A-Infos (en) UK, Anarchist youth network of Britain and Ireland: http://flag.blackened.net/ayn/

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Who are the AYN?...

The AYN is the only revolutionary
youth group in the UK set up
independently by young people for
young people and not as a
recruiting ground for some sad
leftwing political party. It is a
fledgling non-hierarchical
collection of anti-capitalist
individuals and groups. We have
been in existence for the last
five months and are still getting
organised, if you're interested
in taking part please contact
us... read more

    Upcoming Actions & Events...

February 1st  - Reclaim the
Future 2
February 15th - Don't Attack Iraq
February 20th - Hip Hop!

The actions and events section
has just been updated... read
more

Hip Hop!...
A gig with sets from The
Souljahs, DJ IQ, London I, DJ
Emmet Brown and live break
dance. Hosted by London
Anarchist Youth on Thursday
the 20th of February, from
7pm at The Underground Bar,
Houghton St. WC2 (Holborn &
Temple tube).  Entry is £4.
Download fliers as a picture:
Flyer 1 : Flyer 2
Download fliers as *.pdf
(multiple per page): Flyer 1
: Flyer 2

New forums on flag!...

We've got some new forums
from our wicked hosts, if you
used the last ones you'll
have to re-register but
they're so much better. Click
here to view them (they're at
the bottom of the page).

Graffiti Gallery added...

We've just uploaded a new
'Graffiti Gallery', we've got
some stuff we've seen in it,
but we need you to send us
more! Click here to view it.

Past Actions & Events:

Report of Mayday - 01/05/02

Mayday had originated as a
pagan festival where ordinary
people celebrated whilst
people in authority disliked
and feared the event because
it wasn't Christian and it was
a festival not controlled by
the ruling class. However,
today Mayday is celebrated as
a worker's day. This only
became so in 1889 when 8
anarchists were accused of
throwing a bomb and hanged
after an unfair trial. They
had been campaigning for the eight-hour day that we take for
granted today and on May 1st workers poured out in support.
Despite the anarchist origins of Mayday, people now associate it
more with Red Square and Stalin than anarcho-syndicalism
(anarchist trade unionists).

In the fall of 1999 ideas were thrown together and it was
decided to have a day of mass action on May 1st, the rest, as
they say, is history.

This Mayday had been planned as a whole week of action with May
1st as a mass action in Mayfair the traditional place where
Mayday was celebrated. No starting point was announced so that
there would be no repeat of last year's violation of people's
rights as they were penned in by police. Only four themes were
announced, these were Critical Mass (giant bike ride), Wake of
capitalism (funeral march for capitalism), Carniball
(multi-sided football) and The Traveling Circus (anarchist were
described as a traveling circus by Blair).

For Mayday, AYN had decided to create a padded bloc with the
WOMBLES who last Mayday had promoted the tactic of padding up.
This meant creating armour from cushion foam and card to deflect
police batons. This was also in solidarity with the seven
WOMBLES on trial over the Mayday week who were arrested by
police in October 2001. The aim was to promote the tactic of
protecting yourself from police batons by showing people on
mayday that it was possible not to be injured when police
started hitting people.

Report of IMC Italy Solidarity Demo - 23/02/02

Independent media center is a
network set up to allow a truly
independent and non-corporate
media service that would allow
each individual to become a
journalist and report anything
they felt to be important
meaning that news otherwise
blanked out of the mainstream
media could have its voice.
Indymedia were at Genoa when
Carlo Giuliani was murdered and
of course they were also present
as thousands of protesters were
attacked. The justifications of
these attacks have been fought over in court and many protesters
have been charged and many are bringing charges against the
police. The video evidence that is provided by Indymedia is
obviously an important part of the court proceedings.

On Wednesday 20th of February 2002, the Italian paramilitary
police raided and stole computers, archives and tapes that
belonged to activists who were part of Indymedia after an
attorney gave a warrant to seize material concerning the events
of Genoa. Not only taking away the actual data, computers were
taken that were integral to the daily political and cultural
lives of the people that used them.

In reaction to this, a solidarity demonstration was called on
Saturday 23rd of February outside the Italian embassy. This was
attended by people belonging to AYN.

A samba band played music while peaceful protesters held banners
and chanted, "We are all Indymedia". Suddenly, a cop car pulled
up and the two officers that came out immediately punched a 50
year old member of the demonstration using his walkie-talkie and
forced the protesters to back away from the embassy with the
threat of violence. The protester was left with cuts to his
forehead. An Italian couple visiting the embassy commented that
they were surprised that the police here were no better than in
Italy whose police force had a strong tradition of being fascist
who hold Hitler and Mussolini in high regard.

The protesters who had been standing on the pavement in front of
the embassy were pushed back into the street. This was used as
further excuse to threaten the protesters for obstructing
traffic and when two more police arrived they decided to make
arrests (for reasons unknown at time of writing). They kicked
and punched the protester while they tried to handcuff him while
the rest of the outraged crowd were held back with maddened
policemen waving their metal batons in the air. A policeman was
even heard shouting, "I don't give a fuck about the law," as
protesters demanded explanations for the attack and claimed that
it was illegal.

In the end two protesters were arrested without being told why
and one protester suffered light cuts to the forehead. It is
unlikely that the two protesters will be charged due to video
footage from many different cameras confirming their innocence.
It seems police can get away with anything without fear these
days although no doubt that wouldn't be much of a surprise to
ethnic minorities, teenagers and working class people anyway.

Report of NUS March - 20/02/02 

At about 11:00 a small group
of anarchists and
anti-capitalists gathered
outside Warren St. tube
station, with half a dozen
cops and a riot van for
company, after standing around
for a bit and chatting with
the cops we walked off towards
Malet St. stopping only to
raise our black flags. When we
reached Malet St. we'd grown
to about 20 people, but sadly
the number of cops had also grown. We gathered together at the
back of the march, and when the demo moved off began to slowly
move towards the front. Our small anarchist bloc was carrying a
large AF banner, several large black flags, and we were
distributing Anarchist Youth Network & London Mayday Collective
flyers (and copies of Resistance).

The march followed a pretty boring and obscure route until we
got onto Embankment, there was lots of placard waving and
chanting, I even saw some people selling papers and signing
petitions (a rare sight on a demonstration). The cops had
blocked off most side streets, fearing a section of the march
might break off again, every time we passed one we started to
sing our brand new song: "Brian Paddick is our friend, he's our
copper". The march went quite well and it was nice to walk
through Central London, whilst it wont achieve much it was still
a bit of a laugh, though being followed by cops all the way was
a bit of a bitch, it looked like they were keeping an eye on all
the "usual suspects". When we had reached Embankment we were
nearing the very front of the march, which had wound the NUS
stewards up (we achieved this by walking on the pavement). As
the march entered Parliament Sq. we were at the very front so we
decided to walk with the NUS members who were more progressive
than the march and led the march up Whitehall into Trafalgar Sq.
where the rally was held. It appears we missed the 10-minute
sit-down outside Downing Street, what a shame. 
Anarchist Youth Network
Address: c/o 84b, Whitechapel High Street, London

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