D.A.A.W.N March 30 Debrief
Anarchist Rioter | 31.03.2002 10:55
A mixed day for D.A.A.W.N's first outing in central London yesterday: We met @ Marble Arch at 11 am - unfortunately, we hadn't managed to contact the samba band, or get any leaflets printed. However, we did have some flags, a banner, and about thirty people. An initial reconnaissance of Grosvenor Square shortly before one o'clock revealed about 200 cops - including riot police on horses. The square had been completely sealed off and the police were not allowing people into the park.
We then made the collective decision to abandon the action on Grosvenor Square and join the main march instead. Apologies to all those activists who made it down and didn't find us - we hoped that you might get the same idea! We did (another) sit-down on Piccadilly Circus, stopping the traffic for about 15 minutes. The police then arrived and proceeded to surround us, but since most people had already moved, they only succeeded in trapping half a dozen hapless SWP'ers. It really is true about "police intelligence" being an oxymoron!
A few people then attempted to block Shaftesbury Avenue, but frankly nothing spectacular was going to come of this, since the majority of the marching drones were only interested in following the "correct" route. To cap it all, some guy in a "Christians for Peace" T-shirt came over and started ranting at us that we had "destroyed the peace movement." Er, well, if the peace movement can be destroyed by half a dozen guys sitting in the road for ten minutes, then it wasn't worth having in the first place.
We then moved to Downing Street and staged a ten-minute sit-in by the gates. The cops surrounded us and everyone had their picture taken. Other groups of protestors staged sit-ins on the pavement around us. At four o'clock, we moved down Whitehall under a heavy police escort. A minor fracas broke out when half a dozen people attempted to sit down in the road and a police sergeant lost his temper and steamed into the crowd, making aggressive threats and shouting at everyone to move. The remainder of our group was then followed by police photographers all the way back to Trafalgar Square. When we attempted to double back on our route, they stopped us and threatened us with Section 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act, saying that we contituted an "illegal procession". We knew the game was up, so we went to the pub!
We then made the collective decision to abandon the action on Grosvenor Square and join the main march instead. Apologies to all those activists who made it down and didn't find us - we hoped that you might get the same idea! We did (another) sit-down on Piccadilly Circus, stopping the traffic for about 15 minutes. The police then arrived and proceeded to surround us, but since most people had already moved, they only succeeded in trapping half a dozen hapless SWP'ers. It really is true about "police intelligence" being an oxymoron!
A few people then attempted to block Shaftesbury Avenue, but frankly nothing spectacular was going to come of this, since the majority of the marching drones were only interested in following the "correct" route. To cap it all, some guy in a "Christians for Peace" T-shirt came over and started ranting at us that we had "destroyed the peace movement." Er, well, if the peace movement can be destroyed by half a dozen guys sitting in the road for ten minutes, then it wasn't worth having in the first place.
We then moved to Downing Street and staged a ten-minute sit-in by the gates. The cops surrounded us and everyone had their picture taken. Other groups of protestors staged sit-ins on the pavement around us. At four o'clock, we moved down Whitehall under a heavy police escort. A minor fracas broke out when half a dozen people attempted to sit down in the road and a police sergeant lost his temper and steamed into the crowd, making aggressive threats and shouting at everyone to move. The remainder of our group was then followed by police photographers all the way back to Trafalgar Square. When we attempted to double back on our route, they stopped us and threatened us with Section 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act, saying that we contituted an "illegal procession". We knew the game was up, so we went to the pub!
Anarchist Rioter
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