The Grosvenor Road Squat Forum

To prepare the climate camp, 3rd to 11th of august (http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/home)

PAPER PLANE FLASH MOB AT THE DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT

Tell Ruth Kelly: Stop Airport Expansion

- Meet 11am, Thursday 3 July, Department for Transport (DfT), 76 Marsham
Street, SW1P 4DR (tube: St James¹s Park or Westminster)
- 11.03am: Reveal your ŒStop Airport Expansion¹ t-shirt if you have one
- 11.05am: launch your ŒStop Airport Expansion¹ paper planes at the DfT

A third runway and increased flights at Heathrow would destroy local
communities, cause misery for tens of thousands of local residents, and help
make devastating climate change inevitable. Yet Transport Secretary Ruth
Kelly has refused to visit local authorities or meet with local people who
will be affected.

Join us on 3 July to find Ruth Kelly and tell her to Stop Airport Expansion!
See http://t5flashmob.wordpress.com/ for more details.

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KINGSNORTH "ONGOING BLOCKADE" MEETING THIS THURSDAY (3 JULY) AFTERNOON AND
EVENING
LARC, 2pm onwards

We will meet at 2pm at LARC (the London Action Resource Centre, 62
Fieldgate Street London E1 1ES), and will continue into the evening, as we
have a lot to get sorted before the next climate camp gathering!

Please pass on to anyone who you think may be interested. For more
information email process@climatecamp.org.uk

i'm leaving (from brighton) tomorow or sunday at the latest for kingsnorth and the climate camp, hoping to see some of you lot there!
hugs
j.

Well here i am, as well as a lot of very nice people and a lot of not so nice police people!
Full reports on
indymedia.org.uk
hugs
j.

Hi, back from the climate camp, recovering from witnessing the most incredible violence from the police i'd seen for a very long time, and certainly never in britain. I was there as an action medic so i spent most of my time dealing with people injuries rather than taking part in any exciting workshops and actions, but despite the fact that the police beat people up every day, trying to get into the camp, and did all in their power to frighten people off, we still managed to do what we where there to do! Great experience, and now i'm going back to france. See you people on some other occasion, may be...


Some videos from the camp:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/node/442

hi Jov, thanks for the news and updates re actions following on from the Climate Camp

recent changes in the law may have given the police more power, and probably revived their self-confidence, as seen in the use of the Terrorism Act against anti-vivisectionists, heavy handed crowd control of unauthorised marches in Central London, and prevention of demos in the vicinity of meetings of the G8

tho it probably goes back to the 80s, to police 'victories' at the 'Battle of Orgreave' (1984, against picketing miners), the 'Battle of the Beanfield' (1985, against the Convoy), and the 'Battle of Wapping' (1986, against striking print workers) -- all of these police actions were highly coordinated and had an overtly political dimension...

... unlike the police actions at Grosvenor Square (1968, anti-Vietnam War protestors outside the US Embassy), 144 Piccadilly (1969, evicting sqautters), and the 1974 Windsor Free Fesival, where the authorities seem to have been caught unprepared, with police responding to events as they happened, rather than having pre-prepared plans of action which would have been rehearsed in training and simulations

ah, it's all part of the price we pay (literally) for having a more professional police force lol

interestingly, well remembered examples of the British police completely losing control of the local situation, such as the Brixton & Toxteth Riots (1981), the 'Stop The City' demos (1983-4, the City of London), and the Poll Tax Riot (1990, Trafalgar Square) were all relatively spontaneous eruptions, with anarchists well to the fore, rather than people having a specific political aim

tho the real fun protests were surely the 'Reclaim The Streets' parties, bringing together anti-road and pro-rave activisits during the 90s, one of the best known being the occupation of the M41 motorway in West London for several hours in 1996, when dancers, musicians and street performers held sway as sound systems played throughout the afternoon and on into the night

PS there's a Flash Mob Clubbers group on Facebook:)

Weed wrote: recent changes in the law may have given the police more power, and probably revived their self-confidence, as seen in the use of the Terrorism Act against anti-vivisectionists, heavy handed crowd control of unauthorised marches in Central London, and prevention of demos in the vicinity of meetings of the G8

Well, it was the people at the camp themselves, and my fellow medics (all quite used to this kind of "events") who said they were unuasually violent, possibly because nobody was watching. During the day of action when there was a lot of locals and media around, they were not so brutal. I still don't like much having main stream media about, though, i'll have to live with that contradiction!

.. unlike the police actions at Grosvenor Square (1968, anti-Vietnam War protestors outside the US Embassy), 144 Piccadilly (1969, evicting sqautters), and the 1974 Windsor Free Fesival, where the authorities seem to have been caught unprepared, with police responding to events as they happened, rather than having pre-prepared plans of action which would have been rehearsed in training and simulations

Yes we were at windsor, and manage to get away on pushbikes! This wouldn't happen these days!

interestingly, well remembered examples of the British police completely losing control of the local situation, such as the Brixton & Toxteth Riots (1981), the 'Stop The City' demos (1983-4, the City of London), and the Poll Tax Riot (1990, Trafalgar Square) were all relatively spontaneous eruptions, with anarchists well to the fore, rather than people having a specific political aim

How about 1999 carnival which effectively stopped the city, well prepared if i'm well informed!

tho the real fun protests were surely the 'Reclaim The Streets' parties, bringing together anti-road and pro-rave activisits during the 90s, one of the best known being the occupation of the M41 motorway in West London for several hours in 1996, when dancers, musicians and street performers held sway as sound systems played throughout the afternoon and on into the night

Yes i've seen films, one of a demo on a motorway with big ladies being pushed along, and "somehow" the road being dug after (or rather under" them!

...they were unuasually violent, possibly because nobody was watching...

shades of that iconic scene in Haskell Wexler's 1969 cinema verite film "Medium Cool", when the NBC mobile studio arrives and attempts to film the face-off outside the 1968 Democratic Party Convention between the Chicago Police (supported by the Illinois National Guard) and the demonstrators, who start chanting, "the whole world is watching"

Joviale wrote:How about 1999 carnival which effectively stopped the city, well prepared if i'm well informed!

yes, another big one... 'The Carnival of Resistance' -- this was an anti-G8 protest, held in London as part of the international actions against the 25th G8 Summit taking place in Germany -- various groups and individuals were involved, but i think 'Reclaim The Streets' had a lot to do with it, so there was more of a 'party' atmosphere, which probably accounts for the fact that although the carnival was publicly discussed well in advance, there was less police violence than might have been expected... even so there were over 40 people hospitalised

reports, photos and vids at http://www.urban75.org/j18/j18_vid.html

(Reclaim the Streets parties started in 1996 and have gone on worldwide ever since)