Last night’s “Camden Fuckparade” started slow, but it started. Class War had called for a 12-volt-battery-powered streetparty to oppose the area being turned into another “unrecognisable, bland, yuppie-infested wasteland with no room for normal (and not so normal) people.”
Announced start time was 7PM outside Camden Tube. By nearly 9 o’clock, it looked like a pretty dull affair, with a couple of hundred people gathered around a low volume rig and sticking safely to the central pavement area, watched by 30 or so bored looking cops. The shouty Christian evangelist woman round the corner seemed more lively.
Then at last the crowd moved into the road and off up Camden High Street. A banner was strung across the street reading “Reclaim London”, and finally the party ensconced itself on the canal bridge by Camden Lock. People danced and drank and shit. Cops were subjected to some verbal abuse and a few flying cans, but remained stony quiet, clearly under orders not to provoke a scrap. They nearly got one when they surrounded a couple of young black guys, as is their everyday wont, and people moved in to assist and de-arrest. The filth backed down and the party atmosphere was restored.
Maybe that would have been all, if it hadn’t been for an unexpected agitating element: a gang of Polish fascists was in the area. A few of the far-right toughs, spotted wearing Polish neo-nazi labels and nationalist symbols, had been milling around early on and tried to harass and throw stuff at partygoers. They were apparently in Camden for a Polish gig (by Sobota) taking place at the Underworld, just opposite the tube station.
This is where confrontation flared after dark, with bottles flying back and forth across Kentish Town Road. A line of cops formed in front of the retreating fascists, then came under fire themselves. After the fash legged it away from the main road, there was streetfighting in the backstreets as well as the ongoing fight with the Met in the Kentish Town Road. The group of maybe 20 or 30 fash were chased well out of Camden. The filth brought in riot cop reinforcements to restore order, shut the tube, and blocked off all roads around Camden for a couple of hours.
This is where confrontation flared after dark, with bottles flying back and forth across Kentish Town Road. A line of cops formed in front of the retreating fascists, then came under fire themselves. After the fash legged it away from the main road, there was streetfighting in the backstreets as well as the ongoing fight with the Met in the Kentish Town Road. The group of maybe 20 or 30 fash were chased well out of Camden. The filth brought in riot cop reinforcements to restore order, shut the tube, and blocked off all roads around Camden for a couple of hours.
http://rabble.org.uk/camden-fuckparade-streetparty-fascists-miniriot/