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Recent articles by observer
China, capitalism and class struggle May 18 13 6 arrests at Drone Conference bristol |
protests |
news report
 Monday April 02, 2012 16:02 by observer
 this is a bristol indymedia story A lively & very noisy demo at the bristol drone conference in Bristol ended with six arrests. Conference attenders had to do their dirty business accompanied by a considerable din made by about 80 people for around 3 hours or so . Some delegates unable to cope with the noise decided to leave the conference early, only to be pursued around town with people letting them know just what they thought of them, until they had to be rescued by the police. Ah diddums. The police, initially low on numbers eventually got reinforcements and decided to push & kick people down the street, which was resisted strongly, where most of the arrests took place - apparently for Section 5/Public Nuisance depending which copper you listened to. One arrestee is confirmed to be taken to trinity rd police station. update 11 arrests, maybe 5 at south mead
SOLIDARITY DEMO AT TRINITY RD NOW! |
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Quick update from outside trinity.
Just nipped back from trinity road cop shop.
the cops saying eleven arrests and at least nine have been confirmed so far.
Some people are being held in Southmead.
Their are groups in solidarity outside both stations.
If you have an hour or some tea to spare this evening get on down to the cop shop.
Those inside could do with the support.
Other than the arrests from Operation Overkill-it was a very successful action.
The death dealers were definitely thoroughly disrupted.
Violent scenes between protesters and police
2:02pm, Mon 2 Apr 2012 Confrontation At Drone Conference
http://vimeo.com/39642588
by Robert Murphy - last updated Mon 2 Apr 2012 UK
There were violent scenes between protesters and police in Bristol today.
Around 60 activists surrounded Armeda House where delegates were meeting for the 27th Bristol International UAV Systems Conference. UAVs are 'drones' or unmanned aircraft used, protestors say, in the war in Afghanistan.
There were scuffles as police tried to move protesters away.
Riot police have closed off Marsh Street in Bristol while the control the remaining protesters.
There have been scuffles between Police and protesters in the centre of Bristol today. They broke out as anti-war campaigners demonstrated outside an arms conference in the city. Two roads, Marsh Street and Telephone Avenue were sealed off while the demonstrations were at their peak. The activists locked the building, refusing to let delegates out. And what had started as a peaceful protest turned when officers tried to clear it. Our reporter Robert Murphy was the only journalist there.
http://www.itv.com/news/west/2012-04-02/violent-scenes-...lice/
Sounds like a great response -- especially if people did try and block the delegates in the building like the ITV report said.
Well done Bristol folk & good luck for tomorrow.
Fuck the fucking fuckers!
Sorry I could not be there myself, but SO pleased to read of your activiies here, thanks to every one of you wonderful Peace-makers.
When some UAV delegates yesterday tried to make a break for it out the back exit they were pursued and followed relentlessly down the street by protestors shouting ‘murderers, murderers!’, and were in the end extracted only because police cars rescued them.
However, a surprising level of ignorance was expressed by the public, even people who you would have thought would know better. A typical exchange went like this:
- What's this about?
- It’s a conference where the makers of weapon drones and spy drones are meeting to discuss how they can improve their merchandise for mass murder without trial and the repression of dissent across the world, right here in Bristol.
- Oh... Really? What are drones?
And so on. People were by and large bemused. Eventually the penny dropped for most of them after you’d spent many minutes jigging their memory of things they might have heard about on the TV news etc. But otherwise they didn’t understand what drones were, or why they were so bad, which is a bit alarming.
The best reaction came from a few kids from Hartcliffe who happened to pass by and decided to join in, presumably because the noise and activity looked like fun. After everyone had followed one escaping delegate for ten minutes pointing and shouting ‘murderer!’ at him, just as he was trying to get into a police car one of the kids turned to me and asked, ‘why are we calling that man a murderer?’ Amazed that she’d only started to question what she was taking part in now, I told her and she looked at me, nodded and then looked back at the car... and immediately resumed her chant of ‘murderer, murderer!’
You mention the kids from Hartcliffe who joined in but didn't know what it was about. Is this supposed to be a positive?
Your post reiterates what a lot of people think when they see protest, that it is just a bunch of people looking for a ruck not necessarily supporting "the cause". One need only look at the reaction to the Tesco/TH eviction riots to see this - a great tranche of the general public thought that most people were there to smash stuff up not because of some greater cause.
...There's a lot to be said for just wanting to throw Bricks at Cops. Rioting for riotings sake. That's why I was there.
You state :
"It’s a conference where the makers of weapon drones and spy drones are meeting to discuss how they can improve their merchandise for mass murder without trial and the repression of dissent across the world, right here in Bristol."
Please make sure that you understand the basic facts before making statements like this. Nearly all Unmanned Airborne Vehicles are designed for surveillance or intelligence gathering, and that includes commercial/industrial use rather than military. Of those used for military/defence purposes the majority are used to ensure that only the correct threats are removes, so minimising the risk of innocent people being injured. Threats such as the Taliban, using indiscriminate IEDs (which often injure/maim/kill innocent Afghanis, including children), are usually removed by manned air vehicles. The few armed UAVs are not just indiscriminate killers - they are carefully controlled and have significant intelligence, including real-time video. They also remove the risk of our pilots being killed.
I fully respect the right to freedom of speech in this country. There are many countries where one can not protest at all. However please don't forget that you only have this luxury because we have not allowerd this country to have been taken over by those who threaten us. If you really want to see more innocent people killed and more terrorist incidents in the U.K. then fine - carry on with your protests.
Good people doing important works, thank you all very much, apologies for not being there with you, you have much more support than you realise :)
Blessed are the Peacemakers.
Peaceman states :
"Of those used for military/defence purposes the majority are used to ensure that only the correct threats are removes, so minimising the risk of innocent people being injured. Threats such as the Taliban, using indiscriminate IEDs (which often injure/maim/kill innocent Afghanis, including children), are usually removed by manned air vehicles. The few armed UAVs are not just indiscriminate killers - they are carefully controlled and have significant intelligence, including real-time video. They also remove the risk of our pilots being killed."
Your overall analysis seems to suggest that military drones produce clean kills with the minimum of civilian casualties. Okay if this is the case let's have the stats ie. let the CIA, US and UK govts. release figures on who they were attempting to kill when these drones have been utilised in Afghanistan/Pakistan and then what actually happened on the ground can be compared. This whole myth of smart technology, clean kills etc. has long been seen as false. Interestingly we saw loads of video pictures in the first Iraq war on mainstream media on the use of smart bombs and none in the second one.
"I fully respect the right to freedom of speech in this country. There are many countries where one can not protest at all. However please don't forget that you only have this luxury because we have not allowed this country to have been taken over by those who threaten us. If you really want to see more innocent people killed and more terrorist incidents in the U.K. then fine - carry on with your protests."
Again let's have the stats/pictures from the UK and US govts. on the whereabouts of the terrorist camps that have been destroyed by them, to prevent the training of terrorists. This was the reason why supposedly the troops entered Afghanistan in the first place. When have the Taliban based in Afghanistan ever committed a "terrorist incident" in the UK ? They were supposedly harbouring Osama bin Laden, although he was eventually found in Pakistan !! I suspect that these camps have long been destroyed. Why are the troops still there ?
As Milly Fish (aka China Blue Fish) might say "Show me your stat's and I'll show you mine".
However, on a slightly less flippant note, do you really have any statistics at all ? I appreciate that this is not an easy subject, for any of us. How does one compare numbers of deaths - armed forces, innocent victims, children, terrorists, etc. ?
All that I am trying to say is that, for as long as I believe in this little island of ours, I want to see it stay as a free country. Part of that involves supporting the brave men and women that defend our land and rights. Furthermore I support any means of minimising the number of people killed in pursuit of this.
If you know better means of achieving these goals then I suggest that you find a reasonable, and widely backed, method of implementing them. After all we live in a democracy - still.
For me, the reason I feel this is a worthy cause to protest about is because I believe it is an unfair means of warefare. I would disagree that the war in the middle east has much to do with protecting this country (i think we need more protection from the invasion of american culture than middle eastern 'terrorists') and more to do with money. Either way, by using drones in warfare it becomes an unfair fight. The 'terrorists' in middle eastern countries are faced with an enemy that has superior technology which means that they cannot compete. It also takes the human element out of the picture. I wonder whether a human at the controls of a plane is more likely to be precise than a human sat comfortably behind a desk? Further more, there are rumours going around that the british government is looking into the possibility of allowing the police to buy drones to use as surveillance devises here, in this country.
Sorry, but you talk about drones being unfair. At least someone controls them. Who controls an IED ?
You also object to UAVs being used for surveillance. I don't like the idea, but if you have nothing to hide why worry ? What about all of the CCTV cameras ?
PM2 the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not protected us at all. They are fuelling terrorism. Interestingly the is more hatred of Obama (because of drone attacks) than Bush who started the war. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/world/asia/18hostage....?_r=1 (and that from a reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban!)
The information that has been leaked (because that freedom loving government from whom we have nothing to hide) is reluctant to tell us how it spends our cash - has shown that the vast majority of the dead; including drone strikes - are civilians.
Looks, I don't want to die at the hands of some crazy religious nutter - so stopping the Taliban and the groups to spawn off from them is a question of tactics. The war on terror, 10 years on has achieved nothing and cost billions and many many lives.
I'm in favour of what works to end wars. Years of drone warfare has not brought the Taliban closer to the negotiating table, it's driven the civilian population into their arms.