Home | Friday 8th October 2010 | Issue 742
CUT IT OUT!
An anti-cuts protest took place in Birmingham on Sunday (3rd) as the Tory conference began.
Around 7000 took part in the ‘Right to Work’ march, which followed a carefully-planned route through the city centre. The march was not permitted near the conference venue, the ICC, and was kept on course by an 8ft high solid steel fence. A police spokesperson boasted afterwards that ‘the protesters were peaceful and the operation went largely to plan’. Nothing to ruffle the government’s feathers so far...
It seems the day’s events may have had a greater effect on some of the protesters themselves. A black bloc of around 50 built up at the beginning of the march, but struggled to do anything away from the main march when attempts to break away were kettled by police. The cops slapped a Section 60 on the group, searched and demasked them. “The cops were flexing their muscles,” one protester told SchNEWS, “They use events like this to practice their crack down on ‘black bloc’ tactics.”
The general feeling among the radical block seems to be that the experience highlighted the need for more focussed action, avoiding the usual masks vs cops power games. With the details of the Chancellor’s slash-and-burn agenda due on the 20th October, there’s time to get inspired...
As one activist summed it up: “The government aren’t scared of a few thousand people having a riot and smashing up the streets - they’re scared of the general public sympathising with it.”
