We live in Edinburgh.
We bring up our families, we contribute to our community, we work hard. However despite our best efforts our quality of life is being eroded. Our wages are stagnating. Our benefits are being cut. Our food and utility bills are rising and our rights are being taken away.
We have been stretched to breaking point and we are being told that it’s still not enough.
All this while the 1% get richer.
Why would YOU Occupy Edinburgh?
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Im a 25 year old man who once upon a time served in the British army. I was 16 when I joined the military. Looking back no I was too young to take on such a great responsibility and position. “Fighting for Queen and country is the greatest accolades a man can get from life”, this phrase was coined by a awful lot of Army recruiting staff. A phrase probably used to recruit James Hindsley from Cheshire, England. Hindsley was a fellow recruit and good friend of mine throughout training. In total we spent 18 months living in each others pockets basically. During both phase 1&2 we were in the same section as one another which in turn meant we were in the same room as each other. This was the foundations to our friendship both in and outside of our duties. We were both training to become telecommunications specialists within the Royal Artillery although we were heading to different regiments at different ends of the country.
Once training finished we said our goodbyes and went our own separate ways. I headed to my regiment in Thirsk, North Yorkshire and James headed to Colchester, Essex. We had found out that James’s regiment were preparing to deploy on a 6 month tour of Iraq and my regiment were due to deploy in a years time. I can remember at the time we were more interested in getting a medal on our chest and being war hero’s than anything else (all thanks to the military training/brainwashing we had endured)
I settled into my new life within my regiment in no time. Being the “New Guy” and having to adjust to the busy daily routine of a new intake gunner I barely kind of fell from contact with James. In fact I hadn’t really thought of him much until one day I received a call from another recruit who had been in phase 1 training with the both of us. James had died at 18years old. He had only been in Iraq for 2 months before coming under fire on the outskirts of Karbala. I never found out the full story of the attack which had taken place that day in Iraq. All I know is that a Artillery regiment were taking on the role of a Infantry regiment. They were deploying on long foot patrols through hostile areas, most definitely a job for specialist infantry regiments. The British Army were too thinly stretched and undermanned to sent the right people for the right job so they deployed soldiers who were untrained and inexperienced in this field.
I helped carry his coffin on the day of his funeral, and with every step I took I couldn’t help remembering the great times we had with one another. The highs and lows throughout training led us building a bond which I thought was unbreakable. It turns out that the powers who gave us this bond were also the powers that tore it from us. After the ceremony I walked over to his mother to give my condolences. A very emotional time for us both as I am sure you can imagine. She looked at me standing there in full Army number two’s with a look that will stay with me until i die, the look of complete and utter horror and dispare. “They have taking my son, my baby boy. Don’t let them anyone else’s son too” she cried out to me.
These words would change my life for the better in my eyes. A month before having to deploy to Iraq myself we were given 2 weeks leave. I went home and spent it with my family and friends trying to soak up as much as I could before the long drive back to camp. saying my goodbyes at the end of leave was a tearful exchange. I found myself thinking back to what James’s mother had said to me as I kissed my own mother goodbye. That could be my mother in 2 months from now, I thought to myself. I could be the coffin lowered into the ground. I drove for about 20 miles of my 120 mile journey before i turned back. I would be officially AWOL from the British Army by 8am the next again day yet I was not bothered in the slightest. In fact it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
I would remain AWOL for four and a half years after this. Working jobs labouring and working in factory’s. During this time of contemplation and sole searching I found myself looking more and more into our worlds economics and our Army’s involvement in wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan and how we the people of Britain are mearly pawns in a game of power and wealth.
It took the realisation of possibly dying and the pain in which my family would have went through before I woke up from my zombie like state. My eyes are now open to the world we live in and the economical downfall we are most certainly about to endure. The truth will set us free. Lets make it our job to spread the truth amongst our peers so they too can be free.
@RESwinton Twitter
im 21, i supposedly should be enjoying life to the fullest. i cant because i study and work full-time, there is normally not a single day in the week when i can relax, sleep longer, do whatever; but i got used to it! despite of working long hours i can barely pay the bills, pay off debts and afford the basics; which i also got used to. i dont buy stuff, i skip the food, cycle, sneak cheap cider into the pub. and its fine, i got used to it, my family never had much money either and i worked nearly continuously since i was about 16. all that makes things difficult at time but its not that bad. i dont feel secure about the future, family wouldnt be able to provide for me, my studies could lead to employment (after a fair amount of unpaid internship and free labor) but i dont know that for sure. but all of the above is merely the reason why im writing this whole thing. i am, because i dream of the world, and its nothing like here and now. i had a chance to volunteer in the third world country where children are living on the street, women are forced into prostitution, people are trading other people. and i dont want to live in the world where this is happening while somebody else is buying their 150th house, gambling billions, making huge decisions often influencing other’s life or death because they have power to do so. where people gain power in unethical ways, abusing the system they live in, exploiting others, exploiting the earth; making money out of nothing and distributing it unevenly. in one way or another, extremely or subtly the inequality is growing, along with greed for destructive things of no importance. i want this world to change, and i want to be a part of this change!
one of the 100, or 1, or 99 %
I turn 30 in January. I earn just over £7 an hour working in a cafe in Morningside. I fell in love with my wife just over 2 years ago when the company we were working for went into administration. Ever since then it feels like we are being squeezed out of every opportunity to make a better living.
I want to go onto further education, but I’m afraid that if the price of living continues to rise that I won’t be able to afford it. My wife and I would like to own our own cafe one day, but on our modest income we struggle to put away even 100 pounds a month in savings, let alone the kind of deposit we would need for a business loan.
I’ll be honest with you, I am very frightened.
I grew up being told that if you were bright and you worked very hard then you could make something of yourself. I am still optimistic, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get anywhere without a lot of sacrifices first and if things get any harder, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
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