On Saturday (24 October) after the anarchist bookfair, a rowdy mob 200 strong rushed St Pancras Eurostar station in solidarity with the 3 imprisoned Channel Tunnel walkers and Calais migrants. Dozens burst through one police line into the station (see video here), before over 100 riot police retook control and locked down the terminal.
VIDEO: Protesters break through police lines at Kings Cross St Pancras in solidarity with #refugees – @TheoKindynis https://t.co/oVyGSRxFrZ
— Conflict News (@Conflicts) October 24, 2015
Some smaller groups, including one from Global Women’s Strike, had already got inside the station and managed to unfurl banners against the borders and the detention system. There was some minor street fighting around the station as the rabble retreated, reports of three arrests and one injury. Although order was soon restored, the demo did create a moment of rebellious freedom in one of the most controlled zones in the city, cause heavy disruption to the station, and add another cry of solidarity with those struggling at the channel. Protests against the border regime are growing, becoming more energetic and disruptive.
For a fairly detailed run-through of some of the events, with more good pics, see also this article by indyrikki.
24th October 2015 ‘No Borders’ Migrant Solidarity protests at St Pancras Eurostar
Here are a few more tactical reflections after the action:
The best thing was the audacity of the mob. It didn’t hesitate, but charged straight through the police line into the station, smoke and blows flying. It was a good choice not to go directly for the main Eurostar entrance, where police lines were several deep, but take a different way in with only a single blue line.
But of course then we were totally outgunned. There some 20 vans of riot cops ready in position before the demo started. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for reinforcement stromtroopers to arrive and regain control (as this video shows).
Pro-refugee demo at #StPancras LIVE pic.twitter.com/UpzDJUWoS4
— James Caspell FCIH (@jjcaspell) October 24, 2015
The massive police numbers were themselves not surprising, for a number of reasons. The demo had been widely publicised: a public call-out from Calais Migrant Solidarity had been first issued on 19 September, and then shared widely on the internet. It was linked to the anarchist bookfair. And then some groups including London Latinxs, Black Dissidents and Sisters Uncut got in first and held their own demo at the same target the Friday before (16 October). Perhaps this all worked out for the best, as the riot police effectively shut down the station themselves, and having two disruptive actions at the Eurostar in 8 days certainly puts this target on the map. We can hope many more groups and individuals will continue to disrupt this and other key points of the UK border regime, whether they work together or separately.
Support our call! Protest at St. Pancras International, 24th October!
Solidarity with Calais migrants! Protest at St. Pancras International, 24th October
https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/tatiana-garavito/migrants-rights-protest-st-pancras-ticket-barrier-shut-down-eurostar
In any case, there’s little point moaning about police numbers and “police violence”. We know that the Met is the biggest gang in town, we know they’re vicious bastards. We’ll almost never beat them in a contest of numbers or brute force. The point isn’t what they do, but what we can do. In these situations: how can we use our superior intelligence, creativity, spontaneity, solidarity and passion to outfox them?
For example, after the initial clash, we could have swerved down to take the highway in Pentonville Road before the cops blocked the way. This would have left most of the riot cops behind blocking the station entrances for us, as we moved on to new pastures.
That would have taken a bit of … organisation.
By that we don’t mean some kind of centralised leadership, or some deathly dull bureaucracy with rotating officials and membership cards. We mean: anarchist self-organisation, in which comrades who get on with each other and share some goals and ideas form affinity groups, study the situation around them and make plans together, take responsibility, learn how to communicate and act together in different situations, and as they develop increasing trust and experience become increasingly effective and flexible.
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alfredo-m-bonanno-insurrectionalist-anarchism-part-one#toc3
For example: a confident affinity group of say 10 comrades could have discussed contingency plans in advance, then scouted the road ahead, then taken the initiative to point the rabble down to Pentonville Road. Other individuals and groups will most likely join in, if they see a concerted group with a plan. But we can’t all just turn up and hope for the best. We need to take some initiative, and it is much easier to do this effectively, and communicate our ideas to others, if we are organised with comrades.
Meanwhile in Calais
The recent actions such as this, the earlier action at St Pancras on 16 October, and the demo in Folkestone on 17 October, are hopefully just beginning a new front in the struggle at the borders.
http://anticuts.com/2015/10/16/migrants-and-refugees-welcome-for-freedom-of-movement-for-all/
Meanwhile in Calais, people without papers are continually self-organising in small and large groups to sabotage and cross the borders. The Eurotunnel has experienced invasions and major disruption almost every single day in recent weeks.
The cost is often high. A Syrian man was run over and killed by a hit and run driver last night, taking the death toll in Calais to at least 20 this year. 19 of these deaths have occurred since the start of June: this is a direct consequence of the escalation of security at the port, the new deadly fences and cops brought in since the Spring.
And the French State is now carrying out a clampdown: people caught in the tunnel in recent days are being arrested en masse, then dispersed to detention centres across France. Most are released within days: there aren’t (yet) enough detention centre places to hold everyone, and the courts still overrule deportations to warzones in Syria or Sudan. This is thus an operation of terror and harassment, designed to scare people away from Calais. Like all of the state’s terror measures over the last decades at the border, it will have little effect. People will keep coming, and keep crossing.
Mass dispersal to other Detention Centres (Translation of article)
