Anti-capitalist Halloween event spooks Wharfers
John Hill | 31.10.2008 12:53 | Other Press
A legion of fancy-dressed groups will be gathering outside the former Lehman Brothers office on 25 Bank Street to "dance on the grave of capitalism" on Friday evening.
While it has been billed as a peaceful gathering, workers at the Wharf building are being warned to dress down or possibly leave early to avoid the event.
The bank's office became the eye of the financial storm in September when the company filed for bankruptcy.
Japanese bank Nomura later snapped up several of the former Wall Street giant's European and Middle Eastern operations for a nominal fee.
Plans for the occasion have been circulating around the internet for some time, with participants being urged to don their best fancy dress and take magic wands to the meeting point.
Although organisers say the protest will be non-violent, police and security on the estate has been beefed up in advance of the 5pm start.
An internal memo has already been mailed to 25 Bank Street staff warning them that participants may attempt to gain entry to the building or approach workers for "trick or treat".
Employees have been advised not to carry corporate branded items such as sports and laptop bags, and to leave the estate instead of visiting nearby pubs after hours.
Police have made it clear they will not tolerate anyone provoking the demonstrators.
But plans have been put in place to seal off 25 Bank Street if the protest becomes threatening.
From
http://www.wharf.co.uk/
By John Hill
While it has been billed as a peaceful gathering, workers at the Wharf building are being warned to dress down or possibly leave early to avoid the event.
The bank's office became the eye of the financial storm in September when the company filed for bankruptcy.
Japanese bank Nomura later snapped up several of the former Wall Street giant's European and Middle Eastern operations for a nominal fee.
Plans for the occasion have been circulating around the internet for some time, with participants being urged to don their best fancy dress and take magic wands to the meeting point.
Although organisers say the protest will be non-violent, police and security on the estate has been beefed up in advance of the 5pm start.
An internal memo has already been mailed to 25 Bank Street staff warning them that participants may attempt to gain entry to the building or approach workers for "trick or treat".
Employees have been advised not to carry corporate branded items such as sports and laptop bags, and to leave the estate instead of visiting nearby pubs after hours.
Police have made it clear they will not tolerate anyone provoking the demonstrators.
But plans have been put in place to seal off 25 Bank Street if the protest becomes threatening.
From
http://www.wharf.co.uk/ By John Hill
John Hill
Homepage:
http://www.wharf.co.uk/2008/10/anticapitalist-halloween-event.html
Additions
People before Profit
31.10.2008 17:47
Around 100 students from across Scotland marched earlier today Friday 31 October from Edinburgh University to the HBOS Headquarters. As the workers on the scaffolding - on the corner of George IV Bridge and the Royal Mile - banged their scaffolding in support the cry went up 'the workers united will never be defeated'.
Calgacus
Canary Wharf Halloween Event Celebrates the Death of Capitalism
31.10.2008 17:57
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aLAjFc587IjY&refer=uk Canary Wharf Halloween Event Celebrates the Death of Capitalism
By Tom Biesheuvel and Lenka Ponikelska
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Anarchists and anti-capitalists plan to descend on London's Canary Wharf to celebrate the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the death of capitalism.
The gathering tonight, promoted as a Halloween costume party titled Dancing on the Grave of Capitalism, has been publicized on the Internet and may draw as many as 5,000 revelers, said organizer Chris Knight, a professor of anthropology at the University of East London who blames the financial crisis on ``greedy idiotic bankers.''
``One moon ago, Lehman Brothers died and capitalism started to die; it's a time for dancing,'' Knight, 65, said today in a telephone interview. ``It's only the death of capitalism, it's not the end of the world.''
Knight said the event will be peaceful. It will begin when the moon is seen by attendees who will be inside a circle of pumpkins outside the former London offices of Lehman Brothers. A funeral march for capitalism will follow, Knight said. There will also be dancing, speeches and a closing ritual.
London's Metropolitan Police force is aware of the planned event, which it called a demonstration, and will have sufficient policing in place, according to the agency. Officers from the Metropolitan Police will be joined by those from the City of London Police and the British Transport Police.
Canary Wharf Group's media office declined to comment on the anarchists' and anti-capitalists' plans today. The company owns most of the land in London's second financial district.
Barclays Plc, the U.K. bank that bought units of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., has been notified of the event, a spokeswoman said. Employees may be asked to leave work early if the bank's security officers recommend it, she said.
Tonight's activities will include a two-minute silence for those who have died in Afghanistan, and the cycling group Critical Mass and the Socialist Workers Party also will be involved, Knight said. The Socialist Workers Party confirmed its involvement. Critical Mass didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tom Biesheuvel in London
tbiesheuvel@bloomberg.net; Lenka Ponikelska in London lponikelska1@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: October 31, 2008 10:58 EDT
bloom-dead
You say you want a revolution?
31.10.2008 20:29
You say you want a revolution?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/250d8d60-a164-11dd-82fd-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
By Emma Jacobs
Published: October 24 2008 03:00 | Last updated: October 24 2008 03:00
"Blimey . . . you spend 15 years struggling against global capitalism and then the bloody thing collapses of its own accord . . . nobody's had to lift a finger - let alone throw a Molotov." So says Schnews, the news-sheet from the "direct action frontlines".
Anarchists and radicals are stirring. The annual anarchist book fair in London attracted a record number of visitors last weekend. So too has Housmans, the radical bookshop in King's Cross. Mo Mosley, the bespectacled co-manager, reports recent market turmoil has aroused interest in critiques of capitalism.
Marxists too are having their moment in the sun. The banking crisis has been seen by some as proof that Karl Marx was right - capitalism would collapse under the weight of its own internal contradictions. Sales of Das Kapital are soaring. The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm is back on the airwaves; the 91-year-old clearly felt vindicated when he told the Today programme this week: "Globalisation . . . is incredibly unstable, it operates through a series of crises and I think this has been recognised to be the end of this particular era."
But is it all talk and no action? As the recent edition of The Socialist, the Socialist party's newspaper, pointed out: "the Grim Reaper may well have capitalism in his sights but it is going to take organised action to bring about any real change."
So where is everybody?
There was a flurry of excitement over the memorial outside the City of London's Royal Exchange to the "Boom Economy", a mock-up of a roadside shrine, complete with farewell notes to company cars and bonuses; some believed it to be an anti-capitalist protest. But it turned out to be urban street art by K-Guy, also known as Kevin. He told me: "I don't see myself as a far lefty protester or an anti-capitalist." He's a pragmatist: "Money isn't a bad thing."
My heart quickened when I found a flier to "Dance on the Grave of Capitalism" outside Lehman Brothers. But it's at night and participants are asked to bring a magic wand. There's only so much damage a sprinkling of fairy dust out of office hours can do.
True, there have been protests on Wall Street and outside the Bank of England over the banking bail-out. But this was nothing on the scale of, say, the anti-globalisation protests or the riots of 1968. Iraq and climate change have diverted many in the anti-globalisation movement.
Steve Kretzmann, executive director of environmental group, Oil Change believes schadenfreude would be inappropriate: "Hundreds of thousands on the streets marching under banners saying 'we told you so' would undoubtedly be satisfying, but perhaps not effective."
Perhaps no one is actually reading Das Kapital . After all, J.M. Keynes once expressed bafflement over "how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence".
Or maybe protests are countercyclical as people become too worried about keeping their jobs to take to the streets?
Schnews hopes when the recession bites "the shock might finally persuade [people into] . . . something more radical than David Cameron". But they are not confident; they sign off: "See you in 50 issues when we're eating our words (or each other)."
emma.jacobs@ft.com
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/250d8d60-a164-11dd-82fd-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 By Emma Jacobs
Published: October 24 2008 03:00 | Last updated: October 24 2008 03:00
"Blimey . . . you spend 15 years struggling against global capitalism and then the bloody thing collapses of its own accord . . . nobody's had to lift a finger - let alone throw a Molotov." So says Schnews, the news-sheet from the "direct action frontlines".
Anarchists and radicals are stirring. The annual anarchist book fair in London attracted a record number of visitors last weekend. So too has Housmans, the radical bookshop in King's Cross. Mo Mosley, the bespectacled co-manager, reports recent market turmoil has aroused interest in critiques of capitalism.
Marxists too are having their moment in the sun. The banking crisis has been seen by some as proof that Karl Marx was right - capitalism would collapse under the weight of its own internal contradictions. Sales of Das Kapital are soaring. The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm is back on the airwaves; the 91-year-old clearly felt vindicated when he told the Today programme this week: "Globalisation . . . is incredibly unstable, it operates through a series of crises and I think this has been recognised to be the end of this particular era."
But is it all talk and no action? As the recent edition of The Socialist, the Socialist party's newspaper, pointed out: "the Grim Reaper may well have capitalism in his sights but it is going to take organised action to bring about any real change."
So where is everybody?
There was a flurry of excitement over the memorial outside the City of London's Royal Exchange to the "Boom Economy", a mock-up of a roadside shrine, complete with farewell notes to company cars and bonuses; some believed it to be an anti-capitalist protest. But it turned out to be urban street art by K-Guy, also known as Kevin. He told me: "I don't see myself as a far lefty protester or an anti-capitalist." He's a pragmatist: "Money isn't a bad thing."
My heart quickened when I found a flier to "Dance on the Grave of Capitalism" outside Lehman Brothers. But it's at night and participants are asked to bring a magic wand. There's only so much damage a sprinkling of fairy dust out of office hours can do.
True, there have been protests on Wall Street and outside the Bank of England over the banking bail-out. But this was nothing on the scale of, say, the anti-globalisation protests or the riots of 1968. Iraq and climate change have diverted many in the anti-globalisation movement.
Steve Kretzmann, executive director of environmental group, Oil Change believes schadenfreude would be inappropriate: "Hundreds of thousands on the streets marching under banners saying 'we told you so' would undoubtedly be satisfying, but perhaps not effective."
Perhaps no one is actually reading Das Kapital . After all, J.M. Keynes once expressed bafflement over "how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence".
Or maybe protests are countercyclical as people become too worried about keeping their jobs to take to the streets?
Schnews hopes when the recession bites "the shock might finally persuade [people into] . . . something more radical than David Cameron". But they are not confident; they sign off: "See you in 50 issues when we're eating our words (or each other)."
emma.jacobs@ft.com
dead time