There is space for a lot of stuff to be done,
if you want it to be done, you need to do it.
Why are you manhandling this person?
Legally, I've not heard the warning, officer.
I have to have a warning before I am moved off the highway.
Could I be doing anything else, man?
Once you see injustice, you can't do anything but this.
I'm just Tay. I'm just Tay.
I'm trying to do what Tay can do. I can't do more than what I can do.
If you're not black and you don't care, then you won't be aware of it.
Whose Brixton? Whose Brixton?
We're gonna move to the bridge.
Political organising is a sacrifice and it's a lifelong sacrifice.
For me, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing.
I'm gonna be on the front lines of Ferguson with this thing.
(reporter) In London, supermarket chain Tesco put up anti-homelessness spikes
to deter people from sleeping outside of its doors.
It caused outrage on social media and caused a Homes Not Spikes demonstration.
Early on Thursday morning, an activist group, the London Black Revolutionaries,
took matters into their own hands, pouring concrete over the spikes.
The group's actions worked.
Later on Thursday, Tesco had the spikes removed
but denied that they were ever meant as an anti-homeless measure.
One of the biggest problems if you're black and brown now
is a real sense of kind of apathy or like disillusionment.
You grow up with your parents telling you
that your life is gonna be kind of hard 'cause you're brown,
twice as hard if you're brown and a girl,
and you're just supposed to just accept that.
But to have a group who've come
seemingly out of nowhere saying, "No, you don't have to accept it,
you can fight for it," is really empowering.
I guess tonight is a space to discuss as well as plan
and hopefully have some delegation that comes out of it,
depending on how much energy people can put into certain things.
With the Tesco's concreting of the homeless spikes,
people thought it was very unusual for a black organisation to do that.
But for me and for other members,
we think that there isn't sort of any weird contradiction about this.
The conditions that face ordinary black people, poverty, crisis in housing,
unemployment, health, education, mental health, everything,
these are all issues that we have to fight on.
I think one thing we're trying to get across to people
is we're not just fighting racism, we'll fight everything.
I'm really excited to have a space like this.
I think I've come to realise that...
like non-mixed spaces are super important.
So, you know, women-only spaces to me are really, really important.
Spaces where it's only black people, non-white people, whatever,
to talk about stuff without constantly having to mitigate
and make sure you don't make other people feel uncomfortable.
I just think, at the moment, these radical times
need radical action for radical change.
I hear you guys are the right place.
(crowd noise)
As a young black man, you know, born and raised in this country,
in London specifically, I don't see any other political avenue
for me to express my frustration or anger in.
- Whose streets? - Our streets!
(Tej) London Black Revs are necessary because there are no reference points
in the UK when it comes to activism for black and brown bodies.
To have a group who are contemporary and fighting for issues here today
is... it's important, but it also gives you hope.
(Arnie) I felt like the London Black Revolutionaries needed to be set up
that would allow people to become conscious
and be politicised, a concrete organisation
that had some tasks at hand to do, however big or small,
and go from there, really.
(crowd chants) Hands up, don't shoot! Hands up, don't shoot!
We have some speakers here tonight to talk to you tonight
about the political issues that are happening
both in the US and in the UK.
My brother was Sean Rigg
that died in the hands of the police, Brixton Police Station.
(jeering)
People are dying at the hands of the police.
There's never been a conviction in this country, ever.
The government allowed them to get away with brute murder.
(yelling)
(chanting) Hands up, don't shoot! Hands up, don't shoot!
Hands up, don't shoot!
(klaxons)
(chanting continues)
(chanting)
(indistinct)
Yes, yes, yes!
(ululation)
(chant) Fuck the police. No justice, no peace.
Hey.
Sit in the sun.
I came out of work and I was like,
ah, I definitely have time to go to Chinatown and get lychees now.
(Alex) Well, you're staying here tonight, right?
I guess it's about time 'cause you've stayed with Arnie, JP and Josh.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK. Welcome.
What I loved the most about London at first was the anonymity,
just being able to walk down the street and not have people stare.
I didn't grow up in Paris. I grew up in the countryside in France.
And so, yeah, there was a lot of staring and a lot of this constant reminder
that you are something else and I always say
that I was never French enough for the French.
So I really liked that when I moved to London.
Then, after a while, I was just like, actually, you know, what I really want
is not anonymity any more, it's a sense of community.
Which is hard work, but it's definitely getting there now.
Like, this year's been pretty, pretty good.
(director) What motivated you to join the Black Revs?
So, a few months ago, when was it?
When they did this, the anti-homeless spike action,
there was this thing, 'cause I remember it being an issue.
I was reading articles and having conversations, how it was outrageous
that they were putting those anti-homeless spikes outside shops.
And people were talking about it, like, "That's wrong."
And then one morning, I wake up and there's this article,
I think it was in Vice saying,
overnight this radical black militant group just poured concrete over it,
and, for me, that was one of the most important political and radical actions,
and just in terms of the urgency, I think that was really, really spot on.
And I hope we can do more, more of that.
(Josh) I'm glad I joined London Black Revs, the future I feel for this group
is end destination, like, understand
that there's people in here who are lifelong revolutionaries.
We're unstoppable. I'm telling you like, I'm so sure
that we're gonna make some fucking insane presence
and build a beautiful loving family of resistance.
The sky's the limit, fam, the sky's the limit.
And I just, yeah. Till the death, man, honestly.
(woman) This month's ten-minute takeover comes from R Movement,
an organisation that started off as a small group of friends
who met through Twitter,
after realising that they had a shared passion for social change.
Hi, everyone, we're R Movement,
an intersectional revolutionary organisation.
We're here today to talk about feminism and why we need feminism.
We're going to be covering why feminism is important to us
and just what feminism means to us.
I'll start with introductions.
Everyone has to introduce themselves so everyone gets comfortable.
My name's Jeremiah. I'm a member of R Movement.
At the moment, I'm just working at a school
doing one-to-one with young children.
I'm Josh, I'm part of R Movement,
I'm in sixth form, just doing my little small political thing.
I'm Evar, I'm a painter.
I'm also a member of R Movement. I'm basically here today
because I want to learn about people's perspectives on what feminism is.
I used to be quite a feminine young boy and that,
but my parents more or less forced, drilled patriarchal masculinity into me.
Obviously, I used to cry all the time until like, what, 14, 15,
when I finally accepted it and became like that, rough...
Just the more or less archetypal...
...hyper-masculine figure, if you get what I mean.
You can't achieve something that has such a moral base
like freedom without empathy.
How can you fight for the freedom of someone that you don't feel for?
(Evar) It's true.
Look at all these women from ethnic backgrounds
that always literally scream at these white women,
like, "Stop looking at us differently."
"We have, like, we're women at the end of the day."
Why don't we say patriarchy's poison, because that's PP?
It sounds better, innit? Patriarchy's poison.
OK, patriarchy's...
Let me not do all of this and spell it wrong.
(laughter)
(camera clicks)
(laughter)
Chill, bruv.
(indistinct)
Hello.
You alright?
Oh, my God, you're so tall.
Do we think we can work with Global Women?
- Do we? - Do we?
I think we would be down to work with Global Women.
Yeah, you said something about collaborating, so...
Hmm?
As long as, like... Because I feel...
He's doing R Movement,
so it's like you lot just rebuke against capitalism and shit, innit?
Every system of oppression.
White supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism. All the isms.
I get scared of black male activists, though.
"I get scared of black male activists."
Because I've met a lot of misogynistic ones.
So, like, I'm looking at you sideways and at the moment.
- I understand. - It's just really hard to trust people.
Like, whenever I say to a black man, "Oh, I'm a black feminist,"
they're always like, "Why are you trying to divide us?"
"This is what the white man wants." Like, "If you divide us..."
It's like, "Well, you're not really giving a fuck about me as a woman."
"You're coming at it from a male perspective."
You have to understand black males, you have it hard,
but for black women, it's like we don't even exist.
I completely get what you mean about black male activists,
and even preaching about black women and that,
protecting them and acting misogynistic.
Because even in R Movement,
we had to expel a member who was quite prominent in the group,
we had to expel him for misogyny.
I feel like they always push that American thing down our throats,
so showing that us, "Well, you're not getting shot,
so you guys are good, like."
"Race relations in Britain are good because you're not dying, like."
(woman) "No one's racist in Europe."
"You're not getting shot, no one's getting thrown to the floor
while they're trying to be peaceful and shit."
And I hate that, I hate that.
What's motivated me, really, is seeing how people live,
and in some way experiencing it first-hand, so it feels like...
And also knowing the reason behind why these problems,
these social problems exist,
so it feels like sort of not just a responsibility to me
but also to the people around me.
Me personally, I experienced the highest level of racial abuse
at secondary school. I was called a nigger for about three years straight
by someone, what's it called, by some one white guy.
No teachers doing nothing, even though they heard that type of thing.
That gave me years of internalised rage,
but small things like that... In fact, that's not even fucking small,
but things like that trajected me onto that path
towards understanding the systematic nature of racism.
The police have been described as institutionally racist,
which means that more or less the institution itself is racist,
despite individuals who might not be racist.
And because it's institutionally racist, it has racist outcomes,
for example, the increased stop-and-search on people of colour.
We want to do a little roleplay with you lot regarding stop-and-search.
Are you alright over there, mate?
I'm not gonna lie, you fit the description of a crime
that's happened in this area.
I suspect you've been robbing houses, mate.
If I fit the description, can you radio in and give me that exact description?
Oh, sorry, what's your name, boy?
I'm not obliged to give you my name at all.
You know what? Put your hands behind your back.
This is a stop-and-search.
You need to give me a reason, a solid reason.
I'm doing this under the Criminal Law Act.
You haven't given me the description.
You're putting me under the Criminal Law Act and saying...
Based on what, on some poor description?
- Can you radio in, please? - Alright, yeah.
(laughs) Yeah.
- (applause) - Looks like he won.
There's no certain way to do it because the police often look for loopholes,
they often look for loopholes in your argument
and loopholes in the system that they're supposed to abide by.
I'm sorry, I wasn't the most charismatic
Malcolm X, Martin Luther King-esque speaker.
Obviously, I'm just a baby boy living my life.
- (laughter) - Yeah.
- (applause) - Thank you.
- Next week, hmm? - What's happening?
We're going out on the streets to teach people about their rights.
So we're handing out leaflets with the laws on, etc.
Just doing our thing.
(Tay) Sometimes I do carry stop-and-search information
in my pocket.
You never know when you're gonna need it.
So last time was, there was two of 'em.
They were like, "Oh, can you come over here for a second?"
I didn't even get to see their ID or anything.
They did a little quick flash and then they searched me and my bag.
It makes you just feel like everyone's staring at you.
It feels proper embarrassing, you feel like a dickhead.
But you just feel powerless, just everything about it.
It's racism, man, literally.
I don't even know what else it could be but that.
That'll never happen again.
A lot of people don't know what their rights are. I was chatting to some guy.
He stopped me in the Job Centre. I said to him, like...
I don't think people know about common law and them things.
Even some of the policemen don't know that.
Yeah, I know this already. I've dropped common law to a lot of the police.
But they can't say nothing to me after that, you know?
But when you say, if you don't know what you're saying to them,
then that's when they try to take and exploit the whole situation.
This is a good look though. You should give it out to all the young ones.
- That's what we're trying to do, - That's a good look, man, seriously.
They can't stop you based on, like, stereotypes.
What about if they do, what can we do?
Well, you can ask them to radio in
to give them a specific, detailed description of that person.
They can't just say, "Oh, tall black male."
You say, "Can you radio in
and tell me exactly what this black male looks like?"
And if they can't do that, then they can't stop and search you
because those aren't valid grounds.
If you tell them, "Are you operating under Go Wisely?",
which basically means, are you operating under reasonable grounds,
if they say no, then they can't detain you.
And one thing that they try to pressure you into doing is talking,
but under no circumstances, if you don't wanna talk, you don't have to talk.
If they say... And you can ask them, are you detaining me?
If they say no, you can walk away.
- You can walk away. - Thank you for that, thank you.
You're welcome, man.
(Tej) I've always been very aware of racism.
There's no way you can be black in London, I think, and not be.
You see how much it starts to entrench your daily life
and affect your personal life and the choices you can make.
My brother came home one day.
He was shaking with rage and I've never seen him like that.
I was like, "What's wrong, what's wrong?"
He was just like, "I've lost my phone,
I've just been humiliated in the street."
Basically, he was coming back from work
with his colleagues, and the police, basically,
just pounced on him, stopped and searched him,
stripped him of all his stuff and he lost loads of stuff.
And I think just having to confront it properly for the first time
really shook him up and just made him really aware of what other black boys
must be going through on a daily basis.
There is a baggage that comes with living in this skin
that means that you're constantly aware of how the world is seeing you.
(chanting)
(Arnie) In the strangest way, we got a communication from the police
which was to ask us to call 101 and ask for an inspector,
which was tweeted to us, of all things.
We ended up doing a bit of a search on the inspector
who wants us to contact him and he comes from this police station.
It's just another scare tactic of the police
trying to scare activists and trying to scare organisations.
I don't think it's anything different
from what the police have been doing for many decades.
We will absolutely not cooperate with the police, will not talk to the police.
We have no reason to talk to the police.
We will not become an organisation
that starts working with the police in partnership
or be threatened or scared into working with them.
We have no cooperation with the pigs at all.
An organisation like Black Revs
is always gonna test people's participation.
Not everyone is gonna be open and willing to be in an organisation
that does certain direct actions
and brings public criticism, private criticism,
and then pressure from the public
and obviously the government and the police.
(man) This week, we're talking about
the biggest story of the summer, the year,
and in many respects, the century, that is Europe's refugee crisis.
We'll ask what the end of the current refugee crisis looks like
and what a solution might be about.
(woman) It's now being framed as a humanitarian issue
and now everyone in Europe
has a moral imperative to somehow intervene.
You can't have an idea of humanitarianism
without an idea of what exclusions from the human are.
And as we've seen for decades and decades,
you're excluded from the category of human if you're anything other
than European or North American or Australian
and that means you can die
while just trying to seek a better life for yourself
or a safer life for your family.
I think that's the first significant thing.
(helicopter)
(Josh) We are here today, assembled outside the London Eye for the die-in.
The die-in is about the over 950 black and brown people
that have been murdered by the scaling-down of rescue missions.
It's abstract for a lot of people, they can't quite empathise with it
or manage to see what that looks like,
so it's important to have these kind of things for people to visualise
and also for people who are distraught
to have a place to vent about it as well.
And for us, it's just the urgency is utterly high, like, we, as diaspora,
like, the comprehension of how bodies get here,
how our families got here in the Windrush,
how our families still travel,
it rips a fucking chunk of our heart out when we see what happens.
The whole language of the press is just incredibly nasty
and there is no empathy, there is no... and it's not just about empathy.
It's also, to me, it's a political thing about acknowledging our responsibility.
People who are currently seeking asylum,
make sure you don't come anywhere near a megaphone
once we've crossed the bridge.
(cheering)
- Say it loud and say it clear. - (all) Refugees are welcome here.
- Say it loud, say it clear. - Refugees are welcome here.
Everybody who knows that they might have legal issues, stay on the pavement.
Anybody who's gonna be involved in the die-in, come into the road now.
(all) No borders, no nations, stop deportations.
No borders, no nations, stop deportations.
The enemy is profit. Unemployment and inflation.
We are worthy.
No more of your high gates and your ivory towers.
No more.
Everyone is welcome here.
- Say it loud, say it clear. - Everyone is welcome here.
When we ran out onto the street and we lay down
and we put the flowers on our chests,
I looked up at the sky and I imagined what it actually means to die.
You know, like, people were on those boats,
they looked up, and that's the last thing they may have seen.
(man) Hello, Mr Tasker.
And you can film this actually, man.
Hello, sir, how you doing?
Simon Tasker, I'm the police commander, can I shake your hand?
You may not want to talk to me. Can I at least offer you my hand?
As a gesture that you're willing to...
It's not you. When you're out of uniform maybe, but you represent an institution
that is institutionally racist, so, yeah, I can't take your hand.
My name's Simon and I'm the Police Commander here.
I think your colleague or co-partner here may have some details.
- No co-partner. Observer, independent. - No problem.
- You've taken my name. - A member of the public can do that.
Would you be willing to talk to me in any capacity
about any of the issues either that you are complaining or protesting
or demonstrating about? And is there any agreement we can come to
as to a resolution as to how we can go about our business,
how you can go about your business and return
the community harmony, if you will, to this area?
I got stopped and searched a couple of weeks ago.
You can't facilitate anything for me.
We are here, we will remain until such time
as we either reach a resolution or an agreement between ourselves,
or such time as we feel
that there may be enough disruption that has been caused to this area
and then we may have to redress.
Do you know how much of a farce what you're saying is?
- Sorry? - It's a farce.
You're speaking to me, it's like a comedy in my mind
that you're talking about keeping people safe.
What your uniform represents is savagery.
I can't take anything you say seriously, man.
So, maybe outside of uniform, we could connect on some level
but right now, I have nothing to say to you, man.
And on a personal level, this isn't a personal level.
You come here as a police officer, so don't try any mind games with me.
There's nothing personal.
What is personal is every fucking stop-and-search receipt
I have on my collage at home, that's personal.
If you wanna talk about that, we can talk about that, but not right now.
You can have a conversation with every individual.
Like I said, there are no leaders here.
OK. Thank you for your time.
Huh?
He just had some stupid questions to ask me
and pretend that he's polite, and talk crap.
(director) You mentioned all the stop-and-search receipts you've got.
How does it feel to come face to face with somebody
who has the power to do that?
Pfft.
It's... Bro, it is a reminder that like, on no symbolic level,
on no abstract level, I live in a prison, man.
Every time I come out of my yard for any reason, reasons such as I don't...
I dress like I don't live in the area,
reasons like I shouldn't be on this street,
reasons like I need to account for my presence,
for any given reason they can stop me,
take away my freedom of movement.
Bro, every time I come face to face with them, the energy within me
to wanna change the status quo that he was talking about is fucking vigorous.
- I'll be in touch, yeah? - Nice to meet you again.
Bye.
(Arnie) This was once a big estate where communities lived
but now what you have is a gutted estate, really.
I think the police are the armed hand of the state.
You see that with the evictions,
across the borough when they go in with bailiffs and the police
and they smash into people's doors and they kick out three kids under ten
and some Asian family, leave 'em out on the street, the council ignores them,
has ignored every plea all the months beforehand.
Pushing... This is an example of pushing people to the edge.
Can't afford to rent. If you can't afford to pay the bills,
if you don't have a job, if you're homeless,
then essentially what the message is
is that you're not fit to live in society, you need to die.
That's what they're saying.
We're trying to find out the amount of homeless people within the area
so that we could sort of have an estimate of how many aid packages
we're going to need and how many people we can actually reach.
Because we don't want to...
I mean, it's better to have a surplus of these packages than too little,
but we don't want to sort of mobilise too many people
and then to not feel as though it's effective.
In an ideal society, I don't think homelessness would be a problem
because shelter et cetera would be provided by all
and housing would be owned by all,
and that's the type of society that R Movement's sort of struggling for.
(director) How does homelessness make you feel?
It makes me feel bad. What type of answer did you expect?
(man) What are you doing?
We're actually handing aid packages out to homeless people in the area.
There's the hostel down the way, there's King's Cross.
There's loads of hostels but the problem with the homeless thing
is you've gotta be seen, they've gotta catch you at the right time
and see you sleeping in the same place three nights on the trot.
And that causes problems because like... like, a lot of rough sleepers,
we don't like sleeping in a fixed spot
because sometimes you get trouble causers, you know.
Do you know where the most homeless people are within the area?
- On the cross there. - On that cross?
Yeah. Just on that corner.
- Thanks a lot, man. - Bless, man, respect.
We need tissues, tampons, sanitising gel,
roll-on deodorant, toothbrushes,
face towels, wash cloths, bottled water, protein granola bars,
toothpaste, antibacterial wipes, and just everything, man.
So, how many packages are we trying to make? A hundred?
- How many toothbrushes? - 50.
Oh, antibacterial wipes.
30.
39. No, wait, 36, 39?
(she laughs)
I'm so confused. Oh, that does add up, yeah, I was just confused.
(man) So, what I'm interested in is this.
If you were talking to, let's say, a hundred residents of Brixton,
I mean, how do they emotionally deal with it
and how do they sort of rationally deal with it?
(Arnie) People are not happy with the force of gentrification in the area,
they're not happy with the rise in rents and they're not happy with the trend.
Other people that I've spoken to who maybe have moved out.
I know that conventionally the definition is about an area
increasing its middle-class inhabitants at the expense of working-class people.
Revs or revolutionaries?
I think the longer version,
so people don't get confused that we're not reverends.
I've got that a couple of times. "Oh, you're a reverend? What church are you?"
(laughs)
We should be quite smart about it being a reclamation of space
rather than trying to target individuals there. We might turn up
and we'll most likely be the biggest element of the village
and then we're just there shouting at a few people.
I don't think it should be like a guilt-tripping scenario,
just an empowering and reclamative space.
(Asad) I've gotta say I've heard from a couple of people,
"You lot are gonna target people, individuals,
you're targeting individuals who are in that."
There's lot of local teachers and people who live in that area,
who've lived 20 years, but they might be white.
You know, how do you tell the difference between them and the richer?
I think we get into quite complicated territory.
I think we should respond to that in the thing we say,
that we get people to read.
And I think that's why we should read it in the square as well, because it's...
People are trivialising our message, you know?
Have you guys thought about how to engage with bystanders and civilians?
Like, the actual people in the village,
the white people that are gonna be there.
Us reading out a political statement, highlighting the dynamics
between the black community and gentrification and social cleansing,
and then talking about how white communities
and white working-class people are also involved in that,
being gentrified and pushed out, being socially cleansed from the area.
We should highlight that too,
to make the political bridge saying it's not just about black communities.
Also you have the class dynamic
to the whole of Brixton, which is important.
We're just getting ready for a full day of actions.
So, today is Reclaim Brixton.
So we, as the Black Revs,
we're gonna do a Black Brunch through Brixton Village
and then we're gonna join the rest of the gathering on the main square.
So, yeah, that's what we're getting ready for, so we need some of these.
The thing about the Black Brunch is that, to me,
it's a different kind of protest, but it is also very personal thing.
So people will be sat down having brunch and we're gonna be there,
with our bodies in front of them so it's a closer thing
and it's a closer finger-pointing.
It's this thing of making people uncomfortable
and, you know, making white people uncomfortable and forcing them to think
about their privilege and what they do
and what they choose to do with it or not.
And it's one thing like, you know, posting something online saying,
like ranting against white privilege or white supremacy
and it's another, doing it in front of someone who is just here.
(all) Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets.
We're here to have a peaceful protest through Brixton and the Brixton Village.
The vibe is to be positive and we'll be celebrating and remembering
the black memory and the black community of Brixton.
(man) Without community, there is no liberation.
(all) Without community, there is no liberation.
(man) We must love and support each other.
(all) We must love and support each other.
(man) We have nothing to lose but our chains.
(all) We have nothing to lose but our chains.
(man) We remember the generations past.
(all) We remember the generations past.
(man) Who have walked the path that we stand upon.
(all) Who have walked the path that we stand upon.
(man) Forced to rebuild their lives.
(all) Forced to rebuild their lives.
(man) Rejoicing, dancing and eating together.
(all) Rejoicing, dancing and eating together.
(man) Only to be priced out.
(all) Only to be priced out.
(man) We will not let this happen.
(all) We will not let this happen.
(woman) Black communities matter.
(all) Black communities matter.
(man) Black communities matter.
(all) Black communities matter.
- Reclaim... - (all) Brixton...
Yeah, we just went through Brixton Village and it was really great.
So it was this big group of us, we went in,
chanted, read some texts and, yeah, we went in front of like,
specific restaurants that we had identified.
The security, one of them obviously had to do his job he was like,
"You can't do this here."
The other guy was like, "They can go through."
(Tej) I think it's really important to be here today,
like, even though over the past couple of weeks, I've had my like ups and downs
about tactics and, like, ways of doing activism.
I think it's fundamentally better to do something than nothing.
(director) You were very tactically not at the Black Brunch.
Can you kind of explain your feeling
as to the Black Brunch and its effectiveness?
So, my reasons for not going is because I fundamentally think
if you're going to make change, you need to get everybody involved.
You can't say that Brixton only belongs to a certain group of people
and the reason why this is so powerful is that you have literally got people
from all cross-sections of life here.
So, to try and exclude people,
I think it plays into the hands of imperialism and oppression, really.
- Black and white, unite and fight. - Black and white, unite and fight.
(all) The people united will never be defeated.
The people united will never be defeated.
(indistinct)
You didn't. Don't tell me what to do, man.
I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just suggesting.
It's best to walk round there.
I'm a free individual, I do what I like.
It's best to walk round there, walk round there.
(shouting)
Don't get locked in!
(chant) Fuck the police.
No justice, no peace. Fuck the police. No justice, no peace.
Like, it's just the fumes, innit, that fuck your eyes up.
(voice on megaphone)
If the revolution is gonna happen,
we need to form collectives, we need to form groups.
(Tej) It was really inspiring for the first half of it, like...
There were children out, I saw loads of people from my life in Brixton there
and just seeing people from different classes and races coming together
was like, this is what it should all be about.
And then the day just took a turn.
Someone was manning the stall with me and went off to get lunch
and just didn't come back, and after a few hours, I was calling everyone.
"What's going on, where are you?"
Didn't hear anything back until I just saw, like,
a collection of people, like, limping towards me on the grass
and just getting the sense that something had gone wrong.
(Tej) Arnie, I really do think we need to take responsibility for ourselves.
I knew something was gonna happen.
On my part, I should have said straight up,
I'm worried about the nature of this protest.
I didn't completely agree with everything that happened
but I wouldn't ever turn around and say, "You shouldn't do that."
But I think there's nothing wrong with asking an individual
to have the courage be responsible
and do the right thing in every situation.
Doing the right thing could be sweeping up with a mop
with the middle-class crews in the street
or doing the right thing could be standing with the youth
who have been totally disillusioned for years.
I get that, I'm just as angry.
I don't have the same contextual background as everyone,
but I'm a black girl who's grown up in London,
so I experienced racism growing up
and I just think, again, just think about the fucking bigger picture.
What our response to, or what our position is, on violence
and what as a group we are saying,
that's quite contentious amongst us, yeah.
Even yesterday, there were so many moments where I heard people
reducing a really complicated political situation
into a basic dichotomy of them and us, good and evil.
And that simplified things for them and actually gave them an excuse
to do something that would get them into trouble
and consequently hurt other people
and not actually the change situation that's hurt them in the first place.
A black group that says it's revolutionary
always stands with the most disillusioned
and the most vulnerable and the most poor.
In doing that, you can alienate yourself from other groups.
What we're doing is self-defence, it's political,
it's different from being violent.
The destruction of property's nothing compared to the violence of the police
or the violence of the state and how they ruin and kill lives.
But what effect has it had? What have we actually done
to impact the thing that we were fighting against, essentially?
(David Cameron) I've just been to see Her Majesty the Queen,
and I will now form a majority Conservative Government.
(news) The Prime Minister, David Cameron,
promising to govern as a One Nation Conservative.
He's also vowed to substantially cut state welfare expenditure
as well as the rate of tax over the next parliament.
We're gonna have to gauge when we have the numbers what we can do.
We don't wanna get trapped outside the Tory HQ.
I know that's the draw, but surviving and being mobile is important.
If we can get in front of the media, or Horse Guards Parade or that shit.
(klaxon)
(Tej) What is the point of having a protest that says "F the Tories"?
It doesn't make people take you seriously
and you just you question yourself,
"Is my politics right, do I have a right to be here?"
"Am I doing the right thing?"
It does feel quite self-righteous and self-serving
and that's not the kind of activism that I wanna be part of.
(chant) Fuck off back to Eton.
We're gonna move to the bridge.
- Whose streets? - Our streets.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is police provocation. This is police provocation right here.
Police brutality.
- No democratic system... - You seen the police?
They're hitting people with batons.
Tories out! Tories out! Tories out!
Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!
(shouting)
(whistles)
Fuck the police! No justice, no peace. Fuck the police!
(Josh) I think that he's a well-intentioned person.
There's nothing like sinister about what...
to explain why he does the things he does.
But that is coupled with like a severe arrogance and recklessness.
He's been incredibly reckless.
(Tej) Arnie exhibits a lot of fucked-up patriarchal behaviour.
It's masculinist bullshit, like, fuck that shit, I can't be bothered.
(Josh) Personally, I don't think I could work with him in the future.
I feel I don't trust him and it's kinda upsetting.
You're using black and brown bodies to build your revolutionary movement.
That's what I feel like. It's fucked, I'm upset by it.
The movement is bigger than Arnie. I don't wanna spend weeks and weeks
and months and months talking about Arnie.
(Alex) Setting aside the political stuff in the group,
draft an email collectively.
You know, whoever's around, we sign it saying, reaching out to him,
not reaching out and saying,
"Come back as our leader," not saying that.
But to show that we care about him.
So, the present situation is that our esteemed leader
has told us where to go without words, except rants on Facebook.
Has ignored us all, has locked us all off and is now badmouthing us.
So as far as I'm concerned, London Black Revs is now just Arnie
using the hype that has been collectively created
by lots of people's effort and energy and time.
"As a militant black activist group,
we are fully committed to horizontality as our organising principle
and will not bow down
to top-down, discriminating and dirty tactics by one individual."
"We fundamentally believe
that the legitimacy of the group lies with its members."
"The founder of LBR is not LBR. We collectively are."
The main thing he is saying is political differences.
And because we see him as politically different to us,
we've tried to isolate him and he's been fighting back
and trying to make it work, and then that we have hijacked LBR
and he has therefore had to do this.
And for people who don't hear our side, it automatically goes in deep.
(laughter)
Anyway.
He's being disingenuous, he's lying, he's being divisive,
and he's not coming out with anything that actually is going to help people.
I don't get where his politics have come from at all.
I'm pissed because I actually defended him.
I guess in the whole arguments around violence, it's quite isolating.
London Black Revs is an organisation that's uncompromising.
People know about that.
And to be like, "We were violent towards the police and,
you know, we shouldn't be going to the police station..."
There are some pigs walking down the road now.
Or, you know, we shouldn't be calling anti-Tory demonstrations
because of security of our own members.
You know what you got yourself into. It's a radical organisation.
Stuff happens and we can't be uncompromising.
(director) So were members removed from the group?
Was there like an exclusion or...?
I don't know how that works.
(director) No, but did people leave or...?
I'd wait for the statement on that.
- No justice. - No peace.
- If they don't give us justice. - Then we won't give them peace.
And we will shut shit down.
1,516 deaths in police custody.
- No justice. - No peace.
It's been a humongous journey,
to commit so much to an organisation and see so much of it fall to pieces.
To learn that the kind of characteristics
that you see inherent in dirty politicians
can happen within a political movement.
Personally, it's been one of the most tumultuous times of my life.
Raah, there's some pile-up here, you know.
So what are we doing with these extra ones? We're gonna...
It's 'cause there's confusion.
Wait, what's this?
Roll-on, I don't think I've been putting roll-on in my ones, you know.
- Where's the roll-on? - It's over here.
Oh, my days.
In a bag full of hygiene things...
Illegal?
Illegal, take me to jail, bruh.
(laughter)
You can get arrested, I'm not. Sorry.
Hello?
I am carrying these bags, man.
I'm carrying these bags, bruh. I'm en route.
Nah, it's cool, though, man.
(indistinct)
I don't like doing this, I don't like speaking to everyone.
Yo, yo, yo, ay, I'm not even gonna lie.
Can everyone split into four groups of roughly equal people?
If anyone gets hit crossing the road or anything like that, this ain't school
so I can't take responsibility, and I was never here, so, yeah.
(laughter)
Oh, socks. Sorry, I didn't even have...
We don't have socks but we've got a top.
I might be able to...
No problem, no problem.
- (director) Was that top not yours? - Hmm?
- (director) Was that top not yours? - It was, you know.
- (director) You gave away your top? - Yeah.
(indistinct)
Oh, cool.
We are following the false prophet that is Tay. I don't know his surname.
He's that much of a mystery. Roadman don't have surname.
- (Tay) What? - Look at you!
(Tay) You could never say that in the South.
Not even look at him, listen to him talk.
- (Tay) Are you talking about me? - Yes.
- (Tay) What about me? - About your revolutionary roadman ways.
How man's on the corner preaching Marxism.
I didn't even know what Marxism is until I started following him.
Well, I know the word but...
Something like that.
Hi. I have this bag. For you, do you want it?
Yeah, thank you.
- Alright. - Thank you.
Do you guys have sandwiches?
I'm not a good conversationalist.
(director) Are you not gonna explain what group you're from?
Huh? Nah, I think that just feels a bit self-promotiony,
like, to be like, "Hi, we're R Movement."
They don't care. Just do good for them.
That's like when people go to other countries
and then try and spread the word of Christ
to little African kids who are dying of malaria.
Like, no, just, like, fricking give them the pills.
(indistinct)
Are you all family?
No, we're all part of like a group of young people.
We're trying to make this a regular thing.
Take out care packages. This is our first time doing it in London.
You'll get far round here, honestly.
Don't them earrings hurt your ears? Don't they hurt your ears?
I can't wear them day after day. I have to give myself a break.
- God, they look so heavy. - They're not heavy, it's just, yeah...
Yeah, they're not heavy, but yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Oh.
It's irritating my head, the fur.
Oh.
(Tay) It's just knowing that this is right.
It doesn't even feel like a choice.
It feels like something I have to do because it's right.
I don't want to get all sentimental and that, but it's like, if I didn't,
then it would sort of be on my conscience.
I'd feel like I'm not doing anything,
just like not doing anything positive, not doing what I should.
To the countless families up and down the UK
who continue to mourn their loved ones
killed at the hands of the state and organise for justice...
- What do we want? - Justice.
- When do we want it? - Now.
- What do we want? - Justice.
- When do we want it? - Now.
(Alex) I am quite excited and I think there are a lot of things happening,
there are a lot of groups coming out and doing really cool stuff.
That's not something we've created, we haven't created the desire for people
to be a part of something like this, but just the way that we've grown,
just like someone saying like, "Oh, cool,
I've heard about you guys, I'd love to get involved."
So, sitting down with them and becoming friends
and now trying to think of, like, how can we bridge what we do
and work together? And we are working together.
Now is the time to build, now is the time to grow.
We are here to organise and it's not me organising you.
It's not this person organising you. We are organising, we are building,
we are building a movement and we are gonna figure it out together.
Because that's how we build and that's how we grow.
Does that make sense to everyone?
(cheering)
Black lives matter!
(Tej) At the moment I'm working a lot. I'm meant to be moving out soon
so I need to make a lot of money very quickly.
A lot of things fell apart last year
so I feel like I'm just still trying to rebuild from that.
I still look back at Brixton, every time we see the trailer.
You know, and I see myself screaming "Whose Brixton?"
I just think that is the problem with a lot of activism, you know.
It looks really impressive to see me screaming like that
but, actually, I didn't really do much for that community
and there are other people
who are doing an incredible amount of work as individuals
and just coming together as a community but not trying to be a group
trying to make a statement and trying to be seen to be doing things.
They're doing it because they have to.
The world is still a very fucked-up place
and I'm not really sure where our groups fit in.
It would be a shame to say that the last year wasn't worthwhile.
I've got a lot of really wonderful people my life
as a result of being in the group, which I wouldn't take away for the world.
If I were to start last year again, knowing what I know now,
it might be one of the things that I would do differently.
Even if it wasn't was worthwhile for me.
That's not to say that it isn't for other people.
It's one thing to pour concrete over homeless spikes
but it would be another to do what friends of mine
who go to church every Sunday do,
which is actually go and feed the homeless every Sunday.
There's a big difference between those two things.
- No justice. - No peace.
Black lives matter!
(Tay) It's been a rocky two years. It's had its ups and downs
and now the Black Lives Matter UK movement,
linking the activist networks into a umbrella movement...
Hi, it's Ash Sarkar from Novara Media here
and we're with UK Black Lives Matter who are shutting down the M4
in protest at police violence, racist border controls
and everyday street racism.
- No justice. - No peace.
(Josh) The future of activism in this country,
brothers like us are gonna get more severely criminalised,
not just through policing measures of activism but through policing measures
in our communities, like Prevent, like stop-and-search,
like gang measures, everything.
(all) We want justice.
(Tay) Cursed since my birth, wretched of the earth,
my black skin, trapped in the hood, full of poor mums and black men,
and plus my whole fucking block poor,
I never had shit, fam, I slept in the sock drawer, my life full of struggling.
And the majority of those deaths are black deaths. It's...
(Josh) It's been arrest after arrest, police intimidation,
knocks at your door in the morning, harassing your parents,
threatening your parents, threatening group members, heavy state surveillance.
Please just stay back. Just stay back.
Why are you manhandling him?
I did not hear the warning, officer.
I have to have a warning before I am moved off the highway.
(Josh) People on the bottom rung of the ladder
are gonna take control, that's what's gonna happen.
You were filmed being warned, you were filmed, sir,
you are being filmed right now.
Sorry, can you explain what you're doing?
I have to have a warning before I'm arrested. I did not have a warning.
When the Home Secretary's being asked why do black lives matter,
we're pushing it, man.
That's our momentum, that's our work, that's our work. We're doing this.
And we ain't gonna stop.
(chant) Black lives matter!
(Tay) A lot's getting done. it definitely feels good
to have somewhere new to put my energy towards.
I met some wicked people, done wicked things.
Yeah, it's just been a wavy two years, man.
(woman) This is not a one-off action, it's the beginning of a movement,
a movement for black lives in the UK.
Really drawing attention to the racism that black people in the UK face today.
(Josh) It's gonna go further and further
until somebody's got a big man in Whitehall
in a place where he has to answer questions.
We are gonna win, trust me.
We're gonna win, trust me. We're gonna win. One hundred per cent.
Black lives matter! Black lives matter!
- No justice. - No peace.
Black lives matter!