[g8-sheffield] MPH and police

[atw]

D> MPH and the police conspiring to condemn violent protest???

D> Gosh - people's capacity for conspiracy theories never ceases to amaze me.


What's your theory then Dan? It sounds like you think conspiracy
theories are un-PC or something.


D> Try running the conversation between the MPH bods and the the police
D> through your head.  You must really think badly of them trade justice
D> guys if you can do it and still think they colluded.


It would probably be along the lines of:

The police: "We are very worried about terrorists, bombs, terrorism,
violent anarchists, terrorists blah blah blah. We were going to ban
all demostrations. However we know your protesters are not like that
so to help us prevent blood, violence, terrorism, dead children... and
to disuade the wrong people from going on your march, if you are
prepared to put out a statement condemning such tactics we will allow
your march to go ahead."


Similar 'negotiations' were used at one of the early Big Green
Gatherings which resulted in the cops setting up a special area where
they searched whoever they wanted to on entry. A direct action naked
protest ensued which took down the cops tent and resulted in a stop to
the random searches and the truth from one of the Green Gathering
organisers. Basically the BGG weren't to get the go ahead for the
gathering unless they 'invited' the cops there to search people. This
also cost the gathering a substantial amount of money (to the police)
which was added onto to higher ticket prices.

Such "conspiracies" are going on all the time. It's just that they
rarely make it out into public since it's often in both sides interest
to keep quiet about them.





D> 2. Who gets to be a dissent spokesperson?  No-one - coz we value our
D> autonomy, on the whole.  So if anyone doing stuff with MPH condemned
D> direct action, they're not speaking on behalf of the whole movement, are
D> they?

MPH is an organization of lots of groups. It's a hierarchy Dan, so any
statement they put out is representing that hierarchy only, nothing
more. As I said before if we take what they say to represent those who
go on their marches or wear their wrist bands, we will be fooling
ourselves.


D> 3. WDM's top bod, for one, has actually said that lobbying is no longer
D> enough, and that direct action is the future.  Which is to say, neither
D> MPH or any of the rest of us are a coherent bloc.

It's good to hear that some of them are taking on such ideas, even if
they're not yet ready to put them into practice.


D> 4. Don't forget who the real enemy is: the People's Front of Judea.
D> Solidarity Bruvva!

Is that the SWP?

steve




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