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May Day Picket of Liverpool Army Recruitment

Neon Black | 01.05.2007 19:22 | Mayday 2007 | Anti-militarism | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Liverpool

After turning away from the lure of warm beer and a cover of John Lennon's Imagine at the official Merseyside TUC rally, ten activists from the Liverpool Social Forum picketed the Army recruitment office on James Street, to try and stop young scousers fighting and possibly dying for oil in the Middle East.

The neatest banner in the world is successfully attached.
The neatest banner in the world is successfully attached.

No it's not blocking the highway. The sign is. And your van.
No it's not blocking the highway. The sign is. And your van.


It was our second picket at the James Street offices, and our second go at finding new tactics which will break the Stop The War Coalition chokehold on the anti-war movement. And since it was May Day, what better way to show solidarity with Iraqi and Afghan workers than stopping a few guns from being pointed at them?

Unfortunately we were minus our megaphone, since it was stolen by a group of gangsters called Merseyside Police at a protest last week. However, we still managed to hand out a lot of propaganda to passers-by and potential recruits, and we engaged many locals in conversations about the army, the drive for oil, and the fucked-up nature of capitalist society in general.

Her Majesty's Constabulary paid us a visit, and after a farcical debate about whether our table or the sign behind it was blocking the pavement, they left us alone. After all, we didn't have a megaphone to swipe. And it wasn't as if we were animal rescue workers.

I said it last time, and I'm going to say it again. Wars won't be stopped by petitions, marches or 'left' politicians. We need to organise in our streets and our workplaces. We also need to make the link between capitalism's demand for oil profits abroad and attacks on living standards at home.

So what are YOU going to do in the fight against war?

Neon Black
- Homepage: http://dreaming-neon-black.blogspot.com

Comments

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Real antiwar protest involves f*cking things up

09.05.2007 02:46

I am glad that a couple of weeks ago I accidentally got drunk and, when I was thrown out of a nightclub on a pretext and aimed at by a car driver who then tried to get (his) passenger to try and beat me up, I took my anger out on the window of the local Army Recruitment Centre.
It took several blows of a breezeblock to get the window out of joint, but I am assured that I called £1000 worth of damage. I apologise if the MOD had to spend money which could otherwise have gone on a flak jacket for a soldier, but I don't think it did.
My eppy was fortunately timed to coincide with the death of a local man in the forces serving in Afghanistan.
I am currently bailed pending another criminal damge charge, which seems only fitting. If 1 million people marched demanding an end to the war, I think more of them/us should take similar drunken/stupid action in order to prevent the recruitment of chavs for Afghanistan.
After all, the world looks likely to end soon (for human beings), so let's f*ck things up before we go! It may even help to delay the end of the fashionable age!

An Army Recruitment Centre can always serve a useful purpose as a repository for angry feelings, but please note they use bombproof glass which takes several blows to smash.

Rene Thomas
mail e-mail: weallpoo@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/weallpoo