London Indymedia

Capitalism isn't in crisis; capitalism IS crisis!

IMC-UK Features | 12.10.2008 19:47 | Globalisation | London

As financial markets continue to slump around the world, several hundred people gathered in the City of London on Friday 10th to voice their anger over the British governments plan to commit over 50 billion GBP of public funds to shore up 'confidence' in British markets.

Following a series of calls [1 | 2] that had been circulated in different websites and forums, angry students and activists meet in the late afternoon outside Bank tube station at the heart of the City of London. The demonstrators soon moved on to the prestige shopping centre (The Royal Exchange) which they attempted to storm, and then moved towards the Bank of England but were quickly repulsed by police. They then went on a tour of nearby streets, often pushing through police lines that seemed to be quite unprepared for the unfolding protest. Eventually there was a sit-down as the protesters reached Bishopsgate, and finally a short rally with speeches on the corner of London Wall and Bishopsgate, after which the demonstrators slowly dispersed. At the same time, a group of clowns also toured The City with placards such as "There's no business like no business".

Newswire Reports: City of London clashes, Pictures | Anti-Capitalist Demonstration at Bank | Stopping the city | Video

A similar demonstration has now been called in Edinburgh on the 24th of October.

Rally at the end of the protest
Rally at the end of the protest


Reports Elsewhere: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Read SchNEWS take on the current 'crisis' situation End of the World is Nigh, and Corporate Watch analysis Bush:"This sucker could go down." If only!

IMC-UK Features

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

ffs

12.10.2008 23:26

is a slightly critical attitude too much to ask? Why wasn't it mentioned that the City demo was SWP/SWSS-originated and, despite apparently failed attempts by L&S/'Collapse Faster' to generate broader attendance, remained a primarily SWP event as that insidious party frantically attempts to find a new set of campaigns to keep the faithful active?

This pathetic attempt to re-label an SWP event as a generic 'anti-capitalist' event is harmful to everyone involved, apart possibly from the SWP.

ffs


Were you even there?

13.10.2008 11:48

> Why wasn't it mentioned that the City demo was SWP/SWSS-originated and,
> despite apparently failed attempts by L&S/'Collapse Faster' to generate
> broader attendance

How were they apparently failed?

ACAB


don't need to spell things out ...

13.10.2008 12:19

Hey ffs!

I think the pics in the reports of the feature speak louder than words in terms of what was the political make up of that demo, I don't think it needs to be spelled out in the feature .. people are not dumb you know?

Besides the feature doesn't even describe the protest and an 'anti-capitalist demo per se as you claim. If what you refer to is the title of the feature, well, regardless of who turned up to the demo or who didn't, the title still states a fact, doesn't it?

A more argumented comment about what are you trying to say would probably do good to everyone. A simple ffs here and there doesn't say much .. apart from being a lazy way of communicating.

maqui


Truthful facts.

14.10.2008 12:18

First to ffs, Ii is clear SWP had large and effective numbers but this was a united fight back against capitalism and the bail out of the bankers. It is this united fight back that needs to grow amongst workers, students, activist.

I worked on building the demo all everyday of the week and even a few nights and we were working on building a united fight back to this crisis. I am a member of SWP yet I was amongst many friends from other affiliations on Friday and that was motivating in itself.

Secondly around demonstrators attempting to storm The Royal Exchange, I’d like to clarify that about 20 of us succeeded in storming inside where we continued to demonstrate. I even received a good boot in my gonads from a copper while I was laying on the floor of The Royal Exchange, so I’m very confident in saying the press have been inaccurate by only stating an attempted storm of The Royal Exchange.

Let us start to prepare for bigger, similar protests in the near future, as the bail outs increase and more and more working class people are the victims of a capitalist system obviously only interested in protecting the rich.

Jake


Clap a Banker or should that be fuck one 5th Novemebr London.

16.10.2008 11:39

Well that’s what I’d really like to call for but there’s fuck all chance of it happening given the current levels of torpor in the anarchist movement……….oh sorry - ‘movement’ is something you dont get from anarchists at the moment.

Given the collapse of the free market and the hostility towards fat cat bankers you might have thought some anarchist action in the City might be a posibility……..but no…..we can only manage the Bookfair…..fucking multi fucking tasking is beyond us!

Each person is going to pay £16,000 per year for the bail out of the banks, the figure world wide 2000000000000 yes that is 2 trillion, the price we have paid in the UK could pay to keep all planned closures of post office open for 300 years, it's 3 times the income of a person on social security benefits.

Again the working class pay to bail out the Middle Class, it is estimated by December 2008 there will be 2 million on benefits, as we go into another global recession those in poverty will increase, I have been through recessions, been there in the 1970s and was stood on the picket lines 25 years ago with the miners.

Been at the front line of the 1970s and 1980s, there is nothing to celebrate here, if only this was 1929 and the bankers were jumping out of windows, there has been some signs of resistance, we need to increase the pressure, it is not utopian to say we need to organise more reclaim the city actions as happened in the 1980s, also June 18th 1999.

This time we need to take the anger further than slogans of burn the rich, perhaps this time we do need to burn them, if only the riots of Toxteth had happened six months before during the strike of 1984, just think would there have been enough police to deal with this?

Could it had been the army on the streets? What if? Of course a big question, but if we organise, riots of course are organic but there is no reason they could not happen, would there be enough police and army if every city went up?

We remember the glorious poll tax riot, and the 18 million that refused to pay, we are not dreamers when we say it could be possible for a TAX STRIKE, or those who are being asked 16,000 a year to bail out the bankers, this not our crisis so why should we pay?

underclassrising have been lurking in the dark corners of this urbanparanoia, the moment is ours brothers and sisters, we are not seeking the reform of capitalism, but its abolition. Capitalism is anarchy, we desire anarchism. Are we prepared to take now or stay the same, is what we need to be asking?

Instead some of us propose an action even a few people can pull off - CLAP A BANKER DAY - where we applaud and cheer individual or groups of bankers for their selfless hard work as they go about the city complete with hunting horns and clappers. Any takers?

underclassrising.net

underclassrising.net
mail e-mail: underclassrising.net
- Homepage: http://underclassrising.net


Timing is everything

29.11.2008 09:59

Presumably Underclass has it right. Fuck a Banker is about the only reward most can give to Bankers for doing so much to collapse Capitalism.

Bush and Brown might have earned Orders of Lenin working to destroy their Countries by debauching the currencies, but it is the Bankers who really fouled thing up and enabled Brown and Bush to ensure there will be no early recovery from the approaching Depression. The resources for that have been squandered guarranteeing Bank deposits and push us towards hyperinflation.

Will the Depression be deep enough and last long enough to enable Earth to recover from Man's pollution without a Mass extinction that takes out Homo Sap? Or is it already too late?

Ilyan
- Homepage: http://www.iww.org/en/node/3855


thats it?

01.04.2009 21:10

thats it?

a few smashed windows? hypothetically speaking, you could have done that over night with a few individuals.

EPIC. FAIL.

anon


well done

12.10.2009 19:51

well done love it, don't love Trotsky but good work.

terry


Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

London 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

London IMC

Desktop

About | Contact
Mission Statement
Editorial Guidelines
Publish | Help

Search :