5, 6: DOWN WITH HATE POLITICS

THE BNP IS A FACIST PARTY
DOWN WITH THE BNP
THE BNP IS A NAZI PARTY
DOWN WITH THE BNP
THE BNP IS A RACIST PARTY
DOWN WITH THE BNP

At all started one fine afternoon not too long ago (Tuesday I think, for I remember having stomached free Hari Krishna lunch within the same hour) when Rufus and I were walking through LSE and the Socialist Worker booth outside the Old Building and the woman there handed him a flyer about the upcoming protest outside the BBC. My mind stopped for a moment: protest? Invite to a protest? PROTEST!!! LET'S GO!!!

So that is how on a lovely Thursday afternoon, the nicest warmest weather we've had in days, we ended up hopping onto a tube towards Zone 2 White City tube station - right outside the BBC's Wood Lane office where the filming of Question Time was going to take place. We arrived at about 5:10 pm, when the main protest was due to start. As we walked out towards the crowd we could see in the distance we came across some protests signs lain by the side of the pavement, so Rufus picked one up.


There we kind of hid behind the pavement area, taking pictures for a short while and generally watching the milling crowd that was right in front of the gates of the BBC. Some of the people in the group were pumping people up and shouting slogans, and most of them were carrying signs. I squeezed past some photographers to get a better view. After a while there was a sudden commotion behind us as the police (I think) arrested a protester in green and were dragging him behind. The crowd surged and people around us started going crazy and running in a swarm towards them shouting SHAME ON YOU. I got kind of scared as Rufus disappeared in the running mob and went to cling to the sides.


A few terse minutes later Rufus appeared again and I felt immensely relieved. We stayed in the same area for a bit watching people scale the walls (the tube tracks were 20 metres down a slope from the walls) to watch the continuing commotion. A policeman came and shouted at them to come down, and the guys on the wall shouted back OUR STREETS, OUR STREETS and the policeman wandered away to cry in a corner. We went down to the main crowd and clung about the outer side, sometimes chanting along with the shouting slogans, when we met these guys:

They very nicely passed us those posters which they made themselves. I ended up carrying and raising mine till I later found a misplaced picket pole on the ground and stuck it on. More chanting and shouting of slogans followed for a bit till we decided to join the front crowd and attempt to push through the human police barricade at the front. I kept my camera.

We joined the main crowd and when someone shouted PUSH we all forced ourselves through, pushing the policemen back a few metres till they were backed up against the gates. It was madness in there as human body shoved against human body, trying to break through the line. There was much dropped debris on the ground (like how I found my stick). Madder still was when the police shoved back mere moments after we shoved through and the crowd surged back with some people squirming away in panic. You could see the front where the police in their neon yellow vests collided with the dark black tones of the protest crowd, beating them away with their batons. It was another moment where I felt really scared because I feared a stampede. Luckily this time it was more organised and there was no running or shoving, just a mass wave of humanity.

We moved out of the main surge and stood about the outskirts. The more sedate spectator area on the pavement (for we had occupied and closed the entire Wood Lane) started growing in numbers. Finally we heard calls for the final surge and we shoved through one more time. This time the crowd was too much and the policemen were pinned against the gate. Some climbed over in time, but others were stuck and crushed against the gate. Suddenly much shouting and a scream happened just right next to me as a policeman roughly grabbed the girl standing next to me and literally threw her out of his way as he rushed to pull out his colleagues from the crush. The girl fell and started screaming bloody murder. I empathise with both her and the policeman.

We shoved through little more and found ourselves right against the gate, at the side. There we could clearly see the policemen inside watching us protesting. There were about 30+ of them. Some guys started heckling them and a new chant was heard: HOW MANY POLICE ARE IN THE BNP?/THE POLICE PROTECT THE NAZIS. Camera whipped out again, I took cruddy pictures with a quickly darkening sky and a lousy flash.


Right in front of us was a pile of discarded trash from the protest. Signs the police had either yanked from the front line of protesters or had been willfully flung at them. I even espy a loudhailer in the corner of the photo now. After a while the police started putting on their riot helmets (if there is such a thing) and in went the camera into my bag. I started feeling a bit scared again, but also oddly thrilled.


After a while the vans started up, inching closer to the gates. Then they started taking out the riot shields. The guy right next to us was talking on the phone to his friend, "Come one down here and take some pics/it's about to get pretty violent/think they're going to open the gates and come smash everyone/they've got all their gear out already". I asked him what was about to happen next and he mentioned the police was highly likely to come through and that it was best to scatter soon. Good man.

So we pushed through the crowd again and fearing the police suddenly bursting out, I climbed under a handrail where people were standing on to get a better view of the mob. Rufus and the other guy followed. We stood on the edge of the mob and watched, walking about a bit. Then we went back to that spot and two people were giggling like crazy and pointing to one of the BBC's signs that had been defaced to say FACIST PIGS. I stopped to take a picture of it and the author of this rather original statement reappeared to cross out Audience and replace it with NAZIS on the sign.


I peeped inside the darkened building for a moment and got the shock of my life as 2 eyes looked back at me, in a yellow neon vest. After that I kept repeatedly staring in, just watching the watchers. Someone elsewhere in the crowd wearing a full face mask started burning a sign and all the news media outlets ran to get footage of him. Standing next to him was incongruous Afghanistan Protester Man (see pic with people at wall with copper), getting free publicity.

Around 7:30pm we left the area to head back to the dorm. We took pictures with 2 incredibly nice policemen at the side and then departed. On the way back we met this girl with a very large pizza on the tube and had a short conversation with her - a nanny from South of France.

All in all, Rufus and I were the only 2 Chinese people in the entire protest. I guess the stereotype of Indians and Chinese not being very politically active holds through. There was however this little old Indian auntie holding a picket sign, in her nice red coat, walking about. Lovely looking lady.

Talk about a memorable day.

Extras:
BBC Video of Protesters Surge
Pictures I took on flickr