have been the start of a creative discourse. However whilst there were a couple of sensible comments the majority seemed to be of the opinion ‘tough’, let them lose their jobs.
Now I had expected this to be the case but when I looked at the hidden comments (you add ?c=all to the end of the address) I noticed that any comment even vaguely critical of the camp had been hidden. This has really pissed me off, not just because two of my comments have been hidden but because people who posted things that in no way broke the editorial guidelines of the site had their posts hidden. There is only one word I can think of to describe this and though I am loath to say it this is censorship, an active attempt to distort a story and quell any criticism of the dominant force, middle class hippy scum fucks in this case.
Here is one of the comments that was hidden.
Thank God this is now out in the open, I was really pissed off to see the NUM group get shouted down during one of the planning meetings. The smarmy middle class lot who have taken over the climate camp in 2008 just do not want to listen and this needs to be addressed.
The climate camp has certainly lost its way of late probably because of those running it.
How this breaches any of the editorial guidelines I do not know. I had decided to stay out of the debate being as I can have a somewhat barbed tongue which isn’t always helpful or constructive (apparantly) until I saw this muppet calling themselves “Anti-hierarchy, Anti-leaders, Anti-organisation” (the last bit says it all really) posted the following
Climate Camp is…
not an organisation, so please stop saying “can Climate Camp do this? can Climate Camp do that?”. Or is it that you need a collective organisation with a flag that its members can rally around even if its redundant? From people and their imaginations climate camp came, and to there it will return. Meantime, most of you will still be worshipping the leaders who keep you poor.
What a load of hippy pish. There is an organizational hierarchy within the ‘creative spontaneity’ or whatever drivel you want to call it.This is mostly made up of those people who have the cash and spare time to be able to attend the planning meetings around the country.
Asking for a response from this, dare I say it, elite is hardly that much to ask. Directing those questions towards ‘The Climate Camp’ is also understandable as there are a variety of different working groups, surely there is one who could take it on board to respond to Dave Douglas and other workers concerned by their jobs coming under attack from a bunch of self righteous hippies.
Or maybe the beloved leaders didn’t think that workers might be a bit peeved about being put out of their jobs.
Posted on July 17, 2008, in Anarchism, Bastards, Indymedia, Interwebs, Politics, Scum and tagged Censorship, Climate Camp, Indymedia. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
The Miserablist Speaks 
Is your blog open publishing? I hope so…
The first comment you quoted was hidden as inaccurate. The NUM was never shouted down at a climate camp gathering, that never happened. It was a deliberate and malicious attempt to misled. The NUM have never sent representatives to a climate camp gathering and Dave Douglass (retired) has also never been to a meeting so how could the NUM have been shouted down?
The second comment was also inaccurate as it is not true to claim that the climate camp is mostly mad up of well off people will plenty of spare time. There’s just one gathering each month and a travel expenses poor to help people to get there. You seem to be playing the states game of divide and rule, not something Indymedia sets out to be a platform for.
Anyway, so long, don’t suppose anyone will miss you.
OK I’m willing to accept that the first comment was hidden for not being factual. At the time of writing this was not apparent as the indymedia moderator responsible had hidden every comment that was critical of the climate camp yet allowed the dreadful hippy drivel that I also quote above to stand. That comment was not factual in any way, shape or form as there is an entity that is the climate camp – the organisational groups.
However the comment I made about the camp being organised by well off people is true. Just because there is a fund to help people travel to the planning meeting does not mean that working people can afford to take the time off work to travel to a planning meeting on the other side of the country, nor does it mean that after a weeks work they would have the energy to do so.
I am not playing the states game of divide and rule, you are playing the states game by obscuring and hiding the fact that there is any dissent about the way that the climate camp is organised.
It is undoubtedly true that the main organisers of the camp are wealthy trustafarian types. Not all by any means and that does not necessarily make them ‘bad’ people but it does lead to an unfortunate dynamic that has led the camp in a more liberal and reformist direction ala ‘plane stupid’ and the like.
These criticisms are valid and need to be addressed.