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Samba on the A9

a sambista | 08.07.2005 15:10 | G8 2005 | Globalisation | Oxford

This is a personal report from the adventure of a lost samba band who finally managed to block the A9 for some time around 7am on Wednesday (6th) morning...

The story starts on Tuesday evening, when part of the international samba band (27 of us if i remember well) decides to go by bus to Glasgow to help with blockades there. Once in Glasgow, they change their minds and decide to come back to the camp in Stirling as the action in Glasgow isn't exactly as they expected... So back to the camp!

But no: what's the point in going back to the camp and get blockaded by the police in the morning? The samba band then decides to stop on the way, at some place like Dumblane. But for some unknown reasons, after a police search, they get off the bus in a small unknown village, with their drums, sleeping bags, backpacks, etc... Not really knowing what to do and where they are! :-)

After some conversations with local people (and refilling of water bottles), and an analysis of a rough map of the surroundings, they find a path leading up the hills directly to the A9... why not? Here's where the adventure starts; a long walk (more than 20km i reckon), all night, in the hills, with drums, to reach the A9 in the early hours of Wednesday morning...

The walk isn't easy; it is freezing cold, raining for quite a while, and hiding from the cops and the helicopters isn't always obvious with drums and stuff... although quite funny i must admit! but smiles are back when the group meets some clowns hiding in a van somewhere in the hills near the A9! :-)

Finally, at 7am, after warming up next to an impromptu campfire, the samba group, accompanied by another affinity group met on the way, jump on the A9 about 5km from Gleneagles (i think) and to their surprise there is no police to stop them blocking the highway! They manage to hold the highway for perhaps 15-20 minutes, until pushed out of the way by the police. About at the same time various other blockades occur on the A9 at different places, and the M9 is also blocked by various affinity groups including another samba band. Other roads leading to Gleneagles are also blocked by various affinity groups.

Then, after having escaped from a police cordon, they keep playing on the side of the A9, and at the same time realize that not only the roads are blocked but the railway as well: some other groups are blocking a train on the parallel railway! Samba is there to cheer them up!

After a while, about half of the samba group, completely exhausted, decide to go back to the camp, while the other half plan to join the demonstration in Gleneagles. And what do they see on their way back? Hundreds of people, everywhere in the fields, continuously jumping on the A9!!! Wow!

Blockades were definitely a success; and, at least in this case, they have been surprisingly easy! Thumbs up to everyone involved!!!

Some pictures (or video) are probably coming...

a sambista

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Why?

09.07.2005 04:50

Aye and all you did was stop folks from getting to the demo and nearly getting the demo cancelled.

A Scot


pish

09.07.2005 08:18

You know the demo would never have been allowed if not for the increased militancy that the blockades produced.
If the G8Alternatives leadership had been on their own there would've been no protests at Gleneagles. The fact that people were going and protesting regardless of official permission gave G8A the confidence to front down P&K police over their ridiculous insurance demands.

weegie


delegates blocked

11.07.2005 09:54

Actually, tons of delegates and support staff were blocked and delayed, disrupting (albeit for perhaps only a relatively short time) the summit.

The intention was never to block protesters, but if you are trying to travel to the same place as the delegates by the same means as the delegates, don't be surprised if you get caught up in delays! After all, the call for blockades were announced well in advance..

.


Blockade went on

20.07.2005 09:16

Well, the story continued: After splitting up, we went on next to the A9. There was a group close by surrounded by police. So we went there to play. The cops didn't want us there, but we didn't care. Nevertheless we tried to get into contact and ask what the matter was, but the group was - at this time - in good mood and cheered. As we got to know later on they were arrested later on. But at the time it looked like we couldn't do much more. So we headed on towards Gleneagles. After walking 500m next to the A9 we somehow decided there is not enough police there, so we went back onto the A9 playing samba. Some other affinity groups joined in and the A9 was closed again. The impact wasn't too big, since there was almost no traffic going anymore anyway. Nevertheless we recognized a delegate car behind some police cars. Well, the cops came up after a while pushing us off the road. But somehow, they didn't seem to have enough staff anymore. Thus they left us up at the road walking just besides the road, blocking the left line with their cars. This way we went on until Black...? (forgot the name). There we took a break, watching the police stationed in the small town and a lot of delegate cars coming in and out and quite often getting lost. Once we blocked such a delegate car, but as there were mostly no delegates inside the effect didn't seem too big. Nevertheless there even seemed to have been some official meeting in town.
Afterwards, the group split again, some continued to go to the demo at gleneagles and the rest including me returned to the camp, completly exhausted after walking for more than 24 hours, without sleep and much of proper food.

Someone did make some pictures of this. Maybe it would be nice to publish them here and maybe also on the german and dutch indymedia, since many germans and dutch people were with us.

sambista too


Towards Gleneagles

27.07.2005 00:05

I was one of the four die-hards remaining to walk on towards Gleneagles. After being searched under "section 60" for the i-don't-know-how-many-th time, we arrived at the bridge across the A9, where the road splits to Gleneagles Hotel. On top of the bridge we met the KidsBlock and some fellow Sambistas, standing directly in front of the fence. Of course, some Clowns where there, too. We played a last rocking bit of Samba, danced a bit to a street-carnival-sond-system and then fell asleep in a hipie-double-decker, giving us a ride back to the EcoVillage in Stirling.

Sambatista
- Homepage: http://action-samba-berlin.so36.net


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