Skip to content or view screen version

euromayday in hackney central

1 of imc london | 01.05.2005 13:27 | London

2.35 london euromaydayers stuck in a section 60 in morning lane near the hackney central tesco.

London, 2.25pm. we are at Hackney Central, between the local tesco and Hackney Empire, in a small street called morning lane. a sambaband is playing playing playing. Maybe 30 Sambas and 60, 80 other people, surrounded by about the same number of met police, surrounded in turn by people with cameras taking pics and swinging. Bizarre. I can't see a fit team, but they have been around earlier. seems to be a section 60. One man has been arrested - pushed to the ground by police, and taken away, so i guess he was arrested.

I had a txt msg this morning, just before noon, inviting me to come to highbury and islington tube station. which i did, then passed a few met police and 2 of their vans and found a bunch of euromaydayers in highbury fields, walking back to the tube. Suddenly there were many more police, i guess roughly 100, 150 maydayers and maybe 50 police ??. It wasn't that easy to get on the tube, one person was held back by police, and at the platform, there was a scuffle, seems that someone had wrapped a scarf round his mouth, and was forced to take it off. pushing, hitting, suddenly a gang of about 40 met police storming down the platform.

about 1pm, the tube arrived, we went in, the wagon was full but of course the met plc had to squeeze in. Quite brutal, shouting at people to move down the overcrowded tube, pushing.

we arrived in hackney central, running over the street, making our way to the tesco, running, followed by more police.

Tesco. The door resembled the entrance to a high security building. lots of police guarding the entrance, but against who and what?

samba sounds from inside, only few could get in. At the entrance, a big banner was put up: "all we have to loose is our chainstores!"

The sambaband was chased out of the aisles of the market where they had been playing for a little while, to the pleasure of customers and staff, people at the tills relaxed for a moment...

Now the crowd is stuck in morning lane, playing samba. some people made it out of the strict police circle which seems to be a section 60 but was not announced as such. and where promptly caught by some met police, and forcefully pushed back into the circle. I saw this happening to 4 people, but since I am in this internet caf overlooking the action, I didn't see everything.

A woman passing by, hackney local, said: this is disgraceful, such a waste of time and money. I presume she meant the police action.

1 of imc london

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

What can we do?

01.05.2005 18:34

It should be obvious by now that Bliar's government is out to completely eradicate Anarchist protest in London, ever since the government embarrassment of Mayday 2000, when Churchill's statue and the hypocritical Cenotaph were targeted. They are still boarding up public monuments in the expectation of graffiti attacks against their tendentious icons while using an overwhelming police presence to remove any semblance of serious dissent in this lame apology of a democracy.

At least bullets are more truthfull and internationally accountable than spin.

Doug.

without the backing of the people you are nothing

02.05.2005 12:37

Like it or not, violent protest doesn't go down well with the wo/man on the street. They just go and think you are nothing but thugs and vandals, despite all your whinging and whining. You claim you want a better world - for whom? 100% of the world population or just your little anarchist clique? In 2000 the majority of people I knew at the time were disgusted at the trashing of a memorial to people who died fighting for the UK government, but still anyone who dares to criticise such actions on any "activist" websites gets a barrarge of "no war but the class war", "pacifist scum", "middle class wanker" and suchlike, like I will probably get for posting this.

But that's okay, just keep smashing the windows of McDonald's people (you won't scare anyone because they have buggered off, and their mega-profits can easily fit the glazier's bill), just remember, four legs good, two legs bad, four legs good, two legs bad.....

the middle finger

Violent protest?

02.05.2005 13:36

Violent protest? When did that take place? Do you have evidence?

Thee Nymphomation

there was definately violence in 2000

02.05.2005 15:12

well all that commotion being kicked up by the national TV news and the gutter press must mean there was something going on.

Of course if there was violent protesting this year the people involved in it will probably be disguising it as some "triumph agianst capitalism", rather than what it really is, a bunch of mindless thugs causing distress to everyone outside the "protest".

I am sure the people shopping in Tesco (people on low incomes buying cheap food from a supermarket - what a crime!) must really LOOOOVE you - not.

the middle finger

Well done sambistas

05.05.2005 16:48

I got the text message to go to Bethnal Green but decided to go to Parliament Square instead for the Space Hijackers cricket match - see report at  http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/html/projects/mayday05/mayday.html

It always pains me to read the reactionary comments about "mindless violence" etc, even though I have learned to expect them. Violence is inherrent in the system as our taxes fund arms fairs, weapons of mass destruction and general military madness. The State of course wants to maintain a monopoly on violence, arresting us and locking us up for victimless crimes like the use of marijuana. In contrast, the action of the protestors on Mayday seems to have basically followed Nonviolence principles.

In a system where we are all treated as cogs in a vast market machine and our freedom is strictly limited I consider any Nonviolent attempt to break out of the straight-jacket a good thing. Actions like this are a sign of hope - like seeing a flower growing out of a crack in the concrete - it is a shame that so many people are so brainwashed that they failied to see it as such.

Ian
- Homepage: http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/

Well....

06.05.2005 16:29

What is it that you protester activist types want? If you want to see the downfall of the State you are going to be waiting a bloody long time. Face facts, if you want to combat the evils of captialism you are going to have to change human nature, and most people are at best indifferent, or supportive of this current system. It may be wonderful and entertaining to have a samba band and all other sorts of niceties but it will still be business as usual for captialism when it's over. It may seem effective to everyone invloved in the "activist" culture, but to everyone outside if, you are at best, an amusement, or at worse, a complete nusiance (and I am talking about the unenlightened masses who still still shop at Tescos, buy Nestle products, and wear Nike trainers, not the establishment who can easily stamp out a revolution if they wanted to).

"If you want to save the world, KILL YOUR FUCKING SELF." - Bill Hicks

the middle finger

Bill Hicks

10.05.2005 02:53

Interesting that "the middle finger" should Quote Bill Hicks in response to my post. Firstly because I happen to be reading the final chapter of "American Scream" at the moment. Secondly, because (from reading said book) I can safely say that what I want as an "activist type" is remarkably similar to what Bill Hicks wanted. Difference is the method, he did stand-up, I do street theatre etc. Finally, I know that one of the Sambistas involved in the Mayday action in Hackney had already organised a forthcoming event which will include the screening of a Bill Hicks video.

"I'm not talking about the reasons that the government tells us 'cause I hope you know this - I think you do - all governments are lying cocksuckers." -- Bill Hicks

Ian
- Homepage: http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/

Frothy Man

17.05.2005 15:40

If middle finger is so confident that protest achieves nothing then why he is responding so emotionally to this article? If all the protest did (or indeed the article about it on this web site) was get Middle Finger frothing at the mouth then I would consider it a success.
He is being ridiculous to suggest that capitalism is natural although I would agree that it exploits natural qualities of human beings to achieve its goal - the repression of a majority (poor) by a minority (rich) - indeed the balance of that ratio is very carefully monitored to maintain the status quo. The poor people of Hackney live in a completely unnatural, constructed environment. Of course it is natural to do what ever it takes to survive, and in an unnatural situation that would mean unnatural measures - like towing the line.

I don’t believe the success of the demo was just to get Middle Finger frothing. People do notice and think and then change. They have to; Tony Blair isn’t going to help them. I suspect Middle Finger enjoys the notion of him being better than the slaves in the developing world or poor of Hackney – this is capitalism exploiting his own natural insecurity.

You don’t need to be a professor of history to know empires come and empires go. In the modern (global) context they are much short lived than those of say, the classical period. I have no doubt the USA will not always be the head of the Capitalist world, and indeed in my own life time, without protesters even getting out of bed!

But it is Middle Finger who inspires protest; just because you can’t change the world in one day’s protest, you can get middle finger flapping and flailing and frothing and spitting.

Jon
mail e-mail: jonsampol@yahoo.com

so it got me "frothing"

21.05.2005 14:21

So why is that a success? Certainly not going to benefit the people of Hackney.

Oh, and please, no "agent of the State" bollocks, please.

the middle finger