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September 28, 2000
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From Ainriail - the Irish Anarchist list
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Irish eyewitness report on S26
demonstration in Prague
This is a personal report on the
demonstrations in Prague to shut down the
IMF/World Bank on Tuesday by a member of
the Workers Solidarity Movement who
marched near the front of the anarchist
(blue) section of the demonstration.
------
The demonstration formed up around 2km
from the congress centre in a square in
central Prague. A meeting at the
Convergence centre (a large industrial
space in the suburbs) of some 3,000 people
had taken place the afternoon before to
discuss the plan to blockade the congress.
The Czech organisers of the demonstration
(INPEG) had decided to allow the delegates
into the conference centre and then
blockade it in order to prevent them
leaving and attending a special Opera that
evening.
However at this meeting it became apparent
that no plan had been made to shut down
the metro station that would be inside the
police cordon. It was very obvious that
this was how the delegates would be
brought in and out (and indeed the media
has reported that they were brought out
this way). The planned blockade would
obviously be ineffective but the INPEG
response to questions about the metro was
to say that we couldn't shut this down as
the ordinary citizens needed to get
around.
This led to a meeting of anarchists that
evening beside the blue block meeting (see
below). This decided that we would head
up the blue block and rather then stopping
at our appointed blockade point (which
would have left us in a vunerable position
between cliffs and a river) we would march
as close as we could get to the Congress
centre and then attempt to non-violently
push through the police lines. Napoleon
said a battle plan never survives first
contact with the enemy, as we shall see
below.
Heading up the yellow block would be the
Italian group 'Ya Basta' who had been
delayed 24 hours on the border as the
police tried to stop 4 of them coming in
because they were on a (FBI) list of
people who had attended the Seattle
demonstration. In solidarity the 1,000
people with them said either we all get in
or we all stay here and proceeded to build
barricades on the train lines. The border
police were forced to give in and late on
Monday 'Ya Basta arrived.
Like the anarchist block they also
intended to try and push through the
police lines. They had come prepared with
30 or so suits of padded 'armour' and
helmets that those in the front would wear
to wade off police blows.
There were three major colour blocks,
blue, yellow and pink each assigned to
block the access points at different areas
around the conference centre. The centre
itself stood at the top of a steep hill
overlooking the city and was
unapproachable from most angles due to
cliffs. In addition we knew we faced
11,000 police with riot equipment, dogs,
stun grenades, tear gas and water cannon.
Both yellow and blue were headed up by
groups who had stated their intention to
push through the police lines. Pink who
had the longest march but much easier
access to the centre seemed to include the
pacifists and the bulk of the Leninist
parties.
As we gathered in the square it was
obvious that the hoped for 20,000 plus
protesters would not materialise however
we probably had over 12,000 (In this
account I've tried hard to give accurate
figures, I've seen one mainstream media
report of 15,000 and others as low as
5,000). The march would be headed by
pink, followed by yellow and then blue.
As we reached the first point the march
would continue and blue would split off
and head for the area of the conference
centre beside the river. Later the same
tactic would see yellow split from the
back and take a second route to the centre
leaving pink to continue on to encircle
the rear of the centre.
I had chosen to march with the anarchist
block that headed up (and indeed comprised
the majority of) the blue march. The
front of this was taken up by Czech
anarchists followed by anarchist from the
other Eastern European countries numbering
perhaps a thousand in all. Holding the
banners down one side of the march and
taking position behind the eastern
Europeans were anarchists from all the
western European countries and a large
number of automnen from Germany. This
anarchist block probably numbered at least
3,000 but we may have had as many as
5,000. An exact estimate is difficult as
from the front I could never see the back
of the block and counting numbers in such
a tightly packed formation (see below) is
difficult. There were also large numbers
behind the anarchist block and of course a
least a thousand anarchists who choose to
march with their affinity groups in other
sections of the march. This last number
could be larger and is based on the number
of anarchist flags, badges and other
identifying clothes I saw in the other
sections.
At the head of the blue section we were to
march in tightly packed rows with our arms
linked and banners stretched across the
front and down the sides of the march.
The majority of those on the march wore
masks to protect their identity and offer
some limited protection from tear gas.
Those at the front also worse construction
helmets and many had gas masks. Six of
seven rows back a medical team marched
also equipped with gas masks and helmets
as we didn't expect the police would
respect the prominent red crosses marked
on their bags and satchels.
I had chosen not to wear a mask and to
speak to any press looking for interviews
about why we marching today - making it
clear this was only my view as we had no
agreed press spokes people. I had spoken
at the counter summit over the weekend so
this seemed like the most useful
contribution that could be made to the
debate. This also means I can report on
events with more safety then the more
active participants.
On the day the WSM and other anarchist
groups were also distributing 5,000 copies
of an international anarchist statement
from a number of anarchist groups around
the world. It explained why we were
taking part in / supporting the Prague
action and what alternative we had. The
full text of this statement which was
distributed in a four language leaflet
(including Czech) can be found at
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/inter/s26.html
One side note worth mentioning is that
many of the Leninist parties had chosen to
come to Prague with red flags emblazoned
with hammer and sickles. The Czech media
on the day of the protest had been sure to
include front page pictures of them as
these flags associated with the Soviet
occupation and the old regime are hardly
'popular'. As the yellow block formed up
in front of us the Eastern European
anarchists greeted each of these banners
with a chant that obviously translated as
'Bolshevism is Fascism'. I didn't join in
as apart from the difficulty of chanting
in a language you don't know I don't feel
the equation is accurate even if in the
context of Eastern Europe its an
understandable reaction.
As the march set off our block chanted a
huge range of slogans, many of them in
Czech but some also in French, English and
Spanish. The most popular included
'international solidarity', 'smash, smash,
smash the IMF' and 'no pasaran'. It was
quite a feeling being part of this massive
block of anarchists with people from every
corner of Europe and beyond marching
towards what we knew would be a hard
confrontation with the police.
The tactic of the march splitting off from
the back worked beautifully, catching the
police and media by surprise who were
clustered at the front of the march. From
here to the centre we were unaccompanied
by both and we wound our way down into the
valley below the conference centre. Once
the march split up we jogged for a while
and then in order to avoid breaking our
formation slowed to a fast march trying to
get as close to the IMF as we could before
the police could react. In particular we
were concerned that they could trap us at
the bottom of the valley where we needed
to take a tunnel under a railway line.
In the event though the police failed to
react and we got closer and closer to the
IMF building. Finally we stood at the
bottom of a steep hill slopping up to the
centre, 300m away at the top we could see
riot police behind a fence. On the right
four storey building stood on the street,
on the left a park opened up in a funnel
shape with the wide end being at the top
of the hill. We advanced rapidly up the
hill and then stopped about 30m from the
waiting police line. Here we waited for a
minute to allow everyone to form up and
remove the banners at the side of the
march. At this point the non-combatants
(including myself) moved into the park.
Then the front charged.
For the next couple of minutes row after
row hurled themselves against the riot
shields, before moving to the side as the
next row flung themselves forward. The
shield wall started to buckle and then
break and demonstrators started breaking
though to the crest of the hill, perhaps
less then 100 m from the centre. The
police brought up a water cannon and the
first hail of stun grenades detonated
amongst the front rows. Then the police
baton charged forcing those who had scaled
the fence to hastily retreat less they be
trapped.
As the baton charge reached the fence it
was driven back by a hail of cobble stones
and by demonstrators armed with sticks and
protected with helmets. More
demonstrators charging through the park
itself began to scale the wall at the end
nearest the congress or to try and force
down the doors in the wall. Other
observers indicated that at least some of
them succeeded in this and got within 50m
of the IMF before being driven back by
riot police.
Meanwhile at the top of the hill a furious
battle was being waged by the anarchists.
The police were now firing round after
round of tear gas filled stun grenades
into the massed ranks below them. The
water cannon continually housed from left
to right against the front rows. From the
park above the road I could see someone
holding a massive anarchist flag in the
centre of the row, soaked and deep in tear
gas but refusing to be driven back. A
second massive charge began, again driving
the police back before being again driven
back as the police brought up two armoured
personnel carriers and counter charged.
Half a dozen or so Molotov cocktails were
hurled into the police lines which brought
them to a halt but had little other effect
as they were obviously wearing flame proof
suits.
A stalemate developed along the fence with
the police driven back whenever they tried
to cross it by stick welding demonstrators
and hails of the now plentiful
cobblestones. Volley after volley of stun
grenades and tear gas rained down, the
noise apparently interrupting the speeches
inside the hall. As the battle raged
across the fence more and more
demonstrators were coming to the rear
injured or suffering the effects of the
tear gas. In the front lines
demonstrators could be seen wearing
captured police riot helmets and wielding
captured shields and batons.
[end of part 1, part 2 too follow]
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/inter/s26.html
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