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Very urgent appeal London Solidarity Demonstration at Dalston station!

Anarchist Solidarity Initiative | 14.12.2008 15:28 | Repression | Social Struggles

3:30pm update. Get down to Dalston Station now if you can! Police have cordoned in a hundred protesters and are refusing to let anyone leave or join them. They are being very heavy handed having viciously attacked people trying to leave the cordon injuring several of them! URGENT HELP IS NEEDED NOW!

Please come down to Dalston Station now as the police are being very heavy handed hitting out and beating anyone trying to leave the police cordon. Several people have been injured and need urgent medical attention. Police are also refusing to allow a couple of dozen protesters join their comrades outside the train station and anyone trying to join them is being arrested.

Anarchist Solidarity Initiative

Additions

Dalston Kingsland Station - not Dalston Station

14.12.2008 15:45

just to clarify

Anarchist Solidarity Initiative

what i saw

14.12.2008 17:15

just got in from demo, having left at about 4.25. to clarify: some people penned in by dalston kingsland station. i don't know what's happened to them, but there was nothing to indicate anyone needed urgent medical attention - there were shouted slogans coming from them, and one voice saying they were hungry. some of the early protestors were arrested for section 60. didn't look pleasant, but am not a great fan of pens at the best of times.

on the ridley road side of kingsland road, there were in the region of 100 protestors. we tried to take the road several times, without success. there were several arrests, i know of two. when i left there was a line of british transport police in front of ridley road. there were also some tsg in the area.

frankly, as of 4.25 there was nothing much to fuss about. there was a degree of anarchist dither which prevented a successful occupation of the road when it was possible, and a little bit of to and fro with the cops. but i saw nothing of the violence the report suggests.

James Joyce

Update at 17:15

14.12.2008 17:29

There has been at least two arrests at the very start of the demo. One for supposedly punching a cop. The cops are slowly letting people go from the cordon in 2's and 3's, after some searches, controls etc. There are still a lot of people hanging around, but plenty of cops. There was a real interest from the passersby, as the amount of police was more than the usual typically overwhelming London demo. Lots of leaflets were given out, people came from everywhere to be here today, but the demo needed to be more determined and focused on getting out of the rigid police cordon immediately. As the cops have a plan, have the numbers and are aggressively violent from the outset it is very difficult. It kind of shows the limits at present of what we can do in the capital with publically called demos where the enemy can organise in advance. The cops and the state can't stop the direct action - comrades in Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol and internationally have shown that a minority of individuals can still act despite the odds.

increase the social war - avenge alexis!

hackneys wicked

i agree

14.12.2008 18:18

We were at the demo all day. Great to see so many people turn out, but i really think that we need to learn from this. Did the demo serve its purpose of at least informing the community of what happened or why we were there? I’m not so sure it did. Many chants were not in English, but Greek and Turkish i think, which confused the local people as this is not a Greek or Turkish community; many activists were also confused by these chants. Secondly the group that were cordoned off should really have done something more than they did. Other than a few chants there was no real attempt to break the cordon. Most of the action came from across the road where we attempted to take the main road, this should have served as a catalyst for the cordoned group to break free but it did not. Overall it was very good if only to show the police that we can get 150 people in a relatively spontaneous demonstration and that is a success of sorts.

Hackneytrops

Dalston Kingsland veteran

14.12.2008 19:34

I was one of the people penned in. I was one of the last to get out.

I think there is a need to look at tactics, but disagree about the slogans. There is a sizeable Turkish-speaking community in Hackney, just on the edge of Dalston Kingsland, and some Turkish slogans were appropriate. The Greek ones were interesting and brought the struggle from Greece to here, in a sense. I do disagree with the choice of venue, it is a good place to get trapped.

Dalston Kingsland veteran

Comments

Display the following 14 comments

Any updates? — Blogs
IS it still happening — Inquisitive
cry wolf — vorse
Brief Report — Rogue
Vorse don't be thick? — Anarchist Solidarity
@ i agree - hackneytroops — jimbob
how not to get penned in — spotter
Protesters and police in Dalston. — Christian Evans
about the EF guide to public order situations — anarcho-rioter
on my wick — Dalston resident
On my wick too. On all of our wicks! — another dalston resident
about the about the EF guide to public order situations — spotter
Youtube video — quartermast
Video 2 — Lou

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