From ldxar1 at tesco.net Mon Jun 2 23:48:24 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 07:48:24 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] UK: Daily Mail scaremongering met with protest Message-ID: <004d01c8c545$d20530f0$0202a8c0@andy1> http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/31/dailymail.musicnews?gusrc=rss&feed=media Emo runs high as fans defend band against Daily Mail a.. Caitlin Fitzsimmons b.. guardian.co.uk, c.. Saturday May 31 2008 d.. Article history Fans of My Chemical Romance came from all over the country but the atmosphere was more carnival fairground than protest. Photograph: Anna Gordon Link to this audio There are few things that would drag a typical teenager out of bed early on a Saturday morning, but defending the honour of a beloved band from tabloid attacks is probably one of them. Around 100 My Chemical Romance fans had already gathered at Marble Arch, in central London, by 10.30 this morning - not bad given that organisers had given the protest a 12-hour window, of 10am to 10pm, and that there was a last minute change of venue. The fans were objecting to Daily Mail reports describing My Chemical Romance as a "suicide cult band" and linking the recent suicide of a Peckham schoolgirl, Hannah Bond, 13, to the fact that she had started following the band two weeks before her death. The Daily Mail has called the New Jersey-based band one of the foremost of the "suicide cult" groups forming part of the "emo" phenomenon. The paper described "emo" as a teenage trend that started in the US in the 1980s and was "characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide". Its followers, the tabloid said, wore tight jeans, studded belts and wristbands and had dyed-black hair and long fringes obscuring their faces. The atmosphere at the protest was more carnival fairground than riot, with fans clutching balloons and soft toys and singing My Chemical Romance songs loudly and passionately - but not always tunefully. Lyrics included "teenagers scare the living shit out of me" and "I'm not afraid to keep on living". The overwhelming majority of the crowd were young girls, bouncing with energy and shrieking with laughter as they rushed over to hug their friends or chanted: "Don't blame MCR!" A few were dressed in typical dark, "emo" fashion but most followed the request of the organisers, who had written on the website: "Please consider dressing to suit the day ... Don't try to dress stereotypically." Many of the fans had homemade shirts with positive slogans such as, "Think happy thoughts." Protesters came from all over the country, including Brighton, Oxford and south Wales and even a few who had made an overnight roadtrip from Cornwall. Tabitha Reed, 14, travelled up from Brighton with her mother and sister and several friends and camped out at her grandmother's house in London overnight. "I love MCR, it saves lives. The Daily Mail are liars and all they want to do is put the youth against the adults; they just hate us and it's really unnecessary, it's just wrong," she said. "I've read a couple of the [Mail] articles and they've actually misquoted lyrics and the research was so badly done, it was unbelievable. I actually thought [the story] was a hoax when I found it on the internet." Vikki Bourne, who came to the protest from Crawley in West Sussex with her daughter Kayleigh, 15, and their dog, Jack, said they were both huge fans of My Chemical Romance and had a closer relationship as a result. "Emos are being portrayed as self-harming and suicidal and miserable and they're not," she said. "Since my daughter met the friends she's got, she's happy, she's got a social life, she's not suicidal, she's got confidence. It's about the music and being friends and having fun. I wanted to come here to say that, as a parent, I support what she does; [the band] are not cult, they're safe and I'm happy." The organisers had originally planned for the protest to gather at the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens and march to the Daily Mail offices in Derry Street, off High Street Kensington. The plan was altered after discussions with police because of concerns about the lack of space on the pavement opposite Northcliffe House. Instead the main protest was at Marble Arch, while small contingents of 30 people at a time kept vigil at Northcliffe House. The latter groups were ringed in by barricades but police at the scene and Associated Newspapers security staff said there had been no trouble. "It's a waste of time, there's no one here today," one security guard told MediaGuardian.co.uk. "Look at them - they're eating their lunch and their mums are off shopping." One of the few boys to attend today's protest, Craig Goodwin, 17, from Upminster in Essex, said he was there with the blessing of his parents. "They didn't mind - my dad used to do protests because he was a rocker back when it was mods and rockers, and my mum liked My Chemical Romance, so she didn't care, either," he said. "I know people who've done it [self harm] in the past but they've always come through it. Some have listened to MCR and it's built their confidence up so they could come back like they were before." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: emo460.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 35132 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Mon Jun 2 23:49:20 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 07:49:20 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] UK: Mini-insurrection against social cleansing of alcohol Message-ID: <005701c8c545$f3bbde10$0202a8c0@andy1> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7429638.stm Tube drinks party sparks mayhem Revellers drink and party on Tube Six London Underground stations were closed as trouble flared when thousands of people marked the banning of alcohol on London transport with a party. Four tube drivers, three other staff members, and two police officers were assaulted, and there were 17 arrests. Several trains were damaged and withdrawn from service, which led to suspended services. Drinkers gathered on Tube trains and station concourses for a last drink before the ban came in at midnight. Police said what should have been a fun event came to an "unfortunate" end. 'Like rush hour but fun' The ban on drinking from - or carrying - open containers of alcohol applies to the Tube, London buses, Docklands Light Railway and trams as of midnight on Saturday. It was announced by London Mayor Boris Johnson shortly after he took office, with the aim of making public transport safer and more pleasant. It's sweaty on there but I'm going round and round until I vomit Peter Moore, from Brighton Booze ends with a bang Tube party in pictures Your pictures: Tube party The party, mostly on the Circle Line, was dubbed the Last Round on the Underground or Last Orders. It had previously been widely advertised on social networking and other internet sites. The party began in a celebratory mood, with many people in good spirits and anticipating a good night. Londoner Matt Wynn, 43, a banker, said: "I've come along with a bottle of Champagne because I want to show that you can drink responsibly on the Tube and not cause trouble." But others took a different approach from the beginning. Peter Moore, 35, a sailor from Brighton, said he had downed a can of beer in 10 seconds. "It's sweaty on there, but I'm going round and round until I vomit," he said. 'More considerate' Transport for London's director of transport policing and enforcement, Jeroen Weimar, said the new policy on alcohol was a reasonable one. "We are encouraging our passengers to show a bit more respect and to be more considerate and involve other people's views and other passengers views as they make their journeys," he said. "And clearly drinking alcohol can create a culture whereby people feel it's ok to do that sort of thing, it's ok to get more drunk when you're travelling. "We're not going to the stage where we're saying we're not going to carry people who've had a few drinks and who are trying to get home." Damaged police vehicle As Saturday night wore on, eyewitnesses described how drunken partygoers began fighting and vomiting, ripping up maps and adverts, spilling alcohol and leaving debris. Liverpool Street was one of six stations closed after it was mobbed British Transport Police said there was a "large amount" of instances of disorder reported. Liverpool Street underground station was closed to ease overcrowding for several hours. Other Tube stations closed by police were Euston, Euston Square, Aldgate, Gloucester Road and Baker Street. Seventeen people were arrested for offences such as assault, being drunk and disorderly, assaulting police, public order related offences and drug offences, BTP said. One police vehicle was damaged and two officers assaulted and another injured. Police also reported four assaults on train drivers and three assaults on other members of London Underground staff. 'Risk of assault' Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) general secretary Bob Crow said: "Boris Johnson should apologise personally to all those who were assaulted and abused last night thanks to a half-baked gimmick designed solely as a publicity stunt and without a moment's thought for the people told to implement it." He said the RMT supported measures to reduces anti-social behaviour but that the ban was imposed in haste. "We warned it could put our members at greater risk of assault, but there is no comfort in being proved right when Tube workers have been injured and abused," Mr Crow added. Police said the evening started with people keen to have fun As well as assaults, there were also "multiple instances" of Tube trains being damaged, which meant they were withdrawn from service, which in turn led to several Tube services being suspended. A spokesperson for the Greater London Authority said: "Londoners are fed up of feeling threatened and intimidated on public transport. That's why the mayor has introduced an alcohol ban which came into effect today. "It is ridiculous of the RMT to suggest that the alcohol ban threatens the safety of London Underground staff, when it was the consumption of alcohol that fuelled the reprehensible incidents of violence that took place yesterday." The GLA said a majority of the London public welcomed the alcohol ban "as a reasonable step that is long overdue" and that Mr Crow was "out of step with ordinary Londoners and the vast majority of the hard-working men and women who work for London Underground". 'Dangerous' Superintendent Ellie Bird said she had no doubt that the event had begun with a small number of people keen to have fun without causing trouble. Other Tube passengers reported debris, broken glass and spilled alcohol But she added: "Alcohol has a significant impact on crime and anti social behaviour, not only rendering people more vulnerable but raising levels of aggression. "Those under the influence of alcohol are more likely to cause disruption to the service through their physical state and conduct. "We have seen numerous examples this evening of the negative impact of alcohol and antisocial behaviour. It is dangerous for those individuals and others." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: o.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: start_quote_rb.gif Type: image/gif Size: 180 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: end_quote_rb.gif Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: inline_dashed_line.gif Type: image/gif Size: 58 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: _44706384_lstreet_getty_226.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 25929 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: _44706385_platform226.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 21537 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: _44706383_debris_getty_226.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 18768 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ldxar1 at tesco.net Sat Jun 7 02:46:40 2008 From: ldxar1 at tesco.net (Andy) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 10:46:40 +0100 Subject: [Onthebarricades] US: Militant march over Sean Bell verdict - reflections Message-ID: <002901c8c883$64702040$0202a8c0@andy1> Lessons From A Sean Bell Verdict Protest Submitted by Elliott on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 04:09. Last month, three NYPD officers who were on trial for killing Sean Bell and wounding his two friends in a hail of 50 bullets were acquitted amid mass outcry. The verdict brought to a close the officers' juryless bench trial, and effectively sanctioned the NYPD's most recent murder of an unarmed black man. The acquittal set in motion a string of protests that continue to unfold, and on the day of the verdict, it prompted a particularly militant demonstration in the streets of Jamaica, Queens. When the verdict was announced, protesters gathered in Queens with the People's Justice Coalition to demand justice for Sean Bell and an end to police violence in communities of color. (I was with the crowd that day with others from the Anarchist People of Color network.) The coalition led a spirited march through downtown Jamaica that elicited cheers from pedestrians and commuters, before coming to a close near the site of Sean Bell's murder--and as soon as the official mobilization ended, a separate breakaway march erupted that would continue snaking through Queens until almost 11:30 at night. The breakaway demonstration was characterized by improvisation and militancy, and lead to confrontations with the police and exchanges between political tendencies I've rarely seen interact at other New York protests. Like many people in attendance that night, I was struck by the uniqueness of the mobilization, and I think it carries important lessons about organizing against the police state in NYC. What Happened? When a crew of protesters walked away from the close of the People's Justice march shouting "let's take it to the hood," I didn't know whether to fish or cut bait. Some around me followed the contingent down the street, while others stood confused and march marshals urged people to get home safely and clear the area. Non-committal discussions broke out among anarchists at the march: did the people leading the breakaway march live in the neighborhood? Were they members of a front group for the Revolutionary Communist Party? Was this an opportunity to interact with oppressed communities in Jamaica, and/or an attempt by some vanguardist group to co-opt popular discontent as fuel for its own agenda? I didn't have to work on Saturday, so I decided to see what developed. The breakaway contingent was nearing the Baisley Park and South Jamaica Houses (also known as "40 Projects") when I caught up with it, a few blocks away. Folks were traveling at a speedy pace, and had picked up enthusiastic pedestrians and a few cars as it went. Helicopters wheeled overhead when the march streamed into a public housing complex and took over a playground area as an impromptu stage. People came out of their homes to see what all the fuss was about, and many were visibly elated at what they found. For the next half hour, folks took turns stepping to the top of the playground's kiddie slide to denounce the brutality of the NYPD by megaphone. Spotlights swept the area from above, and a crowd of kids who gathered in front took turns holding a big, weird anarchist flag. The rally brought together an assortment of anti-imperialist Marxists, black nationalists and anarchists with people from around Jamaica who were furious at the police violence visited upon their neighborhood. Organizers rapped about the need for revolution, men from the crowd yelled about fighting back against the police, and at least one woman did too after shouts of "let a sister speak!" When it seemed the speechifying had gone on long enough and people were getting anxious, the contingent took off again. It snaked out of the projects, and if my google-mapping is correct, it crossed the county line into Long Island to drop police pursuits. Each time the march passed people on their stoops or outside businesses, some onlookers would leap up to join the demonstration for a few blocks. Others would join for good and text their friends to come and meet them (one brother boasted to me that he'd personally brought out "twenty soldiers" with a single phone call.) Eventually the demonstration re-entered Jamaica and made a bee line for the 103rd Precinct, where it met a line of helmeted, baton-wielding police officers. Facing the possibility of some serious repression, the impromptu marshals--tough-looking young men with bullhorns, who'd directed the march with help of a police scanner supposedly--encouraged people to line up in front of the cops and speak their mind. At one point they tried to separate the crowd by gender, but cut it out after being met with cries of "fuck the patriarchy!" With a mass of protesters lined up in front of the police, the bullhorn-ers then encouraged folks to to "look the pig in the eye, don't be afraid, look the pig in the eye and tell him what you think of him!" The sight made me think of Frantz Fanon urging colonized people to make the psychological leap and oppose their oppressor. Eye-to-eye with cops who harass their community on a daily basis, the crowd starting slinging epithets and outrage at a fever pitch, interrupted by the occasional count-off to 50. Of course, the speakout-cum-staring-contest couldn't go on indefinitely. After a bottle was thrown in the face of one riot cop and tensions continued to mount, the marshals decided to make a dignified exit. They called on people to disperse toward the Jamaica Center subway station, and the crowd obliged in a very loose manner. People spilled into downtown Jamaica, most of which was closed for the night, filling the four-lane streets and moving with less and less group cohesion. That's when things started breaking. As the breakaway march devolved into a crowd of angry people headed to the subway, many of the youth who had joined earlier in the night started knocking over trash cans and newspaper boxes, and flinging bottles into the street. The dudes on the bullhorns tried to reign in the fiery youth, telling them to stop trashing their own hood and bringing cops down on everyone, but the situation was beyond any one group's control. It felt less like a march at this point, and more like a mini-riot. The NYPD soon showed up with a line of squad cars two blocks long, and cleared the area with baton-wielding riot cops marching in lockstep. As I hovered near the subway, trying to see what would happen, the last remaining youth booked it down a side street, pursued on foot by police. I learned later that one youth and one incredibly dedicated legal observer were arrested. Everyone else made it out safe and sound. What Can We Learn From It? The breakaway march on April 25th was remarkable in many respects, not least of which was its relationship to the area through which it traveled. Most of the protests I've attended in NYC have moved at a nail's pace through midtown Manhattan, drawing befuddled stares from passersby. In Jamaica the situation was totally different: everywhere we went, cars and busses honked their horns in support, people hung out their windows and cheered, and would-be spectators leapt up from where they stood to join in. The murder of Sean Bell--and more broadly, the brutality unleashed by the NYPD upon communities of color--is such a prominent issue in areas like Jamaica that the march was immediately recognizable and relevant to the people who encountered it. No fancy analysis or political lingo was needed to explain the situation: it was simply part of people's lived reality. Typical protests may deal with some aspect of public policy or the oppression of a vast group or class, but the Sean Bell march addressed all these through a single, concrete event that hit people on a personal level. Typical protests may address distant issues and are easy to relate to as a spectator, but the breakaway march prompted people to engage as participants in something related to their own lives. And what participants. Some of the most militant, confrontational behavior at the breakaway march came not from the tried-and-true activist crowd, but from locals and youth who joined the march on its path through Jamaica. People unaffiliated with any explicit ideology or organization took up the even most inflammatory chants with ease ("No pigs, no prisons! Burn down the whole damn system!") and were often the most vocal advocates of self-defense against police violence. This put the self-identified anarchist crowd at the breakaway march in an interesting position: instead of playing our usual role as the incendiary element at a scripted rally, we found ourselves nervous advisers to a militant, unscripted mobilization. Throughout the march, seasoned activists tried to advise and shape the militancy that blossomed all around them, and angry folks took action against the police on their own terms regardless. At one point, a group of radical women of color scolded some local youth for picking up rocks while mothers with strollers were marching beside them. Later, I explained to a group of skittish youth that police often film demonstrations for future court cases, and they probably didn't need to worry about cops filming from the roof of the precinct unless they wanted to do something illegal. Keeping the group together, anticipating and explaining the behavior of the police, engendering a sense of calm and safety, and generally sharing and disseminating the niche knowledge of street demonstrations became a useful task for activist-y folk. Interestingly, this wasn't the same as activists "leading" the march. Yes, the route of the march itself was determined by a small crew of organizers who initiated the breakaway in the first place. Yes, many folks seemed to join us with a sense of being "along for the ride." But many people were so incensed at NYPD impunity that they were willing to take their resistance into their own hands, from escalating situations to weaving in and out of the march with friends. Combined with the impromptu nature of the march itself, this made the demonstration feel less stage-managed and more collectively determined. Pursued by helicopters, without a clear plan, and bolstered by several hundred people who wanted to express their outrage collectively, a sense of "we're all in this together" was in the air. Trust was built very quickly as the crowd twisted through Jamaica, and the usual boundaries between anarchist, Marxist and nationalist, as well as between "activist" and "non-activist," began to dissolve. During the march I shared water, conversations and urgent tactical discussions with members of radical groups I'd never met before, and talked at length with folks from the area for the first time. People who would've staked out distinct blocs at a typical protest found themselves in a situation where few cared about political labels. And finally, the breakaway march felt very different physically than many other demonstrations I've been at. In Manhattan, protests meander down gridded streets controlled by a phalanx of police and barricades, often in the heart of vapid commercial centers. In Queens, the cops kept their distance. This was partly due to timing--a mass arrest on the eve of the Sean Bell verdict wouldn't have played well on NY1--but it was also due to the areas through which the contingent traveled. The breakaway march purposely snaked through residential neighborhoods and housing projects, areas full of onlookers, open doors, alleys and front yards, all of which were a powder keg of anti-NYPD sentiment. Not only did these areas feed the march with their numbers and enthusiasm; they also provided cover for it, since repressing the demonstration in that context would've been like kicking a hornet's nest. (Or, say, trying to conduct an unplanned raid in an occupied territory.) Where Are We Now? In terms of airtime, the breakaway march on the 25th was largely overshadowed by the Manhattan-wide "slowdown" sponsored by Al Sharpton's National Action Network the following week. Strings of smaller protests have taken place in Harlem, El Barrio, Jamaica, Fort Greene and the South Bronx, but none of them have recreated the spontaneity and militancy of the breakaway march on April 25th, and a more sustained campaign or series of actions has yet to emerge. I think it's safe to say that, thus far, popular mobilization around the Sean Bell verdict has failed to translate into broader movement for self-determination in communities of color. Some of this can be attributed to a lack of follow-through and in communities that have demonstrated against NYPD impunity, particularly in a way that furthers self-organization. From my perspective, organizing after the verdict has unfolded along typically authoritarian lines: groups harness the currency of a particular issue to get people to come to their actions, at which they steadily introduce a tailored set of predetermined demands ("revolution" or "a special prosecutor"), expecting people to cozy up to their political line and support or join their organization. Instead, this often helps broad groundswells of resistance to fracture into increasingly disparate, ideologically distinct groups that promote separate events and campaigns. As marches draw fewer and fewer people, the issue recedes from the headlines. At the breakaway march, the radicals in the crowd may have sometimes been viewed as leaders, but they were never puppeteers. Even the dudes with bullhorns were never able to definitively set the goals, structure and limits of the protest according their own desires. At their best, "activists" that night were merely people with specialized knowledge for a particular context, who strove to share skills and further spaces of encounter and revolt. Beyond street demonstrations, these these same methods could easily nurture local projects and assemblies through which people determine the direction of their own struggle. This kind of movement-building is exactly the place that anarchists could be of great help. Part of me thinks we missed the T-ball this time around, but another part knows the simmering embers of social conflict are never extinguished in a society as systemically violent as our own. Popular discontent can always be rekindled into rebellion, and I think helping bring about mobilizations like the breakaway march, and translating them into structures of popular power, is a great place to start. Breaking with sectarian habits and building connections with others who organized after the Sean Bell verdict will be important to this project. So will planning fewer attention-grabbing mobilizations in fortress Manhattan, and more in (and with) communities directly affected by state violence. So will sharing skills and experience--not just fancy ideas--with the people we encounter, and constantly spreading the tools of revolt. And so will taking to heart the words of the Zapatistas: to build movement from below, you gotta "lead by obeying" and "propose not impose." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL8i1zMVIXc Elliott Liu is a NYC-based writer, activist and media-maker currently galavanting across North America in search of radical social movement. __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar MARKETPLACE Blockbuster is giving away a free trial of Blockbuster Total Access to smart movie lovers like you. Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! 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