The Feral Underclass
9th July 2005, 12:39
Friday 1st to Monday 4th
I'm not going to go into a deep analysis of what went on at the G8 or at the Eco-village but so that people can understand generally what happened, I can share some of my experiences and name some of the problems I thought contributed to what was largely a successful event.
The Make Poverty History march was, quite frankly, a farce. The march was headed by a Roman Catholic Cardinal. The largest radical organisation there was CWI with many Scottish Socialist Youth selling their papers and giving out literature. The Anarchist Federation had a stall at the beginning of the event and was continually harassed by the Police who would circle the stall and ask impertinent questions.
There was a very small anarchist presence. There were several IWW members and other individual anarchist communists but our flags paled into insignificance next to the 'Christian Aid banners.' It wasn't the day for anarchism and in the end, although we joined the march, we decided it had been a waste of time. Black Bloc did attend the march. There were about 100 of them, but they were ketteled by the police before they could do anything and detained for 4 hours. The march went on with all the Christians and liberal Trade Unions with our chants of 'Make Religion History' going largely un-noticed.
The Eco- Village was a large old land fill site underneath the Wallace Monument. The organisation into logistics was quite remarkable with working groups being organised and co-ordinated to take on different tasks. The site operated using consensus, so although meetings could often be many and long, the unity and debate it created was inspirational and simply reinforces my belief that anarchism does and can work.
Each area was broken down into "Barrios" which is a nostalgic reference to the uprising in Argentina. Rather pretentious I thought, but nevertheless, each area or affinity group tended to have their area. The Barrio's had their own kitchens and entertainment and the administration of the barrio and site was done through meetings daily. These meetings would then see a delegate elected to attend the Site wide Spokes council meeting who would then come back and feed the information to their area, in this way we could get a consensus.
On larger issues such as site defence, open blockades and of course with the situation we found ourselves in after Wednesday, there would be open site wide meetings. The idea of consensus for me is not the best way to get things done and I saw meetings sometimes become hard to manage and energy dissipate because of their length, that's not to say that the buzz and vibe in the meetings was not there. They brought and connected people and I think it generally worked well.
On Monday, the Carnival for Full enjoyment, as most probably saw from the papers [I only saw the Scottish ones] that it caused violence and ended with a large contingency of that demonstration ketteled into Princes Street park for 3 hours.
I hold no illusions about Black Bloc, they are what they are and they have no shame in showing it. I have enormous respect for the insurrectionary anarchists who refused to bow down to the fluffy pacifist autocracy that managed to rear its leadership in the last days of the event. I want to make that clear because I want to make it clear I fully support the tactics they used at this event
The police began the day by trying to assert their authority and had no intention in allowing our demonstration to happen the way we wanted. The police split the march in half from the beginning. The first half was allowed to proceed after they passed a certain point the police lined the street and allowed the second half of the march to continue. This was the half I was in. Once we had got round where the other half had gone, the police formed a stronger line; Black Bloc had come to the carnival solely to confront the police. They had organised and were ready. This is what they did. At this point the line of police drew their batons and as we [of course not everyone] charged the line they began to smack out. Although the Bloc had prepared some defences they were not enough to stop people from getting seriously injured. I didn't get hit, but my friend did and there were several people taken away to hospital, including a police man.
I would like to point out now, that the police had began the day by arresting all the people in the Dissent Organised medics van and targeted the medics at the march. They would see their orange medic crosses and then lifted them out of the march, so that if protesters were hurt, they would have to rely on the police medics or the discretion of the police to allow the ambulances in. This meant, and led to, the police refusing treatment to protesters.
The line charged. We ran back and then charged forward, they charged forward and a stand off continued for about an hour. The police horses then came, but were scared off and refused to charge the line of protestors, and then the riot police came and formed three lines supported by vans at both ends of Princes Street. They moved forward about 5 meters at a time and met some resistance, mostly taunting.
Then, what led us to be ketteled in the park was 5 police officers attempted to lift someone from out of it, so when we saw the person trying to be arrested we ran into the park, this allowed the lines of police to move around the entrances. Although the officers got pelted with flowers the man was still arrested and carried off.
After being in the park for 3 hours we were allowed to leave without being searched or having to identify ourselves. The black Bloc at the business quarter was not so lucky. They were ketteled into a street for hours and then could only leave one by one after giving name and address.
Now, for all those people who want to jump on the fluffy liberal bourgeois **** of a band wagon about the Black Bloc, I will say this. Their tactics are not designed to create any lasting change. They do not want to convince the workers of their arguments, there whole mission at this event was to confront and irritate the police. In this, they have been extremely successful and I commend them for it.
Wednesday 6th
Tuesday was used for preparation and the day was mainly taken up by meetings in order for everyone to be co-ordinated and organised.
Wednesday I was involved in a blockade in Edinburgh, it was apart of an affinity group. It was successful and actually had a paragraph in the papers. The main blockades were on the A9 which were extremely effective. Although the main objective to shut down the G8 was not realised, many blockades by many people were able to disrupt and delay the meeting for hours.
In Edinburgh, three activists stood in the road and locked on in front of buses full of Japanese delegates and managed to delay them by 30 minutes. For three activists to do that is quite amazing. There were also blockades in Glasgow and in Actarader where thousands of police where helicoptered by Chinooks to keep relieving the police having the pull demonstrators out of fields and off the motorway where they had locked on and laid down to stop buses from getting to the meeting.
Many tactics were used, but violence was kept down, except from the police who waded into crowds batons and shields flying shouting and abusing people. The 'Black Bloc's action was not a success as far as I’m aware but some confrontation did happen.
Thursday 7th to Friday 8th
The police were very pissed off after Wednesday. We had caused allot of trouble and they were ready to kick us off the site. Meetings were quickly arranged to organise Site defence and different strategies were formed, of which I was apart.
On Wednesday night riot police turned up at the site and surrounded us. They had invoked Section 60. They claimed we were a threat to the public. At this point we feared that they would attempt to get into the camp and it was decided that we would defend ourselves. First through non-violent resistance and then Black Bloc and the other insurrectionary anarchists to defend if that had not worked.
Throughout Thursday we were not allowed to leave the camp. In an open site meeting it was discussed to attempt to resist the fact the police had detained us into the camp and refused to allow us to march. The consensus here was to have non-violent protest and although people, including me, attempt to argue that we were in the midst of state repression, the consensus ended up being that we would not violently resist the police or attempt to break through their lines.
When the news came through about the attacks in London, the fluffy brigade began calls to abandon the G8 and have a silent vigil in support of the victims. Talk about statements signed by Barrios and affinity groups would sign. The meeting became more and more dominated by pacifists and liberals and in the end a neutral statement with no substance or overt reference to the reason we were there was decided on. Fortunately our Barrio didn't put its name down on the statement.
The meeting then talked about support from Members of the Scottish Parliament to offer their support. At this point the pacifists, who won general consensus again had divided the camp into tactical divisions and made the gathering take an ideological position on violence. There was a refusal to resist the repression of the state and now they wanted MP's to support what "we" were doing, even though we had been condemned as violent thugs by some of them the night before.
The insurrectionary anarchists became increasingly marginalised and nothing materialised into anything worth while. As of Thursday the energy had gone and people began to leave the camp. There was a party in Glasgow that went very well, but because of the terrorist attacks and the pacifist invasion, the G8 defiance very quickly disappeared.
The European insurrectionary anarchists we also outraged by the moderation of apparent "radicals" because of a terrorist explosion. In stark contrast to the libcom.org statement given out, which the AF signed, these fluffists completely de-politicised themselves in order to appear consolidatory to the authorities. It was disturbing to watch.
Now it's Saturday and I’m in Stirling with comrades and we will have to see what happens next.
I'm not going to go into a deep analysis of what went on at the G8 or at the Eco-village but so that people can understand generally what happened, I can share some of my experiences and name some of the problems I thought contributed to what was largely a successful event.
The Make Poverty History march was, quite frankly, a farce. The march was headed by a Roman Catholic Cardinal. The largest radical organisation there was CWI with many Scottish Socialist Youth selling their papers and giving out literature. The Anarchist Federation had a stall at the beginning of the event and was continually harassed by the Police who would circle the stall and ask impertinent questions.
There was a very small anarchist presence. There were several IWW members and other individual anarchist communists but our flags paled into insignificance next to the 'Christian Aid banners.' It wasn't the day for anarchism and in the end, although we joined the march, we decided it had been a waste of time. Black Bloc did attend the march. There were about 100 of them, but they were ketteled by the police before they could do anything and detained for 4 hours. The march went on with all the Christians and liberal Trade Unions with our chants of 'Make Religion History' going largely un-noticed.
The Eco- Village was a large old land fill site underneath the Wallace Monument. The organisation into logistics was quite remarkable with working groups being organised and co-ordinated to take on different tasks. The site operated using consensus, so although meetings could often be many and long, the unity and debate it created was inspirational and simply reinforces my belief that anarchism does and can work.
Each area was broken down into "Barrios" which is a nostalgic reference to the uprising in Argentina. Rather pretentious I thought, but nevertheless, each area or affinity group tended to have their area. The Barrio's had their own kitchens and entertainment and the administration of the barrio and site was done through meetings daily. These meetings would then see a delegate elected to attend the Site wide Spokes council meeting who would then come back and feed the information to their area, in this way we could get a consensus.
On larger issues such as site defence, open blockades and of course with the situation we found ourselves in after Wednesday, there would be open site wide meetings. The idea of consensus for me is not the best way to get things done and I saw meetings sometimes become hard to manage and energy dissipate because of their length, that's not to say that the buzz and vibe in the meetings was not there. They brought and connected people and I think it generally worked well.
On Monday, the Carnival for Full enjoyment, as most probably saw from the papers [I only saw the Scottish ones] that it caused violence and ended with a large contingency of that demonstration ketteled into Princes Street park for 3 hours.
I hold no illusions about Black Bloc, they are what they are and they have no shame in showing it. I have enormous respect for the insurrectionary anarchists who refused to bow down to the fluffy pacifist autocracy that managed to rear its leadership in the last days of the event. I want to make that clear because I want to make it clear I fully support the tactics they used at this event
The police began the day by trying to assert their authority and had no intention in allowing our demonstration to happen the way we wanted. The police split the march in half from the beginning. The first half was allowed to proceed after they passed a certain point the police lined the street and allowed the second half of the march to continue. This was the half I was in. Once we had got round where the other half had gone, the police formed a stronger line; Black Bloc had come to the carnival solely to confront the police. They had organised and were ready. This is what they did. At this point the line of police drew their batons and as we [of course not everyone] charged the line they began to smack out. Although the Bloc had prepared some defences they were not enough to stop people from getting seriously injured. I didn't get hit, but my friend did and there were several people taken away to hospital, including a police man.
I would like to point out now, that the police had began the day by arresting all the people in the Dissent Organised medics van and targeted the medics at the march. They would see their orange medic crosses and then lifted them out of the march, so that if protesters were hurt, they would have to rely on the police medics or the discretion of the police to allow the ambulances in. This meant, and led to, the police refusing treatment to protesters.
The line charged. We ran back and then charged forward, they charged forward and a stand off continued for about an hour. The police horses then came, but were scared off and refused to charge the line of protestors, and then the riot police came and formed three lines supported by vans at both ends of Princes Street. They moved forward about 5 meters at a time and met some resistance, mostly taunting.
Then, what led us to be ketteled in the park was 5 police officers attempted to lift someone from out of it, so when we saw the person trying to be arrested we ran into the park, this allowed the lines of police to move around the entrances. Although the officers got pelted with flowers the man was still arrested and carried off.
After being in the park for 3 hours we were allowed to leave without being searched or having to identify ourselves. The black Bloc at the business quarter was not so lucky. They were ketteled into a street for hours and then could only leave one by one after giving name and address.
Now, for all those people who want to jump on the fluffy liberal bourgeois **** of a band wagon about the Black Bloc, I will say this. Their tactics are not designed to create any lasting change. They do not want to convince the workers of their arguments, there whole mission at this event was to confront and irritate the police. In this, they have been extremely successful and I commend them for it.
Wednesday 6th
Tuesday was used for preparation and the day was mainly taken up by meetings in order for everyone to be co-ordinated and organised.
Wednesday I was involved in a blockade in Edinburgh, it was apart of an affinity group. It was successful and actually had a paragraph in the papers. The main blockades were on the A9 which were extremely effective. Although the main objective to shut down the G8 was not realised, many blockades by many people were able to disrupt and delay the meeting for hours.
In Edinburgh, three activists stood in the road and locked on in front of buses full of Japanese delegates and managed to delay them by 30 minutes. For three activists to do that is quite amazing. There were also blockades in Glasgow and in Actarader where thousands of police where helicoptered by Chinooks to keep relieving the police having the pull demonstrators out of fields and off the motorway where they had locked on and laid down to stop buses from getting to the meeting.
Many tactics were used, but violence was kept down, except from the police who waded into crowds batons and shields flying shouting and abusing people. The 'Black Bloc's action was not a success as far as I’m aware but some confrontation did happen.
Thursday 7th to Friday 8th
The police were very pissed off after Wednesday. We had caused allot of trouble and they were ready to kick us off the site. Meetings were quickly arranged to organise Site defence and different strategies were formed, of which I was apart.
On Wednesday night riot police turned up at the site and surrounded us. They had invoked Section 60. They claimed we were a threat to the public. At this point we feared that they would attempt to get into the camp and it was decided that we would defend ourselves. First through non-violent resistance and then Black Bloc and the other insurrectionary anarchists to defend if that had not worked.
Throughout Thursday we were not allowed to leave the camp. In an open site meeting it was discussed to attempt to resist the fact the police had detained us into the camp and refused to allow us to march. The consensus here was to have non-violent protest and although people, including me, attempt to argue that we were in the midst of state repression, the consensus ended up being that we would not violently resist the police or attempt to break through their lines.
When the news came through about the attacks in London, the fluffy brigade began calls to abandon the G8 and have a silent vigil in support of the victims. Talk about statements signed by Barrios and affinity groups would sign. The meeting became more and more dominated by pacifists and liberals and in the end a neutral statement with no substance or overt reference to the reason we were there was decided on. Fortunately our Barrio didn't put its name down on the statement.
The meeting then talked about support from Members of the Scottish Parliament to offer their support. At this point the pacifists, who won general consensus again had divided the camp into tactical divisions and made the gathering take an ideological position on violence. There was a refusal to resist the repression of the state and now they wanted MP's to support what "we" were doing, even though we had been condemned as violent thugs by some of them the night before.
The insurrectionary anarchists became increasingly marginalised and nothing materialised into anything worth while. As of Thursday the energy had gone and people began to leave the camp. There was a party in Glasgow that went very well, but because of the terrorist attacks and the pacifist invasion, the G8 defiance very quickly disappeared.
The European insurrectionary anarchists we also outraged by the moderation of apparent "radicals" because of a terrorist explosion. In stark contrast to the libcom.org statement given out, which the AF signed, these fluffists completely de-politicised themselves in order to appear consolidatory to the authorities. It was disturbing to watch.
Now it's Saturday and I’m in Stirling with comrades and we will have to see what happens next.