Police may stage street protests over cuts

[human strike]

I know there has been a lot of threads about whether the police are class enemies or workers in uniform before so I hope this won't be too repetitive and that I am actually asking an original question here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/11/police-street-protests-cuts-jobs

There's a suggestion that we should show solidarity with the police, hold a solidarity march or some such. Good idea or no?

[human strike]

Alternatively of course we could just kettle them and beat them up some.

[Quail]

I wouldn't support a solidarity march. If the police took to the streets to defend their jobs, they're fighting to remain a tool of the state. I don't think that we should support people who are actively fighting to stay in a position where they act against the working class.

[Jimmie Higgins]

No solidarity with the police, that's one group of workers who should not be allowed to do their jobs with more ease and comfort and security because the more they have those things, the less the rest of the working class has.

Do police in the UK respect picket lines and go off duty when they are assigned to make sure the picket doesn't actually stop the scabs from working? Because they don't respect union strikes in the US - in fact they shot rubber bullets at Oakland dockworkers a few years ago.

[Manic Impressive]

I'm in two minds about showing solidarity with the filth. Mainly for the reasons already stated. There is the possibility that it could soften their opinion and behaviour towards the wider protest movement, but then again that's highly unlikely the next week they'd be back shields up and truncheons coming down on peoples heads.

[human strike]

When the police swap sides I believe it is called a revolution.

Admittedly it would make life a lot easier if police think twice before bludgeoning us into hospital next time. You know it would be pretty damn poetic if we did show solidarity. One of the main chants all the way through this movement has been "your job's next".

[graymouser]

"The worker who becomes a policeman in the service of the capitalist state, is a bourgeois cop, not a worker." - Leon Trotsky, Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It.

Honestly, all things considered, the cops should be targeted by cuts. They showed their reactionary fervor all too readily in the last months. Fuck them.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Can we get the students to police it?

[Chicano Shamrock]

I know this is in the UK but this is one rally I wish the Westboro Family Church would protest. Fuck solidarity with them. They wouldn't do the same for any other union.

[Sasha]

didnt ClassWar picket the last UK police strike demonstration and the riotpolice had to show up for work to shield the classwar lads from their collegues? :lol:

[human strike]

What about the notion that we can effectively hijack this? By going out in support of police against cuts we raise the wider issue of public spending cuts generally. We turn their specific protest into a wider one (even if albeit we aren't opposed to police cuts or in favour of the police as an institution).

[PilesOfDeadNazis]

It's funny that the cops are now trying the do the very thing they beat other workers for doing. They are protesting to get better pay for a job which requires them to violently oppress the working class. As has already been said: Fuck them.

[gorillafuck]

Can we get the students to police it?
Or maybe people that aren't necessarily students, because what the hell is up with the British left and talking about students?

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

^^^Because they have re-invigorated the anti-cuts movement, and shown the Trade Unions how to fight.

And, it was meant to be a joke.:rolleyes:

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It's a tough one, in terms of our tactics.

Quite clearly, there should be no 'solidarity' with these people who enthusiastically beat and repress other workers in their jobs.

However, tactically, a police protest could make our movement. It seems we have a few options:

Do nothing,
Work behind the scenes to try and engineer a police strike (I don't know if the left will have any clout to be able to do this?!),
Hit the streets in support of the protest,
Hit the streets against the protest,
Hit the streets and 'police' the protest,
Hit the streets and hijack the protest for other means - i.e. turn it into a wider cuts protest and essentially, fuck the police.

The last two options seem to be ones which we might pursue. Police their own protest and demoralise them, then perhaps turn it into a left-led protest.

Also, is there the possibility of a police strike and then protests during any possible strike period? That would seem sensible, if a police striker were to occur.

[Magón]

What the hell? Has the world taken a complete 180 while I was asleep? If cops are marching for "rights", does that mean all of us are now the ones to barricade them and funnel them through different places to beat on them with batons and stuff? If so, where do I sign up!

[Across The Street]

The question we need to ask police, which will be difficult for me, since I've had maybe one or two pleasant interactions with the law involving an actual civil discussion; will you defend your community and its' people in the event of martial law?


If the answer is no from any of them, start taking names and kicking ass.

For now, it still stands that the police are our class enemies, regardless of which class they initially come from.

I'm guessing the reason you've considered getting behind this protest is as you've stated that once the police switch sides, revolutions occur, but I wouldn't want half of those rapist scumbags on my side to begin with.

[Ocean Seal]

We should go on strike, not for the solidarity, but because its a field day :laugh:.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

This is when we start marching around with our banners saying "We told you so" while looking smug.

[Across The Street]

Also, for those of us in the US, this needs to be put in perspective.

The pigs ain't facing any shortage of funds over here.

[Ravachol]

The police is a class enemy, their function is the be the armed wing of the state and as such their sole 'work' is disciplinary, it consists of streamlining class society. They deserve no support, whatsoever.

The only sense in which one could sensibly support a police strike is in the sense that it means there are less active cops which means less material opposition. The permanent strike, desertion, is the only strike by cops that makes any sense.