Geert Lovink on Sat, 14 Jun 1997 22:32:08 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> reports on the euro summit protests |
Protests against the Euro Summit A Report from Amsterdam See also: www.constrast.org/guestbook/guestbook.html >From evel@magigimmix.xs4all.nl Sat Jun 14 22:23:10 1997 Received: from smtp1.xs4all.nl (smtp1.xs4all.nl [194.109.6.51]) by magigimmix.xs4all.nl (8.7.6/XS4ALL) with ESMTP id WAA27996; Sat, 14 Jun 1997 22:23:08 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from nomad158-123 ([194.109.27.30]) by smtp1.xs4all.nl (8.8.5/XS4ALL) with SMTP id WAA16849; Sat, 14 Jun 1997 22:23:07 +0200 (MET DST) Message-Id: <199706142023.WAA16849@smtp1.xs4all.nl> X-Length: 0000045a Comments: Authenticated sender is <evel@pop.xs4all.nl> From: evel@xs4all.nl To: geert@xs4all.nl Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 22:23:21 +0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: laatste nws CC: evel@xs4all.nl Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Status: RO ++++++++ Latest news: today, probably 900 people got arrested. At least 55 are Italians who where arrested in the train. The train was surrounded by 150 cops for the whole day, they never reached the demonstration. Other arrests where made in the Jordaan where some people did some proletarian shopping. Later on a more exact update... ++++++++ On Saturday afternoon a massive demonstration against European unemployment *and* an integrated demonstration against wage slavery dominated the innercity of Amsterdam. Never seen so many communist factions and splinterparties of all kind on the same square. The start of the demonstration was late, because everbody wanted to await the arrival of the last train with Italians from Milan. Yesterday night 3000 of them wanted to take a train meant for 900 passengers only. A part of the people that had to stay behind organized a buss transport. The second train made available by the Railway Company took of too late and appaerently had some problems at the border. So they were late. At half past three (instead of 1 o'clock) people started moving in the direction of the Weteringscircuit. A group of Swedish activists cheared up the otherwise kind of boring meeting, with high yells, shouting and short standstills to join the others running and shouting. They gathered other people in the same mood around them. Once this bunch of people reached the Weteringscircuit they wanted to turn left, to approach the Nederlandse Bank, just a few blocks away, instead of turning right as the official route asked. Riot police blocked of the streets leading to the Bank, it was pretty clear there was no way through. After a short interval of discussion what to do, a minor incident inflamed the situation. Something was thrown in the direction of the police, an apple maybe, the police took somebody aside, the crowd thought the first arrest was made, and that was it. People started throwing more things, the police made a batton charge and panic broke out. As if that wasn't enough the police drove their buses into the crowd, at a very high speed. No accidents happened, but that was sheer luck. The demonstration continued peacefully to the Leidseplein, where a bank lost its windows. A few hunderd meters later the demonstration passed the Police Headquarters. The Police had left a bus out on the street, that was a bit of mistake. The bus ended upside down, the police arrive too late. Some of them were pretty agitated, they jumped out of the buses and started hitting people. But as soon as people ran in the direction of the Jordaan (Elandsgracht), it became clear that they were too few. The line they formed got isolated, they locked themselves in because the rest of the demonstration continued behind their backs. Out of fear the started hitting people, out of the blue, before they were ordered back into the vans. In front of the parking garage on the Marnixstraat some arrests were made. By the time the top of the demo arrived back at the Dam, the tail just disappeared out of sight on the Vijzelstraat. 30.000 present was the guess. In the mean time the riot police was busy with the people that arrived late from Milan. They were kept in their train, maybe because the train got damaged on the inside, they were taken hostage in their own train. Another group was being fenced in on the square in front of the station. The police wanted to either arrest them, or remove them from the inner city with public transport buses out of town. Apart from isolated excesses the police kept a very low profile. They kept out of sight whenever possible, but when it came to confrontations they were extremely sensitive and easy to provocate. Let's hope they learned their lesson today... The police announced they want to confiscate every Search & Destroy poster they found, and arrest anybody who puts it on the wall. We have not been able to locate any of these posters yet, we had to copy the Telegraaf-www-site in order to put it on ours. Would this poster be an invention of the police? Are we dealing with a provocation here? "Please call us if you have any problems with German Punks" With this message two plaincloths policemen have been visiting squatted houses to offer their services. Jolanda & Henk can be reached at 06 5390 1792, a voicemailsystem of the criminal investigation department of the Amsterdam Police. They have a special asignment to monitor the Punk Chaos days. Squatters also got warnings not to shelter large groups of German Punks. So don't hesitate to call them with your opinion about the police during the Euro Summit! The local authorities decided to remove all of the remaining European Union flags on Tuesday. Approximately three-quarters of the flags disappeared after several squaters cafes promised free beers for every flag captured and brought home. In cafe Vrankrijk in the Spuistraat the trophys are put on the wall in battle array. New flags will be hung out not before the guests will arive. The next competition calls for collecting the plastic strips that seal of public drain holes. Cafe Vrankrijk offers two bears, the Molli in the Pijp overtrumps with three. Riding a carrier tricycle ('bakfiets' in Dutch) is considered a possibly dangerous activity a week before the Summit in Amsterdam. Even if it's empty. A cycle like that, very popular amongst squaters, activists and other riffraff got a private escort of a police car during a long drive from the East part of the city to the south just below the Nederlandsche Bank. No risks are being taken with the catering of the European leaders. Since Wednesday morning a continuous stream of small trucks, with food, wine or water are heading for the Frederiksplein, guarded by two motorized policemice each. Salmonella gets no chance! A squatter in the Schinkelbuurt discovered to policemen peeping through his mailbox. He opened the door and asked them what they wanted. To talk about the coming demonstrations they answered, to find the door smashed in their faces. This didn't put them off, they just continued their sneaky fishing operation to copy the texts on the posters announcing actionist activities. Rumour has it squatters got an official warning from the police peacekeeping team not to provide sleeping places for demonstrators from abroad. No confirmation was found for this news. Mayor Patijn of Amsterdam very much wanted an informal talk with the Autonoom Centrum, organizers of the cycle demonstration to the Grenshospitium, jail for asylumseekers and almost the only organisation that refused to talk to the police so far. After a debate held on local television last Tuesday, the mayor expressed his concern about the assumed presence of German Punks visiting our beautiful Amsterdam for the Chaos Days. But what about the 4000 angry olive farmers from Spain, the Automous Centre replied, they demolished the centre of Madrid last month, don't you think that they are a bigger treath to the Amsterdam peace? The mayors face turned white as he rudely broke of the very pleasant conversation and hastyly hurried to the people in charge of security. It was very clear that the first man of Amsterdam was not informed about the Marches of Workers coming to the city, and the nature of these demonstration. Too much fixation on the fake-pamflet about the Chaos Days can be very dangerous... Informed sources are worried about what's going to happen on the Nieuwmarkt on Saturday afternoon. The Chaos Punks are supposed to have their first meeting on this small square, but the police did nothing to inform shopowners and market people. Our advice: aim at the banks and leaders, and leave the small businesspeople in peace. Be aware of provocations, the police might need an excuse to make a mass-arrest on this first day of protest, just before the European leaders arrive. Sources at Small World claim they have confirmations about the Nieuwmarkt Square being closed of to prevent any gathering of protesters to take place. (Pubs in the neighbourhood will take over as a meetingplace). It seems that the coordination of strategies at the police headquarters still needs some adjustment. First report of the *submarine*, mentioned earlier on this page. A reporter of the Eurostop Daily saw an egg-shaped white plastic cupola surfacing on the Amstel in front of the Carre Theatre. This was on Tuesday afternoon near the buildingsite of the large stage on the water. Appearently no bombs were found yet. A serious Dutch radio-journalist told us about an initiative of Amsterdam'citizens. They plan to bust the security zones by parking their cars in the streets they live. They claim they have the right to do this while they hold a parking permit they have paid for. British streetravers got themselves a huge militairy tank, painted pink with flowers, to prevent their sound systems to be confiscated by the police. At the last streetrave on Trafalgare Square this tank drove right through the police cordons. Several sources confirm the story about the tank being transported across the Channel to join the Streetrave on Sunday at the Central Station in Amsterdam. They might need to pass the border authorities by zeppelin... Heard on a public hearing organized by the local gouvernment of Amsterdam to inform the public about the Eurotop: The police is not only bringing 5000 policemen, dogs & horses to keep the peace in Amsterdam. They will also equipe a *submarine* to check the canals for bombs and other unidentified objects. Frogmen were seen practising in front of the Carre Theatre on Monday... --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de