Edinburgh Anarchists

…they’ve arrested 1000 people demanding that the summit produce meaningful action.

While the rich governments try and fix things so they stay rich and oil companies finally get their hands on Iraq’s oil, the main certainty is that whatever comes out of Copenhagen, they’re determined that it won’t be decided by people on any of the world’s streets. The “indiscrimate” arrests are reported to have been focussed on the Libertarian Socialist Bloc, calling for System Change Not Climate Change.

It’s hard to be hopeful about the COP15 process but if delegates don’t come up with a satisfactory deal, and people in Copenhagen were to blockade them in the conference centre until they do, then history isn’t going to condemn them as much as it would for inaction.

A reader has sent us this first hand report of the protests against the SDL’s march in Glasgow.

The protests in Glasgow against the Scottish Defence League can broadly be called a success. Anti-fascists were certainly successful in preventing the group from assembling in any significant way on the street, and the number of people who came out to fight the fascists was extremely impressive. However, as was the case in Leeds where a comrade was handed over to the police by a steward, the actions of the self-appointed leaders of the anti-racist movement – Unite Against Fascism (UAF) – were disgraceful.

Anti-fascists met outside the St. Enoch Street subway station in significant numbers with the intention of going to Cambridge street, where the majority of the SDL were drinking in a bar behind a sizeable police line. We set off through the streets towards their hideout as a loose group, but soon the UAF banner was at the front of the march and Weyman Bennett was stopping for photo opportunities, and commandeering a megaphone to tell the group to slow down to accommodate the cops! Despite this, those who were interested in actually opposing the SDL on the streets walked on towards the bar.

Having got to Cambridge street, Bennett and his supporters once again took control of the megaphone and began telling protesters to head to the ‘Scotland United’ demonstration at Glasgow Green! This created a split in the group leaving only 50 behind to oppose the SDL where they were, with the majority following the UAF banner away from any confrontation and towards the official protest. This not only left those who stayed in danger, but also allowed the SDL briefly outside the bar.

The actions of the UAF group on Saturday were despicable, but not unexpected. Their history of state collusion against radical anti-fascists and collaboration with religious groups, political parties and the forces of the state is no secret. It is becoming increasingly clear that they cannot be trusted as a genuine anti-fascist group, and are not an effective means of combating fascism in Britain.

This Saturday the English Scottish Defence League are coming to Glasgow. They claim to be non-racist and protesting about “Islamic extremism” but it doesn’t take much for their true colours to show.

Any resemblence to pissed-up Nazis is coincidental. Honest

So there’s a counter protest:

Anti-fascists will be assembling at 10am outside St Enochs underground on the 14th, with the intention of stopping the SDL from being able to assemble and organise in our city. Bring flags, banners, placards etc!

Arrive in groups and stay safe. We would encourage everyone to come down early and be at St Enochs for 10 – even if you intend to later go to the Glasgow Green event.

Someone who will be with the SDL in spirit, is the racist murderer Christopher Miller, convicted this week of the unprovoked murder of Kunal Mohanty.

Christopher Miller, 25, slashed father-to-be Kunal Mohanty, 30, in the neck as he walked to a restaurant with his friends in March.[...]

As Mr Mohanty lay dying in the street with blood gushing from his neck, Miller and his friend John McGrory, 20, were seen on CCTV running through a car park celebrating.

Racist killer & his victim

The Nato Welcoming Committee have tea and cakes ready for the arrival of the world’s least favourite military alliance. Sign up for text alerts (not with your everyday mobile, natch) to be informed of the meeting point and be there sharp at 11am.

Full message from NatoWC here.

For months the NATO Welcoming Committee has been calling on people to come to Edinburgh and take part in action against NATO and against militarism. We have now produced a map of the city centre of Edinburgh showing the location of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and some other institutions which are linked to the militarist system. Our primary target remains the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, the location of the NATO meeting. However, if we cannot reach it, it is important to remember that there are many targets around the city of Edinburgh just as deserving of attention. To find the target maps and other maps visit http://natowc.noflag.org.uk/the-target

To make it as hard as possible for us to be contained and stopped from taking action the meeting place for the demonstration will not be announced until 10.30 am. People should be in the city centre in their affinity groups or with friends by this time. Once the location has been announced people should move to the meeting place and assemble at 11am sharp.

We had this posted to us, makes sense to repost it here now:

In St Andrews, we say “Nae Tae G20!

No to G20 neo-liberalism! No to economic exploitation! No to environmental destruction!

Yes to sustainability, community cooperation and peoples’ representation!
Yes to liberation, solidarity, equality, human rights and peace!
Yes to revolution!

On the first weekend in November, the financial leaders of the world’s twenty richest countries will be hosting closed door meetings in order to decide how our world should be run. The Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers have chosen to host these meetings in the town of St Andrews, Scotland, and in response groups of residents and students have paved the way to make our voices heard.

We the residents and students of this community are coming into the streets to say loud and clear, “The G20 is not welcome in our town,” or as the Scots say, “Nae tae G-20!” We are joining together to say that the neo-liberal development, trade and environmental policies furthered by the G20 will not solve the global financial crisis, not solve the global ecological crisis and do not address the ever-increasing wealth gap. We are resisting the G20 because it is a mechanism of the global ruling elite that seeks to enrich the “1st world” at the expense of increasing poverty for the “underdeveloped” and “developing” world.

There are a number of organizations making exciting plans in St. Andrews during the weekend of the G20 meeting, and while Put People First (g20standrews.org) has organized an educational event, we have set our sights on getting people into the streets to show our collective dissent. To this end we have called for two days of festive actions:

- Friday, November 6, 2009, 11:00am, join us for a protest rally at the center of town fountain, located near the intersection of Market Street and College Street.

- Saturday, November 7, 2009, 1:30pm, join us for a march, also starting at the fountain at the center of town. The march will be gathering at 1:30pm and departing by 2:00pm.

In addition to these actions, groups are encouraged to organize locally in their communities, and come to St Andrews to share their creative resistance with us during these two days. We will do our best to support your action if you require some assistance.

This action has been endorsed locally by Stop the War, the Scottish Socialist Party, numerous St Andrews University student societies, and assorted Scottish workers unions.

Please direct all questions, endorsements, press inquiries and hate mail to NaeTaeG20@gmail.com and for more information as it arises visit: http://naetaeg20.wordpress.com/

(From here)

Four months ago it was a 15-year-old schoolboy in Greece – today it’s a 47-year-old newspaper seller in the UK.

Enough with the state murders!

Whether civilians’ deaths are caused because of “heart attacks” (most likely due to police terror) or head injuries (due to police brutality) or “misfires” (due to police stupidity), we say we have had Enough!

Enough! Of your lies in attempting to cover up your mistakes
Enough! Of your “Robocop” attitude
Enough! Of your “to serve and protect” fake masks
Enough! Of you being the guard dogs of the privileged elite

We say Enough! and we are going to say it out loud so everyone can hear us.

Saturday 11th of April at 1:30pm in Bristo Square (Edinburgh)

Bring friends, banners, candles and something to make noise with (drums, whistles etc.)

You might also want to see the video footage of the police assaulting Ian Tomlinson, and read the articles by Glasgow Anarchists (“This is not an appeal to calm“) and Bristle (“Are these FIT officers?“, “Alexis, Ian, Athens, London, wherever you go a cop is a cop” and “G20 police medics: creating demand“).

See you Saturday.

In what has to be the most ironic riposte to a picket ever, protesters against the Welfare Reform Bill were told by an employee of one of the forced-training “back to work” agencies to “get a job”.

Report of the protest here. More seriously, an insight into how this company A4E (offices on Lothian Rd.) treats its “clients” can be found in this disturbing first hand account of the group, described variously as “Poverty pimps” and “On a campaign to re-invent bonded labour”.

I was forced to go to A4e and told I would lose my benefits if I didn’t attend. I already had low self esteem because I hadn’t been working for the previous 6 months and had tried to get a job that would cover all of my bills. I had even voluntarily taken up typing courses and had got my level 3 qualifications in the hope that I could get a job that paid enough. I was also waiting to start voluntary work at citizen advice but I couldn’t start there because of attending A4e.

Things don’t seem to be any better at their Edinburgh office. Some of their clients told the protesters “it’s a fucking jail” where they are forced to spend the whole day (some for 12 weeks) searching for jobs that just aren’t there.

Worse, there’s the “Volunteer to Work” programme, where you go work for nothing for a month. No wages, you go sweep the fruit & veg aisles in Asda or you lose your benefit. After a month’s “trial”, the company can simply get someone else to work for free for the next month.

This website, Watching A4E could be interesting.