Notts People In Manchester

On Friday there was a picket of the Italian Consulate in Picadilly ( https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/09/409070.html) Around 50 activists distributed 1000 leaflets giving people in the street information about the Italian governments disgraceful treatment of Roma people. In echoes of the Nazis the Italian state is introducing the compulsory fingerprinting of Roma people in order to control them and turning a blind eye to spiralling racist attacks. Some of us tried to get in to the building to have a chat with the people who work there. Although most were turned away by the cops we received reports of people 'holding out in the toilets' on the 7th floor for some time!

On Saturday there was an autonomous Freedom of Movement block on the anti-war march ( https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/09/409179.html) Trying to stay separate from the tired old left cliches and good behaviour we took an anti-state anti-capitalist message to the streets of Manchester. Unfortunately the cops managed to distract us into a fight against them instead of the masters of capital with their usual baiting tactics (shutting down the sound system, trying to arrest people who refused to unmask, massive surveillance:  https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/09/409195.html) We had to kick them out of the block on a couple of ocasions to stop our comrades being arrested.

There was a fairly humorous spirit in the block compared to the granite faces and repetitive chanting of the trots. We ran through underpasses screaming, heckled the residents of gentrified areas of the city centre as well as a hapless stop the war steward who was collecting stacks of money from middle-class anti-capitalists in a wheelie bin. We even had a go at kettling the cops which they really didn't like!

At the end of the day it was just another A to B march - the kind of thing that we normally slag off stop the war for getting involved in. There was no serious attempt to disrupt the massively policed conference and any discomfort 'the rich' might have felt would have been short lived. However it was great for meeting anarchists in Manchester and for forming and holding an autonomous zone amongst the spineless ranks of the main march's organisers. To their credit many of SWP placard waving demonstrators saw what that what we were doing was a bit more interesting and came to march alongside us. But maybe in future keeping an eye out for ways of causing more disruption and spoiling the charade of the conference would be better.