SWP SCUM HELP COPS NICK WOMBLES...
Rascalling Pixie | 30.09.2001 22:39
Evil SWP and their front group Globalise Resistance (GR) today helped police officers in Brighton arrest four WOMBLE activists at the Labour party conference.
Tempers flared as the cops (who had been previously asked by SWP/GR to arrest the WOMBLES should they turn-up!!!) aided by SWP/GR stewards surronded around ten WOMBLES as they were "womblin up" with-in the main march at Sundays demonstartions.
GR, showing their true colours by opposing any form of direct action, and wanting to monopolise the movement into placard waving, mega-phone ranting marching clones, had been in close contact with the cops weeks before the demonstrations, telling them that anyone wearing masks was nothing to do with them and should be arrested.
"Whilst this behaviour is disgusting, we ought not to be surprised as this is what the Trots do. They are scum" said one activist who witnessed the arrests.
Tempers flared as the cops (who had been previously asked by SWP/GR to arrest the WOMBLES should they turn-up!!!) aided by SWP/GR stewards surronded around ten WOMBLES as they were "womblin up" with-in the main march at Sundays demonstartions.
GR, showing their true colours by opposing any form of direct action, and wanting to monopolise the movement into placard waving, mega-phone ranting marching clones, had been in close contact with the cops weeks before the demonstrations, telling them that anyone wearing masks was nothing to do with them and should be arrested.
"Whilst this behaviour is disgusting, we ought not to be surprised as this is what the Trots do. They are scum" said one activist who witnessed the arrests.
Rascalling Pixie
e-mail:
upsetter@hushmail.com
Comments
Hide the following 24 comments
SWP
01.10.2001 00:16
What planet does the unamed writer inhabit? - not that of the vast majority on the fantastic march through the rain. The police would have loved to provoke a riot; that's why the dragged a few innocent people out, but the demo didn't rise to their nasty bait.
Andy C
Andy
e-mail:
andy@a-coles.demon.co.uk
upsetter probably a cop himself
01.10.2001 08:52
a leaf out of fbi type counterinsurgency rumour techniques. The DEmo in brighton was great and upsetter is a liar if nota cop himself
dan the man
e-mail:
danthyeman@hotmail.com
Reality?
01.10.2001 09:58
As one of the 5 chief stewards on the march, and a member of the SWP, I can categorically say that this rumour is nonsense. As is the idea that my organisation, or GR and the other organisers of uesterdays protest would hand the activists to the police.
Along with other GR activists, and other members of the SWP I was involved in assisting those arrested after Genoa. Several of us cancelled holidays to stay in that city to help get people released.
The same is true of Prague, where I personally was invovled with the legal defence and assistance of people arrested there.
THose arrested included people from all sorts of traditions, Wombles, anarchists, envioromental activists and whatever. There is a basic idea of solidarity that is crucial at these times. That we must stand together against our common enemies, that we should aid and assist all those arrested and attacked by the police irrespective of their political affiliations.
I do not agree with the tactics of the Wombles. I don't agree with the politics of the anarchist movement. But I would never, never give these people away to our class enemy - the police.
I bet this rumour was started by people who are more interested in attacking the SWP and GR than building a united, diverse movement against war and capitalism. Rumours like this are shameful, and distract from the real debates and arguments that activists should be concentrating on, as we face a massive war in the middle east.
Martin Empson
Martin E
e-mail:
swpmre@yahoo.com
the truth should come out
01.10.2001 10:05
The cops say that they arrested people (7 ?) who "they" thought would break the law, I assume this refers to the wombles.
If the SWP are now policing demonstrations and deciding who should be nicked by the real dirty babylon, then they are basically part of the establishment,which appears to be what they want. A new LIB DEM mainstream political party which will, sell out to corporate funding and become just another party of the errrr left or right, whats the difference ?
The Euro Greens have sold out and are now run by an opportunist by the name of Danny Bum Bandit watch out for toxic renewables.
LB .. in UK
Luther Blissett
it was 5
01.10.2001 10:05
jimmer
SWP stewards and COPS
01.10.2001 10:57
Didn't see any collaboration between swp and cops during the arrests, but then I arrived as they were already happening.
BUT THE MAIN STORY IS THAT THE POLICE SENT IN WELL OVER 30 RIOT POLICE INTO THE PARK AT THE START OF THE MARCH TO ARREST PEOPLE AS THE BBC REPORTS A POLICE SPOKESMAN SAYING:
"there had been seven arrests, six of which had been intelligence-led to prevent crimes by suspected troublemakers".
THE POLICE JUST STEAMED INTO THE CROWD TO MAKE ARRESTS AS PEOPLE PREPARED TO MARCH. SURELY THIS IS THE RAISING OF THE TENSION THAT MANY HAVE SUSPECTED WILL UNFOLD AFTER THE ATTACKS IN AMERICA. I DID SEE DEBATE BETWEEN PEOPLE AND STEWARDS AFTER THE ARRESTS AS POLOICE WERE DRAGGING PEOPLE AWAY WITH THE STEWARDS CALLING ON PEOPLE TO GET BACK TO THE MAIN GROUP OF PEOPLE MARCHING OUT OF THE PARK.
THE OTHER ALARMING FEATURE OF THE DEMO WAS THE HUGE NUMBER OF POLICE CAMERAS - I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS OUT ON THE STREETS - THEY WERE THERE TO FILM ANYONE WHO MAY BE OPPOSING THE US/UK WAR MACHINE.
ANObserver
Stewards
01.10.2001 12:34
I saw a number of stewards telling people to get in the march as the cops took demonstrators away.
I won't speculate on the SWP/Cop alliance as I have no knowledge of that.
What is more frustrating is the complete lack of mobilisation of members of the SWP/GR when faced with immediate threats.
Whoever the stewards were and which ever organisation they are from (but mostly GR/SWP) it is despicable and an act of utter cowardice to refuse to prevent the police as they blatantly breach civil liberties.
They spout on about solidarity but any incidence that requires action NOW will be met with complete inactivity from the SWP.
A similar lack of desire to act occurred at the GR conference on Saturday. Whilst listening to a discussion on asylum seekers and 'no border' issues, Louise Christiansen(sp?) a lawyer dealing with refugees, who was one of the speakers, received a message. A Bolivian activist was being detained at Heathrow airport and was going to be denied entry to the UK. he was coming to speak at the GR conference.
The immediate response from me and the person I was with was to get some people to Heathrow and cause a fuss about it. As I looked around the crowd there was a complete lack of interest in the crowd. They were all just waiting for the meeting to proceed.
When we talked to organisers we were advised not to do anything but let "important people" handle it. We decided that if that was the way they wanted it we'd leave it to them.
GR/SWP have an amazing capacity to mobilise complete apathy and inefficiency. They only mobilise people around pointless marches, and long drawn out lectures but despise real action.
Brighton was one more case of being more concerned with making sure the organised march went off alright and ignoring real immediate problems.
Mr Me
e-mail:
b@man.com
Democracy?
01.10.2001 12:42
Greg!neurotic
at least they've dropped the pretence
01.10.2001 12:42
alex callinicos
WASTED
01.10.2001 12:48
GRRR!
Nick
e-mail:
biggerpunker@hotmail.com
So what were all the eye-witnesses doing
01.10.2001 13:10
But, the idea that the stewards (GR/SWP/or whoever)collaborated with the police to have wombles arrested is paranoid shite, our opponants must love this argument, whether or not they invented the rumour in the first place.
My question is - all you brave eye-witnesses that are accusing the stewards of cowardice - what were you doing? Why didn't YOU dive in and try and pull them from the police, you were standing there watching after-all? Do you have to wait for your leaders to act? Runnng away to look for your friends would obviously be a tactic that would take too much time. There were only five or six arrests, so I don't think ANYONE came to the aid of the wombles. I'm not claiming that I would have done anything, but it seems a bit pathetic to accuse other people after you have just stood there.
I have a big problem with what happened, in particular that the coppers felt confident enough to arrest the wombles at that point. But it is unity that will make us stronger, not groundless rumour-mongering and mud-slinging.
Indymedia is starting to look like a joke because there are so many of these damaging, paranoid rants. We need to grow up and get serious about our movement.
martin
Stewards let demonstrators be assaulted
01.10.2001 13:30
But that's hardly the point, is it? These stewards were there, supposedly, to defend the march but did nothing - physically, verbally, with legal defence or otherwise - to defend the people (two or three of them teenagers) from assault and arrest on conspiracy charges for doing nothing but waiting to go on a march. Other people tried to restrain the police but the stewards just let it happen. So much for the SWP's 'centralised organisation' being a great strength.
I also heard Chris Nineham of the SWP/GR/SA/stewards/whatever give the last speech of the day where the buses were leaving. He said the march had been a great success and didn't even mention the arrests.
First they came for the wombles...
yeah right
At least we can discuss them here though!
01.10.2001 13:31
alex
Help
01.10.2001 13:42
Firstly, those closest to the wombles helped some people get out of the overalls and get away before being nicked. There was also a lot of to and froing with the police as they tried to pick people out.
At least one womble (and probably other people) attempted to make sure that every one taken by the police had the bust card in their possession.
Numerous others argued, screamed and generally confronted the police and attempted in various ways to get people off. We also made sure we knew where they were taken.
The wombles and the entire anarchist/activist community (in my experience), both here and internationally show more solidarity and a stronger commitment to each other than I ever saw in my dark days (ie when I briefly flirted with the SWP).
Mr Me
e-mail:
b@man.com
no comment
01.10.2001 14:09
no comment
SWP SCUM HELP COPS NICK WOMBLES
01.10.2001 14:30
Sandriana
e-mail:
sandrianasquid@yahoo.com
lobby the TUC
01.10.2001 15:35
Leo Pigheadsky
e-mail:
icepick@leninism.org
no one knows
01.10.2001 16:39
ranter
Trot trial on its way...
01.10.2001 17:17
I'm tempted to name the person in question, but as a result of my better nature, will allow them to remain anonymous.....this time around.
The people present were also told that GR/SWP have a "diologue" with the cops.
Our investigation is on-going, and a trial pending...watch this space.
Love and Rage!
Rascalling Pixie
e-mail:
upsetter@hushmail.com
Not that I believe anything in the papers
02.10.2001 03:19
From:
"About 2,500 protesters took to the streets of Brighton for a four-hour demonstration which involved only eight arrests.
They were heavily shepherded by 800 police and did not proceed around the security barrier .
A police spokeswoman said that six protesters had been arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit violent disorder, along with one arrest for refusal to remove a balaclava and one for breach of the peace .
"Given that there were thousand of protesters there, eight arrests is a very low total," she said. "There were three women dancing topless, but we let them carry on.
"We only arrest for indecent exposure if there was a public complaint and we didn’t receive any complaints."
The protest was organised by Globalise Resistance, Britain’s biggest anti-capitalist organisation and a driving force behind the protests at the G8 summit in Genoa in July. They had been liaising with Sussex Police to ensure their march was not infiltrated by hardline anarchists.
- PS agree that indymedia should do something about all these newswire posts slagging people off - what about a web forum to allow people to discuss the war and bitch about each other without clogging the newswire with all this arguement (don't get me wrong debate is great, but it has its place).
green@ndlovely
Homepage:
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/parliament.cfm?id=112417
Out of the womble's mouth
02.10.2001 13:29
"There is an accusation, however, that some of the organisers of the march asked the police to remove any potential 'trouble makers' (meaning, apparently in this case, people who won't get hurt quite so much if you smash them on the head repeatedly with a big stick). I am personally sceptical about this myself, and i was told that this information originally came from a copper, which only increases my wariness of taking it seriously."
Now I would be willing to bet that this particular womble has some serious political differences with the SWP/GR, but has the sense to recognise shit when it smells of shit.
Too many other people on this site seem ready to gleefully swallow any shit about the SWP. They should read up on the use of rumuors in counter-insurgency. The state IS afraid of our movement, and they WILL try to split us, anyone who didn't know better and was to get their info from IndyMedia would think they are being successful.
Martin
Mutual strength
03.10.2001 10:43
Using riot police at the start of a march sounds well out of order - everyone needs to be aware demos may be treated a bit differently after september 11th.
Whether it's a cop rumour plant or not they'll be happy to see people at each others throats instead of trying to work out how to work together next time the cops steam in again...
-
video of incident
27.08.2004 13:13
video
links
27.08.2004 13:22
pics from brighton demo:
police surveillance camera pics:
links