Sleepy Letterpress, Detroit - video

[Dave Hughes]

Hi Caren, thanks for your comment. I'm sorry that you think I shouldn't show videos from Sleepy Letterpress on here, but I think you're wrong.

I have been a life-long trade unionist. Any good trade unionist knows that bringing about change is about persuading people to change their mind. Persuading a boss that the people you represent deserve to be paid more; persuading someone who's not in a union to join one; and, yes, sometimes persuading someone who wants to go into work during a strike not to.

The video from Sleepy Letterpress which you didn't like has never been shown on this website, and I would never show it. It does have comments open on the Youtube site though, have you commented on the video and told Andy how you feel about it? I don't think you have. But you think it's OK to tell me that I'm being short-sighted and problematic!

There is a rise in right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment both in the USA and elsewhere at the moment, and I don't agree with it.

There was a huge march in London recently under the banner "Unite the Kingdom." It would be easy to dismiss the people who attended it as "right wing thugs." But it's not as simple as that. The sheer numbers involved suggest that more and more people are being persuaded to believe that their insecure employment, low wages, poor housing, poor public services, etc. is a result of too much immigration.

They have been persuaded that this is the case by politicians who should know better. The politicians have been assisted by the mainstream media who long ago abandoned the idea of telling the truth in favour of making money. Finally the legal system will do whatever the politicians tell them to do.

Maybe one day, perhaps when all the immigrants have been "sent home" and they still have insecure employment, low wages, poor housing and poor public services they will realise that the politicians have been scapegoating people to divert attention from themselves.

Back to the videos. I like Andy's videos, I think they are a great resource for people stepping into the world of letterpress printing. I do not see any harm in showing them.

Maybe one day Andy will see the error of his ways and realise he has been "hoodwinked." Maybe he won't. Either way, I don't think the way to fight intolerant people is with further intolerance.