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March for the Alternative demo, Sat 26th March 2011 – info, legal help, chat...

Louis MacNeice said:
Cheers emma; having got my head round the idea of a convergence space, could you help me out about the 'activist kitchen'?

All the best - Louis MacNeice
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I think they're probably taking the piss a bit, but what i imagine is that there will be some sort of cooking space, probably slightly run-down and makeshift where people can make their own food to share, ie there wont be catering but people are welcome to bring food and cook it there.
 
emma goldman said:
I think they're probably taking the piss a bit, but what i imagine is that there will be some sort of cooking space, probably slightly run-down and makeshift where people can make their own food to share, ie there wont be catering but people are welcome to bring food and cook it there.
Click to expand...

So a kitchen, albeit a rudimentary one, not a cooking space, a culinary practice arena, an activist kitchen or a food preparation area...coming from people so obviously concerned with language it does make me smile.

Looking forward to the 26th - Louis MacNeice

p.s. The MacNeice family will be bringing a range of consumable food containment devices and edible carbohydrate stores on Saturday (sandwiches and flapjack).
 
Mation said:
Have people got something like this on their phones? I know you can get it for Android; I'm guessing for iphone too. Streams live video to the interweb with one (or sometimes two) button presses, and automatically saves it there.
Click to expand...

Do the old bill jam mobile signals on demos?
 
BigTom said:
They are going to be in the police offices observing what is going on, they've been asked in by the police, I don't trust them, it's a personal statement of belief not something I can objectively prove. I think they are there to legitimise the actions of the police rather than to help activists
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You don't trust Liberty, and think they are part of a police conspiracy?
 
moon23 said:
You don't trust Liberty, and think they are part of a police conspiracy?
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That's not what I said. I said I think they have been called in to legitimise the police's actions on saturday and are not there to help activists. They are willing to testify against activists, I think they will be compliant with the police, rubber stamp their actions as long as they don't pull out the rubber bullets or cs gas.
At best they are neutral, but in this kind of situation neutrality will side with the status quo.
GBC observers will not provide evidence against activists.

Oh, and where the fuck do you get the idea that there is some kind of police conspiracy? conspiracy to do what exactly?
 
BigTom said:
That's not what I said. I said I think they have been called in to legitimise the police's actions on saturday and are not there to help activists. They are willing to testify against activists, I think they will be compliant with the police, rubber stamp their actions as long as they don't pull out the rubber bullets or cs gas.
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Surely they'll equally willing to testify against the police if appropriate, no?
 
editor said:
Surely they'll equally willing to testify against the police if appropriate, no?
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Probably, though any action against a police officer will never get taken as far as actions against protesters.
We'll see what happens, and if Liberty's actions on saturday show that my doubts about their role are unfounded or misguided then I will of course accept that I was wrong and apologise (or whatever the right word is) for my statements about them on this thread, I just don't have faith in what their role will be on saturday.

still think it would be worth adding the info about what groups are wearing what colour hi-vis onto the page (if you haven't), just leave out the other things i said:
TUC stewards = yellow hi-vis
liberty observers = green hi-vis
GBC observers = orange hi-vis
 
Liberty are currently engaged in high court action against the Met police on behalf of three teenage protestors who were kettled and brutalised during the student protests. I think it's a little unfair to try and paint their relationship with the police as somehow cosy and collaborationist.
 
idumea said:
Liberty are currently engaged in high court action against the Met police on behalf of three teenage protestors who were kettled and brutalised during the student protests. I think it's a little unfair to try and paint their relationship with the police as somehow cosy and collaborationist.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/26/metropolitan-police-lawsuit-student-protest

I had missed this admittedly, perhaps I have been too quick to judge; what I had heard which was very much that the met had invited them in, joint press conferences etc.
I would still trust a gbc legal observer over a liberty legal observer on the ground though.
 
Liberty have done loads of great work. They were very active for the squatters/travellers/road protesters etc when the CJA was in the news and I've always found them an excellent resource.
 
MrSki said:
Liberty's take on it.

http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news/2011/liberty-at-the-march-for-the-alternative.php
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Sounds entirely reasonable to me and very much in line with what I expect from such a campaigning organisation.
It was police brutality against the Hunger Marches of the 1930s that inspired our founder Ronald Kidd to create the National Council for Civil Liberties, later renamed Liberty.
At a time of economic disarray and social unrest, Kidd and his co-founders vowed to act in defence of British freedom by being neutral observers of coming marches.

As the saying goes, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’. How true!*

Here we are again – amidst similar financial uncertainty and public disquiet legal volunteers from Liberty will take to London’s streets next Saturday to monitor the TUC event as independent witnesses.*But we will also be able to observe the police’s special operations room, giving us a unique opportunity to scrutinise the way the protest is policed.

Suggestions that this somehow compromises our independence are misguided. We will simply be there to observe. Indeed, such unprecedented access means that we will be able to examine the police’s handling of the march like never before.

Accusations that we will be ‘sharing intelligence’ with the police are completely incorrect.

This is a promising, progressive opportunity, and displays a level of cooperation from the protest organisers and police that our founders could only have dreamt of.

Liberty remains firmly opposed to many police public order tactics, particularly but not just ‘kettling’. Having access to the police’s special operations room won’t prevent us expressing our views, forcefully where necessary.* *
Click to expand...
 
Mation said:
Have people got something like this on their phones? I know you can get it for Android; I'm guessing for iphone too. Streams live video to the interweb with one (or sometimes two) button presses, and automatically saves it there.
Click to expand...

Tried this (qik) out now. Works well on the desire, just takes a while to upload.
 
Footage of the police action to clear Trafalgar Square (what most say appeared to be fairly deliberate aggression escalated from a minor event):

Qik worked for me mation but it absolutely eats battery power.
 
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