Geert Lovink on Sun, 15 Jun 1997 22:06:30 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> sunday report from Amsterdam |
The Protests against the Euro Summit in Amsterdam Report from sunday, june 15, 1997 See also: www.constrast.org/guestbook/guestbook.html The tide is coming in, the atmosphere in the city is radically changing. The helicopter is hanging low above the city hall and the main hotels, streets are blue with riot police buses. In front of the Waag on the Nieuwmarkt 10-12 white normal policebuses with policemen in plain uniform an 5-6 riotpolice buses. A few hundred meters away, near the new Maupoleum at a side street from the Stopera another peleton of riot police is waiting for what's going to happen. On the Vijzelgracht the French consulate is being guarded by riot police, the Dam, same story. Appearantly the first guests are arriving, the financial top was due to start tonight. No more jokes are tolerated... eurostop NL - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 21:03:57 (MET DST) hi, the first of the train has now departed from Chiasso, in the border, and is now directed to Milan, where we expect it will be stopped and the police will put everyone on another train to Rome. Tactical Media Crew <tactical@mail.nexus.it> Rome, IT - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 20:23:47 (MET DST) The Sex-Riot at the Nieuwenmarkt was a massive disappointment. In short: no sex, no riot. Just a bunch of freak-haired punks sitting in circles and drinking beer. I saw one kiss (hetero!). If this was another bit of Chaos Punk misinformation, they will be pleased to hear that it was a success. What, were they off cutting a new canal under the Palace? I thought of getting the ball rolling DIY-style, but I arrived at the Markt alone. Too shy to ask anyone to dance, I also realized that a lone masturbating looney wasn't bound to raise the spirits of the crowd. Hank Sims <Hank_Sims@RedwoodFN.org> Willits, CA USA - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 19:04:30 (MET DST) The Italian trains are riding through Switzerland, having crossed the German border at 15.00 In Germany the police get onto the train and proceeded to a massive identification taking names and pictures of the people on the train. At 17.00 they are near Basil heading for Lugano. Other three comrades have been detained in Amsterdam, one of them, coming from Imperia, is considered officially under arrest and will be interviewed tomorrow by the public prosecutor. The arrival of the train (if there won't be more unforessen stops) is expected for 22.00 at the Milano Lambrate station, where will take place a press conference. infodiret(t)e <hobo@ecn.org> Padova, Italy - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 18:49:55 (MET DST) Articles from La Stampa, La Repubblica and Corriera della Sera are now in the press section of Eurostop. (Sorry, grafix were not in the mail, URLs also not...) e=mc2 NL - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 18:26:19 (MET DST) This afternoon there was a Streetrave with about 5000 people for the legalisation of drugs through the Amsterdam citycentre. We succeeded to reach the town-hall, although the police tried to get us to the outskirts. There we danced for about half an hour until the police came to tell us we had to leave the place because we were blocking city-traffic. After some serious threats to the organisers we left the square to walk on. When we just left the square a large group of riot-police arrived in vans. They jumped out of their vans to find the square empty. Then they decided to block a road.With about 300 riot-cops they managed to stop 20 Japanese tourists, 2 mothers with children, one man who wanted to buy sigars and others who where shopping. After blocking the road for half an hour they left. Another police-victory! euro stop USA - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 18:19:33 (MET DST) The sun is shining in Amsterdam and the beer is good. The only problem is getting rid of all those empty bottles. The chaospunk gathering on the stairs in front of the Albert Heijn supermarket at the Nieuwezijds has found a solution to this problem. There's a group of policemen guarding the backside of Dam Palace, that's on the other side of the street. Everytime a tram (streetcar) passes, the cops and punks cannot look at each other for a moment. Perfect moment to throw those empty bottles away... Italian Trainnews time: 14.45, sunday 15-6-1997 The first train has passed Karlsruhe, the second train is one hour behind them. This morning the first train was held at the station of Mannheim. The people were not allowed to get out. The train was blinded, police inside and also outside. And yes, the people did get some water and something to eat. Now the police is still in the train, but they seem to behave themselve in a quiet way. Lugano can be a problem, as it seems there are negotiations with the italian government. Unclear though is who is negotiating. As it seems, from a phonecall with the first train, the italian government don't want them to be arrested. So who wants? cecile <cile@xs4all.nl> amsterdam, USA - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 14:53:51 (MET DST) Cars passing the squatters cafe Vrankrijk need to be carefull. Gangs of punks from anywhere are easily provocated. On Fridaynight a policecar or riot police bus passed every ten minutes. The barman of Vrankrijk went to the nearest policestation to ask them to stop this. It took him half an hour to find an Amsterdam cop, who would be able to understand the context of this request. Eventually policecars stopped patrolling the Spuistraat. Only one bus filled with cops from nowhere-land made the mistake to take this street again. They will remember next time... Saturdaynight a bunch of phantom chaos punks attacked every single car that passed. The streched limousine -six doors, very chique- scored many points with the Vrankrijk visitors, but to explain them not to aim at every second hand car passing was useless. We thank the police who closed of the street early last night. eurostop NL - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 13:26:44 (MET DST) At one o'clock Sunday afternoon the train with Italians still didn't get any further than Mannheim Germany. The train is blinded and escorted by riot police, but the poor demonstrators did have food & drinks (non-alcoholic we presume) as radio the Vrije Keyser reported. eurostop NL - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 13:20:59 (MET DST) Some more news about the Italians that were held on the train for hours yesterday. About 100-150 people were not allowed to leave the train because they didn't pay for their ticket or captured the train. Their friends and others coming from the big demonstration wanted to free them, but large amounts of riot police wouldn't let them.. Various tries to reach the train on the stations were blocked of by the police, which kept them busy for hours late yesterday afternoon. They kept away people from the station in such a way that the demonstrators blocked the busy Prins Hendrikkade in front of the station. Police acted pretty violent according to reports. At the beginning of the evening the Italians from the train were handcuffed with plastic strips (the ones that get more tied as soon as you move.) They were shoved into public transport busses and moved to the Bijlmerbajes, the biggest jail of Amsterdam. As far as we know, they were not brought into the jail. At least one bus was held in front of the jail, people were not allowed out, not even to piss and only one can of coffee was brought in. Later yesterday evening the Italians were transported to Sloterdijk train station (outside the city) and put back on a train to Italy. But the story didn't end there. The train was seen on a side track in Maarn, near the city of Utrecht from 23.35 hrs until about 2.00. In Arnhem the train was stopped by the Italians themselves because they wanted food & drinks, according to some reports. Another version claims, the train had to wait until the border station in Emmerich - Germany was staffed again. At 6.30 the train was still in Arnhem, according to the ANP. Early this morning they were transferred to an other train. Since that, we lost track of them... eurostop NL - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 12:55:01 (MET DST) News from Cellular Phone on the train The "Italian" train is stopped in the field between Utrecht and Haarlem before the german border The comrades request YOUR action Action Needed!!!!!! The arrested comrades AREN't in that train Tactical Media Crew <tactical@mail.nexus.it> Rome, It - Sunday, June 15, 1997 at 01:54:43 (MET DST) --- # 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