Repression in Brussels

it was quite mental. even coming out of a venue hosting a great couple of bands on monday, pigs were stopping and searching comrades on their way home.anyone without ID was nicked. on the march on wednesday, comrades were attacked and gassed, i was gassed, with pepper spray, after pigs stopped us from marching with the unions. the solidarity union was in two minds whether to help us but the metal union and some other union members were defending and showing proper revolutionary spirit towards the detained who were kept on the ground and abused. comrades were strangled, beaten and denied basic sanitary function once placed in cells - for example, some of our sister comrades were held with no toilets. other comrades smashed theirs off and held them up to the pigs and asked 'will you give this to our friends'. the cells resistance was as much you could expect, with many cells trashed as best they could.....

we never forget the oppression, we keep fighting.

solidarity to everyone still there.

no borders, no masters, no fucking fascist bastards!

Yes, the police violent as expected, but also there's been a brilliant feeling of energy at the camp, with people bursting out to do spontaneous actions, big and small, as well as all the workshops inside the main camp. (Haven't noticed any stagnation that sometimes comes after a few days of knackering camp life.)
Yes, the cops have come down hard on no borders activists, but most impressive is that some undocumented people who risk the most, have got involved, knowing the repression. That feeling of a shared struggle has been amazing.

Yes, there has been more violence from police than Brussels activists have ever experienced, and also new sexual abuse in police stations (women having trousers pulled down, being made to 'parade', objectified and comments), as well as lots of good stuff in the camp.

Actually. there were loads less autonomous actions than planned or desirable (Thursday's day of actions got cancelled due to repression on Wednesday), and people also have a tendency to follow the big events rather than organise their own.

Wednesday's joining the TU march was not organised by No Borders, and the police say and seem to distinguish between protests, depending on who organises and how much contact there is beforehand!

Some reliable reports say that the reason the police kicked off on Wednesday was when large groups of activists started running, which in Belgium and Germany generally means that the activists are about to attack a building or do some other plan. Through the police arresting many people before they got anywhere near the march, including most clowns and samba band members, there were delays and the anti-cap block didn't get to join the right place in the march, but at the back. When at a certain point they started running to get to the middle of the march as previously agreed, which had already started marching, that was when they were attacked by police. Also, the agreements for our bloc to be in the march was made with some trade unionists in Liege, and not with the Pan-European TU march leadership.

These protests organised for during the No Borders camp, but not by No Borders people, have dented the programme, with many people subsumed by discussions and debriefs and not going to workshops, but not totally. It looks like lots of good stuff is coming out of the camp, and some people are staying focussed on that.

There was also confusion about Friday night's protest, which was also not organised by No Borders, and was not authorised. It was organised by insurrectionary anarchists who want to make the crisis generalised and visible. It was pretty damn obvious that it would be a mass-arrest fest.

We'll have to see how today goes. One of the ideas of it - unlike the previous big protests - was that it would be a safe and family friendly protest that the Sans Papiers, the most vulnerable people who live around there who the whole No Borders camp is in large part about, would be able to participate. Hence the worry about what's been happening, and the negotiations with the police.

it was when we started running that the pigs got edgy and thought we were 'up to something' although i was told on camp that night that the reason the 'front group' ran was to join up with the metal unions which had expressed solidairty and also would back us up against pigs. i got back to camp and was like 'whos fucking idea was it to run out of the demo and then up and around to another bit' and was given that answer about the metal union....

loads of automonous stuff happened, graffitti, banks being hit, serco being hit, nestle being hit, fliers and posters all over town...basically, brussels was swamp by the revoluntionary ideas of all those taking part, and that was great.
if you stood on the main gate, it wasn't hard to tell who was chipping on an action, whether it was graff writing or smashy smash.

i personally banned myself from all meetings to avoid the elites and guru-leaders and the beaucracy, but thats just me. in that way, i missed out on certain consenus but thats fine, i was doing my own thing as were most other anarchos there as well.

at the end of the day, we got our arses kicked on the wednesday march but we gave everything we could under the weight of mass oppression. the fight continues, as always.

please could people fill us in on fridays thing then, as i haven't heard ote yet??

no borders, no nations, stop deportations....
ne pas attackier les chevaux!! (dont attack the horses!)

When I was saying which protests were organised by who, that wasn't to set up good/bad protestor bullshit, by the way.

Good to share news of all the small stuff, shit the bed, thanks. Yes, the running was to go to a particular place in between two specific unions as had been agreed, somewhere not at the back.

I went to parts of some bigger meetings, though not too much, but didn't see elites and guru-leaders, though perhaps some bureaucracy and confusion! See, anarchos can go to meetings too, if they are useful for organising or communicating!

maybe i shouldnt bother commenting and the anarcho above did do his/her own share in the fixing of showers, clearing rubbish, doing security shifts, providing legal or medic support, preparing breakfast, and cleaning out toilets. All stuff we also tried to organize in those meetings as we felt that there was a consensus on having daily an empty bucket again to shit in. But then maybe you did not make use of that infrastructure like the other 600 people,.. and shat in your bed instead.

not quite sure where that comment came from, comrade, but i did my fair share and donated funds to the cause, went out on demos, got gassed, flyered, talked and dialogued about issues in the 'movements' ate and slept and shared space with comrades and friends...i did security, i did helping out, i had my 'say'....chill out mate, we did well....(but i still think there are some 'guru leaders', its not all doom and gloom though, we fought back, thats the main point. let us not fall about arguing or dialoging too much about the finer points. i just stated i personally avoided big meetings as they are frustrating as fuck!

stay revolutionised...

and dont forget to shit the bed...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IU7PIk6kV4

Shows undercover cops (with orange armbands), and union reps trying to keep apart unions' bloc and no borders activists. The rep tells the demonstrators to stop trying to help no borders activists and let the cops continue making arrests, cos 'coppers are workers trying to do their job, just like us'