Hot or Not - Don't #fail at #protest

Lots of people got stuck in the kettle on the day of action 24. November 2010. Many were ill prepared for being held against the will exposed to the elements without food or water. Here’s some dos and don’ts for the next round.

Read full article for the Hots and Nots in style, accesoires and preparation. Share with your mates!

Dresscode:¶

• hot: Shoes you can walk in comfortably for hours and that’ll keep your feet warm, cosy and blister free
• not: high heels, flip flops, ballerinas

more hots and nots

• hot: waterproofs, fleece, wind proof jacket and pants, hats, gloves, scarves – anything that keeps you warm. Layers are good.
• not: light jackets, shorts and skirts. Exposing your skin is a no-no.

Accessoires:¶

• hot:
  • banners, can double up for blankets or building improvised loos.
  • food, namely energy bars, flapjacks, bananas, chocolate, peanut-butter, nuts and everything that gets you some energy boost.
  • water, enough to share with those who didn’t bring any
  • crayons + paper, chalk (is that illegal?), face paints and other materials that can help you pass time creatively when stuck in a kettle
  • first aid kit, to deal with the fallout of those flying truncheons
  • emergency blankets (those silver spacey-looking things which pack light and are quite warm), lightweight sleeping bag, and if you’re skint, sheets newspaper is windproof and can help insulate too (inside shoes, jackets, hats etc.)
  • fully charged phone
• not:
  
  • heavy books or other stuff you don’t need
  • beer or other drinks that may impair your judgement and make you pee a lot
  • any kind of illegal substance
  • ID or stuff that can ID you (like a registered oyster card) in case they search you on your way out and you don’t want to be ID’ed

The night and morning before:¶

• hot:
  
  • have a good night’s sleep! 8 hours or more if you can.
  • eat a good, hearty breakfast! Something fatty, full of carbs and protein will help your engine running all day…

• not:
  
  • too much alcohol or other intoxicating substances – being hungover sucks generally and being hungover at a demo will make it absolute hell. Save the party for afterwards.
  • too much tea/coffee. Being over-caffeinated makes you irritable and dehydrated. You’ll have an energy crash once the caff buzz wears off. And then you’ll also need to pee all of that liquid out at some point.

Your mates:¶

• hot: go with a group of friends and stick together. Know each others full names so you can try and find them if they get arrested. Watch out for each other – tell each other where you’re going when you leave the group. It’s good to know your mates will be there to help you out if you get arrested or hurt.
• not: Lone wolfs. You’re going to meet people, but it’s more of a laugh with your mates. If you’re on your own, people might not notice if you get arrested and you have to rely on strangers to help out if you get in a clinch.

Don’t rely on phones alone, your battery might die, the network can break down when thousands try to make calls from the same area… Also they can be tracked and used to spy on you.

But if you’re addicted to your phone and are worried about using your battery up, you can get an on-the-go emergency battery powered mobile phone charger for pretty cheap.

Get clued up:¶

• hot:
  • find out what the plan is before hand. Find out about the route or meeting places. Bring a map if you don’t know the area. Arrange easy to find places to meet your mates at certain times, in case you get separated and phones aren’t working.
  • Bring the numbers of legal teams and lawyers in case you need them. Don’t only have them on your phone, but on paper or write them on your arm.
  • Know your rights! We’ve all seen that the police aren’t sticking to the rules and will lie and mislead us if it suits their aims. We gotta get informed about what they can and cannot do, they aren’t trustworthy and try to get away with stuff they aren’t supposed to do legally speaking.
• not: just show up with no idea what’s going to happen, and be a sheep running with the herd.