Independence from America

But the NSA and CIA were ultimately created and remain controlled by UK Military Intelligence units. Sigints R Us. Give 'em a vibe, but in the end it's about independence from, and putting to useful non-parasitic work of, global elites.
How is this to be accomplished?

hi, thankyou for a fantastic day
are there anymore photos about?

The policing was very oppressive as is becoming more common at radical events in this country. There were probably not much over hundred people there but at least 200 police officers. One person counted 17 riot vans.

The cops took the names and address of drivers as they arrived (non-drivers are not obligated to give these details). Whether this was simply to intimidate or whether they'll be added to some database who knows.

One thing for sure though is that if they ever do bring in ID cards then they'll going to get everyones names and addresses as they arrive which will no doubt scare a lot of people off going.

Other oppresive measures included surrounding the demo with cops, not letting people leave the demo when they wanted too, and generally using their power over people to make them feel controlled and disempowered.

I hope the organisers were aware of these tactics and think of more creative tactics on future actions at Menwith.

Finally there weren't that many people yesterday I think because firstly the event was much less publicised than last year and secondly because of the weather - it rained all morning.

Click the link for images of the Samba Band as shown on their site.
RebelW

Sheffield Samba Band Photo Album - Menwith 040704

there were far too many police presant and they were a little rugh to begin i saw a bit of pushing and shoving, espcialy from pc.302 and pc.652, after they closed the foot path and made us walk at one side of the line.

is why we have to resist the id card with every bone in our bodies.

www.defy-id.org.uk/

too many police, being petty and refusing access to public footpath, which nearly kicked off at the start of the march. otherwise, very good humoured, and the Clown Bloc were the highlight of the day, especially when we stopped at a gate, with 100 ft giant golfballs from space surrounded by razor wire, fences, fluoro police etc. The clowns formed a wall and waved us on..."Move on please, nothing to see here!"

Speaking as the person who wanted to go home (after being there for hours) and got pushed about by loud aggressive oinks at the front of the walk round the base, I didn’t know it was nearly a nickable offence to WANT to stop demonstrating. Would have been interesting to get arrested for that…. Then they just carried on pushing people around for our own safety. Thanks, chaps, never felt so safe. Next time, I’m going to decide to go into labour if it gets me back to the car..

thanks to the guy from the clown army who made me laugh instead of going on trying to go home.

And the local pub locked its doors on us and told us it was private property. To much custom from the USA to lose, I suppose.

Was fun though asking a policeman if I could swop the glitterball I brought with me for one of their balls. “Can I play with your balls, officer?”

They filmed the car numberplate and the people getting out of it as soon as we’d parked. I don’t know the name of the woman who told people about the base as we went round it, but she said (after the pushing/shouting incident), that the organisers of the demo had really tried to work with the police, and as the police were being so aggressive with people, maybe they shouldn’t work with them next time.

Seems like a good idea to me. Clearly some more “demonstrator liaison” training needed desperately Chief Inspector.

Nice cake though from the foodstall, lovely costumes, great samba, and I hope the lad who hitched a brief lift on the back of the policevan got away.

Regrettably missed this one though I've done a number of previous Menwiths
Activists generally need to know how important it is in the world grid
That's why the police presence has been becoming progressively more malevolent at each successive demonstration
Truth is that Menwith requires repeated attention, but no need for physical intervention and invasion - no martyrdoms despite CAAB's well-intentioned encouragement
Get some star names out there to get the people out in better numbers for some perimeter celebrations and diatribes
In the meantime, use suitable DIY technological innovations to surrepticiously disrupt the global satanist intent of this multi-array installation
Better get the point - it's the only way to start taking these places down

photo number one.. line the police up into er.. lines in front of a gate (ask nicely now, avoid bad manners, remember, these men and women are there to uphold the law. They aren't to sure which law, but they know there will be one along soon or they'll make it up). add clowns. turn around and shortly after the photo, do the okey cokey.

photo number two: Search for the biggest spybase in Europe, its American, its in Yorkshire. You'll find it by following the burgers, balls and guns. Its well worth walking round on a sunny day. It has an orchid patch, interesting ants that bite, a herd of wild pigs, a lovely view of the hills.

worth a ramble

Further to the fact that they filmed people and number plates you could have fun by everyone there requesting all footage and records of anything with them in it as must be released under the data protection act so you might find out what the police were writing about you.

heather wrote:

"she said [...] that the organisers of the demo had really tried to work with the police, and as the police were being so aggressive with people, maybe they shouldn’t work with them next time."

From my experience of having been involved in organising both NVDA and "non arrestable" actions at Northwood HQ, if you do liase, the police still do as they wish on the day, comming back on what has been agreed. If you don't liaise, they'll allow themselves to interpret any information they have as the worst-possible scenario, and have justification to ... do as they wish on the day.

If you do liase, they'll try and make you responsible for whathever happens, as an identidied "organiser", and will try to make you take decisions on behalf of the protesters, giving themselves justification to enforce those decisions on the day. If you don't liase - or refuse to make decisions on behalf of the protesters - they'll decide to take over on the day, as they will only accept to negotiate with "your leader".

So it does sum up to the expected : the police will do what they want either way.

However, by liasing in a way that you inform them what you (as the organisers) are planning to do (but not making decisions, or agreeing to anything with them), you do at least remove some of their justifications. The danger of not liasing at all is that you will spend your whole time struggling against the police - rather than your real target.

Anselm

sorry if this comes through twice, after hitting submit comment i keep getting sent back to a blank publish form again!

It wasn't a false start - the samba band saw the clowns and lots of police down the road and thought they were being hassled so we went to show some solidarity and draw attention to them by banging our drums near them, instead of 100 metres away.

love
Sambista

Hate to be desperately un-cool but I thought the police were generally quite nice on Saturday. Yes, there were loads more than actually needed, but this was pretty flattering on their part I thought, that they thought we would have enough people to merit such numbers. Most of the police I spoke to seemed to have no problem with the protestors, and I thought they were pretty tolerant given how many people were deliberately trying to piss them off.

I think that often at protests, people set off with a very confrontational attitude to the police, and this becomes more of a focus than the actual bad things we're protesting against. The police we meet at a protest are just whoever happens to be sent down, they don't necessarily even disagree with the protestors on the actual issues, or think that so many police should be there, and often I think they're happy to be freindly to protestors as long as protestors are friendly to them.

I had a good time at Menwith, but it did leave me wondering a bit what protests like that actually achieve, other than making people feel good that they are doing something, and an entertaining opportunity to laugh at the police and eat nice veggie grub. I wasn't even sure who we were protesting AT... I'm sure the people working there have their views to deeply entrenched to care what a few hippies parading around in bug costumes think, and other than that only the (clearly converted) protestors, the police and maybe some wildlife were there. I can't see Bush and Blair even knowing it happened, let alone quaking in their boots about it!

Not that I have any better options... blatantly I don't want to see several times more money being blown up in stupid star wars projects than on health and education, but the idea of 50 more years hanging round outside military bases etc. feeling self righteous whilst the actual military spending continues to escalate doesn't appeal. And perhaps rather than always going on about police oppression, we should look at our own protests, and whether they fit into any strategic aims whatsoever!

then what do you sugest we do orangeperson? we have no other option of protesting short of going in there and blowing the place up (wich would ruin any chance of achiving our goals peacfully because then the police realy would set in we woudnt get within a mile of the base), we are doing all we can peacefully. how else can we make people listen?

“ I think that often at protests, people set off with a very confrontational attitude to the police, and this becomes more of a focus than the actual bad things we're protesting against.”

I walked up the grass at the side of the demo because I wanted to go home. Can’t see why this could be seen as confrontational. I asked what law I was breaking and just got pushed about by aggressive police for refusing to play their powergame. The confrontation was from them because part of the tension is they want people to kick off so they can wade in. Some police can be friendly (I played football briefly at the gate with a policeman in the morning and we joked about luring the Americans out with burgers), but smiling at individuals misses the point....

The police are an integral part of the bad things we are protesting against.. Menwith has power over people and uses it for an agenda which suppresses, destroys and kills. The police have power over people and use it. They support/maintain the power of Menwith and the rest of the corporate/military killing machine. They might be “ordinary blokes” (whatever that means) individually but collectively they are something else entirely.
As for what the American military personel inside Menwith thought.. I am damm sure we made the day more uncomfortable for them. And by confronting them, with the reality that we are there and will not give in, we took power ourselves. This matters.

Its also not always what we actually do that freaks them out but simply the possibility that we might, could (and they know sometimes will), do it…….

I don’t care whether Bush or Blair knew about it. They are puppet people in positions of power that other people could fill and do exactly the same thing as Bush and Blair. Orangeperson, why do you think that is happening?

In my experience, people often do look at their protests and ask what is it for, what can we do, what can we achieve? Is this the same as having “strategic aims?” It doesn’t mean we have all the answers but it does mean we are creative, angry and politically alive.

We are not powerless. Or collectively self-righteous. If you need any more proof, think about the police the other way round. For example, think, why does the state attack us using the medium of the police? Why does the state control the media?

Because the state knows we are not powerless when we take the power back together. We scare them.

Oppression (at any level) exists to kill dissent. But they haven’t learnt the obvious lesson yet. Oppression creates dissent.

thers more pics  http://www.toxicpop.co.uk/menwith04-07-04/index.htm

Not forgetting, orangeperson and others, that one year, recently, 20 or so Greenpeace bods were able to get into the base on July 3rd or 4th and demonstrate with their leafles and banners. Excellent action to raise awareness about this USA Spy base and their misguided inhabitants.
Regards and love in Peace. Smiley Steve.