When we were walking/dancing/marching down the street from St Pauls and the police started to try to usher us off the street, we were making real headway; most people were ignoring the rozzers and pressing forward, we had a lot of attention from people on the street and on buses, in cars, shops etc and I think we could've got a lot more if we'd walked further. A tip for the future, if people agree to keep moving forward, it's important to have people at the edges a front banner who will not be physically or 'morally' intimidated by the police. Those people should, possibly, just make sure they're there in future. That's all.

Hi, I'm an anarchist from Seattle so I'm not sure if this is relevant in the UK. Anyway I thought I'd post some things I've found when dealing with police who are trying to disperse crowds. It's important to have millitant people on the edges of any banner. Try to have at least your front banner have a pole in the middle as well as the sides. This way the banners shape can changed to as narrow a ^ as you need to pass through the police assuming you don't want to just knock them over. Also this provides protection for the other people who might be scared off the streets by the cops were they confronted. This can also be done by having two banners on each side to form a solid wall on three sides. This also stops the cops from rushing in the middle of the group as easily and of course banners are the best way to protect against rubber bullets. The police are always going to try to seperate the crowd into the a small group of militants and a large group of "spectaters". YOU can not let that happen once the police scare some people away others will follow and you no longer have the advantage. Try to give people as much reason as possible not to leave. As soon as the police start trying to disperse you start chants to strengthen resolve "hell no we wont go" "whose streets, our streets" etc. Link arms if possible as you walk this means people have to go through another step before they can disperse. Always keep people moving even if it's slowly. Ignore them the cops as you walk. Other people will see this and will be more likely to do the same if somebody is stopped by a cop and told to leave GO GET THEM link arms on both sides and start walking. Try to have something on the back of banners like Solidarity that people can see that reinforces the idea of staying together. Keep extra masks/bandanas on you so people who get scared can put them on. In the case you have to push the police back try metal trash can lids or any type of shield. Have a solid line of people with lids behind the cloth banner. This way you can push the police at least as hard as they push you. The banner means they can't grab your shields or baton you and if they grab the banner and try to pull it away they'll fall down because they're not pushing back at you. Just remember to not have the banner too tight and make sure the end people are slightly back and ready to move forward quickly. Every situation is different so be creative. If you are trying to march somewhere and you see the police are gathering in front of you try to get there before they have a solid line
and look as intimidating as possible. The harder it looks like it's going to be to disperse you the less likely they are to try. Generally we tell people the look on your face should be one that says if the cop looking at you try's to get anywhere near you your going to fucking kill him and tear him apart right there. In Seattle the police retreated when we threw fire crackers/ bottles at them. In D.C for the IMF/WB we rushed them with sections of chain link fences ripped from contruction sites. In Eugene Oregon they formed a line in front of us so we all ran down a alley which caught them off guard and they had to chase after us. The point is just keep calm and keep together there is always something that will work. I'm not sure if this helps I'm sure people have heard most of this before, but good luck in the future. Sorry my message is so long
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