A Bridge Too Far: Strasbourg - Kehl 04/04/09

by Mike Novack Sun Apr 05, 2009 23:03

"The fact is that liberal democracy wants to be seen as a place where people have a right to protest, but is not a place where protests need have any effect on policy."

If protests NECESSARILY had an effect on policy you wouldn't be having democracy of any kind (let alone liberal).

Please try to explain to me why (what is your reasoning) that you expect even a truly large protest NECESSARILY should have an effect? What is your reason to believe that there is not an even larger block of the population aligned against you on the other side of the question. Mind I am not speaking about this or that particular issue but your general assessment.

by Tim Hourigan Mon Apr 06, 2009 15:22

I was at a different vantage point near the speakers platforms (although I didn't listen to most of the rhetoric of the speeches, and instead met as many active groups from around Europe as I could).

As people got to the area for the speeches, I could already see a vandalised petrol station, and lots of people masked up and acting macho.

As the speeches started I could see a lot of black smoke rising off to my left.
Shortly afterward, I noticed a second pillar of smoke, which began to descend onto the assembled crowd in front of the stage and was quite nasty to breathe.

At this stage I reckoned I had spoken to about as many people as I was going to network with, so I moved away from the the high wall, (to the left of the stage) and went where the air was clearer.

We could hear explosions not too far off, whether it was the riot cops shooting sonic grenades or just bits of the burning Hotel, I couldn't say, and I wasn't in a mood to go investigating either. (One wonders how it's possible to burn a hotel, with thousands of cops hanging around)

I saw a big crowd of people in black clothes head back towards the gate we had entered by, and rocks were thrown at the cops, who of course were only too happy to respond with barrages of teargas.

It was at this time, that some guy up on stage started encouraging everyone to assemble and march, shouting some rubbish about not letting Sarkozy take our right to protest from us. He went on like this for about five minutes, encouraging people to exit the area, (which involved a blind corner with a high wall) while he stood in safety on the stage. He could at the very least have asked them to send someone to scout out the gate, so that they didn't walk into a running battle with the cops.

As you may imagine, that's not something I wanted to walk into the middle of, so I started looking around for a safe exit, and eventually found a hole in the fence, into the neighbouring woodland. After checking it out for a few minutes I came back to help some of the older folks and kids get through the woods and up onto the railway tracks (there were no trains running).
It was all a bit hectic, but people were helping each other along. One woman was wearing high heeled boots of all things, which made it tricky to cross rail lines and descend the embankment. She might opt for more sensible shoes next time she goes to a public demo.

As we got back onto the foothpath, we met up with the main body of the march, which was mostly people walking in fairly dignified fashion with anti-NATO, anti-Capitalist, anti-war slogans in various languages. However, in amongst them, a few opportunists were happily smashing up billboards and bus shelters.

One gobshite, using a t-shirt to cover his bald head, was repeatedly throwing a heavy metal bar at at billboard, despite the fact that the billboard was suspended over the footpath, and the bar was falling near some of the marchers. I think he got verbally abused in half a dozen languages before he copped himself on.

We found most of the routes back to the city centre were blocked by large numbers of riot police, and at each one, we were told that if we headed south, we could make a right turn at the next junction. At one turn (I think near Neuhof) they were letting in people who could show they lived on that street. A father carrying his 8 month old daughter asked to allowed through, rather than having to walk around the city to get back home, but the cops were having none of it.
It was a long enough walk mostly through industrial areas, where there was no place to ask for water.
we continued walking south, negotiating, and sharing water and fruit with thirsty peaceniks, until we found ourselves able to get off the road just very close to Ganzau, where activists had set up quite a nice camp.

I met lots of fairly cool and enthusiastic folks at the camp, and they had great kitchens, as well as a legal team, and someone to update the notice boards, and people to drive to collect people who had been arrested.

I helped out in the kitchen for a while and spoke to some of the campers, who were fairly sound people.
I noticed that some of the locals in the neighbouring houses were flying peace flags and helping out at the camp as well, which is always good.

I was offered a lift into town, but I decided to walk, as I was staying outside of the city centre, and there was no public transport during the NATO summit.
On my way north on Rue de Ganzau I saw smashed bus shelters, and a local car with the windscreen and sunroof smashed in, (someone else had put a sign saying 'sorry' on the car).
It seems obvious to everyone except these gobshites,that just a few fools like that can ruin the solidarity with the locals, but I'm sure some of these hooligans will have considered it a mighty blow against capitalism to bust up a family car.
Thankfully, we don't have large violent groups like that in Ireland, rather we've had dignified people who smashed up military jets instead.

On the train back to Paris the next day, I saw lots of journos uploading photos of black clad rioters throwing rocks and anything else. I didn't notice any media reports on the anti-NATO conference which was held the same weekend and saw inspiring speakers from Japan, Afghanistan, Germany, Greece, the US, Czech Republic, Poland and more. While some of the workshops felt more like talking shops, there was a lot of valuable networking going on at the sidelines.

by Kursk. Mon Apr 06, 2009 15:48

"This narrative has erased the crucial significance of Stalin's Red Army in the defeat of Nazis"

Nobody denies that the Red Army trounced the Wehrmacht.

NATO was set up so that they would not trounce ANYBODY ELSE.
.

by Yuki Fri Apr 10, 2009 18:36

I think it honestly wasn't just the bridge that was symbolic, but the toll station after the bridge that also got burnt was symbolic. Despite the fact, it was going to be torn down anyway it showed how we do not accept the fact that there should be anything that prevents us from moving from one country to another. Something that still makes me incredibly anger about how difficult it is to move between Continental Europe and Britain or Ireland, whether one is flying or travelling with the ferry. I have been denied the right to travel due to the fact that my passport was not in check, but had three forms of other valid ID.

The point to Demostrations is that to a certain extent they seem so pointless, it's something simply for governments to show off how "democratic and free" they are. But the average person is also here to blame, 80,000 people on the streets will make no difference especially in countries with populations as vast as in France or Germany. One needs a million on the street before the government will do anything, but only something that suits them.