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J18 comes of age...

My son was born the week before J18 and I was wetting the baby's head and scrapping with plod. Chang and champs in this basement bar, watching it on tv and seeing people who moments before were doing drugs in the loo with me. Hell of a day.
 
Completely by coincidence just met up with the same folks I shared the memorable day with all those years back and the date completely passed us by..
 
Ooh that's a point ... I wonder would anyone here be up for doing some reflections on J18 and what you got up to/what it meant to you? Just thinking it'd be nice if Freedom or someone could put out a commemorative thing with stories for the 25th anniversary next year. Could be anonymised for the more spicy stuff 😉
 
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Rob Ray said:
Ooh that's a point ... I wonder would anyone here be up for doing some reflections on J18 and what you got up to/what it meant to you? Just thinking it'd be nice if Freedom or suggestive could put out a commemorative thing with stories for the 25th anniversary next year. Could be anonymised for the more spicy stuff 😉
Click to expand...
What I'd prefer to see for the 25th anniversary isn't a commemorative booklet but another crack, bigger and hopefully better, at the city
 
hitmouse said:
crimethinc.com

Anarchist Techno Attacks

We revisit Reclaim the Streets, a viral model for the joyous reappropriation of urban space that flourished at the turn of the century.
crimethinc.com crimethinc.com
Click to expand...
Quite an interesting piece, particularly as the perspective is different to most (UK-centric) ones I've seen before.

The clipping about the 1997 Bristol Solstice Party was one I've not seen before. Brings back some memories - the lowball police estimate rings bells (it was easily closer to 2,000 attending, Castle Park was RAMMED, and we had been organising for 6 months solid, different flyers and posters aimed at different communities and not just road protest types). Police had put a lot of resources in trying to stop it happening, they were on red alert for days beforehand, had busted a covert forward observation squat the night before and nicked a dozen or so people (then dearrested them when it became clear none were in the trigger group).

Execution of both the road seizure and the highly disciplined withdrawal was flawless and perfectly timed, which pissed off the cops, who flailed around all day like Keystones - hence attacking the small crew left behind doing clean-up. Several of the horse twats we saw in subsequent street parties, acting the eye-popping arseholes they were. They made up a story about the horses being attacked by protesters with syringes (zero evidence provided because it simply didn't happen - though the press office released the unsubstantiated claim to the media). Relatively high numbers of nickings at the end but from memory they were all public order rather than AOPO type charges, people got fines and conditional discharges rather than jug IIRC. There was quite a good legal cell which helped mitigate the situation.

None of the members of the core organising groups got charged, though Avon & Somerset were PISSED about being custardpied like that so publicly for years after. Oh, and several pieces of equipment were 'logistically mismanaged' by riot police after their attempts to batter the litter-pickers drew the attention of less vulnerable attendees keen to engage in some forthright knuckle-based discourse. Not sure how they explained their missing helmet, baton etc to the Sarge that night, but I don't believe anyone was ever arrested for it.
 
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DaveCinzano said:
Quite an interesting piece, particularly as the perspective is different to most (UK-centric) ones I've seen before.

The clipping about the 1997 Bristol Solstice Party was one I've not seen before. Brings back some memories - the lowball police estimate rings bells (it was easily closer to 2,000 attending, Castle Park was RAMMED, and we had been organising for 6 months solid, different flyers and posters aimed at different communities and not just road protest types). Police had put a lot of resources in trying to stop it happening, they were on red alert for days beforehand, had busted a covert forward observation squat the night before and nicked a dozen or so people (then dearrested them when it became clear none were in the trigger group). Execution of both the road seizure and the highly disciplined withdrawal were flawless and perfectly timed, which pissed off the cops, who flailed around all day like Keystones - hence attacking the small crew left behind doing clean-up. Several of the horse twats we saw in subsequent street parties, acting the eye-popping arseholes they were. They made up a story about the horses being attacked by protesters with syringes (zero evidence provided because it simply didn't happen - though the press office released the unsubstantiated claim to the media). Relatively high numbers of nickings at the end but from memory they were all public order rather than AOPO type charges, people got fines and conditional discharges rather than jug IIRC. There was quite a good legal cell which helped mitigate the situation.

None of the members of the core organising groups got charged, though Avon & Somerset were PISSED about being custardpied like that so publicly for years after. Oh, and several pieces of equipment were 'logistically mismanaged' by riot police after their attempts to batter the litter-pickers drew the attention of less vulnerable attendees keen to engage in some forthright knuckle-based discourse. Not sure how they explained their missing helmet, baton etc to the Sarge that night, but I don't believe anyone was ever arrested for it.
Click to expand...
I hope you've written all this down, at least in some format more durable than u75 posts. If nothing else, might be worth sending it in so your recollections can appear in their 30th anniversary article?
 
hitmouse said:
I hope you've written all this down, at least in some format more durable than u75 posts. If nothing else, might be worth sending it in so your recollections can appear in their 30th anniversary article?
Click to expand...
Not a bad idea. There were ‘necessarily opaque’ versions of a start-to-finish account published shortly afterwards in Greenline and in Bristle.

It was pre-digital cameras but there were definitely photos knocking around of various bits of liberated ASC kit being shown off at a celebratory after-party - someone somewhere must have those snaps stashed away as a keepsake 🤣

I have a large collection of press clippings from the lead-up to the aftermath, as well as notes from court (covering all those facing charges) which might have some extra detail otherwise lost from memory through the passage of time.

Overall it was an exhilarating dry-run for J18 :thumbs:
 
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