Reclaim the Streets

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1997 Reclaim The Streets party held in London's Trafalgar Square
1997 Reclaim The Streets party held in London's Trafalgar Square

Reclaim the Streets (RTS) is a group of people with a collective ideal of community ownership of public spaces. It has been characterised as a resistance movement to the corporate forces of globalisation, and, more significantly, as a form of opposition to the car as the dominant mode of transport.

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[edit] Protests

Reclaim the Streets often stage non-violent direct action street reclaiming events such as the 'invasion' of a major road, highway or freeway to stage a party. While this may obstruct the regular users of these spaces such as car drivers and public bus riders, the philosophy of Reclaim the Streets is that it is vehicle traffic, not pedestrians who are causing the obstruction, and that by occupying the road they are in fact opening up public space. RTS events are usually spectacular and colourful, with dancing, traffic disruption and occasionally violence. All these allow a Temporary Autonomous Zone. The style of the parties in many places has been influenced by the rave scene in the UK.

Reclaim the Streets events have also been known to be followed by the subsequent arrival and confusion of police officers and drivers. Sometimes the parties produce enough noise to drown out the sound of the jackhammers which have been used to dig up sections of roads, and plant over them with sod.

Reclaim the Streets is also used to denote such types of political action, regardless of their actual relation to the RTS movement.

[edit] History

Reclaim the Streets began in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, and was taken up as a form of protest around the world. These "street parties" have been held in cities all over Europe, Australia, North America, and Africa. Initial instances confounded authorities, but over the years it has become institutionalised in many places, where it occurs much like other forms of legal protest in that the march is arranged with authorities, the only difference being the form of the march itself, which involves music and dancing on roads, and involves a period in which a road is occupied without marching.

A list of actions in London:

  • Camden High Street, May 14, 1995. A busy London street closed to traffic for an afternoon.
  • Upper Street, Islington, July 23, 1995. One thousand people party at another busy traffic junction. There is a sound system and kids play in a hastily constructed sandpit.
  • M41 Motorway, Shepherd's Bush, London. July 13, 1996. After a cat-and-mouse game with the police, 6,000 protestors take over part of the elevated motorway. A sound system plays. Hidden underneath dancers walking on stilts and wearing huge, wire-supported dresses, environmental activists drill holes in the tarmac and plant trees.
  • Trafalgar Square, April 12, 1997. The 'F**k The Ballots' protest against the forthcoming General Election A march with the sacked Liverpool Dockers started at Kennington Park and ended up at Trafalgar Square in the centre of London.
  • Brixton Road, Brixton and High Road, Seven Sisters, June 6, 1998. Two street reclamations in one day, with an estimated 5,000 people at each party.
  • Bank Underground Station, July 13, 1998. In order to show support for London Underground workers striking resisting privatisation, activists shut down the Central Line by climbing on a train in the morning rush-hour and unfurled a larger banner at the station entrance.
  • Toxic Planet at 173 Upper Street, London N1 (opposite Islington Town Hall). 4-11 October 1998.
  • Tube Party. May 1, 1999.
  • Carnival against Capitalism. June 18, 1999. A global day of action. In London the financial district is targeted. The LIFFE building is stormed.
  • Seattle Solidarity Action, Euston Station, London. November 30, 1999. The World Trade Organisation was meeting in Seattle and met with concerted protest. In London, after a peaceful rally a police van is overturned and set on fire.
  • No Blood For Oil. February 3, 2000. A solidarity action in support of the U'wa people of Colombia.
  • Guerilla Gardening. May 1, 2000. An expressly non-violent gardening action at Parliament Square.
  • Business Class Tube launched. June 5, 2001. 50 trains receive stickers announcing a new Cattle Class.
  • Action to mark the introduction of the Terrorism Act . February 19, 2001.
  • Bye Bye Planet. April 19, 2001. An action at the Natural History Museum protested at the perceived greenwash and corporate rebranding of British Petroleum (BP) by subverting an exhibition about climate change which was sponsored by BP.
  • Free shop at a May Day event. May 1, 2002
  • Reclaim the Future. September 11-22, 2002.
  • Street party against arms trade. September 10, 2003.

[edit] Global

The idea of a Reclaim the Streets action was quickly taken up as a form of protest around the world. These "street parties" have been held in cities all over Europe, Australia, North America, and Africa. Initial instances confounded authorities and drivers alike, but over the years the protests have become institutionalised in many places, occurring much like other forms of legal protest in that the event is arranged with authorities beforehand.

[edit] See also

  • Wall, Derek, Earth First and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and Comparative Social Movements, London: Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0415190649
  • Mosey, Chris, Car Wars - Battles on the Road to Nowhere, London: Vision Paperbacks, 2000. ISBN 1-901250-40-7

[edit] Transport related

[edit] General

[edit] External links

This page was seeded with material from Wikipedia

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