J18 - seizing the City - now that's what I call Critical Geography! It was,
on the whole, a very empowering occasion, though by the main event in the
afternoon I was already knackered having been up doing actions since 7am.
I thought that the Futures and Options Exchange being trashed was great. No
reservations. I loved it. There comes a time when intellectual argument and
camapigning need the strength of forceful emotional actions behind them and
this was one such occasion. It was not random but carefully targeted (by
whoever did it).
By the way, the concensus seems to be (except among the press) that there
were well over 10,000 people partying and demonstrating at the high point
of the day.
The complaints I have about media coverage are not so much that they
exaggerated the protestors' violence (most of what they said occured, did),
but that they ignored many of the creative peaceful actions that took place
and the fact that the vast majority of people were peaceful; that there was
a huge diversity of types of people there; they totally ignored the global
perspective (there were at least 38 other demos, some bigger than London's)
that took place in cities throughout the world; and finally that they did
not bother to report what the protest was about, to the point where some
papers had stories about Third World debt right next to the stories about
the protest without making any connection. The Guardian even ran a piece in
its magazine on the Karnakata State Farmers movmement in India, writing
approvingly of their direct action (totally destroying a Cargill building,
burning Monsanto crops etc.) while condemning similar actions in London in
the main paper.
I suppose the media do not really want people knowing there is a growing
North-South movement against global capitalism, but it is fine if it is a
long way away and just in the South!
Looking foward to next time,
David.
PS: I have a few reports from other actions around the world - if anyone
wants this document (a Word attachment), please e-mail me.
David Wood
PhD Student ('The Rural Peace Dividend')
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
0191 222 5305
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