G20 Protester Death

Sympathies and comradely greetings to his family and friends.

The most thoroughly researched account I have been able to find on the web here: http://backtowardsthelocus.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/accidental-death-of-an-anarchist-2/

A thorough and independent public investigation must be held. There cannot be any shortage of CCTV footage given the area.

JimJay has done a good wrap-up of the G20 protests here: http://jimjay.blogspot.com/2009/04/g20-protest-reports.html

G20 demonstrations marred by police violence

Peaceful demonstrators gathered today outside the Bank of England to press for a better world. The protesters arrived at the Bank of England from 4 different directions representing 4 horsemen of the apocalypse (red horse against War, green horse against Climate Chaos, silver horse against Financial Crimes and black horse against Land Enclosures and Borders).

The financial crisis has led to a great strength of feeling by demonstrating the shortcomings of neoliberal capitalism and has also led many to conclude that this is a historic moment of opportunity to push for change. The protest was very good natured with music, banners, dancing and impromptu speakers talking about their visions for a different world. A broad cross-section of society was represented including factory workers, teachers, cleaners, academics, nurses, unemployed people and pensioners all coming together to press for a change in system which has resulted in so much human suffering.

Sadly, the protest was marred by violent and provocative tactics used by the police in their attempts to contain demonstrators. Thousands of demonstrators including pregnant women and young children were ‘kettled’ in to a small area immediately outside the Bank of England with only those who had work ID for the local area or were NUJ members allowed out of the police blockades. Protesters were denied access to food, water and toilets for over 2 hours. A small minority of protesters trying to escape from the enclosure early on were arrested by the police. Furthermore, police on horseback appeared rapidly to prevent protestors advancing down a side street. The use of police on horseback against pedestrian demonstrators is wholly inapprorpiate and stokes up violence and fear in protestors unneccesarily.

Many police medics were present and did not speak out against the tactics: shame on them. Other police officers on the ground were invited to behave in a more human manner by some protesters but all (that I saw) followed orders that were patently unjust and unfair to peaceful protesters.

It was only after the police on horseback appearing (very suddenly) and the police running into the crowd and hitting people with battons that some protestors broke windows at the Royal Bank of Scotland to cheers from the majority of the crowd in that corner: such was the strength of feeling against both the system which has let the world down, and against the police who were detaining peaceful demonstrators for no just reason. Whilst I do not approve of violence as a solution to conflicts, it did not feel unjust that some protestors broke the windows of a bank that had presided over such gross misuse of funds. It was clear that there were no bank staff in the building who might have been physically hurt by the actions of that group of protestors. The financial loss to the bank pales into insignificance when compared to bonuses and pensions paid out to the management.

It was only due to active defense against such unjust imprisonment (in the form of large numbers of demonstrators pushing against the human police barrier in a non-violent way) that the police were overwhelmed by the numbers and some of the crowd was able to leave the area.

Several prominent Greens attended the protest including Cllr Romayne Pheonix (Lewisham) and Shan Oaks (parliamentary Candidate against David Davis in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election last year) and the response from the crowd to the Green Party banners was overwhelmingly positive. I am proud to have been part of such an important protest.

I will be writing to Green Party Assembly Member and member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Jenny Jones, to describe my personal experiences of police violence and inapprorpriate tactics and would urge any others present to do the same. The wholly inapprorpriate tactics used by the police made peaceful protesters feel that they were doing something illegal and could have resulted in significant injury to both protestors and police had protestors not managed to break free. Some protestors remained behind with the radio saying that the barriers were only finally completely lifted at around 6:30pm.

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At Bishopsgate, police confiscated tents from peaceful demonstrators trying to set up camp on the street earlier on although latest reports from other London Greens suggest that police have allowed the climare camp to set up and that demonstrators are chalking slogans onto the pavement and that the atmosphere is very positive.

Workers for the World Unite! We have only one world and only one chance to save it.

Woolas Detained

Phil Woolas, the minister ultimately responsible for the inhumane system of detention of asylum seekers was ‘detained’ in his office for half an hour by members of ‘Manchester No Borders’.

I can only commend this action as exactly the kind of non-violent direct action which should be part of the political strategy.

Their excellent statement on the current situation:

2,500 people are currently detained in privately-owned immigration prisons in Britain. They are held for an indefinite period, but a significant number are detained for over 12 months. Never mind the debate on 42 days detention without charge for terror suspects. Here we have 30,000 people every year locked up without trial or sentence; 2,000 of them children.

Why? Because they (or their parents) were born on the wrong side of the border, in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Zimbabwe or DR Congo that are being torn apart by atrocious wars, whose natural resources are being exploited by multi-national corporations, where human rights are a farce, where political activity is punished with torture or death.

It would be too easy to make Phil Woolas the sole responsible for this systematic imprisonment of asylum seekers. For a start there are the corporations that profit from the expansion and privatisation of the prison-industrial complex. The longer G4S, GEO or Kalyx can detain migrants, the more money they make. But the policy of immigration detention is also carried by a dominent nationalist ideology that is carried by all political parties.

As the recession leads to unemployment, forced evictions and community tension, Phil Woolas’s response has been nationalist too, reiterating the British jobs for British workers slogan. Migrants are not to blame for the recession, which has been caused by an economic system of exploitation, facilitated by the current and past political elite, and of which migrants are the first and most vulnarable victims.

We are now at a point in time where it becomes obvious that a response to an international crisis has to be international solidarity and cooperation. While the political elites conveniently blame immigrants for the recession, we take inspiration from the Greek insurgency after the shooting of Alexis, from protests that forced out the Icelandic government, from the student and workers struggles in France and Italy, all of which stood in solidarity with the migrant communities that had come under attack from their governments.

The protests against the G20 London summit at the end of this month are the first testing ground for a non-nationalist, anti-capitalist response to the crisis.

And it keeps going…

Another week has passed and I am another week closer to the end of my 4th year… Scary.

Gaza is experiencing an escalation in violence perpetrated by Israel (the main aggressor in this sad story) against its people. The people who suffer most, of course, are the civilians who are caught in the middle. It is vital that governments from around the world speak out loudly to condemn these crimes against humanity. The Israeli military has weapons which the Palestinian resistance could not even dream of and believes it is legitimate to use these and collectively punish the Palestinian people.

Alas, I fear there is not much hope. Israel willfully neglects to listen to UN resolutions and international pressure and has repeatedly shown that it is willing to use force even where there is a very high risk of civilian casualties. The BBC’s reporting has become so poor in this (and other issues) now that I have found myself turning to Al Jazeera in an attempt to access some more interesting news. But the best place is the blogosphere where I can hear all voices, from all sides and make up my own mind.

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Thank you to Derek for putting a link to this article on patenting crops in Iraq on his blog. Well worth a read!

Capitalism

“The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: the ruthless, competitive, conniving, opportunistic, acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment – or at least much handicap – to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love in justice, and a concern for those in need” Michael Parenti (1933-)

NHS! (again)

NHS demo yesterday was a success with a good number of people from the Greens there. Well done to all those who helped with the Green Party placards: they were out in force on the day! Wish I could have helped with them too!

The following motion in support of the demonstration and against private involvement in the NHS was passed at the Green Left meeting on Saturday last week. I am not sure if it has been publicised since (having been somewhat out of the loop with e-mails, aside from during procrastination time, due to a heavy week on the wards trying to finish off my A&E module! – also the reason I haven’t blogged for a while):

“Green Left notes the attempts at increasing private involvement in the national health service. Recognizing that healthcare commissioning is to be tendered to private companies (including some with a bad reputation in the USA) and that implementation of the Darzi plan for polyclinics will probably involve some private sector companies, we affirm that this is against the public service ethos central to an ecosocialist future.

We strongly encourage involvement and support of the Keep Our NHS Public demonstration on Saturday November 3rd 2007.”

Anyway, best get back to work… Have a dissertation to write and wouldn’t mind getting a bit further on the new edition of Joel Kovel’s book.

A change of design

In keeping with other Green Blogs and after the sadness of not being included in the top 20 green blogs on Jim’s blog (congrats to the excellent blogs that made the top 20!), I have decided to opt for a redesign. Hope you enjoy.

I thought I’d use this opportunity to highlight two very very important dates in the calendar in the remainder of 2007.

1) NHS Together Demonstration, Saturday 3rd November. Click here for details.

2) Climate Change Demonstration, Saturday 8th December. Click here for details.

I am sure there will be a big Green Party presence at both demos.

Also, congratulations to Derek Wall of GreenLeft on being re-elected as principal speaker. Good news and I am sure he will continue his (crazily) dedicated work!

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Whilst I can’t be uncritical of Venezuela, I can’t help but be inspired by some of the actions of the government there. Venezuela’s economy is quite dependent on oil, but the government appears to be trying to look at the most sustainable ways of using it: like selling it to Tfl at discounted rates to use on buses so that those on income support can get half-priced bus fares (only 45p a pop). A great way of encouraging people to ditch the car in favor of more sustainable modes of transport.

Tyranny of the Bottom Line?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7037657.stm

Yet another example of what happens when hospitals put profit before people, when the ‘bottom line’ rules supreme. Instead of prioritising human health and happiness, the bottom line has been prioritised. This is absolutely disgusting and goes to show how powerful the ‘bottom line’ is in forcing individuals and groups to submit to its need to be preserved.

As with so many things, an economic system where capital does not rule supreme would help prevent such things happening. For the time being, at least an NHS where services aren’t outsourced and which is provided with an adequate budget to ensure that all hospitals have adequate nursing care all the time would be a start!

Ecosocialist Meeting

Spinning off from the First Ecosocialist International (which I couldn’t go to), there is a meeting in London which I look forward to going to:

Wednesday, October 10, 7:30pm Confronting the Climate Change Crisis by Building a Global Ecosocialist Movement.

Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Sq. Cohosted by Socialist Resistance and Green Left.

Speaker: Ian Angus is a member of the Convening Committee for the international ecosocialist conference in Paris, October 7-8; Editor of the blog ‘Climate and Capitalism.’

Hope it will make for some interesting discussion and perhaps some projects to get involved in long-term (time-permitting!)

Thanks to Greenman for this great post: http://greenmansoccasional.blogspot.com/2007/10/fighting-new-labourand-all-its-works.html