<nettime> n30 in europe

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From: artactivism@gn.apc.org (ME)
Subject: n30 london events

check -  www.bak.spc.org/N3olondon - for london and some global links

From: "n30 london" <n30london@hotmail.com>
To: n30london@hotmail.com
Subject: text
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 09:54:50 GMT

LONDON WAKES UP TO GLOBAL ACTION

In an action designed to raise awareness of capitalism and the WTO, around
fifty people gathered in and around Euston station at 9:30am to begin
distributing leaflets and stickers to passers-by.  Previous to their
arrival the concorse had already been staked out by dozens of police teams
and even more media. The assembled crowd was later joined by small
autonomous groups from other areas of London, and continued to hand out
large amounts of information.

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS SAY NO2WTO

At 12pm the Construction Safety Campaign held a demonstration outside the
Canadian Embassy (Canada House) on Trafalgar Square.  The construction
workers and their supporters were protesting at Canada's attmpt to use the
WTO to reverse the decision by several EU countries to ban asbestos use.
Under WTO rules on this is seen as a barrier to free trade.
Here in the UK, the Institute for Cancer Research expects the current
numbers of asbestos related cancers to double in the next ten years.

Like the previous action, the protesters were accompanied by large numbers
of police and journalists, and the event passed off peacefully.

Following the demonstration the crowd marched past Downing Street while
others briefly blockaded Oxford Street in a sit down protest.

STUDENTS TARGET CITYBANK

The Lewisham branch of Citybank was picketed throughout the afternoon by a
small group of students.  The bank is one of the major holders of students
loan debt. The global trend to underfund and privatise services that
accompanies the expansion of free trade has hit education in the UK, with
student grants being scrapped in favour of personal loans.  The latest
round of trade talks threaten to expand this trend throughout health and
transport.

NIGERIANS PUT THEIR PRESIDENT AND SHELL ON TRIAL

President Obasanjo of Nigeria and Mark Moody-Stuart, of Royal-Dutch/Shell
faced a people's court in London to answer a number of charges relating to
human rights abuses and environmental devastation in the Niger Delta. This
piece of street theatre was performed by Nigerians exiles and British
environmental activists outside the Magistrates Court in Covent Garden at
2:30pm Others from different campaigns had also attended to show
solidarity.  ****LINK!!!****

RALLY AT EUSTON STATION

Nearly two thousand people gathered at Euston station at 5pm for a rally
jointly organised by Reclaim the Streets and the London Strike Support
Group designed to highlight the links between the free trade agenda of the
WTO and the privatisation of public transport in UK. The event was endorsed
by the London Transport Council of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union
(RMT), whose speaker detailed the opposition to Tube privitisation and the
real concerns for safety should it go ahead.    As banners were hung the
rythms of a samba band mixed with speeches from  representatives of various
campaigning groups.  Although the main focus of the rally was transport,
there were also speakers covering a wide array of issues linked to the WTO
and the system it governs.

  Genetic Engineering Network illustrated how free trade rules make
impossible for people to choose what they eat, putting them in the hands of
corporations that push GMO's down their throats.

  A speaker from Voices in the Wilderness criticised the British and
American governments for maintaining heavy economic sanctions against Iraq.
The group openly break sanctions to take medical supplies to Iraq, where it
is widely accepted the sanctions are causing severe shortages of food and
medicines killing thousands, particularly children.

Campaign Against the Arms Trade highlighted the links between politicians
and the global arms market.  While admitting it was not the WTO that
controlled the worlds arms production, the speaker went on to place the
blame for the worlds conflicts on companies like the UK's GEC Marconi, the
labour government's so called ethical arms policy, and the inherent greed
for profit that places money before lives.

  There was also support for the plight of American journalist Mumia
Abu-Jamal, in death row since 1982 as a result of a thorougly rigged trial
in which he was convicted of shooting a Philadelphia policeman. A former
member of the Black Panthers and the environmental-anarchist community
MOVE, he is widely considered a political prisoner.

Talking from Reclaim The Streets another speaker urged the importance of
placing the WTO in the context of capitalism and its effects, and cited the
growing nature of international solidarity and protest.  One of the final
speakers called on people to 'Reclaim Mayday' in the year 2000 as part of
global day of action.

As advertised the speeches ended at 7pm to resounding cheers with a final
speaker congratulating everyone on a successful day and remarkable
gathering of issues.

RIOT AT EUSTON STATION

At around the same time as the first reports of police violence in Seattle
arrived to London, part of the crowd that had been previously attending the
rally at Euston station made an attempt to walk into one of the main
traffic arteries in the capital. Although the whole area was surrounded by
police, protesters were directly met by a small number of police officers
and a confrontation erupted. Police were initially driven back but a line
of officers in riot gear  rapidly formed and a series of charges and
skirmishes  on both directions ensued. There were diverse  opinions among
the protesters about the right course to follow, many openly calling to
pro-activelly confront the authorities while others opted for passive
resistance and some for withdrawal.

A small group of protesters switched their attention to an unmarked police
van and proceeded to turn it over, to a mixture of booing and cheering from
fellow protesters. In the following half hour there were several attempts
to set the van on fire which on some occasions were thwarted by other
demonstrators. Finally, the van caught fire and was surrounded by around 30
photographers, at which moment police decided to clear the station parade
in perfectly structured lines. The van had been left isolated and
unattended  near the crowd for several  hours, with 12ft metal poles
attached to its top, in a remarkable flaw of police organisation.

   Most of the protestors left the area by 8pm while around 500 people,
roughly divided in three groups, continued to clash with police,. The first
group was driven towards King's Cross, with several unsuccessful attempts
to blockade the road by sitting down. They were finally dispersed after
9pm. A second, smaller, group stayed dancing in front of police lines in
Eversholt street and gradually disappeared. The third group was less
fortunate and, after some heated physical confrontation, was completely
surrounded by a triple line of riot police who identified and photographed
all of them before their release. The area was completely clear between 12
and 1am.

    The latest reports speak of 38 arrests, 4 of them in connection with
the carnival in the City of London on J18, and 7 casualties of diverse
type, including a policeman with spinal injuries, none of them
life-threatening. Road traffic and public transport were severely disrupted
by the events.

PIRATE RADIO BLOCKS YUPPY RADIO

    Interference FM, the pirate radio collective that broadcasted all over
London  on J18, repeated their feat in protest at the commoditisation of
the airwaves. They managed to transmit on the frequency of Millenium FM
106.9. This commercial broadcaster prides itself in targeting an A1
audience, those with the highest purchasing power, and fuels values based
on greed and profit. The pirates were taken off air at around 4pm in a
large operation by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), responsible
for enforcing the state control of radio and TV transmissions.


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From: Giuliano <acunzoli@tin.it>
Subject: n30 in Italy

PADUA

Friday 26

A peaceful demo in front of the GMO Exhibition "Bionova" -- attended by the
top managers of GMO companies -- was wildly attacked by the police, twice
(see my previous report on Nov. 26).

MILAN

Saturday 27

A large number of people from the anarchist/ Social Centers area joins a
grassroot trade union demonstration (not about n30) and gives it a strong
anti-globalization character, sensibilizing the workers at the demo about
the dangers of speculative "free" trade and about the "Valzer round" in
Seattle. The idea is quite successful, and workers and squatters are -- for
once -- again united against WTO.

Meanwhile, a group of "White Coveralls" (direct action group from the
zapatist/ social centers area) occupied the first and foremost McDonald's
in Milan, in piazza S. Babila, locking themselves on the building facade,
hanging enormous banners which denounced neoliberism and its effects and
distributing flyers to the amused passers-by in the irrealistic scenario
created by the music of the "Banda degli ottoni a scoppio", a squatter
music band playing popular music.

The action, undisturbed by the police, lasted a couple of hours and ended
when the grassroot trade union demo entered the San Babila square. Then, in
a sort of triumph, one representative of the White Coveralls spoke to the
demonstrants.

After that, the White Coveralls showed up in the city-wide meeting for the
closure of the prison camps for migrants, which was going on at the same
time, with a wide McDonald banner hanged upside down to symbolize the
non-food served by this multinational of rubbish food.

Monday 29

Students of the new University "La Bicocca" occupy the faculty of
"Biological Sciences" to protest against WTO and biotech food.

Tuesday 30

Permanent info tend in Largo Cairoli, a very central square, to inform the
citizens about WTO and the reasons of our protests against it -- but also
about the Narmada and Iloitz dams, the prison camps for migrants, etc.

The day ended up with a debate at the Social Center Leoncavallo with the
partecipation of Andres Barreda Marin, professor at the UNAM University in
Mexico City, which spoke about the influences of USA economy on
globalization and on the situation in Chiapas. The debate was attended by
about 150 peoples.

ROME

30 November

A group of White Coveralls occupied the HQ of the "National Committee for
Biosafety", hanging banners against GMOs and WTO. The action was promoted
by Social Centers and grassroot unions.

That's all for the moment, but hopefully tomorrow there will be more news.

Keep on trucking

Giuliano



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