Fun On The Picket Line.

Wapping Saturday March 1986.

A couple of Beano collective members attended the picket on Saturday March 15th. There was a massive march from the Tower Hill tube station of about 7000 people. As the front of the march was reaching the main gate the back was only just leaving Tower Hill! The march stopped outside the gate and the crowd began to swell and then people statred to pull down the iron railing fence.

Not willing to stand and watch we joined in, swinging from the top and they came crashing down! The riot police and police horses soon appeared, but there were so many of us that they were outnumbered and couldn't stop us pulling down the fence. Barriacdes of crash barriers were built across the road to stop horses charging, but they charged into the crowd in the park opposite the gate where the old folks and kids tended to stand. Alot of people got hurt and trampled in the charge because there were railings either side and nowhere to run to. The pigs got alot of bricks and stuff bunged at them for doing this.

The riot pigs began to move out into the road, but there were still too many of us for them to clear the road. Near us in the crowd was a Police Inspector keeping an eye on the crowd. He began to get some heavy abuse and then his hat got nicked and he started to call for help on his radio. Loads of pointyheads rushed over to surround him. The police horses kept trying to charge up the road, but the barricades prevented them.

By about 11 o'clock a lot of people had drifted away and the riot cops were right out in the street, but there were still loads of people at all the exits and the roads were all well and truly blocked. The horses charged and cleared the road for a bit and we had to leave at midnight, butb the hassle and picketing lasted all night long. The lorries were supposed to come out at about 9pm to allow them to get out to the TNT distribution centres early enough for the papers to be delivered to newsagents, but this time the lorries were kept in until 3 in the morning! If enough people could get up there they could be stopped from leaving altogether.

From The Beano- Monthlyish Paper of A Maidstone Anarchist Group.

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