London's Overthrow: China Miéville's love poem and lament for London

London's Overthrow is an expanded, illustrated version of ‘Oh, London, You Drama Queen’, China Miéville's editorial in the New York Times. Part warning, part love-poem, a must-read.

30 November. Above the invisible bridge at Blackfriars, red Victorian pilings jutting from the Thames, helicopters dangle like ugly Christmas baubles. They surveil thronging streets. Two million public-sector workers strike today, and tens of thousands of them and their supporters are whooping through central London.

Mary Ezekiel, lifelong Londoner, Highgate by way of Hackney, staff nurse at University College London Hospital, itemizes the effects pension cuts, the action’s cause, will have. She flattens down her red t-shirt. Much British tat is emblazoned with the cloying World War II propaganda slogan ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. ‘Get Angry’, Ezekiel’s shirt demands instead, ‘and Fight Back’. ‘All the speakers have been amazing’, she says. ‘That’s what I feel positive about. I just hope it reaches Mr Cameron’ — she says the Prime Minister’s name disdainfully — ‘in his mansion.’

Cameron first denounced, then dismissed the day’s action. For the Right, strikes are both devilish and pathetic, have both terrible and absolutely no effects.

‘The perils of marching!’ a young woman laughs, pushing banners out of her face. ‘Lashed by flags!’ A thousands-strong sprawl of bobbing cloth and cardboard. The logo of the Society of Radiographers wobbles near placards of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran. Holding up a huge pink triangle, a young Ugandan man Abbey says, ‘We are helping gay asylum seekers from over the world, especially Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal.’ He’s there to support the workers. It’s all linked, he explains. Cuts to social spending, soaring tuition fees, scapegoating.

London's Overthrow - China Miéville (via 3 Quarks Daily)

• [goldenearth]

  Funny how the Occupy movement seems to have taken stronger hold in London than in the USA. Most of my London friends seem more concerned with how the huge expenses for the Olympics are going to affect the lives of the normal populace. The Olympics price tag is in the billions and billions of pounds

  London has changed so much since I first re-located there in 1990. At that time, the native British accents were still strong and small villages had yet to become infected by American fast food and American-style commerce (see: Wal Mart and McDonalds) – these days the American and over-whelming European influences are everywhere, from Starbucks to the destruction of many local pubs in order to build bland sandwich shops. It’s only when one travels south of the River that one can still encounter the England “of old” with a few remaining green grocer outdoor markets and local High Street flavor

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    You survived Hitler only to fall to the IOC.

    • [goldenearth]

      Within the last five years there’s also been a great resentment, anger and fear (by Londoners) of the many Latvians, Eastern Europeans, French, etc who have immigrated to (mostly) central London to work menial jobs and in construction. It’s very similar to the feelings many Americans have towards Mexicans and Central Americans who have come to the US to work..a combo of “country-ism” and racism. This problem (or mind set) has led to much distraughted-ness amongst older London residents

      My London friends are mostly older people who “remember the good old days” and hate to see old bus routes, stores and party leaders disappear – my younger friends just care about art openings and where the best Italian sandwich shops are. Quite a dichotomy!

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Euphemistically named ‘guest worker’ programs are very problematic.  If you’re going to invite someone to work in your country, you should be prepared to invite them to your child’s birthday party.  The getoffmylawners act like foreign workers ghettoize themselves, but most people would love to be welcomed socially instead of just being treated as cheap, disposable labor.  And, hey, they might learn to speak better English if somebody actually started a conversation with them.

    • [digi_owl]

       More like the EU. Seriously, EU is to Europe what Bismarck was to Germany.

  • [phead]

    Not that I would deny that the whole Olympics bunch need a poke in the eye, especially after yet more crap this week[1], but the Occupy movement hasn’t taken hold at all.  They are the same “professional” protesters you will find at every other protest, there really is nothing new to see at all.  At least the American movement felt (at a distance) to contain some real people with real problems.

    [1]http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/olympics-cycle-routes-to-be-closed-for-months-33649/

• [hypersomniac]

  Great piece. Mieville is the pair of sunglasses Roddy Piper puts on in They Live.

• [Guillaume Dargaud]

  I’ve tried twice to get started on China Mieleville ‘Perdido Street Station’ but I never got past page 3. I don’t know, the style just puts me off. Should I try again ? Or try something else by the same author ? I was almost put off by Dune when I started it as well, but it was ultimately more than rewarding, so who knows…