Marching into the City

Published: August 02, 2010 12:19 by Sarah

I attended this demo and was very pleased it happened. The issue should not be put to bed.
Although only 200 people, it could have been good, however, it was spoiled by people shouting "no justice, no peace, fuck the police". Although we all think this, when are people going to realise this is not a good thing to shout at demos? There is a time and a place for this.

"Normal" people are threatened by loads of people ballied up dressed in black carrying anarchist flags (advertising their ideology -just like SWP) shouting this in the street. They are put off. It's also a lame thing to shout, wouldn't something actually referring to the murder of Tomlinson have been more appropriate and MORE EFFECTIVE? People on the street probably didn't know why we were marching.

We need to think/act tactically

Everyone, even right wing people, are furious with the police over Tomlinson's death. There were probably only 200 people on the demo because most people were working. Non active friends of mine said they would have liked to have gone. However, if they saw that demo, which created a total vibe of "us" anarchos and "them" everybody else, they would not be inspired to join the campaign.

The war is hearts and minds, while we are few nothing will ever change. We are so dumb the powers that be don't have to fuck our movement, we fuck it ourselves.

Published: August 03, 2010 10:00 by a not-ashamed anarchist

look sarah, if we all think that, why shouldn't we scream that? it's an old, powerful slogan, never more appropriate than this time. and the shift sould be on NO JUSTICE-NO PEACE. you see, there's a cause-effect link.
unsuspecting people on the streets had the banners to form an idea of what was happening.
i'm not british and i'm always surprised at how unradical even the most radical brits can be. yours is a perfect example of excessive political correctness.
we shouldn't be ashamed of what we think and feel as anarchist. the hope of converting random people to your cause (let's just shout a little less loud, and say moderate common sense things) is what looks SWP-style to me.

Published: August 03, 2010 12:36 by sarah

Being PC or fluffy-liberal is something I am definitely not. I have a constant burning rage inside me against this fucked up system we live in. I want change, fundamental, radical change.

But as I said in the previous comment, to attain this we have to act tactically. The key point here is TACTICS.

If the point of the demo was to just vent our anger and nothing else maybe you feel the demo went well. But what does just getting out on the street and just having a shout about do?

If the point of the demo was to try n keep the pressure on the issue of police brutality and the murder of Ian and draw more people into the protests next time, it totally failed.

I totally get your point about the old slogan of the no justice no...blah blah, and I think it's a good one. But there is a time and place for it. When hundreds and thousands of people are marching together united against capitalism and those that defend it, then we shout it. Otherwise we ostracise ourselves and remain the small few handful of absolutely non-effective activists in this country that we are.

Published: August 04, 2010 19:03 by Attendee

I was at the demo and march for Ian Tomlinson and I was disappointed to see and hear the manner of the demonstration. The biggest and most prominent banner said "Fuck the law, not the poor" with the constant chanting of "No justice, no peace, fuck the police." It's as if we need to use the word 'fuck' to get our message across. We do not! Is the most profound and appropriate statement we can muster "Fuck the law, not the poor"? Is this really how we are going to engage with the largest number of people?

The way the demonstration and march should have been approached was that we were part of the people, demanding justice and accountability for deaths caused by police. Instead the group as a whole appeared like a bunch of misfits who just relished the opportunity to swear at the police and get away with it, which only resulted in onlookers feeling even more alienated to this very important cause of police violence and unaccountability.

Shame.

Published: August 04, 2010 19:23 by me

first off, what are you trying to achieve with your complaining? is your comment writing on indymedia going to do anything? like change the character of the next march? i don't think so.

so, while i agree that talking about tactics is important (though i don't agree with the posted opinions), this is the wrong place to do it. go organise a meeting or event. or another protest. bring those people and banners you would want to see and stop complaining if others don't do what you would do. it's not helping anything at all.

so a) indymedia is no discussion forum and less an organisational platform. it's a news project. did any of the comments above contain additional information that wasn't in the original article? not so.

and b) because noone called for a protest, classwar did. in the original call ian bone says: "I’d much rather some other organisation/people would do this but the moment can not be left to pass and in the absence of any other proposal in the name of London Class war ( two people and a dog) we will gather outside the offices of Keir Starmer the DPP next Friday from 12-2pm."

http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/you-get-back-to-your-million-pound-house-paul-king-to-the-dpp/

if classwar calls for something, it's likely to have a certain character. if you want something with a different character and different type people, get off the sofa and off the internet and make it happen. posting comments on indymedia ain't going to make anything happen.

now, stop moping, get organising

Published: August 05, 2010 11:41 by london imcista

the post by 'me' is spot on in my opinion. he/she states that:

"a) indymedia is no discussion forum and less an organisational platform. it's a news project. did any of the comments above contain additional information that wasn't in the original article? not so. "

yup, that's correct. indymedia newswire is not a discussion forum, nor it intends to be and much less it wants to be. indymedia is a radical, grass-roots and autonomous news platform for people to create their own news ... the type of news that the mainstream and corporate media chose to ignore.

indymeedia london has effectively done away with the notion of 'comments'. comments as such DO NOT exist anymore in imc-london. the newswire is not a place to just express opinions about what others do or not do. the wire is for news and reports, and what once was the 'comments' facility, now, if you pay some attention, you'll see that they are called 'additions'. this means that the facility is for adding info related to the post, and not just to say whatever one may or not may think about it.

open posting is about collectively creating content, making direct media that is relevant to the movement(s) engaged in positive social change. it is definitely not a free for all tool for anyone to just say whatever that comes to their heads. if people have strong opinions about things, that's kool, but then they use a forum to express them, or even better, create their own own blog and say whatever they want in there.

cheers, and keep contributing positive stuff to imc-london!