The show was in support of raising funds for fighting the BNP at the general election. It’s the kind of gig that Bill has put himself up for throughout the past twenty-five years.
You need funds to fight the forces that want to upset our social cohesion. It also helps to have a one-man band full of charisma to spread the message, and one who has resolutely refused to compromise and allow his principles to be diluted.
I often watch Billy Bragg and come away wishing that our politicians were more like him. But it’s a messy business politics. It’s all about power, posturing and back scratching. Billy Bragg deserves better.
The gig itself was Billy Bragg at his best. There’s nowhere to hide on stage for one man and his guitar. The set mixed up Life’s a Riot with Brewing Up and even some Mermaid Avenue.
The message was anti-fascism, pro-compassion and a belief in community. Politicians have changed policies, and big business has taken control of our society over the past quarter of a century. The solution remains the same. Billy Bragg put it across perfectly on stage at ULU on Saturday night.
In the absence of any political party being brave enough to put forward a genuinely progressive agenda ahead of the election, it’s a sorry state for democracy when we have to rely on a pop star to raise the profiles of the issues that matter.
Billy Bragg’s tireless campaigning against the payment of million pound plus bonuses to the bankers of the nationalised RBS Bank, has forced politicians to debate the issue.
But Saturday night at ULU was all about stopping the BNP in Barking and Dagenham, Bill’s home patch. With the general election nothing but a “wishy washy choice between two parties that are the same,” the real issue in Essex is stopping the fascists.
It is here where BNP thug Nick Griffin is trying to get elected as an MP with a mandate for racism. With the Labour party weak on the ground, now is the time to expose the BNP for all the hatred that it represents.
April 17th is a key day in the constituency. It has been put aside to campaign against the fascists that want to take control of Barking and Dagenham. Put aside serious concerns over Tory funding, Nu Labour’s love affair with big business and the LibDems, well, I’m not entirely sure about anything to do with the LibDems – fighting fascists in the crucial battle at the general election.
As yer man said on Saturday night:
“Wearing badges is not enough, in days like these.”
Another Sunday, another cold afternoon spent at Speaker’s Corner in the fine company of @billybragg. I’m quite getting use to this routine of taking the fight against RBS bonuses to the mean streets of W1R. With an election looming, hopefully the mixing of popprose ‘n politics won’t have to run all the way through to the summer months.
Billy boarded his trusty stepladder, apologising for the coldness that has been a character of this campaign; cold in climate, but with a warm heart as the central message. Sure, we’re trying to overturn the million pound plus RBS bonuses paid out of the taxpayer’s purse, but at the core of nobonus4rbs.co.uk is the central message of a fair and equal society.
Having admitted some seven days ago that Speaker’s Corner caused more nerves than anything he ever gets up to in the day job, Billy announced at the start of the week that he would return to Tyburn for a second Sunday to carry on with the campaign impetus.
A crowd of a couple of hundred gathered for the first week. With the election clock already in countdown mode, momentum is all important here. It’s all fine and dandy to have 25,000 plus supporters online, but activism needs a direct focus.
The troops were rallied, and plans were put in place to meet up with friends old and new. I arrived at Speaker’s Corner solo, having messed up the rendez vous with @richardgallon, @AnnaJCowen and @alien8. Whoops. Never try and squeeze in a cheeky swim before you try and overthrow capitalism.
A slight panic as the 1pm meeting time passed, and the crowd at Speaker’s Corner looked about as passionate as a banker forced to shop at Primark. Billy is a charmer, and did the meet ‘n greet thing. The press pack had a field day when a young girl got out her home made nobonus4rbs placard.
The Left may be late (blame the TfL’s Public Private Partnership) but we get there eventually. Even @richardgallon, @AnnaJCowen and @alien8, who all arrived just before Billy started his speech, along with a crowd considerably larger than last week.
The nobonus4rbs message has moved on at a pace in the past seven days. As planned, Billy didn’t pay his taxes ahead of the midnight deadline last Sunday. His speech confirmed that Lord Myners, the Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury, has written to Billy to explain the government position.
This position seems to be one of rewarding greed and allowing the free market to run riot, despite the meltdown of the banking sector twelve months ago.
Not paying your taxes may seem like a naughty schoolboy prank, sticking up two fingers to authority and getting one over on The Man. But it’s not about rebellion. You get a real sense that it pains Billy Bragg not to contribute to the economy.
At the root of any tax system should be the fair and equal redistribution of wealth. But why should we put money into the pot, just to pay out excessive banking bonuses?
Billy spoke of the “L’Oreal effect” that RBS uses in defence of its crass payout: ‘because we’re worth it.’ There’s no beef here in bailing out the bank – restoring confidence in the banking system benefits the whole economy. Likewise it is the taxpayers that will eventually be rewarded, should RBS ever become solvent once again.
The issue at stake is how a publicly owned bank can plead poverty, and then start writing out bonus cheques once the economy starts to show the first sign of recovery. It’s business as usual, with million pound plus payouts back on the agenda.
This was a more relaxed crowd than last week, yet still as passionate about the issue of inequality that governs us. Taking the fight to the street is something that is not exactly new for the Left. The disguising of a rampant free market economy under Nu Labour has left us all feeling a little ring rusty though.
For a man that came to symbolise the public face of fighting for a fairer society during the ’80s, Billy seemed alarmed that we appear to be back to where we started under Thatcherism.
His speech soon hit form, with even the odd joke added for the Hyde Park supporters. But banking is no laughing matter. This is an issue that deserves to be at the centre of the general election campaign when the battle busses are boarded over the next couple of months. Who is more corrupt – the MP fiddling their expenses, or the banker profiting out of the public purse?
Half an hour after the songwriter took to his stepladder, I regrouped with @richardgallon, @AnnaJCowen and @alien8. A bonkers Bible bashing bigot door stepped us, much in the same way that I door stepped Billy Bragg. The bard’s response was somewhat more considered (and appreciated) than the one I gave to the bonkers Bible bashing bigot.
Just like the settling of the nerves from the man on top of the stepladder, I felt a lot more relaxed about talking to the one person who has played a major role is helping me find my own way politically over the past twenty five years.
But what next for Billy Bragg and nobonus4rbs? Well… have stepladder, will travel. Billy Bragg is off to Edinburgh next weekend, to continue to raise awareness for nobinus4rbs, right on the doorstep of the publicly owned institution.
The campaign continues online, but it is the very real presences of taxpayers taking issue with these obscene payouts that will keep RBS on the agenda as we approach the ballot box over the coming months.
And so a week off from Speaker’s Corner next Sunday. It’s a mighty long way down rock ‘n roll from Hyde Park Corner to Auld Reekie. So long, that I think I’ll be staying in London for the weekend.
But blimey – Billy Bragg, still walking and talking it in 2010 like he did some twenty-five years ago. Cheers for the inspiration, the direction and the bumbling podcast.
Never interview your intimateideological heroes – you’ll only make an arse of yourself. But with @billybragg standing next to me at a freezing cold Speaker’s Corner, it was an opportunity I couldn’t let pass by. You only get to make an arse of yourself once with your ideological hero.
Billy was at Speaker’s Corner as a timely reminder for his campaign to withhold income tax payments in protest of the publicly owned RBS still paying out bonuses to bankers.
It’s an issue that holds considerable resonance with me. Twenty-five years ago and it would have been withholding payments to the Treasury in protest against the increase in nuclear proliferation. How times have changed. The Cold War may be over, but the Class War struggle still continues. All under the name of a New Labour government as well.
It’s rare to hear any sense coming out of Speaker’s Corner on a Sunday morning. Bill took the wise strategic move to situate him well away from the religious freaks spurting out their bile and bigotry.
A crowd of a coupe of hundred gathered to hear Bill take to his stepladder (oh yes!) shortly after one ‘o clock to read out some notes. Even as firm flag waver for all things Boy Bragg, I approached the event feeling cynical. It’s easy for the rock star to take the £100 Treasury fine for non-payment, not so easy for a freelancing blogger / photographer with no monthly fixed income.
I was expecting a five-minute media friendly speech, repeating the message that Bill has been putting across so strongly online over recent weeks. I’m greatful to @markrock and the wonderful @audioboo for having recently upgraded my account to longer than the five minute package: half an hour later, Bill finished speaking and we were left pondering what was in effect a rallying cry taking in the past twenty five years of his political struggle.
Defeating Thatcherism, electing a Labour government and then back to where we started with right wing politicians still trying to defend the free market as an excuse for inequality. You break our legs and we say thank you when you offer us crutches.
Answers weren’t given, apart from the personal gesture of withholding your taxes. It seemed more like a rally cry of despair, wondering what the past quarter of a century has all been about. The Miner’s Strike, the pulling down of the Berlin Wall and electing a mixed race President of the United States. Yet still we have a party of the people (pah!) prepared to pay out million pound plus bonuses to bankers who are responsible for the collapse of the economy.
Bill received a round of applause, and I experienced the exact same feeling of some twenty-six years previous when Billy Bragg boarded the counter at Selectadisc, Market Street in Nottingham, and bashed out three chords whilst shouting out:
“If you look the part you’ll get the job
In last year’s trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is son, it’s a buyer’s market
They can afford to pick and choose.”
Phew – rock ‘n roll.
A few more media appearances and then a general mingling with supporters followed. Mark Thomas was also in the crowd; the pop star and the comedian, now taking on the publicly owned bank. How the hell did it come to this?
I hovered around with my iPhone, wanting to doorstep Bill for a brief @audioboo. I’ve interviewed millionaire rock stars in a previous life and have been blasé about it. I thought they were all tossers and wasn’t at all intimidated.
But Billy Bragg, in the cold light of day at Hyde Park? My hand hovered as I tried to press the start button on my audioboo app.
I think I just about got away with it. Bill spoke of how he felt alienated by the current political system with no choice come the ballot box in a couple of months time. Nu Labour has “failed to turn the back the tide of Thatcherism.”
What the hell have the past twenty-five years been all about?
The crowd slowly drifted off to the pub, and I cycled through Hyde Park, playing back my brief audio flirtation with my ideological hero. I’ll be paying my taxes before midnight (needs must) but will wake up on Monday morning, still ready for the fight.
The trouble is I don’t know who exactly I’m fighting now.
Alex Bigham: Well this is generally an interesting and thought out blogpost, though a little harsh to say all that we do @labourstockwell is post fear of crime videos on national issues – we...
