I spent some time both in the main bit of the demo and the Oxford St action.

Both were worthwhile events in their own right, but with national mobilisations against the cuts are so few and far between, the overall feeling I left with was a sense of slight disappointment.

The bits of the main demo I saw had plenty of energy; the diversity of people and home-made signs did renew my faith in humanity. But despite that I doubt that most of the people on the demo are willing yet to bypass the union bureaucrats and initiate wildcat strikes, blockades etc. So they'll continue to be ignored. I'd love to be proved wrong.

The Oxford St action added some much-needed militancy to the day, and was valuable even if only in denying the TUC a monopoly on tactics. But it quickly turned into the exhausting and dissatisfying game of cat-and-mouse round Central London some of us are so familiar with from previous years.

I can think of two things that could have improved it.

Firstly, more affinity groups coming along with a clear idea of what they might contribute to the group. What I mean is, it's great to come along to these things. It's even more useful to come along with a group of others that can look out for each other. But best of all is to come along with a group AND an idea of what that group will do. You might decide to specialise in giving out spare masks to unprepared people. Or bringing loads of snacks and water to distribute. Or providing first aid. Or having shields or re-inforced banners to push through police lines or protect from batons. Or coming prepared with stones or paint bombs to do property damage. etc etc.

We all have busy lives and I'm as guilty of coming unprepared as anybody else. Obviously, every time there will be some people who will not be able to come prepared in this way. But if we want these actions to be more successful we have to take collective responsibility for making that happen. Ourselves. Not waiting for someone else to do it for us.

Secondly, on a more mundane and tactical level loads of people still don't react when a squad of cops suddenly push their way through, or along the edge of our crowds. Almost always these groups of police are on their way to arrest someone, stop us from reaching a target, or kettle us. It's massively frustrating that more people don't seem to realise that it's in our interests to stop them before they do.

There were some of us getting in their way and blocking them, but loads more people not doing so, despite the fact that we easily had the numbers to succeed. Obviously everyone has to decide for themselves what they are comfortable with, but as a group we need more people to be willing to do this cop-blocking, otherwise we will be controlled as easily as sheep. And the more people who join in, the safer it becomes to do it!

One last thought. We can't wait another year and a half for the TUC to call another demo. We need to find a way of building a network capable of calling effective national actions against the cuts. The biggest barriers to this are probably the cultural barriers between anarchist-inspired direct action movements and grassroots trade-unionism. It's worth trying to overcome these, but even if we only manage to mobilise the anarcho crowd that's still better than waiting around for the TUC to do something.

 http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/10/501577.html?c=on#c288411