Person travelling from Anonymous London demo detained in Glasgow

Late yesterday evening an attendee of the London Anonymous Anti-Austerity demo was taken into custody upon their return journey via Glasgow airport. In their own words:

I landed back at the airport and i went to leave the arrivals hall but was stopped by 2 of Special Branch (Police) One of them asked me questions like, name, ID, where have I been, what was I doing? I answered them in a polite manner and was truthful. Then one of them said have you got a spare 2 seconds and again I answered yes.

I said to the officer “what if I would have refused” and he answered me with “We would have done it the hard way”

Next they took me off to a room where they searched me and then sat me down. They proceeded to ask me a lot about what I had been doing in London, who was there, like names. They went through my wallet and took pictures of some of my cards including my Anonymous ID.

Then the officer said can I unlock my phone and while i was talking to the other one I noticed he was going through my phone book and writing names and numbers on his pad. So after 20 minutes of this I was free to go.

I was absolutely shattered and was taken back by this so yes I should have been a little more wised up and stood my ground. I am seeking legal advice and will let you know what happens.

This comes less than a year after two anarchists were detained returning from the St. Imier International Anarchist Congress last August, and marks the continued use of  this type of intimidation by the state in response to ideologies it sees as harmful to itself and capital.

Strathclyde University Occupied

Students at glasgows Strathclyde University have occupied part of the administration building at their university. They demand,amongst other things, that the university disinvest in companies that profit from Israeli aggression and occupation of Palestinian land and that the university funds scholarships for Palestinians who have had their universities destroyed in the horror of December/January.

This is an inspiring move from a student population who have been all too apathetic and self involved in recent years. The students all over the UK who have occupied their places of education deserve our support and our applause for taking a stand.

There will be a demonstration in solidarity with the students outside the occupied building at 11:00 am today.

The full statement from the students is below.

The Refinery Strikes – Against Capital Not Fellow Workers!

The current wave of strikes that have spread around the country are being portrayed by some as british workers resisting against an influx of foriegn labour. The unions themselves, unsurprisingly, are also peddling this nationalist line and the BNP are, like the parasites they are, trying to further racialise this strike.

Here’s what is being said about the strike on Libcom.org

Rioting In Iceland Over Bank Bailout

Icelands Parliament comes back after its winter hiatus to angry crowds in what is Icelands largest expression of public anger since the country joined NATO in 1949.

A different perspective on the SHAC trial

People involved with the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign were convicted of scary-sounding things before Xmas. Cue much hysterical mainstream media reportage. Regardless of your opinion on animal rights campaigns and their tactics, this piece by NETCU Watch(*) is of interest (for the balance it affords if nothing else), offering a less-hysterical take on the story and what the SHAC activists actually did.

Most importantly, it sounds a warning about the political police moving on to other groups.

Finally a message to all activists even activists who do not believe that this in any way applies to them and are pro vivisection. This is a precedent, the CPS and the police and their overlords in the multinationals have discovered something which will silence anyone who runs any effective campaign against the crimes multinationals are so famous (…) Some people will go to prison for much longer than if they had beaten someone half to death or raped a child, others will no doubt follow.

(*) – NETCU is the police unit combating “domestic extremists”. They take a very wide view of what extremism is and are very close to business interests. If you have taken part in a protest about a political or economic issue, they would take an interest in you. They don’t (officially) operate in Scotland but the plod here would be watching their work.

Updates on Greece and Iceland

Aftaka provide another English-language update on the unease in Iceland, including a festive anti-Coke action.

Only with the help of 6 police pigs could the Coke trucks continue their way from the center, which means that a lot of parents had to answer their kids’ question: “Why did the police stop the nice and fun Santa Clauses?”

This is a country with a population lower than that of Glasgow but many of the same problems in terms of a clique-ish government wedded to stupid development plans and personal enrichment. While its size and remoteness might make it seem irrelevant, you could also look at it as the canary in the coalmine of capitalism as the coaldamp of the credit crunch creeps onward.

Meanwhile in Greece, the streetfighting has died down and occupiers are leaving University buildings. While this isn’t as photogenic as confrontation and property damage, it is an exciting development. This movement has not been defeated: the police and state singularly failed to break it up or (it appears) isolate it from the Greek population as a whole.

…some spirit that is already spreading like fire: Municipal buildings and town halls are being occupied across Athens, and popular assemblies (λαϊκές συνελεύσεις) are being organised in neighbourhoods of both Athens and Thessaloniki. In what turns out to be one of the most positive aspects of the revolt, people are starting to take back their lives: street after street, square after square, neighbourhood after neighbourhood. This is not about a government falling, about some “justice” being paid, about a mere meeting of some demands, a vindication of some sort. The people on the streets demand nothing; they occupy, they organise among themselves, they know that there is no way back to normality, that fighting this very normality is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

Jean Charles de Menezes: UN-lawfully killed

Coroner Sir Michael Wright: thinks you can't make your own mind up

Despite the coroner’s blatant attempt to manipulate the results of the Inquest into the Killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, by denying the jury the option of an “unlawful killing” verdict, the jury’s verdict is clear.

By unanimously returning the most critical verdict available to them and rejecting police testimony on every crucial point, we know that:

• Firearms officers never shouted “Armed Police” as they burst into the tube carriage
• Officers colluded in their testimony
• Special Branch officers altered evidence
• Nobody identified Jean Charles as “Hussein Osman”

The coroner also gagged the media from reporting the complete breakdown in trust between the family and his court. At one point he even barred them from being in court so he could hear parts of the evidence in secret! Sir Michael Wright didn’t get his knighthood by allowing criticism of the gang of out-of-control, incompetent, macho, racists that are the Metropolitan Police.

Without the jury system (with the crucial “of your peers” thing), this would have been swept under the carpet within a week. No wonder there are so many attempts to get rid of it.

This is not over yet. There are clearly guilty people at the Metropolitan Police. Police corruption and impunity is a universal phenomenon. It’s not a matter of “a few bad apples”: the system’s barrel is rotten. Concentrating power in the hands of individuals and institutions makes this kind of abuse inevitable. Greece shows what happens when you push ordinary people too far.

Sometimes we push back.

More News From Greece

Fascists and plain clothes police disguised as demonstrators

After the disgusting attack on Alexis funeral yesterday afternoon we have also been receiving reports of fascists and plain clothes policemen masquerading as rioters and alternately attacking small shops and attacking rioters. This is an attempt by the establishment to discredit the rage of those on the streets.