Warning: Solidarity can Seriously Damage Your Freedom

Saturday February 19th saw just over 1000 (300 if you listen to the BBC and 3000 if you trust the organisers magic attendance counter) march through Bristol city centre in protest against government public spending cuts ahead of the councils budget setting meeting on the following Tuesday. The event was organised by Bristol and District Anti Cuts Alliance.

Punk & Politics Make Pigs Panic in South-West Towns

Our sources report that the Police are using threats and intimidation in an attempt to repress anti-cuts groups forming in town across the region.

Yeah yeah, not exactly an exclusive we know. But we aren’t talking about the cops coming down hard on organised groups of international anarchists having secret meetings with their leader Chris Knight. In Swindon, Wiltshire police have been harassing members of their local anti-cuts group who have been organising stalls and giving out flyers about the cuts in the town centre.

Rebellion is in the air – report from the front lines of london

While we’re sure most of you have already seen the news reports, for a slightly more radical take on todays events read on…

(We’ve collated the first hand reports friends and comrades who were on the streets of london have relayed to us, no hearsay, rumours or corporate media lies).

From the start of the day police attempted to control the march (with the infamous TSG lining up at the front to lead the way) and failed. Hundreds of protesters ran down side streets to keep ahead of the police lines, rendering them useless.
As people made their way into parliment square, fists, battons, horses (and the existing fencing) were used to attempt to keep the demonstration on the whitehall side, and perhaps feed it to the rally point on embankment. Again the police couldn’t contain the angry students who quickly took the whole of parliment square. As police battled the main group there, hundreds broke through police lines into the surrounding area. Many came back to catch the police unaware, charging in to weak spots behind their lines, at one point they ran through lines of parked and empty police vans getting to within a stones throw of parliment.

Action Roundup 8th-14th Novermber

Welcome to the second of our weekly anticuts action round ups.
Something you think should be included? Email us and let us know!

10/11/10 Student Protest:
Well this is obviously the big one this week – 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters took to the streets of london. Double the number of people the organisers were expeting, and certainly far above the number the 250 met police were expecting to deal with. Then of course the march became an occupation of tory party HQ and the windows came smasing down.
Our report
Half decent guardian article
AFED Report of the day

11/10/11
Students in Manchester occupied their uni’s finance dept in protest at the rise in fees.

11/10/11 Student Protest : The aftermath
As could be expected the right wing press went nuts about this one. After years of refering to anarchists as “middle class students”, they decided we were all “violent yobs, who infiltrated a march of middle class students”. Well they really can’t have it both ways can they? Maybe they should realise that ‘anarchist’ does not exclude being a student, worker, parent, or many other things, and that not being an anarchist doesn’t mean you can’t get angry and smash up tory party HQ!
Many papers are calling on people to snitch on those involved, and some people are currently clogging up their inboxes. Why not send your own  ‘useful pointers’ to studentriots@telegraph.co.uk or exclusive@the-sun.co.uk.

Tax Dodgers: Why should Anarchists care?

On Saturday October 30^th over 21 Vodafone stores across the UK were shut down via occupations and pickets to highlight corporate tax evasion and avoidance. Vodafone is alleged to have been let off a multi billion pound tax bill going back some years after it routed money through an off shore subsidiary. It also owes over £1.5bn in tax to India.

Although the use of occupations in protest and the internet in communication is far from new, some have heralded how one lone action and a callout put out via social networking sites Facebook and Twitter leading to a mass simultaneous action just three days later as a new tactic in the activists arsenal. At this point I should be quick to coin a right on and groovy name for this um…FaceMob? WebProtest? FlashTwit? Nah I can’t be arsed, there’s probably a think tank of media studies interns on it right now anyway.

Callout for Bristol Vodafone Picket

Last Saturday a group of activists shut down the central bristol vodafone store in protest at their tax dodging ways, this was one of over 20 stores successfully targeted around the country.

This is a great way to spread the belief that these cuts are truly unnecessary, and that we are definitely not ‘in this together’ since whilst we pay with our services and our tax bills the richest in society pay nothing.

Although there has been some debate about the accuracy of the initial reporting (see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/10/467056.html for example), it appears pretty conclusive that they (like most of their corporate peers) have been tax dodging to quite a large extent. They owe us at the very least around £1billiion, and the Indian government are chasing them for around £2.5billion in unpaid tax there!

Meet up either at castle park at 1pm, or outside the vodafone store in central broadmead at 1.30pm. If there are enough of us we can consider picketing Vodafone’s other Bristol stores.

There will be a few placards, and some anti-vodafone/anti-cuts leaflets, Bristol AFed are in debt and crafty photocopies at work only get us so far. We encourage others to bring their own but request this is kept as a ‘non sectarian’ protest, i.e. you don’t use it to promote your specific group (just the general anti-cuts movement).

Lets show the capitalists that they can’t get away with it!

Download the flyer here – Vodafone leaflet

Make The Most Of Now – Fight The Cuts

On Saturday October 30th activists demonstrated against vodafone due to their tax dodging ways, and successfully shut their main central bristol store for the day.
This was part of a national day of action which saw vodafone stores closed from London to Leeds!