Just got back from the march on the Bank of England. About 200 students mostly with SWP placards but up for some action stormed the entrances to the Royal exchange luxury shops chanting ‘ The Rich..the rich…we’ve got a get rid of the rich’. Keeping mobile they charged at the Stock exchange, Bank Of England, and several merchant banks where cops just managed to keep them out. The city of london cops were badly caught off guard at first and repeatedly the students broke through police lines and resisted being penned in. It was a triumph of people who didnt know how to behave on demonstrations – who were naive, idealistic and passionate and bold and broke out of he usual SWP constraints. Racing round the city was exhlarating as the cops sent for dogs and horses and reinforcements with hands itching on their tazers. After an hour things calmed down. A few very old anarchists had trailed after the students and I salute the studeents for their boldness and passion. There were no anarchist flags in sight or any evidence of those who’d produced the Collapse Faster leaflet. The day belonged to the students……….from their fragile hands…….
Ian Bone 
The SWP were not trying to constrain the march It’s time to move and the SWP have led the charge, so well done to them.
It’s a call to action.
Some old anarchist trailed even further behind than most! But well done all.
“the usual SWP constraints.”
Thanks I try to mediate everyday about the evils of the SWP mindset
This is good news. A start. Let’s hope people build on this type of thing.
There is an old african proverb that slaves took to North America:
“The dry grass will set fire to the damp grass” . . .
All us anarchists got there late!! From what I’ve heard, it was a bit of a missed opportunity, though. They get into the bank, then no property damage?! What the fuck. The anarchist movement ended up in a pub in Whitechapel, though, so we can’t really talk.
I did see the SWP engage in ‘direct action’ once. During a national ‘Stop The War’ demonstration a little groupuscle of SWP drones actually sat down in the middle of the highway. They were there for all of 2.3 seconds – just enough time for a hack photographer to beam down from the SWP Mothership and immortalise the moment when plucky little Trots ‘led the fightback.’
Still, it’s the most they’ve done since those heady days when Tariq Ali actually swore at a Police constable during during the Grosvenor Square kick off of March ’68. Things were wild back then.
Hi all,
Got there about 5 40/6 as I was held up and it was all silent outside the front so I thought we missed out. There were just a couple of plod and a few SWP’ers flogging papers so we took the assumption that it wasn’t much and moved on.
Damn shame to have missed what seemed to be a decent bit of action.