Magdalen
17th January 2009, 20:54
After today's march for Gaza in Dundee, which was very militant and attended by at least 500 people, RCG comrades set up a street stall in Dundee town centre. Not long after the stall was erected, one of the city council's 'Street Ambassadors' approached the stall, requesting that it be dismantled, or he would call the police. He claimed that '£50 million public liability insurance' was needed to run the stall. This has happened on several occasions before with no action being taken, and the comrades decided to ignore the ambassador and continued to run the stall. About 10 minutes later, the ambassador returned with one of his colleagues and two police officers. The police made threats to charge comrades with 'breach of the peace' and 'causing alarm', but eventually left without making any attempts to remove the stall.
Roughly an hour later, a police van wound its way down the pedestrianised street. It stopped beside the stall, and the same two policemen got out. The police then made threats to charge the comrades with 'obstruction'. The commotion attracted the attention of the SWP, who had a stall, unnoticed by the police 100 yards or so down the street, and ran to assist the RCG in countering the officers. A hundred or so members of the public began to gather around the stall, and an RCG member began to address the crowd. Another RCG comrade went around the crowd collecting the names and addresses of potential witnesses. Jonathan Shafi of the Glasgow SWP and STWC, who was in town to speak at the Gaza march, did a good job of leading the crowd in chants of 'Whose Streets? Our Streets!'. Many members of the crowd remarked that the action was clearly political. The policemen became agitated, and proceeded to charge the RCG member speaking under Section 53 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. One policeman then threatened to arrest the comrade if the stall wasn't dismantled.
After discussion between the RCG, the SWP and the crowd at large the decision was taken to dismantle the stall and inform the crowd that we would be back next week. After this, the officers then disappeared to deal with another 'incident'. The stall was dismantled and RCG comrades moved down the street to help defend the SWP stall. As the SWP were packing up, the police reappeared and approached the SWP comrades. The police, clearly anxious to avoid another confrontation, told the SWP to comply and take down their stall unless they also wanted to be charged. At that point, after some discussion, it was agreed to publicise the events and try to get as many people as possible with as many stalls as possible to meet in the town centre next Saturday to confront the ambassadors and the police.
I'll keep you all posted.
Roughly an hour later, a police van wound its way down the pedestrianised street. It stopped beside the stall, and the same two policemen got out. The police then made threats to charge the comrades with 'obstruction'. The commotion attracted the attention of the SWP, who had a stall, unnoticed by the police 100 yards or so down the street, and ran to assist the RCG in countering the officers. A hundred or so members of the public began to gather around the stall, and an RCG member began to address the crowd. Another RCG comrade went around the crowd collecting the names and addresses of potential witnesses. Jonathan Shafi of the Glasgow SWP and STWC, who was in town to speak at the Gaza march, did a good job of leading the crowd in chants of 'Whose Streets? Our Streets!'. Many members of the crowd remarked that the action was clearly political. The policemen became agitated, and proceeded to charge the RCG member speaking under Section 53 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. One policeman then threatened to arrest the comrade if the stall wasn't dismantled.
After discussion between the RCG, the SWP and the crowd at large the decision was taken to dismantle the stall and inform the crowd that we would be back next week. After this, the officers then disappeared to deal with another 'incident'. The stall was dismantled and RCG comrades moved down the street to help defend the SWP stall. As the SWP were packing up, the police reappeared and approached the SWP comrades. The police, clearly anxious to avoid another confrontation, told the SWP to comply and take down their stall unless they also wanted to be charged. At that point, after some discussion, it was agreed to publicise the events and try to get as many people as possible with as many stalls as possible to meet in the town centre next Saturday to confront the ambassadors and the police.
I'll keep you all posted.