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Class War issue 78: Stop The City - June 18 1999
A message to the people who have been raiding people's homes since J18 or who have been feeding titbits to lame journalists on individuals allegedly involved in the day:
We received the following articles anonymously and unsolicited. Any originals have long since been destroyed. We publish these articles because we believe it is in the public interest to do so.
Account No. 1
What a fucking day! In case you were unfortunate enough to miss out I thought I would share my thoughts with you.
11:50 - We are all hanging around a lot of middle class wankers outside Liverpool Street station soaking up the sun, people talking, music, leafleting etc
12ish - Everyone descended into the station for some seriously loud fun. The place was packed - one of the best sights any anarchist could wish to see - banners displayed, the tube closed, lots of dancing, the police only capable of watching. We laughed our heads off at some businessman - bowler hat, umbrella, the lot - he kept looking from his watch to the timetable not knowing what the fuck was going on. We then left the station in I think 4 separate groups which was a good idea, by now buildings had been scaled. People were on top of buses, we stopped outside several buildings to make our presence known, then headed towards a tube station, I don't know its name but the rozzers were having none of it so after about 10 minutes and a lot of pisstaking out of the pigs we headed out and down the road to see a young lad lobbing bricks into the road to stop the traffic. I'm not sure every brick was hitting the road as I could hear some loud smashing sounds nearby.
By now we were heading for the centre of the city stopping traffic on the way and verbally abusing city traders. When we got to where we were going someone had smashed a water main and 80 feet of water was shooting into the air. Refreshingly we were able to run through security cameras that had been covered over with bin liners (smile - you're not on CCTV).
Banners were erected, traffic lights put out of action, graffiti scrawled everywhere which I thought brightened up the place a treat from the usual grey walls for grey people.
By now the party was in full swing, I saw breeze blocks being passed through the crowd to smash the riot vans. The side of one building was climbed and a large metal ventilation grid was ripped off, a ladder appeared and several people disappeared
into a ventilation shaft - we never saw them come out I hope they are not still in there, like Japanese soldiers refusing to surrender years after the battle has finished.
Time Unknown - I stopped looking at my watch as the excitement grew! We decided to go for a walk and stumbled upon a band playing a cover of Babylon's Burning! They then followed it up with a classic - "Do They Owe Us A Living" to which everybody replied "Of course they fucking do". Anyway you can have too much of a good thing and it was time to check out some of the rumours about what was happening around the corner - and boy were they right!
Windows were going through, there was a heavy police presence at the top of the road. By now the doors and windows of the LIFFE building were a thing of the past, several of us went in and there was one security guard running around like Frank Spencer. A group of us went into the building smashing up plants and lights but we were wary of being trapped in side by the
police, so we returned outside. About 8 coppers were trying to secure the building - they stood no chance, and were seen off with railings. As they scarped up the road our confidence told us to go back in to the LIFFE building, more in number. This time the job was done properly - EVERYTHING that could be smashed up - phones, monitors, paper work went, we then went for the escalators, well what was left of them. They had several fat security guards at the top of them so we pushed and shoved with them for what seemed like about 10 minutes. About 100 yuppie cunts could now be seen - some quite literally crying - one kept asking "Why are you doing this to us?".
By now the cops had entered the building and we had to get past them to get out. I got smashed into a wall by three of them and hit by a fourth. I kept moving and although they had the front of the LIFFE closed off they had their backs to us, so I burst out taking one off his feet. By now heavy fire was hitting them and they were giving it back.
After they got us halfway back they laid off for a while so several fires were started, windows started going through again (it would have been rude to leave the Mercedes showroom unvandalised). By now the cops were trying different tactics out such as horses. I'm sure the police do this deliberately as they know animal lovers will be reluctant to injure them, even though people get trampled by them. By now it was looking like snatch squad time, so as I'd had a good innings I decided it was time to declare.
Account No. 2
At this point the crowd seemed to be split into 3, the largest group being the only one I could see. At the front of the crowd were people chucking paint and smoke bombs which stalled the police for a little while. Then they started charging again, but instead of running 10 feet were going 20. The crowd could see it was going to be hard to hold the cops back, so it was time to diversify - buildings, windows and glass doors all went through with scaffolding poles. Metal handles from doors came in handy for smashing windows or throwing if the cops got too close.
By now some people were retreating down alleys and side roads, but my group went straight down a main road as there were no cops there. Here, under a bridge a few cars got looted and burnt. Turning off the main road towards the river there were
no police but a couple of posh restaurants who soon lost their windows, any staff trying to argue it were told where to go. All in all a good day, we decided to go home and put our feet up with a nice cup of tea!
Account No. 3
The advantages of J18 were twofold. Firstly its location. Rather than a residential working class area, or empty government buildings on a Saturday demonstration, we were rioting in the central business district of Europe's financial capital.
Secondly the message. Rather than delivering it indirectly via the media or to politicians it was being delivered direct to the capitalists and their institutions. You are scum. You are destroying the world and fucking up our lives.
The city is not for the likes of you and me. It never has been and it never will be. Contrary to what some green fools will try and have you believe, there is no such thing as green capitalism. Capitalism exists to make money, capitalists to make it at other people's expense. On the day a common enemy united disparate forces, as it should.
The successes - £2 million worth of damage. Increased insurance premiums and the damage to London's "good name" for business are harder to calculate, but cannot be less than £2 million. Both Republicans and Unionists claim that it was the IRA's attacks on city institutions and Canary Wharf that brought Britain to the negotiating table in Northern Ireland, not attacks on soldiers or property in Belfast or Derry. Anarchists should take careful note here, perhaps having been to the city on June 18th, it is time to visit Canary Wharf or the west end next time round.
Account No. 4
What a wicked day out for all of us! The group I was with went down early to have a look around and rob a copy of the Financial Times from WH Smith! Some of us had suits on, some of us were punks, some of us were builders and some of us were drunks! But who the fuck cares who we were - except the filth!! And we all know they're all wankers. All of them - without exception.
What matters is what we stood against on the day - we were against the way money controls the planet, its workers and the environment. Money is the driving force which has ruined the world and makes its workers suffer all their lives. Is it really such a surprise that the symbolic centre of British and world capitalism - the city of London should be smashed to fuck when we had the chance? When The City has been responsible for such nasty things as the slave trade, dealing with apartheid South Africa, arms to Iraq, and so on. It is mainly the men with smooth shaven cheeks, in expensive suits with expensive jewellery, with expensive habits, and expensive holidays who are responsible for far more financial scandals and damage than ALL the property criminals put together. Street theft amounts to peanuts when compared to the multimillion pound thefts which go on every day in the city. These are the real bastards who take the money from the taxman by siphoning money to offshore accounts and some of whom who live in tax exile in Jersey or Guernsey.
So let's get back to the day. I was wandering around talking to old and new friends, some of them I hadn't seen for ages! I got my disposable camera and a bottle of water as I knew it would be a long day. Somebody was handing out anti-Royal stickers which were very popular as they began to appear on all the cop cars later in the day! At the start we wandered through Liverpool Street soaking up the atmosphere.
Then outside again and people began to move off. I picked up my paper mask and followed the mob. Everything seemed fine until we got round the corner near to London Wall. Then it began to go a bit wild. As usual the police lost it and had run over a woman which aggravated the crowd.
They shouldn't drive vehicles through packed crowds - it does no good whatsoever. The excuse they made that the officers feared for their lives is just bullshit. No cop came even remotely within being killed all day. The cops then were shunting their vans through people and then pilling out to whack people, and our lot were fighting back as best they could with their hands and feet. Then they ran over another bloke by the Moorgate tube, then it all went a bit quiet as they realised the enormity of what they had done. They withdrew a bit here and it all calmed down, perhaps the lesson no cops = no violence had better be learnt by the politicians but we don't expect it will be.
Then off we went walking down to Bank, hanging around, laughing, joking and enjoying our party. And then down towards Mansion House and Upper Thames Street, where lots of people were listening to music and sitting around in the summer sun. Then stupidly cops were again attacking people but this time they were in full riot gear. By this time there were a lot of empty bottles lying around and a few stones from a building site down some really small alleys. This is where the cops took a hell of a beating. The cop was pulled off a horse but then the police piled in and really beat a lot of people over their heads. Then after a lot of pushing and shoving people were gradually forced towards central London.
I took a look at the anti royal sticker and like a lot of other people headed towards Trafalgar Square after 6pm. The amount of police vans was unbelievable as people partied in the Royal Free Zone around Nelsons Column. They closed the massive iron gates of Admiralty Arch to stop rioting spreading up the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. We'd had enough by late evening and we made a few quick calls on our mobiles to round up the stragglers and met in the Weatherspoon pub in Islington, a safe distance from the filth to recount tales, collect damage stories, and generally enjoy ourselves. What a fabulous day it had been.
It says here...
Always keen to cut through the dense swathe of media garbage, Class War proudly presents our favourite press porkies about J18.
1) That anarchists used razorblades attached to their rucksacks to slash commuters on the London Underground (Daily Star, p4, June 19th 1999) - What, only razorblades? The Star clearly missed the group with Samurai swords attached to their bags.
2) That rioters were paid £30 and given a packed lunch (Sunday Times, p5, June 20th 1999). Would the organisers send our cheques to the Class War PO Box as soon as possible. As for the packed lunches, we will collect them in person next time round!
3) Rioters covered themselves in stage blood to fake police brutality (Evening Standard, p3, June 21st 1999). Presumably the two people ran over by police vehicles were making that up as well! Many injuries on the day, as in most riots, were caused by truncheon blows to the head. Or were those injured who did not come from a theatrical background all carrying bottles of tomato sauce and rubbing it in their hair?
4) Rioters attempted to murder a police horse (Daily Mail, p23, August 12th 1999). Quite how people armed with only their bare hands and whatever poles and bricks they could liberate in the city, could possibly kill a horse is beyond us. But according to WPC Alison Goldsmith that is what they tried to do. Has it not occurred to WPC Goldsmith that if any missiles were thrown at her horse, it was only because she was sitting on top of it?
5) That four police officers were run down and injured by police vehicles - Posted on the Press Association newsfile at 9.52pm on June 18th, and repeated in the Daily Express (p2, June 19th 1999). An outrageous lie, presumably written in a vain attempt to cover up the two instances of police vehicles mowing down demonstrators. One thing the cops are never sloppy about is looking after each other. Just as journalists are never sloppy about looking after the police.
6) That a millionaire vegan from the Dewhurst the Butcher chain, organised the whole event (Evening Standard and the Independent, August 8th 1999, as well as most papers the next day). As Mark Brown has not been charged with any offence from J18 and most people on the day have never heard of him, this porkie smacks of a rather weedy attempt to portray J18 as an alliance of disaffected rich kids. Mark, if you want to send us a few grand to kill your parents...
7) That demonstrators intended to give out poisoned food to City workers (Financial Times, June 18th 1999). City firm Merrill Lynch apparently warned their staff about this, although why any wealthy city type with access to a heavily subsidised staff canteen would wish to share some demonstrator's cheese and pickle is beyond us.
Green, lefty analysis of J18
As usual there are those who try to diss the fightback on J18. Ranging from the cleverer than thou leftists (who normally come from the University of 'Brighton') who bemoan the lack of theoretical coherence amongst activists, to the Communist Party of Great Britain who say that fighting is no substitute for political work. As usual these people are looking at events from their own prejudices. The Uni of Sussex crowd because they're too intellectual to enjoy the event, the Communist Party because they weren't there have to denigrate others efforts so they can make the communist leadership feel good. There was huge amounts of theory involved even if the 'theorists' didn't recognise it. J18 also is the perfect place to work out our movement's attitudes to photographers and journalists. Our events have their own logic of existence, they can be for displays of strength, to highlight a particular problem, to demonstrate the existence of 'bad people/things' and so on. The use of modern photography and video is also important. Because the left is dead they are not doing the routine important things that need to be done - so our movement must learn to do it - FOR OUR OWN GOOD.
After the death of Blair Peach at an anti-fascist event in 1979 the police were internally banned from striking people on the head as it causes to many deaths. We know they still do it, but the important thing is to get the police to obey their own rules. Our photography has a purpose, it is to produce propaganda pictures (injured cops, cop cars or smashed banks etc) and it is to construct good defences for those captured on the day or subsequently.
This could be done by specially trained teams of people in special identifiable tops, say one cameraperson and 2/3 minders whose only job is to take photos of cops unjustly hitting people and arresting them, and other propaganda shots. This film is then taken by our runner out of the action before the police can arrest our camera team - who they may target. Our film is then developed in private dark rooms (certainly not Boots) for subsequent use in our movement's newspapers and in court to defend our people. It could then be used to pressure and show up the police for the brutal thugs that they are, as we can demonstrate the illegal way they hit people at random as they try to impose capitalist 'law and order'.
This will also leave the remaining cameras in the field of battle which will usually come under the following headings:
A. Cameras taken by individuals who want a momento of the day.
B. Police cameras.
C. Journalist cameras.
We will then be in a position to start warning people that we will confiscate cameras that do not have our movement's permission to film events we organise. We will have to have teams/affinity groups going around and doing the enforcing for the health of the movement. Unlike 'Do Or Die' No. 8 (the subsidised South Downs Earth First! magazine/book) which said on page 27 "there were so many causing thousands of pounds worth of damage without masks or even shirts to cover their distinctive tattoos! And there were so many fucking cameras around! Why? Taking pictures will just incriminate other people. It's a lot more likely than you think, that the police get their hands on a copy of your pictures. Who needs holiday snapshots anyway when it was such a real, unforgettable experience? Leave your camera at home, and point this out to people you see taking incriminating pictures."
While we agree with the sentiments expressed regarding covering up with masks etc, we realise that for our movement to grow it must supply its own media to bolster our propaganda/recruiting activities and provide the evidence to get a not guilty verdict in court. We also recognise a need for our movement to set its own levels of justice, for example by self policing and enforcing the photographic rights to our demonstrations - this requires that our movement grows up and starts to take security VERY seriously.
In Britain the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group could become the centre for controlling photographs on our events. Class War will co-operate fully with attempts to do so, and so should every political group as then this input would allow groups to select photos for political work.
'Do Or Die' are very right when they say photos can end up in police hands - in raids after J18 they have made straight for photos, cameras mobile phones, computers and address books and taken them ALL in custody for their own analysis to bolster their files in their attempts to convict more people on our side. Political activists in Britain are finally learning that you cannot engage in the absolutely necessary political and propaganda work, and do illegal things on our demonstrations. We know some will say that 'if you can't mix it then you're a wanker' but our answer to them is that the political work goes on every day all year round rather than the showcase battles with the cops every year or so if we're lucky.
The police want to take out our influential people. So like the IRA learned in the seventies, there must be a separation between the political wing and the military wing which led to the birth of Sinn Fein. Of course we all know there is an overlap but our spokespeople must not jeopardise their liberty as this allows the capitalist media to criminalise our movement.
There are several lessons to be learnt from J18, the need for people to disguise their identity, the need to disable police cameras, especially the new ones to be deployed on police helmets. You can see them because they are a small black circle of
plastic on the middle forehead of the helmet. We need far more paint bombs to cover these helmets. It not only makes them look ridiculous it forces them to smear it over their visors so they end up having to lift them up as well! This renders riot helmet visors and van windscreens useless as well as damaging expensive riot uniforms.
Another tip for clogging up the streets is that taxis have a fuel cut off switch on the outside, if you just flip this the taxi conks out - simplicity itself. Whilst police horse charges were largely unsuccessful on the day, horses have been known to shy away if a white polythene bag is waved right in front of the horse's face. We have also heard an urban myth that lion shit will scatter police horses and dogs in seconds. If any of our readers can help us test this theory we would like to know.
We had a good day this time, there will be more of us next time, so watch out for the next events going on or talk to your local class warrior for more news.
Repeat a lie often enough, people will begin to believe it
Amongst the mass of lies that came out of the J18 riot were some written by the Daily Telegraph in its editorial on J19. In it they said "Bankers, Traders and stockbrokers are the real working class - the drop-outs and activists obstructing them are all too often drawn from the middle classes". This is bollocks for a few reasons.
To say that bankers, traders, stockbrokers who operate the world's financial system and who 'earn' £150,000 a year are working class is bollocks. They are firmly in the middle class as they manage the system FOR capitalism and have a lot of bourgeois habits. These people will never take the side of the working class.
As usual the mainstream newspapers have been used to try to destroy the credibility of the J18 event, by sowing all sorts of divide and rule rubbish, both before and after the event. Again they have proved themselves to be the mouthpiece of the police and the establishment - how long will we put up with it is another matter.
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