August 20th 1967 11.15: A white Ford Cortina drives down Park Lane in London’s West End. In the car three men: young Spanish anarchists. They turn into Grosvenor Square, draw alongside the American Embassy [and open fire]. The Angry Brigade: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Britain’s First Urban Guerrilla Group, BBC 1973
A movement that introduced a new form of urban guerrilla activity. ibid.
Six explosions, six locations in three countries and all claimed by the 1st of May Group. ibid.
The Italian had a total of 145 explosions in 1969 alone. Britain had its Spanish influenced 1st of May Group, and in fact after a bomb attempt in 1969 at the Bank of Bilbao in Covent Garden, two 1st of May men were caught with a communique in their pockets. But in Britain other forms of urban violence were growing. ibid.
In Britain these experiments in revolutionary lifestyle were slow to catch on. ibid.
The political idea behind Squatting & the Claimants’ Union was to make people on the fringes of society aware of their situation and to fight it. ibid.
And then followed the trial of the so-called Stoke Newington 8. The longest criminal trial in legal history and certainly one of the most controversial. ibid.
On the night of January 12th 1971 two bombs exploded outside the London home of Robert Carr. Carr was Edward Heath’s employment minister and the man responsible for the hated Industrial Relations bill which had passed into law earlier that day. Persons Unknown, Stuart Christie, 1980
The Angry Brigade itself first emerged in the summer of 1970 in the run-up to the election of the Conservative government of Edward Heath, and its activities continued for 18 months … Targets included the embassies of oppressive regimes, high profile police stations and army barracks, sweatshop boutiques and factories, as well as government buildings, the homes of cabinet ministers, the Attorney General and the commissioner of the Metropolitan police were also targeted. ibid.
The rights of ownership of the people over the lands they traditionally occupy shall be recognised. The rights of the people to the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specifically safeguarded: UN ILO Indigenous and Tribal People Convention 169. When Two Worlds Collide ***** captions, 2016
American entrepreneurs: bring your factories here. Come! ibid. Alan Garcia, president of Peru 2007
I grew up in a collective environment. Where we all enjoy what the earth gives us … Our territories are sacred to us. ibid. Alberto Pizango, president Organization for Native Amazon Peoples
Now you’ll see the damage the crude oil is causing in our region. ibid.
These laws gave private companies the right to exploit rainforest resources. ibid. Victor Belaunde, former congressman
Protests have sprung up in four Amazonian regions. ibid. news
There are dead and wounded people … ibid. reporter
Nine indigenous men are killed. ibid.
What a shame that a democratic government is making Peruvians kill each other. ibid. Pizango
Asylum [for Pizango] was granted in accordance with international laws. ibid. Nicaraguan diplomat
Back in Peru, Alberto Pizango is charged with rebellion, sedition, murder and conspiracy against the State. ibid. caption
Long live the struggle of the Amazonia people! ibid. demonstration in Lima
13 days after the confrontation in Bagua, Congress overturns two of the controversial laws, including Forestry Law 1090. ibid.
But they keep making deals under the table to let the companies in. ibid. Pizango
I’ve decided that I must go back. ibid.
What’s wrong with this world when oil or a piece of gold is worth more than a human life? ibid. father or murdered rozzer
Despite the government’s recent pledge to halt deforestation by 2021, deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon continues to rise. ibid. caption
No government officials were ever charged. ibid.
100 years ago Britain’s greatest national event was stopped in its tracks by a very public, very shocking and ultimately fatal act of protest. At the height of the 1913 Epsom Derby in front of thousands of spectators a lone figure walked into the path of the galloping horses. Clare Balding’s Secrets of a Suffragette, Channel 4 2018
This led in 1903 to the founding of the Women’s Social and Political Union. The WSPU advocated more direct action to agitate for the vote. ibid.
Militant Suffragists’ Outrages: Window Breaking, Arson And Wilful Destruction: Fire Losses Upwards Of £380,000: When, however, the breaking of windows gave place in the early part of last year to the burning of churches, private houses, football, cricket, golf and racecourse stands, the mutilation of works of art, and the placing of bombs in or near public buildings, the offences if less numerous became at once infinitely more serious and dangerous, the losses through incendiarism being already estimated at some £384,000. ibid. The Morning Post article 13th July 1913
Suffragette militancy was now seen as a real threat to society. ibid.
One of the government’s biggest problems was dealing with the militants once they were imprisoned. In the lead up to the First World War the government imprisoned more than 1,000 militant Suffragettes … The government’s response was brutal – force-feeding. ibid.
De Gaulle’s complacency seems hard to believe 50 years on but he wasn’t alone: few imagined how momentous and tumultuous 1968 would turn out to be. So how did it happen within five months of that new year speech France was brought to a standstill and de Gaule’s government almost toppled by the worst rioting seen in Paris since the revolution – the earlier one? Vive le Revolution! Joan Bakewell on May 1968
As the anti-war protests gathered strength they began to coincide with that other great movement that had been sweeping America since the 1950s – the Civil Rights movement. ibid.
Three months into 1968, on March 17th that year, London’s Grosvenor Square became a battleground. ibid.
Czechoslovakia: But for the time being the dreams were not fulfilled. After three months of dizzy optimism the Russian tanks rolled across to the border to suppress what had been a defiant challenge to the Soviet grip on eastern Europe. ibid.
Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the great feminist writer, both came out in favour of the students. ibid.
On May 13th the trade unions announced a general strike … The workers had their own objectives … By May 22nd that figure had swollen to ten million. ibid.
The Utopian dream of May had not been realised. ibid.
In the most famous anti-nuclear protest ever seen in Britain, thousands of women spent much of the 1980s and beyond protesting against the presence of American cruise missiles here at Greenham Common. What even they didn’t know along with the residents of nearby Newbury was that the British government’s own scientists had warned that this was the riskiest of eleven possible sites to put the weapons. Document: The Ghosts of Greenham, BBC Radio 4 2007
London would be very unlikely to escape such a disaster. ibid.
During World War One 30 million troops were conscripted. 9 million were killed. 16,000 Britons claimed the right to refuse to kill. During World War Two 45 million troops were conscripted. 25 million were killed. 60,000 Britons claimed the right to refuse to kill. During the Vietnam War 1 million US troops were conscripted. 58,000 were killed. 170,000 Americans claimed the right to refuse to kill. 300,000 US/UK troops fought in the 2003 Iraq War. None were physically conscripted. As annual global military expenditure reaches $1 trillion, mass physical conscription has ended. Financial conscription has taken its place. Contempt of Conscience, 2009
RAF Fairford, March 2003: ‘This [peace protest] is the most complex, largest, most expensive operation ever undertaken by Gloucester constabulary … There’s 1,000 police here which seems rather over the top.’ ibid.
March 20th 2003: The B52 bombers took off from Fairford for their five-hour flight to Iraq. ibid.
The Treasury has been pretty cagey about the figures. ibid.
By withholding 10% of my taxes I’m exercising that right. ibid.
There is an historical tradition of tax resistance particularly in the United States. ibid.
Teenagers organised this [March for Our Lives] all by themselves … The largest single day of protest in the history of our nation’s capital. Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 11/9, 2018