Looks like you were laughing so much you forgot to post it.

I've read it...

Looks like the Times is getting bored demonising the WOMBLES and going after someone else. You think they could do some proper reporting rather than just towing the police line...

Anyway the really stupid one is the editorial which starts with something like "anarchism and organisation are oxymorons".

Fuck the facist press!!!

G8 protesters go first class on anarchy express

BY DANIEL MCGRORY AND IAN GOMECHE

The train now leaving...

SECURITY chiefs across Europe are pondering a new line in protest. British anarchists have chartered a train to take more than 500 of them to Genoa in airconditioned comfort to join the expected violent showdown at next month’s G8 summit.
Anarchist leaders are paying £60,000 to the state-owned French railway, SNCF, to beat the blockade of the port city being set up by Italian police.

After a masterful marketing operation, Globalise Resistance has sold all the places on what police are already calling the Anarchist Express and will even turn a small profit on their venture.

The passengers have had to book their places using their credit cards. The itinerary includes time for them to stock up on cheap alcohol and tobacco at the French Channel port before setting off on July 19.

Guy Taylor, a spokesman for Globalise Resistance, said that the travellers were aware of attempts to keep visitors like them away from Genoa and he expected that efforts would be made to cut their journey short. But he had a contract with SNCF to get them there.

Mr Taylor, a former activist with the Socialist Workers’ Party, secured the train deal. He advertised and sold tickets on the Internet and at fundraising concerts at £120 each before he had even booked the train. By the time he came to sign the deal with SNCF he had raised £30,000 and was able to pay the company a £15,000 deposit.

Since then all the places have been sold. The train will have a conference carriage in which the passengers will be able to discuss their tactics as they travel south. It will double as a disco for their one night on board.

Selected journalists are being taken along for the ride on the 540-seat train, but they have to pay £250 a head, with the profits from the media organisations going to Globalise Resistance.

They will be vetting all applicants to prevent Special Branch officers from infiltrating their ranks. The travel package includes a coach trip from all corners of Britain to Calais, where they will board their chartered train. They will stop at a French hypermarket because they cannot take supplies from Britain owing to restrictions related to the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Neighbouring governments were passing the buck yesterday on how best to stop the tour party.

Scotland Yard has been aware of the train trip for months, but said that, unlike with football fans, they could not stop known anarchist troublemakers from travelling abroad.

A Home Office spokesman said that David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, would have to extend the law to stop anarchists as they did football fans who were suspected of being on a mission to cause mischief. An official said: “We can’t stop anyone with a valid British passport travelling where they want in Europe.”

The SNCF said yesterday that it did not care who booked on the 12-carriage express. A spokesman said: “As long as they pay their money, what does it matter? “Everyone in Europe has a right to travel on trains under European treaties, even anarchists. We do not get involved in politics. Ask the French Transport Ministry.”

In Paris, officials from the ministry said that SNCF had not told them about the charter. A flustered spokesman said: “It is not possible.”

When told about the advertisement on the anarchist website, the spokesman said: “We are looking into it, but there would appear to be nothing illegal in what they are doing.”

It will be left to Italian security chiefs, who are meeting today to decide when to close the city’s mainline station and where to stop trains heading for Genoa.

Anarchist groups are already publishing details of security plans to divide the city into red and yellow zones and the dates when Genoa’s airport, motorways, port, underground trains and even its fish market are closing, although nobody knows when the station will be barricaded.

A spokesman for the Italian Government refused to say what sort of reception the protesters could expect and how far across their border the train would get. “We know it is coming and we will deal with anyone who wants to disrupt the summit and our city.”

Up to 100,000 demonstrators are expected to descend on Genoa during that weekend. The British contingent is being promised one night’s accommodation as part of the train deal, but so far Globalise Resistance cannot say where.

Mr Taylor is a veteran of the recent May Day protest in London and was at the last European summit in Gothenburg, where three demonstrators were shot and injured by police this month.

He says that Globalise Resistance is going to Genoa for a peaceful protest but admits that the violence at Gothenburg, for which he blames the police, has helped. “It has raised our profile and the issues we stand for.”

Mr Taylor, who is a paid worker for Globalise Resistance, which was formed in February, said that he was leaving it to his French associate to arrange how to avoid being stopped along their route. He was not sure if they would get a refund if the train was halted before Genoa.

The anarchists’ train is due to arrive in time for the main assault on the G8 venue on Saturday afternoon, although Globalise Resistance would not say what contingency plans it had should the train be halted long before it reached Genoa.

ok?....sorry about the upload problem earlier!

I especially like the comment

"Anarchist groups are already publishing details of security plans to divide the city into red and yellow zones and the dates when Genoa’s airport, motorways, port, underground trains and even its fish market are closing, although nobody knows when the station will be barricaded"

since I got that info from the official summit website (URL below). It's the first time I've ever heard the G8 described as an "Anarchist group"!!!

Why do they constantly refer to Globalise Resistance as amnarchists, when they're a coalition of Trots and liberals?

"Why do they constantly refer to Globalise Resistance as amnarchists, when they're
a coalition of Trots and liberals?"

Because they are idiots. They even talked about "anarchists" in Gothenburg
waving red flags with pictures of Marx, Mao and Che on then... how many
anarchists could do that? None.

The SWP must be a bit pissed off that Gobalise Resistance are called anarchists
-- after all, they wanted to co-opt the anti-globalisation movement via this
organisation (which, they stress, is not a front). and they, dispite of their
efforts, are labeled anarchists...

whether this is a good thing is a moot point. on the one hand, its nice to
see the name anarchist becoming identical with "anti-capitalist". On the
other, I don't like the idea of people joining GR under the mistaken idea
of it being an anarchist organisation.

I think its wise for real anarchists to go to GR events and hand out
leaflets explaining the dangers of Bolshevism to those there -- that way
we can show what real revolutionary politics are like to those who
go along to GR thinking its a libertarian organisation.

talking of which, for more information on what anarchism really is
visit:

www.anarchistfaq.org
www.infoshop.org

"the Home Secretary, would have to extend the law to stop anarchists as they did football fans who were suspected of being on a mission to cause mischief." Ah-Ha! So that's why that dodgy piece of legislation was hurried through, although it's probably illegal, so it can then be applied to political activists to deny their right to travel...Bastards!

can't remember which paper i read it in but it said the dangerous and violent extremists from uk going to cause terror across europe this summer where from two hardcore groups.... wait for it....

- Globalise Resistance and Drop the Debt!!!! :))

"They will stop at a French hypermarket..."
Globalise Resistance claims to be against Globalisation, yet is making a scheduled stop at a hypermarket - that struggling bastion of local produce and community against the mighty fist of international capital ;)
They say the same thing on their website too, so it's not media misrepresentation.

It seems a bit of a joke to me - it's all very well going to Genoa, but you have to make changes in your own life and habits too if anything is going to change. Making a scheduled stop at a hypermarket is a bit of a faux pas.

I think this Times story was a brilliant and incisive bit of reporting evedn if Taylor does not like being called an anarchist

IKG

what? a group of people travel abroad by train, hardly brilliant and incisive reporting.

Especially as "Ian Gomeche" is one of the names credited with writing the article. Most "journalists" don't have the puff to claim their own work is "brilliant and incisive" mate, even when it is. Which this wasn't.