After about an hour marchers, probably about 1000 in all ( I heard a cop say 500+), decide to take the city, cops are unable to control where the march goes. Extremely militant and festive march, an old geezer looking on told me it was like a carnival and that it should happen more often.
March had ended in a party in picadilly gardens with samba band entertaining revellers when I left it about 40 mins ago.
Whose streets! Our streets!
Comments
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Manchester's finest
31.10.2002 21:13
Ian
It was a fun day :-)
31.10.2002 22:14
The march was excellent. I didn't realize how many people there were, and it was a great feeling when the peeps from the Maths tower marched down collectively at 6:30ish to join the bigger demo, and the party was in full flow.
The police were being cunts as usual, and a bit abusive to a few people. I saw a guy really take the piss out of a pig who took offense at a comment with a faulty towers-esque "I was talking to her, but looking at you.." line. One cop had a go at me when I was talking to my friend and he thought I was talking about him, and surprisingly (I'm not really good at talking back) managed "I wasn't talking to you, mate - if I was talking to you, I would look at you, yes?" which I was proud of. :-)
But anyone, it was good. Although I had to leave before we got to Piccadily Gardens (I had a family thing to go to) which was a bit shit.
Oh yeah, the police horses were majorly stressing. First they were dancing to the music, then they started going mad. Looked quite dangerous. :-(
nosos
Next Stop, Tony Blairs visit to manchester
31.10.2002 22:15
Everyone's invited
Richard
e-mail: ANSWERmanchester@aol.com
Congrats
31.10.2002 22:35
rats
Did you see the cop who snapped the flag?!
01.11.2002 14:20
Beatniksalad
e-mail: beatniksalad@yahoo.co.uk
Bomb scares and other bullshit
04.11.2002 00:31
On the demo itself the police who were causing most of the grief were wearing luminous jackets over the top of their uniforms so that they could not be identified by their badge numbers.They were deliberately provoking protesters by punching them in the chest and shoulders, attempting(and failing) to grab megaphones and bikes and tearing placards from peoples hands.Despite their best efforts people stayed calm and on the streets. People watching from passing buses were clearly horrified by the way the police were trying to suppress a peaceful antiwar protest. But the main point is we won the day. We marched right into the centre of Manchester loads of people were beeping there horns in support when we called Bush, Blair and Sharon murdering terrorists. Favourite new chant of the night has got to be Dossier Bullshit Dossier Propaganda.
C U on 24th 4pm GMEX FuckCBI Fuck US Treasury Fuck War
Sam
wake up to activism!
04.11.2002 00:56
Students involved were overwhelmingly positive about the response from the streets, reporting that when they explained to drivers that the block would last only five minutes, they received a lot of support, with horns honking for them, not at them.
Of course, some motorists weren't too happy, with one driver bringing a particularly forceful challenge to the protesters. However, it is fairly safe to say that the sight of a man leaping out of his BMW to manhandle an array of Hallowe'en apparitions from his path, screaming 'you're costing me MONEY!' will have been faily effective in terms of attracting attention. Drivers in the area certainly woke up properly, and with actions like this, many more will be waking up to the issues of sanctions and the horrific consequences of any further military action in Iraq.
A great success!
vicky