SMEAR STORIES - the GOOD, the BAD and the BIZARRE

[DaveCinzano]

Anyone have any notable smear stories from the papers to share?

Would be nice to have a handy list of some of the most brazen ones - like "samurai swords at J18", the now-traditional "packed lunches and petty cash", or the "bussed in agitators" with a hint of racial profiling from riots of yore.

Inspired by today seeing this rather half-hearted attempt from Australia:

East West Link leader exposed as serial pest protester

AN East West tunnel protest leader has been exposed as a serial agitator, prompting claims that local opposition to the $8 billion road link has been hijacked.

The Herald Sun has confirmed that self-appointed protest leader Anthony Main has joined the G20, Occupy Melbourne and S11 protest rallies.

The 37-year-old says: "I'm a serial pest to big business and to Right-wing politicians. I make no apologies for that."

Workers returned to the drilling site this morning before protesters could organise themselves to prevent their entry.

A community picket of dozens of protesters surrounded the North Carlton worksite after 6am but workers had already entered the caged drilling area by the time they arrived.

Insp Paul Tymms said police wanted to ensure a peaceful and safe protest, after some protesters became aggressive yesterday and tried to rush the police line.

He said officers used appropriate force to maintain order.

Workers at the site were employed legitimately and had a right to do their work safely, Insp Tymms said, adding that police would continue to keep a visible presence at the site.

Protesters chanted that they wanted public transport instead of the East West Link and would continue to fight for it.

Larissa Garvin, a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Terry Mulder, said the Government was concerned at the protesters' tactics.

"The actions of a small number of "serial protesters" at the East West Link drilling sites calls into question whether they represent the broader views of the community, or just their own," she said.

Linking Melbourne Authority, which is responsible for the drilling contractors, said its workers should not have to face harassment and intimidation when arriving at work.

Mr Main, who lives in Clifton Hill, led about 50 picketers at the test drilling site on the corner of Princes and Station streets in North Carlton from 6.30am yesterday.

Angry scenes followed as police stepped in and tried to disperse the protesters as they linked arms to stop Strategic Drilling Services' workers from entering the site.

Victoria Police Inspector Peter Ward denied protesters' claims of police brutality.

"It's unfortunate that a small group of the protesters decided to be confrontational and start to push the police lines," he said.

Mr Main, a former Yarra councillor, has a long history of activism.

He has been seen at major socialist protests, as well as smaller rallies including a fight against Baker's Delight in St Helena and a battle against a Carlton video store who wanted to pay staff with DVDs.

But his attention-seeking behaviour has also caught the attention of Victoria Police.

Mr Main, secretary of the Unite union, was given a good behaviour bond without conviction for a brush with police in 2007.

He was expected to be interviewed over an incident during a violent protest before a speech by anti-Islamic MP Geert Wilders in February.

Institute of Public Affairs policy director Tim Wilson described the mob as rent-a-crowd protesters who were "silly and indulgent".

"These groups are largely interested in self-applauding their efforts than effecting beneficial change," he said.

But Mr Main, a Socialist Party candidate for Melbourne at the recent federal election, said the East West Link protest had widespread public support.

"I've put on 3kg with all the cakes and treats that the locals have brought down here."

Richard Clancy, workplace relations manager for the Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: "We become concerned when police supervision and court orders are necessary to ensure that lawful business activity can proceed."

ANTHONY MAIN - PROFESSIONAL PROTESTER

* East West Link, Fitzroy, September/October 2013
* Public housing cuts, Prahran, July 2013
* Geert Wilders, right-wing politician, February 2013
* Occupy Melbourne, City Square, October 2011
* Baker's Delight, St Helena, wages concerns, November 2009
* Video Dogs, Carlton, complaints over staff working for DVDs, June 2008
* APEC, Melbourne, September 2007
* G20, Melbourne, November 2006
* Hungry Jacks, protest for fast-food workers' rights, June 2006
* S11, World Economic Forum, Crown Casino, September, 2000

Short version:

People protest against an A$8bn private tunnel/tollway project in Melbourne; politicians and construction company don't like this; police deployed aggressively; politicians cite "serial protesters" as driving force; media digs up a few clippings to try and make the soundbite come to life.

 

[silverfish]

Are you suprised by this?

Surely re posting just strengthens the bullshit

 

[DaveCinzano]

Are you suprised by this?

No.

Surely re posting just strengthens the bullshit

Not really - clearly this is a thread looking to collect together the proven nonsense.

It would also be handy to pull together the earliest manifestations of old chestnuts, identify serial offending journalists who act as conduits for this sort of nonsense, and see if there are patterns emerging.

Plus some of the stories are quite funny.

 

[butchersapron]

Are you suprised by this?

Surely re posting just strengthens the bullshit

Identifying monsters is a good way of helping people identify other monsters and laugh at them. Bizarre response.

 

[Dogsauce]

I remember after that (peaceable) power station protest on the Thames a few years back the police displaying the arsenal of 'weapons' they'd confiscated during a raid on protestors which included things like tent peg mallets and kitchen cutlery. A laughable smear attempt.

 

[DaveCinzano]

There were some memorable ones around in the RTS/J18/N30 etc days, including the Sunday Times' City anarchists stockpile arms (which doesn't appear to be on its website anymore, but which has been faithfully C+Ped for posterity elsewhere, eg.

ANARCHISTS are stockpiling illegal weapons worth thousands of pounds, including tear gas and stun guns, for a planned riot in the City of London on November 30. In two separate transactions in the past six weeks, at least 34 containers of CS gas and four stun guns capable of delivering a 50,000-volt electric shock were purchased by Reclaim the Streets - one of the groups that wrecked property worth £2m in the June 18 "carnival against global capitalism" in the City. Both transactions took place in north London.

The weapons, which are illegal to buy and possess under the firearms act and carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment, were imported from France and sold by a gang of nightclub doormen working in the Euston and Camden Town areas. On the black market, CS gas canisters cost £35 each and stun guns sell for £200-£300.

The revelation is certain to outrage many of the anarchists' sympathisers, who support the cause but do not approve of the increasingly violent tactics used by groups such as Reclaim the Streets and Earth First.

In previous protests, wooden bars and bricks have been used in spontaneous clashes with police. This is the first evidence of dangerous weapons being stockpiled for campaigns.

Detective Chief Inspector Kieron Sharp of City police, who is heading the investigation into the June 18 riot, said he was concerned but not surprised by the purchases. "This is a new and dangerous trend and we are taking it very seriously. I will be notifying the relevant forces of this," he added.

Sharp said the police would do everything in their power to protect officers from attack. "They are obviously getting ready for a big one. They wouldn't waste the surprise on an ordinary street protest. It fits in with the way these groups are becoming increasingly militant. We will work hard to reduce risk to our officers."

Last month The Sunday Times revealed that the November protest, dubbed N30, is planned to mirror the riot that occurred on June 18 (J18), targeting banks and other financial institutions in the City.

Anarchist groups, including Reclaim the Streets and Earth First, which co-ordinated the J18 action, have been in contact with their American counterparts to launch a simultaneous campaign on November 30, making it one of the biggest militant protests ever organised.

The date has been chosen to coincide with the meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle, Washington, to be attended by representatives of 150 countries.

The J18 day of action, billed as an international "carnival against capitalism", turned into a violent demonstration that left more than 40 people injured and caused widespread damage to property.

The worst violence occurred at the Liffe futures exchange building and nearby Rabobank, where windows were smashed and offices wrecked. A McDonald's outlet and a Mercedes-Benz dealership were also vandalised.

That one was written by Edin Hamzin and Mark Macaskill, the latter who seemed to get quite a knack for this sort of thing.

Another recurring figure was Jonathan Ungoed-Thomas, who kept (ineptly) signing up to various political e-lists trying to get the lowdown on all the latest hip and happening horizontally-organised anti-capitalist shenanigans:

http://www.ntk.net/ungoed/

 

[DaveCinzano]

Here's a brief selection of Macaskill's Sunday Times (£) stories which mention anarchists on the lead up to and protests at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto...Macaskill&offset=0&hits=0&service=searchframe

 

[DaveCinzano]

Related blog post of interest:

‘Outside elements’ and the 1981 riots: The Thatcher government’s profiling of the British left

 

[TopCat]

David Rose wrote in the Guardian (1986) that Class War was run by ex leading members of the National Front.

David Rose is a cunt.

Only one of the above is a smear.

 

[TopCat]

This analysis originally appeared in the Anarchist fortnightly Freedom on 15 July 2006. Nearly all of the journalists listed are still ‘in the field’ today. Sightings of further bullshit from these ‘professionals’ will be gratefully received………

The Land of Make Believe
For some twenty years any journalist wanting to file exaggerated, lazy or downright slanderous copy has had one staple source for stories – Class War. Sometimes the journalist concerned has been given smears to peddle by Special Branch or MI5, sometimes they are able to come up with an inaccurate article all on their own.

From the hundreds that have appeared, Class War proudly presents ten of the biggest whoppers from our mouldy mound of press cuttings.

And for any journalists reading, before you write your piece please consider whether you can match the following all time classics….

10. Swedes 2 Turnips 1
That Class War was behind the rioting in Gothenburg in 2001 at the demonstration against the EU summit (Jason Burke, Kamal Ahmed and Lars Bevanger, The Observer, 17th June 2001). Not one member of Class War, from either the UK or Europe was there. The price of a pint in Scandinavia puts us off travelling there. Some of us did watch the footage on telly though.

9. Who Do You Think You’re Kidding Mr Hitler!
Class War is a fascist organisation (David Rose in the Guardian, 30th September 1985) and Union Jack tattooed CW members provoked the 1985 Brixton riots. Handed to the Guardian by self-confessed spook Gerry Gable of Searchlight magazine, the paper was forced into a sorry retraction shortly afterwards.
8. Yuppiecide?
‘Eastenders Stars Targeted by Class War Terrorists’ (News of the World magazine, 5th July 1987). The colour picture of Leslie Grantham in a sniper’s target was the only good thing about this piece, which claimed we planned to assassinate certain actors in the top BBC soap for betraying their class.
7. Gruesome Threesome?
That former Class War national organiser Tim Scargill was an informer for fascist group Combat 18 (Searchlight, April 1993). Gerry Gable again, this time attacking an ex-member of Class War alongside Malcolm Astells of Anti-Fascist Action and independent researcher Larry O’Hara.

This nonsense produced a storm of protest and when Searchlight produced their history of C18 (White Riot by Nick Lowles, Milo 2001) Scargill, Astells and O’Hara did not warrant a single mention between them. All of which begs the question if Searchlight were not willing to stand by their story, why did they print it in the first place?

6. Class War Vampires!
Following a ritualistic murder case in Germany, the Evening Standard magazine expressed concern that London is a hotbed of vampire activity (‘In Search of the Urban Vampire’, Nick Compton, 5th April 2002). Compton interviewed the Rt Rev Sean Manchester of Highgate who styles himself as the UK’s leading vampire hunter.

Who could doubt his credentials when he states of vampires:

“A significant number engage in satanic practices and have contact with established diabolists. Many are anarchists and some support Class War. A handful are neo-Nazis. Some are both”.

Look out for those neo-Nazi anarchist Class War vampires the next time you go to Highgate Cemetry!

5. International Conference Shame!
To the Daily Star only one thing could be worse than a Class War member – Class War members who are not even British, meeting – in London! How else to explain the distress the Star went through on 12th September 1991 when its editorial thundered “Instead of holding rallies they should be stuffed and exhibited at the Natural History Museum with the dinosaurs they resemble so closely”.

4. Marked Men?
From 1999-2000, the Sunday Times ran a series of ever more ludicrous articles by lanky streak of piss Mark Macaskill. What set Macaskill apart from his contemporaries was the range of groups he targeted with his pen, and his extremely obvious and failed attempt to infiltrate the Sunday Times tea boy into London Class War.
The highlight of his investigation came when he employed a photographer to target Middlesex University academic Jock Young, who Macaskill believed to be the leader of Class War. He is not, and indeed has never even been a member or supporter of the group!

After getting several home addresses of Anarchists (presumably from the police) Macaskill’s eventual expose of Class War (Sunday Times, 14th May 2000) left everybody who knows us scratching their heads).

Macaskill seems to have gone a bit quiet of late – could he have followed the route David Shayler took of working for the Sunday Times first and then formally joining the security services afterwards?

3. Pinocchio’s Nose
‘The Riot Puppeteers’ screamed the Daily Mail of 25th July 1992. It seemed that the riots of the long hot summer of 1992 did not occur because people do not like the police and actually rather enjoy throwing bricks at cops, but because “members of the Class War anarchist organisation are orchestrating the unrest in Burnley and Huddersfield, using CB radios and scanners to monitor police communications.” Whatever next!

2. Nazis of the Left!
So screamed Daily Mirror pen-pusher John Merritt (17th February 1987). Our crime? Booing actor Tom Watt, then better known as Lofty in Eastenders, who had opened a yuppie housing development in Hackney. What did he expect – praise?

1.Digging Up Diana!
By a distance, the best ever story about Class War was by Tim Luckett in the Daily Mirror of 27th August 2000. Class War were apparently planning to dig up the body of Princess Diana from her island grave at Althorp, Northamptonshire. Thankfully for the Spencer family we had been thwarted in this dastardly deed by an undercover TV reporter. The worms of Althorp could carry on eating.

Luckett quoted a ‘source’ close to the investigation.

“The anarchists are highly organised. They have been liaising in code via the pages of the Big Issue and group members contact each other with pagers.”

Needless to say no such plan, or investigative journalist existed, and no TV programme appeared. The ‘plot’ itself though had already been published in the form of a novel – Anarchist by Class War founder Ian Bone, some two years earlier.

There are lots of good critiques available of the media, Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media by Michael Parenti being one classic. That the media exercises power without responsibility, that they are easily co-opted by politicians and other powerful figures and that journalism tends to reflect the middle class concerns and interests of middle class journalists is perhaps obvious. The articles above however suggest something more – that many journalists are idle, prejudiced and perhaps more importantly, nowhere near as clever as they actually believe they are.

Class War Federation

 

[audiotech]

MI5 during the Wilson era couldn't distinguish between Social Denocrats and Communists. Did a lot of burglaries across London too. Bungled quite a few.

 

[Delroy Booth]

MI5 during the Wilson era couldn't distinguish between Social Denocrats and Communists. Did a lot of burglaries across London too. Bungled quite a few.

The confusion the security services of this period had in differentiating between David Owen (right-wing Labour MP) Will Owen (left-wing Labour MP) and Bill Owen (Labour party member better known as Compo from Last of the Summer Wine) tells me everything to know about the competency of the security servies in this era.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Here's a good one from the Sunday Times about J18 (the ‘Carnival Against Capitalism’ on 18 June 1999 in the City of London and elsewhere around the world, marking the G8 summit taking place at the time in Köln) - Kieron Sharp's LOLsome “Thirty quid and a packed lunch” claim:

From 22/6/99 - can't find it on either the ST website of the Wayback Machine. Just as well I printed loads of stuff out!

 

[rekil]

Dublin 2004. PC Mark Kennedy/Stone was there.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Are you sure that's not a PD intervention?

 

[ska invita]

Whos's the stooge at the Evening Standard who likes to post up anarchists ate my hamster stories?

 

[DaveCinzano]

Special Branch planting smears within the press after the first big Grosvenor Square anti-Vietnam War demo of March 1968, but before the one in October (a period during which SB lobbied, entirely coincidentally, of course, for further - and less accountable - cash and the green light to infiltrate the Dreaded Left):

Meanwhile the press inflamed the febrile atmosphere with lurid but dubious articles about protesters manufacturing and storing Molotov cocktails and attempting to buy small firearms. Privately, Dixon informed a senior officer the press reports were ‘a carefully constructed pastiche of information, gathered from a number of sources and spiced with inspired guesswork’. Brian Cashinella, one of the journalists who reported the claims, says the information had actually come from Special Branch. If the purpose was to discourage people from joining the protest, the strategy appeared to work, as more and more activists distanced themselves from the scheduled march.

Page 12, Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police by Rob Evans & Paul Lewis, 2013

 

[ska invita]

Whos's the stooge at the Evening Standard who likes to post up anarchists ate my hamster stories?

Justin Davenport and Nigel Rosser ad nauseum

 

[free spirit]

I got 'militant anarchist ringleader' on the front page of the evening chronicle*, and my mum had a phone call from my gran to inform her that the daily telegraph had reported I'd been arrested for possession of cannabis.

*Tbf I had been nicked and went to court with 'reclaim the streets' sunburned into my face after an unfortunate UV resistant face paint related issue.

The story about several hundred sharpened metal spears being confiscated in Stirling was an interesting interpretation of the hundreds of spigots used at event sites all over the country for fencing off areas, which we'd had to use to fence off the entire river area at the request of the council, and had just packed away when the police searched the site and found them.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Time to revive, surely?

Some great candidates recently:



(Sources: 1, 2)

 

[DaveCinzano]

Some excellent trolling here:

NYPD warns cops to watch out for concrete-filled tennis balls during protests

The NYPD are being pelted with concrete-filled tennis balls during George Floyd protests, the NYPD warned its members Sunday. The two unidentified officers, who were following protestors Thursday a…

nypost.com

Internal NYPD alert warns of concrete disguised as ‘ice cream’ at NYC protests

An internal NYPD alert warned officers of containers of hardened concrete resembling “chocolate chip ice cream” found near the scene of a recent George Floyd protest in Lower Manhattan.…

nypost.com

(Source)



Paging Pickman's model

 

[rekil]

The daily beast has done a round up. Murder bus is a personal fave. And the Venga Boysesque antifa convoy.

Cops’ Most Deranged Lies and Bizarre Claims About the Protests

From glaring falsehoods about straight-up violence to absurd fantasies often involving ice cream, cops have been creative.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[DaveCinzano]

The Soros obsessives are going all in at the moment:

 

[not-bono-ever]

dated 2017. hes a financier, not fucking nostradamus

 

[Marty1]

The Soros obsessives are going all in at the moment:

LI is a Fox News reporter.

 

[DaveCinzano]

M1 is a wilful obfuscator.

 

[likesfish]

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | British blamed for Basra badgers

this has got to be the Maddest British army deny releasing Honey badgers onto the streets of basra
UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.

 

[two sheds]

yeh they would say that though wouldn't they, they're hardly going to admit it

 

[DaveCinzano]

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | British blamed for Basra badgers

this has got to be the Maddest British army deny releasing Honey badgers onto the streets of basra
UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.

But they're not denying that their bloodlusty meline beasts feast on the flesh of women, are they..?

 

[DaveCinzano]

Oakland PD cop-boss forced to eat shit publicly over lies he spread at a press conference a mere year ago