For audio report from this demo in Strasbourg recorded around 3pm BST

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5.15 local time (15.15 GMT)

The Samba Band has been hemmed in between 2 lines of police, in centre of Strasbourg. Not much movement. Not much else happenin.

The Samba Band is getting onto their bus to go back to NoBorder Camp, they are on otherside of bridge to Stasbourg city centre just outside city centre.

For this view point on centre side of bridge know of no arrests or injuries.

a few tussles with cops as people tried to leave area.
some people were pepper sprayed.

one regular bus took half the people back to camp and returned for the rest later.

lots of information distributed, overall a positive action.

The samba carnival action in the centre of town was a success with thousands of infosheets given out in the face of the banning of all demonstrations in Strasbourg - something like 15000 flyers had been printed and were distributed by this demo as well as the anti-SIS action and at smaller events. The Pink and Silver tactics worked pretty well allowing the band, dancers and more tourist looking protestors to get away with the illegal demonstration.

What was astounding however was the actions of many undercover cops and others just wearing black tee-shirts with 'Police' printed only on the back... They had started assaulting people right at the start of the protest in Place Clebere, one of the main tourist squares, trying to provoke a reaction in order to kick off violence to 'justify' more repression and escalation.

The situation got worse as the carnival procession left the large square and went down one of the streets which was crammed full of tourists and locals shopping at the market stalls lining the street. In the dense crowds these cops took to pushing and punching people, throwing things at them, trying to trip them up, jabbing them in the ribs with batons and trying to snatch cameras or hit them... It was just so surprising since this was all happening right in front of the public - these guys just didnt care! At one point it really looked like the crowd of onlookers would start pushing back against these bastards and that the whole situation would get out of hand. Their tactic was fully clear, they were trying to instigate a riot - it didnt work though because people were stronger than their provocation.

One man was pushed very aggressively twice and when he turned around to ask why he was immediatly pepper sprayed in the face! On another occasion a cyclist getting abused by a group of undercovers put his hands high in the air as riot police joined the crowd around him - trying to show no resistance. In reply to this indication of passivity, a plain clothes cop put his hands around the guys neck and pulled him to the ground by his neck dragging him along the road! This was unbelievable legalised thuggery!

Its high time an enquiry is held to investigate the actions of such police units who have been seen operating at most of the large mobilisations of recent years in countries across the world.

Luckily the crammed road soon opened out to a larger intersection which allowed people to regroup and thus minimise the opportunities for the cops to pick on stragglers.

These incidents taken with the shocking use of plastic bullet baton rounds the other day simply confirms the serious hardening of attidudes towards protests and political activity which challenges the status quo.

That aside however the fact remains that people defied the banning order on demos, did it in true carnival style right in their faces and managed to get out tons of info for very few arrests at all.

In total the day saw 10 arrests but most of these were on the anti-SIS demonstration.

As one of the final events of the noborder-camp a demonstration to the SIS-Bunker was planned - SIS = schengen information system - that damned pesky database.

People decided to go there in the early afternoon. But heavy police forces stopped them just outside the exit of the camp on the road to Strasbourg. The crowd carried large banners reading sgut down fortress europe and a black skeleton puppet with "RIP SIS" painted above it. After some time and the arrival of more tooled up riot cops the demonstration turned around and went over the bridge next to the camp to Germany and the city of Kehl. Approximately 300 people joined that demo. On the german side there was nearly no police.

A smaller part of the demonstration then went by train to the main station in Strasbourg and succeded in evading the police with much running around and left surrounded them and put the group into a bus to bring them back to the camp.

During a stop some people managed to open the door and many escaped from the bus, the others were stopped by civil police. There followed a brief period of violence as the very pissed off cops chased and hit people arresting several. The demo was again reduced in numbers but people headed into town to do small theatrical protests, hand out illegal leaflets and support other smaller actions like the banner hanging.