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Police Iron Horse Mobile Freedom of Movement Preservers

Frank | 06.07.2005 21:31 | G8 2005 | Repression

Police deploy the ultimate street blocker in Edinburgh

Police protected freedom of movment
Police protected freedom of movment

What did the penultimate one look like?
What did the penultimate one look like?

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Draft excluders

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Crafty
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Iorn Horse Street blockers used on 6th July to block Hanover Street in Edinburgh (photo at 15:30). The close up shots are from Monday 4th. These were also in use protecting our right to walk the streets near the Sheraton Grand on the morning of the 6th.

Frank


Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Barricades

06.07.2005 21:47

In all honesty if your movement didn't have so many total fuckwits and hangers on intent on abusing their right to walk the street these kind of things wouldn't be needed.

The right to roam the highway, sure I agree you all have that right, as I've said if the idiots weren't hanging on intent on causing uproar maybe you'd be treated that little bit differently.

The Police in Stirling today let you walk through the streets earlier this morning, unfortunately that walk turned into a spot of aim the paving slabs through the residents windows.

The "we have the right to walk the streets" is genuine but it's getting a bit worn out now people...join forces with those orange order twats and really moan about the right to "walk the streets".

Bino


Bozos for Blair

06.07.2005 23:08

"The Police in Stirling today let you walk through the streets earlier this morning"

Notice the word "let".

You can smell the fascist lol.

There are a lot of loony kids out there who worship the state, I say "kids" because these lads are child-like, having only one thing in mind: protection from the monsters under their bed.

They see an unusual element they will attack like poodles, except if that element is a real authority, or if they get a swift kick in the ass.

How to de-program these maniacs?

We have to educate them about the dangers of worshipping authority. That's the first step.

common sense


Worshipping authority, eh?

07.07.2005 09:25

What about the dangers of worshipping anti-capitalism as such a blind idol that it serves to "justify" actions in particular locations that clearly do not enjoy the support of the people who have to live there on a daily basis and who have to do the cleaning-up (not "the rich" as is idiotically postulated by certain activist types)?

I have seen enough among the hardcore anarchists to convince me that they would be little different from the Robespierres or Stalins of this world - resorting to thuggish violence in order to impose a particular vision of "order" upon society that masquerades as some "ultimate freedom" from "authority" (in which they would themselves become the authority in an ideologicla sense and then deny such status in true Kafka-esque manner).

Thankfully they aren't fooling anyone.

John


Concerning "worship"

07.07.2005 12:55

It's interesting that nearly all the comments on these reports from the G8 protests include (or are dominated by) incoherent complaints from "locals" who are upset by the disruption to their daily lives. It has been suggested that this is mainly trolling by a local mainstream journo from Stirling, but let's suppose that's just speculation, and look at what he's saying:

"What about the dangers of worshipping anti-capitalism as such a blind idol that it serves to
"justify" actions in particular locations that clearly do not enjoy the support of the people who
have to live there on a daily basis and who have to do the cleaning-up (not "the rich" as is
idiotically postulated by certain activist types)? "

Anti-capitalism isn't a specific god or philosophy that one could give one's affiliation to (or "worship"); it's the view that capitalism, as practiced by multinational corporations, and encouraged by G8 governments, is destroying the environment and impoverishing everyone in the long term. If the "particular locations" referred to don't support ther protests, and don't feel like cleaning up, then why didn't they object in the first place to the G8 summit occuring on their doorstep? Every G8 summit in the last decade has drawn worldwide protest.

I decline to comment on your unattributed quote about "the rich".

"I have seen enough among the hardcore anarchists to convince me that they would be little
different from the Robespierres or Stalins of this world"

Your ignorance is showing. Modern anarchism in the UK is characterised by a determination to *avoid* the imposition of leaders, and the way anarchists organise reflects that determination. You need to pay more attention.

"resorting to thuggish violence"

Most of the anarchists that I know are specifically opposed to violence. In fact they attend training-courses in non-violent direct action - training in how to avoid being provoked into responding to violence from the police with violence of their own. It is the police that are trying to provoke trouble, in order to discredit the protestors. There's nothing new about this tactic. The Rebel Clown Army, whose presence at these protests has been ubiquitous, has the specific aim of defusing tense situations, and *averting* violence (from either side of the barricade).

" in order to impose a particular vision of "order" upon society""

The variety of "visions" espoused by different types of anarchists is bewilderingly rich. But one thing they share is a reluctance to impose their "vision" on others. Contrast this with the attitude of the G8 governments, who seem to be united in their support for unitary states, commited to a particular kind of "free trade" that involves them trading freely, backed by subsidies to their exporters, while preventing victim nations from being able to trade their way out of poverty. Nations that refuse to fall into line with this orthodoxy get bombed into submission. Attempts to complain loudly about this behaviour of western governments results predictably in state violence, arbitrary arrest, and the kind of chaos that we have been witnessing.

"...that masquerades as some "ultimate freedom" from "authority" (in which they would
themselves become the authority in an ideologicla sense and then deny such status in true
Kafka-esque manner)."

The only true source of authority in a free society is the will of the people. This obviously can't be expressed through the ballot-box; for example, only 30% of Americans voted for GWB in the presidential election. Tony Blair and his party have never had the support of more than a minority of the electorate. The resulting governments are in the pockets of lobbyists who are paid for by multinationals. It follows that governments elected in this way have no authority over the people whatsoever. Oh - and what's Franz Kafka got to do with anything? Kafka just wrote some novels about bureaucracy gone mad.

There are groupings on the left who would like to establish themselves as an ideological authority; but the idea that these groupings have anything to do with anarchism is absurd (and as I say, ignorant).

MrDemeanour


Number Plates

17.05.2006 23:01

Note that the police were towing a trailer with a number plate that did not corrospond to the vehicle!

Alex T


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