Hoody demonstration at Elephant and Castle

It's a bit long, but it's to be hoped the example is taken up elsewhere. The ASBO backlash is overdue. This protest was launched at the 400-strong Respect meeting last week - the response was extremely good, there's a bunch of people up for this - so we'll see what happens on Saturday.

(By the way, I don't expect blogging to suddenly become a fantastic new organising tool. The hard slog of leafletting, contacting individuals, getting the word out to "civil society organisations" - ah, NGO-speak, it's great - is what makes the difference. Now almost-forgotten hysteria over May Day protests long past would latch onto the internet as the source of the trouble - evil-minded anarchists able to summon a mob with just a brief email message. Utter nonsense, although flash-mobbing has come close to this on occasion. I think it's worth putting this sort of thing up because it is worth recording in itself, and those interested in British politics ought to be aware of the more subterranean events taking place. David Widgery, in the introduction to his The Left in Britain, 1956-68, recorded how he would carefully file the ephemera of protests and meetings, and gradually amassed an archive. This is immediately before Peter Sedgwick's inimitable contribution to the same volume which involved millions of discarded spermatazoa shouting "WASTE! WASTE!" It's not a bad book.)

LAMBETH & SOUTHWARK RESPECT COALITION

RESPECT for Youth – Stop Criminalising Young People
RESPECT for Hoodies and against ASBOs!
RESPECT call for young people, youth workers, trade unionists, and pensioners to unite to stop criminalising our young people

JOIN THE PROTEST AGAINST THE HOODY BAN
SATURDAY 25TH JUNE 1PM ELEPHANT & CASTLE SHOPPING CENTRE
MEET 1PM NORTHERN LINE EXIT OF TUBE - FOLLOW SIGNS FROM THERE.

This action is supported by ASBO Concern, Lambeth & Southwark pensioners' convention, and by local teachers and youth workers.

Following Bluewater shopping centre's blanket ban on anyone donning a hoody on May 11, all sorts of unusual suspects are joining the Bluewater backlash. Richard and Judy, told Channel Four viewers that they'd attempt to breach Bluewater's new dress code and wear hoodies to see if they'd be stopped from entering the shopping Mecca.
Broadcaster James O'Brien from London's LBC radio station appealed for senior listeners on Thursday who genuinely wear hoodies to join his army of "hoody-wearing pensioners".

On May 13, bosses at the world-famous Elephant and Castle shopping centre in south London issued an all-out ban on hoodies yet no-one takes action to stop them being sold.

HOODY BAN IS NOT THE ANSWER TO STOP ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Children are the subject of more antisocial behaviour orders than adults, leading commentators to warn that the Government is in danger of making it a "crime to become a child". Latest figures show that children have become the prime target of antisocial behaviour orders with more than half of Asbos issued between June 2000 and March 2004 against children - 1,177 against children and 1,143 against adults
* Forty-two per cent of all Asbos were breached up to December 2003, compared to 36 per cent for the period up to December 2002
* A Mori poll this month found that while 89 per cent of people support Asbos, only 39 per cent feel they are effective
* The British Institute for Brain-Injured Children says at least five children with autism and other brain disorders have been given Asbos

RESPECT recognises a growing tension on estates and in public areas where young people are forced to congregate and play on the streets. However, we believe that this is due to over-crowded homes and the increasing privatisation of our public areas and facilities. Over recent years, across the country we have seen the number of council-run centres privatised or closed. Private centres now focus on adult fitness facilities to maximise income, dramatically reducing the opportunities for individual and team sports for young people.

We do not believe that the scapegoating of young people is a solution. Instead, these policies will lead to a generation of working class people getting written off. Already, studies are showing that young people are experiencing more emotional problems due to feeling that they 'have no future'. New Labour policies of privatising our homes, education and health service, and of cutting welfare spending, pushing the burden onto individual working class families has nothing to offer young people.

RESPECT believes that the solution lies with the following:

The provision of properly funded youth service and community facilities that fulfil the needs of young working class people. We will join with young people in local communities, tenants, trade unions and other such bodies and individuals calling for an end to the privatisation of these services, and for reinvestment in facilities and jobs
· An end to ASBOs. Instead the money used to publicise and police ASBOs, curfews and banning orders can be diverted into funding extra facilities
· Decent, secure jobs with a future. This includes a minimum wage set at the European Union Decency threshold (currently £7.40 an hour). Instead of encouraging high street 'McJobs', the government should be investing in apprenticeships, with jobs upon completion, for young people.
· Free, comprehensive education for all young people, from nursery to university. This includes the ending of tuition fees in higher education and the PFI funding of schools

JOIN THE PROTEST SATURDAY 25TH JUNE ELEPHANT & CASTLE SHOPPING CENTRE

Update: I notice an embarrassingly inaccurate report of the demonstration is doing the rounds. It appears to have been written by someone breaking the journalist's cardinal rule of not leaving before the event has actually started. Anyway, here's that raving lefty rag, the Telegraph, on the demo:

The garment has been vilified as a symbol of Britain's feral youth, but a group of about 50 protesters wore their "hoodies" with pride yesterday.

They were objecting at the Elephant and Castle shopping complex, in south London, which banned hoodies in mid-May in an effort to crack down on gangs and petty crime.