Demo reports - Bath weekend of Rage!

Proceedings kicked off on the Friday with a visit to our local Ford garage in Solidarity with the sacked Ford/Visteon workers. During the demo, we handed out loads of leaflets and got plenty of support and beeping horns from passing drivers and pedestrians. More info on the Visteon workers and their struggle can be found at www.visteonoccupation.org.

The following day, BAN split their forces, sending nearly 15 activists to the world day for lab animals in London, and 1 to the Swindon vs Bristol Rovers derby game - resulting in a resounding 2-1 win for the mighty Swindon. Anyways.....

On Sunday we were all back in Bath and holding an anti police brutality demo. Once again, it was well supported by the public and attracted around 15 activists. The cops, who were treated to a chalk redecoration of the front of their station (see pics) kept a shockingly low profile throughout the demo, possibly aware of the consequences of being seen to repress an anti-repression demo! Some good chats were had with the public, many of whom were sympathetic, or had first hand experience of police mistreatment (leaflets went down particularly well with people leaving the station!).

All in all, the weekend proved to be a sucess. Both demos were totally unauthorised by the autorities, and we intend to keep it that way!

Bath Weekend of Rage! - 24th-26th April

Proceedings kick off on the Friday with -

*Friday 24th April - Visteon solidarity picket - 5.30pm-7pm - meet at Ford garage on Lower Bristol road (opposite Bath Press)

Demo to support the sacked visteon/ford factory workers made redundant without any back pay, redundancy pay or notice. There is a strong (and growing) campaign to fight for justice for the Visteon/ford workers. This struggle has huge implications for workers rights/struggle across the UK.

On saturday, BAN are splitting their energies between the World day for lab animals in London (www.shac.net) and casual, football related holliganism, then back to bath on the Sunday for -


*Sunday 26th April - anti-police brutality demo - meet at midday outside Bath Spa train station

To demand justice for Ian Tomlinson (paper seller murdered by cops at G20), and to demand an end to police brutality and inhumane police tactics such as kettling, mass arrests and beatings.

For any more information, or to get involved with BAN, contact us at bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk, or chack out www.bathactivistnet.blogspot.com

Support on these demos from the South West and beyond would be warmly mentioned!

G20 - we had a smashing time!

Just a quick report - The G20 is over and, as expected, has failed to come up with a cure for the global recession blues. The best our glorious leaders can come up with is throwing an extra £765 billion at the IMF, the same corrupt institution that is responsible for the free market economics and related starvation/exploitation that makes the majority of the world poor in the first place. Eager to suggest a world free of capitalist exploitation, around 10,000 protesters gathered in London to make their voices heard. The results? A huge street party, a 2,000 strong climate camp in the city, several trashed banks, including RBS HQ, a dose of police brutality and a fair amount of angry rioting that succeeded in running rings around the cops despite an £8 million security operation including 5,000 cops from 30 forces. The murderers claimed the life of passerby Ian Tomlinson, tragically caught up in the police's violence, and for that we offer our grief and solidarity, but have some doubts that those uniformed thugs will learn from it. The demo showed the rage that people are feeling about being taken for mugs by bankers, politicians and fatcats - the message was clear - NO MORE! But the question is, where do we go from here?