Tag: Protest

Playing with Protest / Call for Research Participants

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**Please circulate widely**

**********************************************************

The project is actively recruiting research participants who plan to attend either (or both) upcoming protest events in London, UK:

  • BRITAIN NEEDS A PAYRISE demonstration organized by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Saturday 18th October 2014. More details can be found here: http://britainneedsapayrise.org/
  • FREE EDUCATION: NO FEES. NO CUTS. NO DEBT demonstration organized by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) on Wednesday 19th November 2014. More details: http://anticuts.com/

The expectation is that (a) participants are committed to attending either or both of the above events, (b) they are willing to record their involvement using a personal video camera or other device (smartphone etc.), (c) desire to be interviewed on the footage at a later date, and (d) be willing for the recorded data to be used in further analysis across the course of the Playing with Protest research project.

Any and all attendees are welcome to sign-up. Participants with specific mobility needs are especially encouraged to get in contact. There is no expectation that participants walk or otherwise participate in the ‘official’ routes/route lengths in its entirety.

More details will be given to prospective participants once they have signed-up. To do so, please fill in the contact form on the Participation Sign-up page on the Playing with Protest website. If you have any questions regarding ethics, practicalities, technology use or other such issues, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email at: s.m.hind@warwick.ac.uk.

http://playingwithprotest.wordpress.com/

Aaron Bastani on protest

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At London Student. From within:

One increasingly observes a shift to highly choreographed, state-sponsored protest as the only legitimate form of political action on the [UK] street[s]. Simultaneously, the police are becoming ever more determined to make arrests before protests have even occurred, preferring not to deal with finer details such as whether or not the law has been broken. All of this – the data collection, the pre-arrests, the mass arrests, the assaults on activists, the malicious prosecution – is done to actively undermine free assembly and association.

OWS and Protest Tactics

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A 10 minute video on the police tactics employed during OWS nearly 2 years ago on the eve of its anniversary (via the sparrow project). The narration grounds the visual evidence of multiple arrests in relation to their apparent arbitrary nature, based on clothing, personal appearances and facial hair. Interesting in light of the mass arrests in Tower Hamlets recently.

It is also worth noting the similarity to the strategies employed by the London Metropolitan Police Force over the last few years. Although I would perhaps break from the videographers’ narrative to suggest that onward movement during such events is not necessarily a bad thing, and can in fact, as the Met well know, create even more problems for the police.

BNP / UAF Demonstrations, London, June 1st.

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A series of tweets depicting the shifting spatial dynamics of demonstration policing. Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act allow ‘senior police officers’ to make judgements on containing protests. Both were exercised in Parliament Square last Saturday.
  1. Initially @MetPoliceEvents sent messages urging ‘all parties’ – British National Party and Unite Against Facism protesters – to return to their designated demonstration zones. Presumably, as agreed prior to the event.
  2. MetPoliceEvents

    MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
    Police ask all parties at Whitehall demo’s to return immediately to their pre-arranged areas.

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 05:03:14

  3. Double kettle now in front of Parliament.BNP kettled by police, surrounded by anti fascists,kettled by police. #olsx pic.twitter.com/M5kIRBZAOD
    Occupy London@OccupyLondon
    ·

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 05:45:45

  4. Reports of this ‘double kettle’ then came in. The double kettle was in fact the two separate, isolated protest zones mentioned above by @MetPoliceEvents for both parties.
  5. MetPoliceEvents

    MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
    Police have imposed conditions under Section 12 & 14 Public Order Act on #UAF to move from Old Palace Yard #BNP

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 05:37:00

  6. Section 12 was invoked to ‘impose conditions on public processions’ and Section 14 to ‘impose conditions on public assemblies’. Both allow senior police officers to intervene in protest demonstrations if they reasonably believe disturbances will arise without their intervention.
  7. TSG buildup on Westminster Abby side of demo line. #antifa pic.twitter.com/RrQrnmL3an
    directreaction@directreaction
    ·

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 07:01:21

  8. MetPoliceEvents

    MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
    Reminder: The conditions set by police allow demonstrations only until 4pm. Failure to comply could result in arrests #BNP #UAF

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 07:39:54

  9. With 20 minutes remaining before both parties’ protest curfew @MetPoliceEvents reminded demonstrators that remaining in the area could result in their arrest, this having previously restricted movement for a large duration of the allotted demonstration time.
  10. “Prisoner” buses filling up. pic.twitter.com/SgK9avqS8V
    my god and so on@thinktyler
    ·

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 07:35:57

  11. The London Metropolitan Police consequently arrested members from both sides and packed them on to waiting TfL buses.
  12. Current image of Parliament Square – people are free to leave #UAF #BNP pic.twitter.com/VqkGTp2H0t
    MPS Events@MetPoliceEvents
    ·

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 08:27:32

  13. Come the 4pm deadline @MetPoliceEvents posted an aerial photograph presumably taken from the force’s helicopter allegedly showing an absence of police barriers. It was expressed in the same message that people were ‘free to leave’. But that wasn’t really the whole story because, as I mentioned on the day:
  14. samhind10

    Sam Hind@samhind10
    Presumably they’re now ‘free to leave’ because s.14 says they’re arrestable if they stay. #UAF #BNP

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 08:38:22

  15. As the demonstration was only legally allowed to continue until 4pm, and after hours of containing both crowds, police officers tactically released all those still demonstrating. So the strategy shifted from arresting those who sought to escape the containments to arresting those who sought to remain in the same (but now ‘unkettled’) space.
  16. samhind10

    Sam Hind@samhind10
    ‘free to leave’ = ‘not free to stay’. London Met playing a semantic game. #UAF #BNP

    Sat, Jun 01 2013 08:39:48

  17. ‘Free to leave’ then, was another way of the police force saying protesters were ‘not free to stay’. A designated shift in strategy from (legally) containing potentially mobile and thus, illegal protesters to legally releasing static, illegal protesters. Although at the time many simply believed the Met Police were telling lies and were still containing people, I’m more of the opinion that they took advantages of the slippy legal nature of their tactics and were in fact releasing both groups – only to arrest if individuals refused to leave the area.
  18. Westminster protests: 58 arrests

    58 anti-fascist protesters from UAF group arrested Police have confirmed 58 arrests for breach of Section 14 of the Public Order Act from…
    Itv
  19. According to ITV and other sources 58 UAF protesters were arrested for a breach of Section 14.
  20. 360 picture of police snatch-squad vs UAF protesters.

    360 picture of police snatch-squad vs UAF protesters. 58 people, who were part of the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) protest, were arrested …
    Lewiswhyld
  21. This 360 degree photo from the day is incredible. It purportedly shows a police ‘snatch-squad’ in action. This is a commonly used tactic (rather than a unit per se) by riot police to dive into large crowds and ‘snatch’ key protagonists. Note the London Met’s own FIT (Forward Intelligence Team) cameraman to the upper left of the incident and other media to the immediate right on the pavement.

Castells on Protest and Space

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A Comment is Free video over at the Guardian. Aside from taking rhizomatic as his own concept, this is a relatively good introduction by Manuel Castells into the dynamic of protest movements, urban space and what he calls ‘cyberspace’. I’m always a little wary of the latter category hence the scare quotes.

I find it a little odd people like Castells are still trying to make sharp boundaries between urban (‘physical’) and cyber (‘non-physical’) space. The city is full of digital technology – in fact, contemporary cities are positively built on it, so why when it comes to discussing protest movements do we essentialize urban space as being pure, physical, non-digital space? Conversely, why do we see the digital as not having an effect on ‘on the ground’ protest? It patently does.