Strasbourg: Pink-Silver and Black Block
alien8 | 24.07.2002 14:27
The Strasbourg border-cazmp has seen some successful collaboration between the pink-silver samba band and the so-called 'black block'. A common demonstration followed a street theatre action on Tuesday 23 July.
The street theatre at Place Kleber highlighted issues of police violence, uncovered mechanisms of social control, and entertained an audience of several hundred people. Brief scuffles with police broke out when police tried to arrest someone and were immediately confronted by the crowd who managed to de-arrest the person.
When in the late afternoon people decided to leave the square and to start the scheduled demonstration against cctv cameras, the crowd had shrinked and consisted mostly - on the one hand - of the colourful samba band with many pink-silver dancers and followers, and - on the other hand - of a large black block, all masked-up and dressed in black.
Initially these two very different groups of people had a few obvious difficulties to get used to each other. While the pink-silver block was worried about some of the confrontational actions the black block is known for and moved quicker whenever the latter seemed up for such action on the way, the black block got increasingly annoyed about the frequent splits caused by the pink-silver moves.
However, as the demo proceeded successfully, the two groups started a successful collaboration which may set a precedent for future actions. The samba band decided to stay with the black block despite their worries and waited for the black-blockers whenever they embarked on their extensive graffiti actions. Both groups supported each other as well as they could, with the samba drums drumming to the "no border no nation" shouts and slogans of the black block, and with masked-up black-blockers clapping and dancing to the rhythms of the samba band.
For up to two hours the crowd moved through the centre and some of the outskirts of Strasbourg, applying lots of graffiti and subvertising, enjoying the samba party and attracting some positive response from local residents. The demonstration marked a successful example of how two very different crowds with their own approaches can cooperate, protect each other, and integrate different action-ideas towards a new type of demonstration.
When in the late afternoon people decided to leave the square and to start the scheduled demonstration against cctv cameras, the crowd had shrinked and consisted mostly - on the one hand - of the colourful samba band with many pink-silver dancers and followers, and - on the other hand - of a large black block, all masked-up and dressed in black.
Initially these two very different groups of people had a few obvious difficulties to get used to each other. While the pink-silver block was worried about some of the confrontational actions the black block is known for and moved quicker whenever the latter seemed up for such action on the way, the black block got increasingly annoyed about the frequent splits caused by the pink-silver moves.
However, as the demo proceeded successfully, the two groups started a successful collaboration which may set a precedent for future actions. The samba band decided to stay with the black block despite their worries and waited for the black-blockers whenever they embarked on their extensive graffiti actions. Both groups supported each other as well as they could, with the samba drums drumming to the "no border no nation" shouts and slogans of the black block, and with masked-up black-blockers clapping and dancing to the rhythms of the samba band.
For up to two hours the crowd moved through the centre and some of the outskirts of Strasbourg, applying lots of graffiti and subvertising, enjoying the samba party and attracting some positive response from local residents. The demonstration marked a successful example of how two very different crowds with their own approaches can cooperate, protect each other, and integrate different action-ideas towards a new type of demonstration.
alien8
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