Sat26Mar - LONDON - TUC anti-cuts march & rally

EmilyLChurch · Post by **EmilyLChurch** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:14 pm

Don't know if anyone is going to be there for this protest but I will be handing out flyers re: 9/11 truth. Would be good if there were more truthers there.

Disco_Destroyer · Post by **Disco_Destroyer** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:40 pm

Be careful! I maybe along!

Untested 'kettling' awaits UK marchers
Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:10PM

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171088.html
British police are planning to use a new untested kettling tactic in a bid to control the crowd in upcoming Trades Union Congress (TUC) massive anti-cuts protests.

The TUC protest rallies scheduled for March 26 are expected to attract over 100,000 people from across the UK including trade unionists, public servants, teachers, doctors, students, activists against tax dodging and even off-duty police officers.

Chairman of Police Federation Ian McKeever has warned that many police officers who are assigned to patrol the protest marches are feeling a lot of sympathy with protesters as they are faced with thousands of redundancies and £500 million in pay cuts.

The Metropolitan Police were heavily criticized during last year's student protests, when they kettled thousands of students as young as 11 for several hours, even preventing them from using toilets.

A London top cop says the Met are considering using a new kettling tactic, which has never ever been tested yet.

Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens said in the Met's new technique, officers answer to a "containment manager" who chooses choke points for kettling demonstrators.

Police haven't had a chance to try it out at other protests as the events had remained largely peaceful, she said.

The police said they were expecting a peaceful protest on Saturday but were planning for "a whole range of eventualities.”

“The broader public expects us to be in a position to respond robustly to protect the safety of other people who might choose to be in London on that day and to protect our iconic sites,” added the Assistant Commissioner.

“We see some early intelligence that some troublemakers, for want of a better word, may be seeking to disrupt the march," she said.

Owens told MPs earlier this month that kettling at past demonstrations had gone on longer than necessary and the force was trying to speed up the process, but would also ship in portable toilets and drinking water for those detained.

Post by **fish5133** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:57 am

If the police kick off against the protestors (rebel freedom fighters) do you think we can call in air strikes against them and go for regime change?

Disco_Destroyer · Post by **Disco_Destroyer** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:24 pm

judging by this info no lol

The forthcoming march of the TUC et al is set for the 26th, let us not forget that Brendan Barber, gen sec of the TUC is also in the Bank of England court of directors

Disco_Destroyer · Post by **Disco_Destroyer** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:18 pm

March26 6

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL5BQyz2EWg[/youtube]

Disco_Destroyer · Post by **Disco_Destroyer** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 1:52 pm

The Love Police Academy Kettle The Metropolitan Police

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQeJ5NU5Lms[/youtube]

conspiracy analyst · Post by **conspiracy analyst** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:15 pm

A snapshot of the 26 March demo

Paul Mason | 18:49 UK time, Saturday, 26 March 2011

1815: I've just left Trafalgar Square, where about 200 people are holding an impromptu rave, with a minuscule number of police present to notice the thick waft of sensimilia.

At Fortnum and Mason the demonstrators who took it over are trying to get out, texting me to point out the difference between themselves and the "black block". This latter, about 500 anarchists with black and red flags, systematically threw paintbombs, thunderflashes and flares, trashing a few shops and banks etc, causing mayhem around central London all day, and presumably into the night.

But the massive fact of today was a very large demo of trade unionists and their supporters. I estimate upwards of 250,000. Probably less than half a million but certainly bigger than the Poll Tax demo of 1990, which I witnessed.

The demographics were interesting. Unison - a union which has a reputation in the trade union movement for passivity - had mobilised very large numbers of council workers, health workers and others: many from Scotland and Wales; many from the north of England. Unite likewise, and the PCS seemed capable of mobilising very large numbers.

What this means, to be absolutely clear, is people who have never been on a demo in their lives and in no way count themselves to be political.

I also saw many small self-selected groups not mobilised by unions: family groups, school groups, speech therapy groups.

My guess is that though this is the "labour movement", a number of those marching would have voted Libdem also.

The sheer size and social depth of the demo is what all political strategists will now have to sit down and think about. I'm still thinking about it myself, but recording its size is important: the anti-war demo was bigger - maybe 1m plus - but this was certainly the biggest and most representative demo for 25 years.

At the rally Ed Miliband was heckled by a few, when he said he supported some of the cuts that are coming: Mark Serwotka, the PCS leader, not only called for no cuts at all but fired the crowd up with a call for co-ordinated strike action.

I got a sense that the labour and trade union movement slightly stunned itself with its ability mobilise so many people on the streets. That with Ed Miliband they now have a leader who they don't hate, but in turn Mr Miliband faces a challenge of what to do about this movement.

I picked up a bit of scepticism about him from the protesters; meanwhile his handlers will be pondering the problem of how "associated" he wants to be with the biggest labour protest for 20 years, because most people on the demo would be a little way to the left of the ideas Mr Miliband claims to espouse.

The big takeaway from today is that the trade union movement - though dominated by the public sector - is certainly a force to be reckoned with: what it chooses to do now will be interesting because Miliband's strategists certainly want nothing to do with the mass, co-ordinated strike movement advocated by Serwotka, Len McCluskey etc.

We tend to forget, because we obsess about political parties, that in organisational terms the unions are much bigger than the Labour Party itself. Indeed the Labour Party branch banners I saw were often carried by a few, oldish, colourfully dressed people, whereas unionists tended to be younger and very "branded" by their professions or unions, as with the Unison Filipino Nurses, the FBU etc.

Another note: we tend to think of the public sector unions as white collar or from the service industries but this was not true of today: there were many tens of thousands of manual workers in their bibs, hi-vis uniforms etc. I met binmen from Southhampton furious that they pay is being cut; and of course the Firefighters, designated "stewards" in order to deter the anarchists from coming anywhere near the demo.

At present the sporadic violence around Piccadilly is dominating the headlines. The three groups are getting coverage in inverse proportion to their importance: the anarchists with their thunderflash thowing (I've been close to this stuff all day and it is, though dangerous, fairly ritualistic); the UKUncut groups (a couple of thousand) which have managed to shut down many branches of Vodafone, Boots, various banks and Top Shop with largely nonviolent direct action; and 300,000 people who demonstrated completely peacefully, enduring for many four to five hours of marching and standing.

This passive but fairly angry mass are the people that pose the biggest political problem both for the government and the opposition; because when you can mobilise more or less your entire workplace - be it a special school, a speech therapy centr, a refuse depot, an engineering shop or a fire station - to go on a march, then "something is up".

I should add that, from what I saw, the policing was up until nightfall deliberately restrained. No kettling attempts, no baton charges even when attacked with missiles, few arrests and injuries. This must have been a high-level decision - though of course each contingent of anarchists is followed by forward intelligence teams with cameras and notebooks: for several hours a large group of masked anarchists were allowed to march around, smashing various storefronts.

It now seems like this is changing, and escalating, from the live coverage by my News Channel colleagues, which shows the Fortum & Mason invaders being arrested. But I am now off the demo and watching it on TV.

More follows, including on Newsnight, Monday

Post by **TonyGosling** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:34 pm

I'm appaled that absolutely no British media, not even Indymedia or the so-called left-wing Guardian carried any of yesterday's Hyde Park speeches on the air or on their websites. It's been left to the SWP to put them on the internet.......
I wonder why?
Have a listen to this....
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ns_aksx1Cc[/youtube]

Here are the other speeches
http://www.youtube.com/user/swpTvUk#g/a

Post by **TonyGosling** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 1:33 am

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deywHaNGLI0[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deywHaNGLI0

insidejob · Post by **insidejob** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:26 am

I was on the march saw the black bloc on Piccadilly. They were well-drilled and appeared intent on vandalism. The black bloc were dressed in black and with black handkerchiefs covering their faces. I, though, did not see them carry out any vandalism. They were never part of the march. They mingled with anarchists with a red and black flag at Piccadilly in Albany Courtyard. The police had blocked access to and from Piccadilly at other junctions. The police left Albany Courtyard open and Anarchists and the black bloc were allowed on to Piccadilly. The black bloc went through the march and on to Duke Street, St James. The police took no action.

I had walked past Fortnum and Masons and saw some protesters who were on the 1st floor. A line of police officers was in front of the department store. I also saw that a Ritz window had paint thrown at it. Later, I saw that the news said that the store occupiers were UK Uncut.

I must stress that the black bloc had not been part of the march. They had not marched from Victoria Embankment with the rest of us. I did see a UK uncut group on the Strand much earlier.

What concerned also me was the very few black and Asian people on the march. They were few and far between. Black people are very aware that they will lose their public sector jobs during the cuts. Was it that the TUC did not mobilise black people? Do black people think that the labour movement is not for them? Of are black people keeping their heads down?

ian neal · Post by **ian neal** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:16 pm

I'm old enough to recall the stop the city demos in the 1980s. Months of planning and tedious meetings trying to reach agreement on 'the message' of stop the city and then in the eyes of the media the whole event was dominated by isolated but pre-planned 'anarchist rioting' thanks to classwar and their ilk. I've always been highly suspicious of class war ever since. Useful idiots, state stooges or mixture of both. It doesn't really matter what the reality is, the result is the same.

xmasdale · Post by **xmasdale** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:15 pm

EmilyLChurch wrote:Don't know if anyone is going to be there for this protest but I will be handing out flyers re: 9/11 truth. Would be good if there were more truthers there.

Hi Emily

I was there handing out leaflets re 9/11 truth. Didn't see you, to my knowledge, but then I don't think we've met.

Noel

9/11, 7/7, Covid-1984 & the War on Freedom

Sat26Mar - LONDON - TUC anti-cuts march & rally

Sat26Mar - LONDON - TUC anti-cuts march & rally

black bloc?

Re: Sat26Mar - LONDON - TUC anti-cuts march & rally