UK Anti-cuts rally

Although I'm not in hospital at the moment I'm not allowed out in public because my immunity is low. There is a notable anarchist contingent but this is mostly union-led and includes huge parts of 'conventional society'. Marching for 'alternative to cuts' includes cuts to nuclear programs, more cautious treatment of public services and, obviously, alternatives to capitalism. Will be interesting to see how far things escalate in terms of violence after the student protests.

No way am I joining that armchair army.

 

Listening to that pillock on Radio 5 taking calls about the demonstration...mostly about the "violence".

Ian Bone from Class War is on there but I am still waiting to hear him speak...should be good.


http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2011/03/27 ... ment-16852

 

This is what I was talking about in my post!
Here's another great site with pictures and videos

http://www.fitwatch.org.uk/2011/03/27/s ... est-party/

I guess the big Protest is going to happen may

 

From what I seen on that site there are a lot of Anarchist

 

http://libcom.org/library/letter-uk-unc ... t-minority

A letter to UK Uncutters from the 'violent minority'

Letter to UK Uncut members by members of the Solidarity Federation in the aftermath of the disorder on the March 26 TUC organised March for the Alternative.

We're writing this to you to try and prevent the anti-cuts struggle being split up and weakened by the media.

We are anarchists (well, anarcho-syndicalists, technically) – a word that is much misunderstood and misrepresented. We are also students, workers and shop stewards. We co-organised a 'Radical Workers Bloc' on the South London feeder march. The aim was to provide a highly visible radical presence within the workers movement of which we are a part, advocating strikes, occupations and civil disobedience.

Saturday's demonstration was far bigger than anyone expected, and saw thousands go beyond a simple A-B stroll to take direct action. The UK Uncut actions on Oxford Street and in occupying Fortnum and Masons provoked harsh treatment from police, including mass arrests.

When we reached Trafalgar Square, we headed for Oxford Street for the 2pm actions to put some of these words into action (anarchist and UK Uncutter were not mutually exclusive on the day!). When we arrived, we met up with other anarchists who had had the same idea. Wary of being kettled, we chose to stay mobile, causing disruption on Oxford St and the surrounding area, including to UK Uncut targets which were closed and guarded by riot police. Subsequently, several banks, the Ritz and other buildings were damaged or hit by paint bombs. There were some minor scuffles with police. There is a valid debate to be had over tactics - which ones further the anti-cuts movement or are counter-productive - and many of us would favour mass direct action over property destruction. Let's have that debate within the anti-cuts struggle, and not let the media divide us.

But think about it from the store owners' point of view: a broken window may cost £1,000. A lost Saturday's trade through a peaceful occupation would cost many times more. Perhaps this helps explain the harsh police response to the UK Uncut occupation: it hits them where it hurts, in the pocket. Traditionally, workers have used the weapon of the strike to achieve this. But what about workers with no unions, or unions unwilling to strike? What about students, the unemployed? UK Uncut actions have been very successful at involving such people in economically disruptive action – and this seems to be on the right track in terms of forcing the government to back down on its cuts agenda. More and bigger actions in this vein will be needed to stop the cuts (in France, they call these 'economic blockades'). Like those in UK Uncut, we recognise that just marching from A to B or waiting for the government to be fair is not enough. The government, rich and tax avoiders will continue to seek to make the poorest in society pay for the defecit unless we make doing so the more expensive option. As UK Uncut announced on the demonstration 29th January "If the economy disrupts our lives, then we must disrupt the economy".

The press coverage since Saturday has gone into a well-rehearsed frenzy of 'good protestor/bad protestor'. Some UK Uncutters have expressed outrage at being lumped in with the 'bad protestors', (correctly) stressing the peaceful nature of the F&M occupation. We think the whole idea of dividing 'good' and 'bad' protest serves only to legitimise police violence and repression. As we saw on Saturday, repression is not provoked by violent actions, but by effective actions – there is a long history of peaceful pickets and occupations being violently broken up by police, from the Chartists to the Miners Strike. Indeed, UK Uncut have frequently been at the blunt end of this in recent memory yourselves, with police responding to non-violent occupations with pepper spray and violent arrests.

In this light, we would say keep up the good work. Let the mass arrests strengthen your resolve not deter you. And let’s not fall into the divide-and-rule tactics that are the oldest trick in the rich’s book. If we can help or offer any practical solidarity to the arrestees, please get in touch. We’ve previously hosted legal advice and training sessions with Fitwatch and the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group – we’d be happy to do this again. Or if the arrests are causing problems with employers, we'll help arrestees organise against victimisation. On Saturday most of the arrestees were UK Uncut activists. Next time it could be us. We – those of us fighting the cuts – are all in this together.

Signed, Brighton Solidarity Federation

Plus individuals from: Northampton, North London, Manchester, Thames Valley and South London Locals (our federal democratic structure means statements can only be issued in the name of a group if the group has had the opportunity to discuss it, and time is against us!)

 

Undercover coppers spotted at London protests amongst the Black Bloc.

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/03/28 ... s-protest/

 

I lol'd
.

 

The first part of this, prior to the interview, was really interesting. I think it highlights the growing anger in the UK and the real potential for confrontation with capitalism in crisis. It makes sense that anarchism, anti-capitalism and the black bloc will see a growth as the contradictions and ill-consequences of capitalism come to the fore. Hopefully, this will bring a powerful increase in the ranks of counter-capitalist culture. I do think it is a shame that the violence has dominated the news. Not because I think it's detracting from the majority of protestors or any of that bullshit but because it receives very little in terms of intelligent analysis.

The interview was ridiculous though, The interviewer was either intentionally being awkward or is a moron. It was clear that the UK Uncut movement was non-violent and their spokesperson was simply saying that violent action was another part of the protest of which she could say very little about. Pushing her on it was stupid.