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 Tuesday May 07, 2002 15:58 by james rts - Reclaim the Streets rtsmayday at yahoo dot co dot uk 087 9425422
 Who are Reclaim the Streets? What happened on the 6th of May? What is Reclaim the Streets? Reclaim the Streets is a loose coming together of different individuals committed to anti authoritarian and non hierarchal organising, with no distinction between leaders and led. What happened on the 6th of May? At 2.30 people began gathering at the GPO as arranged and at a prearranged signal made their way down to Burgh Quay where a barricade had been erected to block traffic. Especially targeted were people with cameras and video cameras, nevertheless there were enough media present to document the police riot. Footage showing the events has already begun to make its way into the public domain. After being pushed into Temple Bar the protesters made their way back to their original intended location: the public green area of the Civic Offices. At this stage the crowd dispersed. In evaluating the days events there are two main facts which have emerged. 1. The behaviour of the party participants was overwhelmingly peaceful, despite provocation there were no police injuries. 2. In contrast there were numerous assaults by the police on the party participants, resulting in at least 12 people being being hospitalised. If the conduct of the party participants was so peaceful why did the gardai choose to draw their batons? Why were certain members of the gardai without their identification numbers? On what level had the decision been made to remove them? Conclusion. RTS threw a street party, an attempt to turn commercialised space into social space, to occupy the streets rather than just pass through them.
"We're not a party we're having one." |
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Comments (14 of 14)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14OUR STREET!!!
With the police response to RTS & their true colours revealed to us all, it's extremely important that May 6's action is followed up soon with more street parties and other events, while "the public" are still incensed and it's in the public eye...yeah, playing to the media, but it's the only anything further will be done at this point in time. Support your local black bloc!
While I am shocked and horrified at the action of the gardaí síochana - the keepers of the peace- I am by no means suprised. Firstly, we all know how the slightest attempts of non-comformity or alternative thinking is looked upon in this country. Secondly, we have to keep in mind that last year an act went through the Dáil which made organised or spontaneous gatherings of more than (I think) 7 or 8 people illegal. And can't you just imagine the police handing out a permit for a street party?? HA!
Thankfully I left before it got chaotic, and I am very sympathetic to those who suffered from the wrath of the law. But I'm still perplexed as to how the gardai just decided to bring out their batons. When I was there the gardai were in no way hostile towards the crowd-they were just doing their job.
So what changed after 7pm? Because surely some incident must have influenced the gardai to become so bloody violent!!
It was a great day, that's for sure. But this morning I felt personally responsible when I heard a little kid was brought to hospital because of serious injuries.
Reclaim the streets-yes.
Allow for injuries-never.
something must have sparked it im guessing up at the front of the crowd whether it was scuffle and misunderstanding or whatever somebody must admit to how it sparked the baton "charge", that made the gardai along the lenght of the protest start beating the shit of of ppl
i was there imm so shocked was having fun till that point
to be honest, and although i wasn't at the rtc protest yesterday, i have been at many similar things over the last decade, i suspect it was a combination of a few things. firstly, there may have been a "spark" - someone pushing or giving lip or whatever, but this wasn't the reason, it would have been the excuse. it might well have been that the excuse was provided by a police agitator - i've seen it happen before - remember genoa. the guards probably felt that they could get away with more because it was a public holiday and there weren't as many people around. but simply, i reckon that they thought it was time to teach people a message, and that the best way of doing this was through undiscriminating violence against anyone in their path. the fact that they took their badges off means that they knew what they wanted to do, and that they would use excessive force. their tactics haven't worked, in fact it has badly backfired. we shoudl keep up the pressure though, and get everyone we can to thursday's protest. don't let them get away with it, keep up the struggle!
I was at the front of the demo in Dame Street when the gardaí drew their batons.
There are a few key points:
1. The protestors would never have been in Dame Street unless the gardai had blocked other routes. In fact the crowd at several times had marched away from police lines.
2. The march came to a halt only when the Gardai blocked those at the front.
3. At this point several people sat down, in the most physically possible way of showing that they did not want to threaten anyone. People sitting on the road are defenceless.
4. It was at this point that the Gardái began to drag people violently away and the drew batons.
So why at this stage of the day when previously the Gardaí had been more reasonable?
Three basic reasons.
1. The numbers of protestors had dwindled signifiicantly. Several hundred party goers had already left the party and dispersed peacefully.
2. The gardaí numbers were now significantly increased. They now had sufficient numbers to break up the party.
3. At this stage the gards probably had enough. The inspectors had been on constant duty for this event now for at least five hours. This is without any breaks for food, toilet etc. They wanted to break it up because they had enough. If you think this is a trivial point you should have seen the spars at about 8.30 or so when the demo had been dispersed. They were full of Gardai buying food and soft drinks. Thirsty work beating up peaceful protestors.
Of course there is one other point. The Gardaí underestimated the crowd. They probaly reckoned that a bit of aggresive policing would disperse a largely youthful crowd within minutes rather than hours.
And this is for sure - they knew that there were no RTE cameras and they never imagined in their wildest night mares that their brutality would make headline news on RTE one, six, and nine o'clock news as lead story as well as been covered by Morning Ireland, Marian Finucane, Pat Kenny, Joe Duffy, and five seven live. They didn't reckon anyone would notice them battoning a few teenagers and hippies. Sure who would believe that lot anyway?
It really shows the importance of getting the video footage and more importantly of getting onto the news even if it is corporate media.
ok. it seems that we may have them on the run with the whole number/ badge thing. (an obvious statement i admit.) i think we should get everyone who has experienced this to complain in detail. was any one at the burlington? roscommon? richies house where the begrudgers played and darragh got arrested? all these events (and yesterday), where the police invaded a peacefull area and incited violence without their badges, seem to point towards a definite, um, prejudice on the gardais behalf to our culture. as i see it we are a culture. we have a way of life different to those in our environment (this ofcourse applying to those who were at such events). its time we began defining who and what we are, in disaggreament to the rape of our culture, american imperialism bla bla bla... why isnt there some where we can go to leave this shit hole of a planet. there isnt so we gotta do something now. bring it to a head. the world can go two ways at the moment: freedom (with the amount of technology we have we can both have everything for free for everyone and also clean the place up) or the way it is going: g w bush and the globalisation of american culture- fake, plastic, shalow, etc. and defo on the whole carrying this thing on as soon as we can. protest at peirce st. station on thursday i think, and we should organise more street parties as soon as possible. rtc?...
where are we supposed to get our voices and opinions about how to run our lives, environment and society, heard (not thru voting anyweay!!!) other than protesting? i call for a political forum where the people (young and old) can voice opinions head to head with our democraticaly elected leaders. we pay them enough!!!
Its a lot easier for the garda to beat the daylights out a group of citizens protesting than to be actually doing proper police work, it seems as soon as the average cittzen steps out of line
they get beaten back into line, someone made a good point that neither the taxi drivers or truckers recevied such abuse
my tax MY ROAD.
all you hippie rts crowd can piss off.
Thank you to all indymedia.ie people for this service,it started small and now like R.T.S. Indymedia is reclaiming our public media,the cover of the indo is all thanks to you and I ask
if this would have been such a success had it not been for you.once again thank you Indymedia.ie
I have been following the events over the last couple of days and am a tad confused.
First of all the behaviour of the Gardai was outrageous and the ones involved should be disciplined/sacked etc. Senior Gardai should also be brought to task. Removing of badges is also a serious offence.
There should also be a independent ombudsman to handle complaints against the Gardai just as there is for Consumer Affairs.
What I want to know about is RTS. Is there a web-site where I can get info? What is your agenda? Is it just to reclaim the streets? I don't see the problem with having roads in the city for public and private transport. I have car and it affords me with great freedom to travel when and where I want. That I feel is a right I have. I don't think it's fair to block streets especially busy ones. Are you against cars?
Just to put my cards on the table. I am a capitalist with a car, a salary and a house. It is fair to say I come from a priveleged background. This does not mean I am intolerant or come from the George W. Bush school of right-wing politics.
I find is hard to defend your actions even though I would subscribe to some of what I believe our your goals. It would be nice to have more public space where people could gather for events such as these i.e. ones not generally in the interest of the powers that be. I am well aware of how governemnts all over the world repress unpopular opinions from various bodies. I don't know if you're going about it the right way. Talking to my friends from, I admit, a similar background you are not gaining support. The only support I see that you are getting is purley because of the appaling behaviour of the Gardai. Had the Gardai handled themselves with dignity then I feel there would have been an outpouring of pissed off citizens giving out about RTS and there methods in much the same way the Taxi drivers were ridiculed for their protest. (I note that the Gardai did not lash out at them for the obvious reason the the Taxi Drivers Union is a powerful lobbying force on the Government and command serious votes)
Also someone commented on this site that with technology we call all live in a sociey that is free for all. Nice idea but I have worked in IT for the last five years and that stuff costs money, requires people to build it and requires public and private investment which has to come from somewhere. This free for all is simply not realistic. Services that are free and have been free on the internet were free becuase initilaly they were funded by the US Military (who invented the internet), then subsequently by universities world-wide and then operated at a considerable loss in a commercial domain until it was no longer viable and required charging.
Sorry for ranting on but here my final question
Who are RTS? Who organise it. It it part of the ant-globalisation movement or the anti-capitalist movement or are they the same thing. Is it an Irish or world-wide group. Where do Indy media fit into this. No media organisation is truly independent if they have an agenda which I presume Indy media have in that they share the above groups opinions.
Can someone fill in the gaps for me?
Kindest regards,
Barry
Please, If you see a white 1990 Nissan Bluebird driving let me through. Knowing me I would probably be late already!!!!!!!!!!
I am sitting bemused my attention brought to Eire and the recent events there...
I´ll share the rumination with you.
Since the beginning of Reclaim the Streets gatherings which perhaps we ought be reminded grew out of cross polination between increasing common ground and activists common to the anti-road movements in England, the european occupation squatters movement, global pacifists greens, circus groups, socialist and marxist groupings and anarchists through the early to mid nineties Police provocation has been standard.
This cocktail found its global launching stage in London.
It is almost ironically a required element of carnival and the RTS phenomona that those who gather on the streets must confront state authorities.
The global movement rainbow tribe alternative movement has met and talked and danced together ever since whether or not the day be labelled RTS or G8 WTO IMF.
a required element of RTS actions and days of celebration in my opinion should be quality legal aid and support for prisoners.
but be careful about defining RTS for an Irish public to my mind poorly informed of the phenomona which began so long ago and in which some of us found our lives changed. It might be worth mentioning that small scale protests against Sellafield and the Thorp 1 and 2 projects were the only example of such street action before.
The glen of the Downs was an example of site occupation protest.
The mass mobilisations in support of the Birmingham 6 and Guildford 4 also contained maqny activists who had or would enjoy a nascent RTS spirit.
in the words of Beckett though I generally mangele Beckett from memory,. :-)
try once fail once try again fail better.
i wish you well RTS collective baile atha cliath.
beir bua libh.