TopCat
Putin fanboy
They are superb.
What was the worst demonstration you ever went on?
- Thread starter Proper Tidy
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TopCat
Putin fanboy
Only a few weeks after debacle above I had bought a copy of Class War and was rather excited. I did loads of big copies of the front page "Best cut of all" and was putting them up all over. At Hackney town hall at some demo I was plastering these posters up and I got attacked and beaten by a radical lesbian group. A real kicking.
Signal 11
also programmed for conversational english
The one after the 2017 election had what seemed like hours of SWP type speeches before the start, then Corbyn and other LP types at the end.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Oh yeah, I remember that one, quite crushed outside the BBC. IIRC I made it down to Parliament Square but wasn't going to hang around for another load.The one after the 2017 election had what seemed like hours of SWP type speeches before the start, then Corbyn and other LP types at the end.
platinumsage
Well-Known Member
15 February 2003 Iraq war protest. Shuffled around some streets at a snails pace, then stood in Hyde park listening to some blatherers, then stood around watching Hezbollah supporters burn American and Israeli flags, then went home. 
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Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
sunnysidedown
caput mortuum
thanks, I didn’t see (or look hard enough) on the site it seems.
mx wcfc
Well-Known Member
Does Thurrock ring a bell? I went on a minibus with maybe a dozen others to picket "some place out east" during the miners' strike. Can't remember who organised it, or who I went with, only that it was cold, windy, and we were the only people there.
Rebelda
Nearly as bad as Badgers
I went to that same demo FridgeMagnet went to the pub and missed most of the march 
May day 2001 should be a contender cos i got kettled down the side of John Lewis for hours. Got home cold, hungry and desperate for a wee but honestly, had a great time
I went on a weird roving animal rights thing once that was boring as fuck. I left in disgust when they started being racist to a security guard at one of the labs.
May day 2001 should be a contender cos i got kettled down the side of John Lewis for hours. Got home cold, hungry and desperate for a wee but honestly, had a great time
I went on a weird roving animal rights thing once that was boring as fuck. I left in disgust when they started being racist to a security guard at one of the labs.
Louis MacNeice
Autumn Journalist
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Now I only really go to demos to take pictures they're more tolerable because I can fuck off and have a coffee if I get bored (this is why I started doing it tbh). The worst, though, are the identikit SWP-led ones that start at Portland Place, line up, march down Regent Street, past Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall and end up in Parliament Square. I last about ten minutes after the march starts on those, and most of the photojournalists there seem to too - get a few standard shots then sit somewhere with WiFi and upload them. The cops are on autopilot and barely even need to be there.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Thurrock does indeed ring a bell.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
I was supposed to to some union faction meeting in Sheffield on a Saturday morning three line whip but opted for Hearns v Duran on satellite in Leicester Square at three in the morning instead .
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
One we organised was pretty tinpot with about 30 of us there I think on a cold grey day, but I enjoyed it!
I do find marches difficult sometimes. Same song. Same route. Especially in Bristol.
I do find marches difficult sometimes. Same song. Same route. Especially in Bristol.
JimW
支那暗杀团
I've mentioned missing the poll tax riot to go to the football instead before. My brother got a kicking on that Warrington Messenger picket but fortunately I was a bit too young to go with him. Lorca that coursing thing sounds like the Waterloo Cup, remember hearing the war stories but following my pattern, also one i dodged the bullet on Did take a shoeing out hunt sabbing a few times though. Hard pressed to say which was the worst of the ones I did actually make, even the tedious A to B marches were usually lightened by the crowd of mates I went with. Few times we drove up for that non-stop picket they used to do outside SA House, which was an RCP(?) front IIRC correctly and often really sparse when we turned up but again being with mates made it OK if a bit pointless.
Did take a shoeing out hunt sabbing a few times though. Hard pressed to say which was the worst of the ones I did actually make, even the tedious A to B marches were usually lightened by the crowd of mates I went with. Few times we drove up for that non-stop picket they used to do outside SA House, which was an RCP(?) front IIRC correctly and often really sparse when we turned up but again being with mates made it OK if a bit pointless.planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
I only have to hear the words "International Women's Day" and something in my brain goes "March the 8th, 2000". Due to one of the most repetitive chants I've ever been subjected to on a demo in Barcelona. At least I know when it is I suppose.
But yeah, interminable chants and routes. London is no different I assure you.
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
To be fair I'm not great at starting chants myself!
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
I was once roped in to do an action one lunchtime at A Major Sporting Event which took place in the centre of town by someone from a group I wasn't involved in, but who was (and remains) a Decent Sort.
The Major Sporting Event had nothing to do with the particular cause being touted, it was just an opportunity to try and get the particular cause in front of the many media cameras present. So basically pretty doomed to start with.
Anyway, in the end I think there were two(!) of us, maybe a third was around but very sensibly didn't want to do anything except take discreet pictures or something. And the action? Disrupting the Major Sporting Event by throwing carrier bags of fake blood around at the start.
Needless to say the dozens of professional sportsdudes whose day at the office was taking a distinctly carmine turn south, and the many hundreds of sportsfans there to watch their favourite sportsdudes sport around, were Not Very Happy.
TBH I'm not sure how either of us made it out alive. Somehow in the chaos I managed to extricate myself from the angry scrimmage that ensued, and innocently whistle-walked my way back to work. Against all odds Decent Sort survived too. I don't think a single second of footage made the news anywhere. I swore never again to let myself get talked into being a spare warm body for anything I wasn't directly involved/interested in.
Hollis
bloody furious
I went on some animal rights demo with a mate in London, it was a boiling hot summers day, and it seemed to degenerate into all the marchers arguing with each other about whether they should have bought their dogs on the march.
With same mate, I also engaged in some covert action transporting several kilos of bird feed down to central London to feed the Trafalgar Square pigeons which "Red" Ken was trying to starve to death at the time, iirc.
With same mate, I also engaged in some covert action transporting several kilos of bird feed down to central London to feed the Trafalgar Square pigeons which "Red" Ken was trying to starve to death at the time, iirc.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Always gave me pause about him, the pigeon hate. Nothing more London than a bunch of scruffy little shits living in the shadows of the wealthy without paying, trying to get what they can out of tourists, and not caring what you think about them.
Louis MacNeice
Autumn Journalist
As an antidote to this sometimes funny, sometimes horrific litany of doom and gloom, here's a couple of sentences about a more positive experience. I am very proud that I once sat in a government office in Worthing, chairing an unsanctioned work time union meeting, where everybody (some 70 or so people), absolutely everybody in the office, raised their hand in affirmation when asked if they would walk out in support of a colleague threatened with suspension for working to rule. The dispute was about a bullying manager who was using the introduction of performance pay to throw their weight about; everyone just knew what they had to do and did it. We won that one. It's a good feeling.
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
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