Zapatista Solidarity - Niketown photo montage

Just do it! | 11.03.2001 20:50 | Globalisation | Zapatista

Anti-sweatshop campaigners marched into Nike's central London Flagship Niketown store today in a move to highlight the abuses of workers in the majority world and show support for the Mexico-based Zapatista movement.
(some of the pics show security guards and suspected undercover police aggresivly trying to push out the protestors - but failing)
Text report at :

http://uk.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=2217

Zapatista Solidarity - Niketown photo montage

Just do it!
Homepage: http://uk.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=2217

Comments

Hide the following 20 comments

cool

12.03.2001 12:37

nice one, keep up the good work and don't let those corporate bastards get away with it.

karl

white overall in Italy

12.03.2001 13:45

I hope you don't follow the italian white overall.
They are authoritarian, anracophobic and real opportunists

Revolutionary greetings

AXO
mail e-mail: axo@hotmail.com
Homepage: ...

regarding the Italian White Overalls

12.03.2001 14:18

The activists involved in the Niketown action were primarily comprised of two groups: White Overalls Movement Building Libertarian Effective Struggle (W.O.M.B.L.E.S.) and No Sweat. As the name might suggest, the wombles are coming from a fundamentally libertarian-socialist/anarchist mindset. It is the tactics of the white overalls which are being used (and being learnt from); the way in which this movement is to exist is up to the people who are or will be using the tactic, but as far as one can tell, most of those currently trying to build this idea in the UK will fight tooth and nail to prevent heirarchies from developing or from making demands on other activists not using the tactic. We are all together. It will undoubtedly become the case that more heirarchical groups take on the tactic, but if we can all understand that in certain situations certain compromises can be made (i.e. if you put your papers away I'll occupy this building alongside you, and if you have a leader make sure s/he isn't speaking for me), then the movement in the United(?) Kingdom(??) might just be about to make another leap forward. Let's go.

womble
mail e-mail: heretic666

about white overall

12.03.2001 18:10

authoritarian, anracophobic and real opportunists ?????

I' m a white overall from italy (see the site of our social center about last G8 in Trieste....
I' d like to know what means this....
Kisses for all, Mamo.

mamo
mail e-mail: mamo@centroblu.org
Homepage: www.centroblu.org

italian white overall

12.03.2001 18:29

i confirm some of them are anarcophobic, im italian as well and i had some trouble for it.
opportunistic i would'nt say that but they always try to monopolyze demos

ZAPATA VIVE VIVE
LA LUCHA SIGUE SIGUE

whitty

isn't it maybe a lidesrship complex?

13.03.2001 19:58

It is the first time I see white overall people in action. So I may not be the best one to judge, but I think it is great.

A different problem might be lidership in colective movements. Dont we have a complex against leadership, identifying it always with autoritarism? Is leadership bad in itself?

If someone with a leader personality brings good ideas and good will to a colective movement, is it bad? I think not, otherwise that person won't last as leader...

I think nowadays people with a little awareness must focus in action, rather than political debates. There is not much time left...

Isn't it stupid not to join us all together from a common groud so we can make strength from number? It doesn't mean that we all share exactly the same ideas.

Health and happines

Pablo
mail e-mail: pablo@rafol.freeserve.co.uk

Keep it up

14.03.2001 10:09

Nike under seige, excellent photography, go run, go play. go jump in the river, Nike!

Resister

We are all together, but we are a lot...

14.03.2001 13:58

Congratulations to the people who acted against Nike in London!!!

And besides this, about the Italian White Overalls: I try to be aware about the international social movements, but I must admit I had never heard about the them. So I don't know if they are really anarcophobic or opportunistic. What should be clear for all of us is that if we want to build a new World, with very very different meanings for words like "power", "richness" or "leadership" (just to mention some), we have to: a) take everyone into account, and b) establish very clear rules to deal with each other.

These two issues may look obvious, but when the number of groups and people joining the anti-globalization movement increases, they become really important.

So, I know nothing about the Italian White Overalls, but I do know they (and anybody else) must not be anarcophobic (just because none should be xxx-phobic) and that they (and anybody else) must not try to monopolize any action.

The other option to a) and b) is war.

Greetings from Madrid (Spain)!

Miguel
mail e-mail: mpantoja@nodo50.org

Brilliant Photos

16.03.2001 15:19

Keep up the good work, we need to keep on to these corporate blood suckers. It makes a difference! Not only does it raise awareness of the issue but it really pisses off the bosses. When a GAP picket was called in Birmingham about a month ago the organisers put out a press release to the local paper describing the horrific conditions of the GAP sweatshops. The person who's number was of the release got a call from the GAP head office in Detroit asking where they had got their facts from. If we continue to fight them and inform people of their crimes then we will beat them. I found the comments from WOMBLE quite interesting, I would see asking people to hide their literature as sensorship. Are you threatened by ideas?

Lucy

Response

16.03.2001 17:26

As anarchists it is really frustrating when comrades that you have been working with all day then pull out 'Workers Power' or 'Socialist Worker' and start flogging their authoritarian stance on things. I am absolutely against censorship on all levels, but if the Trots had their way, come the revolution they'll be hosing free-thinkers off the streets. Thankfully, there wasn't much of this on the Nike action, Respect to Revo etc. for this.

womble
mail e-mail: heretic666@hushmail.com

By the way...

17.03.2001 10:29

If you're interested in what we as a group and a tactic are all about, come visit our website:
www.wombleaction.mrnice.net
Cheers and see you on the front line.

womble

to whitty

19.03.2001 09:05

>i confirm some of them are anarcophobic, im italian as well and i had some trouble for it.
>opportunistic i would'nt say that but they always try to monopolyze demos

We have samekind situation in Finland, Could you contact us, we'd like to hear more about your experiences...

Kapis / Finland

Kapis
mail e-mail: kapis@artic.net

Get real

20.03.2001 13:36

What's with the constant sectarian rants from so called Anarchists about Socialist Worker and other organised revolutionaries? If you don't like the paper, don't buy it. As far I as know Socialist Worker doesn't have authoritarian stances. They are well organised and whatever their weakness have always been there whenever it matters. Go on strike and SWP comrades will raise solidarity, arrive as a refugee and they fight alongside you, and if like me you live Oldham where the left is invisable and the Nazis regularly organise it's organised socialists like the SWP who've helped build the resistance.

The NF are trying to march in Oldham on the 31.03.01 and I, like every decent revolutionary, will be standing shoulder to shoulder with anyone who wants to fight the Nazis. Your welcome, whether you sell a newspaper or not.

Against the common enemy - the bosses.

Julian Thomas
mail e-mail: spartacus@cwctv.net

VAMPIRE ALERT!

26.03.2001 12:49

We the SWP are always there because this is how we will gain victory over the bovine hearts of minds of the Proletariat; it's a simple strategy - wait for real people to take up a fight, then get there ourselves to take the lead and shout the loudest, simultaneously selling papers and waving our incredibly effective and imaginative banners.
Victory will be ours - as long as there are people to fight, we'll be directly behind you, jumping on your cause.

United we stand against the real enemy - The Bosses.
Except for ours, who are obviously not like other leaders at all, oh no no no.

buffy

Sectarian alert

27.03.2001 11:33

Whether 'Buffy' practices being a knob I'm not sure but his comments illustrate that he is surely a natural should he choose to take it up as a career. If you cannot tell the difference between an elected leadership & unelected Bosses then you have a problem. I cannot believe that you have to face a boss or a manager every day, if you did perhaps we woulndn't have the missfortune to have your sectarian nonsense infect OUR movement. These are exciting time for working class politics. For the first time in generations Socialists and genuine Anarchists are fighting side by side against the common enemy. The time for playground revolutionaries are over, put the pettyness aside and get on with the real fight. Buffy, do us all a favour, do one.

Julian Thomas
mail e-mail: spartacus@cwctv.net

Why sell a paper?

29.03.2001 15:16

The action at Niketown showed just how well a true united front can work. Unity in action against the common enemy by people from different political backgrounds. It was not just the Wombles in white overalls on the day, but also members of Revolution and Workers Power. As agreed in advance nobody wearing white overalls sold any literature.
However the other side to the united front is the right to argue your politics. Direct action alone will not be enough. We also have to challenge the ideological grip of the capitalist state which is perpetuated through the media. Selling papers on demo's remains an effective way of doing this, nobody is forced to buy a paper, let alone agree with what they read.

paperboy
mail e-mail: spatula75@hotmail.com

Niketown and discussion

29.03.2001 17:02

I have arrived a bit late at the party having been sidelined from politics following CND and Miners strike and Tory Britain . Sadly disillusioned by more Tory Britain i have recently read NO LOGO and feel the need to catch up. Any suggestions for a chap in Wakefield ,Yorkshire? But please cool and comradely would be nice as the unifying power of protest interests me rather than the tedious name-calling (genuiely felt though it is .)
I teach in a well smashed school where masses of young people are being sucked dry by this consumer-goods-driven world and their only apparent escape is through becoming more a part of the evil which is destroying them- discuss in relation to post industrial estates-Drugs -yes the ultimate consumer purchase and the collapse of supportive social structre.the Niketown demo should be central to their liberation .

Peter Hirst
mail e-mail: PeterDreadnought@aol.com

in defence of buffy

01.04.2001 17:41

i believe buffy has a point when it comes to the SWP. when i was a student and the govt were bringing in tuition fees, up sprang the SWP flyposters with their "provocative messages" [i mean, this stuff is every bit as dumb as the tabloids].

basically, the SWP looks for existing conflicts to step in and fan the flames of, a la their "enemies" on the "other side" of the political spectrum, the NF, etc.

the net effect in luton of the SWP flyposting in 97 was to further piss off the locals, who were already pretty hardcore in their hatred of the student population.

maybe i just missed out on a personal invitation from the SWP to attend their strategy meetings, but i think it's more a case of just having been a pawn in somebody else's little game.

pinhut

pinhut
mail e-mail: pinhut@hotmail.com

still

06.04.2001 02:55

we're all moving in roughly the same direction right?

we can still meet in the streets :)

phorward

Here's real european zapatistas:

07.05.2001 08:50

http://www.kolumbus.fi/simo.hellsten/zappages/

http://www.kulma.net/vaikuttava/article.php?sid=384

anonymous
Homepage: http://www.kolumbus.fi/simo.hellsten/zappages/