From our perspective:

We formed part of a ca. 20 people strong affinity group, which together with maybe 50 others were the first group to arrive at BAA’s headquarters. To our knowledge, we were the only large group to get there on our own terms – through the beanfield, across the fence and through a housing estate.

The tactic we adopted on the ground was to spread out the police lines and break through the emerging gaps. The earth shields – round wooden shields simulating the TSG’s ones – were only sporadically used since we aimed at avoiding direct contact with truncheons. The most useful tools we found were a couple of banners – one held high with wooden poles – which we used as a line of defence and behind which we could easily regroup. It was also useful to have a name for our group, which we could shout out.

We saw numerous attempts by individuals and small groups to climb trough holes in the fence or over it – most of which got violently baton-charged. Our strength was in the cohesiveness of the group. We knew that if one of us were to go over the fence, 20 others would follow. Either we all made it, or none of us. How do you lay siege to BAA by yourself anyway?

The incident with the horse was different from the mainstream media accounts. One person stood bravely in the way of the two horses, allowing everyone else to jump the fence in the meantime. In a very dangerous situation, but without any action from our part, the mounted officer lost control over his horse and fell off it. We did not see any missiles being thrown!

We found ourselves disorientated in the housing estate, but were helped by a local family who pointed us in the right direction shouting: “We don’t want our house bulldozed!” This gained us the vital seconds before a police line could form in front of us.

Once at the BAA building we found ourselves paralysed partly by the surprise of actually getting there against all the odds and partly by a lack of plan. The group of maybe 80 people who had made it through was simply not strong enough to lay siege to such a massive building. Unwilling to retreat, we inevitably got penned in and spent the rest of the day in a police kettle.