Re: a great day for an action of some sort

[Nathan Jackson <Nathan.Jackson@uce.ac.uk>]

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http://www.gn.apc.org/rts/9911lies.htm
<http://www.gn.apc.org/rts/9911lies.htm> 

They may say that, we couldn't possibly comment...
Various journalists have been busy planning future RTS actions for us. Dates
suggested include the World Trade Organization <http://www.wto.org>
Ministerial Conference which opens in Seatttle, Washington on November 30;
the first day of office work after the New Year; and the opening of the
"Millenium Dome" in London.
This article is reproduced for the purposes of comment and criticism, and
because if New International had published it honestly it'd have been © 1999
HarperCollins - their fiction imprint.

SUNDAY TIMES (London) September 12 1999
Anti-City anarchists plot global riot
Mark Macaskill and Jessica Berry
ANARCHISTS who masterminded this summer's riot in the City of London are
planning a second protest to target banks and financial institutions, a
Sunday Times investigation has revealed.
Militant groups including Reclaim the Streets and Earth First, which
co-ordinated the June 18 (J18) action, have been in contact with their
American counterparts to launch a simultaneous campaign on November 30.
A website set up to co-ordinate activists calls for a day of "civil
disobedience" and "simultaneous actions in financial districts in major
cities around the world". Last week a member of the California-based Ruckus
society, the group behind the website, confirmed that it was in talks with
British activists. [Must be this website <http://www.ruckus.org/wto.html> .
Ta for the pointer.]
The date has been chosen to coincide with the meeting of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) in Seattle, Washington, to be attended by representatives
of 150 countries.
Detective Chief Inspector Kieron Sharp, of the City of London police, said:
"We are aware of this date [Well spotted. The WTO is not our favourite
thing.] and are taking the matter seriously.
"We are trying to assess what is being organised, but it's too early to say
if it will be on the scale of the June protest."
The J18 day of action, billed as an international "carnival against
capitalism", turned into a violent demonstration that left 46 people injured
[By whom? Oh yes, more than 40 by the police.] and damaged property worth
£2m.
After the protest, a secret meeting [No-one ever invites us to secret
meetings. Huh!] was held by Reclaim the Streets at which activists called
for another attack "while the iron was hot".
The worst violence occurred at the Liffe futures exchange building, and the
nearby Rabobank, where windows were smashed and offices wrecked. A
McDonald's outlet and a Mercedes-Benz dealership were also vandalised.
Jan Dost, of Rabobank, said: "It was unfortunate that we were targeted last
time. I can only hope that this time we will be spared." [Cool Dutch
person's way of telling the Sunday Times to fuck off and leave him alone to
make money.]
A special action camp, called Smash the WTO - intended to train activists in
direct-action campaigns and street protests ahead of the event in November -
is to be held this week near Seattle. Among the speakers is ... a leading
figure of Reclaim the Streets UK.
In an e-mail sent to The Sunday Times last week [Yeah - see notes below], an
activist warned: "People are really getting prepared for some good action. I
guarantee that there will be some anarchist s*** going down, too."
Dave, an eco-warrior ["Dave" described himself as an eco-warrior? We don't
think so.] with Earth First, said: "Direct action is the only way forward
and plans are being made for another protest. We are waiting for further
details by e-mail."
Schnews <http://www.schnews.org.uk> , an activist newsletter based in
Brighton, recently told activists that plans were under way and said that
regular updates would follow.
In what is thought to be a trial run for N30, [Have you heard of "N30"? Us
either, unless it's the road in France. Don't they realise that anarchists
couldn't keep a consistent name-space together if we wanted to?] animal
rights and anti-capitalist protesters plan to travel to Bournemouth this
month for the Labour party conference. [If that's a "trial run", life is -
and it isn't.] 
More than 16,000 members of the pro-hunting community will also be in
attendance at the conference to protest against a possible ban on hunting.
"Some passionate anti-hunt campaigners see this as an ideal opportunity to
cause trouble," said one activist [That'll be a pro-hunting activist? A
keep-unions-out-of-News-International activist?]. However, the WTO
conference at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle is
regarded as the main event.
Seattle police have been liaising with the American Secret Service and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [Big deal. They do that when Al Gore
visits Mr. Bates.] to prepare for the 10,000 activists expected, many of
them travelling from Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.
Senior police officials in Britain have expressed concern that small
activist groups, which previously acted independently, have forged links
with bigger groups [Name names! At least make something up!] as a result of
J18.
They say this will make the co-ordination of a global event much easier than
ever before.
[The absence of a comment on a statement above does not imply that it's
factual. We have better things to do.]

An activist notes:
Both Mark Macaskill and Jessica Berry are becoming pretty well known in
activist circles here in the UK. Jessica Berry and other Sunday Times
journos have been found to have lied (at times so badly that it is funny)
about who they were in an attempt to get information and both Jessica Berry
and Mark Macaskill have hassled lots of people at their own homes here in
the UK trying to dig up dirt. We can assume they've subscribed to non-secret
email discussion lists under false names. Point 5 of the NUJ Code of Conduct
<http://www.gn.apc.org/media/nujcode.html>  reads:
	A journalist shall obtain information, photographs and illustrations
only by straightforward means. The use of other means can be justified only
by over-riding considerations of the public interest. The journalist is
entitled to exercise a personal conscientious objection to the use of such
means. 
"Over-riding consideration?" Your call...
If they don't find the story they want then they seem quite happy to twist
facts so outrageously as to be extremely misleading... as the truth often
isn't interesting enough for them as it does not fit their agenda!! Years
ago The Sunday Times wrote terrible lies about road protesters where they
accused protestors of setting man-traps on road camps to impale police and
even came up with photos. This was proved to be untrue but by that point the
damage had been done.
These two recently wrote an article about UK genetics activists. They tried
to make GEN sound sinister - laughable - before implying that it was British
(not Indian) activists who had burnt down crops and then implied that we
were probably planning to burn down stores selling GE cotton - quite
ridiculous and potentially very damaging - which as far as I am concerned is
their aim anyway.
Before that they wrote a huge article about "the faces behind June 18" along
a similar vein!


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