D 14; unity, violence & police

I just want to tell my experiences on the D14 demo in Brussels, not because they are very special or something but because, just like the strength of "the movement" is in its diversity, a diversity in stories about a demo give everybody a more clear picture of what happened.
I was very pleased to see that so many people were willing to fight for a change in the freezing streets of Brussels. The best thing about this demo was that the diversity of agendas and believes didn't stand in the way of giving a single voiced rejection to the neo-liberal EU plans. Anarchists, communists, environmentalists and a lot of people who can't be put under one of these categories all joined the march and blended together without a problem. This is promising because in my humble opinion we can change the world into a better place only if we unite our diversity, there is no "ONE SOLUTION" but many solutions too as much problems. I didn't go there with a group but just with 2 friends, and as I am an anarchist (carrying a flag) I wasn't sure if a block of UK communists would like me walking with them but they did and we learned each other's slogans and songs. This demo was a colorful, heartwarming (which was needed), peaceful show of anti-capitalist force!
As I was not able to join the anarchist demo on D15 I was glad to see a fairly large group of anarchists in the march and we had a lot of fun walking/dancing behind the Indymedia soundsystem and the best part was that there was hardly any violence here as well.
There where a few windows in a bank which got smashed on the Bockstael-place and that was a strange situation because there where lots of anarchists there at the time it happened but there where not more then ten people in black who where doing it. The strangest thing was that there where more cops there then I saw during the whole of the march together and they didn't do anything. There where at least 5 undercover cops about 30 meters from the bank and a watercanon with riot police at 300 to 400 meters and they just looked. After 3 or 4 smashed windows the group of anarchists still didn't join in and the people doing it disappeared. I'm not sure but they didn't seem to join the anarchist block and I forgot to check where the undercovers went. But we where waiting for enough people to gather there to break through the appointed route and try to get closer to the summit area which would be easy because there was no police to be seen that way. This didn't happen and there was a suspiciously activist-like man who told everybody that he was a local and that the point to break through was the next corner. So my friends and I followed the route and at the next corner there was a police cordon and a wall so there was no possibility to take another route. The rest of the march was fun and there was not a single problem.
When we got to Tours & Taxis we were very cold and wanted something warm to drink so we went inside and had some drinks. After we were warmed up a bit and got bored by the speech on stage (sorry) we went to see what was happening at the entrance of the site. There was a small fire on the Picard Street with demonstrators on "our" side and a watercanon and riot police on the other. The Haven Street was blocked the same way on both sides and there was a police cordon in the only street left, to the right and across the entrance of Tours & Taxis. There were just a few people around the fire and the side street with police cordon was behind the fire so with cops on both sides of the fire it should be easy for them to remove those people who started the fire and put it out without causing too much trouble. But they didn't. The police waited till the whole area which they blocked was (more or less) full with people before they gave a short warning and started to "put the fire out". What happened was that everybody who was standing in the general area of the fire was given a fresh and powerful shower with the watercanon and at the time it was freezing (about -3°C). After everyone was running they put the fire out an advanced toward the demonstrators. This caused more people to gather in front of the police as soon as they stopped and got back in formation. The festive mood got grim and demonstrators started throwing fireworks and stones, but it were just a couple of anarchists who did this. But the cops waited a little while and advanced again, again with a nice water-display, and as more and more people got angry this happened about 4 times before the cops were in front of the gates of Tours & Taxis which were slammed shut in there faces (or masks and helmets actually). Now a lot of people were in front of the gate and tried to keep it shut while the cops tried to keep it open with the watercanon. After a while there were a couple of loose gates and a rubbish container jammed against the gates and now the police seemed content to lock us inside the Tours & Taxis site. This all happened needlessly and looked more like a practice round for the cops than a provocation from the demonstrators, at least in my opinion. Or maybe it was a last (and easy) attempt to incriminate us after earlier failed attempts by undercover cops whom, and this I naturally can't prove but do think to be true, tried to provoke violence earlier. Well after we reached an impasse at the gates the D14 peacekeeping team and the legal team calmed the situation a bit and after a while the police withdrew. The blockades were still in place and at first it looked like everybody would be locked in T & T for a while. But after a while we heard that we could leave if we showed our ID and let the cops search us. This is naturally a very cheap and provocative action and shows us what we have with our civil rights…. Not much!!! I don't think violence is a solution but I think we should stand up and fight for our right to be free and live and express our own lives and opinions. And we should not give in so easy for the sake of a "peaceful" demonstration. I want to give my opinion to the idiots in charge next time so fuck the red zone!!

Ps.
I want to thank the D14 organization for a very good demo and especially for the legal teams, they where great!!! This shows that we can stand up for our rights and makes it a lot harder for the cops to bully us around, c u next time!!

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)