At 1pm on Monday October 9th, up to one hundred and fifty angry and concerned people converged on the Palace of Westminster, to sack parliament. The plan was to surround parliament and cause parliamentary activities to cease. MPs, Lords and civil servants would be prevented from re-opening Parliament.
As soon as protesters started to arrive, police quickly moved in stop and search everyone that was considered 'suspicious'. Many people were turned away from reaching Parliament Square, others were singled out by police units and prevented from joining the protests. See 2pm update when protesters were surrounded by police. An NUJ photogapher was hospitalised by police [photo + witness appeal] after being violently thrown into a kerb. See also 3pm update and a report.
Eventually the people trapped in the police ring were let out and escorted from Parlianment Square after having been searched, photographed and identified [treatment of press report]. All were told that they would be reported for summons for the offence of taking part in an unlawful demonstration.
There are reports of up to 40 people having been arrested. The court hearings for those arrested and summoned will start on Tuesday 17th Oct at 10am in West London Court [details] Anyone who can get down there to show solidarity and support to those involved will be greatly appreciated. [screening of footage (tuesday 10th)]
Accounts of the day: 1 | 2 | 3
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Mainstream media pics | Videos 1 | 2
Links: Sack Parliament website | Reflections on Sack Parliament
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Various groups and individuals had called out for events to happen on the day. The first of these was a Critical Mass meeting under Waterloo Bridge at midday. Later, an anti-authoritarian and anarchist block meeting in Parliament Square, which would be near to the Rehabilitation block and Party@Parliament both of which were prapared to offer support and advice to sacked parliamentarians. The right-wing media have also helpfully publicised the event, and helped to show just what the police think of protest in this day and age.
A request to have the British government arrested for war crimes was sent to national newspapers.
According to participants, "The rank incompetency of the cabinet, the government and parliament in their handling of both foreign and domestic policy cannot be ignored any longer. Take part! Stop them continuing their wars; we have only one option left: sack parliament."
Past events over the summer: London Soldier picket | Smash EDO blockade | Smash EDO march | Foreign Office blockade | Blockade of Brize Norton airbase | Die in outside Downing Street | Attempted invasion of US Embassy | Picket of an Israeli arms company | Emergency Assembly about Israel/ Lebanon war
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Why protest in a Blair friendly way?
11.10.2006 17:50
Once again, ALWAYS LEARN FROM THE METHODS OF PROTEST GROUPS THAT HAVE ACTUALLY HAD SUCCESS ACROSS THE PLANET.
In the UK recently, that list is pretty much the one entry, FATHERS FOR JUSTICE. Until their destruction by MI5, a tiny number of people were responsible for ALL protests of significance in the UK. Each protest was intelligently designed and executed. Numbers were NOT needed, just brains.
This organisation was not infiltrated at first, because the State could not bring itself to worry about it (representing, as it did, the concerns of many adult males actually working within the security services). However, once Blair slammed his fist into the table, the organisation was doomed because of its small active membership.
Look at the protests of Sep 23, and Oct 9. Both utterly utterly useless. The first was State organised to allow safe venting of anger, while Blair continues in absolute power preparing to trigger WW3 with his genocide of Iran. The second was designed to soak up more focused and radical anger (a good thing- not the 'soaking' but the strong feelings) by allowing a demonstration of overwhelming police brutality.
Pre WW2 in nazi Germany you also had both kinds of demo, and both kinds of State response. The State never desires to "beat-up" large numbers of people- but instead seeks to subvert them (hence the use of Galloway). Smaller, more focused demos, on the other hand, are safe for a State not yet officially a dictatorship to crush ruthlessly.
Some of you think the process of being crushed makes you a martyr, and thus serves a useful purpose. You could not be further from the truth. Indymedia UK exists to give big coverage to fruitless and pointless methods of protest for a very specific reason (think about it). On the other hand, Indymedia UK discourages intellectual discussion designed to allow post-mortem dissection of failed protests, so that protest in the future can be re-tooled to defeat State evil. Again, this is no accident.
If Indymedia UK were designed to cover engineering, then its newswire would be full of stories of bridges and buildings that collapsed soon after construction because of their clearly stupid designs. However, these articles would NOT be outraged at the waste of time and lives, but praising the incompetents for their efforts, and reassuring them that TRYING IS ALWAYS MORE VALUABLE THAN SUCCEEDING.
THE STATE REQUIRES THAT YOU FAIL IN YOUR GOALS. If ***YOU*** were the State, with billions to spend, how would ***YOU*** go about destroying the effectiveness of protest?
I have seen specific articles censored fROm the newswire for discussing cases where State agents have been identified in protest organisations, usually because of court cases. In the UK, infiltration is rarely used to create court cases, since the major motivation is intelligence gathering, and taking control of the group to neutralise its effectiveness. In the US things are very different, because high profile court cases frequently build the careers of various positions within the political system. Thus, the US favours the 'agent provocateur' method where the infiltrator gets to demand the group participate in serious crimes, and if any of the targets even tolerate these discussions, they are arrested under conspiracy laws.
REMEMBER, there are full time people on this site whose major task is to deny that the State would ever be bothered in YOUR group, and anyone who says otherwise is paranoid. They are the same people who censor stories that expose the operation of the security services to this end, whenever possible
Anyway, to conclude, if you like getting you head bashed in, and care so little about your life that you will not complain when Blair is finally able to behead (Hitler's favourite method) protestors like you, carry on the way Blair's agents tell you to act. History shows that revealing the brutality of the State, when people already expect growing wars, serves no use at all. If on the other hand you REALLY want a chance to do some good, break into small cells and create unique protests along the pattern demonstrated by the peaceful protests of Fathers For Justice. FOLLOW BLAIR, OR FOLLOW YOUR BRAIN AND HEART.
twilight
no more war
11.10.2006 18:33
Also does anyone know if there were any consquences from the hospitalisation of the photographer?
raving_humanist
THE UNITED KINGDOM LAW SOCIETY'S BEHAVIOUR
12.10.2006 08:06
The end of the double jeapordy rule came about recently.
However, astonishingly, the Law Society of the United Kingdom is in court, fighting for court papers to be “gagged”.
The Law Society won their injunction which prevents the media from gaining access to documentation of any case .
On 5th October the Law Society won an extention of injunction for another 28 days to 2nd November2006.
The evidence in court documents includes proof by primary evidence and proof by secondary evidence .
The main reason why the public should have access to court documents lies in the fact that documents in possession of third parties might throw light as to full extent of disclosure. It brings transparency to the court system.
Is the Law Society of the United Kingdom muzzling the press, stopping them from conducting investigations into documents which might have been perjured or often compromised?
One reason for this application for an injunction is that the Law Society may be trying to hide the facts of the hundreds of solicitors and barristers in the United Kingdom who have been convicted of fraud and other criminal offences and the Law Society may be attempting to protecting certain cases from being picked over- cases such as
R v Philip John Lewis [2006]; R v Richard Dawson [2006];R v Simon Rutledge [2006]; R v Timothy Miles [2006]; R v Brian Dugan [2006]; R v Stephen Sulston Williams [2006]; R v Angela Baillie [2006]; R v Stephen Sulston [2006]; R v John Martin [2005]; R v Michael Fielding [2005];R v Christopher Savage [2005]; R v Calum Blyth [2005]; R v Nicholas Pounder [2005];
R v Philip Huxtable [2005];R v Carsten Iversen [2005]; R v Susan Davies [2005]; R v Marylena Shuti [2005] ; R v Chris Christodoulides [2005]R v John Ingram [2005]; R v Ricardo Nardi [2005]; R v David Andrew Gatherer [2005]; R v Ricardo Nardi [2005]R v Gary Beales [2005]; R v Nicholas
Pounder [2005]; R v Christopher Savage [2005]; R v Donald Haling [2005];R v Haydn James Dodge [2004]; R v Timothy Robinson [2004]; R v Richard Dighton [2004]; R v Douglas Allan [2004];
R v Gavin David McCarran [2004];R v Richard McCauley [2004]; R v Roan George Sea [2004];
R v Andrew Arsine [2004]; R v Michael Lee [2004]; R v Ricardo Nardi [2004]; R v Andrew Nicholls [2004];R v John Greenwood [2004];R v Peter Lyle Sharp [2004]; R v Ruperella [2004]; R v Harjit Sangha [2004]; R v Timothy Farrant [2004]; R v Jennifer Hampton [2004];R v Paul Winter Morris [2004];R v Jeremy Cave [2003]; R v Shirley Harrison [2003]; R v Jill Radford [2003];R v John Tate [2003]; R v Basin Mohamed [2002]; R v Louis GATT [2001]; R v Miles McNulty [2001]; R v Donald Pirie [2001]; R v Michael James Palmer [1999].
And hundreds more..
Where there is self-standing evidence, the privilege rule is waived , if only we could see the documents.
The United Kingdom is still a class-biased country and the solicitors and barristers of the United Kingdom are mostly still from the middle and upper classes.
It can be argued that they are only protecting themselves, as Dicey, the constitutional lawyer wrote
“Men legislate..not in accordance with their opinion as to what is a good law, but in accordance with their interest, and this..is emphatically true of classes as contrasted with individuals, and therefore of a country like England, where classes exert a far more potent control over the making of laws than can any single person..
So true is this, that from the inspection of the laws of a country it is often possible to conjecture.. what is the class which hold, or has held, predominant power at a given time”
BEWILDERED
But Why?
12.10.2006 12:34
publicity for the action and the consequent number of police that were likely to be present.
I was told 800. So why after all the preparation did people opt for a stategy where they were
almost certain to be penned in? We know where the cops are vulnerable, fast moving,
unpredicable actions. Perhaps there was some positive outcome of this, perhaps it created
realisation for some how repressive things are becoming but personally I already know this.
I am heartily sick of this "get arrested" "get penned in" culture that seems to be prevalent
amoung radical people today. Sure, there is always a possibility of arrest when one is involved in protest but one doesnt have to go out of ones way to invite it.
Actions dont have to be utterly depressing as this one was. Please, no more pens.
Cotter pin
not just a police bubble
12.10.2006 16:33
Anyone trying to see their MP on the day to give them a P45 by hand was turned away by police and told that the supposed democratic right to lobby your MP in person had been suspended - for operational reasons.
suck parliament
Let's Dress Respektable
12.10.2006 17:29
... i was once at a pro-palestine event and had come straight from a job interview, consequently I didn't look like the usual suspects. the difference in attitude from the public and police was extremely noticable....
... no i know we like to war our baggy clothes, tie-die headscarfs, balck rancid hoodies etc and that we are all beautiful people but maybe we should dress up/down for a day...
...and next time 'illegal' demos are planned people should turn up in tracksuits, shirts and ties (charity shops have them cheap) 'sensible' haircuts, or as a group of german tourists with guide and all....
... when blended in it is harder for the police to pick everyone off...
just an idea for the future
sinisterpenguin
Thank you so much fo such an honest account
12.10.2006 21:07
And this is the situation we are all in. And we cannot say we are engaged in the work for freedom and respect unless we are fully committed, and that not because we may succeed....that because IT HAS TO BE DONE ....there is no other way ...... for integrity, for family, for our descendents .... it is crucial that it is not dependent upon success, or our individual perception of success, it is simply a souls response to prevailing conditions, the response of a healthy, humane human being to iniquity, to the pain of the other. It cannot be a mass marketed message (marketing is dysfunctional) , it cannot be led, it must emerge as the will of people of conscience.
A determined, unending campaign to last untill the last human abuse is resolved. A people so motivated will not cease, irrespective of the threat or actuality of violence the state or it's agents offer. Knowing the states propensity for violence, a person so determined will have nothing to lose, having forsaken success' epheramel glory for the surety of the inevitable. Peace prevailing amongst humanity. A life in balance. They will have to murder every single one of us to stop this movement!
As regards your post demo experience, I cannot imagine how terrible it is to be so threatened, bullied, beaten and herded by men who would doff their caps to the likes of Tony Blair, or any of the current incumbents in Parliament, to a man war criminals!
That they know details of your life, that they pry and poke and in their arrogance quote your own works (without having read the entire lyric, I'll wager!) to you as they seek to indict you in their eyes ..... is repugnant. Morraly abject and confident in their power, they strike a pose we no longer admire.
One of these days I expect a knock on the door. I expect many knocks on many doors. Earlier this year I foretold the death toll in Iraq, and was laughed at, derided as being too overthetop. Yet here we are many months later, and I still say it is a conservative figure of 645,000 dead by violence - and I still say that the wars in Iraq and Afgghanistan are wars of agression, and it is a sick and dysfunctional political elite who have crafted it .......
..... and in the statutes books are laws such as The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, that will allow this government and it's hidden corporate directors to criminalise enough people to fill their prisons four, five times over ...... a process now seen as a fit commercial activity, incarceration and hard labour for profit .... China does it, so why not the UK?
I digress. Slightly. The MOD recently issued a recruitment report that stated that the best recruits were ex-prisoners, and the pay is getting better all the time .... and at the same time the home office under Clarke suggested tagging 'criminals', (all protestors without a licence are criminals!), (assuming there was no place to put them up) and putting them to 'work', an example of a suitable project being the ground work for the Olympics 2012! Figure it out for yourselves, the only way Blair and Bush and their teams are going to escape indictment for these wars once the full story gets out is to TAKE OVER at some stage - because that many people are prepared to have a go, that many people are really, really pissed off. That many people care. And more every day. Every day. You won't find info on these deep seated changes in the mainstream, They want us to feel isolated, alone, fearfull - and it is they who feel fear, for the sense the coming awakening of people as the ugly underbelly of Capitalism, Profit and Control is exposed.
I salute all who took part, all who support you and I say you have taken a step towards our goal, keep taking those steps....... take time to heal your wounds, be with loved ones and laugh, take time for joy .....
Kindest regards
Corneilius
do what you love, it;s your gift to universe
Corneilius
Homepage:
http://www.corneilius.net
Machine gun?
13.10.2006 01:56
Jesus Christ, When i was in the back of the police van i thought I've heard one of the cops tell the other something like "Should we get the gun for this one?" but I've asked him, and he replied that he wasn't talking to me, my senses came back and I realised that it must have heard wrong, but, MACHINE GUN???? wow
I would like to believe that Indymedia is different to the mainstream media, in that it wouldn't comply with the propaganda machine, it wouldn't suppress information and it wouldn't steep to a level of thought control, I did sometimes have my comments disappear, but i believed that this was a technical problem, not a conspiracy. for example the following article :
But what are we to do? if our illegal protests are orchestrated by the state, to facilitate it's needs, if the most honest media, is somehow manipulated by it too, if all the channels of information are somehow controlled, knowingly or not, by some great unseen evil power. and life feels more and more like 1984, weather we know it or not, what are we to do? How can we stop the thought police, and how can we get information which we are sure wasn't filtered threw the ministry of truth? You will go insane in the age where paranoid delusions can be true, where great conspiracies are uncovered and recovered all the time, where we try to bring about a change, but for all we know, the only change we are making is in our perception. I will carry on going to those protests, I will carry on writing to these forums, I will carry on expressing myself, even when i know, that my very perception is manipulated, I'd rather take my chances of working for "The system", then do nothing at all, but please, when you see missing information, when you know your comments go unseen, and your articles disappear, record these, record as many as you can, maybe in the end, we'll have enough to expose some of the truth to an uncoverable degree. this forum really made me paranoid, but i reuse to go insane, and I still hope you are wrong about the degree of manipulation we are experiencing, but i have no way to prove this or the other.
Fuck this, lets live in an Anarchist Utopia.
OsamaBinCohen
e-mail:
OsamaBinCohen@Gmail.com
Machine Gun??!?
13.10.2006 14:50
Jesus Christ, When i was in the back of the police van i thought I've heard one of the cops tell the other something like "Should we get the gun for this one?" but I've asked him, and he replied that he wasn't talking to me, my senses came back and I realised that it must have heard wrong, but, MACHINE GUN???? wow
I would like to believe that Indymedia is different to the mainstream media, in that it wouldn't comply with the propaganda machine, it wouldn't suppress information and it wouldn't steep to a level of thought control, I did sometimes have my comments disappear, but i believed that this was a technical problem, not a conspiracy. for example the following article :
But what are we to do? if our illegal protests are orchestrated by the state, to facilitate it's needs, if the most honest media, is somehow manipulated by it too, if all the channels of information are somehow controlled, knowingly or not, by some great unseen evil power. and life feels more and more like 1984, weather we know it or not, what are we to do? How can we stop the thought police, and how can we get information which we are sure wasn't filtered threw the ministry of truth? You will go insane in the age where paranoid delusions can be true, where great conspiracies are uncovered and recovered all the time, where we try to bring about a change, but for all we know, the only change we are making is in our perception. I will carry on going to those protests, I will carry on writing to these forums, I will carry on expressing myself, even when i know, that my very perception is manipulated, I'd rather take my chances of working for "The system", then do nothing at all, but please, when you see missing information, when you know your comments go unseen, and your articles disappear, record these, record as many as you can, maybe in the end, we'll have enough to expose some of the truth to an uncoverable degree. this forum really made me paranoid, but i reuse to go insane, and I still hope you are wrong about the degree of manipulation we are experiencing, but i have no way to prove this or the other.
Fuck this, lets live in an Anarchist Utopia.
P.S. For all you paranoids, this is the second time i've posted this here...
OsamaBinCohen
e-mail:
OsamaBinCohen@Gmail.com
question for twilight
14.10.2006 00:16
as your articles are always so well argued, thought out and researched, i'm sure you'll be happy to give these 'specifics'.
i'd certainly like to follow them up.
rikki
e-mail:
rikkiindymedia@googlemail.com
sorry 4 doing the pigs job
16.10.2006 15:49
Thanks for all the kind emails and i push you all to read the comments and additions, some are under the pictures and in the reflections of the demo, don’t be lazy, they are worth hunting down.
Onelove to CORNEILIEUS and big up to Rikki, Twilight, Concerned Anarchist, Me, and Sledge, i thought what you were saying were propa, even if i didn't agree.
Some good things came out of the nightmare, 1. Met an old friend i had fallen out with, they were in the police bubble as well and we realized who the real enemy was and have fixed up our friendship (i am a donkey and very moody so not the best person at friendships or relationships)... 2. Made peace with another old friend, who contacted me after seeing me in the video of the demo 3. Found out that i have real friends, people have been taking time out to take care of me 4.The moment we refused to give up "the bold guy with a beard" and answered with "i am Spartacus", "no, i am Spartacus" will all ways live with me 5. Had to get some legal advice and one of the women at the solicitors recognized my name and the tendency to get into trouble and contacted me, we use to date... 6. The final illusions have left my mind and i feel free 7.Bumbed into one of the people from the police doughnut and the love i felt and i think they felt was unbelievable, he recognized me from the other side of tube platform, waved and rushed over. We didn't chat much; we just hugged, like we were long lost brothers. Everybody must of thought we were lovers but phuck them. 9. My god-son, who i help to bring up since my friend died 6 years ago, thinks i am a bigger hero than Batman, he is only 9, but i couldn't lie to him about the black eye and why some of my stuff is missing (the police came round on Friday and they are putting me through the ringer) .10. I lernt allot about my self and maybe if i return to the people then i will much more useful in the uprising. 11.i make films and do events and music shit, and the next project is "MONDAY LOVE" every monday in west london, it will be a home for all of us to link, a space to watch films, listern to speekers, dance to live music and to chat each other up. It will be free( some of the groupd getting involved might ask for donations for their projects but that is up to you if you feel their aims). It will give us a chance to build bridges between the differnt movemnets, basically we have a commen aim and a commen enemy. The night will have light and darkness, if the film is dark, then we will have light music(either live music or later with d.js). if the speeker/film is light then we will have dark music...
onelove and like the words written on squat wall said "don’t hate, create"
p.s. For the peeps who asked, on my jacket the two quotes, both were not mine, the first was by peter ustinov " terrorism is the war of the poor and war is the terrorism of the rich" and the second was by Rass Kass “When I die, bury me bucked naked, face down in the grass, So I can fuck the world while y’all kiss my ass”
yes I do get some troble but enuff big ups and questions how I made it, but I got to be real, the complaints and trouble comes from white people, who miss read it or just don’t want to get It, the big ups come from non-whites, they have stepped in when white people have tried to start arguments, especilaly on the tube. Maybe because there is still a huge gap between different comunties, the white people who agreed with the sentement of the quotes do not feel free to say so to me, a black man. The people who see me as antural brother in arms go out of there way to tell me they love the quotes and that I am bopping the streets with the message.
be lucky
smallmoney
e-mail:
spiritualkids@hotmail.com
Reflections on the day from the Anarchist Federation
18.10.2006 19:55
Its the latest blog entry there.
A few AF were about and wrote this to share their thoughts and feelings.
Solidarity with those arrested,
Afed
Anarchist Federation
Homepage:
http://www.afed.org.uk