Police raid London squats

Submitted by AWL on 28 April, 2011 - 3:15

Scotland Yard is, predictably, claiming that raids on five London squats - including ones well-known as centres for activist organising - have nothing to do with Friday's Royal Wedding.

It is difficult, however, to see the action as anything other than a piece of pre-emptive political policing aimed at frightening people who might otherwise take part in some kind of protest around the wedding into staying at home.

Three squats in Camberwell, south London, were raided on the morning of Thursday 28 April, along with the Grow Heathrow squat near the airport, which Workers' Liberty members may be familiar with from its time as a temporary base for Workers' Climate Action activists organising solidarity with a British Airway workers' strike. The Offmarket squat in Hackney was also raided. Police figures state that 14 people were arrested in Camberwell.

Scotland Yard's denial of any connection to the policing operation around the wedding rings particularly hollow given how closely it follows previous police statements that they would be taking pre-emptive action to prevent any disruption to the wedding. Six "anarchists" have already been arrested in advance of the event, apparently in connection with public order offences committed on the TUC demonstration on March 26.

The political project of the police is clear; to create a social atmosphere in which protest of any kind is seen as a marginal, extreme interest, only to be undertaken if you're prepared to be arrested. The operations may succeed in keeping the streets free of any riff-raff that might offend the gaze of Their Royal Highnesses, but the state may find that in the long-run their attempt to criminalise protest and dissent may backfire.

For more information, see this article on the anarchist Freedom Press website.

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