10:30, got to Bank station for the Critical Mass to DSEI. We left at about 11:00AM with maybe 30 to 40 people. There was a sound system at the front, and one at the back. We went via Whitechapel, Comercial road, The Isle of Dog and Canning Town all the way to Custom House.
The outreach on the mass was pretty good - I was at the back most of the time, so I could see all the bystanders looking at us, impressed by the sound systems, with anti-DSEI leaflets in their hands. This happened on quite a few streets where there was many bystanders who are not used to seeing critical mass cycle past them !
Once at custom house people milled around and stayed there. I went lurking around, but not much was happening - a few people lurking at the west gate and I saw a group of people (that I guess was ELAAF) marching and giving out leaflets to people.
I went back to custom house, and we all went to the local supportive cafe. From there we rode on (around 2PM or so) and went to the other side of the Excel center (ie. across the dock). The police tried to stop us getting there, but in vain - there were too many access points for them to stop us. We used the powerfull sound system to send messages across to the excel centre - many people in there were on the balcony and could see and (I guess) hear us, so this was a good way to address directly some of the arms dealers.
The police objected to the sound system being played so loud (not sure why), and we rode on to the west gate, where a real actual tank was waiting for us !!! We cycled around the roundabout for ages until we started to create a real congestion problem for all the dealers trying to leave the Excel centre by car. Slowly the police build up their numbers, brining in more and more vans, and eventually we were pushed behind the pen.
The Space Hijackers auctioned their tank, and there was some general milling around. I eventually left, and we reassembled at custom house. We could see streams of arms dealers going to take the trains - and with the powerfull sound system, could address them all -- telling them how they were murderes by proxy, telling them to change jobs, asking members of the public in the station to engage with them. There was no way they could not hear us nor get away, so this was a very successfull way of addressing them and challenging them directy; and quite a few of them heard us. I eventually left at about 6PM.
The outreach on the mass was pretty good - I was at the back most of the time, so I could see all the bystanders looking at us, impressed by the sound systems, with anti-DSEI leaflets in their hands. This happened on quite a few streets where there was many bystanders who are not used to seeing critical mass cycle past them !
Once at custom house people milled around and stayed there. I went lurking around, but not much was happening - a few people lurking at the west gate and I saw a group of people (that I guess was ELAAF) marching and giving out leaflets to people.
I went back to custom house, and we all went to the local supportive cafe. From there we rode on (around 2PM or so) and went to the other side of the Excel center (ie. across the dock). The police tried to stop us getting there, but in vain - there were too many access points for them to stop us. We used the powerfull sound system to send messages across to the excel centre - many people in there were on the balcony and could see and (I guess) hear us, so this was a good way to address directly some of the arms dealers.
The police objected to the sound system being played so loud (not sure why), and we rode on to the west gate, where a real actual tank was waiting for us !!! We cycled around the roundabout for ages until we started to create a real congestion problem for all the dealers trying to leave the Excel centre by car. Slowly the police build up their numbers, brining in more and more vans, and eventually we were pushed behind the pen.
The Space Hijackers auctioned their tank, and there was some general milling around. I eventually left, and we reassembled at custom house. We could see streams of arms dealers going to take the trains - and with the powerfull sound system, could address them all -- telling them how they were murderes by proxy, telling them to change jobs, asking members of the public in the station to engage with them. There was no way they could not hear us nor get away, so this was a very successfull way of addressing them and challenging them directy; and quite a few of them heard us. I eventually left at about 6PM.
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