RTS misrepresentation and SWP bandwagon jumping

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday May 07, 2002 18:23 by Charlie Braun charliecwc at yahoo dot com

RTS RTE coverage commentary.

Just seen the RTE report: (6 O'Clock News). The entire day was misrepresented, there was almost no mention of what had happened all day, instead it suggested that the "march" first started blocking the road on Dame street. That was to be expected but...
Anti-Globilisation? Now, I don't doubt for a second that killing Globilisation is high on the agenda of most of those who participated in RTS and all of those who organised it, but it's hardly the focus of an event like Reclaim The Streets. RTS is more about the reclamation of once public spaces that are increasingly privitised in the modern western world, and which international capitalism and globilisation are a prime cause of this, the entire event was never meant to be anything like the "anti-globilisation protest" that RTE has represented it as.
AND who held a press conferance for RTE today, implying that they were the ones behind the whole thing? SWP.
I don't think that the media coverage of what happened yesterday is a bad thing; indeed, more people need to know how brutal, senseless and unintelligent our so-called "keepers of the peace" are, but I, for one, would have far preferred if everyone could have heard about how wonderful the diversity of the street party was.

For more info on the politics of the RTS movement, plus more than enough info for any of you to organise a similar event, go to the RTS London site listed below.