LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Jeremy Corbyn channeling Aleister Crowley?
Reclaim The Streets in London, Sat 23rd June?
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Jeremy Corbyn channeling Aleister Crowley?
Ohhhhh Aleister Crowley....
McDonalds Windows Re-enactment Group.
Thimble Queen
Called away to another place
Some of the demos I've been on over here. Have a bit of an RTS vibe. There's always sound systems, on a recent one (take back the night) people occupied a small area by the harbour and there was dancing for some time. I left at about midnight so I'm not sure how it ended with the cops etc. It was very colourful, loud and unapologetic. There's another group called Never Mind the Papers: Rechts auf Stadt that put on demos that feel similar.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
I've yet to see any other demos take pneumatick drills to the road
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
I was always left with a sore head the next morning
Thimble Queen
Called away to another place
I was always left with a sore head the next morning
Yeah that too
not sure it still counted as morning though 
shifting gears
Well-Known Member
Remember one in Cambridge that was def on a Saturday, got hit by a cop with a baton and then later on a rather more chilled plod told me the football scores
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
where do you come from cotton eyed joe
Sea Star
have you ever explored your dark side?
I was in one of the groups that met secretly - in some industrial estate in Camberwell iirc. We were the block the motorway and get the tripods up group. A lot of responsibility. Damn near nearly failed because one of the tripods broke when we were putting it up but luckily no-one got hurt and we had - I think - three in total so we just put the other two up. but it was bloody close - plod were right there!! Thought I was going to get arrested. Thought we all were. After that I just drank lots of ciders and basked in the glory of an event I'd helped make happen.
Another person who used to be on Urban was in that giant dress - probably made it tbh. Can't remember her board name unfortunately - haven't seen her since I first flounced of Urban.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
didn't bother with this secret meeting nonsense, got out the tube at shepherds bush and wandered up the way to the former m41
Sea Star
have you ever explored your dark side?
ahh but if we hadn't we'd have been picked off by the plod before we got anywhere near the site. We always suspected there were coppers in our meetings. Turns out we were right.
Just remembered that we saw something just a few days before that was speculating on where the street party would be and they had no clue. There were cars placed at various locations around London, I heard, but when we arrived at shepherds Bush there were no plod whatsoever.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
The later proves the former wasn't true surely? The fact is they knew the sites of the later London parties, and also J18 for example due to the undercovers. The thing that made them happen was the numbers of people and general unruliness, not the secrecy aspect. Although I suspect for some events letting it happen in a controlled way was a risk management strategy rather than dispersing thousands of annoyed unruly people across the city. In some ways the secrecy was more of a hindrance than a help in the later stages of RTS, and was a partial factor in its demise I think.
Sea Star
have you ever explored your dark side?
I suspect if we hadn't managed to stop the traffic it would have been a different story that day. Can't speak for the J18 - I wasn't involved. Whether the secrecy was necessary is a moot point, we thought it was. Also we genuinely had no idea it was going to be so huge. I'd been on the first ever RTS thing which was about a dozen people - can't even remember when. Early 90s I think - we marched in the traffic with a cardboard bus. And though each one after that was bigger - the size of the M41 thing was a massive shock to most of us I think. Maybe after that strategy changed because you could rely on the numbers, but up till the M41 we never expected such crowds.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Memory is a funny thing. I was one of the first people at Shepherds Bush, and there were definitely cops there then that knew what was happening. They tried to block the M41 from the south, and then people found another way up onto the road bypassing the line and coming up behind them, at which point they gave up trying to stop people and let the crowds onto the road.
Yeah, I think the secrecy was totally needed for the first few London events, but once it had the momentum and numbers it became more of a problem. Think the first RTS was in Brighton in about '92? Then it was just used as an event name, then the RTS that people usually mean is the RTS London group that came out of Claremont Road and the anti-CJA stuff about '95ish.
Sea Star
have you ever explored your dark side?
Reclaim the Streets started in Brixton - around 90/91 - pretty sure of that. I still have the leaflet somewhere. Then around the time of the M11 link road protests it folded - I guess we were all too busy doing other things - there was Twyford too. Then it was revived on the back of the M11 campaigns. For me Reclaim the Streets are the meetings I went to most weeks where events, campaigns, politics got discussed and advertised. I wasn't involved with the first street party in London, and attended the second. After that RTS became a global movement rather than just one group. A small group of us formed a south London RTS group and we did stuff around Brixton/ Streatham/ Tooting, etc. for a couple of years.
At Shepherds Bush we arrived before the crowd - we blocked the road at the north end. Then we hung around for quite a while before people came in from the south - there were tonnes of coppers there by then. We saw them all arrive!
In fact I remember it all being a bit touch and go at the time - because the police really wanted to take us and it looked to us like they had the whole stretch of motorway blocked - I wasn't sure that the party would actually happen. Then we saw the crowd break through and we knew we were safe!
I have a book about all this at home - but I still haven't read it. I really ought to - will help refresh my memory.
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Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
As a non-RTS person I somehow managed to get to Shepherds Bush from Liverpool street quite early. There were a handful of us running down the empty motorway towards the lorries and soundsystems, having to dodge a sparse line of coppers like in British Bulldog.
It was a bit hairy, but I turned round and there were thousands of people behind us. Phew.
It was a bit hairy, but I turned round and there were thousands of people behind us. Phew.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
i was i think in that handfulAs a non-RTS person I somehow managed to get to Shepherds Bush from Liverpool street quite early. There were a handful of us running down the motorway towards the lorries and soundsystems, having to dodge a sparse line of coppers like in British Bulldog.
It was a bit hairy, but I turned round and there were thousands of people behind us. Phew.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Reclaim the Streets started in Brixton - around 90/91 - pretty sure of that. I still have the leaflet somewhere. Then around the time of the M11 link road protests it folded - I guess we were all too busy doing other things - there was Twyford too. Then it was revived on the back of the M11 campaigns. For me Reclaim the Streets are the meetings I went to most weeks where events, campaigns, politics got discussed and advertised. I wasn't involved with the first street party in London, and attended the second. After that RTS became a global movement rather than just one group. A small group of us formed a south London RTS group and we did stuff around Brixton/ Streatham/ Tooting, etc. for a couple of years.
At Shepherds Bush we arrived before the crowd - we blocked the road at the north end. Then we hung around for quite a while before people came in from the south - there were tonnes of coppers there by then. We saw them all arrive!
In fact I remember it all being a bit touch and go at the time - because the police really wanted to take us and it looked to us like they had the whole stretch of motorway blocked - I wasn't sure that the party would actually happen. Then we saw the crowd break through and we knew we were safe!
I have a book about all this at home - but I still haven't read it. I really ought to - will help refresh my memory.
Probably knew you tbh!
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Yup, sounds like it.
such an incredible feeling when the first soundsystem started...
Jesus ! I mean .. shit the bed Peter Wilson was a NAMBLA advocate !
chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
A few random, and increasingly foggy, points from memory.
Critical Mass (the bike thing) was influential. I remember, and I think this was before RTS took off, joining critical masses as pedestrian and getting others to join me (much to the chagrin of some of the cyclists) in a kinda protoRTS.
On one RTS (I forget which) the cops briefly shut the tube station to stop us getting out at the location but then changed their mind as a tubeful of of us spontaneously decided to get off wherever and whenever and pile into the nearest streets in smaller unorganized groups this spreading utter fucking mayhem all over the place. The cops quickly concluded that a single RTS was preferable.
I think it was Islington where I emerges onto an utterly deserted street with a lonely armoured car playing the Carpenters before the crowds emerged moments later
It was also Islington when fleeing the cops after they attacked it myself and my companion had a brief, but heated, argument about whether to run into a building site and grab stuff to fight the cops with or to to duck into the adjacent pub to hide and have a refreshing pint. Common sense won out and I had the surreal experience of standing at the bar watching the "riot" outside live on the news instead.
Critical Mass (the bike thing) was influential. I remember, and I think this was before RTS took off, joining critical masses as pedestrian and getting others to join me (much to the chagrin of some of the cyclists) in a kinda protoRTS.
On one RTS (I forget which) the cops briefly shut the tube station to stop us getting out at the location but then changed their mind as a tubeful of of us spontaneously decided to get off wherever and whenever and pile into the nearest streets in smaller unorganized groups this spreading utter fucking mayhem all over the place. The cops quickly concluded that a single RTS was preferable.
I think it was Islington where I emerges onto an utterly deserted street with a lonely armoured car playing the Carpenters before the crowds emerged moments later
It was also Islington when fleeing the cops after they attacked it myself and my companion had a brief, but heated, argument about whether to run into a building site and grab stuff to fight the cops with or to to duck into the adjacent pub to hide and have a refreshing pint. Common sense won out and I had the surreal experience of standing at the bar watching the "riot" outside live on the news instead.
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Sea Star
have you ever explored your dark side?
A few random, and increasingly foggy, points from memory.
Critical Mass (the bike thing) was influential. I remember, and I think this was before RTS took off, join information critical masses as pedestrian and getting others to join me (much to the chagrin of some of the cyclists) in a kinda protoRTS.
On one RTS (I forget which) the cops briefly shut the tube station to stop us getting out at the location but then changed their mind as a tuneful of of us spontaneously decided to get off wherever and whenever and pile into the nearest streets in smaller unorganized groups this spreading utter fucking mayhem all over the place. The cops quickly concluded that a single RTS was preferable.
I think it was Islington where I emerges onto an utterly deserted street with a lonely armoured car playing the Carpenters before the crowds emerged moments later
It was also Islington when fleeing the cops after they attacked it myself and my companion had a bruef, but heated argument about whether to run into a building site and grab stuff to fight the cops with or to to duck into the adjacent pub to hide and gave a refreshing pint. Common sense won out and I had the surreal experience of standing at the bar watching the "riot" outside live on the news instead.
I remember that ended badly. My little group left early so we missed all that - got home with pleasant memories of a chilled event only to see people being beaten by the police on the news.
eta - been trying to piece all this together in my head as I'm attempting to write a sort of memoir (which is just to add to the family research files really - and to satisfy myself). The time in my life I was involved with something truly important and I didn't write a single thing down! Or take any pictures.
But as I get older I feel the need to try dig up some of these old memories before they disappear altogether.
I did once have a VHS tape full of footage from the news and some stuff Shane Collins gave me that came from the police cameras. Trouble is I handed it all over to a friend who was in court defending himself on one of our actions and he never gave it back to me!!
I can't remember what came first for me - critical mass or RTS, but I have a feeling I found out about Critical Mass at an RTS meeting - and from there quite a few peeps from RTS went along and it became a kind of combined thing for a while.
around 95/96 I organised to south London portion of a four pronged critical mass heading in to the centre from north south east and west. Then was interviewed by radio one's newsbeat. My boss at work heard me talking in support of the tube strike that was on that day and I think I nearly got sacked.
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chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
I remember that ended badly. My little group left early so we missed all that - got home with pleasant memories of a chilled event only to see people being beaten by the police on the news.
To be fair, you could see it coming.
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