Remembering J18 street protests: a few short vids

[editor]

Blimey: it seems like another age now, doesn't it?
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=urban75

Shame the quality's a bit crap, but they were shot on a Sony digital camera in the days when memory cost the earth!

Full photo report here: http://www.urban75.org/j18/index.html

 

[treelover]

I remebr running thru that er, fountain, then watching people dance as the sun shone thu the water spray, wonderful, not much politics on show though


fair few participants, managers, bosses, etc now, eh!

 

[bluestreak]

ye gods, those were great days for protesting. i can't wait to get home and watch those vids.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

It was a moment that completely unexpectedly (for me anyway) cut through the 90s social quietness... If only I was there! What a wanker, I was working.

Will have a look at the footage later...

 

[editor]

Lower expectations before viewing! They're just 10 second grabs.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

I read somewhere... in a book... can't remember what one, that J18 was the last event of the political punk period. Which I think is kinda of right. Not actually having been there myself, the people who I know who went been politically active from that period on...

So what do you think, the last event in a period, or the first event in a new one - anti-globalisation/anti-capitalism, re: Seattle?

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Bit of a wierd one for me cos this was the first time i really started to question the value of bringing my kids along to demonstrations, after the on-the-whole more peaceful RTS precursor events - the level of police aggression was staggering and i remember sitting in a pub on the south bank later that day with a nice cool pint and looking back across, aghast at the scenes of madness going on on the other side of the river.

Altho we did enjoy dancing in the fountains i have to say

 

[Urbane Worrier]

I read somewhere... in a book... can't remember what one, that J18 was the last event of the political punk period.

For me the last 'political punk' event was the Parliament Square allotment project. I had a great day and didn't get trapped. And Churchill got down with it.

 

[Urbane Worrier]

Bit of a wierd one for me cos this was the first time i really started to question the value of bringing my kids along to demonstrations, after the on-the-whole more peaceful RTS precursor events - the level of police aggression was staggering and i remember sitting in a pub on the south bank later that day with a nice cool pint and looking back across, aghast at the scenes of madness going on on the other side of the river.Altho we did enjoy dancing in the fountains i have to say

I agree with you. I had taken my children to RTS stuff in the past where there were sandpits and fun stuff. On J18 I was overseeing my students exams and after three years of study I'm not going to bugger off for a bit of fun in the city and leave my students without back up support.
My wife phoned me and said she had just seen a woman run over by a police van. They seem to have had a horrific time, unlike any RTS. I went down to the Trafalgar Square bit at about 6pm and took over the kids.And then Ms went home to feed the dogs,but I stayed with the kids. They enjoyed it, I was looking over my shoulder all the time.

 

[aurora green]

For me the last 'political punk' event was the Parliament Square allotment project. I had a great day and didn't get trapped. And Churchill got down with it.

Yeah, I think this was the last truely great day to carry the name London RTS, and effectively was the end of an era.
It was certainly the last subversive day out I've had in our capital.

There are a myriad of reasons behind this and you'd have to write an essay citing all the chronological developments, activist burnout and the changes of personal at precise moments, the effect of the then new Labour goverment had of the anti-roads movement (seems almost incredulous now, but back then, there really was a mood that things were going to change..) but mostly the ever increasing use of force against such actions and hysterical demonisation of said events in the popular press....and loads more...

 

[perplexis]

Wicked, I remember that protest.
I'd done my maths A-level exam that morning and decided the best way to get it out of my system was to join the march.
I remember the hydrant fondly, it was a glorious day. Followed round the cycle-soundsystem for a while failing to make much impact. Happy days!

 

[tbaldwin]

I thought it was an amazing day and was good at getting the issues across to loads of people. But RTS Libertarians allowed themselves to be written out of history once the SWP and Globalise Resistance came along.. And by Novemeber the whole thing was FUCKED.

 

[aurora green]

I thought it was an amazing day and was good at getting the issues across to loads of people. But RTS Libertarians allowed themselves to be written out of history once the SWP and Globalise Resistance came along.. And by Novemeber the whole thing was FUCKED.

Hmm... not as simple as that..

And the November thing was fucked, in London, But let's not forget Seattle.

 

[Buds and Spawn]

Yeah, I think this was the last truely great day to carry the name London RTS, and effectively was the end of an era.
It was certainly the last subversive day out I've had in our capital.

Ditto. But dancing around a maypole in Parliament Square and then clearing the cops out of the way to get out made a pretty good last subversive day in my book. Until the next one comes along. What we're experiencing now is just a blip.

I remember the hydrant fondly, it was a glorious day.

When you and everyone else say 'hydrant' what you really mean is the Walbrook - freed from it's subterranean captivity

But RTS Libertarians allowed themselves to be written out of history once the SWP and Globalise Resistance came along.. And by Novemeber the whole thing was FUCKED.

I agree that the SWP et al. (groan) derailed our movement - but please don't lay the 'blame' at RTS for 'allowing' it to happen. All the liberal careerist journos., writers, self-appointed commentators allowed it, once they realised that we were for real and it wasn't just a fun game to get a bit of direct action kudos... They're the one's that jumped on Globalise Resistance's imaginary bandwagon - and gave them credibility and airtime...

 

[free spirit]

I fucking loved that day

and I still fucking love whoever it was that magically appeared with a ladder to save me from killing myself trying to get down from the ledge I'd got stuck on 20 foot up some building

 

[bluestreak]

I agree that the SWP et al. (groan) derailed our movement - but please don't lay the 'blame' at RTS for 'allowing' it to happen. All the liberal careerist journos., writers, self-appointed commentators allowed it, once they realised that we were for real and it wasn't just a fun game to get a bit of direct action kudos... They're the one's that jumped on Globalise Resistance's imaginary bandwagon - and gave them credibility and airtime...

i agree with this definitely. but i did feel that RTS lost their single issue status somewhat. i was at parties, like the seven sisters one, where there was no anti-roads info whatsoever for passers by, it was just a party, and i disagreed with that. RTS wasn't an anarchist or socialist movement, it was an anti-roads / cars social and environmental movement with broadly anarchist leanings.

of course, with any successful protest movement the SWP were going to attempt to steal their thunder at some point, but the death of RTS was more due to the criminalising of the activist lifestyle rather than RTS handing some imaginary baton on the the SWP.

 

[rich!]

For me the last 'political punk' event was the Parliament Square allotment project. I had a great day and didn't get trapped. And Churchill got down with it.

I am actually wearing the Churchill T-Shirt today in honour of this thread

 

[aurora green]

i agree with this definitely. but i did feel that RTS lost their single issue status somewhat. i was at parties, like the seven sisters one, where there was no anti-roads info whatsoever for passers by, it was just a party, and i disagreed with that. RTS wasn't an anarchist or socialist movement, it was an anti-roads / cars social and environmental movement with broadly anarchist leanings.

RTS didn't 'loose' their single issue status, they actively sought to shake it off. It was a source of great angst within the group at the time, with many people unsure this was the right way to go, but with the support of the Liverpool dockers in 1997 and the tube workers before that, RTS was purposefully and demonstrably trying to reach beyond what was percieved as a single issue getto, and make bonds and links with wider groups.

 

[bluestreak]

oh, i missed that part of RTS history then. i always assumed that the move away from the strict anti-roads thing was a general slip based on their success and increasing ideas about what the RTS banner could include rather than being a conscious attempt to throw off an image.

i think i wouldn't have approved. but then again.... i dunno, too much to think about right here... collar me in the pub one night.

 

[Groucho]

What's making me feel old is that I attended part of this considering myself a veteran campaigner who had seen it all before. It seems like yesterday and not as momentus as the Poll Tax riot or the anti-BNP Unity march or for that matter Wapping in '86/'87.

Still, we aint seen the last of riot n rebellion...

 

[corporate whore]

I remember going on the early doors Critical Mass that day - getting loads of abuse along the "why don't you spongers get a job" line.

I'd just got off a 9 hour night shift...

Left around 1030 to get some kip, was amazed when I saw how it all turned out..

 

[treelover]

ah yes, beneath the pavement, the beach

When you and everyone else say 'hydrant' what you really mean is the Walbrook - freed from it's subterranean captivity

 

[editor]

I can remember if being the first RTS style event where people I knew were expressing doubts about going because of the media build up and the expectation of things kicking off.

Anyone remember that ludicrous Evening Standard yarn about activists supposedly handing out envelopes to office workers with hidden razor blades inside?

Twats.

 

[FifthFromFront]

It was a great day. City of London police still seem pissed off by it all

I just love the way even today if you are sat in a pub and say J18 peoples eyes brighten and everyone hasa different story to tell. Say "N30" and everyone mumbles under their breath and gets back to the beer.

FFF

 

[Blagsta]

Top day out that was!

 

[Divisive Cotton]

Top day out that was!

Everybody there loved it! There was definitely the feedback I got afterwards...

 

[Urbane Worrier]

Anyone remember that ludicrous Evening Standard yarn about activists supposedly handing out envelopes to office workers with hidden razor blades inside?

Twats.

Evading Standards is what I remember

 

[MatthewCuffe]

It looks stunning.

Where did it all go? Did that energy get submerged under September 11th and the absurd 'war on terror'? And will it return now we are exiting the 'WoT'?

 

[northernhord]

I recently found a Reclaim the Streets Video in a charity shop, it took me back to some good days of sneaking down on trains to London for a CJA March and a Party at Clarement road, and an Oxford Reclaim the Streets party I went to when I was at Ruskin College.

 

[Blagsta]

Evading Standards is what I remember

iirc, Evading Standards was the fake ES put out by the RTS crew