Charles ☭ Hutchins @celesteh@mastodon.social

Extremely loud canadians outside, singing the candian national anthem and clinking beer bottles.

(Some of you aren't into voting. The right wing LOVES this about lefty youth. And also, it's extremely hard to be active in US politics from overseas, but there are enough voters outside the country to swing elections.)

The highlight summary:

* Fully automated gay space luxury communism showed up with a banner and then did some kind of action.
* The protest was intersectional, multi-ethnic and anti-sexist.
* Attendance was decent for a saturday afternoon demo in front of the weirdly-located embassy.
* Democrats abroad may not be willing to /join/ a lefty coalition or promote their actions, but at least sends bodies and does voter registration, which is a good thing they do.

The lowlight summary:

* A corporate planner encouraged everyone to be civil.
* Democrats remain staunchly anti-communist.
* Cops with machine guns made comments to each other about where should have been allowed to bicycle

The guy standing next to me realised we knew each other from various professional connections just as the communists with their pink banner made a short call to action, ending with 'Let's not be convenient!' They marched off.

I wrapped up the conversation with the music guy and went after them, but, I guess true to their word, I couldn't figure out what direction they went in. Or what inconvenient thing they did.

They were Plan C http://www.weareplanc.org

Trump wants it to be 1933. Corbyn lives in 1977. Apparently DA is in 1955, not associating with young (obviously queer) communists?

I objected and the guy was nice and eager to get me involved when I said I was interested in being part of the far left fringe of the party. (Will such a course of action suck away all my energy or get them to join a broader leftist coalition? (I do already know the answer, but it's hard to be involved in US politics from outside the US.))

I know that DA is very good in some other countries, but my experiences in London kind of match my experiences with centre-right democrats in america. I went to a meetup once and at the pub somebody made a 'sex change' joke about something to do with his passport, as if crossing borders with mismatched documentation would be easy. I was not amused.

This protest was only advertised on Facebook, which I believe to be largely responsible for both Trump and Brexit, so I went to find the Democrats Abroad to ask why they didn't have it on their website. The person with whom I spoke said they hadn't sponsored the event and pointed out a small group of young communists saying they wouldn't have collaborated with such a group.

Another speaker was a British woman who talked about fascism - how Trump is testing the water to see what abuses he can get away with and we are in pre-facist conditions. Her analysis seemed apt, but her suggest responses, civility, relying on leakers to stir up popular outrage seemed to not suggest any particular action. I couldn't hear her terribly well but it seemed like she was suggesting being somewhat passive.

Another speaker talked about having migrated to the US from Colombia at 17 and then to the UK ten years later. The UK and Europe are doing the same kinds of detentions as the US is. The detention centres at Yarl's Wood and the Heathrow detention centres are also inhumane, hold innocent people and separate children from their parents. Trump is bolder, but the entire west is complicit.

I showed up late. The protest was small, but the police were extremely heavily armed, machine guns at the ready. It was like being at home, really.

I heard 3 speakers, all women. One said 'we are here because you are there' and talked about how the US's (and Europe's) trade policies de-develop nations, forcing poor people to migrate in search of work. We don't just need fairer immigration policies, we need to stop forcing people to move.

What actually ARE Folgers crystals?

In other news I got denied entrance to a 'member club' (you can by their memberships via groupon) for violating their extremely vague dress code and then a care decided to drive right at me, so yay for being in London.

London: not the worst place in europe to cycle (that would be birmingham)

London: our revolution failed, see the results!

London: Come quick! Before tories and brexit wreck everything.

London: Caveat Emptor

London: The capital city of a nation of shopkeepers!

LondON THE LEFT!!!

If ever there was a time that the assertion 'you can't tear down the master's house with the master's tools' applied.....

I just accepted all of facebook's smarmy GDPR-faux-complaiance to find out about an event meant to demand better rights for migrants.

...It's obvious that ICE is using facebook to deport migrants and I'd bet serious money that the corporation is helping them.

#FamiliesBelongTogether #london will be at 33 Nine Elms Lane, London, SW8 5BZ, tomorrow, 30 June from noon-15:00

That is the _NEW_ location of the US embassy, which has recently moved.

More information about the rally topic can be found at https://www.familiesbelongtogether.org/

This information is only posted on facebook and not the democrats abroad page, which made it hard to discover, so please pass it along.

#uspol

I wanted to make a snappy 'I'm home' message using London's tourist slogan, but there appears not to be one. Which I guess is unsurprising for the seat of what was recently the world's largest empire and the is the largest city in Europe.

Still, I think there could be something better than 'Welcome to London' in a sans serif font.

All the ideas I can think of are snarky: 'London: the air (particles) will stay with you'