In defence of non-violent direct action

 

Cops protecting corporate capitalism

Here we go…..Orwellian legislation on its way

The government will consider giving the police new powers, including the banning of face coverings, following the weekend’s anti-cuts march, the home secretary, Theresa May, has said.

May said police could be given the power to ban known troublemakers from attending political demonstrations – similar to how known hooligans can be banned from travelling to football matches.

And the opposition are defending this right-wing authoritarian laws, well no surprise there, they are former ministers in the New Labour government!

It also seems the 149 arrested have been charged. And the UK Uncut protesters were arrested (after being conned into leaving by the cops) and charged for having a peaceful sit-in in a posh shop. Funny how May and also the opposition are indulging in using language such as “violent parasitic hooligans” (that charming comment came from Jim Murphy who knows who about hooliganism as it was Murphy, Hutton and Purnell who trashed the benefits system). May describes protesters as, “gangs of thugs”… That’s apt really in considering that’s precisely what the ConDems are doing to the public sector and the welfare state.

On these proposals, how will the cops instigate the ban regarding “known troublemakers” attending demos? And face coverings? Does this include clown masks, Cameron masks, Clegg masks….??

The media are whipping this up, sensationalising things…(my favourite headline so far is “Battle of Piccadilly”). I mean, we haven’t had a good wholesome moral panic for sometime and this is a fine example. Let’s criminalise and vilify protesters, let’s start chucking around the word “anarchism” as an insult.. There are debates on the left regarding whether Fortnum and Mason was a useful target, whether non-violent direct action is a correct tactic, anarchism and whether this behaviour has set the movement back.

There have been Labour MPs distancing themselves from the actions of UK Uncut with the exception of John McDonnell. But…. was the tactics wrong? No, as I said before you won’t change the world through demonstrations only. There has to be non-violent direct action along with occupations and strike action. I am sure the bland bureaucrats of the trade union movement will think they have done so much by seeing thousands on the streets on Saturday but these actions need to be ongoing and direct. In order to put pressure on this government without a mandate you have to organise a fightback.

It’s ok for people to bleat that this is the wrong tactic but many of these young people see their present and futures trashed by this government; education becoming the privilege of the few, few job prospects, lack of a pension when retired, public services and welfare state being destroyed with the full throttle of privatisation and the benefits system being eroded. What’s left? Yes, let’s have a concerted and organised resistance but can you hardly blame people who demonstrating on the streets? Many feel they have nothing to lose. Yes, you will always have the jokers who piss you off but that aint new whether it’s acting silly or showing off your dick.

So let’s not forget who are the real thugs, the real violent parasitic hooligans….and that’s this government who are indulging in smash and grab. They’re the real criminals. Protesters damage property the agents of the state damage people (also remember today was the first day of the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson).

What is of prime importance is to defend these protesters who have been arrested and let’s see a defence campaign because this government will continue to criminalise and vilify protest.

See Adam Ramsay’s post on being arrested.

It’s spring!!

TUC demo: Embankment ending at Piccadilly

Inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson starts tomorrow

From Ian Tomlinson Family Campaign

The inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson, who died during the G20 protests in 2009, will commence on Monday 28 March 2011 and is expected to last for of 5-6 weeks. It is expected to sit from Monday to Thursday from 10.00am – 4.00pm. The family welcomes supporters to attend.

An inquest is a legal investigation that is open to the public. Its purpose is to establish who the person was and where, when and how they died.

The inquest will be conducted by the Chief Coroner, Judge Peter Thornton QC, who replaces the City of London Coroner Paul Matthews. Hearings will take place at the International Dispute Resolution Centre at 70 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1EU.

From Embankment to Piccadilly

Today reading the media’s sensationalism and moral outrage causes me even more outrage. Me with a sore back and a bruised ego while I read these OTT headlines. But why I am surprised with them and their hypocrisy and damn lies. Their defence of property while not giving a damn about the violence and brutality instigated by the cops, all paramilitary style Kevlar protected thugs against ordinary clothed individuals. Indeed who has the power and control, who has the luxury of legislation on their side and who can get away with acts of tremendous violence without reproach? I marched with the demo yesterday, massive in numbers continuing to swell, thousands upon thousands marching against the brutality of cuts. Numbers like this not seen since 2003. It was dynamic and indeed you felt part of history in the making, lively, fun and very good-humoured. I got stuck coming up Whitehall so hung around precariously perched on the edge of a statue taking pictures. Eventually we weaved our way up towards Trafalgar Square which again had a jovial and carnival atmosphere. I discussed with my partner what we should do next, the speeches had been done in Hyde Park so no point marching there. We decided to go to Oxford Street to check out UK Uncut. We marched along with a group of LSE students chanting, “LSE, LSE, we will smash the bourgeoise”! I kinda liked that chant. We headed onto Oxford Street and saw the damage to property. Banks with graffiti and smashed windows along with the flagship of tax thieves, Topshop. Paint had been flung against the windows & cops covered in paint. A line of riot cops protecting the vested interests of corporate capitalism. They all stood there looking robotic and menacing ready for a ruck.

I saw the Trojan horse at Oxford Circus. People were just milling around, taking videos and pictures. The atmosphere seemed ok. We then marched to Piccadilly as I was seeing tweets on Twitter regarding a peaceful sit-in at the symbol of wealth and opulence and tax dodging. In the sky were 3 helicopters which made me think of the end scene of A Very British Coup. Behind us scurrying along was a line of riot cops so we followed them and ended up outside Fortnum and Mason. There were crowds in front of the posh shop with riot cops standing facing us. At the time that we arrived at Fortnum and Mason the rear of the demonstration was still passing through. Many of the people around were people from the end of the protest march.

I was standing in front of a railing. I couldn’t see much as people were standing up on the railing some being held up by others. At various times I moved around and heard the cheers go up as protesters climbed up and inched along the window ledges to the roof. It was a spectacular event witnessed. Riot cops, as far as I saw, didn’t seems interested regarding people on the roof instead they stood there facing the crowds. At various points there were confrontations. My partner saw, he thought, a legal observer being dragged away. The atmosphere was carnival-esque, chants, dancing and sound systems. I was trying to film as much as I could and didn’t trust clambering on top of the railing as worried about balancing as I could see people wobbling about on top. Cops started to push and shove the crowds, protesters behind the railing were possibly feeling hemmed in. One woman leaned over and seemed panicked, she wanted to get over but couldn’t so myself and another photographer heaved her over. One woman fell off the railings twice but was caught. Some of the protesters started to make their way down off the roof which caused further cheering. As things progressed the mood turned ugly as you could see more and more and more cop reinforcements. There was a bit of panic as people climbed over the railings worried about a police surge then all of a sudden a bloke crash landed on me, fortunately I didn’t fall but then another  one fell and the force pushed me forward. I could feel pain in my lower back.

Then things started to get worse. At one point the cops seemed out run and out maneuvered by the protesters though that didn’t last as more of ‘em turned up. By that time Piccadilly was being surrounded by police. People started to ask whether they were being kettled, the answer was yes. We walked to the police line and were confronted with lines of tooled up cops ready for action. They pulled people off street boxes or steps of buildings. It was shocking and unprovoked. I saw a bloke dragged off a street box, heavy-handed and unnecessary, which caused anger from the protesters. My back started to ache and I started to worry. I witnessed a line of protesters standing facing the cops chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets” and then the cops surged forward, attacking the protesters (see my video it was taken from the side as we kept being pushed along by cops…apologies for the quality but you can see cops using their shields as weapons). We walked away at that point as I needed to sit down, we found a courtyard where other people were taking refuge from the police violence. A student I recognised had a bandage around his head, his eye was swollen and had blood on his face. I asked a cop how long we were being kettled, he said not long. But I had heard that before! We could see from the courtyard cops chasing and attacking protesters. And yet more reinforcements appeared. As cops surged forward to chase people we saw a chance of rushing out of the kettle. Cops were too busy chasing people up the road to care about us sneaking out.

As we got out we could see lines and lines of cops stopping people from going down Piccadilly. My partner suggested I see a paramedic as my back hurt and I was stooping forward not walking properly. It turned out I had bruised back muscles (fortunately all that weight training paid off) and today I do feel like someone fell on me, sore. But I was lucky, I saw a young woman while being treated. She was sitting on the pavement being treated by a paramedic. She had no visible injuries though she looked so distressed and traumatised. Eventually getting up but then collapsing again. It was an awful and shocking sight. This is what the cops do to people. I assumed then that the violence would get worse as people were kettled. In a kettle you feel trapped, vulnerable and scared as the logic of containment makes you a sitting duck.

And what of the papers today? Nothing shocking just the usual bile. It reminds me of every other demo/protest/strike where the police wade in beating the crap out of people and then nicking them. From the Miners Strike to Wapping to the Poll Tax. Do I condemn the protesters, this so-called hard-core anarchists? No, I don’t. I am not getting into the rights and wrongs of their actions. And all this “mindless violence” talk…what about the mindless violence of the cuts! They damaged property the police damage people, which is worse? There was a massive number of people cheering on the protesters of all ages and of political stripes. Many, including myself, were impressed by the sheer number and volume of protesters who came out to protest against the cuts but marching from A to B is part of a strategy but won’t change much. It may put pressure on the ConDems but realistically we need to continue this. Another important part of this strategy is non-violent direct action. I don’t condemn these people as there’s justified anger and rage about the cuts. Many have seen that A to B demos are not everything to apply pressure on a government. What was seen yesterday was a start. And also these kinds of actions do engender a sense of doing something. What I witnessed was provocation and disproportionate action by the cops and now the media are on the political bandwagon condemning the protesters and using the peacefulness of the demo as symbolic of a hard-core mentality. The protesters who were involved in the peaceful sit-in were arrested and appear to be charged with aggravated trespass. If this is the case then we must set up a defence campaign to defend these people. We have to continue to fight against these cuts but also push our own message against the lies, sensationalism and hype peddled by the right-wing media consensus.

Images from 26th March 2011

 

Cops, as ever, protecting corporate capitalism....

Video nasties, moral panic, censorship and videotape

I was of that age range that remembers the furore over “video nasties” during the early to mid ages. The moral right desperate and main objective to “protect” the hearts and minds of the innocent. That probably included me I suppose. The likes of Mary Whitehouse along with then MP Graham Bright to fight against this corruption and depravity. Another moral panic was upon us and knee jerk legislation was just a Betamax away. In my own school viewing a video nasty was a kind of badge of honour (and one area to conduct useful and insightful studies woulda been research on gender  and video nasties). I would hear, mainly boys, whispering about “Driller Killer” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and more mainstream horrors, “The Exorcist”. The discussion would involve how much gore, violence and maybe some sex was in the nasty. I think with the forer over nasties combined with other attacks at that time. I remember the shock and disgust when Frankie Goes to Hollywood released “Relax”…. instead of public outrage more people bought it hence number 1. I too was in the queue at HMV desperate to buy it thinking what is so shocking about this record. Along with staying up way past midnight to see the shocking video. Still makes me laugh now. But it also had an impact on my politics as I started to question why powers-that-be regulated what we are allowed to, thinking as well about censorship and class. I read DH Lawrence’s books and couldn’t understand why my class library stocked “A Clockwork Orange” but not Lady Chatterley. To this day I have a fascination with horror, slasher and violent movies in the context of censorship and my own anti-censorshop outlook (including porn….but that’s another post entirely)

These memories of “depraving the minds of youth” via video nasties came back when I watched the excellent “Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide”. I really recommend this DVD. The film goes into detail about why video nasties became a moral panic. Media started the panic (rather similar to previous panics) where it was picked up by the usual moralistic suspects, Mary Whitehouse, who had never watched a video nasty but she believed she had the authority to speak about this. Unfortunately, it gained political momentum and legislation. Videos weren’t regulated or cut is the same way as ordinary cinema films. And if you watched one of these nasties the quality was appalling with bad sound, sleazy, exploitative, sexist, low budget and everything also obvious the video being shown umpteenth times on a Betamax (the first video machine I encountered was a Betamax but you had fewer vids as VHS had cornered the market). The effects were crap, the acting was crap, the gore was well loads of it, the script derivative. Something lurking in the woods/ sorority house/train/dance (delete where applicable), baddies armed with drill, axe, chainsaw, knife, gun (delete where applicable) add a mix of teenagers with sex on the mind and quicker than you can say “Don’t Go into the Woods” …hey presto you have a nasty.

But this didn’t deter the moralists protecting our minds, they set up parliamentary inquiry into video nasties which had no remit or official status yet they had enormous power. It is extremely worrying watching the development of this panic. The DPP produced a list in 1983 highlighting nasties. Mark Kermode makes an excellent point when he says that list had a useful purpose primarily as a tick list for video consumers. But it led to the Recordings Act of 1984. All videos had to be classified by the BBFC. The videos on the “list” could be prosecuted for obscenity and not classified. And woe betide any video store selling them uncut.

This legislation was based false pretences and fraudulent research. Less empirical more ideology. Statistics twisted to suit the purposes of these right-wing moralists. And they fed these lies to a gore hungry right-wing press. Hence your moral panic. Useful research done showed that many kids exaggerate their video nasty viewings. Researcher gave school kids a list of video nasties with some real names and some made up. Many said they had watched the made up ones when asked what the film depicted, one boy said, “lots of blood”. But again, doesn’t this demonstrate a badge of honour? The shock tactics used by the right-wing actually encourages people to want to watch them as you are inclined to ask yourself what is it they don’t want us to see? Graham Bright MP is seen explaining that the research done initially showed that video nasties have negative impacts on children “as well as dogs”!! (obviously traumatised Fido was interviewed!). You can see this as ridiculous and daft but it was censorship in the name of “protection”… As pointed out by a researcher on the DVD this also exposed a class dynamic. History of censorship has always shown this. From the secret museum, DH Lawrence, horror comics, violent movies, Battleship Potemkin… it was always about keeping it away from the masses. Also, these paragons of morality are superior in their ability to watch this filth, depravity and obscenity as opposed to you and I cos they won’t experience the effects. If you skim legislation you can always see where a moral panic has presented itself.

And that’s what’s why moral panics are an attack on freedom. Professor Martin Bright is absolutely correct when talks about studying the history of moral panics and the way censorship is pushed through. You need to understand to understand these political dynamics in order to fight it as moral panics never go away. The right-wing consensus use video nasties, the lyrics of Marilyn Manson and violent movies etc. to create moral panics and demand further censorship but let’s not forget this is an attack on civil liberties and freedom of expression.

Which side are you on?!

Yesterday I thought of my grandfather while wandering around London Gower Street/Malet Street visiting UCU picket lines. I thought of him because he was a committed trade unionist who, apparently, when he met people for the first time would simply ask were they in a trade union, if the answer was no he would reply, “Join one”! One of my first memories of strike action was hearing my parents argue over the strikes during the winter of discontent. My dad was on strike and wanted to return to work, my mother was having none of it. She said, “Workers have to stick together, what will the other strikers think if you suddenly returned to work”.. My dad didn’t go back to work he continued to strike. Listening to her words stuck in my mind (also she rarely said anything radical) also she had been influenced, no matter how much she claimed to the contrary, by her own dad. But those words were inscribed inside my consciousness and for me, the first Socialist commandment is, “Thou shall not cross a picket line”…..

So yesterday as I wander around picket lines I witnessed people crossing picket lines with excuses I have heard so many times before. A student, when as a Unison member on strike some years ago now, accused me of being a “Stalinist” (??????) for asking her politely not to cross the picket line. She also said I was “denying her democrat right of freedom” etc etc. I must confess I laughed as I had never heard anything that ridiculous especially watching this student oozing faux defiance, stamping her indignant paws and getting all flustered. I said if she wanted to cross the picket line then that was up to her but could she not and show some solidarity with striking workers. The answer was no as she stormed across the picket line. Strange. And selfish. Workers, sometimes looking at the floor in embarrassment (so they should) as they cross the picket line muttering, “I do support the strike but can’t afford to go on strike” etc etc. Or “I have a mortgage to pay”… Our answer was “So do we”! Do these people who cross a picket line actually think we strike for the fun of it? No, strikes are about the last resort when all avenues have been explored and negotiations have broken down and then it’s about withdrawing your labour. And also the extra bureaucracy and paraphernalia of balloting and so on courtesy of oppressive anti-trade union laws and management trying to take unions to court based on technicalities etc. And of course losing day (s) pay when you do strike. Strike action is about both personal sacrifice and collective solidarity, it’s not about selfish individualism (people who cross the picket line) more about fighting for rights (collective action). Yesterday’s UCU strike was over pensions but on a general scheme of things it is also the fight for education and that includes students as well. Unfortunately, in Manchester ,UCU strikers were evicted from their picket lines.

The arguments for crossing picket lines yesterday was similar to the ones I have heard when I worked in a college and took strike action over London Weighting, such as “I need to take my books back to the library”… “I need to attend a lecture”… Funny thing was when Unison went on strike that time AUT (as it was) came out in solidarity along with Amicus (as it was) so there were, a-hem, no lectures…. I recall one of the heads of departments sending out a memo explaining to students they had two choices on the day of the strike: Stay at home or join a picket line. He ended it with, “I have never crossed a picket line and don’t intend to start now”. Though there were the positives, one woman student listened to the arguments of the reasons of strike action…she nodded in agreement and turned away. Yesterday as well the strikes across the universities around Gower and Malet Street seemed solid, vibrant and lively. Students and workers working together in solidarity. And it gives a positive feeling when you are able to politely argue the cause to people standing facing a picket line and they walk away. The basic and simple question to those people facing a picket: which side are you on? It was damn easy to cross a picket line, whether rushing through while staring cowardly at the floor or storm it with petty defiance (so many make a beeline to the front of your banner and crash through it). Some do it because they’re weak, apolitical, naive or just right-wing. And the abuse you can face from scabs (I have and so have others) yet if there’s a hint of anything untoward on a picket line the cops come charging along with the trumped-up complaints.

As the blinkered scab muscles through the picket line with the blinkers, what happens when they wake up one morning and discover their right to an education has been eroded and privatised, their local public services have been sold off to the private sector, the NHS has been smashed, welfare benefits have disappeared….and so on. Will they finally take off those blinkers and think what has happened? Some I reckon will still continue to think in that “I’m all right Jack” mentality, life on an individual basis is OK for me so why should “I bother for others”… But life can easily spiral out of control and you find yourself in a predicament. Will they wake up then?

Picket lines there’s always sense of solidarity and unified action as opposed to the individual crossing that picket line with the lack of any consciousness.

I know which side I am on.

Around the UCU picket lines in London today

Here’s some pictures from various UCU picket lines around London. I will write more tomorrow.

A simple & rough guide to today’s Budget: the poor are screwed!

George Osborne had the cheek and bleedin’ audacity to utter those immortal words during the Budget, “We are all in this together”… Laughable considering what the Budget entails. In simple terms, winners the rich, losers the poor.…That’s essentially it.

Some of us are in it more than others and will continually to be so.

For more analysis see LEAP blog & Richard Murphy on Does the Treasury have any clue how big the tax gap is? And the answer is ……no