Personal impressions

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday May 08, 2002 14:55 by John - Regrowth regrowth666 at hotmail dot com

Personal impressions of RTS action in Dublin and ideas/questions arising

I missed the heat of the violence in Dublin as a result of having a scared, small dog to look after. I don't know whether to be glad or disappointed about this. Anyway I found the whole event, good, bad and ugly a real trip that stimulated me regarding our movement in ways that many other things fail to do.

Thank the gods for Indymedia, without that footage things would now be unfolding very differently.

Here's some stuff that I learned from being there
I turned up with 3 friends and rather than jump straight into the action we decided to take a walk around the edges first. Find out where the exits are, what the Gards are doing, get to know the immediate area. Nothing scares me more than the thought of being trapped in a crowd not knowing what's going on. Just taking that simple precaution made me feel a lot safer.

Crowds are unpredictable entities, it is so easy to lose one's identity in one. This is how certain groups take advantage of demos and gatherings. It is in all our interests to remain centered and grounded as individuals and not get swept up in whatever random emotion happens to be swirling about at the time. - T'ai Chi anyone?

Affinity groups are a really, really good idea, being with 3 others who I knew well was vital in helping us to stay safe and centered. We could look out for each other, keep each other calm and help to calm others. I would hate to be in that sort of situation without folk around looking out for me.

Adrenaline; is a hit, the gards love it and some of us love it, we need to be honest about why we seek out these situations, is it to do something specific or just for the rush? Either way is OK but we need to be honest.

Young kids baiting the gards; As events revealed some of those guys in uniform are severely damaged individuals, it isn't worth winding them up but it seemed to me that throughout the afternoon there were elements in the crowd getting kicks out of doing just that. They might have turned violent anyway but let's not give them any encouragement next time eh. What ways are there to deal with the gards so they don't turn violent?

Movement as a group and as individuals; Is it necessary to remain in a big group all the time? If we get good at this we could disperse into small groups, let things calm down and then pop up again somewhere else a bit later. Movement is one of the keys to this whole thing, large crowds moving slowly are easy to herd and predict. Small groups or individuals moving fast or better yet, dancing fast in different directions would be much harder to control. Flow like water, learn T'ai chi or dance a lot.

I think this is really significant; when the march left the quay it was spreading and growing. People were stopped all along the river watching, many were joining in, attracted by the rare vibe of people enjoying themselve in a free space. I think this is what scared the gards that they couldn't control anything about it and so they eventually reacted in the only way they knew. Then the anger that generated attracted a whole different type of person.

I hope this makes sense, let's learn from this to make the next event we do bigger, more energetic and enjoyable and more conscious than the last one.
All the best to all