# Remembering J18 street protests: a few short vids



## editor (May 12, 2006)

Blimey: it seems like another age now, doesn't it?
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=urban75

Shame the quality's a bit crap, but they were shot on a Sony digital camera in the days when memory cost the earth!

Full photo report here: http://www.urban75.org/j18/index.html


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## treelover (May 12, 2006)

I remebr running thru that er, fountain, then watching people dance as the sun shone thu the water spray, wonderful, not much politics on show though


fair few participants, managers, bosses, etc now, eh!


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## bluestreak (May 12, 2006)

ye gods, those were great days for protesting.  i can't wait to get home and watch those vids.


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## Divisive Cotton (May 12, 2006)

It was a moment that completely unexpectedly (for me anyway) cut through the 90s social quietness... If only I was there! What a wanker, I was working.

Will have a look at the footage later...


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## editor (May 12, 2006)

Lower expectations before viewing! They're just 10 second grabs.


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## Divisive Cotton (May 12, 2006)

I read somewhere... in a book... can't remember what one, that J18 was the last event of the political punk period. Which I think is kinda of right. Not actually having been there myself, the people who I know who went been politically active from that period on... 

So what do you think, the last event in a period, or the first event in a new one - anti-globalisation/anti-capitalism, re: Seattle?


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## Paulie Tandoori (May 12, 2006)

Bit of a wierd one for me cos this was the first time i really started to question the value of bringing my kids along to demonstrations, after the on-the-whole more peaceful RTS precursor events - the level of police aggression was staggering and i remember sitting in a pub on the south bank later that day with a nice cool pint and looking back across, aghast at the scenes of madness going on on the other side of the river.

Altho we did enjoy dancing in the fountains i have to say


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## Urbane Worrier (May 12, 2006)

Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> I read somewhere... in a book... can't remember what one, that J18 was the last event of the political punk period.


 For me the last _'political punk'_ event was the Parliament Square allotment project. I had a great day and didn't get trapped. And Churchill got down with it.


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## Urbane Worrier (May 12, 2006)

Paulie Tandoori said:
			
		

> Bit of a wierd one for me cos this was the first time i really started to question the value of bringing my kids along to demonstrations, after the on-the-whole more peaceful RTS precursor events - the level of police aggression was staggering and i remember sitting in a pub on the south bank later that day with a nice cool pint and looking back across, aghast at the scenes of madness going on on the other side of the river.Altho we did enjoy dancing in the fountains i have to say


 I agree with you. I had taken my children to RTS stuff in the past where there were sandpits and fun stuff. On J18 I was overseeing my students exams and after three years of study I'm not going to bugger off for a bit of fun in the city and leave my students without back up support.
My wife phoned me and said she had just seen a woman run over by a police van. They seem to have had a horrific time, unlike any RTS. I went down to the Trafalgar Square bit at about 6pm and took over the kids.And then Ms went home to feed the dogs,but I stayed with the kids. They enjoyed it, I was looking over my shoulder all the time.


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## aurora green (May 12, 2006)

Urbane Worrier said:
			
		

> For me the last _'political punk'_ event was the Parliament Square allotment project. I had a great day and didn't get trapped. And Churchill got down with it.



Yeah, I think this was the last truely great day to carry the name London RTS, and effectively was the end of an era.
It was certainly the last subversive day out I've had in our capital. 

There are a myriad of reasons behind this and you'd have to write an essay citing all the chronological developments, activist burnout and the changes of personal at precise moments, the effect of the then new Labour goverment had of the anti-roads movement (seems almost incredulous now, but back then, there really was a mood that things were going to change..) but mostly the ever increasing use of force against such actions and hysterical demonisation of said events in the popular press....and loads more...


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## perplexis (May 12, 2006)

Wicked, I remember that protest.
I'd done my maths A-level exam that morning and decided the best way to get it out of my system was to join the march. 
I remember the hydrant fondly, it was a glorious day. Followed round the cycle-soundsystem for a while failing to make much impact. Happy days!


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## tbaldwin (May 12, 2006)

I thought it was an amazing day and was good at getting the issues across to loads of people. But RTS Libertarians allowed themselves to be written out of history once the SWP and Globalise Resistance came along.. And by Novemeber the whole thing was FUCKED.


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## aurora green (May 12, 2006)

tbaldwin said:
			
		

> I thought it was an amazing day and was good at getting the issues across to loads of people. But RTS Libertarians allowed themselves to be written out of history once the SWP and Globalise Resistance came along.. And by Novemeber the whole thing was FUCKED.




Hmm... not as simple as that..

And the November thing was fucked, in London, But let's not forget Seattle.


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## Buds and Spawn (May 12, 2006)

auora green said:
			
		

> Yeah, I think this was the last truely great day to carry the name London RTS, and effectively was the end of an era.
> It was certainly the last subversive day out I've had in our capital.


Ditto. But dancing around a maypole in Parliament Square and then clearing the cops out of the way to get out made a pretty good last subversive day in my book. Until the next one comes along. What we're experiencing now is just a blip. 




			
				perplexis said:
			
		

> I remember the hydrant fondly, it was a glorious day.


When you and everyone else say 'hydrant' what you really mean is the Walbrook - freed from it's subterranean captivity 




			
				tbaldwin said:
			
		

> But RTS Libertarians allowed themselves to be written out of history once the SWP and Globalise Resistance came along.. And by Novemeber the whole thing was FUCKED.


I agree that the SWP et al. (groan) derailed our movement - but please don't lay the 'blame' at RTS for 'allowing' it to happen. All the liberal careerist journos., writers, self-appointed commentators allowed it, once they realised that we were for real and it wasn't just a fun game to get a bit of direct action kudos... They're the one's that jumped on Globalise Resistance's imaginary bandwagon - and gave them credibility and airtime...


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## free spirit (May 12, 2006)

I fucking loved that day 

and I still fucking love whoever it was that magically appeared with a ladder to save me from killing myself trying to get down from the ledge I'd got stuck on 20 foot up some building


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## bluestreak (May 12, 2006)

Buds and Spawn said:
			
		

> I agree that the SWP et al. (groan) derailed our movement - but please don't lay the 'blame' at RTS for 'allowing' it to happen. All the liberal careerist journos., writers, self-appointed commentators allowed it, once they realised that we were for real and it wasn't just a fun game to get a bit of direct action kudos... They're the one's that jumped on Globalise Resistance's imaginary bandwagon - and gave them credibility and airtime...



i agree with this definitely.  but i did feel that RTS lost their single issue status somewhat.  i was at parties, like the seven sisters one, where there was no anti-roads info whatsoever for passers by, it was just a party, and i disagreed with that.  RTS wasn't an anarchist or socialist movement, it was an anti-roads / cars social and environmental movement with broadly anarchist leanings.

of course, with any successful protest movement the SWP were going to attempt to steal their thunder at some point, but the death of RTS was more due to the criminalising of the activist lifestyle rather than RTS handing some imaginary baton on the the SWP.


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## rich! (May 12, 2006)

Urbane Worrier said:
			
		

> For me the last _'political punk'_ event was the Parliament Square allotment project. I had a great day and didn't get trapped. And Churchill got down with it.



I am actually wearing the Churchill T-Shirt today in honour of this thread


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## aurora green (May 12, 2006)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> i agree with this definitely.  but i did feel that RTS lost their single issue status somewhat.  i was at parties, like the seven sisters one, where there was no anti-roads info whatsoever for passers by, it was just a party, and i disagreed with that.  RTS wasn't an anarchist or socialist movement, it was an anti-roads / cars social and environmental movement with broadly anarchist leanings.




RTS didn't 'loose' their single issue status, they actively sought to shake it off. It was a source of great angst within the group at the time, with many people unsure this was the right way to go, but with the support of the Liverpool dockers in 1997 and the tube workers before that, RTS was purposefully and demonstrably trying to reach beyond  what was percieved as a single issue getto, and make bonds and links with wider groups.


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## bluestreak (May 12, 2006)

oh, i missed that part of RTS history then.  i always assumed that the move away from the strict anti-roads thing was a general slip based on their success and increasing ideas about what the RTS banner could include rather than being a conscious attempt to throw off an image.  

i think i wouldn't have approved.  but then again....   i dunno, too much to think about right here... collar me in the pub one night.


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## Groucho (May 12, 2006)

What's making me feel old is that I attended part of this considering myself a veteran campaigner who had seen it all before. It seems like yesterday and not as momentus as the Poll Tax riot or the anti-BNP Unity march or for that matter Wapping in '86/'87.  

Still, we aint seen the last of riot n rebellion...


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## corporate whore (May 12, 2006)

I remember going on the early doors Critical Mass that day - getting loads of abuse along the "why don't you spongers get a job" line.

I'd just got off a 9 hour night shift...  

Left around 1030 to get some kip, was amazed when I saw how it all turned out..


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## treelover (May 12, 2006)

ah yes, beneath the pavement, the beach



> When you and everyone else say 'hydrant' what you really mean is the Walbrook - freed from it's subterranean captivity


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## editor (May 12, 2006)

I can remember if being the first RTS style event where people I knew were expressing doubts about going because of the media build up and the expectation of things kicking off.

Anyone remember that ludicrous Evening Standard yarn about activists supposedly handing out envelopes to office workers with hidden razor blades inside?

Twats.


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## FifthFromFront (May 13, 2006)

It was a great day. City of London police still seem pissed off by it all  

I just love the way even today if you are sat in a pub and say J18 peoples eyes brighten and everyone hasa different story to tell. Say "N30" and everyone mumbles under their breath and gets back to the beer.

FFF


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## Blagsta (May 13, 2006)

Top day out that was!


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## Divisive Cotton (May 14, 2006)

Blagsta said:
			
		

> Top day out that was!



Everybody there loved it! There was definitely the feedback I got afterwards...


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## Urbane Worrier (May 14, 2006)

editor said:
			
		

> Anyone remember that ludicrous Evening Standard yarn about activists supposedly handing out envelopes to office workers with hidden razor blades inside?
> 
> Twats.


 Evading Standards is what I remember


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## MatthewCuffe (May 14, 2006)

It looks stunning.

Where did it all go?  Did that energy get submerged under September 11th and the absurd 'war on terror'?  And will it return now we are exiting the 'WoT'?


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## northernhord (May 14, 2006)

I recently found a Reclaim the Streets Video in a charity shop, it took me back to some good days of sneaking down on trains to London for a CJA March and a Party at Clarement road, and an Oxford Reclaim the Streets party I went to when I was at Ruskin College.


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## Blagsta (May 15, 2006)

Urbane Worrier said:
			
		

> Evading Standards is what I remember



 iirc, Evading Standards was the fake ES put out by the RTS crew


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## free spirit (May 15, 2006)

Blagsta said:
			
		

> iirc, Evading Standards was the fake ES put out by the RTS crew



yeah we'd somehow ended up with a huge stack of them, so we spent a good hour standing at the top of the steps leading up from kings cross tube giving them out to commuters in the morning rush hour 

iirc evading standards was funded by the Met 

[some compo claim against the met won by RTS crew for something or other I think...]


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## Urbane Worrier (May 16, 2006)

Blagsta said:
			
		

> iirc, Evading Standards was the fake ES put out by the RTS crew


correct  I still have a copy lurking under the bed along with a small roll of green RTS sticky crime scene tape.

I think I may also have a spoof Metro. 

I'm getting older and bending is difficult so when I die maybe my son will delve under the bed and bung it all on Ebay


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## Dougal (May 16, 2006)

It was a good day. For RTS, one problem was many, many people wanted vengence for the Stop the City Debacles of the past, this included the police!


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## DJWrongspeed (May 16, 2006)

yer right there, they wanted vengeance, one guy i knew got raided early morning months later, that'd tracked him down from a photo, completely innocent, he was just taking pics. All of which weren't at his flat luckily. People were banged up some mths after this.


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## Dougal (May 16, 2006)

DJWrongspeed said:
			
		

> yer right there, they wanted vengeance, one guy i knew got raided early morning months later, that'd tracked him down from a photo, completely innocent, he was just taking pics. All of which weren't at his flat luckily. People were banged up some mths after this.



Perhaps I was not too clear. The J18 was always going to be problematic because of the Stop the City demonstrations in the eighties. Many people (over 450) got nicked in 1985 at a stop the city demo and the police were quite heavy handed. Plus the demo was a bit crap really. Hence when J18 came along lots of (by now) veteran protesters were up for a re-match with the police, not exactly what RTS were thinking of. Plus, the police wanted revenge for the 1985 demo and those before it as they never forget and love a ruck.

I think the RTS were a bit naive all told but good eggs none the less.


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## aurora green (May 16, 2006)

Dougal said:
			
		

> Perhaps I was not too clear. The J18 was always going to be problematic because of the Stop the City demonstrations in the eighties. Many people (over 450) got nicked in 1985 at a stop the city demo and the police were quite heavy handed. Plus the demo was a bit crap really. Hence when J18 came along lots of (by now) veteran protesters were up for a re-match with the police, not exactly what RTS were thinking of. Plus, the police wanted revenge for the 1985 demo and those before it as they never forget and love a ruck.




I think this is an interesting analysis, which could explain a lot. Certainly, there was a positive explosion of otherwise unexplained violence (towards property only, and (unexplained)within the context of RTS' that had gone before) which took many people by suprise. My own most vivid memory of the day (which Im sure I've posted on here before) was standing up high on some street furniture trying to take a picture of the whole crowd around the sound system scene, when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said "Oi, mate you wanna be lookin at this" and I swivelled round 180 degrees and witnessed the smashing in of the mercedes showroom, and it was one of the most shocking things I'd ever seen (not necessarily in a bad way) but to me, a veteran of many RTS actions, totally unexpected.


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## Blagsta (May 16, 2006)

Urbane Worrier said:
			
		

> correct  I still have a copy lurking under the bed along with a small roll of green RTS sticky crime scene tape.
> 
> I think I may also have a spoof Metro.
> 
> I'm getting older and bending is difficult so when I die maybe my son will delve under the bed and bung it all on Ebay



Yeah I think I have a copy of Evading Standards somewhere, as well as a cardboard mask and a J18 poster.


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## Buds and Spawn (May 16, 2006)

aurora green said:
			
		

> I think this is an interesting analysis, which could explain a lot. Certainly, there was a positive explosion of otherwise unexplained violence (towards property only, and (unexplained)within the context of RTS' that had gone before) which took many people by suprise.


I think there may-have-possibly-allegedly-etc.. been some RTS peeps quite hoping that J18 would turn out the way it did. I imagine that most of those involved in the coalition felt pretty much the same. I guess it threw a lot of the single-issue brigade though...

Many of those involved shared a mantra along the lines of - 'we're really going for it - The City - which we've so far imagined to be off limits cos' it's too hardcore - (post-IRA etc..) - it's going to be a bloodbath - we're all mad and irresponsible'. Thus, violence of some kind was inevitable.

Funnily enough, I think RTS were guilty of underambition - i.e. not believing that  everything planned would happen - and consequently, the plans fell short of what would have been even more breathtaking.

The idea that the LIFFE trading floor could be occupied for example. It so almost was....

One image I'll never forget - mounted riot cops charging the crowd at the top  end of Southwark Bridge - crowd doesn't budge - instead a horse plus cop get pulled down and disappear (they did get rescued by a baton charge eventually)... Never seen people so up for it.

After J18 a lot of peeps criticised RTS for the violence. This criticism contributed quite a bit to the nature of the Guerilla Gardening on Mayday 2000. Which of course - got criticised by many for being too fluffy...


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## aurora green (May 17, 2006)

Buds and Spawn said:
			
		

> ...
> 
> Funnily enough, I think RTS were guilty of underambition - i.e. not believing that  everything planned would happen - and consequently, the plans fell short of what would have been even more breathtaking.
> 
> The idea that the LIFFE trading floor could be occupied for example. It so almost was....



Yeah, it was so very close, if it wasn't for the traders themselves holding back the activists, and perhaps if there was a few more people trying to accomplish something more meaningful that smashing up stuff...who knows... 
anyways it's one of those RTS stories that seldom get told, rather like the jackhammering up of the M41 and planting trees...





			
				Buds and Spawn said:
			
		

> After J18 a lot of peeps criticised RTS for the violence. This criticism contributed quite a bit to the nature of the Guerilla Gardening on Mayday 2000.



I thought this was a brilliant comeback, a reclamation of true RTS roots, as it were.


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## Dougal (May 17, 2006)

Buds and Spawn said:
			
		

> I think there may-have-possibly-allegedly-etc.. been some RTS peeps quite hoping that J18 would turn out the way it did. I imagine that most of those involved in the coalition felt pretty much the same. I guess it threw a lot of the single-issue brigade though...
> 
> Many of those involved shared a mantra along the lines of - 'we're really going for it - The City - which we've so far imagined to be off limits cos' it's too hardcore - (post-IRA etc..) - it's going to be a bloodbath - we're all mad and irresponsible'. Thus, violence of some kind was inevitable.
> 
> ...



This was the most heartening thing I ever saw on a demo in my life. The police send in a horse with (female) copper on the back and she gallops right into the crowd. Instead of running away (which has nearly always been the norm) the crowd _ran at the _horse and pulled it with many many hands to its knees and also pulled the copper off the back. She was uninjured and indeed was rescued by a baton charge. The upshot was this was the only police horse charge of the day and consequently a long standing tool in the police's box has been found to not work against anti capitalists. I salute the people who did this.


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## Paulie Tandoori (May 17, 2006)

Interesting account of what gwan here including a link to Evading Standards, i've stored my copy ready for the Anarchist Antique Road Show that I'm gonna suggest to the Beeb sometime soon


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## TeeJay (May 17, 2006)

tbaldwin said:
			
		

> I thought it was an amazing day and was good at getting the issues across to loads of people. But RTS Libertarians allowed themselves to be written out of history once the SWP and Globalise Resistance came along.. And by Novemeber the whole thing was FUCKED.


Are you saying that what happened at Euston in November was due to SWP/GR getting involved between June and November? 

I would love to blame them for that, but somehow I can't see it myself.


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## TeeJay (May 17, 2006)

Buds and Spawn said:
			
		

> ...After J18 a lot of peeps criticised RTS for the violence. This criticism contributed quite a bit to the nature of the Guerilla Gardening on Mayday 2000. Which of course - got criticised by many for being too fluffy...


Of course there was also N30 in between J18 and MayDay 2000.

I remember that the RTS build-up to N30 was really emphasising the peaceful & non-violent angle, yet the violence happened anyway.

I was not involved directly with RTS / N30 planning but I was someone who - rather naively in retrospect - fully bought into the claim that it was going to be a totally non-violent protest outside Railtrack HQ at Euston. I was thinking back to the fluffy events in Brixton and thought that the violence at J18 was not going to be repeated (quite why I though this I am not sure - naive optimism maybe?). I did end up giving out RTS leaflets to passing commuters and even repeated some of the RTS Railtrack info to a radio reporter who asked what we were protecting about. Things seemed fine up until something like 9pm (?) when seemingly on cue things kicked off - apparently "some people" went and started attacking the riot police, who then used this as their signal to move in and attack back. I didn't see this so I don't know what to believe and ultimately I think it was just "inevitable" - another reason why after that I stopped going to any events like this.

I'd still love to read people's accounts of N30, not least because I ended up getting dragged away and given a bit of a kicking (naively (again) after standing in-between a baton charge and its intended targets who were throwing stuff at the police), but was then let go and told to "go home" whereas a lot of other people were pinned in for ages and had all their details taken.

I was the last "demo" of that kind I went to, no least because after getting a partially dislocated shoulder and other possible damage to my back I simply didn't feel physically up to risking any more damage.

I don't have any specific proof but in I have a suspicion that the whole thing kicking off and ending like it did was not entirely accidental, unplanned or unforseen ... on "both" sides in fact ... and the media certainly got the photos and footage they wanted, but had missed on J18. I remember the headline "Flames of Rage" or something - and the pictures of the police van that had some some bizarre reason been parked beforehand right by the protest area, unattended and full of hi-vis jackets etc. The press and police had had all day to set up at Euston and were there far in advance, yet for some reason all the right "props" (things to throw, a van to smash up) were left abandoned in convenient places.

For that matter much the same thing happened on J18 - for some reason there just happened to be an unattended builders lorry lorry full of various heavy throwable stuff right by the hydrant/LIFFE. Coincidence? Or someone willing things to get nasty, so they could retaliate as hard as possible and finally discredit RTS as violent thugs? 

I suppose N30 was overshadowed by the vastly more dramatic events in Seattle.


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## aurora green (May 17, 2006)

I didn't even bother to go to N30. I remember thinking it was glaringly obvious from the outset, the thing was completely doomed. In fact, I really questioned the thinking and motives of those organising such a mindless and uninspiring gathering, in the dark.


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## Paulie Tandoori (May 17, 2006)

aurora green said:
			
		

> I didn't even bother to go to N30. I remember thinking it was glaringly obvious from the outset, the thing was completely doomed. In fact, I really questioned the thinking and motives of those organising such a mindless and uninspiring gathering, in the dark.



My thoughts precisely, was not surprised at all when that one all got nasty. And i have to say that various bits of TeeJay's post have been kicked around for discussion since e.g. agent provacateurs, convenient props, etc.


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## TeeJay (May 17, 2006)

aurora green said:
			
		

> I didn't even bother to go to N30. I remember thinking it was glaringly obvious from the outset, the thing was completely doomed. In fact, I really questioned the thinking and motives of those organising such a mindless and uninspiring gathering, in the dark.


Yeah - in retrospect I should have figured it out for myself. 

Unfortunately I probably hadn't been on enough demos and protests to know better and was naive enough to believe the reassurances that the whole event was going to be non-violent and fluffy along the lines of the Brixton event. 

My first mistake was going in the firt place and my second mistake was to not take that chance of leaving at 9pm (when the demo was billed to end) and staying around with some misguided notion that "passive resistance" would somehow calm everything down and 'stop the violence'.

I saw a fair few people getting kicked about as they sat in the road doing the hippy thing (I suppose this would include me although I just got rugby tackelled/bundled from behind (I was facing the wrong way ) by about four riot police, hit round the head with batons and kicked a few times ("passified"), dragged backwards along the road by my arms for about 20 metres, dropped. I suppose I should feel lucky that they didn't really put too much effort into it, I wasn't more badly injured and that they didn't arrest me.

But like I said - it totally soured my whole view of what people were doing and how they planned things and I stopped going to anything similar (not that  things remained the same for much longer anyway).


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## Buds and Spawn (May 17, 2006)

TeeJay said:
			
		

> For that matter much the same thing happened on J18 - for some reason there just happened to be an unattended builders lorry lorry full of various heavy throwable stuff right by the hydrant/LIFFE. Coincidence? Or someone willing things to get nasty, so they could retaliate as hard as possible and finally discredit RTS as violent thugs?


Or for the wall that got built over the lower entrance to LIFFE?


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## Buds and Spawn (May 17, 2006)

aurora green said:
			
		

> I didn't even bother to go to N30. I remember thinking it was glaringly obvious from the outset, the thing was completely doomed. In fact, I really questioned the thinking and motives of those organising such a mindless and uninspiring gathering, in the dark.


As I remember N30, it was only ever planned as a very small thing. I agree about the location and timing etc... Most peeps were still recovering from J18, and so not interested or able to organise something so soon after. I think we should have not bothered with N30 over here at all - it was bound to go very wrong... I was more excited by the news coming in from Seattle...


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## TeeJay (May 17, 2006)

Paulie Tandoori said:
			
		

> ...And i have to say that various bits of TeeJay's post have been kicked around for discussion since e.g. agent provacateurs, convenient props, etc.


The thing is, these are "excuses" in a way - it doesn't matter exactly how things go to shit or precisely who is to blame, because at the end of the day anyone organising a protest or action has to take this into account when they plan things: the time, location, build-up, likely attendees (on all sides) how other people might try and screws things up and so forth.

For example the Brixton "Car Free Day" (to choose one example) was different      in so many ways that it would have been far harder for people with another agenda to derail it. Other events are almost taylor made for confrontation, violence, a massive police reaction and so forth.

For what its worth I have seen a similar fuckwittedness in "design" almost occur at one of the early STWC demos: Maps and instructions were circulated telling people to converge on Westminster from about three directions (From Victoria, Waterloo/the bridge and Charing X/Whitehall). Any idiot could see immediately that the plans as proposed would lead to a massive crowd control/crushing problem in Westminster Square.

Intestingly, although these plans had apparently already been approved by the Met, as soon as the problems were pointed out in a public forum the plans were all changed, although this was down silently and without comment.

I sometimes wonder if some (senior-ranking?) psychopaths in the Met are really willing to see people (including their own officers) get seriously injured and perhaps lives lost, just so that they can pin the blame on groups they don't like and crack down on public protests etc.

Having said this, it might have been psychopaths with the STWC. I doubt anyone would be able to prove it either way - it is just certain odd and utterly dangerous decisions by people who really should know better...


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## rainbowman (May 17, 2006)

*wheres the link for vids ?*

any one ?


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## Blagsta (May 17, 2006)

errr...on the first post of the thread?


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## Mr Smin (May 18, 2006)

*remember the film trailers?*

Undercurrents produced a short 'trailer' for the event and included it on one of their numbered news videos. As well as getting shown at various video nights, there were lots of stories of people who had 2 VCRs to rub together copying it over the 'official' trailers on rental videos before returning them. Superb.

That's one that won't happen again in days of the dvd.


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## Hanoipete (May 23, 2006)

there's a limit to how many protests there can be of a similar ilk in one country i think. generally political people from those events are still doing their thing in a whole variety of ways, even this site maybe, and the protests and the revulsion against `free market` economics has been all round the world...


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## tbaldwin (May 26, 2006)

TeeJay said:
			
		

> Are you saying that what happened at Euston in November was due to SWP/GR getting involved between June and November?
> 
> I would love to blame them for that, but somehow I can't see it myself.



Not really blaming them as much as disappointed at the time that the "oh where so scared of hierarchy brigade" let the SWP who they would see as very hierarchical take over as spokespeople for what had been quite a good social movement.
I think the RTS approach of partying down capitalism was interesting but GR was just more of the boring leftie shite.


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## cemertyone (May 27, 2006)

TeeJay said:
			
		

> Of course there was also N30 in between J18 and MayDay 2000.
> 
> 
> I'd still love to read people's accounts of N30, not least because I ended up getting dragged away and given a bit of a kicking (naively (again) after standing in-between a baton charge and its intended targets who were throwing stuff at the police), but was then let go and told to "go home" whereas a lot of other people were pinned in for ages and had all their details taken.Seattle.


D


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## stethoscope (May 23, 2016)

10 year old thread bump  as I pulled these out earlier…


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## stethoscope (May 23, 2016)

Can do proper high res scans at some point if anybody was interested.


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## Ground Elder (May 23, 2016)

I really should start scanning all the ephemera I've hoarded/failed to throw away/preserved for future generations, (I favour the latter, my wife has a different opinion). Reading through a pile of Schnews the other day felt like reading ancient history


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## free spirit (May 24, 2016)

I'm still gutted that my RTS treasure trove of leaflets, posters etc from that era went walkies during one of my many house moves. I still hope I might find it again in my parents loft or something.


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## Red Sky (May 24, 2016)

Ground Elder said:


> I really should start scanning all the ephemera I've hoarded/failed to throw away/preserved for future generations, (I favour the latter, my wife has a different opinion). Reading through a pile of Schnews the other day felt like reading ancient history



When SchNEWS closed down they left piles of boxed up detritus from twenty odd years of protest and DA - Still stashed in a loft somewhere I believe.


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## TopCat (May 24, 2016)

Hey aurora green. This bumped thread needs an update. It's now known RTS was infiltrated by at least one full time copper from the SDS. The impact of this is clearer to see now and lessons should be learnt. 
TopCat aka Dougal x


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## stethoscope (May 24, 2016)

I missed this thread from 2014 about being infiltrated...
Did an undercover cop help organise the J18 riot?


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## chilango (May 24, 2016)

I binned all my crap years ago. And have never missed it.

I did however find a J18 poster & flyer whilst sorting a box the other day. (I also have a _Movimento das Forças Armadas_ flyposter from the revolution in '74 and a few bits of EZLN tat_). _


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## Pickman's model (May 24, 2016)

TopCat said:


> Hey aurora green. This bumped thread needs an update. It's now known RTS was infiltrated by at least one full time copper from the SDS. The impact of this is clearer to see now and lessons should be learnt.
> TopCat aka Dougal x


topcat and friends recently


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## LDC (May 24, 2016)

TopCat said:


> Hey aurora green. This bumped thread needs an update. It's now known RTS was infiltrated by at least one full time copper from the SDS. The impact of this is clearer to see now and lessons should be learnt.
> TopCat aka Dougal x



What impact, and what lessons?

Jim Sutton/Boyling was involved for sure, but not in a significant direction/decision making role. He couldn't talk politics beyond tactics and a spot of veganism (his background story was involvement via hunt sabs). To suggest he was in any way responsible for the way J18 turned out is bollocks (if that's what you're suggesting).


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## chilango (May 24, 2016)

Aye. What impact we talking about?


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## Ming (May 29, 2016)

stethoscope said:


> Can do proper high res scans at some point if anybody was interested.


I had that 'Squaring Up to the Square Mile' booklet! Got it from Corporate Watch in Oxford. I seem to remember it had a list of the pubs different law/finance firms executives generally drank in.


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## DaveCinzano (Jun 18, 2016)

Happy Anniversary all! x


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## editor (Jun 4, 2019)

Twenty years ago!













Twenty Years Ago: J18 anti-capitalism protests in central London, June 1999


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## Pickman's model (Jun 4, 2019)

editor said:


> Twenty years ago!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


surprised you're putting it out two weeks early rather than keeping your powder dry for the day, so to speak


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## vanya (Jun 18, 2019)

Happy 20th anniversary J18!

I remember I was working in a bank back then and a flyer came round warning us all that there was going to be a Carnival against Capitalism the following day. I was thrilled that such things were happening. The Nineties had always seemed politically dead before that. 

At the turn of the century there seemed to be a serious movement rising. What happened to it? I suppose 9/11 didn't help.


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## chilango (Jun 18, 2019)

vanya said:


> Happy 20th anniversary J18!
> 
> I remember I was working in a bank back then and a flyer came round warning us all that there was going to be a Carnival against Capitalism the following day. I was thrilled that such things were happening. The Nineties had always seemed politically dead before that.
> 
> At the turn of the century there seemed to be a serious movement rising. What happened to it? I suppose 9/11 didn't help.



I often argue that J18 was more of the end of a phase of struggle than the beginning of one. It was the culmination of stuff that had been building most of the 90s. It couldn't really be pushed much further.


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## vanya (Jul 4, 2019)

Just discovered this fascinating thread about Reclaim the Streets  Reclaim the Streets - what happened??


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