Shut Up

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday April 24, 2006 05:09 by Seán Ryan

Saturday 22/4/06 - The Teacher’s Club.

At this meeting whose purpose is to form and reform associations and to invigorate the anti-war effort, there arose a topic that at first glance might look to be irrelevant. However it is a topic that eventually dominated the meeting and strengthened our association.

The right to form associations is a right that pre-exists all civil and criminal law.

There are many examples where types of association are and should be illegal. Associations that discriminate on the basis of religion, gender and race are illegal.

However since this type of discrimination is legislated for already, a ban on postering cannot have come into existence to prevent it. A ban on postering must have arisen for a different purpose.

What is this purpose?

You can’t walk from your front door to the local shop without encountering advertising (begging letters from the rich). Billboards, vans, clothes and even rubbish all call “associate with me!” And it’s doubtful you’d actually manage to get to your front door without encountering it.

Commercial advertising has a singular purpose and there are only two varieties. The purpose is to make money. The first variety puts a product in your head and the second keeps it there. There is no ban whatsoever on commercial advertising.

I’m not rich. If I want to put a thought into your head, I am discriminated against in the manner and methods that I might use. I cannot make a poster and display my thoughts for all to see. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m sometimes wrong and that sometimes I don’t see the wood for the trees. Coke has been saying the same shit for over a century now – why does this right to repeat the same meaningless shite outweigh my right to spout my shite which at least has some variety to it. And to boot, my association with others would allow my faults to be repaired.

Many people feel discriminated against and hampered by a postering ban. Many also feel that a ban on postering constitutes a form of censorship that severely limits the public’s knowledge and right to know.

On Saturday at the Teacher’s Club the second meeting of what is becoming known as ‘the network,’ attendees voted unanimously (although a few had to leave early and missed this vote) to take action to oppose the illegal ban on postering.

Oppressors and suppressors take notice.