The reality is that GR were not singlehandedly responsible for the large turnout from the UK and Ireland. In fact they worked against mobilisation for the demos, particularly in Ireland. The Socialist Party/CWI mobilised 200+ from Britain. In Socialist Youth organised a bus and despite the best efforts of GR 30 attended from Ireland. This was in contrast to the SWP which advocated traveling by Ryanair to the demos (Ryanair is a notorious low payer and does not recognise trade unions) In the end GR infact passed a ServiceAir picket at Dublin Airport in order to catch their flights!! The arrogance of the Gr leadership is simply unbelievable.

I was on the GR coach from london, We started on the demo (trade union) right at the beginning so at the time to me (I can not speak for others) its seemed that they was not only not many from the UK but I also thought the demo was not very big because we left the square before people had turned up I only realised it was much bigger after the demo I ended up coming back on some of it.

the next day I ended up walking down the demo so I saw people I knew from UK again GR was at front. when we got to the end before the riot police came out, I personal did not see alot of people I knew from UK.

here a question, was the moblation as big from uk as other demos?

I not tring to prove anything I just intrested
to me it did not seem that many but was it?
I hate seeing mistakes.

Interesting but not suprising to hear the SWP notes self-congratulation. I aquired two issues of the Pre-conference bulletin just after Prague; they claimed to be 'the only significant current in Europe' or something equivalent.

Never mind the fact that they jeopardised the whole operation by 1stly promising numbers far in advance of what they had, and 2ndly taking them on a different march from that promised! so much for 'democratic centralism'. I think this was the leadership wanting a power buzz off (for once) having so many people to control.

Which brings me onto the next point. I didn't go to Brussels because I was busy, but (foolishly) trusted the GR posters and leaflets which claimed it was only a two day demo, on the thursday and friday. Some of our @ friends went down on the GR coach/plane, which stayed for the friday and arrived back on saturday morning to glasgow. But did you notice how the entire national GR machine ignored the anarchist demo/street party on saturday? had i known about it I might have tried to go for that, serves me right.

It is blatantly a tactic of using people as 'demo fodder'; 'don't split away from the GR group because your only here for 6 hours and may get lost... and it'll make it look like we have the numbers...' Exact same story in Prague and so on...

and for those who still entertain doubts that GR is not SWP in sheeps clothing, check out their genoa photos on the website!

Finally, of course there was non-GR people there. Many travel and organise in small groups, which is how 9 of us got to prague, for about £50 rtn. we were able to stay for a longer time, and had more freedom to move around over the week and meet other groups... something the GR leadership seem scared of allowing their following to do.

But perhaps the anarcho-direct action scene should start looking into organising our own national level transport to these things? its not outwith our abilities, and these chancers are only bringing the movement into disrepute. I am enclined to believe the M15 link, it would explain a lot.

For anarchism / libertarian socialism,
GAIA

was noreena 'limited military action hertz there? perhaps she was running the police escort ?

I travelled on a GR boach to Brussels after plans to travel with some friends in a minibus fell through. Although the coach was advertised as 'GR', whenever anyone asked who organised it (like at the ports and the border) the answer given was "the SWP". Oops.

The SWP members on board celebrated on the Friday evening, because the Brussels evening newspaper carried a front page photo of the demonstration, and the SWP had taken over the front of the demo (against the wishes of the d14 organisers, it should be said) so their banners were the only ones visible. They thought this was great, but my guess is that most Belgian workers thought it made the demonstration even less relevant to them.

The coaches all went home on Friday night. Not because the SWP wanted to miss the anarchist demo on the Saturday, I think, but because they didn't want their contacts to be able to go to the CWI's 'launch conference' of their new youth front, International Socialist Resistance. The CWI, for their part, didn't even turn up until Friday, so their comrades and contacts missed the ETUC demo (100,000+) on Thursday and, also, the 'left' meeting organised by, among others, the SWP, on the Thursday night.

Overall, I wish I'd gone by myself, and done my own thing. However, the whole point of protests like this is that they are a collective expression of opposition, not an individual one, so there needs to be some collaboration. We're not good at this on the left, especially it seems here in the UK, and we need the practice. I wish that the whole UK presence could have participated in the demonstration on the Thursday, which was very inspiring, and then taken part in the discussions and debates which went on over the next few days - we might all have learned something. Going in a 'party group', coming home in a 'party group' and never talking to anyone but your own comrades isn't exactly making the most of the opportunities which Brussels d14 presented...

in brussels she was defending blair to the bbc as some kind of moderating influence on bush jnr. shes SWP/GR i think.

Hey! Just when I thought indymedia had gone all dull... we turn up a steaming fresh pile of conspiracy theory paranoia. Thank you "Anarchist": tell you what, though, if the SWP are run by MI5 - how do we know indymedia isn't run by MI5? How do we know you're not run by MI5? Or me? They're everywhere, man, they've got special radios and flying saucers.

Lenin was once asked what the Bolsheviks should do about Tsarist spies infiltrating their ranks. His reply was blunt: if they're disguising themselves properly, if they're involved with the party, if they're (as they say) "good Bolsheviks" - they will be doing more for the revolution than they could ever do to prevent it.

Keep watching the skies.

Do more people attend demonstrations when transport and accomodation is organised for them, yes I think so. Does this mean that practical organisational constraints are placed on peoples choices, well yes. God I wish more people would spontaneously and independently organise to go on these kind of events, but as far as I can see GR do a necessary job at the present time.

Its a bit crap to slag of GR for organising transport and for therefore being against the spontanaety of the movement and then complain that they did not organise for an extra day so people could attend a demonstration where presumably large numbers of GR supporters would be unwelcome?

As for the SWP internal party notes, give me more information, which other British groups were there in any recognisable numbers RTS, the Anarchist Federation, Earth First, Wombles, Labour Left, Greens, SSP?

It sounds like all three days were a success in their own right, which at least gives me encouragement to keep putting time and effort into this movement.

What's next? I hear that there is demonstration in Spain in June?

What was linsey german saying that for?
Please explain as it's still puzzling me. Anyone from the party machine care to explain?

it's less likely that indymedia has a subversive mi5 element because it's a forum for discussion and doesn't tell people what to do or think, doesn't organise to invade campaigns, doesn't try to expand membership or sell newspapers (though as a media organisation it probably has a better justification were it to do so), doesn't put banners everywhere so it looks like they are the organisers of everything, doesn't disguise it's operations with front groups, and doesn't piss off practically every independent-minded person who gets to know the way they operate.

SWP by contrast does all those things, and I've never seen any denial from either swp or mi5 of published claims that the former has quite effectively effectively infiltrated by the latter.

real information on real counter-insurgency is unlikely to come from the skies. so even if it makes you happy to ignore the messiness of real world politics, don't expect everyone else to behave the same...

cheers

ps just because we're paranoid doesn't mean there's no one out to get us...

I would just like to correct something that Nick said. He stated that the CWI only turned up on Friday and therfore missed the trade union demonstration. The CWI in Belguim (LSP) played a full role in building for the trade union demo. There were also many other CWI members from different countries there also. As for Ireland we sent over members 2 weeks prior to the main Friday demo, to assist the preparations for all the demos and conferences over the thurs-Sat period.

Someone asked "where were the Wombles?". This is a question heard many times. Please understand: just because there aren't a bunch of people in white overalls rushing cop lines, that doesn't mean there aren't any Wombles present. A large group of Wombles were there and took part in all the major actions in Brussels.

PS. Our web site is currently down, but a new adress will be available soon.

la luche sigue!

W@