As I left the Civic Centre in the early hours this morning, sickened by the thought of five years of Tory government that will dismember the welfare state, continue the ideological war on the poor, disabled and migrant, and overcome by the sheer ugliness of the Tory's vision for the country, I was arrested by the pure beauty of the song of a blackbird as it opened the dawn chorus in the shadow of Wembley Stadium.
Yes, life goes on and so must the struggle.
There is a beauty in struggle, solidarity and resistance that can send the heart soaring just as much as that blackbird's song. I felt it when demonstrating with residents from the West Hendon estate, when we prevented fascist groups from marching in Cricklewood, when working with others to try and save the Stonebridge Adventure Playground and at national level when working with Green Party colleagues on a different vision for education.
Faced with the Conservative threat we must find new ways of working together across party lines and involving those who, as evidenced from many of the spoilt ballot papers I saw last night, reject all political parties as 'only in it for themselves'.
We have to show that we are 'in it for each other' and that means putting the movement before party.
The task for the anti-austerity movement is to to develop an alternative model of society and economy that will capture people's imagination and free their passion and creativity to build a different sort of society.
Life goes on. and so does the struggle.
Yes, life goes on and so must the struggle.
There is a beauty in struggle, solidarity and resistance that can send the heart soaring just as much as that blackbird's song. I felt it when demonstrating with residents from the West Hendon estate, when we prevented fascist groups from marching in Cricklewood, when working with others to try and save the Stonebridge Adventure Playground and at national level when working with Green Party colleagues on a different vision for education.
Faced with the Conservative threat we must find new ways of working together across party lines and involving those who, as evidenced from many of the spoilt ballot papers I saw last night, reject all political parties as 'only in it for themselves'.
We have to show that we are 'in it for each other' and that means putting the movement before party.
The task for the anti-austerity movement is to to develop an alternative model of society and economy that will capture people's imagination and free their passion and creativity to build a different sort of society.
Life goes on. and so does the struggle.