I remember a protest in Brighton I was at years ago.

I saw one guy dressed up to look like he was out of clock work orange cum captain of the Navy, He had a megaphone and took charge of the protest group with it leading them into a trap which the police used to penn in the protesters.

Some idiot through a glass bottle and the cops charges in on them I was an observer there
and I saw from my view the cop drag out the guy who ste pup the group for the cops to 'manage' as though he was working for them and then they laid into the group once he had been removed to safety. Agent provocoteur by any chance?

Ive seen happen elsewhere, why criticise others for having a definite plan doing what they came to do and leaving when it was smart to leave. Getting penned is the worst thing that could happen to anyone that day, they avoided follow suit next time. Cat and Mouse.

In response to 'none'
'They came with a plan and left when it was sensible to leave'. Maybe, but their plan was not a sensible one, and they left others to deal with the aftermath of an action they did, which to me is unfair. we are not in favour of only using peaceful means to achieve anarchy, but we are in favour of taking responsibilty for our actions (a central principle of anarchy), and showing solidarity with comrades in trouble (another central principal of anarchism), neither of which were displayed by the bloc on the day.
Yes, getting penned in sucked, and maybe we should have reacted to it sooner to avert the situation, but the individuals who caused the initial confronation had an obligation, on several levels, to stay and provide support to thoses penned in. We are not bitter about our court summons' or the time we had to spend in a pen defending against police incursions, but we are dedicated to living our lives, and conductiong our actions based on the principals of anarchism, something which we did not feel the bloc displayed on the day.


Solidarity forever! (A)

I completely agree. We should be all for inclusivity, of course, but having a generally pretty sensible action seriously compromised by some wee 'uns playing big bad anarchists is very frustrating. My personal opinion is that we need to distance ourselves from these people.

The anti authoritarians launched into the police lines because they were trying to cross the road to confront MPs at the entrances to Parliament, which was their previously stated aim. The police would have acted as they did anyway with or without them. The police pen with snatch squads is an all too familar constrain and intimidate tactic which unfortunately works because it causes divisions in those who are constrained, as this article demonstrates.

The difficulty is that what happened (allegedly) was so oppositional it was 'us and them' thinking, its a shame so many people got bruised - government is immune to protest. Protesters almost forget why they protest, they choose to protest to show opposition and almost forget why they are showing it - rather lets see nonviolent resistance - that would have been a differant scene it would have made the situation better for someone in the world for a segment of time of the NOW.

Sad that we do not accept that protesting that we cannot protest is not the way to protest - lets get past this way of thinking.

One day someone will sadly die protesting in such an event like that and it may make him/her a martyr and it will continue to make people think that pushy protest is worth pushing.

However what if we were to make out points without protest - what would that look like. I do not recognise parliment, and cannot be there protesting when we foget that we can make things happen ourselves - nonviolently, though it may be costly - we can.

L Hoppstubbe M

seems to me the problem wasn't what the masked up kids did, it was that no-body else joined in! what were we there for?
and again, when the bearded guy got picked on by the cops why did so few actually act in solidarity and surround him? the same reason so many queued up and begged to be let out without thought for anyone else, i guess.
why come if you're aren't willing to push the boundaries a little? why not just stick to walking from A to B like you usually do?

If you refuse to go from the pen you keep the cops hanging around nonplussed and in the end they just leave not wanting to clock up even more police time/expense and they don't take your particulars. It only means waiting perhaps another hour so just relax and picnic. What's the rush anyway? Why give in to their intimidation tacitics?

In answer to your question, at least twenty people including myself joined in to prevent "The bald guy with the beard" from getting snatched...No one issued a command, the people just did it and when I was finally hauled out that guy was still in the compound..

The question from me is How many more times can people put up with being beaten like dogs by the Met at seemingly peaceful demos? I for one am still carrying wounds from Monday and do not intend to go quietly into the night, as the Met may well wish..

I joined the bloc at the last minute in their push over the road and must admit it seemed a bit half-hearted. It wasn't so much a push as a practice 'heave' or two.

After de-arresting someone I ran to the back of the square. However, when I saw the cordon, and people being dragged into it, I asked the police to put me in there too (they obliged). I really think voluntary solidarity should be a valued part of this kind of protest. Including asking the police to arrest you when the arrest others.

There was a wonderful moment when the police Supt tried to arrest the guy with the beard. And dozens of people shouted "I'm Spartacus" if we truly meant that we'd be stronger at the core of our being.

To the Bloc memeber who said that they shouted out warnings to others about the police penning people in. I did not hear any and was penned in. I was on my lunch break and didn't get back to work until around 5, just in time to go home. It would have been far more constructive to remain peaceful and not give the police any excuse to act the way they did. Also all that the mainstream press will mention is the scuffling and not the other peaceful demonstators. There was no need for it in my opinion.

There are a lot of people complaining about the actions of the anarchist bloc. I wasn't really aware of a coherent anarchist bloc, but then I'm not really part of the scene enough to recognise people. I was aware of a higher than normal proportion of young people in masks. They seemed to start off in high spirits and that was really nice to see, but that fizzled out quite quickly after they were thwarted a few times. I joined the first attempt to cross the road, because I saw other people doing that, and that's what the expressed point of the demonstration was. I feel that many of those who complained about demonstrators doing what the demonstration callouts said they were going to do are in danger of falling into spectator protesting.

That aside, there are real physical size issues with people that young trying to push through police lines, especially when the pigs are trained up for violent situations. There are physical issues with people of any age trying to push through police lines. It's worth noting that the police really do have the monopoly on brute force here. In view of this, frontal assaults are pretty futile. I don't think any such frontal assault really happened on the day. I don't think I saw any violence except by the police (bearing in mind that I don't believe walking a banner towards police lines and getting beaten back is violence - it seems to me about as non-violent a form of confrontation as could be taken up, and anything less would just be sitting around all day being easily ignored).

In numbers like were there on the 9th, we do (at least those of us who're sufficiently able-bodied) have the advantage of being able, when we really try at it instead of sitting around waiting for something to happen, to move around at speed, to change direction, and in general provide a remarkably difficult target for the police to pin down, leading them on a bit of cat and mouse. Or we have the ability to martyr ourselves to make a point - walking into police lines, getting beaten and keeping going until something gives. Both of these tactics hold their downsides. Running the cops around on a bit of a chase tends to get a few less people arrested but makes it remarkably difficult to concentrate a targetted action. Walking into police lines and remaining peaceful* makes the point in a more socially acceptable manner, but gets your head kicked in and not a lot of people are up for having that happen.

I think we really do have to consider what practical options we have again before doing something like this rather getting lost without a plan, or only making half-hearted attempts at pushing the police line (and stepping back when they start shouting "get back"...) and going away disheartened.

(For what it's worth, I'm not an advocate of pacifism, but I do believe in playing to our strengths, and overt acts of violence aren't one of those)

If i am not very mistaken, was not the purpose of this demo, and I quote, 'disrupt the activities of Parliament?'

How do you think the Police were going to react to this threat? A softly softly approach to policing the event when there was a significant propensity for the 'democratic' (i use this term loosely, as I do sympathise with your cause to a degree) course of this country to be disrupted!? Get real. Are you people mad? I do not condone the excessive controls imposed and accusations of police violence at all, but with a potential threat to parliament what do you expect. Unfortunately I was not able to attend this demo as I was away with work so I am only going on what was covered on this website and friends who were there.

Violence breeds violence and the Police will always win; and will detract from the impact of the demo. everyone knows this. Try to organise more constructive protests in the future to stop alienating moderate supporters of the cause and future sabotages by the Police. Look how well the drax power station demo went when there was a little give from both sides - extensive and positive media coverage for a very worthy cause that has no doubt attracted many more people to support the cause and through the lack of violence, has sown the seeds for change in the future...

Stay Happy,

Peace