Report from London Indymedia Hundreds of thousands of people marched through central London today. The demonstrators protested against government austerity measures which force the bulk of the population, and especially public sector workers, to pay for the economic crisis which erupted out of the banking sector two years ago.
Most of the demonstrators - trade unionists, families, and people against the austerity measures - took part in the officially-sanctioned TUC demonstration. In addition, many groups signaled their willingness to do more than march, with protest actions being called for by multiple groups. Fast-moving direct action groups moved through London's West End, the high-class shopping district. They spent some time smashing in windows and doing non-violent sit-ins at corporate targets which have been identified as tax-dodgers or in some way responsible for the economic crisis.
8:30pm update: Things are winding down. Several hundred people are still partying in Oxford Circus, Picadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square, as police look on. The UkUncut demonstrators who have been occupying the Fortnum and Mason department store since this afternoon have been surrounded by police, arrested, and shipped off in a coach. About 150 people are currently setting up to camp out in Hyde Park.
More details and lots of images on London Indymedia
Comments
Critique of March 26th Rally by Ciaron O'Reilly
BY CIARON O'REILLY, GIUSEPPE CONLON HOUSE, LONDON CATHOLIC WORKER.
How can you incite people to resist the exploitative war making state, when you haven't looked after the ones who you incited last time and are presently being tortured and facing possible execution or a probable life time in jail??????? Good fkn question, I reckon?
End the War! Free Julian Assange and Bradley Manning! Cut the Crap! MilibRand really?? As we say in OZ, "Labor Party, same shit different flies!"
London Catholic Workers and friends will be on the streets of London today, reaching out for solidarity with Bradley Manning. Bradley was 14 and living with his mother in Wales when you lot marched in such numbers last time Feb '03,
I was ensconsed in Limerick Prison at the time... but I got the live feed into my cell..and there looked like a lot of you. Lead up the right channels by the Labour Party (who were simultaneously running the war and the peace movement....ya got have a certain admiration for the gall of that!) serviced by their Trot water carriers into an ineffective opposition to the war. You were happy to be treated like a herd shuffled out to make a morally superior statement and ushered home in time for "Match of the Day".
The people who took you seriously and moved from passive protest..."We'll let you have your protest, if you let us have our war!" is the dance in which the state (Labour or Con Dem) calls the tune. ...into nonviolent resistance to the war, ended up before the courts and jailed with minimal acknowlegement and no support from your anti-war organisations. Of course, they put out their press releases desperate for association after the acquittals of the Pit Stop Ploughshares 5, Raytheon 9, B52 lads and lasses at Fairford and EDO 9.........but "they only sing when they're winning".
...and offered no real pre-trial or prison support.
They will see today as they say the 2003 war - a great marketing opportunity for their left sects, cottage industry careers runnning the moderate organisations - the first line of policing for the state against any real movement from below - or their huge global corporations (can you hear me Amensty and Greenpeace?).
I did the rounds with the Manning solidarity flyer of some of their offices this past week. They don't give a fuck about Manning presently being tortured in Quantico for a war they incited a 14 year old to resist! Their paid movement bureaucrats are for the most part timid and scared, couldn't believe I had invaded their space by ringing a bell or knocking on their door. Pretty unfriendly bunch, with minimal social or hospitality skills... if they're scared of me, could you imagine them at a police station with 3 demons (aboriginal slang for plainclothes detectives) screaming in their ear.
They are scared of us for the same reason the Guardian public shool liberals are terrified of Assange....they see themselves as the high priests of access and people like us self-evidently don't need their elitest skills...we pull the rug from under them as we get on with our day, self activity and direct democracy.
Are you really going to stand there today and be treated like an extra on MilibRand's set? Is your memory that short? Are your desires that limited? Bring a soapbox and start up a debate in the middle or the edge of the crowd. (do it without a soapbox. it's like skateboarding - you may fall off but ya'll get better at it... get folks talking to each other, rather than listening to Ed and whoever else has been cleared as safe to "speak to the masses" (Caroline Lucas from the Green Party has been banned from the platform... so you don't have to be too rad to be beyond the pale with these folks!)
Q. WHY IS ISN'T THERE MUCH RESISTANCE TO THE WAR OR THE CUTS???
A. BECAUSE THERE'S NOT MUCH SOLIDARITY!
IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!!!
I truly believe if 1% of the people who marched against this war in '03 had gone into nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Gandhi, MLK and the "Seeds of Hope Ploughshares" women and the other 99% didn't just retreat home but were engaged in proactive solidarity with the nonviolent resistance, we could have (WE STILL CAN DO) stopped this war. That would have meant 20,000 anti-war resisters in jail (radicalising the jails for a start) and the rest of the 2 million feeding the cat, dealing with the hysterical parents (see the Pink Floyd kid), and what else needs to be doing for the prisoner.
To cut a long story short. IF YA SERIOUS (ARE YOU SERIOUS?)
AND YA NOT DOING RESISTANCE,
YA NEED TO BE DOING PROACTIVE SOLIDARITY!
I've spent 2 years in jail for primariily nonviolent anti-war resistance also some for free speech, (I'm from Queensland in the '70's, ya really couldn't avoid it, and solidarity with aboriginal Australian and East Timorese struggles). I'm presently not before the courts or jailed, that's why I'm doing proactive sollidarity for Manning and Assange!
SO MANNING AND ASSANGE ARE THE TWO LADS LOOKING AT A LIFE TIME IN JAIL FOR RESISTING THE WAR OF OUR GENERATION.
War sucks up lives (3 members of the "Royal Irish Regiment" were killed in Afghanistan this past week along along with uncounted Afghanis, 10% of the Brit prison population are military veterans, more U.S. Vietnam and Falklands veterans commited suicide then were killed in those wars, not to speak of the homicide and domestic violence carried post traumatic stresses out by vets who we dehumansised in basic training, sent to kill and be killed and have abandoned on their return).
War costs billions that could be going to useful stuff like hospitals, schools, public transport. Again, it's not rocket science!
You can bet every member of the U.S., Australian, British and Kiwi military who is aware of the Manning case and is considering their own resistance or non-cooperation is NOW looking closely at how much solidarity Manning is receiving from our movement that called upon him to resist.
IT'S PRETTY FKN MINIMAL AT THE MOMENT.
I'LL BE ON THE STREETS TODAY...I LOOK AND WILL BE DRESSED LIKE THIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_QcSBGj_-8
...IF YA WANT TO HELP BRAD MANNING AND STOP THIS WAR, APPROACH ME FOR A CHAT. Take a break from listenin to Miliband, let ya hair down and let ya curiousity get the better of ya.
We will also have a crew in Cardiff for Bradley Manning outside the Wales V England match. Manning is Welsh/American! We gonna be telling Welsh football fans that the F.B.I. has been to Bradley's mother's small Welsh village hassling his mother (who had suffered a couple of strokes just prior to their arrival.) We're counting on Welsh football fans not being too pleased with this state of affairs and embracing Bradley as the Welsh hero that he is (are you listening Craig Bellamy?)
We will be passively (not forcing them on folks who are going to discard them) distributing these flyers....we ran off 5,000 for 80 quid, not a bad deal... but if ya wanna make a donation towards that, it will be gratefully accepted.
One side of the flyer shows you how to support Bradley Manning wherever you are in the world. The other side is for our April 17 gig in Harringay with Gareth Peirce, musicians and speakers from the countries in this mess: Iraq, Afghanistan, Britain, U.S. Australia, New Zealand.
This is our flyer for Brad Manning.....
Flyer Side 1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vertigogen/5534779826/
Flyer Side 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vertigogen/5534780720/
Above flyer can be downloaded
from there in various sizes:
Open picture, click 'actions' above picture, then 'view all sizes' to
download size of choice.
Some of us will be wearing hi-visual yellow smocks with "Bradley Manning Solodarity".
Here's a song for Brad...take it away "Lovers Electric"...thanx RadFax
F5 2011 YOUTUBE (3 mins 48 secs) - "Lovers Electric" perform a song for Bradley Manning at Giuseppe Conlon House" London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqDmxPd30UQ
Brad's in jail accused of releasing this footage, they want to put Julian inside for circulating it!
http://www.collateralmurder.com/
BRADLEY MANNING IS IN JAIL BEING TORTURED FOR US,
WE'RE ON THE LOOSE, SPEAKING OUT AND ACTING UP FOR HIM!!!!
Ciaron O'Reilly
Blog http://ciaron.wordpress.com/
World Socialist Web critieque of TUC rally
Reject TUC’s phoney war
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (UK)
26 March 2011
Today’s demonstration was billed by Trades Union Congress head Brendan Barber as the start of a fight-back against the coalition government’s austerity measures. This is a fraud. The TUC will not lift a finger to oppose the most severe cuts in jobs and social services since the 1930s.
Barber has said that until now the TUC had been involved in a “phoney war”, with the unions deliberately delaying action because “It was important for the cuts to be real”. Now he claims the phoney war is over.
That he can speak in these terms only underscores the indifference of the entire trade union bureaucracy to the appalling situation facing workers and youth.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/tucs-m26.shtml