Reclaim the Streets often stage non-violentdirect actionstreet reclaiming events such as the 'invasion' of a major road, highway or motorway 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 RTS is that it is vehicletraffic, not pedestrians, who are causing the obstruction, and that by occupying the road they are in fact opening up public space. The events are usually spectacular and colourful, with sand pits for children to play in, free food and music. At a minority of events, where the police have tried to violently shut down the event there has been violence between protestors and police.[1]
Reclaim the Streets was originally formed by Earth First![2]
Past actions
UK
Camden High Street, 14 May 1995. The first major RTS street party action took over a busy London street and closed it to motor-traffic for an afternoon. Around 500 people took over the street. There was free food served from tables in the middle of the road, and music played from a bicycle-powered sound system. A climbing frame was placed in the middle of a crossroad junction and children were able to play on it.[3] The action met on the high street in the afternoon and left from the Rainbow Centre, a squatted Church in Kentish Town.
Upper Street, Islington, 23 July 1995. Three thousand people party at another busy traffic junction. Banners are stretched between lampposts, with messages such as ‘STREET NOW OPEN’ and ‘CAR FREE’.[4] There is a sound system as well as a live band that uses a bus stop as a stage. Kids play in a hastily constructed sandpit.
Birmingham, 6 August 1995.[5] Organised with a handful of people around 200 people turn up for family afternoon with live band playing from the back of a truck. To prevent police using riot tactics to clear the street at the end, a procession with music and dancing headed off down the road to a pub.
Brighton, 14 February 1996. Protest publicised in part by Justice? & SchNEWS closes a section of the North Laine area of Brighton. A bouncy castle is erected in a crossing and traffic is stopped for most of the afternoon.
M41 Motorway, Shepherd's Bush, London. 13 July 1996. After a cat-and-mouse game with the police, 6,000 protestors take over part of the elevated motorway. Many sound-systems play, one of which is carried on a truck that was parked on the hard shoulder.[6] Hidden underneath dancers walking on stilts and wearing huge, wire-supported dresses, environmental activists drill holes in the tarmac and plant trees.[7][8] The party continued into the next morning.
Reclaim the Future, Liverpool, Saturday 28 September 1996[10]
Cowley Road, Oxford Thursday 31 October 1996[11] - Afternoon and evening party which began when sound systems on lorries stopped traffic using Cowley Road between around Divinity Road and Rectory Road
Trafalgar Square, 12 April 1997. The 'Never Mind 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.[12][13]
Brixton Road, Brixton and High Road, Seven Sisters, 6 June 1998. Two street reclamations in one day, with an estimated 5,000 people at each party.
Bank Underground station, London, 13 July 1998. 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.
Global Street Party! Birmingham Bullring, 16th May 1998
Toxic Planet at 173 Upper Street, London (opposite Islington Town Hall), 4–11 October 1998.
Tube party, 1 May 1999.
Carnival Against Capital: 18 June 1999. A global day of action. In London the financial district is targeted. The LIFFE building is stormed.
Action to mark the introduction of the Terrorism Act. 19 February 2001.
Bye Bye Planet. 19 April 2001. An action at the Natural History Museum protested at the perceived greenwash and corporate rebranding of BP by subverting an exhibition about climate change which was sponsored by BP.
Business Class Tube launched. 5 June 2001. 50 trains receive stickers announcing a new Cattle Class.[15][16]
New York City event in 1999April 1999 New York City: Avenue A. Reclaim the Streets and Turn them into Gardens.
April 1999 Berlin.
May 1999 Turku, Finland; late May 1999 Brussels, Belgium.
June 1999 Global carnival against capital; London; Scotland; Nigeria; Czech Republic; Los Angeles; (Germany); Australia; Barcelona in 18 June; New York City.
April 2001 Quebec City: Anti-capitalist Carnival, welcoming in the spring (and shaking down the Free Trade-touting "Americas Summit"): www.quebec2001.net
April 2001 Everywhere (mostly Nordic) Operation Dessert Storm.
May 2001 All over – MayDay. RTS in crèche shock! statement; and see indymedia.
May 2004 Dublin. Part of a 'No Borders' weekend of protest, which led to some violence
April 2006, Sydney. Gathering at the financially troubled Cross City Tunnel, attendees called for greater investment in public transport and cycle paths, with partygoers occupying the tarmac and enjoying performances by the ShittyRail Transit Cop dance troupe.[18]
December 2006 – Protest against demolition of the 1957 Star Ferry Pier, Central, Hong Kong.
May 2007 – Protest against demolition of the 1953 Queen's Pier, Central, Hong Kong.
Mar – Apr 2008 – Performance art competition against the privatisation of public area in front of Times Square (Hong Kong), Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.
Apr 2008 Amsterdam – protest for free space and a performance from a truck driving through the streets of Amsterdam.
31 May 2008 San Francisco – Street party against Prop 98.[19]
1 September 2008 Limoilou, Quebec, Canada.
19 September 2008, Malmö, Sweden.
16 June 2009, Helsinki, Finland.
6 February 2010, Zürich.
August 2011, Jyväskylä, Finland.
7 August 2011, Helsinki, Finland.
10 June 2012, Brussels, Belgium. 3,000 people participated in a disobedient Pic Nic to Reclaim The Streets.
^"M41 Motorway Reclaim the Streets report, Shepherd's Bush, 13th July 1996". www.urban75.org. 1996. Retrieved 29 January 2019. It isn't a protest against anything. It is a celebration of the potential of freedom, of diversity, of an ecological society, of a free society. It is not a protest against the car - we use that as a symbol. (from video)
^"Reclaim The Streets". Camcycle - Cambridge Cycling Campaign. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
Wall, Derek Earth First and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and Comparative Social Movements London: Routledge, 1999. ISBN0-415-19064-9
Mosey, Chris Car Wars – Battles on the Road to Nowhere London: Vision Paperbacks, 2000. ISBN1-901250-40-7
St John, Graham. 2009. Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures. Equinox Publishing (UK). ISBN978-1-84553-625-1
