Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

'they owe us' - canary wharf - J14 - pics and words

rikki | 15.06.2013 23:26 | G8 2013 | Climate Chaos | Energy Crisis | Policing | London

on friday, as part of the london week of action prior to the G8 in northern ireland, a few hundred people protested in the belly of the capitalist beast, canary wharf. in some ways a victory, in many ways a disappointment.

tripods up
tripods up

crisis banner
crisis banner

fuel poverty
fuel poverty

compere
compere

propoganda
propoganda

pete the temp
pete the temp

workshop
workshop

intrusion of PLOs at occupy assembly
intrusion of PLOs at occupy assembly

cold dip
cold dip

multinational flag
multinational flag

i've got some bamboo sarge
i've got some bamboo sarge


earlier this week, police, controversially and possibly illegally, stormed the convergence squat two hours before G8 protests began in the west end. the rest of the day the protest itself was very heavily policed.

on wednesday, a few dozen anti-militarist protestors were greeted by 40 vans of riot police outside the BAE systems hq in victoria.

given this background, and with a 2011 high court injunction still in place at canary wharf estate prohibiting 'any persons unknown remaining on the estate in connection to protest action', backed by the private entity's own security force, there was some concern over whether friday's 'they owe us' protest would pass off peacefully, if at all.

on the day, despite a massive police and canary wharf security turn-out, the event went ahead without hindrance. this was later described by the organisers as an 'amazing day of resistance', but i can't help feeling that the fairly small numbers and the wholly non-confrontational nature of the protest had rather more to do with it being tolerated by the authorities.

in the week before the G8, the message of the protest was that debt has become the driving force of economics, used to divide people, enslave people, and widen the gap between rich and poor. using the straplines 'they owe us' and 'shift the debt', they highlight the enormous tax breaks given to fossil fuel extraction companies, the huge bail-outs given to the banks funding these projects, and the tax evasion by corporations, connecting climate change, austerity and cuts as the inevitable outcome.

taking this message to the heart of financial capitalism was a noble idea, but with only a couple of hundred people bothering to turn out, unfortunately it became more of a curiosity to the passing bankers than a real challenge.

with loads of riot vans parked nearby as back-up, the square itself was controlled by a couple of dozen canary wharf uniformed security, several dozen police, half a dozen police liaison officers, and an equal number of undercover security men and women (easily spottable close up by their very discreet pink earpieces which looked like earplugs).

while volunteers held up a huge 'capitalism = crisis' banner, along with another which read 'shift the debt', two bamboo tripods appeared, and climbers held up a 'they owe us' banner between them. a bicycle sound system was used throughout the afternoon to present speakers, musicians and poets, while a smaller amplifier was used in a workshop area.

among the many speakers and performers were david graeber, danny chivers and pete the temp, with presentations from 'no dash for gas', londond pensioners assoc, DPAC, and ukuncut, while workshops were also facilitated by some of those groups as well as haringey solidarity group, and fuel poverty action. all this took place between the tall towers of mammon, surrounded by expensive waterside wine bars, near to a motor show exhibiting the latest high-end vehicles from the likes of jaguar, and under a huge orwellian rolling news display that told us iran was funding terrorism and the london stock exchange was down a couple of points while house prices were at their highest.

by the time the 'occupy assembly' was called, people were drifitng away, and there were maybe a hundred people involved while others sat around in the sun and a few decided to have a very cold dip in the water.

at the end, the bike sound system headed south to the 'food liberation front' event at crossharbour, followed by a few dozen activists and of course a lot of police.

if this report sounds a bit negative, i just want to clarify i have nothing against the organisers - they worked hard to put together an interesting and informative afternoon. i also believe that all forms of protest are worthwhile, from letter-writing to direct action, and it is important to try and find grounds for engagement and solidarity rather than sniping at people whose approaches differ from others. i guess i'm just disappointed at the turn-out and i wonder what it's going to take for more ordinary people to realise we/they CAN change things and it's worth taking to the streets.

rikki
- e-mail: rikkiindymedia(At)gmail[d0t]com

Additions

NB

15.06.2013 23:31

click on pics for larger versions.
images free for credited non-commercial use - otherwise ©2013 contact author

for sporadic live tweets from events @rindyrikki

rikki
mail e-mail: rikkiindymedia(At)gmail[c0m]


Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Thanks...

16.06.2013 09:11

It's always good to read reports of actions, demonstrations and elements of our struggle, so thanks for writing the above.

I do wish people would people would stop calling things negative or positive though, all reflection is useful and helps us work out what to do, so let's not apologise for criticism and perspective, whether the organisers or participants in events like or agree with it or not.

Ree Mas


few thoughts

16.06.2013 10:59

Agree with Rikki, we should be supporting all kinds of action in these pretty miserable times, not attacking organisers. But also agree we need constructive reflection and criticism. In that spirit, a few thoughts come to mind regarding J14 and J11:

** The "fluffy" J14 protest set out to involve disabled people, old people, and more liberal groups etc. It bears noting though that this didn't get MORE people on the streets than the openly confrontational "spiky" J11. The liberal pacifist line that we need to tone down our confrontation and come across as "good protesters" to reach the "masses" is patronising bullshit. There is no one "general public", there are people who want to avoid confrontation, and people who are much angrier than your average black blocker. Anyway, the reality is that both events only got a few hundred out. Neither managed to attract many people outside already politically engaged/activisty circles.

** The spiky J11 certainly got a lot more publicity and attention for anti-capitalist messages than the fluffy J14. It also cost the state and businesses probably a good few million in terms of policing, security on all the targets, businesses shutting or taking measures for the week. Fluffy J14 got nice reports from e.g. the Guardian which sympathises with this kind of "good" protest, but spiky J11 could not be ignored by masses of domestic and international media, thanks in this case to the police and their response.

** While probably there were a lot of the same people on both days, there will also have been people who were attracted to one but not the other. Anything that encourages people to come together and challenge capital, takes some action, spreads ideas, and reclaims some space is better than nothing. Both days did this to some extent at least. The J14 rhetoric about a great day of resistance is overblown, but it did achieve something. The more action the better.

** That said, one question: would it have been possible for the organisers of J11 and J14 to combine their efforts and organise one common action day? Neither group had many people organising their events. If they had combined some of their forces, perhaps they would have had the capacity for a serious publicity effort to reach beyond their activist circles? Of course, it is often just better to go our own ways and do different actions. We don't have to form some grand consensus before taking action with our comrades. But IF we do want to organise big street mobilisations again, could we form wider coalitions that bring together the resources of both "fluffies" and "spikies"? Or maybe separate blocs with different publicity, if we can't agree on that, but converging in the same area on the same day?

@


Numbers and resistance

16.06.2013 15:09

I think the anti G8 protests in London were very insping despite the low numbers. I still do not understand why there were so many police for such a small number of protesters, and what they wanted from us?!
We made the headline, and the protests in London were reported by the media all over the world, alongside the much larger protests in Turkey.
It has always been my problem with the great G8 protests in the past: we gather once a year to oppose the G8 ... then what? At the time we had many thousands of people taking to the streets, not a few hundreds. I suppose numbers ebb and flow, according on how successful our actions. I think the central messages from Canary Wharf and from every other meeting was: take it back to your communities, organize resistance from there - beginning with the Greek commrades who have come share with us their very inspiring experience organizing with the communities in various boroughs of Athens.
I was very disappointed on the first day, seeing how few people turned up, and how many police... I was thinking that maybe the time of this type of protest is over, and we need to think of new strategies... then I realised the new strategies are already there, in the struggles of the disabled and other people against the cuts, against the debt, to save essential services... I thought it was amazing to see all these campaigns coming together and holding a free people's assembly in the heart of the beast, in Canary Wharf.
As people are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet, discontent grows. The riots in 2011 were a good example of what people can do when they are pissed off - and I won't drink it that the riots weren't 'sufficiently political' or people were just stealing consumers goods: to have thousands of angry people in control of the streets and the police running because they cannot do anything else looks political enough to me, though of course people may need more reflection on the real causes of their discontent... In the meantime, police control and repression have increased, as the State and ruling classes are expecting more riots. Police helicopetrs are flying over our estates any time, the police have been trained to use tasers and water cannons... hope we just don't lag behind in the preparation of the next round of trouble. We are the seed of the revolution: educate, agitate, organize!

Chiara (no borders)


assembly notes/decisions

18.06.2013 14:54

Did anything significant come out of the general assembly? Can't see any minutes/notes on theyoweus website or occupylondon website...

Or was it mainly just openmic style discussion without concrete outcomes?

anonymous


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech