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well i thought that too... oh how wrong we were! Still, good day, I thought. The DLR train had been shut down (by a protester locked-on a train) quite early on, so I arrive at Canning Town Underground and immediately there was a blockade of a bus. I was still half asleep and stoopidly allowed myself to get grabbed from behind and slung into a police cordon when I was walking away from the blockade. (Tactical note: it seems that walking down a street - for this is all I was actually doing - is now somehow illegal, and that not all police are fat, slow, and move noisily, i.e. pirates, but there are it seems a few ninjas hidden within their ranks, bah.) However, we got let out pretty fast, which was nice.
A good few hundred of us marched about a bit, it looked like there might be another 'McDonald's Incident' but it was left alone and we got caught in another cordon soon afterwards. It was then I managed to achieve something I'd never before achieved, namely invisibility. Because despite being blocked on the A13 by a police line, I managed to make up for my previous humiliation and slip between two cops and str8 out of a bloody heavy cordon which lasted for the best part of two hours. Uncle Aleister eat your heart out, heh.
But the best bit of the day for me was heading back towards Canning Town (cue another cordon in which our very own Anna de L. was detained), and having avoided that cordon, getting to surround a carful of what looked like high-ranking militaries from the Arms Fair (not sure I can guess what country they were from, maybe Amerikan). Just for a few seconds, we were winning there, but we split fairly fast 'cos they were anxiously phoning for assistance, heh.
I think I was fairly lucky - Indymedia reports claim that riot police and mounted riot police got nasty around a recreation ground, and a miget guy (sorry, there must be a more pc term) was allegedly picked up by cops and thrown onto his face, causing another man to be arrested defending what he thought was a child being assaulted, but that was nowhere near where I was. (I sympathise tho' - the little fellow did look like a child at first glance.)
Meeja-wise, it's bloody nice to see the police in trouble for using the Terrorism Act 2000 when they apparently shouldn't have! (Details here). When you think about it, it's far better publicity than many a write-up.
I just have a few outstanding concerns about (contrary to the Indymedia version of events) how hostile some of the locals were to us, and also how useful stopping the amount of traffic we stopped was... if it was arms fair delegates, fine, but I feel we may have alientated more than a few commuters who were just trying to get their exhausted selves home after a long day on the treadmill.
Oh and finally, anyone fancy more tonight?
The anti-DSEi protests continue with a mass picket of the DSEi delegates dinner at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on Bayswater Road, near Hyde Park. While the whole world will be remembering and mourning the dead of the 2001 September 11th attacks. The DSEi delegates will be enjoying a slap up meal and doing more arms deals.
Lets show the arms dealing scum that the anti-arms fair protests are not over yet and that they are not welcome in London or anywhere. Precise location detailed here. (Not sure what time, I'm guessing 7-ish...) |
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