United States
I’ll do it, but only if you’ll help

Pledge “stopplaneposh”

"I will turn the central heating up to full for 24 hours every time Plane Stupid stop working class people going on holiday but only if 10 other local people will do the same."

— johnny void

Deadline to sign up by: 21st December 2009
10 people signed up

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Posh boys and girls Plane Stupid are doing irreparable damage to the credibility of the environmental movement with misguided actions like closing down airports.

Working class people going on holiday are not the problem, mass production capitalist economics is the problem. Until that's addressed pathetic stunts like these alienate the wider public and only serve to make a few liberal poshos feel slightly less guilty for a while.

It's time to take direct action against Plane Stupid and hit them where it hurts - by upping our carbon emmissions everytime one of their grinning, chinless faces crops up in the media.

Plane Stupid need to radically change tactics or plane disappear before we can seriously build a mass movement to address climate change and the cause of climate change ...

... which is capitalism.

Therefore, even if it's 30 degrees outside I will turn my heating up to full for 24 hours the next time Plane Stupid disrupt people's holidays.

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Comments on this pledge

  • Whilst I can feel for the few "working class" people who missed their flight to Ibiza (or wherever they were jetting off to), I confess to having more sympathy for all those in the world who are too poor to even contemplate the idea of flying and are more worried about their tin shack being washed away in the next typhoon as sea levels rise.

    How would Mr Void propose challenging the huge unsustainable airport expansion plans that will put millions in the pockets of BAA execs? I know he doesn't oppose direct action in principle, so come on, let's see something productive rather than wasting time writing the sort of rubbish you would expect to see in The Sun.

    I nominate this as the silliest pledge ever.
  • So ordinary Brits who want to go on a cheap holiday should be stopped by posh students because there are poor people in shacks at risk of typhoons. Ian, what is wrong with wanting a cheap holiday? And how dare you speak with such contempt of ordinary people for presuming to want to go on holiday to Ibiza? You sound like the kind of trustafarian twerp who thinks its a wizard wheeze to spoil ordinary working people's holidays, but will think nothing of going "travelling" for half a year... all bills paid for by mummy and daddy.
    Kiera Hardie, 3 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • Hello Kiera, have you been on many of the protests promoted by the pledge creator on his blog? Those organized by No Borders for example? I have, and so have people involved with Plane Stupid. People involved with No Borders have disrupted flights in successful attempts to prevent (or at least delay) deportations. Have you thought about why that is apparently OK when doing so to oppose airport expansion is not? Or about the "ordinary Brits" living near airports whose health will be sacrificed to satisfy BAA's greed? Or the fact that it may cost an office worker in London more to get to work on the train than it would to fly to Rome for brunch?

    I don't care whether you think I am a "trustafarian" or a voodoo priest - as long as you think.
  • No Borders aren't trying to mess up people's holidays and close airports, they are trying to stop people being deported. Completely different. Plain Stupid were trying to close down Aberdeen airport, and of course to show off to their student pals, and only stopped when they were told they were blocking a hospital mercy dash. Also completely different. Aberdeen is really quite far away from lots of places and people rely on air travel probably more than London trendies. If people choose to move close to an airport they must expect to hear planes flying about - we have an airport near where I live and it's older than most people living near it, who chose to move nearby. I'm not sure about the plight of the London office worker taking a train to Rome for brunch, but I'm sure it's a common problem. Perhaps you could set up a charity to raise funds for victims.
    Kiera Hardie, 3 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • You misread my cost comparison Kiera. I was commenting on the fact that Ryanair has sold return flights to Rome for a quid, whereas someone cleaning offices in London for minimum wage may be paying more than than that to get to work every day.

    The pledge creator (perhaps unlike you) admits that climate change is a problem, and presumably understands that it will not be solved as long as people continue to hurtle through the stratosphere in ever increasing numbers at near supersonic speeds. He just thinks that this problem can wait until after the overthrow of capitalism, or perhaps that in the post-capitalist world people will no longer feel the need to escape from their everyday lives by traveling such vast distances on a regular basis, or that autonomous workers' collectives will simply be incapable of building and maintaining jumbo jets. Who knows?

    What if your next flight is cancelled due to a baggage handlers' strike? Will you applaud them for their act of working class solidarity or condemn them for trying to mess up people's holidays?
  • Now I'm supposed not to take a plane to go on holiday two or three times a year because office cleaners aren't paid enough? And holidays, or even travelling up to Aiberdeen, are just a symptom of the malaise of capatalist socierty, where we aim to escape from our everyday lives? Away wi' ye! As far as baggage handlers are concerned - I have no sympathy with that gang of overpaid robbers which is why I never check in luggage. Costs less too. I put them in the same category as overprivileged students, often people called Tarquin and Arabella and Tamsin, from a public school background - the more I learn about Plain Stupid the more I despise them.
    Kiera Hardie, 3 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • So Kiera, you have signed a pledge which calls for a mass working class movement to address climate change and overthrow capitalism, but you like capitalism, don't care about climate change and put striking workers in the same category as Plane Stupid. Strange, or did you just not read the "More details" section?
  • Ian, nothing I've said is inconsistent with Johnny Void's comments. I don't like capitalism, I care about climate change, but I think baggage handlers are in general a bunch of worthless robbers and I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire, I think stopping people flying for fun is as pointless a gesture as buying those expensive jute shopping bags at Sainsbury's, and I think posh hippie students playing wadicals are just plain stupid. You're the kind of lefty whose ideals are moved by guilt rather than class consciousness, which is why you're so bleedin' pious.
    Kiera Hardie, 3 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • Hey Kiera, this has been a frustrating argument and I am going to have to let it drop. I only commented because I have been a fan of Johnny's blog for a few years and he has promoted a lot of the stuff I have been involved with. I don't have anything to do with Plane Stupid and their tactics are certainly debatable, but some of them are also involved with stuff Johnny supports and some of them are probably just as working class as he is.

    This pledge itself is clearly silly, so I shouldn't have taken it so seriously. I enjoy reading Johnny's blog, and I agree with most of what he says (including of course his scathing criticism of Ryanair).

    So sorry if I have offended you or wasted your time, I am sure you have more important things to be doing - I know I have.
  • I won then. Good.
    Kiera Hardie, 3 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • I sent a comment. Where is it?
    dave hampton, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • Whatever you may think of the people at Plane Stupid, even if you think they are VERY stupid (and i don't, by the way,) pledging to "turn the central heating up to full for 24 hours" is way superior - on any scale of stupidity.

    Especially in this heatwave!

    It's good old self-harm - and on many different levels. Why not burn some cash too, overpay the gas bill, and cut down some rainforest - all to make your point??

    If you are so much better and wiser than Plane Stupid, (and you may be) why not do what we could be doing - or at least come up with something less, er, Stupid?
    dave hampton, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • I tend to agree with Ian Gregory here. (For clarification, I don't know him, but it is frustrating to see his consistently reasonable dialogue with Kiera met with responses that border on the abusive).

    Supporting working class people who want cheap holidays whilst condemning the working class baggage handlers as "robbers" is inconsistent, and perhaps demonstrates that the trumpeted concern for the working class is not entirely genuine.

    Also, Keira, your reverse class discrimination is nothing to be proud of - should you "despise" someone for being born on the right side of the tracks? No, of course not, for the main reason that people do not choose the circumstances in which they are born into. Calling this kind of sneering "class consciousness" is just disingenuous, and it is irrelevant to the main issue of climate change.

    I think Ian rightly dropped out of the argument because his points were not being answered. To me, it sounds rather like you oppose Plane Stupid because you hate the class of people within it. I don't think that is very productive.

    I have no idea whether they are all privileged types, but even if this is the case, should working class environmentalists not support decent attempts to slow climate change across class boundaries? That would be a much better situation than Tarquins, Arabellas and Tamsins not caring about the world, and jetting around in a plane every other week on their trust funds instead - or would you hate them for that as well?
    Jon, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • Kiera, you can go on holiday 2 or 3 times a year and you consider yourself working class? Come off it!
    Lara, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • It isn't just a class issue, as the pledger claims - some 'working-class' people, like me, are choosing not to fly, & supporting Plane Stupid against the Gov't-backed proliferation of air traffic - all 'classes' will be affected by pollution & climate change. It's nicer by SailRail anyway!
    Check out Toxic Cabin Events, folks.
    Chris McCabe, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
  • Thanks for backing me up Jon. Kiera was making so little sense that I gave up any attempt at serious debate. Her childish and egotistical parting shot only served to confirm that I had made the right decision.
This pledge is closed for new comments.

Current signatories (Green text = they've done it)

johnny void, the Pledge Creator, joined by:

  • mark
  • Kiera Hardie
  • lee del
  • garsin cheung
  • Matt Davie
  • Minaa
  • Emma Stewart
  • Paul
  • Paul Wharton
  • 1 person who did not want to give their name

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