Original leaflet from the third Stop the City Demo

Before the advent of Extinction Rebellion, mobiles and the internet there was a word of mouth demonstration in September 1983 which brought the City of London to a halt. This was followed by 2 more demos in March and September the following year. I attended and photographed the first two events, which can be seen here. 

The first demo was truly glorious and anarchic, since it was so unexpected. The whole area of the City of London became a “Carnival Against War, Oppression and Destruction”. Everywhere you went there were groups pf punks, anarchists, musicians and performers barricading banks, The Stock Exchange, Guildhall and The Royal Exchange. The Police were quite unprepared and the protestors roamed around freely, or held random sit-down protests.

Later in the afternoon more police and then the mounted police arrived, but despite many arrests the protest was mainly conducted in a peaceful manner.

The second demonstration in March 1984 was a different matter. This time the police were ready and out in force. You could be arrested for simply “stopping” in the street and the demo was confined to the environs of The Royal Exchange. Protestors were often arrested  or blockaded just on the way to the protest. A massive kettling operation took place at The Royal Exchange, leading to violence and many arrests.

Personally I had to try and avoid being kettled, while also avoiding the police who would try and steal my camera at any opportunity. Luckily it was on a strong strap and I managed to wrestle it free from their grasp. They were animals that day, there are several photos of them strangling protestors. One famous photo by David Hoffman of a photographer in a chokehold, led to a £4.000 payout at the ensuing trial.

It was a miserable day, and a downpour in the afternoon doused spirits further, which was probably a good thing all round. Apparently the third demo was so well policed that hardly any demonstrators made it to the City.

There is not much good documentation of these protests on the web, but these links should provide some good info:

Wikipedia Stop the City
History is made at night

There are also some grainy and lo-res videos:

Stop The City – News Reports 1983 / 84
Roddy Melville Stop The City 1984
Stop The City 83-84 video by Mick Duffield and Andy Palmer (Crass)