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Title: Millbank Fire Subtitle: Lessons from Millbank Date: November 21, 2010 Source: Retrieved on June 8, 2012 from [[http://325.nostate.net/?p=1270#more-1270][325.nostate.net]] Authors: Anonymous Topics: economy, direct action, riot Published: 2012-06-08 20:22:44Z
âLeaflet to be printed and circulated should you like the taste of it. Breaks down into three parts: Cuts are not an issue⊠(an article about resisting capitalism and not getting stuck on resisting the cuts) / Keeping It Real (advice for those new to doing stuff) and Some Lessons From Millbank (4 practical lessons to be learned and put into effect everywhere). Please circulate through your networks, should you wish.â
Although the impact of the cuts have yet to hit us hard, in recent months loads of local anti-cuts campaigns have sprung up to try and work together to resist the austerity the State wants to impose upon us. But it seemed like the fairly spontaneous attack on the Tory HQ at Millbank on the 10th November Demo-lition seemed to really light a fire under peopleâs anger about the cuts. Everyone was talking about Millbank. It seemed like this moment had ruptured the political silence that had been accompanying the collapse of the economic bubble in 2007.
But when people talk about fighting âthe cutsâ, it sometimes seems like itâs just a new political âissueâ. But it isnât. Itâs much more essential than that. Issues are things like opposing nuclear power or being against animal testing. But the cuts are not the same thing. They cannot be resisted in the same way. The reason the cuts are being made all across health, housing, education and so on is to maintain the profits that can no longer be made from a busted economic housing bubble and the bonkers levels of individual debt (credit cards, loans mortgages etc). Now the profits to be made are going to come from squeezing the living standards of a large section of the population. The cuts are not being made because the economic system hasnât worked, they are being made because thatâs exactly how the economic system does work. It never stops trying to screw us for more and more of what we have had to fight to maintain over the centuries. The cuts are about how politics works at a systemic level, about our everyday lives and how we live and not just party politics or campaign issues. The Tories make the cuts with relish but if Labour had been elected to power they would be making just the same level of cuts to maintain the same level of profits for the same rich people.
Itâs not just cuts in education and upping the fees thatâs the problem. The problem is that the cuts in general mean weâre all pretty fucked. Whether youâre a student in a F.E college or University, whether youâre a working single-mum, whether youâre self-employed, whether youâre unemployed, whether youâre working a precarious temp job, whether you working a good job in the public sector. The depth of the cuts means most people are going to become worse-off.
There are differing trains of thought that link the cuts to âThe Crisisâ or âThe Deficitâ or âThe Toriesâ but for many there is a much more simple truth â itâs just called âLife as normalâ. The rich have been getting successively richer in this country and the poor have been getting poorer. If the cuts are setting out to re-float a busted economy of over-inflated debt and speculation by taking more and more from the poorer section of the population, well, itâs just more of the same for most people. Poverty, crap jobs, insecurity, health problems â well, thatâs just how weâve been living anyway. But do you feel like politicians will sort it out for you? Do you feel like if you keep your head down and work hard, youâll be okay? Do you feel scared? Had enough of that shit yet?
Mass unemployment is coming and the accompanying disciplining of those unwilling to work for shit wages or for free. The promise of a good job and good life after University is an illusion. The systemâs guaranteed to be there but the jobs arenât. Most college leavers and graduates will join the 600 Euro generation alongside their counterparts in France, Italy or Greece. Itâs no wonder that those countries have seen huge levels of militancy and great new tactics of resistance as they have already been suffering the harsh realities of the imposition of austerity. It seemed like a little bit of that European fire was finally burning at Millbank last week when the ante was finally upped. That resistance has to remain at that level â always collective and open, always going beyond the polite and useless limits set up by political parties and unions, always ready to occupy, block, to strike, to walk out, to be adventurous and to be excessive! Anything is else is just more of the same shit. Who needs it?
Here follows an Excerpt from a statement read out at the General Assembly of students at the University of Rennes, France, 25 October 2010
Millbank has now helpfully polarised the debates but there is something worth remembering from the day â it was a fairly easy victory! The next few years will not see our victories so easily come by but this should not make us forget the joy, collectivity and solidarity of that day. Those who think they can now step in and try to control our anger via negotiation or undermine us through party politicking â we will push them aside because this movement belongs to us all.
STRIKE> OCCUPY> BLOCK THE ECONOMY> TAKE BACK OUR LIVES!!
No Ifs, No Buts, Capitalism Sucks!!
The lessons of Millbank (and the past) should be obvious â if youâre gonna go for it then mask up or FACE PRISON! Itâs that simple!! By masking up, we mean covering your whole face and not just your chin! And stay masked up too because cops and journalists never stop taking photos!! Even if youâre not gonna for it, the more who mask up the better for everyone. We have to encourage people via Internet, leaflets and by word of mouth on demos to MASK UP. How many photos of people going nutso without any face covering have you seen? Spreading a culture of masking up means that we are taking our actions seriously â support one and another!!
A serious lesson is that we have to stop news photographers taking pics or videos of people doing stuff. They are basically putting peopleâs liberty at risk! They must be told to fuck off, be blocked and moved away from the any actions. If, after being told to move, they refuse they should be physically confronted (in whatever way seems fit). The pics they take could put you in jail! But, itâs just as bad all the people who take also photos and post them on Facebook, blogs etc. doing the cops jobs for them. The cops trawl these sites to try and identify people. Be conscious of your actions! Donât photograph people doing stuff!
Donât fixate on a confrontation with the cops if youâre outnumbered. Move onto the next thing! Find your own actions, targets, streets to occupy. The cops have to wait for orders to act. They move slow. We should keep it lively and keep it mobile! If the cops block us one way, then letâs find another way! In this way, we avoid pointless set-pieces and we avoid getting rounded up in police kettles.
12 Volt battery Sound System on bikes or pushcarts are amazing ways to move large blocks of people fast! They also make a demo or riot more like a party! They inspire us to come together around the sounds and to keep moving! We need more sound systems on demos!! And we need more drum bands and freestyle MCâs on the megaphones because a riot is like a festival!!