anti police actions need to start solidarity to all thoose who have died in police custody!

Were they SWP using yesterday as another venue to sell their newspaper?

Are the SWP just using this whole G20 meltdown name to try and control and lock down this kind of protest. And why were we told to keep quiet and respectful? If I was Ian Tomlinson I;d want people making some noise about it.

But what's wrong with SWP selling their newspaper? If you don't like their paper why not bring your own literature? Or are you against analysis and ideas full stop?

Back in the day we used to refer to the SWP as ambulance chasers. Here in Brum following a death in custody, the bereaved family asked protesters not to hold a demo after the police murdered their loved one.

So what did the SWP do?

Yes you guessed it, ran after the ambulance to promote their own insignificant insincere little sect.

> Were they SWP using yesterday as another venue to sell their newspaper?

Yes. They were asked not to, and claimed "this is how we fight back".

> Are the SWP just using this whole G20 meltdown name

No. There is nobody from the SWP involved in G20 Meltdown.

> And why were we told to keep quiet and respectful?

It was the Tomlinson family's request.

> But what's wrong with SWP selling their newspaper?

It's crassly opportunistic, they didn't support the April 1st protests in the City, they negotiated with the police to hold a demo elsewhere to split protesters and defuse anger.

"Are the SWP just using this whole G20 meltdown name
No. There is nobody from the SWP involved in G20 Meltdown."

Maybe not, but watch out for them trying to jump on the bandwagon now. The list of campaigns and movements they've hijacked and ruined is a long one. Whether Meltdown has developed the political nous and cohesion to detect and reject the swappies remains to be seen. They really are a bunch of predatory opportunists interested only in recruitment to their sect (in which few remain for very long).

I don't say this only because I disagree with them politically. There are sincere and principled socialists I'm happy to work with on campaigns, notwithstanding political differences, but the SWP is neither sincere nor principled. They are simply a bunch of exploiters hoping to suck the energy and commitment of others for their own grubby ends. Their disrespect for Ian Tomlinson and his family by trying to use last Saturday's memorial march to plug their party and sell papers was typical and will, I hope, serve as a warning to everyone connected with Meltdown.

I was surprised that SWP have nothing to do with metdown because I thought one of the people who spoke at the beginning of the march was a SWPer. Maybe my mistake. It also seemed like their supporters made up a significant proportion of the marchers.

anyway, I still think it was ok to sell newpapers at this march, despite the fact that I agree about the SWPs opportunism in all other regards. Don't you think it's anti-democratic, and stops debate and ideas being put forward, if we have a kind of blanket ban on people selling and distributing literature?

With regard to the family's call for being peaceful etc: did they really ask people to be quiet, rather than just peaceful? And even if they did, we surely need more events that are angry and militant. It;s quite obvious that we should have respect for the family, but there is a wider political issue here ( i.e. police brutality and the role of the police in protecting the interests of the rich) which we should campaign on in a militant fashion with or without Ian tomlinson's family beig involved,.