G20 protests - skinny latte riot

[The Idler]

A.A. Gill wrote of the G20 protests here (http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6035809.ece) and I wondered if it was really as bourgeois as he described?

[Pirate turtle the 11th]

Absolute bullshit he focused on the climate camp pacifists and the dinosaur "communist" parties.

[The Idler]

There was another brief mention here (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6035775.ece).
Apparently confused by what they were campaigning about, the slogan-bearing youths had congregated outside Starbucks, mocha skinny lattes in hand. As the City “fat cat” approached, they stood aside. He said: “As I walked past, I heard one of them say ‘I’ll be back in half-an-hour. I just need to go to Selfridges to get a present for my mum’.”

[Pogue]

Oh wow, a reporter form the times is mockingly reporting on the climate camp.

Oh shit, was that the same climate camp where the police later assaulted and insulted a 16 year old girl and smashed peaceful protestors with batons for no reason?
If only we were all so detached, rich and in with the comfortable right wing bigots that we could mock protestors for a while ebfore retreating back behind the pig cordon, quietly ignoring the brutality because it suits the dictatorial **** who emplys us.

Its the Times, what do we expect? Just down the road, a bunch of passionate and peaceful people were trying to avoid getting murdered by the police. One guy wasn't so lucky. Still, the Times will continue on ranting about how unintimidating us angry youth are one page, and whipping up hysteria on the next about the decadent young. Reminds you of that teacher at school who wants to be down with the kids, but also wants to mock them.

I think the times should stick to fucking reporting on cricket. Who is this A.A. Gills ****, anyway?

[Pogue]

Oh wait, shit, I remember. He's that bigoted Tory **** who was done for racism on a number of occasions in his xenophobic, arogant articles.

What a fucking mug. Look him up guys and gals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._A._Gill

So he moved on from alcoholism to racism. Wow, he sounds like an acheiver in life!

[Jack]

Shit seems like it was meant for the Daily Mail.

[skki]

Wow. What an incredibly irrelevant journalist.

[Jorge Miguel]

The article makes a couple of valid points.

This :

The look is Die-Hard-meets-emo

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/4079/punks.jpg

http://www.wsm.ie/attachments/feb2007/wsm.jpg

Ireland's own lifestylists who got an Easyjet flight to London for the day. They'll have to grow some vegan vegetables to off-set their carbon footprint.

The majority of people were quite happy when the Gardaí battered them off the streets in 2004 when they held their "Reclaim the Streets" event in Dublin. I'm not saying I supported either, but having grown men in bondage gear, etc, and sitting down in the middle of a busy street to smoke joints and cheap cider on a busy Saturday afternoon is just going to piss ordinary workers off.

Infact, it may not be a case of skinny latte revolution, more like social center individualists gone wild.

There was me thinking it was Irish Republicans who engaged in elitist activity, above and not with the masses.

[skki]

You have a quote from Mugabe in your sig.

Your opinions are irrelevant.

[Jorge Miguel]

You have a quote from Mugabe in your sig.

Your opinions are irrelevant.
So irrelevent that you replied with an inclination to derail the topic. My post is related to the discussion.

[skki]

So irrelevent that you replied with an inclination to derail the topic. My post is related to the discussion.
I had no inclination besides a desire to tell you how irrelevant your political opinions are.

You aren't a mind-reader, son. You aren't perceptive or intelligent either. Don't try to guess my intentions.

[Andropov]

You have a quote from Mugabe in your sig.

Your opinions are irrelevant.

Could you not stay relevant to the topic at hand?

[skki]

Could you not stay relevant to the topic at hand?
Apparently not.
Stupid topic anyway.

[bcbm]

Ireland's own lifestylists who got an Easyjet flight to London for the day. They'll have to grow some vegan vegetables to off-set their carbon footprint.

The majority of people were quite happy when the Gardaí battered them off the streets in 2004 when they held their "Reclaim the Streets" event in Dublin. I'm not saying I supported either, but having grown men in bondage gear, etc, and sitting down in the middle of a busy street to smoke joints and cheap cider on a busy Saturday afternoon is just going to piss ordinary workers off.

Infact, it may not be a case of skinny latte revolution, more like social center individualists gone wild.

There was me thinking it was Irish Republicans who engaged in elitist activity, above and not with the masses.

The left is full of douchebags on all sides, but I find the pictures of some random guy in a jumper without a mask looting a bank a lot more interesting. But you're right, since some random "emos" turned up to a protest, clearly the public isn't pissed about banks or the complete wankery the G20 represents.

[Forward Union]

There was another brief mention here (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6035775.ece).

What's wrong with starbucks? It's not the fucking 90s anymore.

[Forward Union]

http://www.wsm.ie/attachments/feb2007/wsm.jpg

Ireland's own lifestylists who got an Easyjet flight to London for the day. They'll have to grow some vegan vegetables to off-set their carbon footprint..

The WSM are quite anti-lifestylist. And those individuals could be any 20ish year old from Ireland. They don't look particularly anARKO

[Sasha]

god, its jorge miguel again with his: "i once saw an man in bondage gear 4 years ago and i still cant shut up about it because ZOMG those anarchist will scare the workers away with their deviant lifestylism and their S&M freakines"
but you know what, maybe its just your personal obsesion and the workers wont give a fuck, beause seriously, did you just dugg up one of your old threads and coppied pasted that or do you just blurt out the exact same mantra every time you get the chance?
"ZOMG!!! bondage!!! weed!!!! Cider!!!! Having a good time!!!!!"

[redflag32]

I think the point Jorge Miguel is making is that a lot of the anarchist actions are divorced from the mass movement. I made an issue over this on another thread and i pointed out the hypocracy of some anarchists and ultra-lefties who condemn Irish republicans as elitist in their actions when the fact remains that Irish Republicans have always had much more of a base within the workers than the anarchist movement does.

Just as the isolated shooting of two British soldiers is divorced from the working class so too is the riotious behaviour of anarchists every mayday. Atleast with the killing of two british soldiers republicans made a small political advantage,in that it dents the image of the normalization policy.

What does this achieve?http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/g20_04_03/g11_18502305.jpg

[ls]

Darrell gets my award for biggest wanker for posting shit from the times then defending it.

Ain't like it's that hard to work out the times is a complete piece of shit by reading the tiniest article by them, no matter if you've never read nor heard about it before.

[nuisance]

What does this achieve?http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/g20_04_03/g11_18502305.jpg

Do you even know whether he is an anarchist?

[redflag32]

He?:ohmy:

:D

Eeeem no, i don't.The big A on the cap is pushing me towards a yes though. Whats your point, that anyone who did this sort of thing that day wasnt an anarchist?

[Sam_b]

Eeeem no, i don't.The big A on the cap is pushing me towards a yes though. Whats your point, that anyone who did this sort of thing that day wasnt an anarchist?

Eeeeem no. The cap is of an American baseball team, I can't remember the name offhand. What does an anarchist, or any leftist looklike anyway? We should get off the stereotypes and into the politics, and that should be our main attack on this garbage article: we reject all this ridiculous labeling.

I'd be interested to know how the writer knew that the order was mocha skinny lattes anyway, but then again the capitalist press doesn't care about embellishing the truth in order to try and undermine any progressive movement.

[#FF0000]

A.A. Gill wrote of the G20 protests here (http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6035809.ece) and I wondered if it was really as bourgeois as he described?

You know, "bourgeois" actually means something beyond "something I don't like"

[StalinFanboy]

He?:ohmy:

:D

Eeeem no, i don't.The big A on the cap is pushing me towards a yes though. Whats your point, that anyone who did this sort of thing that day wasnt an anarchist?
Totally saw this coming. That's a sports hat. Not an anarchist hat...

[PRC-UTE]

asking if the person in the picture is an anarchist is like asking if the pope's catholic.

[Forward Union]

I am an Anarchist and I drink at starbucks sometimes, I buy normal clothes, don't wear much black and don't see the point in smashing stuff up.

But. Smashing RBS is a perfectly legitimate vent of anger, despite it's lack of strategic importance.

[The Idler]

Darrell gets my award for biggest wanker for posting shit from the times then defending it.

Ain't like it's that hard to work out the times is a complete piece of shit by reading the tiniest article by them, no matter if you've never read nor heard about it before.
You don't have to support the Times to realise its worth critically analysing the newspapers with 99% of all circulation and enjoying credibility among millions of readers daily. Even if the bias is inherent and fundamentally unreformable, at least expect newspaper accountability and accuracy.

If you want to pretend the other 1% of circulation such as The Morning Star (or any paper supportive of the protests) is read and trusted by millions then enjoy living in your increasingly marginalised ivory tower.

There was an interesting article in the Guardian about the various papers attitude towards the protests here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/06/g20-protests-london-media-coverage).

[ls]

You don't have to support the Times to realise its worth critically analysing the newspapers with 99% of all circulation and enjoying credibility among millions of readers daily. Even if the bias is inherent and fundamentally unreformable, at least expect newspaper accountability and accuracy.

Idiot, accountability and accuracy is the last thing you can expect of the times.


If you want to pretend the other 1% of circulation such as The Morning Star (or any paper supportive of the protests) is read and trusted by millions then enjoy living in your increasingly marginalised ivory tower.

Because of course what the times says is right every time and we should trust the media with all our hearts, it's trusted.


There was an interesting article in the Guardian about the various papers attitude towards the protests here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/06/g20-protests-london-media-coverage).

Not interested.

[Killfacer]

People have answered it pretty well. It's an article full of crap labels, generalisations and cliches.

Having said that, a lot of climate camp shit does my head in. It's a protest, not an opportunity to paint people's faces. I saw an interveiw with a climate camper during the protest and if that's the only image people get, then the protest loses a lot of credibilty.

[Charles Xavier]

funny how 75% of the replies are flames and don't contribute to the discussion.

Looking at the photos it shows how out of shape a lot of the kids are those. Obese or in the case of the vegans they look like they should be in treatment in a hospital for their skeleton frames.

I hope these are just selected photos for a political bias but honestly the revolutionaries in Britain look out of shape.

The article of course is complete right wing trash.

[Revy]

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/g20_04_03/g11_18502305.jpg

This is one of the most unusual pictures I have ever seen. Just all those people with cameras. :huh:

I'd like to see pictures of the protesters. Maybe it just sells more to have a picture of windows being broken and things being thrown.

[Revy]

funny how 75% of the replies are flames and don't contribute to the discussion.

Looking at the photos it shows how out of shape a lot of the kids are those. Obese or in the case of the vegans they look like they should be in treatment in a hospital for their skeleton frames.

I hope these are just selected photos for a political bias but honestly the revolutionaries in Britain look out of shape.

The article of course is complete right wing trash.

Are you serious?
Why does their appearance matter at all? Vegan? Obese? (what's with the vegan bashing? Oh wait, it's lifestylist just to be different! :laugh:)

And you have the nerve to imply that your post is somehow different from the "flames"....:rolleyes:

[Patchd]

Looking at the photos it shows how out of shape a lot of the kids are those. Obese or in the case of the vegans they look like they should be in treatment in a hospital for their skeleton frames.

So? As Stancel said, it shouldn't matter, secondly, they had the guts to go down, many knew they could/would face police brutality due to the nature of the things they were planning to do: squat the roads of the city of London etc... Also, take into account that a lot of them weren't revolutionaries, they were workers pissed off at what's happening, so they had no need to do vigorous training and instill revolutionary discipline into themselves (because that's what all revolutionaries do right?)...

EDIT: I've removed the last bit cos it was a bit unnecessary.

[Nakidana]

This topic is epic. Starts out with a shitty article and a flame because of a Mugabe signature. Then goes on to Starbucks, bondage, whether a protester and his baseball cap is anarchist or not, the definition of the word "bourgeois" and finally obese revolutionaries and their lifestyle.

All we need is a mention of Stalin and we've got it all.

[Patchd]

This topic is epic. Starts out with a shitty article and a flame because of a Mugabe signature. Then goes on to Starbucks, bondage, whether a protester and his baseball cap is anarchist or not, the definition of the word "bourgeois" and finally obese revolutionaries and their lifestyle.

All we need is a mention of Stalin and we've got it all.

Stalin was obese. :p :sleep:

[Charles Xavier]

Its Official!

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1931/stalina.jpg

[Old Man Diogenes]

I am an Anarchist and I drink at starbucks sometimes, I buy normal clothes, don't wear much black and don't see the point in smashing stuff up.

But. Smashing RBS is a perfectly legitimate vent of anger, despite it's lack of strategic importance.

I agree, smashing shit up is pointless, but smashing up banks was bound to happen given current financial issues :)

[redflag32]

A is for An Angry Anarchist

[brigadista]

A is for agent provocateur..:)

[ls]

A is for ang your fucking stupid definition of anarchists by the throat.

[PeaderO'Donnell]

The majority of people were quite happy when the Gardaí battered them off the streets in 2004 when they held their "Reclaim the Streets" event in Dublin. I'm not saying I supported either, but having grown men in bondage gear, etc, and sitting down in the middle of a busy street to smoke joints and cheap cider on a busy Saturday afternoon is just going to piss ordinary workers off.



The only two people I heard about being quiet happy that the Gardai "battered" them were a burnt out acid case in Howth who thinks that he is the head of the Klu Klux Klan in Ireland and a long haired cannibis smoking wannabe druid in Kerry involved in the basically neo-nazi Coabh na Gael. Define "ordinary workers"? Flat capped Christy Moore listening dullards?

Given however that the Communist Party of Ireland is involved in pimping the Irish proletariat to Capital through the Trade unions and issues cowardly condemnations when working class militants attack head on the British state it wouldnt surprise me that they enjoy seeing working class kids battered by the Gardai.

[brigadista]

The only two people I heard about being quiet happy that the Gardai "battered" them were a burnt out acid case in Howth who thinks that he is the head of the Klu Klux Klan in Ireland and a long haired cannibis smoking wannabe druid in Kerry involved in the basically neo-nazi Coabh na Gael. Define "ordinary workers"? Flat capped Christy Moore listening dullards?

Given however that the Communist Party of Ireland is involved in pimping the Irish proletariat to Capital through the Trade unions and issues cowardly condemnations when working class militants attack head on the British state it wouldnt surprise me that they enjoy seeing working class kids battered by the Gardai.


hey leave Christy alone!!![btw i dont wear a flat cap!!):)

[PeaderO'Donnell]

Just as the isolated shooting of two British soldiers is divorced from the working class so too is the riotious behaviour of anarchists every mayday. Atleast with the killing of two british soldiers republicans made a small political advantage,in that it dents the image of the normalization policy.

What does this achieve?http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/g20_04_03/g11_18502305.jpg
"However, the movement of the worldwide proletariat, our movement, is one, and is so whether its protagonists are aware of it or not: those who battled to enter Quito, fought the same war, whether they realized it or not, than those who broke shop windows in Seattle and those who, at this very moment, confronted the bourgeois state in Algeria. We could add to the list the landless peasants in Brazil, the deserters and revolutionary defeatists of the whole world, as well as the “anti-capitalists” or “anti-"statists” who form small groups to challenge capitalism on the barricades. "

http://gci-icg.org/english/communism14.htm#summits

As if the process of social normalization and the struggle against is not something international.

Most english Anarchist types that I have met outside of the net are empathic to the struggle against the British State in the 6 counties. The idea that middle class kids actually live in damp squats and risk arrest confronting the state is silly. Yes there maybe one or two of the middle class among them....but do the IRSP have NO middle class members? Did not Lenin and Moa come from the middle classes (which probably explains a lot)?

The attitude of some people here to the proletarian vanguard is weird and frankly reminds me of the Internationalist Communist Current's attitude to the struggle of the working class in the occupied six counties.

[Anarchia]

Ireland's own lifestylists who got an Easyjet flight to London for the day. They'll have to grow some vegan vegetables to off-set their carbon footprint.


It would help if you weren't lying, y'know. That photo was taken in February 2007 (it says it in the URL), and therefore can't be from the G20. As far as I'm aware, the WSM didn't have any presence at the G20 - from looking at their website, wsm.ie, it would seem they've been far too busy supporting calls for a national strike and supporting workplace occupations - both far more worthy things than a symbolic protest.

edit - the above refers to the 2nd photo. The first one is even older, from July 1997!

[Jorge Miguel]

The only two people I heard about being quiet happy that the Gardai "battered" them were a burnt out acid case in Howth who thinks that he is the head of the Klu Klux Klan in Ireland and a long haired cannibis smoking wannabe druid in Kerry involved in the basically neo-nazi Coabh na Gael. Define "ordinary workers"? Flat capped Christy Moore listening dullards?This is just baffling. Are you suggesting that blocking Beresford Place to listen to music and take drugs, burning out a car on O Connell Street and vandalising the James Connolly statue doesn't piss ordinary people off?


Given however that the Communist Party of Ireland is involved in pimping the Irish proletariat to Capital through the Trade unionsYeah, which is why CP members have successfully won court cases against the biggest trade union in this country for conspiring with employers to have them sacked.


they enjoy seeing working class kids battered by the Gardai.I don't speak for the CP, I speak for myself. Regardless, I have said I don't support the Gardaí ploughing into them - if you re-read what I said, you would see that.

Regardless, calling them "working class kids" is stretching it abit.


issues cowardly condemnations when working class militants attack head on the British state
Perhaps you should read a bit more about the guy whose name you take as your username. He famously once described the Provos as fascist. :rolleyes:

[Jorge Miguel]

It would help if you weren't lying, y'know. That photo was taken in February 2007 (it says it in the URL), and therefore can't be from the G20. As far as I'm aware, the WSM didn't have any presence at the G20 - from looking at their website, wsm.ie, it would seem they've been far too busy supporting calls for a national strike and supporting workplace occupations - both far more worthy things than a symbolic protest.

edit - the above refers to the 2nd photo. The first one is even older, from July 1997!I didn't claim the photos were taken in London. Read my post again. Regardless, the pictures seem to give some sort of credibility to the OPs linked article.

[Jorge Miguel]

http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/may2005/organise.jpg

For the record: here is a WSM account of the previous one - http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/wsm/news/2002/rtsMAY.html

All it's doing is blocking traffic in one of the most busy parts of Dublin on a Saturday afternoon. It is elitist, individualist and does not advance the struggle for socialism one iota. On the contrary, it is retrogressive in my opinion as ordinary people associate Anarchism with such individualist and self-absorbed, conceited ideas.

[welshboy]

What's wrong with starbucks? It's not the fucking 90s anymore.
Their coffee sucks monkey balls and they treat their workers in US, and elsewhere, like shit maybe?
What's the 90's got to do with owt anyway?

[welshboy]

Flat capped Christy Moore listening dullards?

Oi! Leave flat caps alone!!
(I don't listen to Christy Moore)

[Bilan]

asking if the person in the picture is an anarchist is like asking if the pope's catholic.

And expecting a reasonable, well founded response from you on this is like expecting the Pope to accept homosexuality as natural

[Bilan]

http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/may2005/organise.jpg

For the record: here is a WSM account of the previous one - http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/wsm/news/2002/rtsMAY.html

All it's doing is blocking traffic in one of the most busy parts of Dublin on a Saturday afternoon. It is elitist, individualist and does not advance the struggle for socialism one iota. On the contrary, it is retrogressive in my opinion as ordinary people associate Anarchism with such individualist and self-absorbed, conceited ideas.

And you showed a picture of people graffiti a statue for what purpose?
You are aware that in the Paris commune struggle of 1871, a number of militants were going to tear down the Notre Dam, right?

And you're against blocking traffic? Put your priorities in order.
As a start, perhaps stop fetishizing national heroes and order.

[YSR]

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/g20_04_03/g11_18502305.jpg

Dude, you're getting a Dell.

What exactly is the point of this topic? People who are into BDSM can't be workers? Anarchists can't be workers? People who break windows aren't working class? Look, I'm not fan of the whole smashy-smashy genre of radical politics, but regular people (read: workers) are pissed about what's going, rightfully so, and they might smash shit. Get over it.