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How I got to spit and swear at Barnbrook.

None of the above | 04.05.2008 04:47

The Crook the Toff the Fash and the Cop, another disappointing protest that could of left me thinking of the pointlessness of "revolting" has it not been for this amusing set of events.

OK, I figured, I've seen those things before, we go dress in black, bring loads of black&red flags, and made to feel like the towns fools. It's a bit like trying to rob a police station, by announcing it first. Anyway, I figured I'll drop the whole BB uniform come with a bicycle, a change of cloths, No ID, no phone, no docs, and just have a look around. Also, there is very little reason to arrive less then an hour later then the announced time.

I got there, to find, as predicted, some not so clever people with loads of flags, some in a pen, others trying to cleverly avoid being penned in, but mostly just random people having a look. I've just cycled around, for about an hour being quite depressed, but except for the odd cop who recognised me, I seemed to be blending in the "normal" crowed. I cycled back and forth and at some point I realised that there were camera crews in the front of the building, on the grass on the exact opposite side of where the protesters were. I also noticed that there are hardly any cops over there, I was still just cycling back and forth on queen's walk, at times joining the crowed, at times joining to now dispersed groups of protesters around the area.

At some point, some 4 met cops were blocking the way to anyone they felt like, me included. I just agreed to go away and cycled round the block to the platform where the public was observing from.After a while I got bored of this, so I cycled up to the street and on tower bridge, where I had a look and realised that there still were hardly any cops on that side of the building. I went down from the bridge into the bank and had a chat to this insane lone protester who was convinced that the vote was rigged.

Then, out came 5 particularly ugly man (may have been 4), one in a white suite, the others in dark suits, and one particularly ugly kid on a power trip, wearing only black. they had badges, which took me a second or two to get to within a close enough distance to read, by then I realised that it was Barnbrook, and his cronies walking right towards me shamelessly wearing BNP badges. I recognised that kid from somewhere too... I'm not very good at snap decisions, but I tried to grub one of their badges as I was shouting abuse at them. "You wankers, you pray on hate, you capitalise on the politician's fuck ups, only you are much worse then they, and now you're in power, you're going to be much worse then they have ever been,die, rot,I'm not scared of you, etc" the kid was pushing me away, and some cops were starting to walk towards me, Barnbrook seemed to have have not expected this, a little scared, but mostly surprised. The kid then proceeded to take them to the raised grass platform, and I was followed by a few cops on foot, but I can cycle quicker then them.

I cycled round and back onto the street, then past the town hall, under some scaffolding, I spotted the fash having a nice friendly chat with the cops, so even though it was on the wrong side of the road, right in front of the cops, I prepared the biggest gob I had and just sput at those fuckers, I'm not sure if i actually hit them,all the same though! I just cycled round, changed my cloths somewhere and cycled off.

Can I just say, that we need a better plan then the cops have. I mean, "let's go and kick things off" sort of line sounds cool and all, but it's definitely beginning to be a pattern, and I think the police have already figured out that all they need to stop 100 anarchists, is to get 1000 cops and have a field day. we don't seem to have a "plan" as such for these sort of actions. We don't have the numbers and we just need to recognise that and have clever strategies, or build up an army.
A point to think about, a day before this the high jackers organised a Mayfair complete with police repression, that seemed to do the trick because the cops realised that if they just go away we'd loose, and so they did. but please, just not another "sack parliament".

None of the above

Comments

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talk the talk....

04.05.2008 09:36

Yeah, your right it was fairly depressing but expected - this is the situation were are in. However why the fuck are you calling people who turned up "not so clever", good show of solidarity mate. We all know things are not the best they can be but atleast some people still attempt to do things. And it was NEVER going to be a "turn up and lets kick things off" action - it was what it was a demonstration outside City Hall.

Then you go on about the space hijackers "action" as some sort of model??? Yeah to not get repressed why don't we take all the politics out of our events and actions and then the cops will leave us alone. What planet are you on? The cops will never leave us alone, they will always when they are in numbers will try and control our demonstrations and pen people in.

Your alternative is we do nothing publically, or if we do we it shouldn't be at all political.

nbody


Well done.

04.05.2008 10:23

Well done you! At least got to spit and swear at the fascist.
I agree we need strategies and to go to City Hall to be surrounded by police was not too clever.
Alternatively we need to build a movement capable of kick arse.
Well done to space hijakers too. There's more to politics than holding demonstrations and causing riots - all worthwhle things to do, don't take me wrong, having the capacity, but lots of other things are subversive too.

One in a hundred


nbody - that was the plan

04.05.2008 14:48

I'm pretty sure the plan was to kick things off, it was to get a cause we can mobiles all of the anarchists around and very much kick things off. I also think that when you know you can't pull off a riot, you might as well lower the bar.

None of the above


Only in the UK!

04.05.2008 15:33

I was one of the hundred "not so clever" fuck you mate but hey this is england and thats the incredibly awful situation we find ourselves in with no solidarity from so called comrades and considering it was such a tangible situation with dozens of nazis walking around without a bother whilst others caged up. Wake up London and be ashamed of yourselves because this would only happen in London. Time to stew in your own shit folks!

@narchist


no riot planned

04.05.2008 19:31

There was no riot planned!! You may think that is all anarchists plan but no, that was it, no riot just a demo outside city hall.

nbody


My bad,

06.05.2008 04:49

I didn't mean that there was going to be a riot, I meant i had really high expectations,and like usual i... well i was disappointed... and that we really need to be doing more then clowning around for them. (Well done to the people who went later BTW!).

And i'm sorry but showing solidarity is useless!
Showing solidarity with what? Sure they will try and "control the situation" but by doing this we are just letting them do it! Is that what you call a public action?

I'm sorry but it's true the BNP lot were out in public, and not just there. on the way back I've heard people shouting everything from "BNP, BNP" to "Get out of my country Paki!",and pretty much everywhere. We're fucked if we're not going to sort our shit out ASAP! The fash are everywhere but there are more of us, and we can take them, as for the rest of them...???

I meant a riot as a sort of benchmark, Not that one was planned.

I wonder about the kid that was with them, I've seen him somewhere, may have been a news paper or a demo, Anyone knows who would get the honours of defending them?

None of the above


No collectivism

07.05.2008 15:13

So, a demo is called, and the TSG start shoving people around. In most of Europe people would come together and resist this, to stop the police pushing us around, or to at least make it hard for them.

Not in London. Oh no. In London people are too 'clever' for that. Sod those stupid buggers trying to resist the police, they think, I'll just sod off and leave them to it. And then I can think myself really 'clever' for avoiding the pen. And I can do some small individual or small group thing with some very limited impact.

Yes, very clever.

We don't need 'clever' tactics. We need a bit of old fashioned solidarity and some balls.

no solidarity