Students and local citizens took part in several actions in Leeds on 31 October as part of the National Day of Civil Disobedience against War on Iraq. Students disrupted lectures, occupied the Business School, forced a library to close briefly, occupied the local BBC studios and then joined the main Leeds-wide protest outside Yorkshire TV at 5pm
Leeds Contribution to the National Day of Civil Disobedience Against the War on Iraq
Following early morning canvassing/leafleting by members of Leeds Coalition Against the War down at Leeds train station, students from Leeds University and Leeds Metropolitan University took on the baton. Assembling outside their respective student unions at 12pm, they quickly began noisy and good-humoured demonstrations and marches around campus, encouraging students to come and join in. Anti-war slogans were chanted and banners were erected in key places. Woodhouse Lane was briefly brought to a standstill as students occupied the road. The two student demos then merged into one and at that point some 150 students were present.
The protestors then assembled outside Leeds University Union at 12.30 for a brief rally where petitions were signed. A few ‘Jewish Society’ students had turned up to make the case ‘for’ war and a brief, vigorous and honest debate ensued between the two sides before the demonstrators called for an occupation of Leeds University Business School and 50-strong group made their way over there. By this stage, 2 police motorbikes had arrived on campus and plainclothes security and police were beginning to be noticed. Once at the Business School, a police video van arrived, and the students quickly entered the building with their banners and chants, storming the main corporate-sponsored lecture and forcing the lecture to be postponed. The occupied students were generally sympathetic, although an American student took personal offence and started going apeshit, defending the US-UK line, trying to get his fellow business students to form a counter-occupation movement and expel us from the lecture theatre.
Eventually, after a scene that can only be likened to one out of Life of Brien, the occupation voted almost unanimously to leave the Business School and go and disrupt other lectures. It was now around 2pm, and the police and security presence was slowly increasing. After bringing one of the main routes into the main lecture theatre building to a halt for about 10 minutes, the students then marched to one of the road bridges nearby and hung banners over to oncoming traffic, which got a lot of horn-honking. The rebels then marched to Leeds Metropolitan University with students cheering and clapping from their classes as they entered the main building and held a 20 minute rally outside the library, forcing security to lock the doors and place wooden planks across the handles to stop entry. As the students banged bins and shouted slogans, trapped staff and students inside the library watched on in bewilderment. The peaceful protest then spilled out into the main road, which was blocked for 10 minutes as a sit-in was staged.
A spontaneous decision was then taken to occupy the BBC North building – just opposite the main university sites – from where programmes such as the regional BBC news are filmed. Students ran in, chanting and laughing, until suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, police officers in blue overalls and high-tech communication headphones, possibly armed with some crowd control weapons cut off some of the students from entering the building. With quite scared looking reception staff frantically phoning upstairs, the occupying students briefly locked the doors from the inside before the police forced their way in and started threatening us immediately with arrest for ‘breach of the peace’. The 20 or so rebels who got in found this very funny as one of them reminded the officer that this was a ‘peaceful protest for peace’. The copper get up the heavy verbals and started trying to grab one of the students, who shrugged him. The students then sat down. The head of BBC security then came down and made a rather pathetic announcement about the protestors not being welcome in the building. After being threatened repeatedly with arrest, and the cops beginning to swarm, they promised to leave if a journalist came out and interviewed us.
Once outside, the chanting started again and created quite a spectacle outside the BBC, with cars and buses slowing down, and one bus driver shouting something about ‘traitors’. The police had backed off and said they were prepared to let the students stay outside if they remained peaceful. By this stage, people were getting a bit tired and after waiting in vain for the ‘journalist’ to appear, the students went for a quick refuelling session down the student bar. It was now after 3pm and as this was taking place, there was a simultaneous critical mass bike ride in Leeds city centre, although it appears that only 4 people turned up and was aborted.
All of these actions were building up and helping spread awareness for the main Leeds-wide protest scheduled for 5pm – an ‘illegal’ Halloween Party outside Yorkshire TV (YTV). This proved to be a very frustrating event. Only around 200 people had turned up – Leeds took nearly 1000 people to the London demonstration. Moreover, the main focus of the protests appeared to be Kirkstall Road and the passing traffic, and not the YTV building itself. There was very little singing and chanting, and for 2 hours, protestors stood facing a relatively small line of police officers, attempting to spill on to the road and stop traffic. A major opportunity for serious civil disobedience was lost because there was very little organisation of the demo taking place. Some protestors did briefly manage to occupy the road for about 5 minutes, prompting 2 arrests. But there was no media, only two local National Front thugs taking photos of the crowd to go on their ‘Redwatch’ website. The police managed to keep control with the minimum of effort and the actual point of the protest seemed to be lost. Another comrade was arrested for ‘assaulting’ a police officer – he was moving his bike backwards from the footpath and walked into a copper! Fortunately, someone was making a film of the event for IndyMedia and has sent the video to his solicitor.
Following early morning canvassing/leafleting by members of Leeds Coalition Against the War down at Leeds train station, students from Leeds University and Leeds Metropolitan University took on the baton. Assembling outside their respective student unions at 12pm, they quickly began noisy and good-humoured demonstrations and marches around campus, encouraging students to come and join in. Anti-war slogans were chanted and banners were erected in key places. Woodhouse Lane was briefly brought to a standstill as students occupied the road. The two student demos then merged into one and at that point some 150 students were present.
The protestors then assembled outside Leeds University Union at 12.30 for a brief rally where petitions were signed. A few ‘Jewish Society’ students had turned up to make the case ‘for’ war and a brief, vigorous and honest debate ensued between the two sides before the demonstrators called for an occupation of Leeds University Business School and 50-strong group made their way over there. By this stage, 2 police motorbikes had arrived on campus and plainclothes security and police were beginning to be noticed. Once at the Business School, a police video van arrived, and the students quickly entered the building with their banners and chants, storming the main corporate-sponsored lecture and forcing the lecture to be postponed. The occupied students were generally sympathetic, although an American student took personal offence and started going apeshit, defending the US-UK line, trying to get his fellow business students to form a counter-occupation movement and expel us from the lecture theatre.
Eventually, after a scene that can only be likened to one out of Life of Brien, the occupation voted almost unanimously to leave the Business School and go and disrupt other lectures. It was now around 2pm, and the police and security presence was slowly increasing. After bringing one of the main routes into the main lecture theatre building to a halt for about 10 minutes, the students then marched to one of the road bridges nearby and hung banners over to oncoming traffic, which got a lot of horn-honking. The rebels then marched to Leeds Metropolitan University with students cheering and clapping from their classes as they entered the main building and held a 20 minute rally outside the library, forcing security to lock the doors and place wooden planks across the handles to stop entry. As the students banged bins and shouted slogans, trapped staff and students inside the library watched on in bewilderment. The peaceful protest then spilled out into the main road, which was blocked for 10 minutes as a sit-in was staged.
A spontaneous decision was then taken to occupy the BBC North building – just opposite the main university sites – from where programmes such as the regional BBC news are filmed. Students ran in, chanting and laughing, until suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, police officers in blue overalls and high-tech communication headphones, possibly armed with some crowd control weapons cut off some of the students from entering the building. With quite scared looking reception staff frantically phoning upstairs, the occupying students briefly locked the doors from the inside before the police forced their way in and started threatening us immediately with arrest for ‘breach of the peace’. The 20 or so rebels who got in found this very funny as one of them reminded the officer that this was a ‘peaceful protest for peace’. The copper get up the heavy verbals and started trying to grab one of the students, who shrugged him. The students then sat down. The head of BBC security then came down and made a rather pathetic announcement about the protestors not being welcome in the building. After being threatened repeatedly with arrest, and the cops beginning to swarm, they promised to leave if a journalist came out and interviewed us.
Once outside, the chanting started again and created quite a spectacle outside the BBC, with cars and buses slowing down, and one bus driver shouting something about ‘traitors’. The police had backed off and said they were prepared to let the students stay outside if they remained peaceful. By this stage, people were getting a bit tired and after waiting in vain for the ‘journalist’ to appear, the students went for a quick refuelling session down the student bar. It was now after 3pm and as this was taking place, there was a simultaneous critical mass bike ride in Leeds city centre, although it appears that only 4 people turned up and was aborted.
All of these actions were building up and helping spread awareness for the main Leeds-wide protest scheduled for 5pm – an ‘illegal’ Halloween Party outside Yorkshire TV (YTV). This proved to be a very frustrating event. Only around 200 people had turned up – Leeds took nearly 1000 people to the London demonstration. Moreover, the main focus of the protests appeared to be Kirkstall Road and the passing traffic, and not the YTV building itself. There was very little singing and chanting, and for 2 hours, protestors stood facing a relatively small line of police officers, attempting to spill on to the road and stop traffic. A major opportunity for serious civil disobedience was lost because there was very little organisation of the demo taking place. Some protestors did briefly manage to occupy the road for about 5 minutes, prompting 2 arrests. But there was no media, only two local National Front thugs taking photos of the crowd to go on their ‘Redwatch’ website. The police managed to keep control with the minimum of effort and the actual point of the protest seemed to be lost. Another comrade was arrested for ‘assaulting’ a police officer – he was moving his bike backwards from the footpath and walked into a copper! Fortunately, someone was making a film of the event for IndyMedia and has sent the video to his solicitor.
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