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Very urgent appeal London Solidarity Demonstration at Dalston station!

Anarchist Solidarity Initiative | 14.12.2008 15:28 | Repression | Social Struggles

3:30pm update. Get down to Dalston Station now if you can! Police have cordoned in a hundred protesters and are refusing to let anyone leave or join them. They are being very heavy handed having viciously attacked people trying to leave the cordon injuring several of them! URGENT HELP IS NEEDED NOW!

Please come down to Dalston Station now as the police are being very heavy handed hitting out and beating anyone trying to leave the police cordon. Several people have been injured and need urgent medical attention. Police are also refusing to allow a couple of dozen protesters join their comrades outside the train station and anyone trying to join them is being arrested.

Anarchist Solidarity Initiative

Additions

Dalston Kingsland Station - not Dalston Station

14.12.2008 15:45

just to clarify

Anarchist Solidarity Initiative

what i saw

14.12.2008 17:15

just got in from demo, having left at about 4.25. to clarify: some people penned in by dalston kingsland station. i don't know what's happened to them, but there was nothing to indicate anyone needed urgent medical attention - there were shouted slogans coming from them, and one voice saying they were hungry. some of the early protestors were arrested for section 60. didn't look pleasant, but am not a great fan of pens at the best of times.

on the ridley road side of kingsland road, there were in the region of 100 protestors. we tried to take the road several times, without success. there were several arrests, i know of two. when i left there was a line of british transport police in front of ridley road. there were also some tsg in the area.

frankly, as of 4.25 there was nothing much to fuss about. there was a degree of anarchist dither which prevented a successful occupation of the road when it was possible, and a little bit of to and fro with the cops. but i saw nothing of the violence the report suggests.

James Joyce

Update at 17:15

14.12.2008 17:29

There has been at least two arrests at the very start of the demo. One for supposedly punching a cop. The cops are slowly letting people go from the cordon in 2's and 3's, after some searches, controls etc. There are still a lot of people hanging around, but plenty of cops. There was a real interest from the passersby, as the amount of police was more than the usual typically overwhelming London demo. Lots of leaflets were given out, people came from everywhere to be here today, but the demo needed to be more determined and focused on getting out of the rigid police cordon immediately. As the cops have a plan, have the numbers and are aggressively violent from the outset it is very difficult. It kind of shows the limits at present of what we can do in the capital with publically called demos where the enemy can organise in advance. The cops and the state can't stop the direct action - comrades in Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol and internationally have shown that a minority of individuals can still act despite the odds.

increase the social war - avenge alexis!

hackneys wicked

i agree

14.12.2008 18:18

We were at the demo all day. Great to see so many people turn out, but i really think that we need to learn from this. Did the demo serve its purpose of at least informing the community of what happened or why we were there? I’m not so sure it did. Many chants were not in English, but Greek and Turkish i think, which confused the local people as this is not a Greek or Turkish community; many activists were also confused by these chants. Secondly the group that were cordoned off should really have done something more than they did. Other than a few chants there was no real attempt to break the cordon. Most of the action came from across the road where we attempted to take the main road, this should have served as a catalyst for the cordoned group to break free but it did not. Overall it was very good if only to show the police that we can get 150 people in a relatively spontaneous demonstration and that is a success of sorts.

Hackneytrops

Dalston Kingsland veteran

14.12.2008 19:34

I was one of the people penned in. I was one of the last to get out.

I think there is a need to look at tactics, but disagree about the slogans. There is a sizeable Turkish-speaking community in Hackney, just on the edge of Dalston Kingsland, and some Turkish slogans were appropriate. The Greek ones were interesting and brought the struggle from Greece to here, in a sense. I do disagree with the choice of venue, it is a good place to get trapped.

Dalston Kingsland veteran

Comments

Hide the following 14 comments

Any updates?

14.12.2008 16:56

Nobody got a phone they can text someone updates?

Blogs

IS it still happening

14.12.2008 17:09

is it worth my while turning up or has everyone dispersed?

Inquisitive

cry wolf

14.12.2008 19:34

First rule of journalism is to be completely is ethics and being truthful. Otherwise you instantly lose all credibility and people will never believe a word you report again. Seems like the cappunico-slurpers cried wolf about the police and got hungry because they forgot to take a packed lunch.

People are going to think what has a railway station got to do greece. Perhaps if would be more appropriate to direct the protest against the greek police stations or the embassy. Or not even, because ultimately it was an idiot policeman with a gun.

vorse

Brief Report

14.12.2008 20:17

At 2.30 about 80 odd people had assembled outside Dalston overground station but the police quickly tried to kettle the crowd out of the way of the public insisting we hadn't the right to assemble within given consent. I counted 5/6 full vans within sight of where we were and the police lines managed to pen in about 60 odd people curtailing any possibilities for further action, this included most of the Greeks who'd come out for the action.

Meanwhile a crowd on the opposite side of Dalston High St. chanted support (mixture of some passers by) and managed to spill out onto the road stopping oncoming traffic. More police reinforced their end stopping them from infringing traffic but there iniative was appreciated by people who had been penned up. Despite a few pushes here and there, the police had held the crowd for best part of three hours with two known arrests.

For some unknown reason a number of people including a fringe group of SWP types (armed with papers) decided to act as a go between for the crowd and the police. One of the agreed proposals put forward was either to stay or allow us to leave in threes with no provocations. Most decided to leave, and later a visit was made by a large crowd at the police station where our comrades were known to have been taken.

Rogue
mail e-mail: jonrogue@gmail.com

Vorse don't be thick?

14.12.2008 20:46

The station was the MEETING place for the MARCH through Dalston. It was not a demo at a train station. And yes it is better to march in an area where the population may have sympathy rather than Holland Park. And as far as I know there are no "Greek Police Stations" in London.

Anarchist Solidarity

@ i agree - hackneytroops

14.12.2008 23:00

I was in the the cordoned off group and during the attempted road occupation we did attempt to break the police barricade, first on the side nearest you and then round the back. The problem was that there were just too many pigs, they were 3 deep all across the police line, and we had no reinforced banners or anything. During the attempt one activist was punched 3 times in the chest by the pigs as well.

jimbob

how not to get penned in

15.12.2008 10:20

Guide to Public Order Situations and other things to think about,

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/manchester/porder.htm or download it at

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/manchester/porder.pdf

Sounds like the SWP-type self-appointed negotiators Rogue mentioned managed to negotiate, er, um, exactly what the police always do after they've penned you in - keep you there till your will to live has gone, and/or then let you out in 2s or 3s!

spotter

Protesters and police in Dalston.

15.12.2008 11:43

Video of our nasty police giving it large.At least they did not get there own way all day eh!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TSoGNOXTka4

Christian Evans
mail e-mail: tallchris99@hotmail.com

about the EF guide to public order situations

15.12.2008 12:42

Although this text has some good points, the text is worse than useless for actual situations where the atmosphere gets heated beyond the 'normal' 'non-violent direct action'-type scenario for activists.

Case in point:

"With all that in mind, we suggest you stick to these three basic aims when you find yourself in a riot:

1) Getting you and your mates away safely, rather than fighting

2) Finding a place to cause embarrassment & economic damage to your real target, rather than fighting

3) Helping others in trouble by administering first aid and de-arresting, rather than fighting."

So basically don't get involved and leave the area, is what is being advocated here, some solidarity hey? If this guide was such an important document we might have 'won' a few more times since it was written in the late '90's no?

anarcho-rioter

on my wick

15.12.2008 15:08

As a resident of Dalston, I felt you chaps might have thought to let the residents know of your plans to disrupt our lives on Sunday.

I was unable to get home for an hour because of your moronic protest and feel you might have planned something better.

I hope you're content and urge you to give local people some notice of your intention to disrupt their lives in future.

Dalston is a happy place and your presence there on Sunday was greatly annoying.

Why not pick somewhere else in future.

Dalston resident

On my wick too. On all of our wicks!

15.12.2008 16:01

To my fellow Dalston resident above,

For my own part, I apologise for holding you up. Although I was hemmed into a tiny corner outside the station, and I think you'll find that the police closed off the road and surrounding area. So it was their mismanagement of the situation that led the road actually being closed. Will you now ask them for an apology? I tried to get them to apologise for throwing me around by the neck on Sunday, so I wish you luck, they don't like to apologise.

Also, I live in Dalston, as did many of the protestors. If you like to think of outsiders coming in and disrupting order, may I again point you in the direction of the police? I live and work here, the officers on Sunday do not.

"Dalston is a happy place." For the most part, I agree with you. I don't like going shopping and seeing the various notices about the unsolved murder at Matalan. Nor do I like the thought of the three men recently jailed for a series of gang-rapes across the brothels of Dalston.

Do you also make complaints whenever a football match, for example, causes delays, which last much longer than one hour?

Sometimes, its necessary to look a bit beyond your own personal circumstances (especially something as trivial as an hour's delay) to consider issues affecting more people in a more immediate and oppressive situation. Of course, if you do not value free speech and free response (which i doubt, as you've taken it upon yourself to come here and speak) then the value of protest is lost on you entirely.

another dalston resident

about the about the EF guide to public order situations

15.12.2008 17:37

anarcho-rioter, I think you've skimmed the guide and missed the point of it - my feeling is it's about how to do what you came to do (in this example, march around Dalston) rather than getting stuck in a circle of cops.

If what you want to do is get penned in or get into another situation where the police have control, then the guide's not for you. I don't think that's solidarity. I think solidarity is about fucking shit up as planned.

It is also not about NVDA if you read the headings, but neither is it about how to have a full-scale riot.