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.
I was in piccadilly when it kicked off at fortnum and masons. The Twat Brigade Kicked off when there was a light covering of Police. the Riot Police came in three vans after the Twats kicked off. Having seen earlier protests I think the police worked responsibly. We had a great march and hopefully the other twats in Downing Street will take notice that they have pissed off that many normal non radicalised people and temper their policy’s accordingly.
If I can make some suggestions (most of which you’ve probably already thought of)
This is a pressure issue. You know that. I know that. The government knows that. The government has to bow to pressure, if the pressure gets strong enough. At present the pressure hasn’t gotten to that point. They are still trying to pretend that most people are on their side. And with Fleet Street cooperating, they can get away with it to a certain extent. And of course they are divided. David Cameron and Nikki Clegg are strange bedfellows.
My suggestions are:
1) If you don’t have one, start an alternative online newsletter using a .co.uk domain using something like Drupal as the base. There’s bound to be a geek in the movement who can set it up. Use it to collect email addresses so you can build up a list of contacts. Keep everything on the site 100% legal of course.
2) Start a letter writing campaign. Letters should be written every day, by every member of your group to the PM, the deputy PM, the Queen, their local MP, and to whatever member of the House of Lords seems appropriate. EVERY SINGLE DAY. If you have 1,000,000 people doing this, well, let’s just say that it will help employment
Letters should be hand written. They don’t need to be long, all they need to say is something along the line of ‘I didn’t get a response from the letter I sent to you yesterday yet…’ When you do get a response send, ‘That isn’t a sufficient answer, ….’ make sure to provide talking points on the website.
3) At the same time send emails to the same people. Again, provide talking points on the website.
4) Also send letters and emails to New Scotland Yard complaining about police brutality. Send them to the director – I’m sure that he’ll be happy to personally reply to a million correspondents.
5) Keep everything polite. But be insistent. Very insistent. None of this English, ‘I know you are a busy man’ but rather, ‘It was my vote that put you in Parliament, and I expect you to work in my best interests, not in the best interests of a bunch of foreign bankers who don’t pay taxes’. Be definite. Demand answers.
6) Remember, politics is very much about public relations. If the politicians believe that they face a revolt, they will pull back. Neither Cameron nor Clegg could gain a majority. They know that they are only in the driver’s seat because they made a deal. And they are spending their political capital quickly. As weak as Labour is, Labour will probably win the next election because the Conservatives have so disgusted the electorate. The only reason that the Conservatives got as many seats as they did was that Tony Blair was an ass, and Gordon Brown a nitwit. If Brown had have regulated the bankers, the Conservatives would still be sitting in the political wilderness.
FYI, an election campaign has just started here. I’m intending to have my usual fun, throwing gasoline on the fire.
Wayne
Although I don’t condone any of the behaviour of the police and I can’t comment about what really happened in the demonstration (I wasn’t there) but I’d like to say that no one has mentioned that about half of the casualties were from the police themselves. And they were the ones in armour!
Are people aware that 80% of Fortnum and Mason is owned by a charitable trust, which also owns about 40% of Primark ? Seems a shame to smash the place up just cos it sells posh nosh. 80% of the cost of cleanup will come from the charity’s bit of the profits.
The charity made grants in 2009 of £4m to the arts, £2m to community groups, more than £5m to education, £1.5m to environmental and conservation projects, £5m to health projects, £4m to welfare projects, £2.5m to churches, £2m to youth projects – a total of 1,500 grants worth £26m.
And to think they’ve been doing this for years, long before the “Big Society” ever popped into Cameron’s speechwriter’s brain.
We had a problem like that in Canada a while back. It turned out that the people who ‘smashed the place up’ were undercover cops, trying to justify their pay checks. Seriously. Oh yeah, and then there was the barn that the undercover cops burnt, to prove that they weren’t undercover cops…
So say I’m skeptical about the damage. Very skeptical. During last summer’s G20 we had over 1000 people arrested. Close to 900 people have been released without charge. About 100 remain, and it appears that at most 10 of them may end up being convicted. Of the ten, none of the convictions will be for anything substantive, and no one is likely to be sentenced to anything more than what we call ‘Two Years Less A Day’, which means that the crime was regarded as being minimal.
The cops on the other hand are likely to end up serving considerably more time. I’d have to dig up the details, but at least one has been charged with ‘Assault with Weapons Dangerous’ for using his Baton on a protestor who was doing nothing, and faces a second charge from a separate incident. Since there’s video, the chance of conviction is fairly high, and he may end up serving more time than all the protestors combined.
Wayne
They also gave a large donation to the Conservative Party, which was later ruled to be in breach of charity rules. Hell, Eton School is a charity too, but that doesn’t make them campaigners for better education for all.
Harpy ! You’ve got adverts on your site ! For No Win No Fee Lawyers !
Have you no shame ;-(
@MadHatter you’ve got a good point here. The Labour movement should capitalise on the strength of feeling at the march and develop a strategy to get the coalition out.
just to let you know Laban Tall that Fortnum and Mason was not ‘smashed up’ as you state UK Uncut staged a peaceful protest there as F and M represent all that is obscenely decadent about the rich whilst the rest of the country are facing redundancy,unemployment, loss off homes through repossesion etc it was a peaceful good – natured occupation. Any displays that were knocked over UK Uncut did their best to pick up and restack. UK Uncut’s direct actions have .been very effective in raising awareness that there are economic alternatives to the cuts ie that the rich should cough up all the taxes they have avoided paying.We the tax payers bailed out the banks and now they are paying themselves fat bonus’s. Public sector workers who do very useful jobs in our communities emptying the bins. looking after the vulnerable etc in other words working very hard are not getting a bonus, they are getting the boot!
“F and M represent all that is obscenely decadent about the rich”
They’re just an expensive food shop, whose profits happen to go to charity. When they’re closed, do you go after Waitrose (a co-op) ? Then Morrisons ? Much as I love Lidl, I wouldn’t want to buy everything there.
reply to Laban we don’t want charity we want a job and a decent wage in other words ‘to those according to need from those according to ability’