Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiPolice Trying to 'Smear' Peaceful G20 Protests
LONDON - Organisers of some of the protests planned in London over the next week to coincide with the G20 summit have complained that police briefings have given the impression that demonstrations will be mounted by anarchists intent on causing trouble.
![[Thousands of demonstrators march through central London. Tens of thousands of trade unionists, environmental campaigners and anti-globalisation activists took to the streets of London to start five days of protests before the G20 summit.
(AFP/Shaun Curry)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/G20-2.jpg "G20-2.jpg")
Thousands of police will be on duty next week for the run-up to the summit on Thursday and to deal with any violence.
Events start today with a march for "jobs, justice and climate", organised by an unprecedented alliance of more than 150 unions, environment, charity, faith and development groups.
Tens of thousands from across the UK and abroad will join a rally in Hyde Park, which will hear calls for action to save jobs, support a low-carbon economy and stricter control of the finance sector.
Organisers have rejected claims that the event will be anything other than peaceful and law-abiding as "smears".
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Council (TUC), said there had never before been such a broad coalition with a clear message for world leaders.
"The old ideas of unregulated free markets do not work, and have brought the world's economy to near-collapse, failed to fight poverty and have done far too little to move to a low-carbon economy," he said.
"Of course the G20 will not solve everything in a day's work, but leaders must sign up to both boost the world economy and govern it better, and show us that they are trying to build a better world," he added.
Other protests planned over the next week include the Alternative London Summit - billed as a popular assembly or "teach-in" at the Docklands campus of the University of East London on April 1, a day before the official summit opens at the ExCeL centre nearby.
Speakers will include Tony Benn, the veteran campaigner, Ken Loach, the film director, Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London, John McDonnell Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington who has led a campaign against Heathrow expansion, and Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green party.
Camp For Climate Action, a national network of climate activists who have organised high-profile eco-action camps at Drax power station in Yorkshire in 2006, Heathrow in 2007 and Kingsnorth power station in Kent last year, is planning a 24-hour "flashcamp" in the City of London Square Mile, expecting thousands of people to converge at 12.30pm on April 1.
Campaign Against Climate Change will stage a "climate emergency ice-berg demo" outside the ExCeL centre on the afternoon of April 1, followed by an evening rally. The group says it will bring a giant ice block and is encouraging supporters to bring their own ice blocks and dress in white to highlight the rate of melting of the polar ice cap because of global warming.
The broad coalition of protestors also includes: G20 Meltdown, which is calling for G20 ministers to admit that their global dominance is the problem, not the solution to the current economic, ecological and political problems:People and Planet, a student network campaigning on world poverty, human rights and the environment, is encouraging members to protest against the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on April 1, which could include actions in London. The group is also targeting RBS's annual general meeting in Edinburgh on April 3: Rising Tide, a network of groups and individuals taking local action on climate change. Activists have dubbed April 1 "Fossil Fools Day", and are planning secret protests at fossil fuel targets around the country: Stop The War Coalition and CND, anti-war groups which have organised major protests against military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan are organising a rally at the US embassy in London on April 1, as well as a protest at the summit on April 2 at 11am, calling for troops to be withdrawn from the two countries: Youth Fight for Jobs, a campaign highlighting the lack of jobs for young people. A March for Jobs, in the tradition of the Jarrow Marchers, will be held on April 2, passing through some of the poorest boroughs in London.
34 Comments so far
Show AllI know this will strike some as awfully tame - but these days the rank and file police forces are racially diverse and employ many women. If you live in a working class neighborhood, they are the person next door. Oftentimes they agree with progressives on issues of war, the environment and the economy.
I do not think they should be shunned socially, but be included in neighborhood events and discussions. Of course when on the job they follow orders, for the most part. There is also a danger that they will report back on activities; but for the most part that doesn't matter since plans are public.
But there are margins of discretion. There is room for small subversive acts of mercy. Many successful progressive movements have included disobedience from the police and army.
I say this as someone who has been chased by horses and clubbed many times in the sixties. My spouse has been arrested recently while peacefully protesting the invasions. So I am not naive about the basic role of the police. It is just that there are not enough oligarchs to serve at the lower levels, so the police ranks are staffed with people more like us.
Joe
We all know that the corporate media will only report on the silly "anarchists" throwing stones at the police. The media loves this, the corporations love this and these silly young people are dumb enough to do their bidding and be the players in this charade. The "anarchists" will get their 30 seconds of fame and the viewers of the "news reports" won't learn a damn thing about what the real protest was all about and what the real issues are. If these kids would just stay home and play their video games, the media *might* take it upon themselves to actually tell their viewers/readers what these mass protests are all about. These "anarchists" do nothing to further the cause except to feed anti-protest views. They don't even have the balls to silently, without the media around, go about violently attacking the corporate elites in all sorts of creative ways. I'm sure we can all think of things these rug rats can do, when nobody's watching. :-)
-----------------------------------------
What Is Marxism? - a short primer on a subject the working class needs to know.
http://www.marxist.com/Theory/what_is_marxism.html
I'm amazed that a pacifistic, walk the line, lefty peacenik has the gall to intimate that anarchists have no balls. As a matter of fact, many anarchist groups have committed to and conduct direct actions, whether or not a camera is around.
I am not a child and your assertion that most anarchs are children, only shows how puerile you really are. The facts are that without anarchists willing to die fighting for you, many of the so-called rights you claim wouldn't exist. Of, do they really not teach Zinn in your skools?
Personally, I'm not going to the G20 or any other fashionable lefty protest where I'm more likely to get beaten by the so-called pacifist protesters than by the pigs. I'll sit back and watch on TV as they end up bashing the lot of you with truncheons and keep doing what I do to bring this system down, by any means necessary.
Black_Anarch,
You show hate, not for the system as much as for peaceful protest and think you are better than those who peacefully demonstrate.
Your plans and paranoid/aggressive attitude won't bring anything down but yourself and those around you.
So yes, please stay home and watch TV.
Hate, huh? Okay, let me temper my rhetoric a bit and indulge in a bit of logic, if I may. We have seen protest after protest become a turkey shoot for the pigs. Did you forget about Kent State? By the way, no reporting that I saw from 90% of those previous protests even mentions any anarchists. So, with that said, how is it that we can figure that the statist thugs will not, if they so desire, beat or gun down any of the protesters at this soiree'?
More importantly and to the point, I would like to see some hard numbers on how many more protests we'll have to see before things change? 10? 50? If there is anyone that can convince me that we'll have positive, systematic change from peaceful protest, then I'll join them on the front lines.
It is my assertion that there comes a point where protest isn't effective any more. When the powers over you care nothing about how many lives they destroy; when they care nothing about how many people show up to a protest, then what? I say we fight them until they stop. Many of my lefty brethren and sistern would let the pigs bash their heads in and not lift a finger in defense. Yet, they feel that to attack an anarchist that shatters a business window is warranted? If this is non-violence, then I want no part of it.
In closing, if you feel that I'm paranoid and/or aggressive, then love the chains you're in. I don't need nor want you. Besides, Jim, really...what hole have you been living in to think that I'm paranoid and aggressive as compared to the powers who rule you?
You denigrate the power of protest but posit no alternative, though your name indicates you seek a violent solution. Every protest march forces people to confront the issues, every one makes folks aware that others, and many of them, feel as do they.
How many will be necessary, always at least one more. The alternative is to force fascism from its hiding place in our government and ultimately make a violent revolution necessary. I believe it is not the answer, at least not yet. It is ones duty, I think, to explore all peaceful alternatives first.
Red, I'm very aware that you have big chops in the activist community and for that I thank you. That said, I'm not asking that we all fight. I should ask that but, it's impossible. All I'm saying is that to support the fighters. When I heard that so-called 'pacifists' actually had beaten and held members of the Black Bloc for the pigs to take away, I was enraged!
Everyone has their role to play in this effort. Some will march. Some will write. Others will fight. Don't rat out someone who is fighting for your freedom as well as hir own. Don't turn them over to the pigs. How hard is that?
What is hard is to identify the police agitators from those who genuinely believe in the cause. Every act of violence in an otherwise peaceful demonstration plays directly into the hands of those we oppose and further alienates us from our base, the hard working people of the world.
An unfair and ,in my opinion, unthinking reaction to the point endCapitalism is trying to make. In fact your response seems a bit of proof as to the immaturity of which that poster notes.
He is absolutely correct that violence gives the lie to the purpose behind the demonstration, smears those who participate in such demonstrations of free speech as all violent and subverts the message.
Your piece is bullshit.
As someone who has attended numerous demonstrations, I can assure you that if the "anarchists" and other advocated of direct action stay home, the only the difference is that the corporate media simply ignores the demonstration altogether. Compare and contrast the 1.5 million in New York on Feb 15 2003 or the hundreds of thousands in DC 2-3 times per year from 2002 to 2005 (Remember? I didn't think so.) to the results obrtained by far the smaller numbers in Seattle and most recently in Oakland.
---USAn---
Things have not changed since the violent demonstrations in the late sixties and early seventies in that the violence is almost always related to police activities. I was in Chicago in '68, standing next to Pigasus in fact, when the police and national guard became violent.
The same sequences occurred in San Francisco during the first of the protests against the escalating war in Viet Nam, in March of '66 I recall.Peaceful protests followed by violent actions by our fine SF Tactical Squad and their rather long batons. Naturally this escalated quickly into a full fledged riot of outrage in which buses were burned, police cars overturned and it was on from that point forward. As we progressed in our political organisation we were constantly aware of strangers who appeared, fomented violence and disappeared just as quickly.
I remember that I was only back from "Nam' a short time but felt I was in a similarly dangerous environment. I was very lucky to meet a group of folks who became not only close friends but political allies as well. All these years later the group we founded still exists and many of our children now perform community activities and political actions.
Thank you for sharing your story Rick.
You are very welcome, both you and Poet. I would only note that the longevity and effectiveness of that group was, in our opinion, because we limited ourselves to local issues and causes, became a factor in our community, learned to work with local politicians and bureaucracies, and used such as voter registrations drives, the building, permitting, and maintaining of child care facilities, senior centers, community centers etc., as opportunities to promote national agendas....
Congratulations Red Rick on the longevity of your 60's contacts. Given the reputations of cointelpro and most local police "intel units" the first thing anyone organizing a protest group should say is something like this:
"The police and other law enforcement agencies are deathly afraid of both the legitimacy and power of our protests. Because of this they either already have or most certainly will infiltrate this group with agent provocateurs whose job it is to provoke violence as a means of discrediting our protest.
Keep a wary eye on strangers who all of a sudden show up at our demonstrations--watch and monitor their activities very closely. Also be sensitive to anyone with whom you may be familiar in any group when they start aggitating for more violent confrontation with law enforcement or other authorities."
Poet
The big problem is that under new legislation we can be arrested and if convicted face 6 years in prison for taking photographs of police.
I was on the Gaza demo which turned nasty - it was simple at 5 pm the police decided they wanted to go home so they drove a phalanx through the the crowd and told the people to go back - they couldn't because thousands of other demostrators blocked any possible retreat - then the batton charges started.
then the news reported all the "violent" protestors.
It imperative that organizers of such events carry with them Video cameras and have people tasked with filming the crowd and any violence that might occur.
This is how the Police disguised as "protestors" were caught in Quebec and in Greece.
The power of the citizen with a Video camera cannot be overstated. Recently there was a tasering of a Polish National in the Vancouver Airport where the person in question died.
The Police involved cooked up a cock and bull story of what happened and would likely have got away with it had not a single citizen filmed the event with his video camera.
The evidence on the camera totally contradicted the "Police version".
Citizen photography is the prime method that police excesses and lies have been exposed.
Unfortunately it is illegal in the UK to photograph police in the performance of their duty since that may provide information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
With this recent act the power of the Police State is supreme. Only when thousands of people are willing to risk 10 years in jail will this disgusting piece of legislation be overcome.
I was not aware such a law had been passed. It deplorable. I can not see how any person could have voted for this.
New Labour passed this law.
Its easy for the police to stir up trouble with saboteurs. It only takes a few.
Was reading about the case from the 1980s about a woman sucked into planting a bomb at the home of a ceo of a company that sold surgical staples (by testing them on dogs who are cut open, stitched, then killed).
I think she was named Fran Trutt. It was at Green is the New Red website.
She was clearly dumb, but the government and corporations planting someone to encourage such an action are truly responsible, since you would expect some unstable people to be in any activist group, and frustrations to boil over(especially with something like vivisection, torturing the innocent to death in ways that not even the worst criminal would be subjected to).
If groups wanted to reduce the chances of this happening they would have to screen and monitor every member, and as soon as someone proposes doing something illegal they be singled out and dealt with.
The woman who was the government agent recruiting people to plant bombs then went to work spying on gun control groups.
Okay, so the Anarchists are the bad guys, huh? I mean, you'll have the 'police' there with guns, truncheons and body armor looking for an excuse to beat you to death. You'll also have the politicians who, with or without your consent, have raped you and the planet. That's okay. Meanwhile the Anarchs who shatter a few windows and actually fight those bastards to protect the 'peaceful' protesters are the enemy? Insane.
All I'll say is this. How many protests do you think it'll take before they change what they're doing? Give me a number. How many renditions of 'Give Peace a Chance" and how many arrests of pacifistic lefties will it take before they stop? We have protested, written, begged, pleaded, petitioned and did everything the system has asked us to do to 'change' things. Have they stopped stealing the wealth of the planet? Have they stopped killing you and this place we call home?
Whether or not you agree with the Black Bloc or others of that bent, there's no denying that, for any thinking person, the time for cajoling, whining and pleading with the usurpers of our power has or is coming to an end. So, if the G20 does nothing different; if they continue with business as usual, when would you stop looking at the Anarchist warriors as enemies and start joining them? When will you stand and fight?
It is not that Anarchists are bad guys... it is just that if you plan on vandalism or any violence, the military types and "get tough on terror" guys win.
This is why typically, police undercovers and provocateurs will infiltrate and dress like the angry folks in Black.
When you break windows or throw anything at the cops or even taunt them you are not protecting the demonstrators, you are selling them out, leaving them in the danger zone for old pitchfork dreams of the militant revolutionary.
AND ARE YOU WINNING WITH YOUR CURRENT TACTICS????!!!!!
---USAn---
The good fight is not something that is won by a bad riot... and non violence is winning the majority of citizens to the cause of peace and justice... but when the rioters get the spotlight, Peace and Justice loses.
"How many protests do you think it'll take before they change what they're doing? Give me a number."
they sentenced me to twenty years of boredom for trying to change the system from within - leonard cohen
Anarchists are much smarter than cops (mostly), so running around in black with masks and acting "anarchist" like is suspect. Dissidents need to get creative, the radical mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Excellent points!
These one-day festivals of cajoling are indeed useless. One needs to actually disrupt the physical facilities or social institutions which the powerful rely. This requires that we throw things in the gears, throwing things in gears usually results in damage to the gears. I don't think even Gandhi ever imagined that "nonviolence" would extend to a prohibition on damage to nonliving objects.
See my post below.
---USAn---
Well, here is a serious question. Has "breaking gears" ever lead to any meaningful change? Change that didn't result in lots of death and destruction that ultimately only ended up replacing one form of tyranny with another? Or has "breaking gears" not lead to existing tyrannies using the violence to justify even more brutal and repressive measures?
Who was talking about death and destruction? I was talking about targeted property damage or disabling of property used by the powerful.
Heard of ploughshares actions? Are they "violent"?
And no one has addressed my question below; why, last January, did the people of Oakland only get their grievances addressed when they resorted to property damage? Yes, they tried the nonviolence route first, preached to them by white affluent liberals, it got nowhere.
---USAn---
Those who have the power are more than reluctant to give it up. Those who seek to make fundamental changes understand that violence can be a necessary, if unfortunate, ingredient in bringing such change to the fore. This is not a defense of violence per se, but an understanding that change can only occur when the complacency and ennui of the general public is breached, and the restrictive and penal actions of those in power in response to said violence affects everyone.
"There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you cannot even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies on the gears, upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus. And you've got to make it stop."
Mario Robert Savio
1942-1996
THIS ANARCHIST STUFF IS THE USUAL PRE DEMONSTRATION BRIEF.
But this will be such a big event, the Anarchists in Black will only cause the public to wonder if they are undercover cops.
The Revolution goes to London!
Jim,
Remember that, had the protesters in Oakland stuck to kumbaya tactics, it is unlikely that Oakland would have arrested and charged the BART cop who killed Oscar Grant.
It is only when some of those "anarchists" and then the rest of the angry protesters, started breaking windows (only corporate chains) and overturned police cars that the city officials - including the compromised Mayor Ron Dellums, arrested the cop.
The powerful will accede to our demands only when you present them with the real possibility of at least some loss of their power. Therefore, entreaties to the powerful to be "nice" even if done by many millions in the streets, is useless. Practically speaking, the only way to impose such a demand on the powerful and get a response from them is to present a threat of the breakdown of the "law and order" that the powerful rely on to retain their power.
Please consider these truisms.
---USAn---
Fantastic! All change comes from below, grassroots organizing which forces goverments to respond to our needs. This has always been true: the workers movement, womans movement, environmental movement, peace movement, civil rights movement, etc... Waiting around for saviors like Obama or anyone else is not going to work. Government has never given anything as a gift but has rather responded to pressure from below. Kudos to all of the organiziers.
Thank-you CD. This is a much better article the the last one. Thomas M, still disagree with this approach?
---USAn---