Extinction Rebellion

[friedaweed]

View attachment 186709

Great pics spitfire

 

[spitfire]

Cheers. Doing best with my iPhone can manage.
One of the lads on the truck has tied himself on to a mirror with a carbinier and it’s attached to a noose round his neck! Cops have deployed tactical ladder.

 

[spitfire]

And now some tactical scissors that sheared the connection. An innovative but potentially lethal idea. Fortunately curtailed in its execution. Pun intended.

 

[A380]

And now some tactical scissors that sheared the connection. Good idea. Bad execution. Pun intended.

I’m not sure I’d put any restraint round my neck if I couldn’t get at least my arse on the ground. Far to much risk of asphyxiation if no one, cops , fellow protesters or ambulance people don’t have immediate access to ligature shears. Also I once saw, video fortunately not physically, someone break their neck and die instantly from an 8 inch drop against a stick pushing on the back of his neck.

Sit on the ground or in a car with a D lock round my neck yep. Anything else you are well into junior Tory MP territory.

 

[spitfire]

I’m not sure I’d put any restraint round my neck if I couldn’t get at least my arse on the ground. Far to much risk of asphyxiation if no one, cops , fellow protesters or ambulance people don’t have immediate access to ligature shears. Also I once saw, video fortunately not physically, someone break their neck and die instantly from an 8 inch drop against a stick pushing on the back of his neck.

Sit on the ground or in a car with a D lock round my neck yep. Anything else you are well into junior Tory MP territory.

I think that was his plan. I was quite shocked tbh.

It probably wasn’t a good idea as you rightly point out. I phrased that badly.

 

[friedaweed]

Cheers. Doing best with my iPhone can manage.

You're doing fab. Urban's very own reporter at the scene

Not sure about people hanging themselves for the cause though

 

[friedaweed]

I’m not sure I’d put any restraint round my neck if I couldn’t get at least my arse on the ground. Far to much risk of asphyxiation if no one, cops , fellow protesters or ambulance people don’t have immediate access to ligature shears. Also I once saw, video fortunately not physically, someone break their neck and die instantly from an 8 inch drop against a stick pushing on the back of his neck.

Sit on the ground or in a car with a D lock round my neck yep. Anything else you are well into junior Tory MP territory.

Yup without the poppers or the orange

 

[spitfire]

Good was the wrong word. Will edit later. I stand by the pun though.

 

[spitfire]

Sooo. Half the lock ons have been removed. Still the 4 with the barrel. Bishopsgate totally blocked still. City folk remarkably non plussed for the most part. I’m hanging out waiting to see what happens with the truck people.

a cop with a cardboard sign.

 

[A380]

Sooo. Half the lock ons have been removed. Still the 4 with the barrel. Bishopsgate totally blocked still. City folk remarkably non plussed for the most part. I’m hanging out waiting to see what happens with the truck people.

a cop with a cardboard sign. View attachment 186717

What does the sign say? “Fuck off Pritti Patel”

 

[Pickman's model]

What does the sign say? “Fuck of Pritti Patel”

It says "I'm a massive cunt"

 

[spitfire]

What does the sign say? “Fuck of Pritti Patel”

got any doughnuts?

 

[Red Sky]

Came up through Liverpool St Station to the sound of samba on the main concourse. A nice nostalgic nod to J18.

 

[spitfire]

I’m still here but the iPhone camera can’t do anything useful anymore.
They’re just getting the second guy off the truck and the barrel people are still locked on. The window glue people are getting removed now as well from what I can tell

there’s still Loads of people here.

 

[Miss-Shelf]

View attachment 186723 I’m still here but the iPhone camera can’t do anything useful anymore.
They’re just getting the second guy off the truck and the barrel people are still locked on. The window glue people are getting removed now as well from what I can tell

there’s still Loads of people here.

Away day for Welsh police e

 

[Red Sky]

Away day for Welsh police e

Some of the Welsh constabularies seem to have turned into out sourced contractors for other forces.

 

[spitfire]

Some of the Welsh constabularies seem to have turned into out sourced contractors for other forces.

indeed. In this case they were the removal specialist for the lock ons. Angle Grinder Massive.

 

[Red Sky]

indeed. In this case they were the removal specialist for the lock ons. Angle Grinder Massive.

Indeed, I was tempted to try and delay work by striking up a conversation about the relative merits of Milwaukee and DeWalt.

 

[spitfire]

Indeed, I was tempted to try and delay work by striking up a conversation about the relative merits of Milwaukee and DeWalt.

I was chatting to the XR guys in the crowd and was extolling the virtues of stainless steel tubing.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

indeed. In this case they were the removal specialist for the lock ons. Angle Grinder Massive.

They were the ones doing detailed removal from lock-ons at Trafalgar Square that I saw yesterday too.

 

[Gramsci]

I had a wander around yesterday. Crusties there, sure, but they're a minority. 'Hideously white' as the Guardian would have us believe? Not really. Mostly white people but far from exclusively so. A large contingent of older people, and many of those most determined to be arrested when I was there were very old - at least in their 70s, mostly women. It's an eclectic mix, including Christian groups, old school CND protesters, socialist groups, groups who would reform capitalism.

I liked the open, unled nature of it in many ways - anyone can take the microphone really. But my worry would be that a movement that would accept Boris Johnson's dad as a speaker is a movement without clear objectives. I'm still not entirely sure what a manifesto for XR would look like.

I checked the website. I'm sure its changed now the statement is this wooly one that doesn't say much. Won't scare anyone off.

Our Principles & Values

The leaflets given out still stick to the original manifesto. Use NVDA to bring government to negotiate passing a law to reduce carbon emissions t zero with this overseen by a "Peoples assembly".

A kind of green dictatorship imo. This might be practicable. But its not something I'm keen on.

Hallam , my least favourite person in XR, has from this article been going around trying to get the working class vote recently :

At one of his talks to the Byline Festival in Sussex – audience: radical intelligentsia – Hallam talked about the working class and how a leftish eco-movement really needs to think about “immigration controls, an end to the globalisation mantra, and also to start talking in terms of tradition, nation, honour – the things that socialists in the 20th Century talked about but have become taboo to the Left”

.


https://unherd.com/2019/10/can-extinction-rebellion-raise-a-working-class-army/

Admittedly this is a centre right website but reading it along with I've seen previously of Hallam it wouldn't surprise me.

He wants fodder who will go ahead get arrested to bring government to its knees. He's suggesting a Green Nationalism to get support.

I did have a chat last night at Trafalgar Square. The guy had been in Occupy now this. Decent chat about issues of XR. ( class issues) Id say most people I've bumped into in London in XR are pro immigration green left. Who see climate change as an international issue. With social justice and climate change not to be separated. Which imo is the better working class politics.

 

[nogojones]

Some of the Welsh constabularies seem to have turned into out sourced contractors for other forces.

You're welcome to them. Keeps our streets safer

 

[Cold Harbour]

And spare a thought for them camped out in Vauxhall Gardens in the pissing rain. Loads and loads of tents, it does show dedication. South Londoners rarely riot in the rain after all.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I did have a chat last night at Trafalgar Square. The guy had been in Occupy now this. Decent chat about issues of XR. ( class issues) Id say most people I've bumped into in London in XR are pro immigration green left. Who see climate change as an international issue. With social justice and climate change not to be separated. Which imo is the better working class politics.

yes, at its best, this is what it is. This is what it has to be. But there does seem a fair bit of disagreement as to exactly how you produce the radical system-level change required. As a pressure group, they're great. As a loose leaderless group, they're also great. Everyone brings their own idea of what should be done the party, which is both a strength and a weakness. It reminds me of critiques of the Arab Spring uprisings. Leaderless movements are fantastic at mobilising numbers on the streets in a way that is impossible for the authorities to nullify. But they may be much less good at producing directed change.

Years ago, there used to be a fantastic piece of graffiti on a bridge between Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill train stations. In huge letters, it simply said 'WE CANNOT AFFORD THE RICH'. That has to be the message here, I think, bringing my ideas about what should be done to the party. It means telling Stanley Johnson that he is part of the problem. It means telling the police that they are on the wrong side. But that means something a lot spikier than what most in XR seem to stand for. I'm not a pacifist, but I admire people who are. I hope their methods get somewhere.

 

[spitfire]

I got back home just before the rain started tipping down and we're only up the road so there will be some wet people down there now.

I had a proper chat with one of the guys down there tonight, he was up for 3 days from Bristol to do his bit. We were talking generally about the set up, the actions. He said that although he found some of it "a bit cringe" overall it was worthwhile getting involved. I mentioned the We Love The Police chant and he pulled a face at that as well. Nice young (mc) lad, born in '94. Had never heard of CJB/A (unsurprisingly I guess) but the impression I got from him is that XR are the biggest game in town and that's why he's got involved. I mentioned the overwhelmingly mc/white aspect of it and he acknowledged that as true but he sees it as them being able to exercise their position of privilege in a positive way. I think there is space here for influencing the direction of the movement if that's your bag, SWP certainly seemed to think so at the Bethnal Green thing. But I guess they latch onto anything so possibly not a good example. But what the fuck do I know?

Anyway hope I didn't spam the thread too much, some more pics here.

 

[spitfire]

And a video of the guy on the truck attaching his noose. He was not fucking about.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Not spam. Good work.

 

[spitfire]

Cheers. Doing best with my iPhone can manage.
One of the lads* on the truck has tied himself on to a mirror with a carbinier and it’s attached to a noose round his neck! Cops have deployed tactical ladder.

And now some tactical scissors that sheared the connection. An innovative but potentially lethal idea. Fortunately curtailed in its execution. Pun intended.

Edited...

*should mention it turned out there was a man and a woman up there. She had short hair in my defence.

 

[Marty1]

Two weeks. But it is raining this morning and set to rain for the next three days. Which might dampen spirits a little?

Im sure more bivouac‘s will go up to shelter from the elements.

 

[Gramsci]

Great photos spitfire