Brighton MayDay Protest & Get together – On Saturday 30 April 2011 I had a time out in Brighton, not with my bucket and spade on the seashore however photographing an early Could Day Protest in opposition to the cuts, bankers, tax dodgers and people damaging the surroundings and the area people.
It was a protest organised intentionally with out session with the police, basically a succession of static protests at a lot of places across the metropolis in random order, chosen by the throwing of a giant cube.
Even the assembly level for the day was a intently saved secret and solely revealed as I arrived in Brighton half an hour earlier than the occasion was resulting from begin, posted on Twitter, Fb and a cell quantity.
I arrived to hitch round a dozen different photographers and a few plain garments police watching across the similar variety of protesters, however had handed a number of police vans and a few officers on police horses only a quick distance away.
The protesters handed out a map of Brighton marked with 27 potential targets together with arms producers EDO MBM/ITT a way out in Moulscomb and Thales, a number of branches of Barclays, the UK’s largest investor within the arms commerce, an armed forces recruitment centre and Marks & Spencer’s who assist Israel by shopping for items from unlawful Israeli settlements. Different retailers on the checklist included notable tax dodgers Vodaphone, Boots and the assorted Arcadia group manufacturers – Topshop, BHS, Burton, Dorothy Perkins. Accused of damaging the surroundings had been RBS who make investments massively within the space, Shell, significantly for his or her Rossport pipeline in Eire, BP for his or her exploitation of tar sands, E.ON for coal fired energy stations and Veolia. Different targets named included Brighton City Corridor, Tescos, Sainsburys and Starbucks, Fox & Sons concerned in unlawful evictions, Past Retro who promote fur and likewise two properties owned by the infamous Nicholas Van Hoogstraten.
At 12.30, by which period fairly extra protesters had arrived, an enormous cube was thrown and got here down on 4 which meant we had been heading to Brighton City Corridor and the protesters set off, accompanied by the police and the 2 horses.
However though the protesters had been clearly in carnival mode, the police weren’t and shortly had been stopping and harassing them.
They grabbed just a few protesters apparently kind of at random and there have been some minor scuffles as police kettled the protest in Duke Avenue for round 40 minutes.
The protesters danced whereas some tried to barter with the police and eventually they had been allowed to maneuver off to carry a rally exterior two banks with speeches in regards to the cuts and handouts to bankers.
The protesters then tried to stroll into the Pavillion Gardens, just a few managing to take action earlier than police determined to dam the gates. There have been just a few extra incidents and a few arrests, however after round 20 minutes the officer in cost determined there was actually no motive why they need to not stroll by the gardens – and so they did, to the cheers of these sitting on the grass and having fun with a picnic.
Police continued to chase the protesters round Brighton for the following couple of hours, although they gave the impression to be going round in circles and making occasional sudden modifications in course to depart the police – a few of whom had been noticeably much less match than the protesters and even the photographers – behind.
Police made no less than yet one more arrest and the protesters ultimately returned to the promenade the place some sat down on the highway. For the primary time there was a transparent message from the police that they might be kettled until they received up, and so they did, working up the hill once more (with one other arrest for no clear motive) earlier than returning to occasion on the seashore.
I fairly doubt if any of these – no less than 8 – arrested on the day ended up being charged, not to mention convicted. The police had been clearly completely confused by the occasion, and their response, significantly using police horses in some very restricted areas, put each protesters and public in danger. However I feel additionally that the protesters fairly didn’t convey clearly to the folks of Brighton their considerations. Maybe and extra organised sequence of rallies exterior a extra chosen group of targets would have been more practical.
Extra element in regards to the protest and plenty of extra footage on My London Diary at Brighton MayDay Protest.
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All images on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Tags: 2011, April 2011. Could Day, arm commerce, arrests, Brighton, Brighton Could Day, Brighton MayDay Protest & Get together, carnival, cuts, dancing, evictions, fur, kettling, M&S, march, occasion, peter Marshall, police, police horses, polluters, tax dodgers
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