So, tomorrow is the Carnival Against Vivisection and everyone is talking about whether or not it's going to kick off. It was first advertised with the words "After the energy of the SmashEDO demonstration..." giving off the kind of vibe and suggestion that it was hoped that some sort of trouble would kick off.

Noone asked for permission for the march which was fantastic, especially after we saw posters saying "Protest by right, not by police permission" at the last mass demonstration held in Ledbury. There we also saw a number of protesters do a sit-down, lock-on protest on the road. All respect to them for that - the police had no idea what they were doing and from where I was standing we had a great view of the general reactions to this. Even the public seemed horrified at the reaction of the police - dragging people around and hurting them while literally throwing anyone out of the way who was just trying to observe the situation.

However, I've been thinking about the protest tomorrow and considering the police and media, etc. are obviously sure something will kick off. The police gave permission for it to go ahead, presumably because they were feeling left out and wanted to pretend to themselves that they have some kind of control over us and also presumably so that they could write out a nice Sec. 12 for us to have to follow. They want organisers to come forward so they can negotiate with them (police negotiation - "Our way or not at all" usually) about what will happen, they're panicking.

There are 2 ways this could go (well, there are several, but in general terms, 2 ways).

The demonstration could kick off (or a few people could) - we could try and rush the lab and smash it up as much as possible before people get grabbed, injured and arrested. Likelyhood of this happening? Quite likely that some will try. Unlikely that it'll succeed. Especially after maps and suggestions have been up here showing the various ways of getting to Sequani, I think the cops might be on standby and probably lined up outside the place. Outcome: people arrested, cops angry, public thinking we're idiots just out to cause trouble for the cops and not interested in actual saving any animals (I get told this all the time, even when just doing stalls or leafletting with no cops in sight!)

Or we could do a march and demonstration without any trouble. We could march around the streets, where we want to still - I'm not saying take orders from the cops, at our own speed and stay in control of the demonstration, but people could stay calm, basically ignore the fact that the cops are there. If they try to provoke, they want a reaction, especially one that means trouble might start and they can arrest people. That would make them feel in control, that's what they want.

I propose that we do just that - we do a march, "organised" by ourselves, controlled by ourselves. We ignore the fact that the cops are there - we don't let them control us, but we don't fight them - remember, they're not our target! If they try to start trouble, do what you'd do with bullies - ignore them and they'll get bored, they'll be frustrated that we don't react to them. They'll try harder, we'll try harder to ignore them.

Outcome: We show the public, the cops, the media, ourselves that we aren't just crazy and out to cause trouble, that we can hold demonstrations under our own conditions and we can be responsible. If trouble kicks off, what will we have achieved? We won't have got anywhere towards closing down Sequani, the public won't be on our side, the police will love it because they'll have got a reaction from us and probably some arrests...

I don't know. What do you guys think? I reckon we try to keep it calm, the public will be more on side and think the cops are heavy-handed and have over-reacted (as we all know they do) and the cops will be annoyed that they haven't got to us. We'll have done a peaceful march because we decided to do a peaceful march, not because we were made to do a peaceful march. Let's leave the civil disobedience for demonstrations where we'll actually achieve something with it, times when the cops really try to oppress us and times when they're not expecting trouble.

And let's leave the real trouble for times when there are no cops around and it's really unexpected.

Have a good demo, whatever your opinions. I just think we need to start thinking more about how best to achieve what we want to.

Comments appreciated.