RTS and the magical mystery tour

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday May 05, 2003 23:41 by Aidan - IMC Ireland

This is an IMCers report on Mondays RTS. If you disagree with my view on what happened please write up your own report, or comment on this one. Please respect that people can view events differently and no one opinion is necessarily "right" or "true". This is my own opinion and shouldn't be taken as the opinion of the IMC Collective.

I'm home and I'm tired. RTEs report of todays RTS must not have contained enough exciting drama because they had to reuse the footage of last year's trouble, apparently a street party by itself isn't as big a deal.

An earlier report of the today proclaimed "God is an RTSer", it's fairly accurate, the smokers got pissed on in bushy park on Saturday, but blue skies reigned today. The threatening rain clouds, that loomed all day, were always blown away just at the last minute, and party goers were treated to the finest May weather, which no one dared hope for after last night.

But fuck the weather report, was the party any good? Well yeah, the crowds gathered at the spike and were in top form, and hungry to get started; as the event kicked off with the usual trepadation after the critical mass passed by down O'connell st, the crowd bolted (slowly) down Henry st, then Moore St. Much to the puzzlement of the heavy Gardai presence, who had been complaining that, as per usual, that they didn't have a fucking clue what was going to happen.

But then neither did the crowd of near a thousand, arriving on Parnell st, with not so much as a bang more a whimper, and settling down to some confused stopping and staring as they waited to see what would happen next. It took an age to get the sound system's gennie going, with Black Pope (for the clueless; the guy in the boiler suit and megaphone; the parties PA, and maitre'd) begging for a tech to come and help fix things. When the system kicked in it was greeted with a roar from the crowd and the party got going.

And at times what a fucking party, a mellow Police presence, a bizzare electic mix of music (cyndia lauper!) which went down a storm with the crowd. Best of all to me was the crowd. Kids, teenagers, locals, and members of the areas growing immigrant community came together, it was everything an RTS should be Peaceful, joyous, and a celebration of what a different city community could be. You could almost overlook the GR/SWP hacks flogging books and papers.

At five thirty it was over all too fucking soon. Which is my point. Why the fuck end it?!? Was the gennie out of petrol? could more have been gotten?(A whip round!) The Police seemed non plussed, the sun was out, and as the last record stopped, the crowd screamed for more. But no ,according to sources in RTS, they wanted to move and do a Direct Action. Erm okay. Me I thought this was about reclaiming a space for the public, which was what was happening here, and very sucessfully.

The crowd of over two hundred snaked long through the Moore St area and passed the Spire, towards the now, open secret DA location, the Top Oil station on Amiens st. Me personally I thought this was stupid. The Cops had been well behaved, but if I saw a crowd of anarchists legging it to a petrol station, and I was a cop, I'd get freaked.

Arriving at the scene, the crowd had rushed the forcourt of the station to the surprise of staff and those just there to fill up the car. Kids ran, people drummed, while the crowd drank, danced, and smoked.

Yes, smoking, and drinking in a petrol forecourt.

I found a legal support rep, and shouted out him "are you out of your fucking mind"? He stared at me bemusedly, I kept on "People are fucking smoking" And pointed to people dancing on puddles and slicks of dry and not so dry petorl. He looked shocked "Shit hadn't thought of that". Legal support numbers yup, first aid kit, yes. Bringing a crowd of people some of whom have been drinking for a few hours onto a petrol forecourt, along with kids, hey wheres the harm? I pointed this out to two more people wearing those orange vests (one was actually sitting on the wall, rolling a cigarette) It had occured to neither of them that this might be a tiny bit dangerous.

In fairness a few minutes later the crowd moved/were moved off the the forecourt and out onto the street. However I'm just fucking staggered by the stupidity of this. Yes it was unlikely anyone was going to be hurt, but the situation had an almost Darwin award feel to it. It was worrying no one in RTS had considered safety when thinking this part of the day out. Not smoking in a petrol forecourt ranks alongside looking left and right before crossing the road, and only slighty above, breathing in and out, on my list of things to do to ensure a healthy long life.

The crowd stood around on Amiens St. for a while longer, and word spread that we where moving to another dispersal point. What? Why? It had been heard, from a reliable source, that they Gardai weren't going to bother the crowd, so why the Paranoia?

Once again people trooped out following black pope with his megaphone ona stick, this time into the IFSC. Again I was frankly incredlous. The crowd were now standing on ,and some pissing againist, the financial heartland of the city. This couldn't be ignored by the protectors of the status quo, and sure enough the largest police presence of the day appeared. Some in vans discreetly around the corner (we checked) and many in plan sight.

So now the crowd were in a public space, in the financial district, on a bank holiday monday. It was like reclaiming a ghost town. A drumming circle was started, and the crowd was settled. The Police and private security looked on nervously, fine spray paint Parnell st, Amiens st, whatever, but fuck help the crowd if someone kicked in a window in one of those fancy buildings. The Police wouldn't have been able to ignore that, and there would have been trouble.

This was not a great disperal point, the exits were all bottle necks and chained off, and the ground was deep gravel, making it difficult to walk or run on. This was not thought out at all.

But again the crowd were urged to move after less than half an hour, this time to the gingerman pub for a fundraiser. Unfortunately the black pope's white boiler suit and megaphone was not a lure for the crowd, who were settling in (some left got cans and came back) thank you very much we're grand here, and not pushed about the pub, actually.

The day ended much as it started not with a bang but a whimper. The crowd now around a hundred were left at half seven sitting around the artifical lake.

The day was amazingly peaceful. The only violence on the day came (and I'm not making this up) when a member of the Dublin Catholic Workers attacked a masked RTSer, demanding "let me see your face, what are you hiding", repeatadly. The Police were absurdly tolerant, allowing the crowd a free run, no problem packing up the sound system, no problem really at the station, and no problem in the IFSC. It was an unreal (one bike cop at the IFSC wearily remarked to a colleague "christ would they ever pack it in, I'm falling asleep in my saddle")I was amazed, at times it seemed like the RTS was just trying to push their luck, how far could they take this till the Gardai push back? I seriously doubt this much leyway will ever be offered again.

In a final note, tonights lead news story was that 19 people have died over the weekend as a result of car accidents. The may bank holiday weekend is one of the traditionaly worst weekends for road deaths in this country. It was, unfortunately, the best advertisment for RTSs ideals of a less car dependent world that I saw all weekend.