guerilla gardening, open mic, music, anarchy and partying on a summer's afternoon

despite police threats to remove a village oak tree that had been planted earlier in the week, the guerilla gardening event continued and flowers, plants and vegetables were planted in a circle around the oak sapling right in the middle of the square.

police conducted a search of one of the tents, and then, as is customary, hassled brian haw, who has suffered ten years of their abuse.

strangely, and i think suspiciously, police then completely withdrew, and apart from a couple stationed outside parliament, there were fewer police and community support around than i think i've ever seen on a saturday afternoon in that area.

speaking to village organisers, i learnt that the democracy village has been holding regular consensus meetings throughout the week, and there have been direct actions of one sort of another each day.

today, being a much more open affair, attracted a large contingent of all sorts of people. on the positive side, this meant that many different groups represented, and the idea of 'unity through diversity' was seen in words and action. on the negative side, there was a lot of alcohol being consumed openly in the square, and some people were clearly there to drink rather than to engage in any political discourse or action. this was a source of some friction, and some people were using the open mic to suggest that the site might be better off without alcohol or drugs, while others took the opposing view.

one man stood quietly with a small A4 banner "no alcohol - no drugs on this site" but he became an object first of ridicule and then abuse. in fact it was saddening and ironic to see self-proclaimed anarchists telling him to take down his banner. these 'anarchists' presumably don't like being told by the police that they need authorisation to hold up a banner in parliament square, so what the fuck did they think they were doing?. eventually the lone protestor was literally chased off the site after having his banner snatched from him - a very depressing spectacle, and not my idea of anarchy in action.

the party/protest was set to go on throughout the night, and they will be joined at 11pm by a climate protest group who are also conducting an overnight vigil.

during next week, the village is hoping to move away from party mode and back to meetings and daily direct actions. it is very difficult to forecast police response, but one inspector has said that the police are waiting for a court order instigated by the GLA (who apparently have jurisdiction over the square), and will not do anything before then. again, i find this suspicious. where there's a will (or no ulterior motive) such a court order could be raised overnight usually.

one thing i feel i can safely predict is that there will be an attampt to clear the site before the state opening of parliament a week on tuesday, the 25th.

i mentioned in a previous article of tensions and a rift between brian haw's decade-long encampment, and the new villagers. part of this tension comes from a genuine fear from brian's parliament square peace campaign that the authorities might take the opportunity when clearing the new camp, to also move brian, especially as david cameron is on record as saying that on seizing power, he will clear the square of the continuous protest.

while many facets of the democracy village are very positive, today's bacchanalian festivities must leave brian haw and his supporters fearing for their precarious presence in the square. on 23rd may, just 2 days before the state opening of parliament, it will be the fourth anniversary of the night when 72 police pounced in the middle of the night and stole most of brian's display which was an amazing exhibition of the government's genocide (later reproduced by mark wallinger in his turner-prize winning installation at tate britain in 2006).

brian and co must be wondering if they will get through 23rd may this year, or whether the new kids on the block are going to give the police an excuse to finish the job.

i hope the villagers enjoy their party weekend, but then get down to the serious business of challenging the state and boxing rather more clever next week.