Following on from our previous Private/Public space projects which have focussed on the gentrification of London and the erosion of civil liberties that that entails, the Space Hijackers headed out to the Truman Brewery complex on Brick Lane to enforce the rules that are implicit, and perhaps not so implicit in such places. Stopping people from drinking, smoking, talking, loitering, laughing and even reading our sign!

East London is a massive building site with regeneration projects, the olympics, the encroachment of the city and more changing the face of our city. As Anna Minton pointed out in her fantastic book Ground Control, these redevelopment projects, often look positive on the face, but the net result is private corporations wrestling control of our cities from the people. The poor and disadvantaged are pushed out and regeneration often means moving in a new class of people. Public land is reduced and private shopping/living/working spaces are built withprivate police (link to canary wharf security) ensuring that only certain 'welcome' people are allowed to pass through without hassle. This, as you can probably imagine, is something we oppose.

The Truman Brewery Complex just off Brick Lane is a haven for cool and alternative east-end hipsters. With record shops, fixed wheel bicycle shops, galleries, eco & small designer fashion retail and bars it buzzes with creative energy. Walking in from brick lane market you can barely tell where one starts and the other finishes, the beautiful youth litter the streets in both areas drinking from cans and checking each other out.

As they say themselves "The Old Truman Brewery, East London's revolutionary arts and media quarter, is home to a hive of creative businesses as well as exclusively independent shops, galleries, markets, bars and restaurants. For fifteen years the Old Truman Brewery has been regenerating its ten acres of vacant and derelict buildings into spectacular office, retail, leisure and event spaces. The finely tuned mix of business and leisure has created an environment unique in London, making the Old Truman Brewery ;
a destination in its own right."

Alas it also borders one of London's poorest areas, so to keep the relaxed guilt free atmosphere, 24 hour security vigilantly patrol the entrances and spaces. The homeless, poor and troublemakers are kept out, bags are searched, people sitting on the wrong part of the pavement are moved on, only food and drink bought at high price on the premises is allowed to be consumed, and the hipster haven is preserved.

We thought it was high time that the exclusivity and hypocrisy of this 'revolutionary arts and media quarter" was a little more revealed. So with our new easily portable signs (unlike the beast we used to wheel around) in hand we set off to help the security keep the area safe and secure for everyone...

Dressed in black we set up first at the entrance facing Spitalfields Market. We popped up our banners and immediately started keeping the space safer.

"Oi you, no photography!"
"No Running, Slow down"
"Did you buy that drink on the premesis? You'll have to finish it here"
"I'm sorry, no phonecalls in this area, please hang up"
"No cycling! walk that machine"
"Do you have a job? can you afford to shop here?"
"No questions please"
"Move along please, nothing to see"
"No reading our sign sir!"

Before long we were joined by the regular security, obviously eager to help us out. 

"Who do you work for? What are you doing, this is private property, you can't do this here". 
"We're just making the area safe and secure, we're here to help"
"Do you work for the council?"
"We're just concerned that the wrong types might get through, and intend to keep this area safe"
"I'm calling my boss"

'The boss' arrived, and to be fair to him was a clever chap. I think he realised we were looking for a rise, so he simply turned around and said that if we moved 1m away, so we weren't in front of the door he was more than happy for us to continue. 
"I've been asking my boss for ages to make me some signs, like these. I can see it's very tongue in cheek, personally I really like what you're up to, I'm not sure about the No OAPs though, my gran wouldn't like that"

As always our issue is usually with the people who design, build and own such spaces rather than the people who are paid to work there. However we soon realised that there was a greater audience to be had at the main Brick Lane entrance.

Moving around we set up camp again to a much more receptive audience. The guard at the entrance had obviously been briefed to leave us alone, and so we were free to harass and berate the public for walking too slowly, running, smoking, drinking, holding hands, kissing, loitering, not shopping, asking questions, taking our photograph and more. Even the pretent police who turned up enjoyed the rigid law obiding.

Lots of people 'got' what we were up to, and started deliberately dancing, singing, smoking and taking pictures to break the rules. We had people join us in telling off the passers by, and lots of discussion about private/public space and regeneration. Some people took a little longer than others to realise the game, and so cigarettes we're put out, drinks put down and conversations stopped before they read to the bottom of our sign and smiled.

Next stops The Westfield Centre, The Olympic Village, One New Change, St Martin's Court_Yard and Cardinal Place

A report on London CAAT's protest about Lockheed Martin's role in the UK census

As part of Count Me Out's weekend of action against Lockheed Martin's deplorable involvement in the census, Saturday saw London CAAT members carry out a protest at Victoria station.

The protesters engaged with the public for nigh-on two hours and found a lot of sympathy for our cause (one passerby even said we were saving the world but I wouldn't go that far!). We handed out 400 leaflets as well as a number of stock letters that people could send to their MPs. The Guantanamo Bay-style costume attracted a lot of attention (Lockheed contracts out interrogation at Guantanamo Bay) and enabled us to inform the public why we were there.

£150m of taxpayers money has been given to the biggest arms company in the world (according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's latest list of top arms-producing companies) to help run the census. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Britain's Trident nuclear weapons and also produces Joint Strike Fighters and F-16 fighters.

Another issue stems from the fact that they are an American company - under the US Patriot Act any personal data held by companies with systems in the US has to be made available to government intelligence, thus meaning our details could end up in the hands of the US government. Finally, our government does not have a good record of storing data securely.

For more information, visit the Count Me Out website at http://www.countmeout.me.uk. Here you can find a number of actions you can take regarding the census, from boycotting it entirely to spoiling your census paper as well as writing protest letters to your MP and the Office of National Statistics.

Also, the Peace News log has a piece on how to fill in your census form without Lockheed Martin profiting - http://www.peacenewslog.info/2011/03/how-to-fill-in-your-census-form-without-lockheed-martin-profiting-short-version/. And finally Indymedia has a supplementary page you can enclose with your form - http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2011/03//475485.pdf.

Demonstration against Lockheed Martin and 2011 UK census processing

According to information compiled by 'Count me Out', (a collective taking action against the 2011 census as a result of the ties with Lockheed Martin UK) the government awarded the World's second biggest arms company a £150m contract to help run the data processing for the 2011 UK census.

Count me out take the view that "Our government shouldn't be paying an arms company, which fuels conflict and war, huge amounts of money to help run the census."

The company used to have offices in Victoria but they were recently moved to an unknown location.

Perhaps best know in the UK for producing Britain's Trident nuclear weapons, they have also sold weapons to Bahrain which have been used recently against anti-government protesters in line with sweeping protests across the Middle-East.

The census is undertaken by the government every 10 years and is a method of counting people and households in the UK. Under UK law, every household is obliged to fill in the relevant information which can be done online, by post or collected by census agents.

Census day for this year is March 27th.

…You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows: occupation of universities everywhere in Europe, blockage of the cities, manif sauvage, rage. This is the answer of a generation to whom they want to cut the future with debts for studying, cuts of welfare state and increasing of tuition fees. 

The determination of thousand of students in London, the rage of who assault the Italian Senate house against the austerity and the education cuts, has opened the present time: this is because the future is something to gain that start when you decide collectively to take risk and to struggle.

The extraordinary struggles that we are living have the capacity to show a present with an intensity that exceed the linearity of the time, that refuse our precarity condition: it is an assault to the future!

We don’t want to get into debt, we don’t want to pay more fees to study in London as well as in Paris, Wien, Rome, Athens, Madrid, Dublin, Lisbon. This European movement is about refusing austerity policies, refusing to get into debt for these miserable politicians. Que se vayan todos!

What is happening nowadays in Rome first spread out in Athens and Paris, then in Dublin and London: it is the irruption of a movement who speaks a common language, the same young generation in revolt, who inhabits different cities but shares the same determination to struggle, «floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee».

We have to meet each other and invent a new political grammar against the weakness of the Nation-state and their strategy to face the crisis: their receipt is just austerity, cuts and debt.          

In Italy we have occupied not only universities, but also blocked motorways and the mobility of the country in order to circulate struggles outside the national borders and coming in Europe and beyond. The circulation of struggles is living within the Book Block and the wild demonstration in London, Paris and Rome.

This autumn we are living a real European student movement, that is various and radical, really heterogeneous. Its common reclaim comes from a protest that is born in the middle of the crisis, and that represents the most courageous answer. It is a struggle composed by different struggles, heterogeneous temporalities that reclaim more scholarships for student and a public university for everyone.  

Within the book block a new generation recognized and found itself in the protest. Today in lots of cities the Italian student movement is showing something more than just solidarity: this is because your struggle is our struggle and all around Europe students are against the increasing of fees, the privatisation of the university and the education cuts.  You are not alone in UK: an European event, a new generation do not want to stop. We have the force whom want to change the world and we have the intelligence to do it. It is just the beginning!

We propose to students, researchers, precarious workers and PhD students to build up together an European meeting at the beginning of the 2011, to continue the struggle, to transform this wind in a tempest!

Uniriot Roma, Anomalia Sapienza

>> more info: www.uniriot.org

police forced students to change their plans quickly this afternoon. although organisers had furnished and agreed the route of their march from trafalgar square to parliament, within minutes of the start, police began attempting a kettle of peaceful demonstrators. in response, students changed their plans and ran around central london while police tried to contain them. eventually the focus was back at trafalgar square.

both UCL occupation and NCAFC (national campaign against funding cuts) have released statements condemning police actions at the very start of today's protests.

the original plan was to rally at trafalgar square, and then march to parliament square. police had been informed of this plan and according to the statements, agreement had been reached. however, within minutes of the rally beginning, police moved in to try to kettle the protest in trafalgar square, and not wanting to be held in freezing and wet conditions like the week before, the students quickly escaped and ran through st james' park.

groups split off, and while some arrived in parliament square, they soon saw that the square was like some sort of military zone, and barriers had been erected to keep them well away from parliament, so they headed off for a jaunt round london.

i followed one group through st james park, where i met MP john mcdonnell, who told me he thought indymedia was "brilliant".

the students i was with, made it up to oxford circus, but i heard others went via the mall with some serious skirmishes with police, and past buckingham palace and hyde park. another group of more than a thousand were seen heading along the embankment towards the city.

at oxford circus, several hundred people blocked the junction and danced to samba, but as police arrived and tried to contain the crowd, skirmishes again broke out as students rushed to escape a kettle, and some police lashed out at them. one young man was brutally arrested on regent street by members of the TSG.

by keeping to back streets and splitting up further, this group eventually made it down to trafalgar square which seemed to have become a focal point for the protest after all.

thousands of students stood on nelson's plinth, and milled aound the square, while police built up huge numbers at every road exit and brought central london to a halt.

a well-prepared group of protestors erected a small marquee tent and served hot food, while a sound sytem and a samba band provided music.

as the light faded in trafalgar square, the crowd tested two or three of the exits and more fighting broke out. at one point, police in the north-west corner made a charge into an angry crowd, and in the process a young woman was knocked unconscious. police refused to allow medics in, claiming they feared for their officers safety, even though students offered to stand well back. arguments went on for some time while the woman laid there, until eventually a group of police and medics moved forward, picked her up (without a brace or any check on her condition) and ran her behind police lines.

NB if you didn't realise, you can see larger versions of pics on indymedia london by clicking on them

some petty pilfering at tescos gave the police the excuse to close it down, and some fighting occured and a window was damaged. as riot police flooded that area, one particular inspector, pictured, lashed out at someone simply because they were "too close" (not having much room to move back because of others behind him). again, there was a serious injury as the protestor fell back and was wounded. some people screamed for medics and then carried the wounded man to the police line, also shouting at the inspector that he had done this.

this police operation eventually stood down. during it, press were not allowed in or out of cordons even with press cards.

riot police then removed protestors from the plinths, sometimes aggressively, and making at least two arrests. this large group of police guarding the plinth were taunted by the crowd who shouted "you're kettled".

again, these police withdrew, but not for long.

suddenly, hundreds of police charged across the square in full riot gear from several directions. backed up by mounted police, they formed an impenetrable kettle at the entrance to the strand, capturing probably around a couple of hundred protestors (and passers-by).

there were certainly far more police than there were students, but the students remained unfazed, shouting slogans, doing the hokey-cokey, singing carols, or just sitting under the heavy sleet and snow.

police made occasional snatches to arrest individuals alleged to have been involve in criminal damage.

i was disturbed once again (having seen a medic using fire extinguishers in the faces of protestors last week) to see medics acting like bully boys. one completely lost control at someone outside the kettle who he said was standing too  close to him. other officers had to actually restrain the medic to stop him attacking the by-stander!

over the next couple of hours, police began allowing people to leave one at a time.

customarily, kettles are employed when a section 60 has been enforced, and as people leave, they are photographed with any face-coverings removed, and they can be searched for any offensive weapons, although police often use the search as an excuse to go through any identifying documents even though strictly this is not allowed in law. however, there is no legal requirement to provide a name and address.

this evening though, police used a new technique. as each person was escorted out, they were placed in front of one of three forward intelligence teams, who interviewed them in front a bright light and video camera. they were told they were being arrested for breach of the peace, and that they therefore had to give their name and address. some were loaded into vans - others were, after giving all their details and being photographed and videoed from every angle, told they were now de-arrested and allowed to leave - many of these were under-18.

this is a worrying mass addition to the police database of young people not guilty or suspected of any crime, but simply protesting about ideological and political education cuts by an undemocratic and unelected government.

i aslo saw a line of police writing up their note-books and openly chatting and collaborating while doing so.

mainstream media are quoting around 150 arrests, although i think this includes the mock and temporary arrests as people left the kettle. however, dozens were taken away in vans and there had been several arrests earlier during the course of the day.

Protestors against lack of British support for the Tamil people and the recent offensive by the Sri Lankan Government against them continue into a second day.

Anyone with information they believe may help clarify the circumstances surrounding his death should, as soon as possible, write a full statement and contact the legal team at Bindmans Solicitors on 020 7833 4433 and the Legal Monitoring groups present at the demonstrations. Information can also be sent to Indymedia London: imc-london@indymedia.org (this is a private email address).