A spirited crowd – especially the SolFed contingent – but completely overwhelmed by huge police presence. That’s it. We have just been ‘TOTALLY POLICED’ by the new commisioner. He may by using these resources bankrupt the Met by Christmas but no doubt he’ll get a bail out for good behaviour.
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Ian Bone 
correct. guess need for inventive tactics
A bummer. On a positive note the international banking system probably has less than a fortnight to surviive anyway. Student debt, along with any remaining ‘buy to let’ landlords might well disappear with it. The Euro may be the verge of succeding what revolutionary agitation failed to achieve – a complete meltdown of the Western financial system and the destruction of its senior bondholders.
We may soon be enjoying the amusing sight of Cameron and Milliband attempting to cling to power through an Argentinian style debt crisis and bank run. And there’s not enough police, trots and TUC stewards combined to kettle that scenario.
its was only gonna end up one way today ian they weren’t gonna get caught again. Well till next time…….
Threatening letters, the mention of plastic bullets, 4500 police on overtime, some from the Midlands and other forces, a victory for the sensible forces of law and order. Thank God its not like Syria -oh hang on… and we can, thanks to the corporate media concentrate on the real issues…er…. like immigrants, Jimmy Savilles gold coffin, and to wear or not wear a poppy
http://vimeo.com/31852312
Draft Energy Policy
We propose
* That the coal be mined by the National Union of Mineworkers
* That the coal be used to make steel; locking away the carbon rather than poluting the atmosphere with it
* That the steel be used to build wind turbines, wave turbines and tidal turbines
* That the energy generated be the common property of all
This would mean the end of economic growth. Capitalism requires economic growth. It is therefor urgent, for the survival of the human species, that the working class takes possesion of the means of production.
Well the clock is ticking on that one:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/09/fossil-fuel-infrastructure-climate-change
ok, that sounds very reasonable. Let’s do it…
cheers
mick
x
The BBC executives have pension fund investments in renewables and consequently their print outlet, the Guardian, keep abreast of climate change threats. Might be worth a bit of fresh thinking: apart from Guardian stories what is so badly wrong with shale gas? Run by Lancashire workers.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002509-gas-against-wind
Maybe thinking outside the climate box and considering industrial regeneration with workers in control.
and I think you’ll find the NUM has like 500 members, or something like that, sadly. You might as well hope that Rossi’s ‘E-cat’ isn’t a fraud, and that we’ll all have free non-polluting energy forever, but yeah, seizing the means of production by all and any means. Meanwhile watch the markets tumble, buy canned food and know where your local supermarket distribution warehouse is- cos you and your community are gonna need it real soon once the banks start to collapse like dominos…
A tweeter summed it up for himself here “We can hardly call today’s protest peaceful. It was fear. Demonstrators menaced by a huge gang of tooled-up thugs. #nov9”
A show of force by the police. When the demo was at Traf Square I was at the junction of Strand and Aldwych. 7 vans full of cops came hurtling down towards the Square with lights and sirens going. Then the traffic lights changed. 3 vans got through. The other 4 turned their sirens off and waited at the lights. And waited. And waited. At least 5 minutes. There wasn’t even any traffic apart from a few cyclists as they’d closed off all the roads. I think they all felt a bit sheepish as when the lights finally changed they drove through without sirens.
Shit happens. See you on the 24th comrades! Queensbury rules this time coppers – no rubber bullets, that’s not playing fair!
Well, that was an interesting exercise in futility, or should I say the new tactic of the Met- the mobile kettle of an extremely poorly attended demonstration…I hate to admit that the scaremongering had an effect alright, and then the totally repressive overkill in terms of numbers and the Met’s aggressive stance all kitted up for trouble from the off.
I joined the boxed-in march at Trafalgar Square, where the cops were not allowing the march to go through, (even though it was part of the agreed route), so I was pleased to see the breakout and brief occupation of the square- and at this point I noticed how panicked the cops were. I was standing by some senior officers who looked very worried indeed, despite their high numbers and the doubtless morale boosting back up of baton rounds etc… The march regrouped and headed down the Strand. Things got a bit tasty as things briefly kicked off at the junction with Lancaster Place/Waterloo Bridge, as what could be loosely termed a Black Bloc (gathered under the banners of SolFed) had a bit of a punch up with the cops. The OB pulled three people from the demo, pinned them to the wall and gave them a full Section 60 search- I don’t know if they were nicked or not though…
Since the police kept the speed of the march at a snail’s pace, it took some time to get up to Holborn Circus, which seemed to be arranged for a set-piece battle –not least because the cops held the whole march at a standstill for 25 minutes (even Simon Israel of C4 news, and assorted journos were commenting on this seemingly pointless halt) before entering the Circus. Given the Police enforced slowness of the demo, and the long stop, it looked to me that the cops were hoping to build pressure, and fuck people off to the extent that they would riot- but only a few sticks were thrown. The cops were obviously expecting/wanting this to be the arena for major conflict, as they expected the demo to try to force its way to St.Pauls, and I saw some very jittery looking coppers having their NATO helmets dished out to them, at high speed, in expectation of it going off…Through Holborn Circus, there was a surge/breakout of young BB’ers following a portable sound system through the police line of horses and blockheads, but this turned out to be a false promise as every side street, every alley, every nook and cranny was filled with Bill, many of them equipped with Ye Olde long shields. Turning off the official route was not an option, but before we knew it, we were at Moorgate junction (complete with barking cop dogs- one a Rotty/Shepherd cross FFS!).
That was it. The entire march then piled into the junction to only be faced with a siphon kettle, which let people out in dribs and drabs, fuck all people went the 20 metres up the road to the Finsbury Square Occupation…I did, with a comrade, and found that some of the Occupiers were desperate to keep the demo OUT of the square, they even tried to set up a cordon to prevent people from entering the camp-No joke. When asked why this was being done (along with a couple of campers telling people to ‘move along’ and ‘go home’), we were told it was because they thought that if ‘5000 people’ entered the square the cops would use it as a pretext to destroy the camp. There may have been a case for this, but only if there had been a massive riot, and there was not, and even if there had been, why fucking exclude people? I heard dark mutterings of “letting agents-provocateurs and ‘troublemakers’ in”. One rabid middle class woman, myself and my comrade remonstrated with, said that they did not want to ‘antagonise’ the Police, she also thought we were ‘aggressive’ and making her ‘anxious’ just by questioning what she was doing. We said that there ought to be unity, that everyone on the march supported them and asked who had decided to ‘close’ this public space to the marchers…Was it the consensus of their GA? No answer. Another middle class woman, guarding a thin ribbon of Hi-Vis material they were using to make their cordon actually told my comrade that ‘you are welcome anytime, but not today’…and I chided one of them by saying ‘why not invite the cops in to guard the camp from the protesters’ since they perceived their presence as such a threat to their precious little bubble…Some of the campers agreed with where we were coming from, some were really vexed with the cordon, however, it stayed in place…Disgusted, me and my mate left, and had to run the gauntlet of starey-eyed Zeitgeist Moonies as we went…We then headed off to Glastonbury-on-Thames, oops, sorry, occupylsx, which was SHIT too. I wish I’d gone on the Sparks demo, and I hope they had a good day. All in all , the day was bollocks, and was used by the cops as a trial run for N30 if you ask me. The state is absolutely terrified of an uncontrollable proletarian explosion, that much was self-evident today. But I tell you this, no revolution will be made by these middle class cunts who think they know it all, who spew their shitty Freudian guilt trips over you and will either patronise you into the ground, or, ultimately, call the cops on you. Fuck them, fuck them forever.
Sounds like you just had the same experience as I’ve been having with them over the past week or two. If you even mention the concept of class to them they get all defensive and shout you down as creating divisions in their idiotically simplistic notion that 99% of all people are somehow unified as one. Many of them seem to have very little conception of reality. As for them not letting you into the square…in effect they’ve now privatised it, and are showing their true cop/bailiff mentality.
Absolutely mate! See this quote from the Occupied London Times (Issue 3, P.4), that the occupation “…stands against corporate greed and the recklessness of the financial sector, and it recognises that the current political and economic model is only working for those at the top. These are issues that transcend political loyalties and CLASS.” (My emphasis)
It’s only natural for these people to negate the very idea that capitalism depends on, and IS, the class system. They have no idea of what ‘solidarity’ really is as our experiences have proved, in fact I’d say they have hijacked the concept for their own careerist, property speculating class ends. I recognise that there are some solid people involved in the occupation, but the middle class activists currently in control of St.Pauls are not to be trusted…
(see in particular ‘Mark Weaver’- ‘My criticism is there doesn’t seem to be much leadership. There is a young man named Mark Weaver who is outside St. Paul’s and he is very articulate and very effective.’ http://www.presstv.ir/detail/208781.html )
I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.
Yeah, I met Mark Weaver down there, he actually seemed to be one of the more benign amongst the leaders, if still hopelessly naive and deluded. He at least listened to my concerns and wanted me to get involved with some discussion groups to raise the issues I was talking about, but by that time I was so pissed off with the general authoritarian vibe around the place that the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a tent with a load of middle class schoolteacher types. Some of the other leadership crew are really nasty fuckers though.
I’ve been thinking about this 99% slogan, one of the reasons I hate it is that it says that I’m meant to be allied with people like cab drivers, who are trying to kill me and wanting to fight me virtually every day when I’m riding my bike in London. They are my enemies just as much as the super-rich 1%, if not more so, at least in terms of a direct threat to my life. Then again, they are supposedly working class too…so I should have solidarity with them? This is where I find the concept of class becomes problematic, even though I recognise that there are massive class divisions and prejudices…yet still a large amount of my own class are my ideological enemies as well. The same goes for cops, who the campers keep saying are part of the 99% too.
As for many of the campers, I’ve come to the conclusion that their social conditioning has caused them to unconsciously replicate in the camp the same kind of patronising cliquey social hierarchy that they’ve existed in for their whole lives.
the mobile kettle’s no new thing as those of us who attended the 2007 ‘bash the rich’ march can confirm
But I tell you this, no revolution will be made by these middle class cunts who think they know it all, who spew their shitty Freudian guilt trips over you and will either patronise you into the ground, or, ultimately, call the cops on you. Fuck them, fuck them forever.
This is why we should shit on the idea of being the “99%”.
A fair point. But as Class War pointed out many years ago (in ‘Unfinished Business’) in a revolutionary situation the middle class and working class will both split, some siding with the bosses and some siding with the forces of revolution. Many of the people out at the Occupy camps will fall into the former category: but not all. The recognition that elements of the middle class will play a revolutionary role shouldn’t be forgotten – and with the anarchist movement in the state it’s in every good militant, regardless of their origin, is needed. It’s not where you’ve been but where you’re going to that matters.
If the camps do make some people move from being ‘middle class cunts’ spewing ‘shitty Freudian guilt trips’ towards being militant revolutionaries, all to the good. It would be useful if militant class struggle anarchists could bring the same energy to bear on promoting their ideas that they do to pissing on people we disagree with.
I joined the kids at Holborn Viaduct and walked to London Wall with a bunch of very loud and cheeky girls (that always cheers up us RAMP-AGERS). At London Wall the police presence was large and intimidating and INCUBUS is dead right about the Rotty/Alsation x and the handler was having a hard time keeping any control over it at all. Very different make up to last winter’s demos, these were “proper students” of the type that a certain person has pointed out that I “have spent all my life slagging off and am now desperate to hang out with” !! Yup, should have gone with the sparks.
Everyone seen the undercover arrests? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V_kCB54oi04
The 9th was really demoralising. Felt like being in a queue for an Alton Towers ride except you get arrested for trying to leave or putting your hood up.
Yeah agree with all the comments here pretty much.
I wouldn’t blame the students though, a lot of them were up for it but the police presence was just too much, and their snatch squads were really fucking demoralising. But yeah, not enough college and school students there, but those that were there were no more rowdy than the students. Students wanted to go to meet the sparks, and things could have kicked off from there, but there were too many cops and there were too many, too geared up, for it to be worth it trying to get to them. Next time we’ll have to be better prepared!
The Sparks.
The Pinnacle, Bishopsgate; shortly after 7am. The cops try to contain the sparks & their supporters on the pavement – no chance; we take the road & it’s blocked for over an hour. When we decide to move off to our next targets in Cannon Street the plod form a line across the road to prevent us; we push up on the line and then physically push it aside. They rush down the road, (much heavy breathing), and try to obstruct us again, and again they are pushed aside, rather more vigourously this time. We have the gleam in our eyes and the air is filled with “WE ARE SPARKS! WE ARE SPARKS! WE ARE SPARKS!”
Rank & file industrial workers in direct conflict with the agents of the state and winning. 1-0
Two sites in Cannon Street. London Bridge northbound completly gridlocked but the bizzies have called in reinforcements including a fucking dog van and they succeed in imposing a rolling kettle. 1-1. Nobody tries to break out of the kettle though, because we now set off on a tour of other sites in the city causing even more traffic chaos. We also go to the St. Paul’s camp which is frankly wierd. About two people greet us and a few more emerge sleepily from their tents, one of whom is wearing a unicorn’s head hat.
And so across the river to The Shard, the official Unite assembly point. Nothing much is happening when we get there, so some of us retire to a convenient pub and watch even more bizzies assemble, most of them looking like they’re taking part in a ‘Mr. Fat Bastard’ competition. The pub is full of construction industry electricians who were born with class consciousness and who are up for it. It’s decades since I have experienced this. And then we’re off to Blackfriars for the last picket/rally.
Crossing Blackfriars Bridge comes one of those things that keep recurring recently in the most unexpected circumstances, that make you think, ‘Fuck, something’s happening here!’. What happened was that looking away to the north-west people noticed the copper-choppers in the sky; three of them. And people started pointing and saying ‘That must be the student march!’ A couple of thousand construction workers and ten thousand people on the education march moving towards each other and it felt like taking part in a little bit of history.
The convergence did not happen. After the rally at Blackfriars, the sparks divided into those who wanted to join the students and those who wanted to go on the official Unite lobby of Parliament. The pigs moved immediately to kettle the ‘student faction’ but they were not quite quick enough. Major frisk, with bizzies punched, knocked over etc. Some lads broke out of the kettle and some did not, but it was a major mistake by the Met. First, because it made it quite clear that they, (and their masters), are totally shitting themselves about the prospect of self-organised workers joining forces with radical street protesters; second because this was the first taste that many of the sparks have had of what it’s actually like. Apparently, after the Blackfriars ruck, some of the younger ones were asking whether protesting was always as good as this. 🙂
2-1; (Plod, o.g.)
If the sparks win it will be a major victory and a major confidence boost. Just get out there and back them up eh. There’s nothing to be scared of.
For those that weren’t there, here’s the vid.:
FUCKING MET BASTARDS
Great report Alan. Thank you.
The Students
OK, so we met up with South London SolFed comrades at Blackfriars & held an assembly thingie sorta & decided to remove ourselves while we had the chance and to move north and join the student march. We looked like a very ordinary group of people apart from a banner/flag or two; no ninjas, but we still caused a bizzie-panic and received an escort. This also led to an amusing incident invovling piss and a Guardian journalist which will have to wait till later.
A couple of hitherto unreported incidents:
a) The Met diverted us from the agreed route along Fleet Street and off to the left into that office block wasteland where they held us up for ages. While everyone was standing around getting bored and frustrated, an elfin ninja came skipping thorough the crowd, saw a bunch of TSG blocking a side road, gave them verbal abuse and waved a placard at them in vigourous manner before disappearing with lightning speed. The words on the placard were ” SOUTH LONDON TEKNO CUNTS”. Absolutely unforgettable; Makhno Medal No.1.
b) Some younger comrades are obviously very concerned about the physical condition of our Met companions and had taken along some vegetables in an attempt to improve their diet. The first evidence of this was when a potato struck a bizzie on the head; he picked it up, saw what it was and threw it over his shoulder, unfortunately hitting a colleague standing behind him. A deluge of potatoes followed. We should be aware that this exposes us to the risk of being charged with Possession of an Offensive Vegetable in the future; nevertheless, Makhno Medal No.2 to whoever thought of it.
It’s also worth noting that throughout the duration of the march, most office windows were filled with office workers, who were therefore doing no work; a de facto general strike in fact.
Thanks Alan, great reports -Uplifting!
Forgot to say thank you to Whitechapel last night; not just thank you to Whitechapel comrades but to the people as well. We parked the car in this all-day car park early on Weds morning & had to go back in the evening to pay the guy the thirteen quid. He looks at us and says “have you been protesting?”
“Err…well yes, we have”
“Well it’s only a tenner then”
Doesn’t sound much but it made us feel good 🙂
My favourite part was some pompous bellend leaning out the window remonstrating with the protesters (who were giving good or better than they got) eventually someone threw a projectile of some kind which hit the window next to him and he scurried back inside.
From: http://vastminority.blogspot.com/2011/11/unauthorised-routes-of-protest-lie.html
Police and government know full well that the current capitalist crisis is not going away any time soon and neither is the swelling tide of resistance.
The course of a river can be temporarily dammed with riot shields and snarling masked goons, but water has a wonderful way of finding its way past any obstacle.
November 9 was a battle fought according to state rules on its own terrain and it is little surprise, in truth, that might prevailed.
On other occasions, however, the police chiefs’ arrogance will no doubt be found to be sorely misplaced, as the flood of revolt breaks out into wholly unauthorised routes of protest.
When are we going to screw those toffs at eton comrade?