Agit-Prop from Evian :
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news report
Wednesday June 04, 2003 13:37
by hobo
Black Loves Pink, Pink Loves Black
Lausanne Solidarity Declaration: Black Loves Pink, Pink Loves Black
Lausanne Solidarity Declaration
people, 03.06.2003 13:46
In response to press misinformation
The iron fist of police brutality is still preventing us from piecing together
the entire puzzle of events surrounding the Sunday blockades of the G8. And yet,
the usual suspects are at it again. In the past 36 hours, some sections of the
entertainment industry (also known as the corporate media) have happily jumped
into their usual role: a campaign of disinformation, criminalisation and
intimidation. This is happening in direct support of the state terrorism being
exercised, as we speak, against thousands of people in Lausanne, Geneva and
Annemasse. We are again confronted with a fine fabric of half truths and
more-than-half lies, posing as the ‘neutral’ and ‘objective’ account of the G8
blockades.
Sheer urgency precludes a response to all the details of this nebula of
falsehood. We have prisoners to defend, lungs to decontaminate and good stories
to tell. However, one illusion that needs to be dispelled right now is the
ritual separation between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ protesters, manufactured yet again by
the corporate media in all its sensationalist glory. Le Matin, celebrating its
greatest achievement to date in the art of rabid inflammation, tells us in a
blood-red headline that ‘the black blocks destroyed the dream of the pacifists’
in Lausanne. Have they ever considered the possibility that the two share the
very same dream? 24 Heures rushes to quote the rehearsed and predictable
denunciations by the self-appointed ‘leaders’ of the ‘altermondialistes’, that
ridiculous cadre of middle-aged, middle-class, white, male opportunists, most of
whom might as well be picking the scraps from under the banquet table in Evian.
As if to enforce this image, pictures of masked ‘casseurs’ are faced, on the
opposite page, by the smiling faces of their holier-than-thou categeurs. And Le
Temps, in the most shameless show of superficiality, characterises the
‘casseurs’ as anarchists and fascists at the same time, as if two such
diametrically opposed ideologies could coexist in any space of political
expression. And so on and so on, as it has always been, lies without end, amen.
Enough of this farce.
This declaration of solidarity is written by friends who participated in the
non-confrontational parts of Sunday’s blockades in Lausanne. We are speaking in
our name only, not in the name of the Aqua or Pink and Silver blocs, which have
disbanded. Still, as far as the stupid divisions created by the corporate media
go, we would definitely be perceived as the kind of ‘good’ protesters that they
so like to cuddle.
We want to say the following, loud and clear:
For us, the only division worth talking about is that between the people of the
world and the masters of death and exploitation. The only ‘ring-leaders’ that
need to be exposed, isolated, and removed from their position of menace to
society are George Bush, Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi, Jacques
Chirac, Gerhard Schröder, Jean Chretien and Junichiro Koizumi. Our determination
to disrupt their yearly feasts of power is matched only by our contempt for that
other handful of losers in suits who, instead of fighting for the starving
millions of the global South, came to Evian in order to kiss the hands of the
torturers.
The blockades were undertaken by a very large number of people, with different
expectations and sensibilities. But it was abundantly clear, at least to us,
that everybody was agreeing to operate in full solidarity. This was made clear
not only by the written declarations of the different blocs, but also from the
abundant will to coordinate our fluid actions on the ground. The fact that some
of us chose not to engage in highly confrontational tactics (whether for reasons
of principle or of prudence) does not mean that we automatically refuse to
cooperate, and defend, those who did choose higher levels of confrontation. We
are constantly looking for ways to live with our differences, so as to continue
acting together for a world of freedom, justice and peace.
We challenge the corporate media to reproduce a single quote or sound-bite from
Sunday in which someone who actually participated in the Lausanne blockades
denounces another participant.
There is talk of fascist infiltration of the various black blocs. Since Genoa
these claims have become certain people’s knee-jerk reaction to high levels of
confrontation, but we are prepared to look at the facts. Indeed, from what we
saw on Sunday in Lausanne, there was an enormous presence of fascists on the
streets. They were all wearing police uniforms. These thugs almost killed one
activist, directly beat and tortured hundreds, and left thousands more injured:
bruised by rubber bullets, traumatised by concussion grenades and poisoned by
highly potent chemical weapons. The corporate media subsumes, under the single
category of ‘violence’, (a) the occasional erection of a barricade and its
defense with a few bottles and sticks, and (b) the continuous assault on unarmed
masses of people with tear gas, flash-balls and icy gushes of water laced with
pepper spray. This is an insult to human intelligence, even if the latter is as
low as that of corporate journalists, Leninists and cops.
All the blockade actions that took place in Lausanne had the clear objective of
obstructing the arrival of G8 delegates. The difference was only in tactics. A
clear dimension that they all had in common, however, was the reclamation of our
urban spaces. Whether this is done through a sit-in, a street party, or symbolic
assaults on corporate property, we have the common goal of cleansing our living
space from its contamination by capitalism and the state. We want our streets
back, but we are tired of asking politely: we just take them.
Finally, we find it absolutely preposterous that the media is willing to play
this divisive game after seeing the amazing levels of solidarity that were
present during the police repression of activists in the Bourdonnette camp on
Sunday afternoon. For long hours in the blazing sun, surrounded by fully armed
police, protesters who earlier in the day had oriented themselves to vastly
differing levels of confrontation all maintained a non-violent, collective
resistance to the police’s attempts to intimidate and isolate us. We were
constantly making decisions together by consensus, chanting slogans in each
other’s languages, freely sharing among us the precious little food, water and
cigarettes that we had, and protecting people that we had never met before from
arrest and brutalisation as if they were our own family members. We simply
cannot believe that the journalists who saw this happen were not blown away by
our level of cohesiveness and strength. We know that we were.
To sum up: you can talk all you want, but for us the G8 blockades were a
master-class in revolutionary solidarity. They were the creation of a movement
more united than we have ever seen it in our lives. We have discovered,
together, that the colours of resistance can combine in a beautiful rainbow if
we just try. Let the sounds of samba and breaking glass harmonise, because this
movement has something stronger than guns. It has a memory.
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Comments (10 of 10)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10thanks hobo, for the lucidity and for articulating what i believe to be the enduring principle of solidarity characteristic of this movement. the above is a most powerful piece of counter-propoganda and deserves as much exposure as possible.
originally from : people
"To sum up: you can talk all you want, but for us the G8 blockades were a
master-class in revolutionary solidarity. They were the creation of a movement
more united than we have ever seen it in our lives. We have discovered,
together, that the colours of resistance can combine in a beautiful rainbow if
we just try. Let the sounds of samba and breaking glass harmonise, because this
movement has something stronger than guns. It has a memory."
This is a superb statement and a VAST difference from the shit and misinformation which seems to normally spread like a big stinky pool after these events.
It identifys the real enemy:
"Indeed, from what we
saw on Sunday in Lausanne, there was an enormous presence of fascists on the
streets. They were all wearing police uniforms. "
and the real allies.
"All the blockade actions that took place in Lausanne had the clear objective of
obstructing the arrival of G8 delegates. The difference was only in tactics. "
Its a master piece of clarity and solidarity. It would appear that the people involved in the blockades know exactly where they stand and won't be willing/unwillingly compliant in the usual stream of media / self appointed leadership drivel
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
NOTE theres no "www" in the irish vidheads link -just click as it is it will work - interesting range of photos and pics from the blockade/march and other actions
Conor
Broke link in last comment - bad speiller
irishvidheads.tk
I'll get it right eventually !
irishvidheads.com
that was spooky !!!!
I'm off home !!!!!!!!!!
In support of the solidarity messages from the blockaders in
Lausanne because solidarity is our strength, and my thoughts
about chosing to run with the Black Blockade on Sunday.
I participated in the Black Blockade in Lausanne on Sunday and in
the non-violent resistance to the invasion of the Bourdenette camp.
I have just read the messages of Solidarity posted by members of
Pink and Silver (P&S) Blockade on Indymedia UK and was moved
to tears. Solidarity is our strength. In the face of the massive
repression going on now in Geneve, you make me feel strong again.
I wanted to express my support for your views and to explain some
of my personal reasons for chosing to run with the Black Blockade
on Sunday.
I have, in my lifetime, participated in many different kinds of action.
My experience has shown police repression and state violence is
not a response to violent demonstrationse, but to effective ones.
We have the right to ineffective protest, outside the "yellow zones"
which protect the powerful and enable them to ignore us.
I took part along with millions of people world wide in the largely
peaceful demonstrations on 15th February 2003. I watched as they
ignored us, and went to war in the name of democracy. It made me
sick and angry. It showed that the biggest demonstration in history
will not change things if it just voices dissent. Direct action of all
colours is the only way to make change.
All the blockades on Sunday took place in this spirit. They were
NOT about expressing an opinion. The people's "opinion" of the
fucked up system we live in has been voiced load and clear, time
and time again. The blockades were about direct disruption of a
high profile meeting of heads of state - to actively make the G8 face
resistance.
Personally I felt that because our actions might be effective, we
would certainly be attacked. I wanted to be able to defend myself
and those around me. This was confirmed to me when the first
police charges took place in Laussanne. The first charges were
against the P&S carnival, not the Black Block. The two Blocks were
clearly seperate, acting in different areas. The police fired gas into
the peaceful carnival because it got too close to the delegates
route: i.e. because it was effective.
Many of the P&S Block ran to behind the Black Block who were
more prepared to defend against the attack. If it wasn't for the
active resistance slowing the police advance the space we held
would have been cleared much more quickly. If it wasn't for the
music and energy of the P&S Block it would have been a very dark
place to be. When the two blocks merged under police attack it gave
the space life and refused to give it up without a fight.
Being attacked by heavily armed riot police is terrifying. It has
happened to me many times now and I think you never get over the
fear. But I have come to feel more and more like fighting back and I
have come to understand more the value of the Black Block.
A "Black Block" is not the same as a riot. In the looting and street
fighting I saw in Geneve the people were mostly local kids, some
didn't even cover their faces. They broke any windows for the rush
of it and threw anything at the police, in anger (launching plastic
bottles at armoured riot police will not have much impact...) For me
this popular anger is a response the result of alienation and the
crushing of people's lives and spirits by wage slavery, media
propaganda and consumerism. It is beatiful in its way but it is not
the same as a Black Block.
A well organised Black Block (like we were on Sunday) is made of
autonomous groups of friends who are well prepared and take the
streets with some common tactical understanding of what we are
there for. To take spacea and defend it with barricades and
projectiles, to use the fleeting moment in which we control the
space to destroy the property and symbols of the disgusting system
we are all forced to live under. This property damage is NOT
"random vandalism" it is highly political and usually carefully
targetted. On Sunday I saw debates between different groups (and
languages!) about the politics of different targets, stones in hand.
Some targets were attacked, others left intact as a result of these
discussions.
The smashing and burning created by the Black Block is as
important as the music and colour created by the carnival. If we just
fight and destroy we will create a very bleak new world, and
Anti-capitalist movements are strong beacuse they are imaginative
and diverse, but some messages are crystal clear:
Capitalism Kills. People suffer and die because of Capitalist
exploitation and wars. The planet is being consumed by pollution
and destruction. Millions are made refugees by economic,
ecological and military abuses. They are persecuted, detained and
deported. The way of life in the G8 countries is based on this
suffering and persecution...
If we really mean this then to just go into the streets and party is an
entirely inadequate response. It is right to respond to overwhelming
injustice with anger and entirely appropriate to leave Lausanne and
Geneve looking like a war zone for a short while. If these sumits
take place to the sound of helicopter blades amid burning
barricades and tear gas it unmasks the real violence hidden by the
slick corporate show. And it makes people sit up and take notice in
a way that marching peacefully cannot achieve. It gets noticed and
opens political space for ideas to break through and grow.
George Orwell once commented that a society in which it is a crime
to kill one person but not to drop 10,000 tonnes of high explosive on
a residential area sometimes made him feel that this planet is an
insane asylum made use of by other planets. I feel the same way
when I see the scandal raised in the media about a few broken
windows when our western way of life is so dependent on abuse,
terror, poverty and exploitation. The hysterical condemnation of
Black Block "violence" is, to me, slightly insane.
I think this view may have been shared by the genuinely surprising
number of residents of Lausanne who came out into the street and
onto their balconies to wave at the masked up black block and
accept the free food and cigarettes, liberated from the looted shops,
with a little smile. Those people were not threatened by the black
block's clearly targetted attacks. The parents and children were
caught in the indescriminate police gas attacks in the park were
terrified, but not of the masked up Black Block activists who helped
them to safety. One small girl gave me a kiss in thanks. Everone I
know who was in the Black Block on Sunday really cares, that is
why they are there.
This is just a stream of my thoughts and it is getting late so I stop
now. There should also space for criticism of many of the ways we
worked this weekend, but right now the battle is still going on and
there is so much to do. I just wanted to add a Black Block voice to
the celebrations of the co-operation and diversity of our movement
posted here.
with love and solidarity
xxxx
… lay in the strength and unity so beautifully and accurately conveyed in the Lausanne Solidarity Declaration. I was amongst the hundreds arrested at the camp.
When the Swiss police began their siege of the Bourdonnette camp, activists in the camp immediately gathered to collectively discuss a course of action.
When the police sought to divide the camp by suggesting that those with papers who volunteered to cooperate with them would not be arrested, the campers maintained solidarity with those blacklisted amongst us and refused to negotiate with the police.
When the police rejected our request to wait for the arrival of the Legal Support Team, we prepared our non-violent resistance to arrest by engaging in a collective sitting lock down.
It was tremendously inspiring to witness and experience the spirit of resistance in the face of such police repression. At the time of my arrest, approximately 3 and a half hours after the police raid on the camp began, the campers continued to use humour, song, and dance in sharp contrast to the heavy handed force and intimidation tactics of the police.
Most of us arrested were subjected to varying degrees of unpleasant conditions following arrest at the camp. I was kept in a paddywagon with 6 other women for a period of 3 hours. We were then 'processed' at a station and placed in cells. I was released after another 3 hours. At no point was I informed why I was being arrested, whether I was being charged, where I was being held, or if I could contact the legal support team.
The Lausanne Legal Support Team has taken written accounts of the experiences of those arrested. The compilation will, hopefully, further expose the illegal actions of the Swiss police in protecting the illegitimate g8 summit.
Peace and Solidarity,
A
"We simply cannot believe that the journalists who saw this happen were not blown away by our level of cohesiveness and strength. We know that we were." Lausanne Solidarity Declaration