UK UK Newswire Archive
democracy village open day
15-05-2010 23:22
guerilla gardening, open mic, music, anarchy and partying on a summer's afternoon
despite police threats to remove a village oak tree that had been planted earlier in the week, the guerilla gardening event continued and flowers, plants and vegetables were planted in a circle around the oak sapling right in the middle of the square.
police conducted a search of one of the tents, and then, as is customary, hassled brian haw, who has suffered ten years of their abuse.
strangely, and i think suspiciously, police then completely withdrew, and apart from a couple stationed outside parliament, there were fewer police and community support around than i think i've ever seen on a saturday afternoon in that area.
speaking to village organisers, i learnt that the democracy village has been holding regular consensus meetings throughout the week, and there have been direct actions of one sort of another each day.
today, being a much more open affair, attracted a large contingent of all sorts of people. on the positive side, this meant that many different groups represented, and the idea of 'unity through diversity' was seen in words and action. on the negative side, there was a lot of alcohol being consumed openly in the square, and some people were clearly there to drink rather than to engage in any political discourse or action. this was a source of some friction, and some people were using the open mic to suggest that the site might be better off without alcohol or drugs, while others took the opposing view.
one man stood quietly with a small A4 banner "no alcohol - no drugs on this site" but he became an object first of ridicule and then abuse. in fact it was saddening and ironic to see self-proclaimed anarchists telling him to take down his banner. these 'anarchists' presumably don't like being told by the police that they need authorisation to hold up a banner in parliament square, so what the fuck did they think they were doing?. eventually the lone protestor was literally chased off the site after having his banner snatched from him - a very depressing spectacle, and not my idea of anarchy in action.
the party/protest was set to go on throughout the night, and they will be joined at 11pm by a climate protest group who are also conducting an overnight vigil.
during next week, the village is hoping to move away from party mode and back to meetings and daily direct actions. it is very difficult to forecast police response, but one inspector has said that the police are waiting for a court order instigated by the GLA (who apparently have jurisdiction over the square), and will not do anything before then. again, i find this suspicious. where there's a will (or no ulterior motive) such a court order could be raised overnight usually.
one thing i feel i can safely predict is that there will be an attampt to clear the site before the state opening of parliament a week on tuesday, the 25th.
i mentioned in a previous article of tensions and a rift between brian haw's decade-long encampment, and the new villagers. part of this tension comes from a genuine fear from brian's parliament square peace campaign that the authorities might take the opportunity when clearing the new camp, to also move brian, especially as david cameron is on record as saying that on seizing power, he will clear the square of the continuous protest.
while many facets of the democracy village are very positive, today's bacchanalian festivities must leave brian haw and his supporters fearing for their precarious presence in the square. on 23rd may, just 2 days before the state opening of parliament, it will be the fourth anniversary of the night when 72 police pounced in the middle of the night and stole most of brian's display which was an amazing exhibition of the government's genocide (later reproduced by mark wallinger in his turner-prize winning installation at tate britain in 2006).
brian and co must be wondering if they will get through 23rd may this year, or whether the new kids on the block are going to give the police an excuse to finish the job.
i hope the villagers enjoy their party weekend, but then get down to the serious business of challenging the state and boxing rather more clever next week.
Bradford Provide Rooftop Platform for Lab Opposition
15-05-2010 23:05
Alumni Weekend Opened With Noisy Demo @ Bradford Uni
15-05-2010 23:02
12 Activists today held a noisy demonstration at the University of Bradford’s Alumni Weekend opening, letting everybody know about the horrific suffering ongoing inside their laboratories. The event was held at the School of Management, Emm Lane.party at the pumps - pics and report
15-05-2010 22:22
the shell garage on upper street in islington was closed for several hours this afternoon by more than a hundred protestors
at lunchtime around 50 people gathered at oxford circus, watched by quite a large police presence with several van-loads on stand-by. the station was briefly closed 'due to sheer weight of numbers' but re-opened after ten minutes, and they set off for highbury and islington.
meanwhile, around 40 cyclists met at marble arch and, followed by a couple of police vans, they took a circuitous route through hyde park, down past buck house, and then for a triumphal lap round parliament square, shouting out support over the mobile sound system to the democracy village and to the decade-long protest by brian haw.
the mass then carried on up to angel, and then along upper street to the shell garage, which had already been well and truly closed down by the foot-soldiers and by the rhythms of resistance samba band (mostly deputised by soas members).
the shell garage looked great! several people held a huge "danger - keep out" banner across one access. a simple "closed" banner was strung across the other. above, another banner declared "stop shell's tar sands hell", and some activists found a route up to the roof to drop another "stop tar sands" banner from there.
a head-count numbered 125 at one point. an excellent turn-out on a day with when there were several other protests in town, and most encouraging, there were many new faces, keeping the fit team and police photographer, neil, busy.
police-wise, there were about a dozen officers around making notes, and one FIT team. down the road were another serial waiting in a van, and another van of TSG further out of sight.
activists handed out hundreds of fliers, and public response was overwhelmingly positive.
before the end of the protest, i left to cover events in parliament square, but i spoke to others who arrived there later and as far as i know the protest finished peacefully without arrests.
New Conservative Party Website Spoof
15-05-2010 20:58
Team of writers and left-wing political activists have come together to make this new website for the new Tory government.The Rachel Corrie
15-05-2010 20:49
The Freedom Flotilla has set sail into the eye of the storm.These internal HMRC docs show false sexual allegtions in Andi Ali BNP case
15-05-2010 20:14
Defend the right to defend Palestine! - meeting on Tuesday 18 May
15-05-2010 19:00
Open meeting hosted by London School of Economics (LSE) Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! society. Tuesday, 18 May 2010, 7-9pm, Room H103, LSE, Connaught House, Aldwych (Nearest tube, HOLBORN)Speakers: * LSE FRFI Society * Ihtisham Ul Haq – Gaza Demonstrators Support Campaign * Hicham Yezza – criminalised former Nottingham University student,
River transport strike paralyses Bangladesh
15-05-2010 18:43
Athens - Shock and awe from "The April Theses" of KKE
15-05-2010 17:16
The huge demo was at the range of 50.000 - 70.000 people and managed to occupy the total center of the city for more then three hours . Also special KKE members took position in front of the parliament to avoid provocations
Today was a day of POWER SHOW of the KKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Syt4nsRuM
Guerilla Gardening in Parliament Square.
15-05-2010 17:16
Freedom of Movement for all: Transnational action Paris and Berlin
15-05-2010 15:29
Call out Resist the E.D.L in newcastle
15-05-2010 15:07
Support student's strike in Puerto Rico (by Latuff)
15-05-2010 15:03
http://twitpic.com/1nzlcq/full
Counter Terror Demo and Exhibition
15-05-2010 14:22
Rattansi & Ridley show clip with exclusive footage from inside Aprils Clarion Counter Terror Exhibition in West london Olympia Centre.
Tunnels and Blacklists - The IPA and the Israeli Ambassador in St Andrews (4/05/10)
15-05-2010 13:22
This being a true and accurate account of the counter-demonstration before and during the talk given by Ron Prossor Ambassador of Israel.
Nakba Day Protest in Sheffield
15-05-2010 12:04
A statement from the occupation at Middlesex
15-05-2010 12:04
In late April 2010, Middlesex University decided to close down Philosophy, its highest research-rated subject; ever since, Middlesex students and staff, and many thousands of their supporters in the UK and around the world, have been battling to save it.In early May, Middlesex Philosophy students took matters into their own hands. On the morning of Tuesday 4 May; when the management cancelled this meeting at short notice, more than 60 students converged on the Dean’s office in the ‘Mansion’ building at Trent Park to demand an explanation. The Dean refused to meet with them. The students decided to occupy.
The Danish sickness
15-05-2010 12:03
In the last decade Denmark have had a right-wing extremist government, in the first seven years headed by the present NATO general secretary, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and presently headed by PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen, whom also “chaired” the COP 15 with so devastating little success, his chair ship will enter the history books for poor re-sults etc.London Campaign Against the Arms Trade now on Twitter
15-05-2010 12:00
London CAAT on Twitter/forthcoming events