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Contents
No.
5
Spring 1932
No.
107
Spring 1949
Autumn
1967
No.
164
Spring/
Summer 1968
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WORK
Twenty-four
hours a day; seven days a week,
The
everlasting slog of it all,
Four
weeks a month; twelve months a year,
What's
the use ? After you've finished one set of work
Another
is found for you.
Four
years a leap year; sixty years a lifetime.
As
one opens the kitchen door, one sees the piles
Of
higgledy-piggledy lines of greasy pans,
Ever
dirty plates, ever recurring,
All
these against you.
All
you have is warm water, and maybe a `Brillo' pad.
Just
think that a twitch of the nose
Could
bring the enemy to a halt.
To
think every night no washing up, no cooking
No
washing on a Monday, no ironing on the Tuesday
Nor
ironing on the Wednesday
No
shopping on the Thursday.
No
more mending on Friday.
Then
what would we do?
If we
are not working at something we'd get bored.
Susan Horne
PROTEST
Protests today take many different forms, from the Post Office workers striking for better pay across a wide field to the juvenile delinquent protesting against being misunderstood.
One cannot really assess how effective protests are, and one cannot possibly consider the whole range of protests on the same level. On the one hand there are protest marches and strikes; on the other hand there are the drug addicts and juvenile delinquents, who, it seems to me, take out their grievances on society in a terribly negative sort of way, and are not really quite sure what, if anything, they are striving for; or do they believe they will ever be understood, integrated into society ?
A very different case is that of the C.N.D. demonstrators who, I think, are doing something for a belief, for a way of life, for peace and unity. Unfortunately, because their protests are so undynamic, they seem to get nowhere, and because their demonstrations hardly affect society in general, they seem to achieve very little indeed. Violent protests, such as those of the French students, the negroes in the U.S.A. and our own Grosvenor Square demonstrators are also trying to achieve a better world but in their violence lose much sympathy for their cause; at the same time, however, they bring it publicity on the wide scale of TV and newspapers, thus helping their cause a good deal and making their governments-those of France, Britain, and the U.S.A.-realise that these people are prepared to fight for their beliefs. At least they perturb those in power. In France, of course, the students sparked off the whole country, and were soon followed by strikes, which I believe to be the most effective protest of all.
Strikes are a weapon which the working people can use to undermine enemies almost anywhere. Strikes can force dictators to their knees in the modern world, and win their country's economy with comparative ease. Revolutions, strikes and protests of most kinds will always be a guard against loss of democracy, and will keep governments - even De Gaulle - in check.
Sally Muir, June, 1968
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