The Space Hijackers Blog

US Police have been clamping down on activists in the most sinister and chilling ways during the G20 protests.

first up is this video:
Click Me

Showing camouflage wearing men grabbing and bundling a protester into an unmarked car before speeding off with them. Rumoured by many to be a hoax, due to the extreme nature of it, and stasi style police. However it's now been confirmed to be legitimate:

"The individuals involved in the 9/24/09 arrest, which has appeared online, are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team… It is not unusual for tactical team members to wear camouflage fatigues. The type of fatigues the officers wear designates their unit affiliation.

Prior to the arrest, the officers observed the subject vandalizing a local business. Due to the hostile nature of the crowd, officer safety, and for the safety of the person under arrest, the subject was immediately removed from the area."
Click Me

also worth watching is this video

Click Me

showing a girl being repeatedly shoved by police whist moving out of their way. She eventually (and perhaps reasonably) reacts back

They almost make the uk TSG look friendly.

God Save America

Fitwatch campaigners are bundled to the ground, handcuffed, their legs tied and pressure points applied. Simply for asking to see a policeman's badge number.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/21/kingsnorth-protester-arrests-video-complaint

http://fitwatch.blogspot.com/

Who Dunnit?

at 1am on 13th January The Starbucks in Whitechapel had it's door smashed in and a fire bomb thrown into the store by black clad men.

Unfortunately due to our research on trying to narrow down the culprit, we seem to have unearthed the fact that Starbucks had many many enemies.

Ethiopian Coffee Growers, Union Organisers, Mermaids, Palestinians, Independent Coffee Stores, People who like nice coffee... the list goes on.

An intrepid team of Hijackers hit the Whitechapel area on Sunday to see if they could shed any more light on the crime...

This Sat evening saw what may well be the first of many new daring Hijacker parties. As part of Talk Like A Pirate weekend we hosted a party for a scurvy ridden mob of pirates in the greenwich foot tunnel, underneath the Thames.

With a big sound system, booming samba bands and rum galore, the Hijackers partied on till about 4am!

They can ban us from the tube trains, but we'll find more tunnels to go play in.

arrrrrrr!

The Space Hijackers continued their unbeaten record in the Anarchist Vs Capitalist midnight cricket cup this year. With a new pitch at Paternoster Square the anarchist team overcame a strong start from the capitalists and several pitch invasions by police and security teams.

The match went on until the early hours of the morning, however eventually Anarchism was proclaimed the victor and the trophy made it's way safely back to the Hijackers tropy cabinet.

Three cheers for the hijackers

Time Out magazine have done a feature on our guerrilla benching project in this week's issue TO1991. It even features our very own Special Agent Ladybird's photos.

For full details on the project see our write up here Guerilla Benching

Full reports are coming soon,

However in the mean time, here is a taster. We had a very successful weekend's Hijacking this weekend with both an "East end Knees up" against our new starbucks in Whitechapel, and then Operation Ivy League on the Sunday.

EAST END KNEES UP:

In response to a new Starbucks opening up in Whitechapel, we organised a FREE tea and cake stall outside the store, handing out leaflets and information about local alternatives and encouraging people to steer clear of Starbucks.

There is a report and video on the BBC London website here:

BBC LONDON

and a report with pics from urban 75 here:

Urban 75

OPERATION IVY LEAGUE

On Sunday agent Ladybird organised Operation Ivy League! Our mission was to head into the city (after a trip to columbia road flower market) and plant climbing plants all over the soulless corporate facades of the city buildings.

The plan went by without a hitch and we planted dozens of ivy, honeysuckle, rasberry and red current plants in and around the city.

Pics can be found here:

Ladybird's Flickr account

full reports of both projects will be coming soon...

The Space Hijackers invite you to a proper east-end knees up

Starbucks, everyone’s favourite nipple-less mermaid merchants, have decided to move into the east end with a new store in Whitechapel. It’s an area with a vibrant community of local cafés and small coffee shops, as well as being an area local to many Space Hijacker agents. As you can probably guess, we are less than pleased about our new neighbour…

We are worried about an oncoming blanding of local culture, as other multinational chains follow Starbucks into the area and attempt to gentrify it with their bland corporate décor, homogenous facades and tasteless products. In defence of our area, and to show off the lovely culture we have, we are putting on a tea party outside the new Starbucks!

We will be setting up a stall and giving out free fair trade teas, home made sandwiches, and all manner of other goodies to our neighbours, in an attempt to show what the area will be missing if Starbucks and their ilk are allowed to settle in.

Bring along tea, biscuits, home-made cakes, jams, and scones to share. Bring your dining room furniture out into the street, bring bunting, music and of course bring friends.

1pm
Sat 24th March
Outside the new Starbucks
Whitechapel High St
London

Opposite Altab Ali Park

Tube - Aldgate east or Whitechapel
Bus – 25, 205, 106 or 254

The Clown Army made a visit to Hijacker HQ this weekend to train us up in their own special way. Agent Bananas (Dog's Body) took the lead in teaching rebel clown skills to a motley crew of Hijacker troublemakers.

www.clownarmy.org

Spanning two days we learnt all manner of skills, everything from tactical manoeuvres through to mind games and upside down parachuting. We are going to form an elite Special Farces rebel clown unit with an aim to possibly head up to Faslane to cause trident clown chaos

http://www.faslane365.org

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In other Hijacker news, we were glad to see that a very cold welcome is being given to the new Starbucks opening near Whitechapel in east London. This sign was found pasted to the hoardings this morning:

A big thumbs up from the Hijackers to the mystery poster, we hope to see more of the same soon…

A new Starbucks restaurant is opening up Whitechapel in East London. Aside from the docklands area, this represents the first foray into the east end of the nippleless mermaid. To be honest we have all expected the beast to be arriving at our doorstep for a while now, with the gradual gentrification of the area making the ground safe for Starbucks and their ilk.

That said we don't intend to let one of the most destructive elements to local character move in smoothly. Starbucks represent pretty much everything that's wrong with the current world order. A bland homogenous corporation, with a sanitised brand image which wipes out local character and replaces it with cut and paste mock individuality to buy in a variety of spuriously named sizes. All this funded by ruthless business, raping the third world for their labour and money, and strangling local small businesses with their power. Starbucks are not nice.

It seems we are not the only ones who think this, only this morning we found this pasted up on the hoardings where they are building the new store.

If you wish to add your voice to a growing dissent against the evil green giant, the new store can be found just opposite altab ali park in Whitechapel, East London.