George Orwell gave Michael Foot an inscribed book on The Diggers

[Tony Gosling]

'Nineteen Eighty-Four' book vigils in Thailand

 From his comfortable seat in eternity, George Orwell is no doubt 
giving a wry "go for it" smile this week as he gazes down on the 
streets of Bangkok where Gandhi-like "1984 protests" have been 
organized against the anti-association laws and propaganda of 
Thailand's new military junta. "Confrontation is not the way," 
activists announce as hundreds gather, each with their own copy of 
Orwell's book to read in their silent mass vigils.

The Thai people have gazed across the world to Egypt too, and seen 
leader of the US-backed military coup Abdel Fattah el-Sisi come to 
power in a sham election where the majority Muslim Brotherhood 
opposition is banned. They've seen too the bombing of the separatists 
in Ukraine despite their referendum vote to secede from Kiev. The 
message from Bangkok is that the will of the people is all that 
matters and any lies about "democracy" in the Western media are not 
fooling them.


George Orwell's candle

While Orwell is best known for his dystopic 1984, other tomes, the 
autobiographical "Road to Wigan Pier" and "Homage to Catalonia" are 
full of glimpses of a future where the community has thrown off the 
yoke of the "owner class." Where those in authority look after folk 
rather than search for new ways to control them.

He sees Machiavellian fanatics' obsession for power of as a kind of 
curse humanity has been struggling for centuries to shake off, and 
shows us where he's seen the seeds of that newfound freedom 
growing."Yes," he seems to be telling us, "there really is plenty to 
go round so that everybody can fulfill their potential and live in 
dignity, with not one human being excluded."

In an expression which has been picked up by Amnesty International, 
"It is better light a candle than to curse the darkness." And Orwell 
did just that for the next generation of radicals when he handed an 
inscribed copy of one of the earliest books about England's 17th 
century Diggers to the man who was later to lead Britain's Labour 
Party, Michael Foot. Orwell was cheered to see these English Civil 
War radicals prefiguring many of the most exciting ideas he'd picked 
up fighting Franco's fascists in the Spanish Civil War.

"The Digger Movement in the Days of The Commonwealth" was one of the 
first books to examine the seventeenth century English collectivists 
who advocated a return to communal management and ownership of land, 
and walked the talk too. Gerrard Winstanley's Digger pamphlets were 
printed on unlicensed presses and his ideas inspired Marx and social 
justice campaigners from Thomas Paine to the Chartists.

Some of Winstanley's original pamphlets have the mischievous words 
"Printed in a Corner of Freedom Close by the House of Commons" on the 
front page to remind readers the publisher was breaking the 17th 
century licensing laws. Today's editors must stick to their 
principles and break these unjust super-injunctions if today's 
embarrassing truths are to come out and the ambitious and powerful 
are to be held to account.

But we need George's candle because we find ourselves in Oceania, in 
that perpetual War on Terror. Yes, and in case you hadn't noticed 
president Obama's policy of troop withdrawal from Europe has just 
been reversed in the blink of an eye. Power has slipped from our 
hands into those of banks, corporations and a cult-like set whose 
only thing in common seems to be how little they care about the rest of us.

With copies of "Homage to Catalonia" in our hands, and the dangerous 
ideas of freedom the internet has brought us over the last 20 years 
in our heads, the poverty they want to crush our spirit is instead 
bringing us together.

The next generation are educating and organizing through 
environmental, church and neighborhood groups so not even the 
best-dressed, squeaky-cleanest TV politician can pull the wool over 
our eyes now.

http://rt.com/op-edge/164204-orwell-intelligence-rewriting-history/

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