police

On Sunday, Solidarity Federation was contacted by a Guardian journalist regarding revelations that police in London were advising members of the public to report local anarchists as potential terrorists. SolFed's external relations officer, who is delegated by our organisation to deal with press and media enquiries, made a statement which was quoted in Monday's newspaper and can be read below.

The police have subsequently retracted their advice after it resulted in widespread hilarity amongst anarchists and non-anarchists alike.

Police raids on anarchist and progressive social centres in Brighton and London ahead of the royal wedding amount to little more than the force giving the media a good yarn while attacking political activists, according to anarchist union group the north London Solidarity Federation. 

"The Met is well enough informed and funded to be fully aware of what anarchists have planned for tomorrow - which mostly amounts to taking a nice day off and avoiding the telly. Even people who think of anarchists as just thugs must surely realise that no-one's going to be stupid enough to seriously kick off in the middle of a crowd of tens of thousands of monarchists supported by thousands of police?

Bristol Solidarity Federation openly condemn the heavy-handed policing that provoked a brave resistance from Bristol's working class.

It seems difficult to fully understand what led to the night's event. Truth is the first casualty of war and this is another event in an ongoing class war. The police version of events will no doubt be accepted by the media and liberal minds. While the media are happy to focus on disgruntled anti-Tesco protesters. Yet underneath we easily observe a growing discontent with capitalism's gross iniquities, its market-led answers to the distribution of social goods alongside the state's willingness to enforce the wishes of the ruling class.

As the dust settles we are left with a feeling that this is the opening of a new battle, to enforce the rights of the property-owning classes and ensure the future profits of corporations.

We're writing this to you to try and prevent the anti-cuts struggle being split up and weakened by the media.

We are anarchists (well, anarcho-syndicalists, technically) – a word that is much misunderstood and misrepresented. We are also students, workers and shop stewards. We co-organised a 'Radical Workers Bloc' on the South London feeder march. The aim was to provide a highly visible radical presence within the workers movement of which we are a part, advocating strikes, occupations and civil disobedience.

Saturday's demonstration was far bigger than anyone expected, and saw thousands go beyond a simple A-B stroll to take direct action. The UK Uncut actions on Oxford Street and in occupying Fortnum and Masons provoked harsh treatment from police, including mass arrests.

The Millbank riot and some of the subsequent student protests have been widely condemned in the media as the actions of a 'violent minority'. NUS president Aaron Porter infamously described the riot as ‘despicable’. Property destruction, we were told, undermined the message of the NUS’ peaceful protest. This was the behaviour of ‘anarchists’, outsiders hijacking what would otherwise be respectable political protest in a liberal democracy. But liberals would do well to reflect on their own glass house before casting such rhetorical stones.

Liberalism: doctrine of the violent minority

Liberalism in fact is nothing but the ideology of minority violence par excellence. Margaret Thatcher’s favourite thinker, Adam Smith, was refreshingly frank about this back in the 18th century:

Students walking out on 24th November should avoid being trapped outside the Lib Dem HQ, says one of the groups behind the Radical Workers and Students Bloc on the 10th November demonstration. Instead, according to South London's branch of the anarcho-syndicalist Solidarity Federation, those taking action on this day should hold roaming marches blockading general economic targets.

By attempting to occupy the Liberal Democrat HQ, students and workers are likely to be confronted by a much greater show of police force than was encountered at Millbank Tower. The Metropolitan police were left red faced by the trashing of the building containing Conservative Party HQ and will be looking to ensure that those events are not repeated. Anyone going there risks being kettled and quite possibly feeling the wrong end of a truncheon. To keep the movement growing we need to spread throughout the city bringing it to a standstill.

The London Metropolitan Police force led the way on May Day - in taking every chance they could to screw overtime pay.

Following weeks of press and police harrassment, May day protests went ahead as planned. Niketown in Oxford Street didn't do a lot of business on May 1st. Meanwhile, doctors called a day of action over lack of resources and understaffing.

Elsewhere, demonstrations against capitalism and for workers were assaulted by massed ranks of police determined to clear the unwashed masses from the streets so that New Labour can keep the cash registers ringing all the way to the election.

Bad news for them - the New Labour honeymoon is long-over, and any feelgood factor is rapidly evaporating as the latest ‘economic downturn' begins to establish itself in the London Stock Exchange.