INTRODUCTION

Since we gave you a pre-event roundup about the G8 summit in Evian and the planned protests last wednesday, a crazy week has passed.
It is hard to sum up what happened. We were getting many reports about cheerful, but determined protests in Geneva (Switzerland), Lausanne (Switzerland) and Annemasse (France). Reports about crowds of dancing boyz'n girls, rhythm, colour, sunshine. A slogan from indymedia barcelona sums up this part of the protests:

THE ONLY GOOD
SYSTEM - IS A
SOUND SYSTEM!

At the same time, the reports became increasingly disturbing. German riot police went in to support the Swiss police in their ruthless but not necessarily effective efforts to show who controls the area around Lake Leman. Indymedia Switzerland published instructions for the Swiss army who had received an "order to shoot". Police used teargas, water canons, and rubber bullets, and they targeted concussion granedes at demonstrators.

An episode from the noborder demo on Friday sums up the ambivalence of the evian protests:

Quote from imc-uk timeline:

11:40am - The demo is mainly peaceful and festive, although some cans and stones have been thrown into different buildings, including the Russian embassy.

12:00pm - The demo has arrived at the headquarters of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) Reports are coming in of police using tear gas.

12:25pm - The situation outside the IOM building has calmed down and the demo is marching on. People returned tear gas with confetti.

We also received reports from the four protest camps, called "villages". We heard about long debates about the best strategies well into the early hours, about collaborative decision making and practical support. The biggest village at Bourdonette near Lausanne was legal, but on Sunday afternoon, police surrounded the camp, attempted to check everybody's identity and detained a number of people. On Tuesday morning, La Bourdonnette was evicted.

The reports give a general sense of mutual respect for different tactics, from peaceful fluffy marches to loud and cheerful blockades to targeted property distruction.

II. FROM THE TIMELINES on IMC UK

Here are some summaries from the timelines on IMC UK:

II.1. WED AND THU - SETTING THE FRAMEWORK

On Wednesday and Thursday last week, locals, protesters and police were setting the framework for the next few days.

On Wed May 28, the Geneva shops had already boarded up their windows. Activists gathered in Lausanne for the first cheerful pink & silver demo.

On Thu May 29th, hundreds of people are streaming into the four protest camps near Lausanne (Switzerland) and Annemasse (France). The Schengen agreement has been temporarily lifted to control the borders while activists are on their way to the Anti-G8 protests.

In Annemasse, more than 1,000 people led by pink & silver observed a minute of silence in memory of Carlo Giuliani, the activist murdered by the Italian police during the anti-G8 protests in Genoa, 2001. Many local people were welcoming the protestors.

Thousands took to the streets in Lausanne and Geneva for colourful protests. A brief standoff with police in Lausanne was soon diffused, the protest ended peacefully. The Geneva demo was accompanied by a large press contingent. Some stones followed by tear gas didn't change the positive mood.

II.2 FRI May 30th - For Free Movement and Free Communication

"Noborder - Free movement and free communication" was the Motto of Friday. 4000 determined protesters visited the offices of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), the WTO and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) during mid-day.

A bike caravan blocked the Nestle headquarters for a while and joined 400 Critical Mass cyclists in the early evening. An occupied train crossed the border between Annemasse and Geneva, many passengers were without passports. These actions might illustrate what activists mean when they demand "free movement and no borders".

One aspect of the right to free communication is of course the right to free independent reporting.
Today, in the early morning hours, activists closed the IMC at the social center l'usine in Geneva due to police aggression. They also closed the main dispatch communication chatroom for security reasons. Quote from "geneva dispatch": "Cops were circling usine with trucks full of "rockets" (some kind of weapon) and it looked like they were getting ready to be evil to us." unquote.
Despite increasing police pressure specifically on "L'usine", Indymedia volunteers were providing grass roots coverage throughout the protests. Check IMC switzerland and the French IMCs as well as the multilingual G8 IMC site. (URL  http://www.indymedia.org/g8) Until yesterday night, a video stream and two radio streams were netcasting live. (check the links on imc uk - the radio stream might still be running.)

All the organisations targetted in the noborder demo were institutions of global governance. The mood was loud, full of rhythm and festive. People carried many banners, incluiding a big one that read "Open Source!"

The headquarters of the World Trade Organisation is housed in the International Trade Centre (ITC).
Here, noborder activists spoke about Open Source, against repression of information and for the freedom of movement.
But the anger of the protesters went beyond speeches. Protesters opened the gates to the WTO compound and threw bangers into the courtyard. They tore down the 144-nation organisation's sign at the front gate and daubed walls with the slogan "Smash the WTO". Later on, the building had its windows smashed, just after some people attacked the premises of an Audi and Shell garages.

The demo ended after two hours at the Central station, 3 arrests were made.

II.3 SATURDAY FIRES ON THE LAKE

When someone overly panics, locals in the Lake Leman area calm him down by saying that "the Lake will not be on fire", meaning that nothing can be so dramatic that it would set the lake on fire. On the evening of Saturday 31st, protesters symbolically set fire to the lake - also litterally, by sending a burning raft on the lake, but also setting 50 fires all around the shores of Lake Leman.
This action showed that nothing is impossible in the current political situation, that in fact the lake IS on fire: with the privatisation of water resources and public space, increasing control of borders and people as well as communication channels; and with the new type of warfare that we've seen developing in the recent Iraq war.

From Saturday's timeline:

Until the early sat morning hours, more than 5,000 inhabitants in the activist "villages" were debating the best strategies to blockade the G8 summit on sunday's day of action. In the morning, a protest at the Socialist Party Conference in Annemasse was teargassed. Some G8 delegates were trapped in the building.

21 - 23 h Geneve: a petrol station is on fire. We can hear the explosion in indymedia radio stream. Then police release tear gas. Reports of burning cars. Two water cannons and 250 cops have surrounded the usine squat, where lots of international activists are staying. then left. Seems there are no arrests but there is minor streetfight. There are police checkpoints all over the city, arresting any one who "looks funny".

00:41am: The actions continue in geneva, streets are closed and some cars appear burning. a large number of police and military vans at coulounvroniere bridge, civil police walking and riding motorcylcles.

01:07am:A team of 30-40 riot police with one water cannon are situated at the lower streets. The situation seems calmer now. From the radio stream, we hear that the police are still everywhere around the Usine social centre. People are going to sleep preparing to get up early tomorrow.


II.4 SUNDAY June 1: "Tear Gas, the Smell of Frightened Capitalists"

"Tear Gas, the Smell of Frightened Capitalists" was the headline on imc-uk for the blockades on the main action day on Sunday, June 1.

No Roads Lead To Evian

On Sunday June 1st, the main anti-G8 protest day, activists were out on the streets in the early morning hours, long before the G8 summit started in Evian. Cheerful crowds had blockaded crossroads in Lausanne, bridges in Geneva and main access roads from Annemasse towards Evian as early as 6am, with rhythms, soundsystems, dancing and colour. During the day, there was also some property damage.

Although police made mass arrests and went in with heavy use of teargas, rubber bullets and concussion granades, the G8 summit was delayed for a couple of hours, while up to 100,000 took to the streets. Later on Sunday night, the police raided L'Usine, a social and imc media center in Geneva. 11 people were arrested and later released. The teargassing went on, when local Swiss people were attacked by German riot police. Many locals took to the streets against german riot police who appeared out of control in their city.

Two British men are currently in hospital. One of them, Guy Smallman, an IndyMedia volunteer and photographer, needed a two hour long operation after a German policeman deliberately targetted a stun grendade at his leg. The other activist, Martin Shaw, is also still in hospital with multiple serious injuries. He had abseiled from a motorway bridge near Aubonne together with another activist, hanging a banner that said "G8 illegal". He broke his legs and injured his back after police cut the rope he was hanging off. He fell 20 m deep and is now in hospital. Other activists managed to save the other climber. A petition was sent to Swiss embassies in various countries. (check imc uk to sign it) Both wounded are now stable.

The legal support group report that 1'150 people, with several locals from Bourdonnette among them, were stopped at the 'official' camp near Lausanne, and were subject to identity paper checks. Many were detained for between 4-6 hours, in cagelike cells, at a holding station at Mont-sur-Lausanne. But people had to be released, because in fact, under Swiss law, it is not a legal offence not to carry identity documents.

From the imc uk timeline:
12.25 Lausanne/Bourdonette Village is besieged by the police. Activists begin to be seriously concerned. The police are blocking all the possible escape routes and the atmosphere is very tense. Activists are expecting an invasion into the camp site.

13:30 Lausanne At the Bourdonette camp, people are staging a big sit-down protest. Police demands to see everybody's ID were refused. Police are dragging people away one by one, and making many arrests. Note that not providing ID is not a reason for arrest under Swiss law.

II.5 MONDAY

Monday 2 June

A demo against water privatisation took place in the afternoon with some delay.
There was also an anti-repression demonstration. When the two met up near the main bridge numbering a few hundred, they were surrounded by hundreds of riot police both swiss and german with many water canons. As people sat down in the roads for hours the area became increasingly militarised, drawing hundreds and than later thousands of people from Geneva out onto the streets, many still angry at the presence of the German riot police. While the bridge sit down protestors refused to move for several hours there were repeated clashes between local onlookers and riot police in most of the surrounding streets as water cannon, concussion grenades, rubber bullets and gas were used.
Monday night was an insurrectionary protest by people of Geneva as much as an action of the global protest movement. Most of the thousands in the street were dispersed by 1am.

II.6. TUE Jun 3 2003

Repression Unites Protesters

The Camp de Bourdonette in Lausanne was evicted this Tuesday morning, and a peaceful demo (no teargas!) took place in Lausanne.
People are starting to evaluate the last few days. Although all demos in the last days started off cheerful and full of positive vibes, many people were injured during the anti-G8 demos by massive police teargassing, rubber bullets and concussion granades. Peaceful protesters have stated their solidarity with the blockades carried out by Black Bloc activists. A disobedient solidarity action has taken place in Barcelona when 21 activists occupied the French consulate for 12 hours. In Berlin, 40 activists just returned from Geneva demontrated outside the Swiss embassy, during which the Swiss embassador stated his rejection to the police violence during the G8 summit.

Tuesday's timeline ends with the following entry:

0.30 Geneva Police is still active in the streets of Geneva, but they have fewer and fewer people to arrest as people are writing press releases and sleeping. In the face of the massive repression that has gone on in Geneve, activists have shown, once more, that working together with mutual respect for different tacticts can be very effective. Solidarity is our strength!


III. END

to end with a quote from the Lausanne Solidarity Declaration, written by peaceful demonstrators in Lausanne and posted to indymedia uk:

"The iron fist of police brutality is still preventing us from piecing together the entire puzzle of events surrounding the Sunday blockades of the G8."

"We have prisoners to defend, lungs to decontaminate and good stories to tell. However, one illusion that needs to be dispelled right now is the ritual separation between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ protesters, manufactured yet again by the corporate media in all its sensationalist glory. Le Matin, celebrating its greatest achievement to date in the art of rabid inflammation, tells us in a blood-red headline that ‘the black blocks destroyed the dream of the pacifists’ in Lausanne. Have they ever considered the possibility that the two share the very same dream?"

"To sum up: you can talk all you want, but for us the G8 blockades were a master-class in revolutionary solidarity. They were the creation of a movement more united than we have ever seen it in our lives. We have discovered, together, that the colours of resistance can combine in a beautiful rainbow if we just try. Let the sounds of samba and breaking glass harmonise, because this movement has something stronger than guns. It has a memory."

Postscript:

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT
The anti G8 protests at Lac Leman are part of larger, world wide disagreement with governments' politics. In Peru, the "Rio-Group" (a latin american equivalent of the G8) met last week. A wave of protests against the neoliberal politics of the Peruvian government has now developed into a mass insurrection. The President has declared a state of emergency.

TO ADD:
BORDERS (see posting "border impressions")
VILLAGES (solidarity, another world is possible, ref. to sbourg noborder camp)
POLICE STRATEGY (they like to dress up as activists, strange behaviour in general)
LOCALS (giving out boxes of evian water etc)
L'USINE (police targeting social center, activists strategy of deescalation)
INJURIES (proper report with links about guy and martin, press releasesabout injuries and p admitting to target on demonstrators legs, talking about the costs of a movement)
SOLIDARITY LOVE AND RAGE

and more QUOTES and LINKS