TOUCHED BY FIRE

The students haven't done with the demo resistance yet,they are teaching us a lesson in how to mobilise and keep the authorities unnerved.The media have completely missed the point on this one.It seems to me they are more concerned with highlighting the importance of the coalition rather than highlighting the damaging consequences of lying to young voters.This is one of the many issues which go right to the heart of this terrible Con Coalition.They lied and that's it.
But there is another factor which needs to be of concern,its a question which must be brought to light,but the media comes from the same brood as the Elite who now are hell bent on dismantling all that is of value in this country ,and the media wont want to go where I'm suggesting they should go.
Why is it whenever we have a Conservative Government does the country sink into disobedience and civil unrest.The last time this happen was during the rampant years of Thatcher.Remember the Brixton riots?Remember the "inner cities"exploding before our eyes?
Let alone the strikes.the Industrial destruction,the awful mayhem meated out on the coal mining communities.The Conservatives are wreckers not builders They have non understanding of society or community values.
It was under these circumstances that Oval House set about the creation of its Carnival programme.This development was an extension of its highly regarded Community Arts Policy.
Carnival came about,at the Oval ,because we recognised the importance of artistic engagement with those organisations who where on the "front line"Carnival was/is a means of reclaiming the streets.The community arts policy at that time was about resistance/imagination/creativity/engagement. A melting pot of competing values and ambitions it soaked up the notion of artistic individuality and demanded a sense of community togetherness and support.A challenge was laid down where by the arts world had to embrace the values of a "collective concept which operated within the confines of a "republic"responsibility.
Creativity is messy and confusing,to the controlled mind it does appear frightening and untamed.Never the less it was these attributes which drove the ideas of community arts foreword.It placed demands on groups and individuals by allowing those elements to take on the roles of leadership and facilitators.WE took our skills and knowledge to the streets and the esates whilst at the same relearning and reshaping our own values and skills.
All around the Conservative momentum was apparently unstoppable,values where simply being trodden over without care or reason,history was being rewritten and community arts was at the forefront in keeping that spark of hope alive.