Saturday 8 December 2012

A Rosa Parkes moment.

Well, I've done it now. In Maplins I was led from the wrong sort of cables to the right sort, by a man who could plainly see that the old git on crutches was going to be trouble. In a polite and patient way he indicated that at £25 for a cable it meant it was time for my old printer to quietly slip away.

I am now the proud owner of a brand new printer, already churning out posters. When I can get some of the comrades to let me use a photocopier, out go the leaflets.

Its another of my Rosa Parkes moments - there have been a few.

Rosa Parkes was quiet but determined, a department store seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama. On the first of December 1955, she made her weary way home from work in the rain. On the bus she took her seat at the back of the bus, in the small section reserved for "coloureds". As the bus filled up, the conductor moved the "coloured" sign back and demanded that Rosa give up the seat she had paid for, to one of the white passengers who had just got on.

She refused and was arrested and fined. Later she said she did so because she was "tired of giving in".

The Montgomery bus boycott against the segregation laws became the spark that lit the fire of the Civil Rights movement - Rosa changed the world from the back of the bus.

Its time for the old gits to sort things out - youngsters don't realise that things were better and can be better again. We must not be the last generation to benefit from a National Health Service based on need and not ability to pay

If you are tired of giving in too - join me in the back of the bus - help me sort out St Peter's !

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

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