Blog Virgin

Well this is my first venture into the world of blogging, thanks to a friend who reads loads of them. She obviously has way too much time on her hands!!

I read some entries that various people put on their sites about the Woodcraft Folk and they wound me right up. Why does the word "hippy" continually get associated with the movement that has been a part of my life for 17 years as a group leader? I'm not a hippy! Punk was the music of my youth and the anti authoritarian politics that went with it. What's so hippy about thinking that need should be put before greed? Or that you should treat others as you'd like to be treated? Or that you shouldn't f*** over the planet...coz here's the rub, YOU live on it? Parents/carers who can't find better descriptors might like to visit the Folk's national website, or our local site for Brighton. Personally, I've always seen the Woodcraft Folk as a part of anti-capitalist counter hegemony (phew!) and thus we try to open our members eyes to alternative visions...as the World Social Forum says, "Another World is Possible".

Many of the people most dear to me are comrades in the Folk. All my kids have been in the Folk. Josie-Ann till she was 13, Cassie still a member of Chaos Venturers at 14 and Liam a member of the group I run who is 11. I hope the last two stay in, but that decision is theirs not mine.

I've been a politico all my life since I went on marches as a 17 year old against Cruise Missiles. The Folk has been a part of my politics - red, black and green.

Nothing hippy about that!

I'll get off my soapbox now and stop ranting.