Stokes Croft eviction and protests, 2011

i've been reading about this on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/search/stokescroft

Has it been evicted? What kind of squat was it? Social squat or for people's housing?

Photos from twitter

http://t.co/Zwsglvr
http://t.co/jNsaRxt
http://t.co/L5009bt

Article debunking the police press release (which I think was written before any of this actually kicked off)
http://brightgreenscotland.org/index.php/2011/04/police-pr-departments-protest/

Police are/wer being shipped in from South Wales.

@Samotnaf - I am just catching up with this, but as far as I can tell the building was a very long term residential squat. The eviction came very shortly after the new Tesco opposite was opened, but there wasn't a direct connection that I can see.

"Democracy in action"
http://twitpic.com/4nstzd (video of a bloke with a nasty head wound).

Not read yet, first write-up afaik. (edit: now I've read it and it is quite good for a start)

http://neurobonkers.com/?p=2509

Another vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-CDNIvCT8w

Early morning photos, still riot police outside the shop, people on roof of the squat - http://twitpic.com/photos/mr_hopkinson

http://twitpic.com/4nw5wn

http://twitpic.com/4nw7mz

U75 Bristol forum http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/threads/347053-Tescos-open-in-Stokes-Croft.-Bristol.-Squatters-evicted-riot-police-called-in

Fuck me, it really is 1981 all over again.....

4 or 5 squats near each other around there, it's the focus for the squatting / insurrectionary anarchist folks.

I wasn't there (tucked up in bed grumbling "wtf is that copper chopper playin at?!") but by the looks of the footage it looks like the "normals" from Hamilton House which is up the road turned out as well.

Definitely political - coppers would KNOW this would blow up, altho they probably underestimated the level of resistance (a bit less cracking jokes in the vans afterwards i bet, you smug fucking cunts). The eviction of the squat to stop Tescos kicked off for hours, 800 attended, and that was during the day. Must be either national orders or some new hat wanting to get something on his CV (sounds like the second judging by the plod statement).

So, looks like they've thrown down the gauntlet, on the first day of a 4 day bank holiday weekend as well. Let's see what happens tonight. FYI, St.Pauls is right round the corner from Stokes Croft, and Cabot Circus, the new shopping centre, is down the hill.

The Hamilton House (student/Shoreditch Twat) crowd has already been drawn in. If the St Pauls EMA Warriors and veterans from the 80's riots also get drawn in, and it goes on long enough to give the old CW and hairy libcommers time to get pissed first, this could be tasty.

Or this could be the end of it, and the squatters end up islolated and picked off - you never know with Bristol.

Hamilton House is also the location of the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair on 7th May, and the afterparty is in the Attic Bar, which is also in Stokes Croft.

Big society innit.

:-O heard this on the radio this morning!

boom. report from comrade in Bristol: http://thecommune.co.uk/2011/04/22/the-first-funky-riot-in-bristol/

fingers malone:

it really is 1981 all over again.....

The big Bristol riot of the Thatcher era was 1980, after which anarchists in Brixton graffitied "Bristol today Brixton tomorrow" in Brixton, a concept(ion) giving birth 9 months later.

Why are they against Tesco?

Devrim

AAAAAAAALLLLLL the mainstream news headlines are '8 police injured'. I want to know what these injuries are, I remember at one of the london student demos last year turns out one of them was sent to hospital for a cut finger.

apparently there are already 17 Tescos in Bristol. Everyone hates a new Tesco man. They undersell all the locals and are some of the most powerful greedy capitalist bastards in Britain.

I really don't understand this gentrification mentality that turns great 'cultural' sectors shit. Look at Brighton, its well shit now.

here's a vid of a past demo there,
http://wn.com/Protest_at_Tesco_opening_in_Bristol

I really don't understand this gentrification mentality that turns great 'cultural' sectors shit.

Have you seen this?

Good video here:

[video]http://youtu.be/hkCvka1uwuo[/video]

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I really don't understand this gentrification mentality that turns great 'cultural' sectors shit. Look at Brighton, its well shit now.

Gentrification happens in waves. At least in London, it usually goes

-> white working class neighbourhood
-> first wave immigrants
-> second wave immigrants (as the first wave start to move out to the suburbs)
-> squatters
-> students/arty/politicos (usually from outside London or other bits of London, I have been one of them, although usually the areas didn't get properly gentrified until I was already forced out by rents...)
-> slightly more 'professional' young singles ('creative' jobs, not necessarily well off)
-> independent/niche shops/bars/cafes
-> property developers and Estate agents
-> 'single professionals'
-> banks and supermarkets
-> high street shops

Each wave doesn't necessarily lead the to the next, but the latter waves are generally dependent on one or more of the former, it takes something like the Olympics or Canary Wharf to bypass several of the steps. Equally people right up to the niche shops/bars/cafes waves have been involved in resistance to the latter stages (Broadway Market certainly had a lot of people from various of those groups involved - although that's not necessarily a strength but it was an extremely broad cross-section of people that got involved there). It's an interesting process, but people need to be critical about their own role in it - Tesco and property developers don't start this process, that'd give them too much credit, they feed off the top of it.

here's a vid of a past demo there,
http://wn.com/Protest_at_Tesco_opening_in_Bristol[/quote]

Ok guys, thanks for the info. but I have to admit I was joking....(doesn't translate well on the internet i know).

I hear through the grapevine that Hackney have turned a blind eye to loads of people (young bohemian artists, students) who don't pay council tax because they know its the beginning of the gentrification process. The mentality i was more referring to was not the local council/urban planners etc, etc, but the actual Yups who move in, 'oh brighton lanes its really groooOOOOooovy down there, lets move there and increase the land rent'. I wonder how the current economic climate is going to affect this process....

Rum Lad, that youtube video is great, but it is packed full of trolls moaning about their tax money and telling people to go have a wash, join the army, and get a job.

Also, on the being critical of your role in it. I understand what you mean, being complicit, but I don't see a way around it unless you move out of London/Berlin/New York or where ever else it is going on.

fucking Tescos, everyone hates them, they destroy all those nice community integrated shops and take cash flow out of the area

on balance though, they have developed some great supply line systems that we could expropriate during the revolution :lol:

Devrim, assuming your 'what's wrong with Tesco' question was a real one, this sort of argument explains why they're so hated :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tescopoly-How-Shop-Came-Matters/dp/1845295110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303479009&sr=1-1
And that's without getting started on that well known cnut Dame Shirley Fucking-Porter who's the Tesco heir.

Does this really qualify as a riot? not many vids and pics are around so I find it hard to judge the extent of the unrest.

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I hear through the grapevine that Hackney have turned a blind eye to loads of people (young bohemian artists, students) who don't pay council tax because they know its the beginning of the gentrification process. The mentality i was more referring to was not the local council/urban planners etc, etc, but the actual Yups who move in, 'oh brighton lanes its really groooOOOOooovy down there, lets move there and increase the land rent'. I wonder how the current economic climate is going to affect this process....

I don't know much about Brighton (even less about Bristol), but in Hackney there is a mixture of areas which were gentrified early on (mainly the south west around Hoxton/Shoreditch and Stoke Newington) - which definitely started with 'organic' gentrification. The Vortex in Stoke Newington and the Foundry (and original Blue Note in Hoxton square which happens to be the first nightclub I ever went to aged 14 :p) in Old Street are both very early arrivals that led to the gentrification of those areas that then got forced out later. This all happened early '90s and afaik was unplanned.

I moved to Hackney almost ten years ago, it was still one of the cheapest places to live in London, yet there was also an underground music scene in several venues around there, lots of squats etc. but not much in the way of housing developments, posh pubs etc.

It was not really yuppified at that point, especially not where I lived (most of the time about 200 metres off 'murder mile' which was the least-gentrified bit of the borough). However it was a lot more interesting than similarly priced areas like Charlton - where I stayed at a mates house once and it took us nearly an hour to find food in the morning 'cos there was only about one shop every three square miles.

I'm not sure about a conscious policy of turning a blind eye, but definitely not much in the way of resources going into chasing council tax etc. (which is obviously a good thing if you don't get deported). Several of my mates were significantly more at risk from prosecution than not paying council tax - one arrived from Poland in the back of a van, and couldn't risk leaving the UK until it joined the EU. Most others who were 'illegal immigrants' came on student visas and outstayed or just never attended English schools in the first place. All the people I'm thinking of were also 'arty/squatter types'. I don't think anyone actually ran into trouble.

By the time it got to 2004/5-ish, you start getting organic/craft markets, by 2007/8 even Clapton started getting expensive cafes, delis and new housing developments that no-one living in the other housing around there would have been able to afford to live in.

There is a nearly unbroken line of gentrification from Brick Lane, up to Columbia Road flower market, then Broadway Market, London Fields, then Mare Street (south of Mare street has the Vietnamese restaurants and new library), then eastwards along the top of Victoria Park (which has a lot of large old houses). West of Dalston you have De Beavoir and Islington. Then there were 'gentrification black spots' more or less anywhere east of Stoke Newington High Road and north of Graham Road/Mare Street - but these got broken down about 5-6 years ago. It's a couple of years since I lived there so I don't know how much this is continuing to get worse, or has stalled since the recession started.

In terms of yuppies saying it's 'groooovy', I wouldn't consider myself or anyone else who I know from around there in that group, so I don't know exactly what brings them to places like this. However when we had a kid, we absolutely could not afford to rent anywhere in Hackney (even Clapton) and had to move out to the even less gentrified areas of Leyton and Walthamstow. Some of my other friends from Hackney also ended up moving out to there - so you can almost see the waves of gentrification happening within the space of 5-10 years.

The same way I and others started getting priced out of Hackney, similarly the proper yuppies are getting priced out of places like Islington and Camden by financial services workers etc. - who are going to be buying (and buying to let) - and driving up prices to the point where 'normal' professionals can't hack it any more. Also once you get out past Leyton or Walthamstow, it starts getting expensive again (Redbridge etc.) - so there is a belt around London where you're pretty much restricted unless you move all the way out to Romford or somewhere like that.

How much this applies to smaller places like Brighton and Brixton I don't know though, and definitely there is a much more concious process the past ten years than there was the previous 2-3 decades.

Ellar

Does this really qualify as a riot? not many vids and pics are around so I find it hard to judge the extent of the unrest.

It seems like a very small riot, but there was a #baitvan, the police were apparently forced out of the area and had to regroup, reinforcements brought in from South Wales oetc., and the Tesco got smashed - with just that amount of information that seems not to inaccurate to me. Without the Tesco angle it would have more or less just been resisting the eviction though - so it is definitely being spun as a riot rather than the slightly more complex thing that it is.

shug

Devrim, assuming your 'what's wrong with Tesco' question was a real one, this sort of argument explains why they're so hated :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tescopoly-How-Shop-Came-Matters/dp/1845295110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303479009&sr=1-1
And that's without getting started on that well known cnut Dame Shirley Fucking-Porter who's the Tesco heir.

Yes, it was a real one. I would love it if they built a Tesco on my street. I don't have a car, and it would be a cheap and local place to do my shopping. We don't have stuff like a big Tescos in Ankara, but I nowadays we do have smaller supermarkets. I can remember before there were any big supermarkets in Ankara, and we had to go to all of these little local shops, which charged really high prices. It wasn't so great.

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apparently there are already 17 Tescos in Bristol. Everyone hates a new Tesco man. They undersell all the locals and are some of the most powerful greedy capitalist bastards in Britain.

I'm a worker. I don't own a shop. Logically I should be pleased if people undersell all of the locals. Yes, it is a big capitalist company, but then I work for big capitalist companies. So What? You can't opt out of interaction with big capitalist companies. What are you advocating, support your local petit-bourgeoise?

Harrison Myers

fucking Tescos, everyone hates them, they destroy all those nice community integrated shops and take cash flow out of the area

What does 'taking cash flow out of the area exactly mean, and more importantly what does it have to do with anything?

Devrim

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Also, on the being critical of your role in it. I understand what you mean, being complicit, but I don't see a way around it unless you move out of London/Berlin/New York or where ever else it is going on.

Right, and if you do that, then you are probably going to end up in fucking commuter belt (or a regional town like Bristol where the same model is happening anyway).

This is somewhat like Devrim's (albeit cynical) question about why don't they like Tescos. It doesn't really make sense to fight again against 'gentrification' as such, in the same way it doesn't make sense to fight against corporations, or tax evasion, or tuition fees (or for that matter Middle Eastern dictators) as such. However that doesn't mean that this Bristol riot, or UK Uncut or the university occupations or Tunisia and Egypt aren't important.

Ellar:

Does this really qualify as a riot?

Was asking myself the same question; wasn't that much more than what happens my way (Montpellier, SW France) every mardi gras. To compare it with 1980 or 81 is a bit off: those riots were far bigger and involved a lot more burning and attacks on the cops and shops. No time at the moment to go into greater details about the differences, but it's indicative of the 20 year sleep of UK class struggle that this, relatively minor, as far as I can see, in comparison with past explosions (or even with Millbank), is presented as a "riot".

Bristol AF blog post up:

http://bristolaf.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/the-battle-of-stokes-croft/

nvm

Yeah, I fucking love shopping at Tesco personally.. And like Devrim I don't think we should have a political objection to Tesco any more than we should to a local business.
I still think it's really exciting, because (and this is based on talking to friends in Bristol who aren't political at all, as well as the reports written by politico's) it really doesn't seem like it's just a load of anarchists who hate Tescos. It seems like a whole local community's against it, for whatever reason. If rioting and stuff is more normalised as a response to squatting evictions and perceived destruction of communities, then that can only be a good thing.

mons

(and this is based on talking to friends in Bristol who aren't political at all, as well as the reports written by politico's) it really doesn't seem like it's just a load of anarchists who hate Tescos. It seems like a whole local community's against it, for whatever reason

Not only this, but it sounds like Tescos wasn't even the main focus of the riot (just the only shop that had its windows done in). Clearly some people there were specifically having a go at Tescos, but some others just got dragged into it and objected to the police behaviour, and according to the Commune article there were at least two separate groups of people, one of which wasn't really aware of the Tesco windows until they heard about it at the end of the night.

There are likely to be a lot of evictions over the next few years - both political squats and people from their houses, hopefully this a sign of what the resistance will be like to those, rather than the start of an anti-Tesco campaign.

I understand your point Devrim, and I know one shouldn't answer a question with a question, but what are you advocating? Supporting one of the biggest retailers in the world for cheaper penguin chocolate bars while we wait around for the revolution? It is of course a really difficult one, these 'least worst' debates always spiral into petty feuds, but i have to say, I think I am with the local petit-bourgois and the local communities having to leave the area because of gentrification processes (as Mike Harmann illustrating for us). I think actually people learn a lot more about the iron laws of capital in times like this, rather than just sitting in their rooms reading Das Kapital. It's a consciousness raising exercise, i thought at libcom there was the attitude that you have to change peoples minds through their everyday lives right?

As for being a riot, legally it looks like it was over 12 people so it does constitute a 'riot'. But its not really a big one....

Samotnaf

Ellar:

Does this really qualify as a riot?

Was asking myself the same question; wasn't that much more than what happens my way (Montpellier, SW France) every mardi gras. To compare it with 1980 or 81 is a bit off: those riots were far bigger and involved a lot more burning and attacks on the cops and shops. No time at the moment to go into greater details about the differences, but it's indicative of the 20 year sleep of UK class struggle that this, relatively minor, as far as I can see, in comparison with past explosions (or even with Millbank), is presented as a "riot".

Was the 1980 riot in Bristol really the first one though? Or just the first one of that size?

If this was 1980 I don't think us two would ever have even found out about this happening in the first place.

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I think actually people learn a lot more about the iron laws of capital in times like this, rather than just sitting in their rooms reading Das Kapital. It's a consciousness raising exercise, i thought at libcom there was the attitude that you have to change peoples minds through their everyday lives right?

Is this a dig at me. If it is, it is sort of at the wrong person. I think that the last time I even opened a page of capital was about 30 years ago.

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what are you advocating? Supporting one of the biggest retailers in the world for cheaper penguin chocolate bars while we wait around for the revolution?

I am not sure what you mean by support? Yes, I would shop there if I had the chance. Does that mean that I support them? Am I supporting our Islamicist city council by riding the bus? I think that this is a very 'consumerist' way to look at things. It doesn't come from collective class politics at all.

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but i have to say, I think I am with the local petit-bourgois and the local communities having to leave the area because of gentrification processes

I am not with the local petit-bourgeoisie. On a personal level I dislike them more than I dislike the big corporations, which are sort of faceless, and doesn't provoke the same sort of personal dislike. The gentrification issue is different.

Mons

it really doesn't seem like it's just a load of anarchists who hate Tescos. It seems like a whole local community's against it, for whatever reason.

Which is why I asked why people were against it.

MH

This is somewhat like Devrim's (albeit cynical) question about why don't they like Tescos. It doesn't really make sense to fight again against 'gentrification' as such, in the same way it doesn't make sense to fight against corporations, or tax evasion, or tuition fees (or for that matter Middle Eastern dictators) as such.

I don't think that it makes much sense to fight against tax evasion, but I do think that it makes sense to fight against tuition fees. I think they are quite different things.

Devrim

Tesco was the focus - the cops tried to evict the squat as it was involved in opposing the shop since it opened. Shop in Tesco's if you want, but don't cuss others for picking a fight with them (and maybe now WINNING that fight)

Gentrification - of course, but that's a different matter, different subject.

Too many x

Not a riot? x, says who? You? x.

Bristol a 'provincial town' - it's a fucking CITY of 400,000 people, pound for pound the most active place around, and has been for years. x.

TOTAL respect to anyone involved last night, don't listen to these x, those in the know KNOW it was a fucking big deal. Of course not as big as St Pauls or Hartcliffe, but big enough to not be dismissed with a jab of some x finger on a keyboard.

It's this kind of x judgementalising that gives Libcom a bad name. Sorry for being so rude and aggressive, but ...... fucks sake!

admin: no flaming

On reflection I don't think I was sure what you meant by 'support' either, but i guess I should have done the whole pedantic routine rather than try to answer your question :-). It is also worth keeping it mind that it is often hard in practice to split the local greengrocer (local bourg) from the local community. As I thought i had made clear when i referred to it as a consciousness raising exercise, I don't expect people to convert to libertarian communism over night.

As for a 'consumerist' way of looking at things, you seem to be defending Tesco because its cheap for your consumer habits? Thats exactly the sort of docile consumer that they want you to be, as their motto goes 'every little helps'!

The Das Kapital thing was not meant to be personal no (after all, we have never met and I don't know your reading habits), just a dig at what i see as a certain amount of fatalism from some parts of the left. A blasé fatalism that you seem to be presenting here.

Whether you like the petit or not on a personal level is really dependent on your locality and personal disposition isn't it? I think I hate middle management rule following dickhead Tesco shift managers with their silly blazer jackets and stupid headsets more than I hate the guy at the greengrocer....but this is minor quibbling.

Devrim

I don't think that it makes much sense to fight against tax evasion, but I do think that it makes sense to fight against tuition fees. I think they are quite different things.

Yeah they are quite different, although there are different aspects to anti-gentrification stuff too. Similarly UK Uncut starts to show signs of not being just about tax evasion - some of them were getting involved in the Office Angels stuff yesterday.

The squat that was evicted was not only people in opposition to Tescos, but is also due to be redeveloped as flats. Probably the squat would not have been defended without the background of the Tesco protests, but the Tesco would not have been smashed in without the eviction of the squat. The arrival of shops like that is part of a process of rising rents and house prices etc. - it provides an anchor for other shops and housing developments to anchor around, and then people get forced out. Tesco is being targeted not because it's Tesco as far as i can tell, but simply because it's the first big shop to open on that street at all.

Boydell

Shop in Tesco's if you want, but don't cuss others for picking a fight with them (and maybe now WINNING that fight)

Actually I haven't. I just asked why.

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As for a 'consumerist' way of looking at things, you seem to be defending Tesco because its cheap for your consumer habits? Thats exactly the sort of docile consumer that they want you to be, as their motto goes 'every little helps'!

I don't think that I am actually defending Tesco, but I would question the idea of whether a consumer can be anything but 'docile'. To me using the term implies that there is a non-docile consumer? What would that be?

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It is also worth keeping it mind that it is often hard in practice to split the local greengrocer (local bourg) from the local community.

Which brings up the question of what the 'community' actually is.

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Whether you like the petit or not on a personal level is really dependent on your locality and personal disposition isn't it? I think I hate middle management rule following dickhead Tesco shift managers with their silly blazer jackets and stupid headsets more than I hate the guy at the greengrocer....but this is minor quibbling.

Yes, it is personal. I don't think that there is a supermarket near me that is big enough to support those sort of people. On the other hand I can remember a time during the real bad years of financial crisis when it was quite normal for people to be in hock to the local shop keeper and for them to be charging outrageous interest on the debts. I just don't like them, and if they are being put out of business by big supermarkets, there is a little part in side me which says good. Of course when we think about it logically, it is all capitalism.

Boydell

Gentrification - of course, but that's a different matter, different subject

Yes, it is.

Devrim

Well can't you just muster a bigger part of the inside of you to say 'good' that a Tesco has been trashed rather than complain that it implicates you on some level with a petit-bourgeoisie?

Mike Harman

Devrim

I don't think that it makes much sense to fight against tax evasion, but I do think that it makes sense to fight against tuition fees. I think they are quite different things.

Yeah they are quite different, although there are different aspects to anti-gentrification stuff too. Similarly UK Uncut starts to show signs of not being just about tax evasion - some of them were getting involved in the Office Angels stuff yesterday.

You will have to cut me a bit of slack Mike. It is difficult to discuss the details for me. I try to sort of keep up with what goes on in UK politics, but I only have a vague idea of who UK Uncut are, and no idea what the office Angles stuff is.

Now what I imagine (and I could be completely wrong) is that this is members of an activisty liberal protest group getting drawn into a dispute an a temp agency, which of course is a good thing.

What do we draw from this though? Is it that we should be involved in things like UK Uncut to try to move them into things like this, or that we should be involved in a dispute at a temp agency to try to draw people from out side into it?

I don't support riots just because they are happening, and I don't think that it is wrong to ask what it is all about. At the moment in this country, we have had mass riots across the Kurdish areas, as well as in İstanbul, and mass demonstrations across the entire country. Fortunately only one person has been murdered by the state so far. These demonstrations and riots, over the banning of 12 candidates from the upcoming general elections are massive, and are in many ways, though obviously not completely, animated by the Kurdish nationalists and the left. Is this somewhere that you think that revolutionaries should be getting involved?

We, the ICC in Turkey, don't think so. This week we weren't sitting on our hands. We were involved in supporting the hundreds of thousands of health workers who were on strike (I have only see one member of another left group on picket lines and demonstrations).

I don't think that it is wrong, or cynical as you earlier put it, to ask what this movement is about.

Personally I find the whole question of gentrification quite a difficult one to deal with and don't really know how to react to it. It raises a lot of really important question about the nature of 'community organising', and what class struggle is. I would note though that from my limited observations a lot of the people involved in 'anti-gentrification' stuff when I lived in London were actually a part of the process (as you outlined it earlier) themselves, and that much of what they (remember I am talking about the 80s and Class War) did, was little more than stuntism.

Devrim

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Well can't you just muster a bigger part of the inside of you to say 'good' that a Tesco has been trashed rather than complain that it implicates you on some level with a petit-bourgeoisie?

I don't feel any sympathy with them (or their insurance company). I would just like to know first why it is happening, and second what people think is positive about it.

Devrim

Devrim

Mike Harman

Devrim

I don't think that it makes much sense to fight against tax evasion, but I do think that it makes sense to fight against tuition fees. I think they are quite different things.

Yeah they are quite different, although there are different aspects to anti-gentrification stuff too. Similarly UK Uncut starts to show signs of not being just about tax evasion - some of them were getting involved in the Office Angels stuff yesterday.

You will have to cut me a bit of slack Mike. It is difficult to discuss the details for me. I try to sort of keep up with what goes on in UK politics, but I only have a vague idea of who UK Uncut are, and no idea what the office Angles stuff is.

If that is the case Devrim, then perhaps you could spare your judgments until you inform yourself?

Meant in the least bitchy fashion possible.

Tommy Ascaso

Is the Tesco getting smashed really that interesting? We've had that discussion numerous times. In case people hadn't noticed there were several hundred people rioting last night.

Among whom were a lot of people who weren't the 'usual suspects'. I think that's a very important point to make.

Caiman del Barrio

If that is the case Devrim, then perhaps you could spare your judgments until you inform yourself?

Meant in the least bitchy fashion possible.

I don't think I have made any judgements. I have just asked questions.

Devrim

Whats 'good' about what is happening in Bristol is that, from my armchair, it seems like the police attempted to attack part of a community and didn't bargain for the rest of that community to fight them back. I don't care if all they want to do is remove a Tesco's and re-assert the local shop, supporting petit-borgeious against multinationals may be a bone of theoretical contention but it is hardly comparable with Devrim's tale the banning of nationalist candidates in Turkey.

Unfortunately the revolution hasn't happened yet and people do have to buy their food from somewhere or someone. Personally I don't care where I buy it from, but I wouldn't want another big corporation to set up in my high street (or the first in this case), because Tesco's and the like are faceless and destructive to notions of solidarity and community spirit.
Gentrification is part of this destruction, where new richer professionals move into an area to live but not work or socialise. What Mike Harmann has described is happening in Deptford and surrounding areas of SE London where huge new developments are being built along the Creek with rents the like of which no-one in the area can afford (and that includes Goldsmiths students) The yuppies and their modern equivalent will not be seen buying from the market on saturdays, they will be in Tescos.

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling

Whats 'good' about what is happening in Bristol is that, from my armchair, it seems like the police attempted to attack part of a community and didn't bargain for the rest of that community to fight them back. I don't care if all they want to do is remove a Tesco's and re-assert the local shop, supporting petit-borgeious against multinationals may be a bone of theoretical contention but it is hardly comparable with Devrim's tale the banning of nationalist candidates in Turkey.

The point I was trying to make though was just because there are confrontations with the police it doesn't mean they are necessarily good things.

Devrim

Devrim

Mike Harman

Devrim

I don't think that it makes much sense to fight against tax evasion, but I do think that it makes sense to fight against tuition fees. I think they are quite different things.

Yeah they are quite different, although there are different aspects to anti-gentrification stuff too. Similarly UK Uncut starts to show signs of not being just about tax evasion - some of them were getting involved in the Office Angels stuff yesterday.

You will have to cut me a bit of slack Mike. It is difficult to discuss the details for me. I try to sort of keep up with what goes on in UK politics, but I only have a vague idea of who UK Uncut are, and no idea what the office Angles stuff is.

Now what I imagine (and I could be completely wrong) is that this is members of an activisty liberal protest group getting drawn into a dispute an a temp agency, which of course is a good thing.

Yep. The dispute at the temp agency is one incidence of wage theft so far, not really an ongoing dispute by people currently working for them, but I think SolFed are trying to find other people who've had trouble with them (of which I'm sure there are lots).

What do we draw from this though? Is it that we should be involved in things like UK Uncut to try to move them into things like this, or that we should be involved in a dispute at a temp agency to try to draw people from out side into it?

I think it's more about the current opposition to the cuts keeping some of the momentum that it gained towards the end of last year, and IMO the premise behind UK Uncut (if rich paid taxes that'd plug the deficit) is so completely bizarre and unlikely that an actual class approach to the cuts can only look more straightforward.

I don't think that it is wrong, or cynical as you earlier put it, to ask what this movement is about.

It's not cynical to ask what it's about, but it is cynical to say "I love supermarkets because small shops are bastards and I wish there was one in my street.", which I was merely predicting would come next ;) Of course there's some truth to it, but only really at the level of "it's all capitalism". It's the same as things like "Defend the NHS" or "Defend council housing", or "defend Royal Mail" against privatisation. There is plenty of leftist crap about privatisation (or in favour of nationalisation) that doesn't deal with what actually happens in these processes at all - but privatisation is nearly always accompanied by real material attacks on wages and conditions.

Personally I find the whole question of gentrification quite a difficult one to deal with and don't really know how to react to it. It raises a lot of really important question about the nature of 'community organising', and what class struggle is. I would note though that from my limited observations a lot of the people involved in 'anti-gentrification' stuff when I lived in London were actually a part of the process (as you outlined it earlier) themselves, and that much of what they (remember I am talking about the 80s and Class War) did, was little more than stuntism.
Devrim

\

Yes it's a complicated issue and there are a lot of things about it I'm not sure of myself, although it's a process that is occurring in a lot of places, and has real effects on peoples living conditions and the class composition of areas. From my list above, if you move into any working class area that you weren't born/grew up in, then you are at risk of being some kind of gentrifier - it is really a process of local migration of different groups of people, which often (but not always) ends up in gentrification as the final stage. So leftists making it just about Tesco and 'yuppie flats' doesn't deal with what actually goes on and is extremely limited, but so is dismissing resistance to it on that basis.

Mike Harman

Of course there's some truth to it, but only really at the level of "it's all capitalism". It's the same as things like "Defend the NHS" or "Defend council housing", or "defend Royal Mail" against privatisation. There is plenty of leftist crap about privatisation (or in favour of nationalisation) that doesn't deal with what actually happens in these processes at all - but privatisation is nearly always accompanied by real material attacks on wages and conditions.

I think though that even in these sort of things we have to be careful. Surely what we are about is not defending nationalised industries, but defending jobs, conditions, and services. Now, it is true, as you say, that "privatisation is nearly always accompanied by real material attacks on wages and conditions", but ı think that any sort of restructuring generally is. How many redundancies did the nationalisation of Northern Rock involve.

I don't think that this is an abstract point, but more about trying to outline a class orientation. Of course all sorts of arguments come up in the course of people defending nationalised industries. Possibly the worst one I ever heard in the UK was Alan Tuffin, head of the UCW when I was a postman, whose argument basically went along the lines of 'If it is privatised it won't be the Royal Mail, then we won't be able to have the Queen's head on the stamps. "The Queen's head must not be allowed to role"'.

Now of course, I don't think anybody is making arguments like that here, but also attacks on conditions were pushed through by the union (on counters not letters) with them arguing that 'if we don't accept this they will privatise it'. I think that we have to be very cleat that what we are defending is jobs, conditions, and services, and not nationalisation. For us accepting cuts to ward off nationalisation sort of defeats the point.

So to try to come back to this campaign about Tesco, do you think there is any defense of working class interests here in being against Tesco?

Devrim

You are personally invited to a private event with Deputy PM Nick Clegg to discuss the creative and digital industries in Bristol. There will be an opportunity to put questions directly to Nick Clegg.

http://nickcleggbristolmedia.eventbrite.com/

That'll be cancelled then.

Auto

Among whom were a lot of people who weren't the 'usual suspects'. I think that's a very important point to make.

+1
seems to be more like millbank in nature, and unlike march 26th.

Devrim

Now of course, I don't think anybody is making arguments like that here, but also attacks on conditions were pushed through by the union (on counters not letters) with them arguing that 'if we don't accept this they will privatise it'. I think that we have to be very cleat that what we are defending is jobs, conditions, and services, and not nationalisation. For us accepting cuts to ward off nationalisation sort of defeats the point.

Agreed on all this.

So to try to come back to this campaign about Tesco, do you think there is any defense of working class interests here in being against Tesco?

Devrim

I don't think this was a riot "against Tesco" - definitely some of the people involved last night had previously been involved in protests against Tesco, but it appears the police managed to piss off several hundred people, many of whom were not involved in that campaign - by rampaging through the streets, blocking roads, hitting random people with truncheons etc.

UK Uncut has been organising occupations of high street shops (ones accused of tax avoidance) in tandem with many of the local and national anti-cuts protests. I don't see that much difference between occupying a Top Shop and kicking in the windows of Tesco politically - in fact it's very similar in terms of focus.

I don't think this is something revolutionaries should 'support' in the sense of getting involved in those specific campaigns on their own terms - but things have already moved beyond just focusing on specific symptoms or populist targets like that for a decent number of people. And frankly while I'm the last person to fetishise confrontations with the police, and the marches last year showed a real risk of that (i.e. too much reliance on set-piece central London demos), those confrontations have also radicalised a lot of people over the past few months. Also there is a fundamental difference between a face off with the police in Oxford street (or any other town centre of a major city) and a mostly residential neighbourhood.

Samotnaf may see stuff like this in France every other week, and you might see riots and shootings in Turkey, but this is extremely unusual in the UK so I'm reluctant to write it off (while it may not come to much yet either).

Tommy Ascaso

Is the Tesco getting smashed really that interesting? We've had that discussion numerous times. In case people hadn't noticed there were several hundred people rioting last night.

While I agree with this, I also did like seeing Tesco's getting smashed up.. :)

Mike the stuff about gentrification is interesting, I'm down the road from where you live and we've had quite a lot of attempts to gentrify, mainly because 25 years after the riots house prices here are still a lot cheaper than stoke newington or hackney in spite of having better transport links etc. They recently tried to build (are still trying) to build a massive gated development by the tube station as a ground zero for gentrification but there's a community campaign holding it up.
Gentrification is also an effect of crazy london house prices, lots of people look in areas that have decent housing stock and relatively low prices, I can remember students just starting to move into Manor house and being terrified of the locals, a lot has changed since then.
I was in a housing estate in Hoxton today actually and saw a dude who really shouldn't have been able to walk the streets without getting a beating. bloody gentrification :(

I don't think Tescos coming in to an area is abuot gentrification. They are about driving out of business small traders and delivering more profit by screwing their supply chain (one reason that agriculture and food processing in the UK now needs to use illegal migrants in order to be able to operate.) They will kill off small traders, but unlike in Turkey, it's rare for people to get stuff on a tab witha small trader here, so it doesn't have the same impact.
One thing that I have noticed is that the small Tescos are a lot more expensive than the big ones, but go off people assuming they have the same prices everywhere. They don't.
If your area is being gentrified, expect to see expensive delis and cafes open, if a store moves in it will be Waitrose or M&S. The new flats in Deptford (some of which you have to have a minimum income to buy) are populated by people who will pop to Waitrose at Canary Wharf rather than Tescos, unless it's for a convenience thing.
All the talk here of gentrification misses out the main driver - if the council doesn't give planning permission for new flats for "young professionals" it isn't going to happen.
And where will people end up living? In London at least the Thames Gateway is the area planned for poor people to live. This means Barking and North Gerenwich/Lewisham and points east, up to Gravesend or Southend. And a very long commute. Welcome to what Capital has in store. I imagine similar plans are in place for other cities where the inner part is being socially cleansed.
Kudos to the folks in Bristol for standing up for themselves. If they don't want Tesco, doesn't this whole "Big Society " bullshit give them the right to say so?

Regards,

Martin

Boydell:

Not a riot? x, says who? You? x.

etc.
Not quite sure what you mean by "x" but fair enough - this was a significant riot, and i didn't mean to minimise it, just that it's indicative of how the culture of resistance has to begin again at a considerably more repressed level than 30 years ago. Compare with the riot in St.Pauls, 1980:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdyo16VMhIQ&feature=related

Samotnaf may see stuff like this in France every other week

Not quite - and the cops were a bit more vicious in the mardi gras (at the beginning of March) this year (tear-gassing and batoning) than previous years. And what happened last night in Bristol seems like more of a victory of sorts than what's been happening in France. In fact, the riots of November 2005 in France could also be unfavourably compared with the riots that took place in parts of France in the 13 years after 1968 (up until Mitterand bit by bit tamed increasing sections of the proletariat). Didn't want to give the impression that France is in a constant semi-insurrectionary mood - far from it, unfortunately (so far).

Was the 1980 riot in Bristol really the first one though? Or just the first one of that size?

It was the first one under Thatcher. The 1976 Notting Hill riot was under the Labour government, and was the first significant anti-State riot of the post WWll epoch, imo

Compare with the riot in St.Pauls, 1980:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdyo16VMhIQ&feature=related
Devrim:

I would love it if they built a Tesco on my street. I don't have a car, and it would be a cheap and local place to do my shopping. We don't have stuff like a big Tescos in Ankara, but I nowadays we do have smaller supermarkets. I can remember before there were any big supermarkets in Ankara, and we had to go to all of these little local shops, which charged really high prices. It wasn't so great.
Arbeiten wrote:

apparently there are already 17 Tescos in Bristol. Everyone hates a new Tesco man. They undersell all the locals and are some of the most powerful greedy capitalist bastards in Britain.

I'm a worker. I don't own a shop. Logically I should be pleased if people undersell all of the locals. Yes, it is a big capitalist company, but then I work for big capitalist companies. So What? You can't opt out of interaction with big capitalist companies. What are you advocating, support your local petit-bourgeoise?

It's ironic that the ICC condemned the looting of petit-bourgeois shops in Bristol in 1980, in their usual moralist fashion. And now Devrim is saying how much he'd love a Tesco where he lives. Given the choice of loving real people and real struggles and loving a supermarket I think I might just possibly question his notion of love. He sounds like the kind of East European who in the mid-1960s would have questioned the incendiary destruction of Safeways in Watts with "I would love it if they built a Safeways on my street. I don't have a car, and it would be a cheap and local place to do my shopping. We don't have stuff like a big Safeways in Moscow, but nowadays we do have small shops where we have to queue for hours just to buy a sausage from a half-empty store , which charge really high prices." etc. Of course, capital makes a hierarchy of misery depending on where you are - but really, this superior implicitly resentful "you should be grateful for what you've got" crap has nothing to do with trying to contribute to the struggle against these false choices. I'm surprised that people are responding in all seriousness to his pathetic conservative comments. Plus the typical workerism of saying support strikes not riots and the spurious comparison with the Kurdish party political riots that have happened recently with solmething not at all in suppoort of political gangsters. Sure, there are contradictions in the support (of some of these people) for local business, but then there have always been contradictions in every struggle and he does fuck all to elucidate them and fight them (maybe I shouldn't support strikes, for example, because they have no critique of wage slavery, or not support those petit-bourgeois in the miners strike of '84-85 who supported the strike by allowing interest-free credit) .
The critique of capitalism can undoubtedly be vulgarised into a commonplace hollow formula of political rhetoric to abstractly denounce anything that doesn't conform to a narrow workerist notion of struggle, and thus serve as a defence of a very conservative ideology.Having a "critique" of the totality without starting from the specific contradictions people are forced to live (and without starting from your own contradictions) is a way of wanting to run before you can even walk.

For a look at the contradictions of the fight against the project of a supermarket construction in an area of London towards the end of the 1990s, which also says a bit about the contradictions between the petit-bourgeois and the multinationals see "Who gives a toss?", which I wrote.

Samotnaf

And now Devrim is saying how much he'd love a Tesco where he lives.

I agree with Devrim. I am forced to shop in a Sainsburys and a local corner shop due to not having a car. Having a Tesco or an Asda nearby me would save a lot of much needed money.

I wrote the Bristol AF article. From what I saw on the ground, this started because of the ridiculous overkill and belligerence of the cops. Drunks, black youth, activists and hippies were all pissed off enough with the police that as soon as someone took the initiative to tip a bin of glass bottles out in the street everyone immediately wanted to throw them at police. It became a matter of community pride; we wouldn't suffer the shame of allowing the police to do as they pleased. This occupying force, many of whom had been drafted in from Wales and elsewhere, knew the welcome they would get; many of the younger cops had wide pupils, possibly coked up. Simply, this riot was a response to a challenge from the police. The smashing up of Tesco started the first time we forced them to fully retreat; an obvious target for celebration, it being the only big business presence and everyone aware of the high profile campaign against it.

Funny how discussions of this type shape, especially given the context offered by Shitehouse as to how everything actually happened. It certainly correlates with the intermittently random, utterly chaotic and somewhat opportunistic events on the black bloc of March 26. Now folk like Devrim, the self-styled 'left' and the mainstream media attempt to decipher and unravel the innate meaning behind their actions, as if we're all critics in an art gallery staring at an abstract painting.

Maybe it's more comfortable for a left communist to move the discussion onto already familiar territory: the 'anarchist' softness for the petit bourgeoisie (ironic, considering recent events on Deptford High St lol), etc. Perhaps if we look at the grainy Youtube videos for long and hard enough, squint our eyes and attempt a pirouette on a drawing pin, we might see union members down there too? ;)

As for the workerist strawman, as a member of Solidarity Federation, I seem to spend a lot of my time arguing - or wanting to argue - that strikes don't happen in a vacuum. Do people think, say, the miners would have struck without a massive groundswell of politically dissenting sentiment (much of it expressed via rioting)?

A new supermarket in the middle of a town can have all sorts of problems. It explodes a big box of economic variables.

Tesco tried to open a shop in St Albans whilst I was coilleging there. Every household in the town raged against it. Their chief complaint wasn't so much about the sudden shock to the local economy that would be caused by the marginally lower prices, although that was an issue. They were mostly worried that the presence of a large car park with supermarket adjacent would act as a gravitational sink, dragging more cars onto the already congested road. And the increase of traffic would have made life harder for virtually everybody in the town in a hundred different ways: Time wasted commuting would increase hugely, which was a particularly vicious externality for the many people who were already spending a significant part of their life commuting to London; There's pollution, both audial and environmental; house prices fall, and so on.

So yeah, I'm all for raging against Tesco. Although I'm suspicious of the arguments about 'gentrification'.

yeah a few people have pointed out that Tesco is not necessarily connected to gentrification and shouldn't be taken as a sign of it, and I concur. Its my fault I mentioned it in passing earlier and didn't really make it clear. I don't know a lot about this part of Bristol and was just researching it today. It did seem like it was going through a process of 'gentrification' like other 'cultural' spots in other cities (Brighton Lanes, Shoreditch, Hackney, Camden etc). But as others have also pointed out, although Tesco did get the brunt of it, its not necessarily just about Tesco either. I think we have to look at all these goings on in the bigger picture now (austerity Britain), regardless of whether protest 'organizers' (I'm speaking more generally now, not just about last night) are self styled 'non-political single issue' programs.

martinh

(one reason that agriculture and food processing in the UK now needs to use illegal migrants in order to be able to operate.)

I think this is onerous. The reason that food processing uses cheap illegal labour is because it is cheap and the are trying to increase their profits. Yes, it is true that they are being squeezed, but to me this seems to imply that if they weren't being so squeezed they would not be wanting to increase their margins any way.

Devrim

Historical account mainly of the 1980 riot in St Pauls, Bristol, also in April, which I just put in the library.

Caiman del Barrio

As for the workerist strawman, as a member of Solidarity Federation, I seem to spend a lot of my time arguing - or wanting to argue - that strikes don't happen in a vacuum. Do people think, say, the miners would have struck without a massive groundswell of politically dissenting sentiment (much of it expressed via rioting)?

At the time of the start of the miners' strike the rioting was three years previous. I think that yes the miners would have struck if they hadn't happened, and I don't see much connection to be honest. The government of the time had a long term plan to defeat the miners, and had backed down from a confrontation in early 1981, before the riots when the miners were willing to strike.

I think that it is true that many miners drew analogies between the treatment they received from the state and the treatment that was dealt out in the inner cities, but I'd say that was after their communities had been attacked by the police, and not what set the strike off.

Caiman del Barrio

Maybe it's more comfortable for a left communist to move the discussion onto already familiar territory: the 'anarchist' softness for the petit bourgeoisie (ironic, considering recent events on Deptford High St lol),

I don't know what you are talking about about Deptford High Street, but I don't think that this is really my theme. I don't think that I have ever called anarchists petit-bourgeois, and I don't think that the people organising the campaign against Tesco are anarchists.

Devrim

No-one here cares that much about tescos, perhaps we might consider that increasing their monopoly/store coverage will in the long run push up prices in a period where food prices are increasing anyway, and we might aesthetcally think its a bit shit that there are a million and one tesco expresses, sometimes within less than a few minutes walk from each other. In fact a cursory glance at where tesco stores are located in Bristol for instance would show how close they all are to the site in question, not that devrim would have bothered to check this particular point obviously. Overall, however, it is a minor side issue, especially when the riot in question was clearly a fairly direct response to evictions of squats rather than some big anti-consumerism thing.

Personally i think one of the admins should bin devrims comments or at least move them, this is clearly little more than trolling. No-one here would cheerlead riots as the best thing since sliced bread. In fact i think the only person on this thread who's ever done that so uncirtically would have been devrim many years ago. Hence probably why he feels the need for this bout of tilting at strawmen,

cantdocartwheels

In fact a cursory glance at where tesco stores are located in Bristol for instance would show how close they all are to the site in question, not that devrim would have bothered to check this particular point obviously.

Actually I did.

cantdocartwheels

No-one here would cheerlead riots as the best thing since sliced bread. In fact i think the only person on this thread who's ever done that so uncirtically would have been devrim many years ago. Hence probably why he feels the need for this bout of tilting at strawmen,

I don't think so.

Devrim

Enough already about Tesco, c'mon, please.
The fact that the riot is at least partly connected to people objecting to the eviction of a squat is nice to see. I'm assuming that what got a lot of people involved was the police pushing them around, setting up roadblocks, not letting them go home/go out. But still it does imply the community supporting the squat.

We've had much less community rioting in recent years, and I think it's gonna be an important factor in the cuts. Part of how far they can push it with getting rid of services is whether there is serious community rioting or not. So this riot is a very good sign.

I was going to write a post about how 'small business' is of course no better than 'big business' and how the important thing is the fact this brought out the non-politicos, but this really sums it up nicely:

Mons

Yeah, I fucking love shopping at Tesco personally.. And like Devrim I don't think we should have a political objection to Tesco any more than we should to a local business.

I still think it's really exciting, because (and this is based on talking to friends in Bristol who aren't political at all, as well as the reports written by politico's) it really doesn't seem like it's just a load of anarchists who hate Tescos. It seems like a whole local community's against it, for whatever reason. If rioting and stuff is more normalised as a response to squatting evictions and perceived destruction of communities, then that can only be a good thing.

I think the UKUnCut stuff is good analogy. In both instances the politics are a kind of direct action liberalism. I think the role for us, as anarchists and anarchist organizations, is to be in dialog with these movement to hopefully inject some class politics into the debate. We've had some success with UnCut already and I'm sure an active anarcho-syndicalist presence in Bristol could use this an opening to begin doing proper anti-capitalist, class organizing in the city.

shitehouse

many of the younger cops had wide pupils, possibly coked up.

I've started a new thread about this because i observed something similar on march 26th
http://libcom.org/forums/general/police-using-stimulant-drugs-engaging-crowd-control-23042011

Devrim seems to be channelling the spirit of the (now thankfully absent, apart from him) ICC into his contributions to this thread. He's made a raft of grandiose statements about the Stokes Croft riots before being forced to admit his ignorance of local/national context and therefore attempted to drag the discussion into safer, more abstract ground ('anarchists being soft on the petite-bourgeoisie/why Tescos is better than local shops/riots are inherently worthless cos some of them are reactionary, etc etc').

I'd concur with Cantdo: his posts either need to be split into a new thread or binned.

At risk of making this about Tesco again:

http://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341537/Tesco-builds-7m-police-station--return-new-giant-superstore.html

Mike Harman

At risk of making this about Tesco again:

http://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341537/Tesco-builds-7m-police-station--return-new-giant-superstore.html

Let's not be squeamish about talking about the proliferation of Tesco supermarkets. Far too much latitude has been given to the idea that their proliferation is some kind of advance for 'the working class', as some kind of 'proletarian' sideswipe (however tongue-in-cheek) at annoying middle-class ethical shoppers. Ultimately, the expansion of Tesco and other institutions of its kind (symptomatic of vaster processes) will not be stopped by us all exercising 'consumer choice' and opting for 'ethical consumption'. But prattish comments about Tesco being a 'cheap' godsend for 'the class' substitutes any discussion about 'what's going on' with a political perspective that equates increased efficiency in the accumulation of capital with serving the interests of the working class - forward to the ICC's Labour Republic, with a 'communised' Tesco Express on every corner!

I think people are underplaying the role of the squat and other projects in the area, and focusing on just the actual anti-Tesco campaign. I mean, I've seen Tescos be built in areas equivlent to Stokes Croft ('cultural area', building squatted social centre, history of riotss, active radical population living in area, 'underclass' frequented) which had an anti-Tesco campaign, die out and submit with little to no fight. So, what can we learn from this? I have my own opinions but I'll give them later.

Right, I am more interested in discussing the riot than Tesco.

Another thing that hasn't really been gone into here - there were literally thousands of people watching this unfold on twitter as it happened, and it is still being discussed on there at some length (if you can discuss things at length on twitter). Most of that discussion is overwhelmingly supportive, I don't think this would've happened until the past few months.

I don't think this would've happened until the past few months.

Yup. I followed events on twitter, ( & that person tweeting as @SuptIanWylie is certainly on something). So far as I'm concerned, on Thursday night/Friday morning Bristolians decided to stand up & fight back instead of rolling over & allowing themselves to be shagged stupid and so far as I'm concerned they won.

At a much lesser level, we, (the Newcastle left), defended the Monument against the EDL/infidels again today. As they marched away into oblivion, no words were necessary; you could see it by the light in comrades' eyes; in the body language of the young people with the black & red flags.

Confidence, confidence, confidence.

Who knows, if we carry on like this, it might spill over into the organised labour movement?

I agree, the riot is more interesting than Tesco.

Just to give a brief context of Telepathic Heights, the squat in question. Has been squatted by various groups for years, the last owner had a possession order this time last year but then allowed people to stay while he fort a compulsory purchase order from the council. More than likely the council wanted to buy this head-to-toe muraled building as it's possibly too close to the new yuppie apartments and Tesco across the road. Also this time last year, a person wanted by the police evaded arrest by remaining on the roof for two months, injuring a few cops and taunting the security on the roof of the would be Tesco building - this is why Tesco link this building with the campaign against them. Council have possession order. Bailiffs came to evict day previous to riot night but couldn't.

Squatters in Bristol have an eviction phone tree; so as soon as riot police arrived it wasn't long before a good proportion of the squatters and anarchos were on their way. The removal of the Tesco picket had also put student activists and other politicos on alert. The police numbers, welsh police vans (a strange sight in Bristol) and the closing of a main road on a busy night meant a crowd of people from the bars and cafes and local residents soon gathered. The OTT numbers of police and their behaviour got people riled up and with the smallest of nudges bottles were being flung. The retreat into St Pauls was slightly deliberate in that I think it was known the local kids would come out have a look and revel in the chance to chuck stuff at police, which they did. From then on the main focus was attacking the police. Until they fucked off, at which point anti-Tesco sentiment from some and the promise of free fags for others (no booze, Tesco didn't get granted an alcohol licence) meant Tesco got it.

Many different people were there for many different reasons but the one thing that united everyone was hatred of the police.

Wellclose Square

Mike Harman

At risk of making this about Tesco again:

http://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341537/Tesco-builds-7m-police-station--return-new-giant-superstore.html

But prattish comments about Tesco being a 'cheap' godsend for 'the class'

No one said it was a godsend but it is one of the cheaper supermarkets. Are you saying that food prices are a complete irrelevance to the working class?

argh guys, jesus christ, enough with debating the bloody relative merits of cheap bloody fish fingers. They are dogs and they deserve everything they get, union busting, worker exploiting, filthy dirty monopoly capitalist dogs! they have wreaked havoc across the world with their dirty ways. If you really want to play this game, then no, food 'prices' should not be relevant for class politics. We should be pushing for a whole new way of organizing food production and distribution, not the cheapest is the best! If the best we can offer between Tesco and petit-bourg. is bloody cheap value chopped tomatoes, then we got to get more imaginative. but as people have been pointing out time and again, if you want a thread about Tesco, go make one! Then we can go Troll the shit out of it.

What is at issue here is the police being totally over the top, and the local community, feeling alienated by the government and their riot police cronies, fought back. Then smashed up a Tesco for good measure.

It looks to me like the reaction from local people took the police and the media by surprise and that as many posters have said, the main issue here is indeed a deep resentment of the police, not Tescos.

Excellent sum-up Shitehouse, and I feel Arbeitan's pain.

It feels fucking electric here. Really has reached the mainstream, people talking about it on the bus and shit. A lot of support, majority seems not to believe the police version, and the stories of people getting hit trying to get through cop lines to their house are leading people to draw the obvious Tomlinson parallels.

The local Northcliffe rag is obviously biased. Compare their account of local MP:

"MP Kerry McCarthy, whose constituency is elsewhere in Bristol, also decided to go down to the riots after finding out about them.
She said: "In many ways there was a typical Stokes Croft atmosphere. There was someone playing a saxophone on a bus shelter, someone playing the bongos and people walking around with lampshades on their heads, but then it got nasty. It seemed a bit heavy handed.
"There were some people who were behaving like idiots and were putting people in a potentially dangerous position and some of those were quite drunk.
"But there's no excuse for throwing big lumps of concrete and bottles.
"It was a small group of people who were throwing things and they were pretty young people from what I saw."

With what the BBC reports she said:
Labour MP for Bristol East Kerry McCarthy visited the scene in the early hours of Friday after reading reports of the disturbances on Twitter.
"I do question why the police op was carried out last night in an area full of bars where a lot of people were out drinking," she said.
"It didn't seem to be a particularly sensible time to carry out an eviction of a squat that's been there for a long time."
Ms McCarthy said she had been watching from an empty patch of land.Three police officers in riot gear passed us by and one of them shoved me out the way, there was absolutely no reason for that, they could have quite easily walked by.
"Earlier it had been a very 'Stokes Crofts atmosphere' with people playing musical instruments.
"At one stage people laid down bikes and sat down in the road and the police steamed in pulling everyone out the way and dogs were used.
"There were people being pulled up and roughly treated.
"On the other hand I saw people throwing bricks and bottles at the police and trashing a police car which is obviously very unacceptable," she added.

PRSC have 'outed' themselves on Radio 4,

http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/704212

so, good that we've got some clear water between 'us' and 'them', as they are a fucking liability in my opinion. They obviously started out well, and there's some good people in there (Chris Chalkley's put his money where his mouth is) but there's a lot of middle-class-mid-life-crisis-types in there who love The Cause (especially when it ended in glorious defeat so cleanly and left them available to join the next bandwagon).

It was these 'activist careerists' who i feel generated the anti-PRSC backlash from some of the old Stokes Croft residents, that you can't deny is there. I don't think they feel the same about the squatters and anarchos tho (or maybe even the gentrifiers who cultivate the Hamilton House arthouse chic). Stokes Croft has always been a 'street drinking zone' and its a lot safer for residents now than it was. The squats down there (smiling chair, classics, pink house motorbike place etc) have all worked hard on their PR and avoided parasitsim. The Hamilton Housers are bringing in lots of money. Its the old Gentrification Split - if you rent or squat you fucking hate it, if you own a house or business you fucking love it.

Obviously Grosvener-Road-side St Pauls is firmly anti-police, and always will be.

Still don't know whats going to happen, or if anything is going to happen. How its playing in wider Bristol is anyones guess. The Anarchist Bookfair (held in Stokes Croft) is now 2 weeks away. Electric.

Telepathic Heights squatters deny having anything to do with the Anti-Tesco campaign:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/23/bristol-squatters-tesco-attack-petrol-claims

Hey all,
I completely missed this thread on the Stokes Croft riot! I was there till about 3am and this is the personal report: http://thecommune.co.uk/2011/04/22/the-first-funky-riot-in-bristol/. I find Devrim's questions and reasoning absolutely all right, no need slagging off. There is a lot of anger against gentrification in the community, which increases the prices and rents. I think the campaign against Tesco bought into this basically working class sentiment and to some extent mixed up the issues. The fight against gentrification has been substituted by the fight against Tesco, with the central slogan being 'No Tesco in our unique area!' The campaign was/is basically middle-class and localist. If you are not on much money, then yes, as Devrim said, you are looking for the cheapest food. That's how I ended up shopping in the big Tesco in Eastville, although it's miles away from St. Pauls where I live. However, the new Tesco on Stokes Croft is a different case, it's not cheaper than local shops, because it's the small Tesco Express. So I won't go there. I don't think it matters much where you or me buy your bread, certainly not from a class struggle perspective. Let's tolerate personal judgements and don't moralize too much... NOW, much more important thing about the riot is that we were in it for many different reasons, as mentioned in the report on the Commune web. Really, the slogan I could hear most was Whose streets, our streets!, most people were just pissed off by the cops in full riot gear blocking the road with popular pubs and bars. That's why so many straight looking people joined in, as you can see on this cool dubstep version of the events:

Another important thing is that the number of rioters was much bigger than the 300 mentioned by the press. If you add to the hundreds on Stokes Croft the numbers fighting on Brigstocke rd and the people trying to get out from the kettle on Ninetree Hill, you end with 600-700 ACTIVE participants, easily!
This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LizWf6Gc_s), it's first seconds, show a brief glimpse to Brigstocke rd, you can see one burning barricade and another one is just about on fire, people shouting Whose streets, Our streets! Later on, you can another group of participants trying to build barricade with bikes, showering the police vans with stones bottles from Ninetree hill, that was heavy and a few bottles flew over the vans onto the road, nearly hitting people. This video is extremely important koz it shows other terrain than just around Tesco's where most cameras were focused.
And this video (nice dustep remix by a st. pauls guy) is good becoz you can see that many rioters were 'normal' people, no masks etc. and how they were beaten up anyway...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7qeY3tEeKk

In Against Beyond

Hey all,
I completely missed this thread on the Stokes Croft riot! I was there till about 3am and this is the personal report: http://thecommune.co.uk/2011/04/22/the-first-funky-riot-in-bristol/. I find Devrim's questions and reasoning absolutely all right, no need slagging off. There is a lot of anger against gentrification in the community, which increases the prices and rents. I think the campaign against Tesco bought into this basically working class sentiment and to some extent mixed up the issues. The fight against gentrification has been substituted by the fight against Tesco, with the central slogan being 'No Tesco in our unique area!' The campaign was/is basically middle-class and localist. If you are not on much money, then yes, as Devrim said, you are looking for the cheapest food. That's how I ended up shopping in the big Tesco in Eastville, although it's miles away from St. Pauls where I live. However, the new Tesco on Stokes Croft is a different case, it's not cheaper than local shops, because it's the small Tesco Express. So I won't go there. I don't think it matters much where you or me buy your bread, certainly not from a class struggle perspective. Let's tolerate personal judgements and don't moralize too much... NOW, much more important thing about the riot is that we were in it for many different reasons, as mentioned in the report on the Commune web. Really, the slogan I could hear most was Whose streets, our streets!, most people were just pissed off by the cops in full riot gear blocking the road with popular pubs and bars. That's why so many straight looking people joined in, as you can see on this cool dubstep version of the events:

Another important thing is that the number of rioters was much bigger than the 300 mentioned by the press. If you add to the hundreds on Stokes Croft the numbers fighting on Brigstocke rd and the people trying to get out from the kettle on Ninetree Hill, you end with 600-700 ACTIVE participants, easily!
This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LizWf6Gc_s), it's first seconds, show a brief glimpse to Brigstocke rd, you can see one burning barricade and another one is just about on fire, people shouting Whose streets, Our streets! Later on, you can another group of participants trying to build barricade with bikes, showering the police vans with stones bottles from Ninetree hill, that was heavy and a few bottles flew over the vans onto the road, nearly hitting people. This video is extremely important koz it shows other terrain than just around Tesco's where most cameras were focused.
And this video (nice dustep remix by a st. pauls guy) is good becoz you can see that many rioters were 'normal' people, no masks etc. and how they were beaten up anyway...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7qeY3tEeKk

good post

Agree with In Against Beyond, and those are some good videos. Just wanted to say that it wasn't a kettle on Nine Tree Hill. I got a call from someone up there and he thought they were outside a kettle that was on Stokes Croft. Transpired no-one was in a kettle and the police were just surrounded. While they were trying to beat people out the way of their vans, the vans were getting constantly pelted from the side.

Looks like 'Tesco security' (Blackwater? Executive Outcomes? Control Risks? Aegis?...?) were keen to mix it with the locals ('street scum', apparently):

http://dru-withoutamap.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-many-petrol-bombs.html?spref=tw

As other people have said, this was primarily an anti-police riot, & I think that's significant & good. Squatters & anarchos went along because they heard it was a squat eviction- Telepathic Heights had been due to be evicted the day before. A lot of other people people trying to work out what was going on over the night thought the police presence was something to do with Tescos, but it was pretty clear that what sparked all the action was the cops rather than Tescos. Though when the opportunity came to attack & loot Tescos, it was certainly taken.

Also as others have said, there were hundreds of people - well more than the 300 reported, & far more than the usual suspects. People from the street & all of the pubs in the area were joining in & calling up their mates, people saw the helicopter & came out to see what was going on. Up Ashley Rd especially, a more residential area in St Pauls, families & people in dressing gowns were coming out of their houses to see what was going on & there was a general atmosphere of approval. People are talking about it all over town & the snippets of conversation I've overheard are all against the police.

I think the question of the anti-Tescos campaign is winteresting. To her credit, the spokesperson for the campaign did what I think is a textbook example of a liberal campaign not fucking up when asked to "condemn the violence".

Ms Milne told the Evening Post: "The reality is that the council and Tesco knew this was going to happen. It was inevitable.

"For months, we have been saying to the council and Tesco that we were worried. In our community there are people who will break the law if their voices are not being listened to." [...]

Asked about the damage inflicted on the store, Ms Milne said: "I do not condone any violence or aggression to a human being and it's certainly not an approach I would take myself – to damage a building. Then again, I do not condemn the damage that has been done to Tesco, because I believe the damage Tesco causes across the world is far huger than the damage to one store in Bristol."

I also think the fact that that there's widespread opposition to the Tescos - on top of the anti-police sentiment - has increased support for the rioters & that's going to be helpful when the inevitable arrests of some of the people who joined in without masking up get nicked. Two people charged on the night are still locked up.

I think the Tescos is a factor in gentrification, if only through normalising the area. On the other hand, I think aspects of the No Tesco In Stokes Croft campaign are also part of gentrification - the whole promotion of the area as a 'cultural'/'bohemian' quarter, all PRSC/Chalkly's talk of 'regeneration; & so on. But I also think what's driving a lot of the opposition to the store is a vaguely anti-authoritarian resentment at not being listened to - of being blatantly ignored & not having control over what happens to your environment.

There's been a strong police presence the last couple of nights. It will be interesting to see what happens next - especially as one of the political squats just down the road, the Free Shop/Emporium has an eviction warrant that comes into effect May 5.

Thank Shithouse for the correction... thanks princess mob, good post. I went for a walk Friday night and met a group of young lads from Lockleaze (which is miles away!), who came down to Stokes Croft looking for another kickoff :-)
And I didn't know about the eviction notice for Emporium... hmm... Looks like a hot spring: Clegg is coming to Bristol on Tuesday, there is a facebook call for a street party outside the squat on Thursday, then Emporium on the 5th and the bookfair is the following day! :-)
oleg

Interesting post, princess mob.

There's been a strong police presence the last couple of nights. It will be interesting to see what happens next - especially as one of the political squats just down the road, the Free Shop/Emporium has an eviction warrant that comes into effect May 5.

What have the cops been doing since Thursday night? Just being there in higher numbers or getting heavy? Certainly can't see the State just accepting defeat like that - I'd guess they're going to up the stakes somehow, but how, without biting off more than they can chew?(those stakes could be very raw and bloody) Or will they just attempt evictions when they're least expected? And clearly when they re-open Tescos (they'll certainly not allow a "closing down sale") they'll be expecting trouble, so it could be a strange re-opening, if only because the chances are there'll be massive amounts of cops round the supermarket: might look about as ridiculous as the cops protecting that Christmas tree in December 2008 in Athens.

A lot earlier in this thread I questioned whether this was a riot, but I'd only seen one video. I compared it unfavorably with 1980. But clearly it was a riot, and I didn't intend to sound dismissive - but also clearly it was different from 1980: for one thing in 1980 there'd been half a million £s worth of damage, considerably more in today's money. And yet, despite the greater fury (then there had been molotovs) the immediate situation did not bring "victory" in the way that Thursday night was a victory given they failed to evict. However, 1980 was also eventually a victory at this level (certainly not the only way something like this should be seen as a success or failure): all those arrested in '80 were eventually acquitted; I suspect the jury was selected locally - does the legal system still have to do that? In 1980 small shops got looted - but with the increasing proletarianisation of the petit-bourgeoisie and increasing amounts of the working class having to survive by what traditionally might be classified as "petit-bourgeois" forms of survival, there's been a significant shift in attitude: looting the small shops is increasingly seen as taboo. Also the culture of resistance that developed particularly strongly following '68/'69 in the UK, and especially amongst blacks after the '76, and subsequent, Notting Hill carnival riots, seems to have been in virtual limbo, or at least at a very low level, for about 20 years up until Millbank, as far as I can see. Quite how these differences effect the current situation is hard to gauge, but I'd guess people are a lot more hesitant about getting heavier (and in the case of Thursday night, they didn't need to, but in future they almost certainly will). Of course, comparing with over 30 years ago is probably the furthest thing in the minds of this new generation, but, given that history is something that gives pointers to the future, this new generation - if it is to make the progress needed to have a chance of winning, is going to have to partly reflect on the past in order to understand its strengths and not repeat its weaknesses.
Obviously I'm saying all this without knowing the discussions and atmosphere in Bristol and elsewhere in the UK about this riot, but from my far-away position, I thought these points might be worth reflecting and elaborating on a bit.

Btw, Special Branch looking for the Mastermind behind this attack on the State need look no further than the royal wedding thread, where, precisely 5 days before the riot, a mysterious GingerAnarchist1992 openly talked about

creating little zones where people break with state dominance and begin to take over workplaces, expropriating tescos

What have the cops been doing since Thursday night? Just being there in higher numbers or getting heavy?

To the best of my knowledge just standing round in groups being a bit nervous, & driving vans around. Basically, it seems trying to stop what In Against Beyond described, of people coming from other areas/out of town looking for something, turning into anything. While trying not to provoke anything.
Yesterday there were two cops guarding the boarded up Tescos. Three guys walked past & were like "You think you're actually going to be able to do anything? You think two of you will be much good if people want to try something?"

Also, one of my favourite stories: a friend said that on Friday one of the offies in St Pauls was playing its cctv footage from Thursday night of the street outside on a loop on their big tv in the shop.

Samotnaf

But clearly it was a riot, and I didn't intend to sound dismissive - but also clearly it was different from 1980

Sorry, but you were really dismissive, and especially Caiman, not about the riot itself, but to anything Devrim said. I read libcom stuff for years, but I haven't read the discussion threads before. But what a difference, the front page and archive is so great and informative, maybe the best one can find... then you venture onto the forum and find so much bitching and personal offense. Where's the comradeship for fuck sake?! After someone asks 'whats wrong with tesco?' and Where is the working class politics in anti-Tesco campaign? just look how much venom you vented on them, including calls for censoring them?! Sad stuff sad... The good thing about it is that the people who actually were there that night didn't join this campaign and we were able to discuss the details and inform each other. Hope this healthy side to libcom will grow. Happy Easter comrades!

In Against Beyond:
You're using my post, a post which doesn't mention Devrim at all, to attack me and everybody else who had a go at Devrim, and to automatically lump me in with them (I didn't call for him to be censored, though you'd understand why someone did if you'd seen something of the history of the ICC here, if you'd seen how much, and in what manner, the ICC invades these forums). And you address nothing in what i wrote in that post but, making a spurious connection with my "didn't intend to sound dismissive", try to smuggle in my and others' attitudes towards D as a pretext to defend him.
In fact, I took Devrim's comments as a dismissal of the riot since he never said anything other than criticise the anti-Tesco thing. And given the past tendencies of his organisation to oppose rioting and looting, he came over as arrogant and superior. Devrim has, at best, with extremely rare exceptions, only the obvious to say and , at worst - in this thread for example - sounded like an apologist for the multinationals because "they're cheap" (for the moment only: as soon as the petit-bourgeoisie are wiped out, prices tend to rise).

Don't consider him, or Bolsheviks like him, a comrade at all. You seem to want to be "comradely" towards him but "uncomradely" towards anybody who criticised his superficial comments. It's hardly "bitching" on either side - it's a clash between shallow dogma used like a sledgehammer and a struggle to grasp the nuances of a situation.

I know this is kind of a de-rail, but I need to defend myself.

In Against Beyond, can i suggest you look again through this thread, there has been numerous posts trying to stop this mindless bickering over Tesco, I think everybody realized it de-railed the conversation. In any case, it was decided pretty early on that this wasn't an anti-Tesco debacle, but nobody was going to shed any tears over Tesco and their cheap shit produce either. If you really want to talk about Tesco and class politics, start another thread. Before starting that thread, I suggest you search in Google 'Tesco union busting' or 'Tesco third world labour exploitation'. There is certainly reasons to hate on Tesco, but sure no more than any other multinational. But look, it was the only multinational on the god damn street (and the only shop that got trashed), sure we can question the *tactical* relevance of trashing a Tesco to further class politics, but it is definitely involved in global systems of labour exploitation, it doesn't get that cheap food from nowhere. Buy one get one free doesnt just fall from the heavens. It's a legitimate target for abuse, and I stick by it, it is more relevant than the local green grocer to class politics (though they are both implicated in capitalism for sure). It's pretty uncomrade-ish to assume if your against Tesco than your advocating the petit-bourgeoisie (though i never would have suggested anyone read that Tescopoly book which basically advocates a public private partnership with Tesco), and its completely abstract from any tactical analysis. Don't be angry at Tesco, you might inadvertently help a petit-bourg.

nuff respect to the rioters.

altho there was obviously the whole 'support local businesses not Tescos' aspect to the particular campaign, it obviously had larger dimensions than that. as anarchists it makes sense not to turn up our noses because the particular struggle is not explicitly stating a rejecting of capitalism as a whole or whatever.... the context of this is capital homogenising the areas we live and a negative reaction to this is natural. altho it can take conservative aspects (e.g. supporting local businesses) the same could be said of many social struggles against the implementation of the various plans of businesses + government. and as others have said, Tesco wasn't the issue, it was the attempted eviction of the squat and police invasion of the area that kicked shit off. its just a cherry on the cake that the Tescos got done after all...

anyway, heres some haikus from the USA:

In some hoods they'll cum
if the banks and chains are smashed,
but not mom n pop.

and tell people why.
Other days just smash the big
motherfuckers. Word?

Samotnaf

In 1980 small shops got looted - but with the increasing proletarianisation of the petit-bourgeoisie and increasing amounts of the working class having to survive by what traditionally might be classified as "petit-bourgeois" forms of survival, there's been a significant shift in attitude: looting the small shops is increasingly seen as taboo.

Apparently there's some difference of opinion/recollection on whether Tesco got looted or not - at least this appears not to have happened during the initial window smashing but later on and likely less people involved/watching. I have nothing to base this on, but expect that has either to do with taboos around looting, or just the fact the shutters went down the first time.

I saw a report somewhere that one local shop had a window smashed, but didn't make a note and doubt I can find it now. Sounded more like collateral damage than the place being targeted though.

Either way, I completely agree on lines being blurred on 'petit-bourgeois' the past 30 years - both in terms of the reality of working patterns, and also people's attitudes to small businesses etc. although I feel like that's less the case with retail than some other sectors.

Also the culture of resistance that developed particularly strongly following '68/'69 in the UK, and especially amongst blacks after the '76, and subsequent, Notting Hill carnival riots, seems to have been in virtual limbo, or at least at a very low level, for about 20 years up until Millbank, as far as I can see.

I don't think we have seen anything comparable since the Poll Tax, I was 9 or 10 when that happened and have no direct memories of it. Most of the people involved since November 10th are younger than me too, some half my age.

. Of course, comparing with over 30 years ago is probably the furthest thing in the minds of this new generation

This is a good time to bump http://libcom.org/forums/theory/millbank-march-26th-what-happened-07042011 - I think it would be worth trying to get that moving more - if it's an online text it can link to articles written at the time for background - and we could update it as things develop.

Outdoor screening of footage from the riot in Bristol tomorrow: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/704209

that is fast.

Arbeiten wrote: In Against Beyond, can i suggest you look again through this thread, there has been numerous posts trying to stop this mindless bickering over Tesco, I think everybody realized it de-railed the conversation. In any case, it was decided pretty early on that this wasn't an anti-Tesco debacle, but nobody was going to shed any tears over Tesco and their cheap shit produce either. If you really want to talk about Tesco and class politics, start another thread. Before starting that thread, I suggest you search in Google 'Tesco union busting' or 'Tesco third world labour exploitation'. There is certainly reasons to hate on Tesco, but sure no more than any other multinational. But look, it was the only multinational on the god damn street (and the only shop that got trashed), sure we can question the *tactical* relevance of trashing a Tesco to further class politics, but it is definitely involved in global systems of labour exploitation, it doesn't get that cheap food from nowhere. Buy one get one free doesnt just fall from the heavens. It's a legitimate target for abuse, and I stick by it, it is more relevant than the local green grocer to class politics (though they are both implicated in capitalism for sure). It's pretty uncomrade-ish to assume if your against Tesco than your advocating the petit-bourgeoisie (though i never would have suggested anyone read that Tescopoly book which basically advocates a public private partnership with Tesco), and its completely abstract from any tactical analysis. Don't be angry at Tesco, you might inadvertently help a petit-bourg.

Nice post, Arbeiten... Samotnaf's response to IAB just above was spot-on too.

Mike Harman

I saw a report somewhere that one local shop had a window smashed, but didn't make a note and doubt I can find it now. Sounded more like collateral damage than the place being targeted though.

One 'local' shop next to it, a bike shop, got its window smashed too. This might be just cos it was close, though there's resentment against it dating back to the eviction of the building that the Tescos is now in. The story I heard is that the owner helped the cops out with tools for the eviction, then when someone said to him 'no one's going to shop with you anymore', he said something like 'none of those people could afford to shop here anyway.

Front page of the local paper today - I can't find it online - is all about a planned 'peaceful protest' outside Telepathic Heights 8.30pm to 11.30 pm on Thursday.

I think this has been mentione but Tesco Local is not the same as a Tesco Supermarket. It does not have to honour any of the prices in the Ad campaigns and is noticeably more expensive and has a much smaller range. For example when I lived by one it didn't stock any cheap/own brand drinks so although the chilled juices were only 30p more than you'd normally pay (still a hefty mark up) the difference was emphasised by the lack of a lower price range. There was also a hell of a lot more packaged convenience food such as sandwiches and salad pots. It was more expensive and had a crappier range that the Somerfield it replaced. I would oppose a Tesco local in my area as it is worse than the shops it replaces (although it did have later opening hours, especially on Sunday which a city boy like myself was used to.)

Development on the arrests:

4 were put in court on Saturday. One has been conditionally discharged for obstruction of police, one charged with affray and bailed and another charged with violent disorder and remanded in custody. They've got one defendant to plead guilty to possessing a petrol bomb. He's vulnerable... Bristol police know him well and would know how to manipulate him.

Admin: edited to remove personal information about the defendant

That sounds like a pretty bad development.
thanks for telling us.

It's really not good practice to post personal comments about people facing charges, no? Can the above post please be edited?

done

argh thats a terrible development, I assumed the petrol bombs to be a red herring :-S

This comment was posted below the report on the commune site:

The link to police website that suggested the four in the squat were arrested was entirely false. No one in the squat was arrested, we were released shortly after they entered. They simply took out details and did not even question us they knew we were not envolved in any plot. One is a teacher and works for a charity,the other is an artist and has a gallery trying to promote his work,the third moved in the day the raid took place (most of the original squatter’s except for one left prior to the eviction) and i was there to visit my friend (the artist) for the party and was there for the night before i returned home,I hadn’t even heard of the Tesco protest till I arrived there a few days earlier.

an artist and has a gallery trying to promote his work

If the riot had anything to do with anger about gentrification it would have targetted this person surely?

Also, an edit to the legal: the person who pleaded guilty to possessing a petrol bomb also pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of threatening someone (a Tescos security guard) with it.

In terms of smashing/ looting big business as opposed to the petit bourgesoise I think there can be a difference, although I agree that there is no fundamental difference between them.

The poorer sections of the Petit Bourgesoise are normally just poor people who cant get a job. I think stealing/smashing the small capital they have would be wrong and also alienating to a lot of working class people. In terms of rioting as a political tactic I dont think it's as effective as strikes but it can radicalize people and offer a chance for the unemployed to disrupt the economy

In terms of rioting as a political tactic I dont think it's as effective as strikes

Depends on the situation: you can't make a blanket statement like that. For example, in Greece December 2008 the riots were very effective, and often strikes aren't. No point in making a hierarchy between one form of contestation and another: sabotaging their world takes lots of different forms, and different analyses to help them go further (and sometimes workers' struggles also involve rioting). In Bristol, as elsewhere, an essential aspect of the struggle is to link the forms of revolt of the unemployed with those of the employed, to make connections.

Socialist Worker said

A crowd on City Road chanted defiantly while holding up chain-link fencing. Three police vans rammed them.

Is this true? They would have been badly injured: how many non‑police ended up in hospital?
SW again:

people chanted anti-police and anti‑Tory slogans.
Local Labour MP Kerry McCarthy was on the scene. She said, “It was an anti-establishment protest—against capitalism and corporations, similar to what we saw in the march against the cuts in London where Starbucks and banks were targeted.”

The only slogan i heard on the videos was "Whose street? Our street!" Were there anti‑Tory slogans etc? Since the article also says

the residential squat facing it had played music in support of the protesters.

(meaning the picket of Tescos) and yet the squat has made it clear it was not part of the anti‑Tesco campaign, this seems like typical neat making‑everything‑seem‑like‑it‑all‑connects when often it doesn't.
Thinking maybe of writing something about this for a French email network, so accurate information would be useful.

Samotnaf

Socialist Worker said

A crowd on City Road chanted defiantly while holding up chain-link fencing. Three police vans rammed them.

Is this true? They would have been badly injured: how many non‑police ended up in hospital?

I imagine that pushed might be a better description. I doubt the police were driving into crowds at speed.

There's footage and reports of police vans driving through the crowds with their doors open to try to knock people as they go past. I haven't seen any other mention of the fence. There are lots of individual reports of injuries but no aggregate stats anywhere. Off the top of my head at least two people with bloody gashes from baton strikes and a broken foot.

Samotnaf said:Don't consider him, or Bolsheviks like him, a comrade at all. You seem to want to be "comradely" towards him but "uncomradely" towards anybody who criticised his superficial comments. It's hardly "bitching" on either side - it's a clash between shallow dogma used like a sledgehammer and a struggle to grasp the nuances of a situation.'

I thought Devrim was actually trying to sort out the 'nuances' to see if there was anything in this riot of a usefully working class nature. Isn't that what we all want confirmation of? Who gives a fuck about Tesco, who gives a fuck about riots for the sake of rioting, who gives a fuck about 'gentrification' or about the tarting up of previously working class areas? In so far as the riot shows how much anger and resentment there is against the capitalist regime, and in so far as the over-reaction of the police shows how scared our rulers are (perhaps the police were rehearsing for bigger events like what's happening in Syria) then trying to analyze what took place beneath all the fury is good. And doesn't make somebody a bolshevik, a dogmatist or even superficial. Class struggle can't just be a mindless activity, it has to begin to know what it's doing. So comradely criticism helps.

KingLear:

who gives a fuck about 'gentrification'

Clearly you don't; in fact, your dismissive and ignorant attitude seems to imply you don't even think it exists: hence the inverted commas you put round the word. But perhaps those working class people who live in the gentrified area do give a fuck. It not only means a more conservative cuture divides and polices the area, it also usually means prices go up (in bars, for instance), rental prices rise and people have to leave the area, the whole atmosphere changes as the middle class move in and the more proletarianised sections of the population feel even more invaded by all sorts of mediocre aesthetic rubbish.

The riots and class violence of 1986 were in part a response to gentrification following, and part of Capital's attempts to deal with, the '81 riots. Take this, for example (info taken from a hardly distributed BMBlob text about the '86 riots):

In 1986, "The Railway Tavern" in West End Lane, Kilburn (a former local which I used to go to as a teenager), having been renamed "Railways" after a chic refurbishing a couple of years previously, was the scene of a wild wrecking party ending in a big punch‑up early Saturday morning, 20th September '86 which was very different from the usual Friday night senseless inter‑gang knife‑fighting. The pub had expanded to become one of the largest weekend late night venues in North West London. At week‑ends over two quid was charged at the door even if you only wanted to down a pint, and the attitude of management became more and more intolerant as the number of barred ready‑for‑a‑go locals grew in number. Off‑duty American marines were employed as bouncers, their stylish clean‑cut violence complimenting the pub's ruthless chic management (perhaps similar to Tescos security guards sneering at Stoke Croft's local "scum" and wanting to sweep them off the streets to defend their notion of themselves as "normal"), their provocative expulsions of local working class teenagers finally proving too much that night. The locals got together, smashed up the pub and then went for the marines. Not one single arrest was made. Capital's colonisation and fragmentation of pub life is a fundamental aspect of gentrification (see, for instance, "Last Orders for the Local").

As for the use of art as a fundamental aspect of gentrification, sadly this riot in Bristol seems to have ignored this. In '86 there were occasional attacks on artistic invasion. For instance, artists and staff belonging to the avant garde Air Gallery in collaboration with Islington's "socialist" council (at that time Margaret Hodge was considered a Trot) set up an open air exhibition of ready‑made junk sculpture on a bit of green sace used by the tenants of the council‑owned Hartnoll estate. Since they were civilising the natives with culture, the tenants weren't soft‑soaped by being asked for their consent (perhaps a bit like the Deptford ex‑job centre that was about to be turned into an art gallery "for the community" before it was squatted in March by locals against the cuts...?). As a result artists were sometimes roughed up by the estate's residents for nicking tenants' space and the oh‑so‑original tower of used tyres and washing machines presented as art was attacked. And when finally, the sculpture was taken away, the People's Republic of Islington had an office block built on the green space. First the artists, then the property developers.

Bit of a detour from the riot, but, considering the excessive tolerance for artistic gentrification there seems to be in Stokes Croft, I though I'd try to stir it up a bit.

As for Devrim's "nuances", KingLear, I find his

I would love it if they built a Tesco on my street.

ever so slightly lacking in subtlety. In fact, despite his criticisms of me, and his defence of Devrim, In Against Beyond's earlier post on Tescos covered far more of the contradictions viv‑a‑vis big business and small business than Devrim even hinted at ‑ eg D said about the petit bourgeoises

I dislike them more than I dislike the big corporations

Dame Shirley is undoubtedly grateful for his support.

Clearly "There's no business like no business" but let's look at the differences. This, from a text about the proposal to build a Sainsbury's in Hornsey, North London, in 1998, says something about these contradictions:

Sainsbury started small. Small is not necessarily beautiful: it's not size but what you do with it that counts. Sure, lots of small shops tend to make an area a bit friendlier and less anonymous than ones where big stores dominate. Generally speaking, you can talk to a small shopkeeper far more easily than a harassed check-out assistant. On the other hand, the pay for wage-slaves in small shops tends to be lower than that in supermarkets, and the cost of the goods tends to be higher, though this is sometimes mitigated by the fact that regulars may get a bit of a reduction in the cost and may get goods on tick. And small shops tend to treat shoplifters better than the big stores - they’re a lot less inclined to call the cops if they catch you - I've even seen a shopkeeper in the area letting a poor woman nick a can of beer, just telling her not to do it again, whilst letting her keep it - impossible in a supermarket. What's more, a lot of small shopkeepers have been forced into self-employment by this shit system, and, were there to be a movement against it, some would possibly support it. However, because of their social relations - most of them being small-time employers paying a pittance to a wage-slave - they can never imagine things beyond the mad abstract rules of this society - commodity exchange, buying and selling etc. For them a small supermarket in the area poses no problem: they're not especially concerned about the extra fumes, noise and danger to their kids - all they're mostly bothered with is the chance of extra punters and profits for their business, That's one extra reason why an uprising involving mass looting has rarely spared the small shops, even if the big stores offered the richer pickings.

I know this has gone off the topic of the riot, but the heading is also about Tescos so it's kind of inevitable that such things come up.

Samotnaf

an artist and has a gallery trying to promote his work

If the riot had anything to do with anger about gentrification it would have targetted this person surely?

Not necessarily, if you accept the premise of my earlier post that gentrification happens in waves, and http://libcom.org/library/occupation-art-gentrification which I just rread says more or less the same thing, then it is quite possible for the earlier waves to end up resisting the latter ones

My impression of attitudes to gentrification in Stokes Croft from discussions and reports (I've never been to Bristol) is that a lot of people want to see it frozen at a particular level of gentrification (i.e. 'unique' stuff like independent shops, political squats, bars, possibly the odd gallery, but not property developers, estate agents and chain stores). Many of the people initially involved in the riot were people out drinking in the bars and local anarchists summoned by a phone tree (and presumably trots and left liberals not just anarchists) - the black youths from St. Pauls only really got involved once the rioters were pushed to (or intentionally retreated towards) St. Pauls - when things were already running.

If we accept this rough stages/waves approach to gentrification, then I think it'd be fair to say that the radical political culture of the area is also a part of this. The area apparently has several squats other than Telepathic Heights, including political squats - http://www.kebelecoop.org/ looks like it's just the other side of St. Pauls from Stokes Croft (someone correct me if the geography is wrong), also http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/692792 in St. Pauls - these two from a couple of minutes googling.

There's a lot of variation between social centres and I have no idea what the ones in Bristol are like obviously, but they usually tread a line between meeting spaces for political groups, sometimes 'cultural' stuff like gigs and film screenings (and the films might be political showings, or arty). Either way, the presence of stuff like that, and the anarchist bookfair that will be happening in or near Stokes Croft next week, there's every reason why that might attract artists to live in the area as well (artists may or may not also have radical politics, and it makes the area more 'interesting' than it would be without).

So by the logic that the rioters should be targeting an arty squatter if they're opposed to gentrification. Then they should also be targeting all the anarchists and assorted lefties who might in some way be associated with social centres or attend the Bristol anarchist bookfair next week - since in the case of Stokes Croft it looks like they might be at the thinner end of the gentrification wedge than artists.

If the above in some way matches reality (and it definitely does in Hackney and some other places), then by your logic, each wave of gentrifiers in the area ought to be targeted by the former when there's a riot.

That ends up looking like this:

- white working class vs. immigrant working class
- white + (possibly 2nd/3rd generation so no longer) immigrant working class against squatters and poltiicos.
- all of the above vs. artists and squatters (Kevin Keating style)
- all of the above vs. small business/shop owners (including gallery owners)
- all of the above vs. Tesco/Estate Agents/Property developers/'Young professionals'

This more or less fits in with what actually happened last week - the area has gentrified to the small business/art stage, and many of the people involved apparently want to freeze the process at that point - i.e. no chain stores, no property developers, no estate agents - but they're fine with what's already there more or less. So you have some unification of all those different social groups, including ones that are actively involved in gentrifying it (consciously or unconsciously) against the next stage (the first one that absolutely has to be backed via a large concentration of capital in this case). I don't know if any of the small shop owners got involved, I doubt it, but like you said earlier there is probably a lot more hesitance to target these than there might've been 30 years ago, since things have changed a lot.

But it doesn't really make sense to me to say that an anti-gentrification riot should target this squatter/artist person - we don't even know if they're a full time artist, they could well have day job and do stuff on the side. By the same logic the rioters should also have targetted all the local anarchists - except by accounts they would have had to stand there punching themselves in the face or evicted the squat (and others in that area) themselves.

So that means working class immigrants by the original white working class, then poltiicals and squatters by the black working class (and white working class), then artists by the politicals and squatters (a la Kevin Keating), then small shop owners (which would include galleries) by the artists

Samotnaf

Devrim even hinted at ‑ eg D said about the petit bourgeoises

I dislike them more than I dislike the big corporations

Dame Shirley is undoubtedly grateful for his support.

What I actually said was:

Devrim

On a personal level I dislike them more than I dislike the big corporations, which are sort of faceless, and doesn't provoke the same sort of personal dislike.

Devrim

Mike Harman

There's footage and reports of police vans driving through the crowds with their doors open to try to knock people as they go past. I haven't seen any other mention of the fence. There are lots of individual reports of injuries but no aggregate stats anywhere. Off the top of my head at least two people with bloody gashes from baton strikes and a broken foot.

They don't normally drive at crowds except from a distance. Shouldn't really be surprised at the police behaving like that.

There's nothing like a good riot! Earlier on this thread Samotnaf refers to 'the culture of resistance' in the UK as having started in 1968, being taken further at the Notting Hill Carnival in 1976, was a triumph in 1980 when small shops were looted but those arrested got acquitted, attacked gentrification when a pub got smashed in '86, but disappeared from view till it's resurrection at Millbank last year. But he's worried about the future of rioting in the hands of the new generation. Will they learn the lessons gained over 30 years ago?.He says: If the new generation 'is to make the progress needed to have a chance of winning, (it) is going to have to partly reflect on the past in order to understand it's strengths and not repeat it's weaknesses.' This is good stuff. Reflecting on past struggles is one way the working class develops it's consciousness in the fight against capital. Unfortunately however, Samotnaf is really only talking about the culture of rioting, and only as this culture is practiced in the UK. No internationalism for him! And when he talks about young people having 'a chance of winning', winning what exactly? The prize for the most valuable loot, or the prize for most buildings burned down? Please Samontaf you have to grasp that gentrification, Tesco, rising prices, unemployment and chic pubs, are all aspects of capitalism. Gentrification is nauseas but it's only a symptom. The disease is Capitalism. So while the police are able to practice and refine their tactics while combatting the latest, and possibly improved, riot, all the class is doing is learning how to riot. The riot is a distraction. We need to learn how to organize ourselves beyond mere rioting, with a view to making our current rulers subservient to our wishes, and finally disposing of their world-wide crippling system of exploitation for ever.

Thanks for the lesson, KingLear. I've been such a fool. I really hadn't realised that. I'm converted. From now on, along with everyone else, I'll have to learn that I've got to reach the end of my journey before I've even started to take the first step.

Dude you should really read Samotnaf's posts more carefully before such a hyberbolic lecture....

Will it become a regular Thursday night party?Any better idea of what happened other than the tiny bit that's been posted on Twitter?
Yesterday i saw this:

This time last week, just a stone's throw from the peaceful residential area of Redland, was the biggest riot Bristol has seen in years. The Stokes Croft riot stemmed from anti-Tesco protests, which had been taking place since Tesco opened earlier in the month. One week on and police were concerned there would be a repeat of last week's violence but it seems they need worry no more.
Oliver Conner, organiser of tonight’s planned protest, told the Bristol Evening Post that he had called it off amid fears it may escalate into something other than a peaceful protest.
He said: "The amount of support for the protest was unbelievable – we hit over 650 confirmed attendees, and the number looked set to spiral. But with this great number I began to realise that the sheer scale of the protest could tip the protest from something peaceful into something unpredictable and potentially dangerous. Even though I believe that all those attending would strive to keep the peace at the protest, I believe that a strong police presence could again incite something undesirable."
The news will come as a relief to a lot of Redland residents whose main route into the city was blocked by the disorder last week. However, one Redland resident who was planning to head down to the Tesco site tonight told Redland People they were disappointed it had been called off but doubted this would deter the hundreds of people who’d signed up to the protest. Part-time sales assistant Neil Brown, 31, said: “Tesco needs to know that it is not wanted here. In an ideal world, that would be through the form of peaceful protest. But when the police are so antagonistic it easily escalates. I can’t see how the store can re-open with such animosity there. People aren’t going to shop there. They should just give up now.”
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police welcomed Mr Conner’s decision and said: “Cheltenham Road is a main arterial route in and out of the city, and we will not be allowing any gathering which threatens to cause any further significant disruption to the residents and businesses of the Stokes Croft area.”
Meanwhile, Bristol West MP Stephen Williams condemned last Thursday’s riots and said he hoped Tesco, which is still boarded up, would not give in to ‘mob rule’ and remain closed. He told the Bristol Evening Post: “I certainly think that Tesco should not be driven from one of the major highways in the city of Bristol because of their store being damaged on Thursday. That would be appalling for them as a company and would send a dreadful message to businesses in Bristol.”

From here.

Mike Harman: that whole art, gentrification and rioting question probably deserves an article of its own, but for the moment, I'll just say this:
My comment wasn't totally serious - I was being a little provocative. Well at least it provoked you into giving an interesting reply. I find though this stages idea of gentrification a bit schematic and doesn't always apply. The Angel, Islington, was one of the first working class areas in London to be gentrified (towards the end of the 60s), and I don't think it was first of all an immigrant area, and squatting only really began in '69 after gentrification had already started so it went from white working class to middle class antique store owners in one leap. Camden had a large Irish population and went from that to middle class in the early 70s (possibly Camden Lock market played a part in this). Anyway, the real discussion should be about art, artists, the contradictions of squatting (in the distant past some squatters were just doing their bohemian bit before going on to pop stardom or whatever) and the conscious use of gentrification by our enemies as a policy against rioting, though I feel this all deserves another article as i said.
Devrim:

Samotnaf wrote:
D said about the petit bourgeoises

I dislike them more than I dislike the big corporations

Dame Shirley is undoubtedly grateful for his support.

What I actually said was:
Devrim wrote:
On a personal level I dislike them more than I dislike the big corporations, which are sort of faceless, and doesn't provoke the same sort of personal dislike.
Devrim

Yes, I quoted you out of context, but the context was itself fundamentally ideological, and i was too much in a hurry to be bothered to go into details. But now I'm not. First, Tesco's is not "faceless": Shirley Porter is very high profile and has been for some time. Personally I can feel a "personal" dislike for disgusting shits like her, as I do for some other top celebrities. Secondly, although I might personally dislike various petit bourgeoises, i can also quite like some of them. And besides, there are loads of people who survive by petit bourgeois means who are utterly proletarianised (technically, the guy who committed suicide in Sidi Bouzid ‑ Mohamed Bouazizi ‑ tried to survive in what is classicly called a petit‑bourgeois manner). I suspect the vast majority of the working class feel similar feelings of like and dislike/hatred towards people they've met personally or people they only know of through the media. There are some workers who I've taken personal dislikes to, but this hardly counts as an analysis. Unless you're completely different from probably the vast majority of people, I suspect you feel the same. Which is why your comment is typically ideological ‑ you're falsifying your own experience in order to assert a hierarchical attitude, in order to oversimplify the contradictions of opposition to Tesco's. Ideology is, amongst other things, a will to separation, a will to superior put‑down or to submissive acquiescence, a refusal to struggle for one's own point of view and to struggle to recognise what you have in common with others, whereas theory is expressive of an attack on this complicit‑rivalry relation.

And Arbeiten your response to KingLear:

Dude you should really read Samotnaf's posts more carefully before such a hyberbolic lecture....

I appreciate your implied support but you're being too hard on him: he gave me a good laugh whilst I thought about his post on and off throughout the day ...

squatters have been removed now.

was there for half hour or so. pretty calm, at least a hundred police there though and about 20 vans. there were a few bricks or bits of breezeblock or something thrown off the roof. not a lot going on when i was there but looks like riot police stormed the roof and arrested everyone. fire engine turned up to remove them from the roof with the crane.

Livestream here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/telepathic-heights

Seems to be at least one person still up there but otherwise pretty quiet.

Looks like it did properly kick off again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPfhgMe1bZY

Report on Bristol Indymedia

It kicked off again last night, for sure. If anyone's still under the impression that this has all been about Tescos, this should make it even clearer that people are angry at the police as an institution, & ready to take the chance to fight back. The person who'd called the 'peaceful protest' called it off (which was the only sensible thing for him to have done). There were still a lot of people who turned out wanting to peacefully protest (against the police, maybe also about Tescos), but a lot of other people seemed to have turned out ready for something like what happened.

Policing was a lot smarter than last week. Instead of going in with complete overkill, which would have been bound to provoke an immediate reaction from everyone, they held back. Cops were really hands-off: even when half the road was taken over by a very Stokes Croft muntery street party, they just directed traffic around it & tried very hard not to provoke anything.

It took 3 or 4 hours, but eventually some people tried a very provocative march down the road towards the centre. Then the riot police & horses hiding in the side streets suddenly appeared & everyone was chased up Gloucester Road. A big bunch of St Paul's youth also appeared as soon as it got interesting.

Similar to last week there were various stand-offs of various styles happening at different side streets. There seemed to be less barricading & throwing of things – at least partly because there was less left lying around to throw. (This may have been a deliberate pre-emptive clean up, though it could also be because recycling collection was two days later this week). While some barricades were set up, there was nothing to defend them with and they were generally quickly abandoned. A group gathered on Mina road chanted 'peaceful protest' and managed to stop a horse advance by standing with hands in the air. On Jamaica street, people were breaking up & gathering together bricks & masonry, chucking them at the riot vans speeding past then running back down the hill to rearm & repeat.

Late in the night a crowd of a couple of hundred was gathered at the top of Stokes Croft in uneasy stand-off with the police. Chants of 'Cabot Circus' and 'let's take the fight to the city' went up. Police lines formed to try to stop this attempt to take the devastation out of our areas & into the corporate city. About 50 people made it to Cabot Circus. The McDonalds had some windows broken but riot police soon scattered everyone.

Running about continued until almost dawn. According to press reports, 15 people were arrested. Friday morning, as other reports have explained, riot police raided Telepathic Heights & arrested 4 squatters off the roof with help from the fire brigade. At least one supporter was also nicked outside, where Cheltenham Road was again blocked by lines of riot police.

As the new graffiti in the Easton underpass says, 'let's show these bastards what a real crisis looks like.'

Good to hear there's been at least one exhilirating street party on April 29th. Bet the media have been giving vast amounts of publicity to it.
Well, at least it got a bit of publicity here. (only available to those in the UK: can't watch it myself).

as one of my buddies on the student demos said as a line of TSG charged our crowd
"Where has all the teenage gun crime gone?!"

It feels like a defeat here. The aggressive charge by the police straight from the beginning was predictable after they had dispersed the peaceful Occasional Cinema crowd the night before. I managed to join in later, after midnight, and I saw that, unlike the first riot, no straight types were actively involved. The composition this time was more people from the scene and much more Black youth from St. Pauls. In my opinion one reason why liberal and hippie types restrained from action was the hysterical anti-mob mood whipped up after the first riot by parts of the Stokes Croft community against its riotous tendency. The indicator here could be Oli's decision to cancel the street party. Another reason might have been the frontal assault of the cops, their plan to separate 'the hard core' from the majority. If I am not wrong, the plan worked and our fault(?) was we didn't consider this enough before last Thursday.
Now, the state's retribution is painful. The squatters all evicted, thirty people arrested so far, many identified and nicked from the street yesterday. A retreat is appropriate and reflecting on what happened.
The riotous tendency achieved the maximum possible at the moment here. It opened a space for quick radical action, showing to the rest of the community with what means and how you can resist a police occupation and intimidation, even making them to fuck off. However the critical mass of the community hadn't taken up this offer and didn't join again. After last Thursday the window of opportunity has been shut. A transformation into a long term dynamics of open conflicts would be detrimental to the radical currents. The People's Republic of Stokes croft would just be happy to feed on it, selling the new 'edgy vibe' for yet more value. And at the same time the new alternative studios would be paid for by just more of our blood and more persecution against us, not the riot tourists. I suggest that we are moles and let's go where we belong to... for NOW.

Interesting comments, In Against Beyond, particularly

The People's Republic of Stokes croft would just be happy to feed on it, selling the new 'edgy vibe' for yet more value.

Do you have any precise examples of the content of

the hysterical anti-mob mood whipped up after the first riot by parts of the Stokes Croft community against its riotous tendency

What was said and done? Also what have the charges of those nicked been?

Police in Bristol have arrested and charged more people after the Stokes Croft disorder.

A 17-year-old male and a 15-year-old female have been arrested and are currently in police custody. The male suspect has been arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer, violent disorder and criminal damage. The female has been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.

Two further people have been charged and will appear at Bristol Magistrates Court this morning.

David Foster, 22, has been charged with violent disorder, racially aggravated section four of the Public Disorder Act and two offences of failing to surrender.

Gulnawaz Khan, 18, has been charged with burglary.

Police are still actively seeking others involved in the incident and continue to appeal for witnesses and information.

17yr old is alluded to be this guy

Cops can never be trusted, says Bristol riot propaganda flyer

Says the Evening Post, in an article that quotes from the poster (basically the fitwatch advice), &, in print form, reprints the poster from here.

Seems like pretty sound advice. Should be standard advice whether you have done anything or not....

Stephen Williams sounds like a normal socio-conservative gas bag. These people arn't interested in the real concerns blah, blah blah, they are interested in 'Criminal Episode', what does that even mean!?!?!

Just when the passage of time makes me forget exactly why I hate Julie Burchill so much, she reminds me:

Julie Burchill: Toytown Trots who attack shops are no better than Bullingdon Club bullies

ocelot

Just when the passage of time makes me forget exactly why I hate Julie Burchill so much, she reminds me:

Julie Burchill: Toytown Trots who attack shops are no better than Bullingdon Club bullies

cor bloody hell the first two paragraphs are literally her just building up an 'i have working class credibility' profile, to clear the way for her bullshit

Julie Burchill also slagged off the miners when Geldof launched his flagging career on the backs of the starving in Ethiopia, comparing the miners' undeserving demands to "dig deep " with the deserving poor in Africa. A punk journalist from '76 who was always arbitrairly provocative for provocativity's sake, her former journo-nihilism now just transformed into well- paid reactionary old fartism.

Does anyone find the following as ridiculous as me:

Notorious British graffiti artist Banksy has released a limited edition poster depicting a Tesco Value petrol bomb, in reference to last month's riots in Bristol...Banksy, who is believed to come from the West Country city and is famed for his satirical and biting cartoons, has produced the poster to commemorate the riots.
The new work shows a brown bottle labelled in Tesco's blue and white 'Value' colours which is stuffed with a flaming rag.
Copies of the poster will be available to buy for £5 from Bristol's Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday at 80 Hamilton House, Stokes Croft.
All proceeds garnered from the poster, which first appeared on Wednesday morning on the artist's website, will go to the People's Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC).
According to the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair website, the poster has been released "as a fundraiser for local groups in the Stokes Croft/Bristol area".
It is aimed at those "who support local art, squatting and those arrested and harassed as a result of the recent Stokes Croft disturbances".

from here.
As far as i can see (though i may have got it wrong: please correct me if I have), it looks like this:
A millionaire creates (plagiarises?) a version of something that I seem to remember already appeared in photoshop form a couple of weeks ago or so, and local anarchists combine with the more overtly reformist organisation with the Maoist-type name of "People's Republic of Stokes Croft", the ones who called off the demo on the night before the royal wedding, to support not just squatting and those arrested but also local art and, implicitly, the obnoxious Wanksy.
The virtual absence of a critique of art amongst most anarchists persistently exasperates me with its unthinking philistinism.

Samotnaf

the obnoxious Wanksy.

have you seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJY73GgkvWg ? theres a few parts
Its worth watching just to hear him talk about how he was doing Banksy for his art dissertation. :wall:

Samotnaf

Julie Burchill also slagged off the miners when Geldof launched his flagging career on the backs of the starving in Ethiopia, comparing the miners' undeserving demands to "dig deep " with the deserving poor in Africa. A punk journalist from '76 who was always arbitrairly provocative for provocativity's sake, her former journo-nihilism now just transformed into well- paid reactionary old fartism.

Does anyone find the following as ridiculous as me:

Notorious British graffiti artist Banksy has released a limited edition poster depicting a Tesco Value petrol bomb, in reference to last month's riots in Bristol...Banksy, who is believed to come from the West Country city and is famed for his satirical and biting cartoons, has produced the poster to commemorate the riots.
The new work shows a brown bottle labelled in Tesco's blue and white 'Value' colours which is stuffed with a flaming rag.
Copies of the poster will be available to buy for £5 from Bristol's Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday at 80 Hamilton House, Stokes Croft.
All proceeds garnered from the poster, which first appeared on Wednesday morning on the artist's website, will go to the People's Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC).
According to the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair website, the poster has been released "as a fundraiser for local groups in the Stokes Croft/Bristol area".
It is aimed at those "who support local art, squatting and those arrested and harassed as a result of the recent Stokes Croft disturbances".

from here.
As far as i can see (though i may have got it wrong: please correct me if I have), it looks like this:
A millionaire creates (plagiarises?) a version of something that I seem to remember already appeared in photoshop form a couple of weeks ago or so, and local anarchists combine with the more overtly reformist organisation with the Maoist-type name of "People's Republic of Stokes Croft", the ones who called off the demo on the night before the royal wedding, to support not just squatting and those arrested but also local art and, implicitly, the obnoxious Wanksy.
The virtual absence of a critique of art amongst most anarchists persistently exasperates me with its unthinking philistinism.

I don't think any anarchist related art, beside Banksy, has remotely any kind of significant cultural capital in the way that you're giving it credit for. Most 'anarchist' art that I've ever seen, especially stuff related to the squatting community, is recycled corporate logo detournement adbusting bollocks.

Yeah I agree banksy isn't great art. But isn't it a good thing for other reasons, firstly becasue it will attract people to a anarchist bookfair and secondly because it will raise money for community projects. Are the peoples republic of stokes croft a shit group or do you just dislike their name? I thought they called off the demo because of the police repression faced at other events?

Ellar

Yeah I agree banksy isn't great art. But isn't it a good thing for other reasons, firstly becasue it will attract people to a anarchist bookfair and secondly because it will raise money for community projects.

yeah that would be good, whatever works really.
maybe its just my circle of friends, but for us banksy is a running joke mainly because of the extent to which he is recuperated

I know it's deeply unfashionable of me to say so, but i really like Banksy's art and i know a lot of others in Bristol who do too.

I don't think many view him as a sell-out, more like someone who recognised that someone was going to be getting paid when he achieved notoriety, and so it may as well be him.

He's done good stuff in the past for the area and this is another example. A ton of money for the local bust fund, the bookfair and hopefully groups like Bristol Housing Action Movement (BHAM)? I class that as a 'good turn'.

I think a lot of his stuff has a spot-on, sly message, and a fuck load funnier than 'wildcat' or whateverthefuck.

Here's a bite-back at Burchill:

http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/704394

Harrison Myers

maybe its just my circle of friends, but for us banksy is a running joke mainly because of the extent to which he is recuperated

Agreed. I actually really like a lot of Banksy's stuff but yeah, his anti-gentrification work is just a massive joke now as his work actually ends up pushing house prices up! I think the same is true of a lot of 'trendy' graffiti (ATG stuff in Camden and Shoreditch, for example) but Banksy's political aspect makes it slightly more ridiculous..

Tesco store at centre of riots reopens

A Tesco Express store that was at the centre of riots in Bristol reopened yesterday.

Clashes broke out in the Stokes Croft area in April when police raided a nearby squat amid fears that the shop was to be petrol-bombed.

The store on Cheltenham Road was forced to close just six days after it opened because of the extensive damage caused in the riots in which about 300 people were involved.

Michael Kissman, head of property communications for Tesco, said: "It's looking great and we're really pleased customers are coming in and using it again."

From The Independent.

I read another article about this yesterday (or the day before?). It is a bit frustrating seeing it become so Tesco-centric again....

Samotnaf

Tesco store at centre of riots reopens

A Tesco Express store that was at the centre of riots in Bristol reopened yesterday.

Clashes broke out in the Stokes Croft area in April when police raided a nearby squat amid fears that the shop was to be petrol-bombed.

So has this become the official line for why the squat was raided, because the police "fear[ed] that the shop was to be petrol-bombed", and that people from the squat would be doing it?

Legal stuff from all this is continuing, though as far as I know - despite a front page photo parade in the local paper - there haven't been any recent arrests. There's an ongoing solidarity campaign with a webpage here.

There's an interview with "Si Lence" (nice touch) about half way thru the latest radiokebele show - on catalyst radio or go to http://radiokebele.org/

(he's talking about the Bristol Arestee Support Group, who are helping the stokes croft defendants)

Interestingly there's been an FOI request over the shut down of the facebook accounts put in,

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/suspension_of_facebook_profiles#incoming-184201

that is interesting, it's more than interesting, its concerning. You should make it into another thread though because it has nothing to do with bristol....

This is really terrible, the things people could to to their society just for their own selfish desires... You can see in a lot of reports and news that hard economy is really the reason behind this riots and looting but it’s not. What’s happening in London is different from the riots happening in Egypt, where they fight to take down their cruel administration. They crash into the stores and take those TV sets and branded clothes, or whatever they want to, just for their own damn sake and they don’t care a bit for the owner of that shop. Or anybody, for that matter. They aren’t very afraid of the police because they won’t be using any force against them who doesn’t hold a lethal weapon. I think their government must consider letting their police use a tear gas, taser guns, and rubber bullets especially at night when they can be very vulnerable, and that might also help in discouraging the rioters. It’s just sad that such a wonderful country must experience this kind of disturbances in their society.

Having said that, it’s good to hear that their government is doing everything they can to take the damage control for those shops and establishments greatly affected. They also offer relief fund (Prime minister pledges relief fund for shops hit by London riots), which will be a very big help for them. To think that the total damage of several shops throughout England is said to total more than 100 million pounds! I pray for the fast recovery of the people who suffered from the riots and pillaging in London.

Me - I say send in the army, give the bastards a dose of their own medicine - a mutinying army, that is, using tear gas and rubber bullets on the usual pillagers - those sitting in Parliament, The City, the BBC and Fleet Street. Lock 'em up and throw away the key- that'll show 'em.
But, it’s just sad that such a dreadful country isn't yet experiencing this kind of disturbance to the ruling society.
I pray that praying is seen as a deluded waste of time, that the fast recovery of the people suffering from having their lives pillaged from them by capital is a self-made recovery not granted by the Great External Authority of God, the State and the world market.

This shows how wonderful Tescos is (see the earlier arguments about Tescos): http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1456112_fury-as-salford-tesco-staff-who-fled-riots-are-told-to-make-up-lost-hours

apparently there are already 17 Tescos in Bristol. Everyone hates a new Tesco man. They undersell all the locals and are some of the most powerful greedy capitalist bastards in Britain. Not like these great hippy hotels in bristol, its almost like brighton.

I really don't understand this gentrification mentality that turns great 'cultural' sectors shit. Look at Brighton, its well shit now.