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Funny, I've been trying to write something about it and I was thinking "I'd really like to discuss this with Mister Disco and/or Dread Pirate Crunchy". I wrote something in comment on one of the many Indymedia threads, which I'll include below. There are many others (you can see my face in one) and I suppose someone, meaning me, should probably try to pull them together with the Guardian stories/letters plus info from Urban 75 etc, and try to provide a more detailed overview of what happened and why... But the following is my basic response/opinion. I should probably say as a disclaimer that I went by slightly sneaky means, in that I blagged a wristband instead of paying the £30. I may well have felt differently if I'd either paid the full fee or not been able to go at all. And I should also add that there is a lot more to be said - but this is what I wrote:
Just wanted to say something as someone who witnessed the events of Saturday night, but is not up on the history of the various factions and groups and their animosities towards one another.
When the protestors first entered the hall and unfurled their 'Another World Is For $ale' banner while lining up on one side, they won my support. When they walked over to stand in front of the stage and started putting up other banners on the scaffolding, they still had my support. They lost my support, however, when I quite clearly saw one of the people who stormed the stage kick the table over and into the faces of some of the speakers, with no provocation. Ken Livingstone was nowhere to be seen at this point, in case that needs pointing out.
It's also misleading to suggest that the majority of the crowd were "in support" of the action: initially, most people seemed confused more than anything else. Opinion amongst those who felt one way or another seemed divided: there were cries of "let them speak!" but also "who are you?" (not necessarily an elitist accusation, more a genuine question), and chants of "off, off, off!".
I have extremely mixed feelings about Livingstone and have done ever since I was one of the people barricaded in Oxford Circus for 8 hours back on Mayday 2001. I'm also inherently suspicious of the tendency to split activists into the two divides of "good, non-violent" and "bad, violent" when it comes to direct action aimed at the symbols and structures of capitalism and corporations (as this often relies on ignoring the hidden violence inherent in capitalism, etc etc). I also agreed with many of the points raised by those who spoke once the stage had been stormed (particularly re: translators, the high cost of the ESF, Indymedia v. the Guardian). In the end, however, I couldn't help but feel that they were at least as compromised as the ESF, if not more so, by associating with people who preferred tactics appeared to rely in part on bullying and intimidation rather than debate. (Did anyone imagine that Livingstone would have received only or even mainly positive feedback during the debate, had he arrived?)
And zero points to the man who smugly announced "Well at least we got rid of Ken!" - er, except that he wasn't there anyway, mate. |
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