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View Full Version : A few questions for UAF...



The Ungovernable Farce
14th August 2009, 18:14
You've declared that you intend to "kettle" the BNP tomorrow. Leaving aside the question of why you see the Metropolitan Police as a good example to emulate, I'd like to know:

1) Do you actually think it's likely that the police will allow you to physically kettle the site, especially bearing in mind that they've announced "the people attending Red, White and Blue have a right to do so in peace and safety" (link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/8201022.stm))?

2) If you agree that the police won't willingly allow you to block the exits from RWB, do you intend to try and break through their lines? How likely do you think you are to succeed in this?

3) If you don't intend or expect to break through the police lines, and agree that the cops won't allow you to kettle the BNP, why have you called on people to do something that you know isn't going to happen? Isn't this both fundamentally dishonest and tactically unwise, since it's setting yourself up to fail, so when the festival remains unkettled, the fash can have a good laugh about how the reds can't even live up to our own rhetoric?

4) If you do actually manage to block the exits from the site, how long do you plan to stay there for? Surely, to cause serious inconvenience to people at a weekend-long festival, you'll need to carry on blocking the exits until people are leaving on Sunday night? Trapping people in a space where they want to be anyway does nothing to bother them, so if you only surround it when people aren't planning on leaving then you're not really affecting it in any way.

5) Seriously, wtf?

Pogue
14th August 2009, 18:17
I'm not in UAF nor am I supportive of their tactics but I'll be attending this demonstration to show solidarity with the local community (notts Against the BNP) and generally see how it goes and draw any conclusions I can from ti inr egards to the future of anti-fascism in the UK. I don't think the kettle idea is a good one, we will be spread too thin and i think it wont work, but i'll let you know how it goes from my perspective.

bellyscratch
14th August 2009, 18:20
I suppose I am technically UAF, but I don't agree with the stuff about 'kettling', or a lot of their tactics, so I'm probably not the best person to stick up for them. :lol:

I think I'm more or less on the same page as Pogue. Just see how it goes and see if we can cause any disruption...

Pogue
14th August 2009, 20:54
probably a shite time to ask people about it and all seeing as most of us are leaving really early tommorow morning so no ones gonna be up for getting stuck into this debate. i'll have it out on the coach for you.

OneNamedNameLess
14th August 2009, 21:28
Good luck to everyone who is attending the counter demos this weekend. Stay safe.

Sam_b
14th August 2009, 22:49
Getting the Glasgow bus in two hours.

This is the most important antifascism demo in the last ten years and will make or break the UAF as a tactical force. To be honest if it breaks them its no real loss, got the ol' face mask with me just in case.

On the point of these questions - have you asked them to any UAF member or representative, or are you merely posturing?

Pogue
14th August 2009, 23:09
Getting the Glasgow bus in two hours.

This is the most important antifascism demo in the last ten years and will make or break the UAF as a tactical force. To be honest if it breaks them its no real loss, got the ol' face mask with me just in case.

On the point of these questions - have you asked them to any UAF member or representative, or are you merely posturing?

sleeping on the coach sam? i wish i could have that luxury. i am sure i can find a nice trot to have an argument about kronstadt with though.

to paraphrase tony benn...."when we left london we were a trotskyist coach...by the time we reached derbyshire we were an anarchist coach"

Atrus
15th August 2009, 00:30
I was talking to an organiser from another anti-fash group who are going down, dead against the idea of kettling, who was telling me that 1)Even if 3000 or so go there, given the size of the area they wouldn't even surround it with a one person thick line 2)The police are stopping coaches of people getting in 3) They're breaking up the crowd.

Frankly, I think HOPE Not Hate's protest in the town centre will be more effective than UAF's, although that's saying very little.

Melbourne Lefty
22nd August 2009, 08:17
Kettling didnt really work, but the size of the demo was up which is a good thing.