UK J30 Strike Newswire Archive
J30 West Midlands round up
08-07-2011 19:38
Thousands of public sector workers across the West Midlands joined other unions around the country for a day of action against government proposals to increase pension contributions and retirement ages.J30 Strike against the cuts. Nottingham Events 2
05-07-2011 00:55
Thursday 30th June 2011
On June 30th, members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), National Union of Teachers (NUT), Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and University and Colleges Union (UCU) took part in coordinated strike action. This is the first major coordinated strike against the cuts and various activities for the day included a march, rally & speeches etc ......
a busy timetable of events on the day:
Early morning onward – pickets outside workplaces
8am – Notts Uncut. Meet up at Nottingham Railway station to feed pickets and engage in solidarity action.
8.30am – Unison demonstration against major cuts to social care provision – assemble County Hall, West Bridgford.
11am – NUT, ATL, UCU, PCS joint strike march – assemble from 11am, Forest Recreation Ground (Goose Fair site).
11.30 am – Marchers leave The Forest, march down Mansfield Road, on to Milton Street and then in to the Trinity Square.
12 noon/12.30pm with the arrival of the march in Trinity Square. Speakers, stalls, refreshments and more in Trinity Square. There will be face painting and other activities for younger people.
13.30pm – March continues along Burton Street, South Sherwood Street and Parliament Street to the Albert Hall just off Derby Road for speakers and debate on the way forward for the dispute. There will be live music provided by Banner Theatre, Trade Union speakers and an opportunity to contribute from the floor. Ending 3pm approx.
J30 Strike
http://www.j30strike.org
Notts SOS
http://www.nottssos.org.uk
Notts Uncut
http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email: tash@indymedia.org
Web: http://digitaljournalist.eu
Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________
<ends>
J30 Strike against the cuts. Nottingham Events 1
04-07-2011 23:55
Thursday 30th June 2011
On June 30th, members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), National Union of Teachers (NUT), Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and University and Colleges Union (UCU) took part in coordinated strike action. This is the first major coordinated strike against the cuts and various activities for the day included a march, rally & speeches etc ......
a busy timetable of events on the day:
Early morning onward – pickets outside workplaces
8am – Notts Uncut. Meet up at Nottingham Railway station to feed pickets and engage in solidarity action.
8.30am – Unison demonstration against major cuts to social care provision – assemble County Hall, West Bridgford.
11am – NUT, ATL, UCU, PCS joint strike march – assemble from 11am, Forest Recreation Ground (Goose Fair site).
11.30 am – Marchers leave The Forest, march down Mansfield Road, on to Milton Street and then in to the Trinity Square.
12 noon/12.30pm with the arrival of the march in Trinity Square. Speakers, stalls, refreshments and more in Trinity Square. There will be face painting and other activities for younger people.
13.30pm – March continues along Burton Street, South Sherwood Street and Parliament Street to the Albert Hall just off Derby Road for speakers and debate on the way forward for the dispute. There will be live music provided by Banner Theatre, Trade Union speakers and an opportunity to contribute from the floor. Ending 3pm approx.
J30 Strike
http://www.j30strike.org
Notts SOS
http://www.nottssos.org.uk
Notts Uncut
http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email: tash@indymedia.org
Web: http://digitaljournalist.eu
Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________
<ends>
Hundreds Of Thousands – Public Sector Workers Pensions Strike
04-07-2011 13:31
report and pics from j30 events in london
02-07-2011 17:55
from the use of 150 officers to remove a small peaceful occupation camp from trafalgar square early in the morning, through the use of tsg officers to conduct targetted snatches, searches and dodgy arrests throughout the day, to the use of lines upon lines of police to clear the whitehall area later in the afternoon, the j30 protests were characterised by repressive, stupidly expensive, and unnecessary shows of force from the authorities.
from the eviction of trafalgar square onwards, it was clear the met believed their own hype, trumpeted in the evening standard the previous evening, that j30 would turn into riots, however despite continual provocation, it turned out a very relaxed and english affair, and of the 30 arrests reported, many were of children, some clearly unlawful, and most pointless.
an NUJ journo told me he'd watched a 14 year old boy being arrested for arguing with the police when his friend was pulled out of the crowd for wearing a hoodie. i spoke to another young man who had a bandana round his neck. it was stolen from him by police under the guise of section 60, even though he had at no point used it to cover his face. he was given no receipt or paperwork. because he was wearing black, a smart pair of jeans and a t-shirt, he had been stopped and searched on three occasions by mid-afternoon, and on one of those, taken down a side street and roughed up in the process.
as the march passed charing cross station on the strand, a team of tsg were pulling people from the crowd, mainly black and asian along with some white teenagers. a muslim girl was told to remove her religious face covering, and a 12 year old boy, on the protest with his mother, a teacher, was handcuffed and hauled away when a search found a small paint canister in his bag. as he was taken into the station, a crowd of concerned protestors (made up of a real cross-section of ordinary people) surrounded and shouted at the police. although this crowd was angry, their anger was vocal not physical, but it gave the excuse for some of the tsg thugs to become violent. i watched one in particular, constable webb, U3543, assault several people in succession, coming up from behind and without warning pushing people out of the way. when i tried to report the assaults to other police, i was of course met with stony silence, despite the fact that his actions were not dissimilar to those of pc simon harwood, now finally facing a manslaughter charge years after iain tomlinson died.
aside from the anti-cuts protest, a small group from avaaz.org were staging a protest outside the department of culture media and sport on the day the vulture secretary, jeremy cunt, was due to announce in favour of rupert murdoch's controversial bskyb monopoly bid.
meanwhile, down in parliament square, a squad of riot police in their silly blue baseball caps were busy conducting searches on passers-by, including a journalist with a press card, while a forward intelligence photographer took close up face shots of some of those searched, even though nothing incriminating was found.
outside the queen elizabeth conference centre, a spanish-style 'people's assembly' formed, and an open mike was made available to speakers, while uk uncut organised football and other games.
a group of black-clad anarchists marched past the centre and acted as pied pipers to some of the crowd who followed them up whitehall, where they pulled over the central line of metal barriers in a token act of defiance. dozens of police trotted along behind them, and inevitably at the trafalgar square end of the road they were met by a large police presence, and became cordoned in by the officers behind them.
there were a few scuffles at this point, and several overly-violent arrests. it really seemed as though the police were hyped-up for violent confrontation, and every attempt was made to inflame the situation, including tsg officers striking out at press photographers as they dragged their arrestees out of sight behind police lines across side streets.
i also saw a man snatched by plainclothes police who looked much like your average football hooligans. they used plastic wires to tightly restrain his wrists behind his back even though he appeared calm and offered no resistance.
in protest at all this violence, a small group of people, some of whom i recognised as part of an explicitly peaceful campaign group, staged a sit-down protest at the north end of whitehall. more people joined them, until around 30 were sitting in the road, despite a short wet rain shower. police numbers built up, tsg officers also moved in, and among the ensuing confrontations i again saw card-carrying press being pushed around and refused access, as the sitters were picked up and moved to the pavement.
then lines of police, sometimes 5 or 6 thick, began pushing people down whitehall, and then left down horseguards avenue to the embankment, leaving the upper end of whitehall clear of all except police.
as most of the protestors had left the area, i joined a small group, including several colourful clowns, who decided to stage a good-natured anti-cuts protest outside 'boots' and 'tesco' opposite westminster. their singing and banners managed to close the 'boots' store ten minutes early, and their boisterous song outside 'tesco' amused and interested many passers-by, several of whom agreed not to shop there after speaking to the protestors.
small shops across the nation, killed by tesco's monopolisation
small shops across the nation, killed by tesco's corporation
J30 actions come to Cambridge (part 2).
01-07-2011 23:05
At one point, I saw it stretch from one end of East Road to the other, with still enough of a head to snake it's way around the corner onto Burleigh Street.
J30 actions come to Cambridge (part 1).
01-07-2011 21:08
In Cambridge this was represented by many schools closing, a skeleton staff at Cambridge Jobcentre, and picket lines in front of Cambridge Regional College and Anglia Ruskin University (see pictures).
30th June - Manchester Protest
01-07-2011 14:55
Thursday 30th June. Over 3,000 protestors marched through the Manchester city's streets today, causing widespread disruption, with thousands of school pupils across Greater Manchester kept home from school forcing parents to stay off work or scramble for childcare places.
Criminal courts ground to a halt, hundreds of Jobcentre and immigration interviews were cancelled, and roads in central Manchester suffered rolling road closures as
Protesters claimed the strike, with four unions representing teachers, lecturers and civil servants, would herald months of industrial action - with millions of strikers out on the streets unless the government backed down on public-sector pensions reforms.
Helen Andrews, a Greater Manchester spokewoman for the National Union of Teachers (NUT), warned: "This is the beginning of the fightback.
"Today's strike will be the catalyst for a deepening and widening campaign."
And Sue Bond, vice-chair of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, told members gathered in Castlefield: "Nationally we have had 750,000 on strike today to defend not just our pensions but our jobs and the services we deliver and we are proud to deliver.
All Images: © Stillshooter - 2011
#J30 Critical Mass, from Brixton to Deptford
01-07-2011 13:55
We joined the J30 Critical Mass at the Brixton Oval. Prior to that we had been for a while visiting the different pickets in the Brixton area, and we quickly realised that this strike wasn't going to be confined to a ritual Unions march in central London. We stood for a while in the Lambeth College picket in Brixton Hill where we noticed the constant shows of support by the honking cars passing by. In a way these early morning honks put sound to the widespread support this strike had from the 'british public', no matter what the corporate media try to put down our throats nor how the government and 'opposition' try to demonise it.
At around 9.30am, the Critical Mass that had left the Elephant and Castle over an hour earlier, arrived at the Brixton Oval just opposite Lambeth Town Hall, where a picket was being set up as the preparations for a later rally were going on. The mass then left Brixton southbound down Coldharbour Lane in a detour of south London. It passed Camberwell, Peckham and eventually arrived at the picket at Deptford's Town Hall blocking the traffic for 30 minutes or so. The picket then turned into an impromptu demonstration with people on foot joining the cyclist's mass, which again, stopped the trafic of the New Cross area for quite a while. At this point several police vans turned up following closely the demonstration, and, from then on, sticking to the Critical Mass for the rest of the day.
The Mass then made its way towards central London with a 'police scort' of no less than 6 police vans, and eventually it joined the end of the main Unions demonstration. The mobile sound system kept playing a mixtiure of reggae, drum'n'bass, dubstep as well as pop, rock and punk tunes for the whole journey and until the batteries ran out as it got to Parliament Square.
Here there's another report, and here a live broadcast from a cyclist whilst on the move. And below some pics from the first part of the journey:
.
Public sector strike hits across Britain
01-07-2011 08:54
#J30 strike: stop search and arrest pics
30-06-2011 21:55
Here's just a few of the snaps from today's london stop and searches and arrests. For sure the cops were really going for people with aggressive interventions and some rowdy push and shove when nothing at all had even happened, nothing. Best bit though was the solidarity shown by people at Charing Cross when they went for the young lads in the main march. Sure someone will have it on video - great solidarity. And a great day - biggest strike for years - c'mon people don't let the Daily Mail and co win the spin war.
+ Police PR (re-trumpeted by some shit tv stations) were also doing their best to say that everyone they were targeting were 'outsiders' not connected with the march. Huh. So like now if you're young or wearing a kafiya or wearing black you can't be concerned with the cuts and marching in solidarity with the strike!?
See also:
List of some of the tweets about stop and search and arrests:
http://chirpstory.com/li/1910
Post: http://my.firedoglake.com/kgosztola/2011/06/30/uk-police-stop-search-citizens-striking-to-prevent-possible-hooliganism/
Others:
http://wire.jwarren.co.uk/protester-with-water-pistol-handcuffed-on-whi
http://wire.jwarren.co.uk/wpc-straddling-a-protester-to-arrest-him-on-w
http://wire.jwarren.co.uk/police-searching-and-photographing-j30-protes
Early searches:
http://www.demotix.com/news/739473/masked-protesters-questioned-under-section-60-june-30th-strike
We're all in this together...
#j30strike in pictures
30-06-2011 21:55
It was a nice day out, sun was shining on the strikers for most of the time. Except for the moment when the police decided to clear that sit in protest on Whitehall outside McDonald's (which had its own line of coppers). Section 60 was used as carte blanche to stop everyone who fulfilled a certain set of criteria: young, (mostly) male, dressed in black, (and apparently in a group with at least one person from BAME background - at least so it seems to your insignificant observer, but others have commented on this too). It was a clear tactic of intmidation, which hopefully won't work.
Generally the turn out was ok, the atmosphere was happy but unexcited, and everything was nice and colourful.
Police lines were also randomly selective about letting people leave the protest or not. If they liked your face, you were free to go where you please, if they didn't then your freedom to protest turned into the obligation to protest, whilst your freedom of movement was swiftly stripped. Obviously the coppers on the lines were asked to make a judgment and were helplessly overwhelmed. I wonder what kind of orders they get in situations like that? "You can let individuals through, but make sure the march stays on the route"? So if they decide you are "the march" you aren't allowed to pass? Or a more explicit: "You can let everyone through who wears a suit or has shopping bags, but if they look like protesters, make sure they stay in the designated protest area"? Or maybe the much simpler version (overheard at a police line on a different occasion) "Let them through if they're the right ones"?
There was a whole lot of stereotyping and profiling by coppers on the front line happening, and maybe it's time for some public enquiry into how they are trained to do - what exactly?
June 30 Strike - March and Rally
30-06-2011 20:55
On June 30th members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), National Union of Teachers (NUT), Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and University and Colleges Union (UCU) went on strike in defence of their pensions. There were picket lines across Nottinghamshire and a sizeable march along Mansfield Road.
Pickets appeared outside schools, job centres, the crown and magistrates courts and even the British Geological Survey in Keyworth. Notts Uncut spent the morning visiting pickets, distributing food, by all accounts receiving a warm welcome.
The march formed up at the Forest Recreation Ground outside the old clubhouse. As might be expected, there were placards and banners from all the participating unions. Unison, the Fire Brigades' Union (FBU) and Unite also had banners on the march, as did Notts Uncut and Notts SOS. many people had also brought home-made placards, some of them clearly having required considerable effort to produce.
The march was started just after 11.30am, by a GMB branded town cryer (no I don't know either?). Marchers made their way down the Mansfield Road, pausing regularly to ensure the march didn't spread out unduly.
Numbers on marches are always difficult to estimate. I have heard figures from NUT officials suggesting there were as many as 2,500. This seems on the high side to me. I was told as we were leaving the Forest that the police estimated the crowd at 1,300-1,500 people, so there's no dispute that there were over 1,000 people. This is not to be sniffed at.
At the bottom of Mansfield Road, the march turned right and into Trinity Square for a rally. This it turns out is not an ideal space, the architecture makes it feel isolated from the rest of the city and the speakers ended up standing on the blocks in the middle of the square, as if they were speaking in the round.
There were speakers from the unions involved, Notts SOS and assorted others. While this was going on, protesters were able to visit campaign stalls around the edge of the square and even had the opportunity to throw wet sponges at "David Cameron".
After around half an hour, some marchers moved on to the rally/meeting in the Albert Hall. The rally at Trinity Square continued for a little longer. At that point some people went on to the Albert Hall and others joined Notts Uncut to visit the usual targets. The police were, as at the last Uncut action, expecting them and stationed outside most of the well-known tax dodgers (Vodafone, Primark, HSBC etc.). While I wasn't there, I did hear that there was a minor scuffle with an agitated member of the public on Clumber Street, but it seems that nobody was injured. By the time I made it to the Albert Hall everything there had come to a close.
For Nottingham this was clearly a significant day politically. It is to be hoped that the unions can build on this first day and move forward. Of course, for teachers, the fast approaching summer holidays are a major impediment to action. Nevertheless, with other public sector unions making noises about balloting for action in the autumn, there is a real opportunity to tackle the government's attack on pensions and the wider austerity agenda.
Snatch Squads and other "police tactics"
30-06-2011 19:55
Late reporting from Whitehall and surroundings.
Arrived in Trafalgar Square in the early afternoon, then marched on Whitehall towards Parliament Square. Police were busy directing people where they wanted them to be. Barriers stood in the middle all along Whitehall and police seemed intent in making the march go only on one side of them.
Once in Parliament square, I ended up on the green outside Westminster Abbey. A sound system was on one corner and on another one, a banner with the words “Workers Assembly”. Next to it was a speaker that seemed to welcome anyone who wanted to speak. I could see lots of people with the same model of t-shirt: “Real Democracy Now”, the main demand of what seems to be known as “The Spanish Revolution”. A real assembly seemed to be happening right there. People raised their hands and waved them from time to time (a sign of agreement with what is said at that moment).
On the way back to Trafalgar Square, I saw a small group in the distance, between the Square itself and the McDonalds restaurant, that seemed to be kettled, or in the process of being kettled. Heard reports of snatch squads and seemingly random arrest. People had seen police with “snatch cards” on their hands.
Noticed a police line being formed on one of the side streets. They allowed people to get through the line but at a given point, they stopped allowing anyone through. Before I could figure what was going on, a noise of running came from a few yards back. Three very big guys, bully thugs style, were running very close together. They were carrying a smaller guy between the three of them, clearly against his will. I then realised that the guy being carried in this way had his hands tied up behind his back. He did not have handcuffs, but one of those plastic bands used to hold cables together. His hands were placed in a very ackward and obviously painful position.
Now, these big guys in plain normal clothing carrying this other guy “were” allowed through this police cordon. Then the cordon eased off to allow a van in. After some talking and lots of note-taking by the thuggy guys and uniformed police officers, the guy with his hands on his back was put into the police van.
The incident just described is what is known as “snatch squad arrest”, where police in plain clothes choose one person from the crowd and quickly, by surprise and without any warning or even any word, they immobilise him/her and they quickly take him/her into police custody. I saw another person being taken into a police van in this very same way up in Trafalgar Square too.
Saw another, smaller march also in Trafalgar Square. People dancing to a samba band and with banners about Congo and Sudan marched towards Whitehall. They were escorted and surrounded by police, various big vehicles and other hired workers. Some of the workers picked up traffic cones in front of the march, from one of the big vehicles, leaving them there as the march passed next to them. Other workers put a white tape between the cones, in a way that made the march enclosed by police and by white tape too. Then a last worker removed the tape and put the cones on a last vehicle moving slowly behind the march.
When this small march went on to Whitehall, police had made sure the Strike march was out of the way from the smaller march. So both marches were never mixed up.
June 30th: County Hall Lobby
30-06-2011 19:55
On June 30th, while teachers and civil servants went on strike against attacks on their pensions, Nottinghamshire County Council was meeting to slash the Supporting People and daycare budgets. A small lobby was organised in front of County Hall by Notts County Unison in protest.
Protesters included Unison members, service users and supporters. Leaflets about the cuts and attacks on pensions were distributed to people coming into the building.
There were also speeches through the megaphone. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be all that many people coming into County Hall to hear them. Possibly they came in through another entrance, or perhaps strike action by teachers had more of an effect than anticipated, forcing staff to take time off to look after kids.
A few Labour councillors wandered out to mouth predictable platitudes before disappearing back inside. The protest was initially overseen by a couple of police officers, but they soon realised that their presence was unnecessary and left.
There was a brief flurry of interest as a photographer from the Post turned up. He left with a not-in-the-least-bit staged line-up shot and a copy of the leaflet. Whether the story will actually make it into the paper remains to be seen.
The protesters hung around for around one and a half hours, with a few supporters drifting in and out, fitting the protest around their work commitments. Shortly before 10am when the meeting was due to start, they drifted off, ultimately headed to the strike march beginning from the Forest Recreation Ground.
At the time of writing, the supporting people cuts have been voted through (after two hours debate according to the council's Twitter feed) with the "modernisation" of daycare currently on the agenda. Almost inevitably, this too will eventually go through.
It is easy to get disheartened when protests seem to fail like this, but this should not be seen as the end. The mass strike today marks the next step in the anti-cuts movement. If this movement can continue to grow it holds the hope that the imposition of austerity on the most vulnerable in society can be stopped and perhaps even reversed.
#J30 Sheffield Rally at the end of the March
30-06-2011 19:52
More photos of the Manchester j30 march
30-06-2011 19:32
All pictures are Creative Commons licensed. Pinkolady would like to be credited where they are used.
Cardiff J30- BHS and Vodafone occupied
30-06-2011 19:07
In solidarity with striking workers today, Cardiff city centre hosted "Busk Against the Cuts", Food not Bombs and 3 seperate UK Uncut actionsCritical Mass 30th June 11
30-06-2011 18:55
Thursday 30th June saw the first attempt to a General Strike in Britain for more than 80 years, although it was primarily a Public Sector workers' strike.
As part of the support for the strike from people who are not necessarily public sector workers, a Critical Mass happened in South London, visiting the picket lines that had been announced and showing support.
We met at about eight in the morning in Burgess Park. About 50 people on bikes set off at about half past eight, with more and more people joining as we biked.
The first drivers showed their solidarity by tooting, and soon we reached Elephant and Castle, where we greeted the picket outside the London College of Communication. After two rounds to the roundabout, the Mass continued towards Brixton, on the way meeting another picket line. We stayed with the workers for a few minutes while the mobile sound system got fixed, and we had music from then on.
Once in Brixton Oval (the public open space where Reclaim Your Food used to give away food every Sunday) we also joined some workers demonstrating there for a few minutes, and then what look like a hundred-strong crowd appeared at the door of Lambeth Town Hall.
After a brief spell up Brixton Hill we headed East again, towards Camberwell and on to New Cross. Up to that point the cyclists had managed to deal with the traffic by doing things like corking (staying static at junctions while the mass passed safely unrammed by cars and bigger vehicles). From New Cross on we had the kind help of Police (seven vans at one point) which made a difference in terms of respect showed by motorists. Amazing what the mere presence of a well-marked police vehicle can do to motorists' behaviour. On the occasions when we lost sight of them and then they appeared behind us again, all yelling at us, insulting and generally threatening behaviour from drivers on four wheels dissapeared. So in that sense their presence had a positive effect except on one occasion when a driver almost knocked off one of the bikers and a police officer just threatened to arrest both the aggressor and the victim.
When the mass arrived outside Deptford Town Hall, at about ten, it joined the demonstration that was taking place there. Lots of flags and a banner of South London Solidarity Federation were the landmark of a brief street party interrupted by the forces of law and order. The joint demonstration became a march towards Deptford and once there, the march and the mass went their own separate ways.
Police did not seem to realise it though, and a line of police on foot started to follow the critical mass. When it was obvious they would not keep up with the bikers, they were picked up – and apparently seven vans were needed for the picking up operation.
Critical Mass then made its way to Whitehall and Parliament Square, where it melted itself in the crowd.
