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J18

Abbreviation for the June 18th 1999 Carnival Against Capitalism, an event held simultaneously in over 80 countries.

London J18: protesters converged on the City of London and shut it down. McDonald's and some other places got a makeover Bakunin style, and other companies were forced to shut down. The cops turned up and started attacking people but were driven back repeatedly. The most successful anti-capitalist protest in Britain to date.

Nigeria J18 - probably the only one bigger than Britain. Workers invaded and tore down the offices of Shell in Nigeria, because shell are trashing the Niger Delta.

Eugene J18 - the biggest and most militant of the US events, featuring a street party which cops attacked, leading to some of the fiercest clashes anywhere. Persecution is also worst in America. One protester was victimised under the Three Strikes law and is still in jail.

Cologne J18 - pre-Seattle, and really the first of the big anti-summit protests - and the reason for all the rest. Protesters besieged the summit in Cologne and tried to get past security cordons.

Pakistan J18 - anti-nuke protesters got into a nuclear base and got arrested and told they would be charged with treason (but they weren't).
Not to be confused with C18 - although sections of the British press somehow managed this.

This was the first of a number of acronyms used for anti-capitalist protests, e.g. N20, S11, etc.
by annoyed anarchist May 1, 2004
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pigpen

Tactic used by police, in which protests are smashed by police coercing protesters into a small space and then keeping them there by surrounding them and attacking anyone who tries to break out or asks to leave. Normally combined with verbal abuse and periodic baton charges against the protesters. It is basically a form of inhumane and extrajudicial imprisonment.

Those held in pigpens often include not only protesters of all descriptions (and not only the ones cops claim to be targeting), and also anyone else who's on the scene, e.g. tourists, journalists, shoppers, local residents.

The tactic has been used fairly regularly by British police against anti-capitalist protesters at events such as Mayday, Disarm DSEi and also at animal rights protests (all of which rely on small numbers of mobile people in small groups to cause disruption).

Referred to as "corralling" in pig-speak; pigpen is the usual term used by protesters. I've also heard it referred to as a kettle, because it's identical to the tactic by this name which was used by the Russian army in Stalingrad.
On Mayday 2001, protesters and assorted others were kept in a pigpen for over 8 hours (with the exception of a large contingent who, led by the White Overall contingent, the Wombles, managed to break out). There were no toilets, no proper medical facilities and it was pouring with rain, and cops made periodic attacks on the crowd, forcing people closer together. There was a real danger of a Hillsborough-style crush, although the real purpose of the attacks seems to be to get "riot" footage to put on the news, so as to make excuses for the cop violence.

Those oppressed by the pigs in this way included also a large number of shoppers on Oxford Street, workers who were returning home, and even two German tourists who cops wouldn't let leave even when they showed their plane tickets - they missed their flight as a result.
by annoyed anarchist May 1, 2004
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Red Flag

1) Traditional symbol of socialist resistance.

2) in an Orwellian reversal, also the song sung by Blair and his cronies at Labour Party Conference
Red Flag (song), Blair version:

We'll suck up to the ruling class
We'll fuck the workers up the ass
And just to show that we're sincere
We'll sing the Red Flag once a year.
by annoyed anarchist May 28, 2004
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zetoc

Electronic table of contents of the British Library. This is the website to visit if you want to find out all the journal articles which have been published on a particular subject since the late 90s. The only problem is, you need an Athens username and password to get in. But if you can get on a university campus and use a computer there, it should be OK.

Problem: you put in an author's name, and get 1652 references - only then do you realise that there's 150 authors with the same obscure name. It would help if you could search by topic.
The address is zetoc.mimas.ac.uk or something like that.
by annoyed anarchist May 1, 2004
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your country needs you

Why should I give a fuck? The bosses run the country anyway.

It really means "your government needs you" (to do its dirty work for it, usually by killing foreigners). It's because government can't survive without mass obedience that we should tell it to fuck off whenever it "needs" us. Down with the government!
When I need my "country", it's never there for me, so why should it expect me to be there for it in return?
by annoyed anarchist May 2, 2004
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school

Concentration camp for children. Set up to teach people to become docile and obedient subjects of capitalism and the state. This is achieved through mind-numbing, attacks on individual identity, and various degrees of disguised terror, usually (but not always) concealed by a double-bind.

Often combined with indoctrination into dominant ideas and training in skills useful to bosses.
by annoyed anarchist May 2, 2004
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Office for Homeland Security

Government department with the job of making people insecure by getting cops to break into their homes.

A good example of Newspeak.
The far-right bigot in charge of this office, whose name I forget, is the same man who spent years trying to lynch Mumia Abu-Jamal and he's praised the Nazis as well.
by annoyed anarchist May 2, 2004
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