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UK: Wombles claim victory in court

01 March 2002

Seven members of the Wombles (White Overalls Movement Building Libertarian Effective Struggles) faced charges including assaulting a police officer, causing criminal damage to a police van and using threatening words and behaviour at Horseferry Road magistrates court from 29 April to 3 May 2002. Five defendants were acquitted. Simon Chapman was convicted for causing criminal damage and "using threatening words and behaviour", and Clayton Elliott for a public order offence. Chapman admitted kicking a police van after an arrest and Elliot invited a policeman with a drawn truncheon to hit him. The two were fined £100 and ordered to pay costs. One of the accused claimed a "close to complete victory", stressing that it was a "waste of taxpayers money". Another lost his job as he awaited trial.
The Wombles claimed that the choice of date, at the same time as Mayday demonstrations took place, alongside media demonisation of anarchists, would prejudice the trial. The group says that none of their members was ever convicted of violence or charged with carrying weapons, despite regular monitoring by a police Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) and filming during demonstrations.
The Wombles say that on the evening in question (31.10.01), a group of fifteen people were stopped by police as they headed to a Halloween party dressed as ghosts after attending a peaceful protest against Henry Kissinger. The Wombles grew out of experiencies on the N30 Euston demonstration in 1999 (see Statewatch vol 9 no 6) and Mayday 2000 and their actions mimics the approach taken by the Italian Tute Bianche (White Overalls), involving the wearing of white overalls stuffed with padding to allow them to resist police charges non-violently. The group stress that, despite similar uniforms, there are ideological differences with the Italian group.

Wombles press dossier, April 2002; Guardian, 30.4.02, 4.5.02; Indipendent 30.4.02.