Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Friday, December 10, 2010

Coalition of Resistance, UK

By John Ballard


Steve very likely knows about this group but this morning is my first awareness of a Coalition of Resistance which took form in the UK in August, inspired by retired MP Tony Benn. These two videos serve to sketch the outlines of a real grassroots movement standing up to the madness unfolding in the aftermath of a global shakeup set in motion by the financial crisis of 2008.
 


What is the Coalition of Resistance and what does it do?  Logo_200[1]


The Coalition of Resistance �



  1. is linked to no particular political party, but committed to open working in a non-sectarian way with all organisations seeking to co-ordinate resistance; and is dedicated to supplementing, rather than supplanting, trade union, student, pensioner and community opposition to austerity measures.

  2. is a broad united national campaign against cuts and privatisation in our workplaces, community and welfare services, based on general agreement with the Founding Statement issued by Tony Benn in August 2010.

  3. is based on thousands of individual supporters, together with national unions, union branches, anti-cuts campaigns, student, pensioner, unemployed, youth and other organisations which affiliate.

  4. seeks to provide a national umbrella for a network of local and sectoral campaigns; and aspires to support, encourage, coordinate, and facilitate a transfer of experience rather than to command.

  5. invites affiliation from functioning local campaigns championing public services or fighting the cuts; encourages the establishment of new local campaigns where there are none; and offers local campaigns the opportunity to call themselves local Coalitions of Resistance if they wish.

  6. organises newsletters, a website www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk , meetings, conferences, lobbies, rallies, marches, demonstrations and other events.

  7. vehemently opposes all proposals to �solve� the crisis by discrimination or scapegoating on the grounds of disability, race, religion, ethnic origin, gender, age, sexual orientation or identity.

  8. liaises closely with similar opposition movements in other countries and has issued a call for international resistance to austerity measures.

  9. encourages a wide debate on how to protect the welfare state and develop an alternative programme for economic and social recovery in line with its founding statement.

  10. is run by a steering committee meeting on a weekly basis and advised by periodic meetings of activist supporters of the founding statement until the Founding National Conference on 27th November 2010.


Two videos from the November 27 Conference tell more about this group than any description from me.
Pay special attention to the young man in the second frame.
Fifteen. Years. Old.
Young people with his measure of intelligence, grit and courage make me feel better about upcoming generations.























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1 comment:

  1. Steve HyndDecember 11, 2010 at 3:29 AM

    Thanks for posting this John. Tony Benn is a helluva guy - the only man ever to renounce a hereditary peerage (he used to be Viscount Stansgate) so that he could run for election as an MP for the Labour Party. He's one of the giants of Britain's Labour Movement and I'd venture to say his legacy will one day outdo and outlast that suit-full-of-bugger-all Blair's.
    Kudos to him and to activists like this young man for having the courage to stand up for their convictions. We need dozens more like him and America's Bernie Sanders.
    Regards, Steve

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