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J18 comes of age...

DaveCinzano

DaveCinzano

WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
HAPPY EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY, J18!

All growed up and everything. Looking at the youth and the community and the consciousness and the rage on the streets in North Kensington, it looks like a similar spirit lives on.

It was never just about roads.

http://bak.spc.org/j18/site/
http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no8/pdfs/j18.pdf
Reflections on J18 from RTS

J18: stop the city anti capitalism protest, June 18th 1999 London

https://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/happy-5th-j18-anniversary.9912/
J18: 10th Anniversary
Did an undercover cop help organise the J18 riot?
water cannon at j18?
https://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/j18.9170/
https://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/j18-new-yes-new-photos.1150/
https://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/remembering-j18-street-protests-a-few-short-vids.90789/
https://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/source-help-please-£35-and-a-packed-lunch-j18.120682/
 
BUMP
20th anniversary on Tuesday

Reflective event at MayDay Rooms looks good:
https://maydayrooms.org/event/20-years-since-j18-carnival-against-capital/
June 18 1999 saw an eruption of protests around the world. But amongst many demonstrations it was the tumult that took place in the City of London that offered a new model for revolts that tore through many cities. That day inaugurated a global anti-capitalist movement, which lasted into the mid-2000s. The actions combined riot with theatre, and brought together activists from a range of single-issue campaigns, from rave to anti-roads, from student movements to radical unions, from hunt sabs to anti-globalisation activists, alongside all sorts of people who had never been involved in protest before. In the subsequent years similar actions took place in many cities, most often around global government summits.

This year marks 20 years since the Carnival against Capital. So on June 18 this year we are planning an event that will bring together people who played a part in these histories and those who want to learn about it. The event will let us combine people’s memories with material traces from the protest movements of that time, to look back and to reflect on what happened then from the context of today’s struggles and social movements. We will be finding ways to contextualise what happened in 1999 by thinking about the social movements and protests that led up to it, and the subsequent wave of struggles that grew from it. And we will be unearthing and presenting our multimedia archive, and opening conversations in order to collectively think through, criticise, and celebrate a riotous day in the city.
Click to expand...

At the very least, and judging by all the threads on it here, events like this, when put under the Whats The Point microscope, have a key role in (deeply) activating a group of people. The most recent similiar left equivalent in the UK I expect was the student fees and cuts stuff (in fact that probably saw a deeper engagement due to all the preplanning and occupations and length of the campaign). Arguably theres been some far right activation going on since then...

Thats not to say that people don't get equally involved in politics without these flashpoints, but theres something about the scale and work required that is powerful.

RTS definitely had that effect on me, and J18 was eye opening in terms of the level of police violence (and window/car smashing/general law breaking), but I was a pretty passive part in that, just going along for the day outs without really doing anything outside of that related. Very much a punter within that context. Making up numbers really.

It does beg the question why its been so long since anything equivalent has come along. Would be interesting to list the factors...
 
actually recently in London in terms of street stuff there has been a lot of antifash things, including lots of local stand up to racism things and theres the extinction rebellion/school strikes stuff bubbling away...climate general strike in September could be interesting. No doubt these will be coming of age moments for lots of people....
 
Last edited:
ska invita said:
BUMP
20th anniversary on Tuesday

Reflective event at MayDay Rooms looks good:
20 years since J18 // Carnival Against Capital


At the very least, and judging by all the threads on it here, events like this, when put under the Whats The Point microscope, have a key role in (deeply) activating a group of people. The most recent similiar left equivalent in the UK I expect was the student fees and cuts stuff (in fact that probably saw a deeper engagement due to all the preplanning and occupations and length of the campaign). Arguably theres been some far right activation going on since then...

Thats not to say that people don't get equally involved in politics without these flashpoints, but theres something about the scale and work required that is powerful.

RTS definitely had that effect on me, and J18 was eye opening in terms of the level of police violence (and window/car smashing/general law breaking), but I was a pretty passive part in that, just going along for the day outs without really doing anything outside of that related. Very much a punter within that context. Making up numbers really.

It does beg the question why its been so long since anything equivalent has come along. Would be interesting to list the factors...
Click to expand...
Far right activation goes back rather further than 2010, you're forgetting the fash attacks on student protests

Also after j18 there was Prague, genoa and evian and Dublin, and the Scotland g8. not to mention the may days.
 
Pickman's model said:
Far right activation goes back rather further than 2010, you're forgetting the fash attacks on student protests
Click to expand...
no doubt
not sure exactly what you think i meant, but just in case this bit wasn't clear i was first thinking theres nothing much been going on in the streets of a scale in the last 5 years or so, but then had a sip of tea and remember yes there has been stuff going on, antifash/far right stuff and increasingly envrionmental things.... (excluding anti-brexit and anti-trump stuff for obvious reasons)
 
ska invita said:
no doubt
not sure exactly what you think i meant, but just in case this bit wasn't clear i was first thinking theres nothing much been going on in the streets of a scale in the last 5 years or so, but then had a sip of tea and remember yes there has been stuff going on, antifash/far right stuff and increasingly envrionmental things.... (excluding anti-brexit and anti-trump stuff for obvious reasons)
Click to expand...
There's been lots of stuff about housing going on, e15 women, poor doors, but it's never really taken off into a mass movement. There's been grenfell and the silent demos, but again it's never quite developed into a great street movement. What's often forgotten is j18 took 18 months or so to create, it was the result of a lot of people's hard work. It would likely take at least as long now
 
One thing that may be worthy of comment is: is there a generational divide that has opened up between the RTS (and equivalents) and the present day? For example, the coming wave of environmental activism would on paper seem to be an open door for some of that generation to come out and get involved, but my impression is it isnt happening (so far) all that much. There are concrete reasons for that (see criticisms of XR), but still...

Pickman's model said:
There's been lots of stuff about housing going on, e15 women, poor doors, but it's never really taken off into a mass movement. There's been grenfell and the silent demos, but again it's never quite developed into a great street movement. What's often forgotten is j18 took 18 months or so to create, it was the result of a lot of people's hard work. It would likely take at least as long now
Click to expand...
totally...and all the previous RTS actions, and other parts of the movement...and all the wider day to day countercultural (lifestyle?) forces underpinning so much of it
Its not as easy as turning a light on and off, for sure.
 
I think a major divide is between the old ways of doing things, through personal contact and meetings, and the new way of sorting things out through the Internet esp the way some of xr's decision-making process seems to work
 
J18 emerged from networks that had been doing stuff for at least 5 or 6 years prior and had gathered a periphery of thousands they could, and had already, bring into the streets.
 
tenor.gif
 
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