Hacktivists in the Anonymous group and their supporters have marched in cities across the globe but missed their target of ‘one million masks’
In London the Metropolitan Police arrested 10 people of the estimated two thousand who marched from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament. In a statement on the police website it says:Â “Whilst the majority of those taking part were peaceful there were pockets of violence shown towards police officers, with fireworks and traffic furniture including barriers thrown at them.”
Some masked marchers lit a bonfire outside the Houses of Parliament and burned their gas and electricity bills in protest at high fuel prices.
Fuelling dissent
The march involved an eclectic group of different interest groups.
FI Editor Peter Warren interviewed one masked demonstrator, incongruously dressed in a smart suit and tie, who said he was staging a protest against capitalism and wanted a re-distribution of wealth.
Others waved flags of various political campaigns including the Communists, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the anti-fracking movement, which campaigns against energy companies who are drilling for shale gas beneath their homes and countryside. Caroline Lucas, the UK’s only Green MP, attended too.
Other protesters told FI they were angry that the UK’s National Health Service is being starved of funds and privatised, or that they believe institutional paedophilia is preventing hundreds of victims of historic child abuse from getting a fair hearing and justice for their suffering.
Celebrities including Russell Brand – a comedian who advocates peaceful revolution – and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood joined in the protest.
Police used a purpose built sound system to try to calm the crowds and although the activists booed and ignored the advice, the police reaction seemed deliberately muted, with the onus appearing to be on avoiding confrontation.
The ironies were enormous.
A police car equipped with a a top heavy array of ten speakers, told the protesters every ten minutes that the police were there to safeguard the public, and that they could not let off fireworks, light fires, damage public buildings with graffiti – Â or by climbing on them, and that they should respect the rights of other members of the public to use a public space,
All totally appropriately, they also told the protesters via their sound system, that it would be illegal for the protesters to use a sound system. Which was really the nub of the Million Mask protest, they were being denied a voice and the forces of law and order and the establishment had everything.
It was an irony the marchers may not have missed, but the numbers were not on their side in significant enough figures for the powers that be to give up control of amplification.
Despite this the protesters felt that they had a message to tell.
“I’m here to show solidarity with the marchers because democracy has not worked for us,” said one masked figure who gave his name as Peter Farquhar, who tweets as #renegade_truth.
“The Government has sold us lists of lies and opportunities for too long and that is very close to people’s hearts. We can’t be quietened down any longer by the selfish people at Number 10 and the paedophiles,” said Farquhar, adding that his presence was due to a general dissatisfaction with the current political and economic situation.
“We want a fair crack of the whip. We want to see our taxes being spent wisely, our communities being rebuilt and for the balance in our society to be restored.”
Anonymous claimed that masked marches had been held in 481 locations across the globe. In the USA masked marchers took to the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, where earlier in 2014 race riots protested the fatal shooting by police of black teenager Michael Brown. In Denver, Colorado marchers were urged not to bring drugs or alcohol ‘out of respect for the kids’.
Riot police outnumbered protesters by three to one in the Philippines. They gathered outside the congress building in Quezon City after Anonymous claimed on its Facebook page to have infiltrated more than 100 government websites. In Singapore and Indonesia the group posted claims that they had hacked government sites to protest against internet restrictions.
Behind the mask
FI editor Peter Warren comments: “That the protesters wear masks is a sign of the times. In the UK there is now one surveillance camera for every 11 people. In Communist- controlled East Germany (GDR) there was one informant working for the Stasi secret police for every 63 people. Given the degree of government surveillance shown by the NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden the protestors use of masks is a legitimate statement that in the UK at least the Government should consider.”
Anonymous claims to have orchestrated the worldwide November 5th event in over 480 locations across the globe. Behind the masks lies a movement that is founded on spite, according to the author of a new book. ‘Hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy’Â is a hefty hardback that contains fourteen years worth of academic research by Professor Gabriella Coleman of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Interviewed for Peter Warren’s radio show, PassW0rd on Resonance FM www.resonancefm.com, Professor Coleman explained that the masks originate from the English Catholic terrorist Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 and was executed for treason. The mask was adopted as a symbol of rebellion in the film ‘V for Vendetta‘ and is now the top-selling item on Amazon.com.
In another irony, a percentage of sales from each mask goes to Time Warner as it owns the rights to the masks, according to Time Magazine in 2011.
The anthropologist described the roots of Anonymous in trolling sites where racist and anti-gay abuse are used. Yet she discovered that behind their online avatars, many of the activists are in fact gay. She also comments that they come from a diverse range of national and ethnic groups, and that some are involved in campaigns to support minority groups.
Professor Coleman chaired a debate in London in October 2014 with the four convicted LulzSec hackers (see FI passim) who broke away from Anonymous and broke into websites including the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency. They have all now served their sentences. Ryan Ackroyd of LulzSec claimed that – although they boasted at the time that they were hacking for ‘the lulz’ – for fun, there was for him always a serious motive.
” Personally there were political reasons: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, ACTA (the Act of Parliament protecting intellectual property rights), governments spying on people… I’d like to see Anonymous take on a legal political role, there’s lawyers and police in it. There’s a lot of brains and knowledge that could come together to effect political change“.
You can watch the whole debate on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpGiLPF5BxQ.
