I have now had the pleasure of my first protest, and it has been a great learning experience, mainly about the police, also about myself.
Myself and two others went to about 5 actions, the first being the critical mass bike ride. We arrived after the first group had been there, and the atmosphere was very positive when the second group appeared from along Gray' s Inn Road with cheering and applause. The samba band appeared a short time later, which lifted everyone's spirits amid the increasing police presence.
We had started to become surrounded with the police gradually forcing people along the road towards Euston. It was really either amusing or pathetic - I' m not quite sure which - that the forces felt the need to herd us along, as if we weren' t going to go along anyway.
Escaping and heading towards the Embankment, I had to retrace my steps to find a fat cat top hat that I had dropped. My two chums waited just outside temple tube station, leaning on the railings, chatting.
Two police people were peering over the balustrade of that weird non-garden thing opposite the Swiss Hotel, staring at my buddies.
Hat in hand, we headed towards the cancelled and re-scheduled Peacenick in the Park event, which turned out not to have been re-scheduled at all. Suddenly two police appeared in front of us and two more came from the right. Big Brother had been telling tales.
I spoke briefly to a bird from the FT outside Embankment tube who wanted to know why we were there and why I had written ìNo Brandî on my label-less backpack, so I told her.
The action outside Coutts on the Strand, the bank for the rich and famous, contained about 20 of us, all fluffies, about 50 media peeps and about 120 riot police, VERY intimidating indeed, with the police taking close-up photos and constantly filming us all at close proximity. I had my t-shirt photographed and filmed numerous times but left that one quite quickly sensing a bad vibe.
The t-shirt with "peaceful protester" on the front, followed by a cartoon world and "not for sale" underneath read "Educated, intelligent, free-thinking westerner, 35, in full-time employment, with GSOH, seeks to make the world a better place. Which bit is the crime?". I don't care about getting my face in the media, but if my back gets in I will be made up.
We made our way to Elephant and Castle, where a fluffy South London protest was underway. People standing in the streets in front of vehicles, a pedal-powered music system, and a great atmosphere. Police were present and very visible, and throwing their weight around unnecessarily and being boisterous for no reason. We were there to protest, not just stand around like a bunch of organic lemons, so they should just have let us get on with it. Before were knew it, we were surrounded by police.
Over a tannoy system, the one man made it clear to all within earshot why we were protesting in case anyone outside the movement had been taken in by the media' s promise of bedlam and mindless violence - and we made our way towards Oxford Street.
The first negative experience was when the procession ground to a halt as we tried to leave the roundabout. The police were blocking our path in one direction, so we turned around and headed through the police line in the other. The police were clearly un-coordinated on this one, as they all ran over from one side of the roundabout to the other to try to impede our progress. Each time we marched towards an exit, they lined up in front of it. Each time we were thwarted we took yet another route until eventually we were heading south. Not looking too good for the West End.
After witnessing Kings Cross, we realised that they were trying to contain each bloc of protesters in order to prevent them from amassing on the convergence point at Oxford Circus.
Escape was looking increasingly improbable when one of my mates suggested we slipped down an alley-way alongside a green area, which we did and managed to outrun the now running police force. Running away from the police when you haven' t done anything wrong is something I had never done before (and no I haven' t ever run away from the Police having DONE anything wrong before). Adrenaline kicked in and the heart rate increased. I acquired a stamina I would have trouble keeping up making scrambled egg these days. The worst was yet to come.
We walked along in the rain, the music system in full swing, the police gradually getting closer and closer behind us. Cars tooted in support, drove alongside us and people living along the route waved and moved clenched fists in rhythmic support, smiling and cheering in silence behind their windows.
One police rider sped on through the crowd, evidently to alert troops ahead to block off all exits.
As we approached Lambeth South tube, they put on the sirens from the vans behind us, this serving to intimidate us, which it did to a degree. People started running, the snowball effect kicked in. I didn' t run until we hit the railway bridge and I wasn' t going to get caught in there.
Predictably, Westminster bridge was a no go area, so we veered off to the right towards the Shell building where surprisingly, no actions were taking place. I have no idea where everyone else went but my affinity group needed the loo so disguised as tourists and speaking in foreign accents, we hit the loos of the National Theatre Café big time.
By the time we came out, the majority of the South London action people had dispersed so we ambled along to Waterloo bridge which was ram-jamaboogie with traffic. A large yellow mass was seen on the left had side of the Strand. The three of us unwittingly split up and I just pretended I was doing what I do every day, chatting on my mobile phone, hiding from the rain and turning round, looking to see if my bus was anywhere in sight.
I lost sight of the others, but they caught me up as I arrived at the Strand.
We took five in a pub, again for loo breaks (water don' t 'arf pile up when you are only eating fruit and swigging the old H20). Police vans were everywhere and after a brief break, we chatted to some people in the bar who like many, had no real idea what the protest was about, or clearly, that we were part of it.
I spoke on the phone to a friend standing near H&M on Regent Street, who running commented what she could see. She cried with anger and frustration when telling me 'OK, now the cops are going in. There is nothing happening, there is no reason to charge in like that'. She left. She hated it. She wanted to protest too and felt she was being denied the right to make her views know. I cried too.
Arriving via Tottenham Ct Rd, our progress was unhampered as we made our way towards the circus. Circus it was for the media were all-pervading.
We encountered the Auntie Capitalists of the WI, and had a laugh at their comedy outfits. This put us in a better frame of mind after the intimidating tactics of the police at the Elephant.
Some congregation of protesters, police and Jo Public had taken place in an area on upper Regent Street. We were one road back towards Tottenham Ct Rd. Lots of people standing round and waiting for something to happen.
Riot police were tooling up and frowning all around us. They would trot in formation towards a group where nothing was happening. Suddenly, my backpack open, the sleeve of my waterproof in one hand and camera (I know I took no contentious pictures) in the other, people started running for their lives. I had never experienced this before and it has to be the single most frightening experience of my life outside in the street. Running, not knowing why, past bicycles lying abandoned, trying to find a safe place for your next step to land, aware of others crashing into you, thinking 'I am going to get killed here', and all your tackle trailing on the floor. My heart gave a huge powerful beat as a massive dose of adrenaline was released. People quickly stopped running but my heart, pounding harder and faster than I thought was possible, continued to dance away in my chest. This in itself is quite exhausting and I realise that this must be a tactic used during potentially dangerous crowd control to wear protesters out. Adrenaline kept me going. My t-shirt kept getting attention. My body was getting cold.
We moved around to Regent Street for more of the same. Another 100m dash for no reason took place, but we were wary this time, and less fearful. It stopped within seconds.
At Great Marlborough Street we encountered the samba band. They were all so high on the moment, smiling, laughing, giving their instruments all they had in their souls. We cheered and clapped and danced.
They moved relentlessly forward and against all odds, actually made it to Oxford Circus (OC).
YEAH! I thought, we can now get on with our dancing and laughter and waving and noise making. But the police had a different programme for our evening.
By now, all four axes leading from OC were filled with people. The riot cops, coming from behind were running into crowds and making everyone run away, adrenaline was really high, everyone really tetchy and on edge. It was really ugly and unnecessary what they did. Hated it.
I chatted to a high-ranking looking copper asking how much trouble there had been. 'None that we know of' he said so I told him that this day wasn' t about trouble, and here was the proof. I explained to him what had happened at Coutts with the Flak-jacket Intimidation Society. He said OK, but that some people found it intimidating having large crowds of people around parading through the streets. I said OK, but that it wasn' t as if anyone had been taken by surprise as there had been at least 6 weeks warning. He nodded in agreement, unsure of what to say next. I walked away, my case well an truly rested.
My group hung around for a while, waiting to see if the police would finally realise, and get in into their brainwashed skulls that no protester-originated violence was going to happen and all we wanted to do was party. It was 5pm, and if anything had intending to be smashed, or if the movement was bent on trashing property it would have happened by now. Hardly anyone was drunk, I saw no sign of drugs all day, didn' t even smell a spliffer. I think everyone wanted to be as alert as possible, I know I certainly did.
People began running towards us from alongside the wee road between John Lewis and House of Fraser. We walked off, telling people not to run, as we knew that it only serves to frighten other people who them turn to animal instinct.
We couldn' t see the front-line, but every now and then, cheers went up. Whether they were of happiness or in protest against police action we didn' t know, and I will not pretend I know either.
After being refused entry into a wee pub on Bruton street on account of my 'peaceful' protester t-shirt, (hello!) I begged to be let in to use the loo. I was told that if I covered up I could go in, i.e. put a jacket over my top. I explained to the guy that his pub would be the last place get attacked because whilst I don' t consider myself an anarchist, everyone needs a drink and a pee! I told him what it was all about and he confided that he hated the police (which I actually don' t, and have been thankful of their 'use' at least once in my life) and that he felt the same way. Result!
We were able to watch the news with no sound - at 6 o' clock. It was disgusting. The presenters mutely pontificating about the threat of millions of pounds worth of damage and physical violence before it even went pear-shaped.
You could see them, hyped up to the eyeballs, on foot and on horse back, batons raised and frothing at the mouth, dying to beat the crap out of the first one who put an eyelash wrong. It was so ugly. I had never seen the establishment who are supposed to protect us, and for which I pay my taxes, behave in such a threatening, single and narrow-minded way. I know they were only doing their job blah, blah, blah, but someone, one of us needs to let them know what they did wrong. I know someone will say ìexistingî but they do exist, they are not going to go away and if we want to avoid another episode next year, then we have to communicate with them. By which I don' t mean collaborate, just to let them know even more loudly to let us get on with our business and leave us alone.
If they had not been so in our faces and tried to CONTROL the proceedings, and just let everyone get on with their noise-making and having fun, none of this hideousness would have happened. Even the Mrs Pacifist that I am, I felt animosity towards this unnecessary intimidation. They should have stood back and acted only if it got spiky.
I left around 8pm, with a feeling that downhill was on the doorstep, that they weren' t going to allow us to get on down and that I had done all I could to contribute.
My deep feeling about all of this too, is that given the HUGE amount of media publicity as to the convergence point, far more non-movement people were there; a bunch of drunken, get this, children, were haring around, provocation the police, and just making matters worse. Maybe next year, keep it under wraps until the day itself, and filter the info down through the various autonomous actions. That would have worked this year, there were enough of us.
Conclusion We have raised a huge amount of awareness on all the issues that we care about, progress has been made and will continue to be made over the next couple of weeks. TALK to people you know, mass email your non-protesting entourage to let them know why you went and why you felt the need to go there. I know I have converted at least two people, which is not many, but my mass email is awaiting the ìsendî signal. I felt it more important to feed back to the list before feeding forward to my chums
The BBC allowed pro-movement people to stand up and be counted, to give their side of the story so if Auntie can do it, we really are making headway. Media and non-media have made an effort to find out why. The least we can do is to give them the answers. Keeping it a secret will have no positive impact whatsoever, and like a repressed emotion, will lead to dis-ease within the body of the cause and will kill it.
As I said in my post on non-violence, and whilst I now realise that each person has to react in the way which they feel is representative of the way they feel about other types of more subtle and legal violence, if they are manipulating us, which they do each and every day, they we should use it to our advantage.
It will be a great comfort finding out how much money Maccy D' s, Gap et al didn' t make yesterday.
Felt MASSIVE being a part of all this, comforted in the knowledge that our brothers and sisters around the world were acting as one, and just can' t wait for 2002!
Greenity Hall
Well, most of our group was very lucky...managed not to get stopped, searched, trapped or bashed with batons...and listening to the stories of others, i've realised just how close we came...
started at king's cross, where me and a lovely woman in silver got photographed by dozens of the media eating veggie burgers in front of the banners and mc.d's...great, i thought, they might actually put images of the issues in the papers tomorow, but no, as per usual the papers are full of 'riot' images (defenceless people being hit with batons)...went off to the angel to hand out at the autonomous media stand, seems we were the only small event _not_ to get hassled by police, in fact they were very friendly - i think one may even have been flirting with me ('you're not going to sit in the road? shame, we were looking forward to having to pick you up'), and even helpful as to how things were going elsewhere...got chatting to 'jane' doing the programme for C4 on friday, who even said they hoped this time the producers wouldn't edit all the good stuff out and just put in images of violence...she was another useful source of info during the day, and if the producers are non-sensationalist, we may even be on tv on friday talking about the real issues!...then down to piccadilly to sing, dance and spread positive messages around, then the news came through on 'london live' (tip of the day - take a radio!) that large numbers were converging on oxford circus, so we went dtraight there...that's when we got _really_ lucky, by being too late and on the outside...it was fantastic to see oxford street all closed and peaceful, and we wished hard for a rig, only to settle for a samba band...at various points we did what we could for those on the inside by massing behind the police lines (which way were they going to charge?!), until they got wise and started to come in behind to corral more and more into an increasingly small space...so we backed off, and went back around to oxford street, where we quickly realised no-one was going anywhere, so it being 5-6ish, and being very cold and very tired, we wandered off back home (again just before they started closing in)...
my verdict is as follows:
media: did anyone else notice how yesterday evening the bbc were talking about 'hemmed in protesters' and 'largely peaceful actions' and yet by this morning, they were talking of 'stand-offs' and 'rampage'?...independant film companies seemed to be rather on our side, but not very hopeful about getting us sympathetic airtime...yet overall, the pictures spoke for themselves for anyone who can think past a voiceover, and the issues seem to be being discussed even through the condemnations of our actions...best tv? C4 news last night...best paper? the independent...
police: met police seemed rather nice, even discussing the issues and taking leaflets...city of london police wouldn't even acknowledge us waving when they filmed us...the riot police were so up for a fight even we couldn't believe it...just what you'd expect, really...i still think they f*cked up: could we alone have closed four major roads in the centre of london on our own?
unity: there were no fluffies, there were no spikies, there was just us: people who got trapped and people who didn't: as a pacifist, would i have held my temper in the pouring rain for 7 hours? i don't know...there were a few thugs along for the ride, but isn't there always?...
what we achieved: we have brought the issues to the press, we have, at smaller actions, brought the issues directly to the people (i've never given out soooo many leaflets), we kept ourselves in the news all day, we refused to riot despite hours of heavy-handed policing, we closed oxford street (let me say that again: We Closed Oxford St...), we stopped millions of pounds worth of burgers and sweatshop clothes being sold, if only for a day, and all in pouring rain...for one day, we won, and one day we will look back and see these protests (and all those before them) as the begining of revolutionary times...
ferdi, maydaymedicine, everyone i met: my love goes with you; and thank you all: i was proud to stand with you...you have managed to radicalise more of my friends than you'll ever know...you _are_ the butterfly effect...
...t*
Was trapped in Oxford Circus from 2.30pm when I was trying to leave to collect my son from school. Eventually got out at 9pm. Had enjoyed Kings Cross and Beltane celebrations in Piccadilly, when a march went past us (loads of SWP banners?!) and we tagged along. We ended up in Oxford Circus at 2pm - 2 hours "early". We thought it was a bit strange at the time, but didn't realize the full implications!! We met people who had planes to catch, other parents needing to collect kids, a diabetic & even people were supposed to be working last night. The police (etc.) accuse us of being irresponsible, but they stand in the way of our responsibilities. I was told I shouldn't have been there but, as I live in London, I didn't see any reason why I should not be on the streets on any day. If I had given my son the day off school & had him with me, maybe I would have got out sooner??! Why were people still being allowed into Oxford Circus even after people were prevented from leaving? we know of several people that just walked through the police lines at around 4/5pm!! Agree that people were more than "patient" considering the circumstances. Maybe next time can bring bin-bags (etc.) to sit on if ground is wet? If people were going to refuse to leave, mabe a combination of handcuffs & railings? Just hope the police get pneumonia from standing in the rain. If they ALL take a day off sick, maybe we could have a peaceful protest!!