The band met at a pub in Kingsway near Holborn, and having dressed up in Black and Silver and exchanged last minute rundown of tunes and hand signals, they set off just after midday, accompanied by very colourful and glamorous 'fetish can-can dancers' to join the feeder march at Gower Street.

The band generated a fantastic carnival vibe, and attracted a huge crowd of dancing protestors as they joined the main march and worked their way down Shaftesbury Avenue to Piccadilly Circus. It took a long time to get onto Piccadilly, as this was the point where the Embankment march route joined in, but once on the wide road, there was space for the thirty or so dancers to really do their thing infront of the well-disciplined and infectious sounds of some forty assorted percussionists. At times, the thunderous sounds of the huge surdo drums built up to amazing climaxes, and then suddenly stopped, with an unexpected short silence before the whole band resumed its groove. At such occasions, the surrounding crowd cheered loudly in appreciation. In order to achieve these co-ordinated changes, a system of hand signals were exchanged between two or three 'mestres' so that the many players could all work together to produce complicated arrangements.

After hours of pretty much non-stop drumming, Rhythms of Resistance got to Hyde Park at about 3.30, and took a short break to recharge and picnic, while waiting for a second large samba band which was making its way up Piccadilly.

Shortly after 4, the two bands combined, with maybe up to a hundred players, and for a short while, the most awesome sound attracted huge crowds of onlookers and dancers. However, it was really becoming difficult to co-ordinate such a large number, especially as the light was beginning to fade, and so the band split again, and took another rest.

After a meeting and various mobile fone-calls, they decided to go and offer solidarity with a group of some 600 demonstrators who had made it to the US embassy. Unfortunately, police had sealed off all access to Grosvenor Square, and so the band continued down the back streets of Mayfair trying to avoid confrontation and random road blocks that police were setting up. On a couple of occasions, splits occurred, and the music died out for a while.

Much of the band managed to reconvene at Piccadilly Circus where they offered solidarity and entertainment to a group of sit-down demonstrators who had managed to block the road. They were part of an action organised by ARROW and Justice Not Vengeance, who believe in non-violent civil disobedience and who have had very succesful mass actions in Central London and at Northwood military base recently.

Although the band was for the most part playing on a pavement at this time, around 7.30, the police became very heavy handed and without warning started pushing players from two different directions. Some players with heavy drums were being crushed, and while some protestors started sitting down in protest at the police action, other members of the public and band members were being violently pushed with no reasonable place to go. I saw one policeman, who had obviously completely lost control, being forcibly restrained by his colleagues! People were getting crushed, and as they fell over, were being manhandled back up and shoved again. Eventually, the remaining band was surrounded by police at the Eros statue, and for a while no-one was allowed to enter or leave the cordoned area. Since this appeared to be public pavement, it probably amounted to illegal imprisonment or arrest on the behalf of the police.

Meanwhile, I noticed sporadic sit-downs were still occuring on the road, and police arrested such protestors, often in a violent and unnecessarily brutal manner. It appeared though, that once removed from the vicinity in vans, the protestors were then 'de-arrested' and allowed out of the vehicles, making a mockery of any attempt to portray police actions as law enforcement.

By now, most of the band had split up and after carrying drums and playing for the best part of eight hours, small groups of tired and cold musicians huddled in nearby pubs and coffee bars to compare notes of the day.

There was no doubt that Rhythms of Resistance brought a fantastic carnival presence to today's historic events in London.