{QTtext}{font:Geneva}{plain}{size:12}{justify:center}{timeScale:1000}{timeStamps:absolute}{language:0}{textEncoding:0}{width:300}{height:30}


[00:00:00.000]
STUNNING LIKE MARASSI IN FLAMES
[00:00:02.500]
Sleepless beggars with no future wander through the night;
[00:00:05.800]
tens of thousands surge from the slums of WhiteChapel & Southwark
[00:00:09.000]
from hovels, lodging-houses, garages, brothels and inns.
[00:00:12.000]
They do not care about the Pope or the King
[00:00:15.000]
about Tories, Whigs, rituals and revenue:
[00:00:18.000]
they do not care about the art of government.
[00:00:21.000]
They want to cut unworthy preachers’ tongues
[00:00:24.000]
and  bite the hand of those who give them the crumbs
[00:00:27.000]
of the big cake of the mercantilist expansion;
[00:00:30.000]
they want the current laws repealed
[00:00:33.000]
and that everything be owned by everybody.
[00:00:36.000]
They ardently desire the end of the status quo.
[00:00:39.000]
They look forward to seeing the old dream of 
[00:00:42.000]
the great London riots come true and eventually see 
[00:00:45.000]
clear wine pissed out of the public fountain.
[00:00:48.000]
All the aristocrats came out into the streets 
[00:00:51.000]
with unprecedented mobility;
[00:00:54.000]
they separate and then come together, concentrate
[00:00:57.000]
and then scatter according to their inspiration.
[00:01:00.000]
Insurrection is not confined to the borders of the working slums,
[00:01:03.000]
but goes around the metropolis through itinerant groups
[00:01:06.000]
who manage to enlist
[00:01:09.000]
more reinforcements wherever those become available.
[00:01:12.000]
Insurrection prefers to scatter
[00:01:15.000]
to divert and to run rather than to go along in a slow march.
[00:01:18.000]
It chooses its aims according to
[00:01:21.000]
their psycho geographic closeness;
[00:01:24.000]
it does not want to obtain power
[00:01:27.000]
but wants to destroy it by turning all authorities
[00:01:30.000]
and all class privileges ephemeral.
[00:01:33.000]
Therefore it sacks rich houses, symbol of the slavery to abolish;
[00:01:36.000]
seeks neither for fight nor for military action;
[00:01:39.000]
full of omnipotence and vivacity,
[00:01:42.000]
it wants to abolish all the partitions.
[00:01:45.000]
It aims to ban and humble its enemies;
[00:01:48.000]
it intends to destroy the past,
[00:01:51.000]
but hardly ever kills or captures.
[00:01:54.000]
Bound to lack of discipline and coordination
[00:01:57.000]
this ubiquitous insurrection soon shows
[00:02:00.000]
that its ace is
[00:02:03.000]
the lack of strategy itself.
[00:02:06.000]
The weak troops wearily follow the mass of the rioters
[00:02:09.000]
without ever reaching them.
[00:02:11.000]
In an era where punishment is preferred to supervision,
[00:02:14.000]
the few policemen that patrol the boroughs
[00:02:17.000]
are either led to flee or to fraternise
[00:02:20.000]
not being able to face the great deal of determination
[00:02:23.000]
of those fanatics.
[00:02:26.000]
The only bunch of warders to face the mob is confined
[00:02:29.000]
in the Bastille-like-prison
[00:02:32.000]
Newgate.
[00:02:35.000]
The news that the biggest prison of the kingdom
[00:02:38.000]
is about to be assailed by the mob
[00:02:41.000]
travels around London in a tick
[00:02:43.000]
and gather tens of thousands of onlookers.
[00:02:47.000]
The high walls of Newgate are about fall;
[00:02:50.000]
the right is naked.
[00:02:53.000]
Built in the twelfth century and secular symbol of oppression
[00:02:56.000]
Newgate is the biggest and oldest of the prisons in London.
[00:02:59.000]
It was just enlarged and
[00:03:02.000]
embellished with new external features.
[00:03:05.000]
However its walls, sweating with dismay
[00:03:08.000]
never lost their horrible look for the beggars.
[00:03:11.000]
Amongst them there are
[00:03:14.000]
burglars, pocket pickers and thieves of all sorts
[00:03:17.000]
whores and fortune tellers as well as petty thieves
[00:03:20.000]
and the homeless that argued with their hosts.
[00:03:23.000]
Not to forget
[00:03:26.000]
boxers and virtuous stabbers.
[00:03:29.000]
In short, a large number of poor people kept in there
[00:03:32.000]
who have either died or are about to die.
[00:03:35.000]
The burnt block of the warders opens
[00:03:38.000]
a breach in the formidable fortress.
[00:03:41.000]
An eye-witness says that a group of rioters
[00:03:44.000]
determined to force their way in
[00:03:47.000]
smashed the doors with bars and other means
[00:03:50.000]
mounted on the roof of
[00:03:53.000]
the block of the cells linked to the two blocks
[00:03:56.000]
where the felons are kept.
[00:03:59.000]
The latter broke up the roof, ripped the
[00:04:02.000]
windows off and came down through ladders.
[00:04:05.000]
The flames surrounded them
[00:04:08.000]
and an anti-riot squad could have blocked
[00:04:11.000]
them at any time, but they were ready to face any risk.
[00:04:14.000]
The first liberator to enter the prison is called Tom Haycock.
[00:04:17.000]
When interrogated in court regarding his
[00:04:20.000]
motive to take part in the attack on Newgate
[00:04:23.000]
he simply replied "The aim".
[00:04:26.000]
"And what else?" they asked him.
[00:04:29.000]
"By dawn" he added "Not one prison had to be in place in London".
[00:04:32.000]
The attackers, that had drawn the plan, confidently laid siege
[00:04:35.000]
to that building that some of them knew all to well.
[00:04:38.000]
They started by forcing the cells open, bringing out the prisoners,
[00:04:42.000]
who are acclaimed by the mob as they emerge from the furnace.
[00:04:46.000]
They are paraded with honour at the rhythm of the chains
[00:04:50.000]
that they still have around their ankles.
[00:04:54.000]
They're brought to the blacksmiths of the neighbourhood
[00:05:02.000]
to free them from their chains
[00:05:05.000]
before letting them free in the big chaos.
[00:05:10.000]
300 hundred workers condemned for bad debts or felony
[00:05:15.000]
3 of whom were to be hanged the following day,
[00:05:20.000]
were thus freed, while their liberators, perching on the prison walls,
[00:05:25.000]
looked at the fire as if in ecstasy.
[00:05:30.000]
Some of them pissed on it as if it was a furnace to be
[00:05:35.000]
poked, while burping, swearing and blaspheming.
[00:05:40.000]
At the bottom of the walls celebrating dances were being performed
[00:05:45.000]
in honour of the destruction.
[00:05:50.000]
Gin and wine, that had been taken from the warders
[00:05:55.000]
who used to sell it to the prisoners,
[00:06:00.000]
was being distributed for free in great quantities.
[00:06:05.000]
[00:06:15.000]
The poet and engraver, William Blake,
[00:06:21.000]
who was 23 at the time,
[00:06:25.000]
also took part in the party.
[00:06:29.000]
The living fire that annihilated Newgate
[00:06:33.000]
would be present in his fruitful imagination for years
[00:06:37.000]
those sublime moments would
[00:06:41.000]
be the inspiration
[00:06:44.000]
of his firing visions.
[00:06:47.000]
"The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction"; William Blake
[00:06:51.000]