DAMN COPS GOT THERE FIRST!
A review of the Manchester gangÕs recent No Sweat action.......by Becky the Mancunian

It was cold, windy, and sleeting it down, but despite all this us Manchester lot proved we could still organise a good demo. Our target was Nike-selling Foot Locker on Market Street. About six of Ôus lot' met up at roughly twelve oÕclock. The first lot of grief we got was off some bloke from the council, wearing a leather jacket and thinking he was tough. Not only did he accuse us of causing an obstruction with our table - despite there being a van parked in the middle of the street - he also called Bill an arsehole! Now that's not nice manners, councilman.
In the end it was the wind that beat us, and we were forced to put our table down. Our NO SWEAT! action was set to start at one, but we were running late, and didnÕt have enough people yet. Some of us went down to the Triangle, a popular area for young moshers to hang out, and leafleted them. In the end we had about twenty of them come back down to Market Street with us, delighted at the prospect that they might get the chance to storm a store.
By the time we had enough people, the damn cops had turned up, and three of them were standing on the door of Foot Locker, giving us the evil eye. We ignored them, and got out our huge anti-Nike banner ('There's no finish line for sweatshop workers') , holding it up and blockading the door with it, chanting our slogans "WhatÕs outrageous? Sweat shop wages! WhatÕs disgusting? Union busting!" By this time we had gathered a large crowd, interested in what was going on, roughly about 50 people.
We had planned to invade the store and leaflet the workers, explaining why we were doing it, what we stood for and that we were fighting for their rights too. Unfortunately the police presence stopped this. The cops broke up the demonstration after about 20 minutes, telling Bill to put away his megaphone and then attempting to charge him for carrying a collecting tin and all sorts of petty issues. Then the council worker thug turned up again and tried to take my name down for putting a sticker on a tree! So as usual, the authorities were out wasting time. One copper asked me if I didn't have something better to do and I thought I should be asking him the same.
On the whole it was a good demo with a great turn out and lots of good responses, especially from youth wanting to get involved and get active in fighting against global injustice. ThereÕs a few things to bear in mind for next time; number one, donÕt let the cops beat us to it and number two, produce some leaflets specifically directed at the workers, to get them on our side and so they donÕt think weÕre against them. IÕd give the demo 8 out of 10. There was a good atmosphere, a lot of fun and weÕre looking to be doing some similar protests in the near future.
We had a meeting afterwards where a REVO member gave an eyewitness account of the World Economic Forum protests in New York. Talk about exciting! Then we chatted about our next action and what we could do around NO SWEAT! in the future. Anyone that wants to get involved in Mancs then give a ring to 07905 564 570 or contact  NoSweatManchester@yahoo.co.uk.