J18 [June 18, 1999]
J18 [June 18, 1999] operated in small cells of about a dozen people each and communicated using e-mail and the Internet. According to the J18 Web site, protest were scheduled “in recognition that the global capitalist system based on the exploitation of people and the planet for the profit of the few, is at the root of our social and ecological troubles”.
It timed the June 18, 1999, demonstration to coincide with the meeting of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations in Cologne, Germany. Leaflets distributed by the protest organizers said that the demonstration would be nonviolent, but the activists would not rule out damage to property, attempts to occupy offices, and efforts to disrupt computer systems. J18 hoped to attract 10,000 demonstrators. The City Police, in response to the threat, canceled all leave for its 800 officers and planned coordinated efforts with the larger Metropolitan Police and the British Transit Police.
On June 18, 1999, the Bank of England and other threatened targets locked their doors. Barriers were erected around the Stock Exchange and guarded by police. The protest started as 300 cyclists carrying banners with slogans, such as “Money Kills,” rode slowly through the center of the city, bringing traffic around the Bank of England to a standstill. The protest of the 4,000 J18 marchers escalated into a riot when the demonstrators were hijacked by anarchists who were intent on violence and who targeted unprotected police. At least 16 people were arrested, and 46 people were taken to the hospital, including six police officers. The bills for repairs after the riot cost the city millions.
The banner on the J18 Web site read, “Ultimately it is in the streets that the power must be dissolved; for the streets where daily life is endured, suffered and eroded, and where power is confronted and fought, must be turned into the domain where daily life is enjoyed, created and nourished (Reclaim the Streets!).
The J18 Reclaim the Streets Action Archive claimed responsibility for 58 protests and demonstrations in Great Britain from May 1995 through June 18, 1999. The group’s influence, however, was not limited to one country; the June 18, 1999, protest in London was coordinated with protests in Scotland, Nigeria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Australia, Spain, and the United States.
In Sydney, Australia, the financial capital of the country, more than 300 police were on alert to guard against the possibility that demonstrators might become violent during the “Global Carnival Against Corporate Tyranny” (Reuters, 1999b). On June 18, 1999, approximately 100 protesters gathered in the central business district and marched to the local state parliament and Australia’s Westpac Bank. In Melbourne about 25 officers responded as a small group of environmentalists calling themselves Chipstop dumped three dead wombats they claimed were killed in road accidents in front of the Australian Stock Exchange. In addition to demonstrations, the police warned that J18 was also planning to hack into the computers of targeted companies
J18 was active in the United States where it claimed to have organized activities in four cities. The “G8” mentioned below is the symbol for “Group of Eight,” the international grouping that included Russia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.
With June 18, 1999, behind it, J18 in the United States already had planned its next event. The following is a message placed on the Internet on June 22, 1999: "Thousands of people theatrically processing through Seattle with giant images and puppets graphically showing the economic and ecological devastation left in the wake of global capital. Mass direct actions and blockades shutting down roads and highways leading to the WTO. Simple theater skits for people on the street breaking down corporate globalization and showing glimpses of the world as it could be—global liberation. Toxic chemical dieins, dramatized uprisings, and huge props taking over major Seattle streets. Vibrant sounds of images of community life, creativity and resistance in the face of hundreds of deadening bureacrats, businesspeople and politicians at the WTO."
What can be learned from J18? First, that anticapitalism was alive and well and that it had an international, loose-knit infrastructure. The various individuals and groups associated with the movement organize and communicate using the Internet. When they take to the streets, most of their actions are limited to protests and trespassing. However, as London learned on June 18, 1999, these protests and demonstrations can quickly transform into a riot. According to Lord Levene, the lord mayor of London, the people arrested there were terrorists — so-called peaceful protesters who ended up throwing bricks and scaffolding at the police.
The J18 maintained a Web site at www.j18.org, which later was used by various other totally unrelated commercial enterprises. Although the news on this Web site had not been updated since 1999, the site provided information and links to other protest organizations around the world. The primary link to the United States was through the Jubilee 2000/USA group. This group focuses on the debt crisis in poor countries and the need for the United States to cancel these debts as well as to contribute more to survival programs in these countries.
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