How times change....

Yesterday the Square Mile that is the City of London was in practical lockdown thanks to the various demos protesting around the G20 Summit.

Now I'm getting on a bit, but I still like a good demonstration, though I don't go on too many nowadays. At the very least, even if they're crap, it's a good photo opportunity, & I do like to take snaps of 'real' people. That is pictures with people in it, not just buildings or scenes, but humans to 'humanise' them.

So a stroll around the City yesterday would have been right down my street. Except I wasn't going to waste a whole day penned in like sheep, with no toilets or water in a small area surrounded by riot police, intent on riding roughshod over any rights people have to hold law-abiding demonstrations in this still supposedly democratic police state. And get away with it.

And that's exactly what happened around the Bank of England. I don't know what time people were 'released' from their demo, I didn't really pay much attention to the news, but it must have been at least six hours, probably a lot more. Of course 'the end justifies the means'. With the actual rampaging being minimal, & certainly nothing like the scale seen against other G20 type junkets in other countries, when they've been held there. Ignore the fact that we are in the grip of a total police state, where they can control everything we do.

Sounds a bit dramatic? Maybe? But look around you. Cameras everywhere. Plastic coppers with no power...except to stop & fine you for minor offences like smoking in the wrong place, drinking alcohol in the street, dropping a sweet wrapper, going one mile an hour over the speed limit, or half an inch onto a yellow line. Don't get me wrong, I don't drive and don't give a fuck about hte 'poor motorists', I'm merely trying to highlight how much of a police state we're in, without even thinking about it.

Another reason not to go to the demo yesterday was the amount of tossers who were on it. The middle class guilt tripping day trippers out on a protest before they cosy down to their exams & start wearing their suits & business skirts to take their rightful place as part of the establishment that their public school education has groomed them to join. Lemmings the lot of them. Let's all march on the Bank of England. Yeah! Ignoring the fact it's surrounded by narrow streets that are easy peasy for the old bill to blockade & contain. Sure you can smash few windows, daub some graffiti...but those cameras are watching. you won't get nicked today, or maybe even tomorrow, but in a couple of weeks time you're gonna get your door kicked in at dawn by two dozen of Scotland Yards finest in quasi-jackboots & you're nicked & going to jail.

Sorry, but that's not for me!

But it wasn't always like that. I've just googled it and am shocked to realise how long ago it was! a quarter of a century ago I was in my prime! I shouldn't be that surprised if I think it through logically. I was in that small adult window of my life when I liked a drink, but wasn't fully dependent on alcohol yet. I was still able to go places & demonstrate, fit & fast enough to stand & fight...or run if need be! I was checking the date of the old 'Stop The City' demonstrations, & they were in 1983 & '84, anarchist led, before they petered out, as the police got on top of them, & the courts handed down enough heavy prison sentences to deter people.

I can't remember much about those 'Stop The City' days, I think I went on two or three of the early ones, when the numbers were higher. Although not an anarchist, or any sort of 'ist', I tended to side with the hard core anarchists. For two reasons. Firstly they tended to be up for it, & but their boot or fist where their mouth was. And that's why I was there. To join in a bit of mayhem & have a laugh! But secondly, and far more importantly the anarchist types stuck out like a sore thumb! They didn't give a shit in their own individual style, so if the old bill came wading in, or had snatch squads, I was wearing ordinary jeans and a t shirt, so could briskly walk away and sort of blend in with ordinary people.

I'm remembering a really funny incident where I was wearing a white t shirt with a large black CND symbol on it, under a sports jacket. I was on my own, but there were plenty of people milling about, & just like 'greedy capitalist' supermarkets nowadays I got 'two for the price of one!' There was a couple of suits taking the piss, and as I walked past I heard one of them mutter: 'That one almost looks normal" after he clocked my t shirt. I stopped and said: "What was that?" & before he could splutter a 'shitting his pants' explanation I clumped him & went for his pal, as he backed off! But even funnier was the attempted intervention of a 'peace maaaaan!' pacifist beardy tried to stop me with a 'no violence!' wail. I'm actually making that up...I'm not sure if he had a beard! But I told him to "fuck off you mug!" & smacked him too! That's what I call 'fghting for peace!'

In another incident there were some pissed off demonstrators just standing around doing nothing, moaning about the 'lack of action'. Don't forget this was a -whisper it!-quarter of a century ago. And the old bill were still naive about crowd containment, meaning they were still pretty much clueless. So if you had half an onze of common sense you could lead them a merry dance. There whingers were some punky types, & as I was clearly in earshot next to them one tried to wind me up by exclaiming that there were 'too many CND wankers for anything to happen'. Well fuck that! I said 'come on mate, there's some shops round the corner!'. And there was. I can't remember where it was now, but there was a parade of shops. And as a result of my 'offer' seven or eight of us went for a stroll. I can't remember what shops we smashed, but we did one or two. I know one was a newsagents, and they wrecked the shop by throwing thigns around, and we put the window through. 'Demonstrating' about the exploitation of women, with them not noticing that I was actually pocketing a few of the top shelf mags to have a wank over when I got home! Yes they were straight porn, not many shops sold gay porn back then, but they still had cocks in them. Just 'ruined' by those disgusting female flappy bits! ;-)

I also remember attacking a family butchers! Why? I still remember their chant: "Human freedom, animal rights! One struggle, one fight!" as the old boy who seemed to be running the shop on his own cowered in the corner. Too frightened to use any of the big fuck cleavers he had on his side of the counter! Chickens & chops were flying all over the place as his stock was wrecked! Which I joined in with, even though I can't stand vegetables & am a proud carnivore. Always have been, always will be. As one of my favourte sayings goes: 'vegetable are what my dinner eats!' I can still see the look on his face as, during all this sixty seconds or so of total mayhem, I took a sheet of some sort of greaseproof paper, & grabed some chops, which I wrapped up in it. simply grinning at him & saying 'cheers mate!'

I'm sure I could remember a lot more if I put my mind to it. This was a period of my life when I was at my most politically active. The miners strike. Anti nazi demonstrations, when we had some real battles with the National Front. Coming off worse on more than one occasion, but usualyy being well on top. Printworkers strikes, shipyard strikes. Have a picket line & I would travel. It really was a mental period of my life.

If I sat down & put my thinking cap on I really coud come up with some tales, & don't even get me started on the football! Although a through & through Hamlet fan I wasn't adverse to going to the odd Millwall or even Chelsea game 'for a bit of a laugh'! But that's all for another posting. I'm not sure where this one is going. I started off moaning about the old bill yesterday, but the liberties we took in yesteryear, maybe it's people like me that are the cause of the modern day police state! ;-)