The past weeks have seen an incredible amount of spontaneous action against the war in Iraq. Virtually every town and city has been brought to a standstill by school students' strikes, marches, die ins, occupations, blockades and countless other actions. To counter this, the police have been pronouncing these “unauthorised” actions as being irresponsible, claiming that they need to know what our intentions are, and that they are seeking out the organisers of these actions, so they can reach an agreement with the demonstrators, and thus keep the protests under control - WE MUST NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN.
It's the unpredictability of these events that are their strong point. If we are serious about stopping this war, we need to disrupt business as usual. Orderly, peaceful marches that pass off with a minimum of disruption can be easily ignored ( and indeed, allow the scum who are bombing Iraq to note sagely that you'd be locked up and tortured for demonstrating in Iraq- what a lovely democracy we have) But by hitting them where it hurts- in the pocket - we can have a real effect. The cost of extra policing, the hours lost throuagh people not going to work/being late etc. all adds up, and will make the war less sustainable for the British state. Disorder scares the ruling class.
Make no mistake, this war is being fought for the needs of capitalism - to open new markets, to ensure supplies of raw materials like oil and to make the world safe for international capital.
Remember, the police's job is to maintain order for the state - the same state attacking Iraq. They are not your friend, they are not neutral, their job is to render any protest ineffectual, and allow the government to continue to do as they please. The police say they are concerned for our safety - is that why an officer bashed a 14 year old girl's head off a wall at the anti war action at the Castle on 17 March? Do not talk to them, if approached, tell them you do not wish to talk to them. They can only take your details if they think you have committed or witnessed a crime.
We can only stop this war by direct action, to make the country ungovernable, and authorised, controlled marches will not do this. We've all seen it, thousands of people together, being channelled into a literal and metaphorical dead end, and having to listen to boring speaker upon boring speaker, usually politicians trying to convince us if only we vote for them, join their party, sell their paper........ and everyone starts drifting off... this week has seen an outbreak of such energy, that merely to channel it into dull marches would be a criminal waste of a real opportunity to disrupt the war effort. The coming week needs to see even more strikes, disruptive marches, other direct actions...you know what to do......
DON'T FOLLOW ORDERS - STOP THE CITY - STOP THE WAR