Funny/awkward moments protesting

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Basically what I'm asking for are moments when you were at a protest or rally and something seriously funny or awkward happened. I'll give you my example: The family of a deceased man were holding a protest against the police who they believed wrongfully killed him. So I was going to show support and I even got to help hold a banner that said "We Want the Truth!" So we're getting ready to start marching towards the police station when this old man drives up on his bike to read the banner. He is wearing a shirt that doesn't fit him so half his belly is hanging out and he looked altogether peculiar. He reads the sign and starts screaming at us "YOU'LL NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH BECAUSE THEY CONTROL THE TRUTH" and then proceeds to ride off on his bike hitting a curb and almost falling. He left us all dumbstruck for a little nobody knew what to say. I talked to the guy next to me and we agreed he thinks we were protesting the NWO or some other conspiracy crap. Gave us a good laugh though afterwards lol. Your turn.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Did I ever tell anyone about the time I ended up carrying half a Stalinist's banner because I mistook them for anarchist? :ohmy:

He was masked up in a black hoodie, what was I supposed to think? :blushing:

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Did I ever tell anyone about the time I ended up carrying half a Stalinist's banner because I mistook them for anarchist? :ohmy:

He was masked up in a black hoodie, what was I supposed to think? :blushing:
No, what did the banner say?

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

No, what did the banner say?

I don't remember, but it didn't look obviously Stalinist, at least to me. It was black with a red hammer, sickle and rifle symbol on it.

[Jazzratt]

I don't remember, but it didn't look obviously Stalinist, at least to me. It was black with a red hammer, sickle and rifle symbol on it. To be fair man it's not like the hammer and sickle is that popular a symbol amongst anarchists. Also I'm fairly sure we tried to warn you who they were...

[Sasha]

oh, shit has happened so often to me.
squatting a house where someone turned out to be still living was a bad one, i went into the window with a ladder and stepped right into this guys bed, and he was sleeping it.

then we had the time when someone knocked out an bystander with a piece of barricading material in a classic slapstick scene, he had this heavy steelbeam on his shoulder when someone behind him called him and he turns around and hits this tourist full in the back of the head with the steel beam.

we also once went to paint slogans on the house of this speculator we had beef with only to find out on our way back that one of the pain buckets had been leaking an there was a paint trail all the way back to the house we met in.

further we once jumped a group what we though where nazi's but turned out to be fellow anti-fascists.
we also once brutally jumped a group of wp-kids we thought where on their way to this nazi-congress while in truth it turned out they where hardly politicized kids on their way back from a party.

i could go on for a while

[Nox]

we also once went to paint slogans on the house of this speculator we had beef with only to find out on our way back that one of the pain buckets had been leaking an there was a paint trail all the way back to the house we met in.

Rofl, reminds me of this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-13365952


further we once jumped a group what we though where nazi's but turned out to be fellow anti-fascists.

we also once brutally jumped a group of wp-kids we thought where on their way to this nazi-congress while in truth it turned out they where hardly politicized kids on their way back from a party.


Haha, how did they react? And what do you mean by 'jumped'?

[Coach Trotsky]

http://www.zorbas.org/images/lesbians_against_bush.jpg

No, that's not me. :lol:

[Sasha]

Haha, how did they react? And what do you mean by 'jumped'?

jumped = assaulted/battered

the time we jumped the fellow antifa we found out that we had the wrong guys luckily before major damage was done but the white power symbol toting party kids ended up in a ambulance

[Nox]

jumped = assaulted/battered

the time we jumped the fellow antifa we found out that we had the wrong guys luckily before major damage was done but the white power symbol toting party kids ended up in a ambulance

Seems kinda harsh...

[Tablo]

oh, shit has happened so often to me.
squatting a house where someone turned out to be still living was a bad one, i went into the window with a ladder and stepped right into this guys bed, and he was sleeping it.

then we had the time when someone knocked out an bystander with a piece of barricading material in a classic slapstick scene, he had this heavy steelbeam on his shoulder when someone behind him called him and he turns around and hits this tourist full in the back of the head with the steel beam.

we also once went to paint slogans on the house of this speculator we had beef with only to find out on our way back that one of the pain buckets had been leaking an there was a paint trail all the way back to the house we met in.

further we once jumped a group what we though where nazi's but turned out to be fellow anti-fascists.
we also once brutally jumped a group of wp-kids we thought where on their way to this nazi-congress while in truth it turned out they where hardly politicized kids on their way back from a party.

i could go on for a while
That seriously is a bad situation. Glad it was managed. Really shows how we got to keep tabs on who is antifa and who is white-nationalist in our actions. Might be a good idea to open dialogue before assaulting depending on the situation(not to insinuate assault was a part of any antifa actions anywhere).

[Rusty Shackleford]

i was yelling at some tea partiers and i was smoking at the same time. one of my yells ended with a high pitch voice crack.


it was hilarious.

[F9]

lol psycho... paint trail?:laugh:
but noxion wins!:laugh:

[Thirsty Crow]

So, during the university occupation, we decided to interrupt all of the classes by any means necessary. Sure, there was informal agreement as to the line we should not cross (yelling and insulting and so on), and in this case we didn't cross it and yet there was a...moment.

So, we barge in to a class held by a middle aged guy, really corpulent and tall (my guess would be more than 190 cm), altogether of an intimidating appearance.
And the dialogue begins, and instantly shifts to two things: how we are denying his right to work and how he's a war veteran. And some moments later a guy get's all serious and concludes: if you exercise your right to protest this way, then I'm gonna exercise my right to work by grabbing my machine gun from the trunk of my car and heads for the exit.
There was a serious wtf moment. Though, the guy never returned luckily :D

[Quail]

One time when I was demonstrating, I was trying to run away from the police. A cop threw me to the floor, but I managed to get back up, call him a word I'm not allowed to type on this forum, and run away through Sheffield city centre... unfortunately without my shoe, which I had managed to kick off when I fell over. In the second before I got up I looked at my shoe, looked at the cop and thought, if I go back for it he's going to get me so I just left it. Made me laugh but was kind of embarrassing.

[Smyg]

Well, there were that time during an anti-racist demo in Gothenburg, that turned somewhat violent :rolleyes:, I noticed a guy dressed in 80's fashion and wearing very payot-looking sidecurls running around aimlessly, staringly wildly at everyone, with a golf bag full of clubs on his back. Somewhat.. odd. :confused:

[o well this is ok I guess]

squatting a house where someone turned out to be still living How does this always happen?

[Bandito]

Anti-NATO protest in Belgrade couple of months ago.

Police announces that our gathering is illegal and urges us to leave the place. We refuse. Cops starts pushing us back, we push forward, anarchists and marxist-leninists together. Awareness of the gravity of the situation gets on sky high level.

All of a sudden an old guy with a moustache and a Putin banner appears and starts shouting at the police "Long live Russia and president Vladimir!!!"

Both us and the cops were like this:

http://gossipgirlsss.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/BlairSmugEyeroll.gif

[Lyev]

Well this isn't as good as other stories, but during the student stuff back in autumn/winter last year in the UK there were a few incidents worthy of retelling. On one demo, which was really crap, there was around about 100 of us students basically running around a small-ish town for about an hour. We ended up in a shopping centre (apparently "occupying" it; nothing wrong with that in itself), and sat down and I ended up making a really rubbishy rhetoric-over-substance speech where I almost fainted because I was shouting at the top of my voice to get heard plus I was really nervous too. I was also asked by my branch secretary at the time to try and use this speech to recruit for the party.:rolleyes: That conversation "do you want to join my group?" is so cringe-worthy and awkward because frankly no-one cares.
Edit: in comparison to other people's stories, mine isn't that great. Perhaps when I have been around in the "activist scene" there will be some better stories I guess

[The Douche]

Seeing people chant "whose streets? our streets" while walking on the sidewalk.

Seeing this banner that a crew from New York were really proud of, which was "reinforced" with PVC pipe, get absolutely demolished as soon as the bloc hit the first line of cops. Half of the pigs didn't have batons on them, and so they picked up the pieces of broken PVC to hit people with.

While the cops were hitting us with shit from the banner I saw a friend go down and I ran up with another person to help pull him out of the scuffle. Well more cops come through and beat me and the other person down, and the cops have zip-tie cuffs around one of my hands and the other dude is nabbed, and we're struggling or whatever, when out of nowhere like 15 people run up, one of them literally does a flying drop-kick into the cop that's arresting me, and they pull all three of us to safety.

Saw a punk in a leather jacket and leather boots screaming hysterically at a woman in a fur coat "how many animals died so you could look that shitty?".

Had somebody at Bush's second inauguration, wearing a suit, fancy overcoat, and cowboy hat, ask me, while wearing all of my black bloc gear, "how do I get to the parade route?".

Had some woman get into an argument with a couple of us and when she was trying to make some stupid point I just start yelling over top of her "shut up, shut up, shut up, shut the fuck up, nobody cares, stop talking", she said "what don't you believe in freedom of speech?", to which I quickly retorted "no, not for reactionaries", she tried to say something else but the noise of 100 anarchists laughing drowned her voice out.

We had to march by a pen of counter-protestors once, I gave them the goat. (when you show somebody your balls from behind via your ass/thighs)

[bcbm]

during some may day a couple of us ducked into a courtyard for some building and light a dumpster. as we are about to push it back out into the street about 50 tooled up riot cops go running by the entryway, thankfully not noticing us trying to blend into the wall and the burning dumpster in the middle of the entrance

being one of three people in full black bloc gear including gas masks at some 100 person protest that absolutely did not warrant that at all. actually that was like most of my late teen years at protests

[The Douche]

being one of three people in full black bloc gear including gas masks at some 100 person protest that absolutely did not warrant that at all. actually that was like most of my late teen years at protests

Went to an anti-circus demo in my town once. There was a PETA club (lawl) at one of the local high schools, and an anarchist collective in our high school. So we get there and the PETA kids are like, painting their faces and shit, and we're wearing studded vests and bullet belts, and fucking balaclavas, and have black flags with ALF logos on them.

When we show up they have us in this back corner on the backside of the building, and I ask the PETA girl (cause they were there first, the venue for the circus was behind their school) why we're in such a useless spot and she tells me "thats where the circus people told us to go", so we all laugh, and just walk right up to the front of the civic center doors, so the cops show up, and the whole time the PETA girl is mad at us, wants us to take our masks off, wants us to leave, wants us to just cooperate with the cops and shit.

Because we were ignorant little shits to the cop they agree that technically we're allowed to stage the protest in the parking lot of the civic center since its public property as long as we don't fuck with cars or block traffic. Well the cops keep trying to provoke us, and then go make a deal with the PETA girl, to try and get her to make us do shit (like leave early, take our masks off, move to a different spot) and each time we tell her and the cop to fuck themselves.

So she finally starts fucking crying (so here's this high school girl, her face painted like a clown, clutching PETA flyers bawling her fucking eyes) and she starts yelling at the cop "will you please just arrest these anarchy emo faggots". We all fucking lost it.

[bcbm]

haha one time we found out some nazis were going to be meeting at a chinese restaurant so of course we staked the place out and then 20 of us rolled up in full black bloc gear and stood outside with some flags and gave our fliers. even in a city i think you'd look like a clown doing this but this was some small town off the highway. even better. the business owner wasn't happy and then the cops showed up and some nazi came out to argue with us. eventually the cops made us leave and then made the nazis leave. their four person meeting reconvened at pizza hut.

or the time they were holding a 'public meeting' but we couldn't get the exact info so made a few guesses and ended up packs of 5-10 sketchy looking kids wandering around this small town looking for nazis... who were 20 miles away.

we found out they were meeting in a park another time, so we bloced up and stood on a nearby street corner with a banner and handed out fliers to motorists when they were stopped at the light. 'excuse me sir,' says the man in a balaclava 'i would like to give you this flier about the nazi threat in your community' :lol:

yeah antifa here is lots of silly

[The Douche]

One of the weirdest acts of defiance to authority I ever saw was at another local high school, the principal decided to ban confederate flag shirts, which doesn't really bother me in principal, because fuck the confederate flag. But it kind of had bigger implications cause I wore some pretty potentially offensive clothes too.

But the principal did it and these rednecks threw a fit and said "hurr durr if we can't wear rebel flags, then black kids shouldn't be able to wear malcolm x shirts".

But it backfired and the principal started banning all kinds of shit, so to protest it, a shit ton of black kids went out and bought shirts with confederate flags and "rebel proud" shit, and all the rednecks went out and got malcolm x and huey newton shirts, and they all wore them like every monday and friday for a month, and the rules actually got dropped.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

One of the weirdest acts of defiance to authority I ever saw was at another local high school, the principal decided to ban confederate flag shirts, which doesn't really bother me in principal, because fuck the confederate flag. But it kind of had bigger implications cause I wore some pretty potentially offensive clothes too.

But the principal did it and these rednecks threw a fit and said "hurr durr if we can't wear rebel flags, then black kids shouldn't be able to wear malcolm x shirts".

But it backfired and the principal started banning all kinds of shit, so to protest it, a shit ton of black kids went out and bought shirts with confederate flags and "rebel proud" shit, and all the rednecks went out and got malcolm x and huey newton shirts, and they all wore them like every monday and friday for a month, and the rules actually got dropped.
Reminds me of my freshman year of high school a few years back. After a week or so the principal said we all had to wear polo shirts and tuck them in, but we could still wear jeans. NOBODY did it (well, a handful did, but they don't count). They started funneling kids into detention and in-school-suspension. After a few days or so detention and in-school-suspension were completely 'booked' for the next month or so. Then they decided to just say fuck it and repealed the "uniform".

[ellipsis]

Seeing people chant "whose streets? our streets" while walking on the sidewalk.

Ditto.

Also at #opbart I was marching along side the RCP, saw they had a banner that wasn't deployed, and was like "get that out, ill help you hold it" the handed me a corner, five minutes later somebody tells us its upside down. d'oh.

[BIG BROTHER]

Is not as fun as the others but here it goes.

In what was it? 2009 or 2010 when the whole Tea party thing got going on, they had a rally at the (ironically) Cesar Chavez park. Me and some folks heard there would be "Minute-men" too so we decided to counter protest it.

So a group of approximately 20 of us assembled at the University which was nearby and then marched to the park expecting to see 3 old white men...

But to our surprised we saw 2k angry, rich white people.

The following was like an American football game, I was carrying the bullhorn which the tea-baggers were trying to take away from me, and 3 big anarchist guys, were in front of me blocking them and opening the way as we tried to storm the stage.

ahh good times.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

lulz, was shouting out some songs on the old loudspeaker on a small demo re: tuition fees, and people weren't massively getting into it. Despite being aware that not everyone there was a revolutionary (there had been some heated discussions at a sit in because it turned out we had some reformists in our ranks, to say the least), I decided to spice shit up by making rude rhymes about some of our government's finest. Didn't go down too well.

Probably because i'm a profuse user of the c-word and some of the more experienced comrades were quite clearly ardent feminists.

Psycho you sound nuts.:laugh:

[maskerade]

Went to an anti-nato protest one time, and obviously the cops thought we were a lot tougher than we looked considering they outnumber us 3 to 1. Made me feel sort of bad ass, like I was a real threat. But the funniest moment was when two undercover cops, who obviously had no idea what anarchists usually looked like (and thus stuck out like an old man in a playground) started to "talk the talk" to get us to reveal where we were headed. We politely told them to go fuck themselves.

Unfortunately the demo was short lived as the cops took out cameras, and when a comrade decided to smash it we had to start running...

[bietan jarrai]

Once I was told there was a student rally in the city in the afternoon, so me and a friend skipped school and caught the subway (the city is about an hour away). Got there, had lunch, went to the place the rally was supposed to be. We found a group of kids and joined them. We wait and we wait but nobody else seems to show up. So we approach some of these kids and ask them what time was the rally supposed to be. We then find out the rally had been in the morning and they were waiting for the bus to go home.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

One of the funniest times was when our protest was counter-protested by conservatives across the street and a snowball fight ensued. Plenty of casualties (peoples car) were hit during the process (downtown during rush hour/5:00pm) but because it was winter, no one had their windows down or cracked, besides smokers.

It was awesome. I think I landed a few in the face. I tried building a barricade but I quit after 2-3 feet.
When I was going back to my car, I ran across the street and hit a guy with a snowball while yelling "go terrorists!" (because a couple of times earlier in the year we had been called "terrorists' by passerby's) Being the klutz that I am, I of course had to embarrass myself by slipping on ice afterward.

[Rusty Shackleford]

One of the funniest times was when our protest was counter-protested by conservatives across the street and a snowball fight ensued. Plenty of casualties (peoples car) were hit during the process (downtown during rush hour/5:00pm) but because it was winter, no one had their windows down or cracked, besides smokers.

It was awesome. I think I landed a few in the face. I tried building a barricade but I quit after 2-3 feet.
When I was going back to my car, I ran across the street and hit a guy with a snowball while yelling "go terrorists!" (because a couple of times earlier in the year we had been called "terrorists' by passerby's) Being the klutz that I am, I of course had to embarrass myself by slipping on ice afterward.
this is why the midwest is better.


also, next time, sneak ice or rocks in your snow balls :lol:

[¿Que?]

I was at a protest of a homophobic bar, and this guy said if he was the bar owner he'd hire someone to beat us all up. And I started laughing really loud and weird because for some reason that comment really got to me. I then told the guy he was ridiculous, but he was too far away to hear, I think.

[Devrim]

Not at a protest, but back in the 80s we had just been stitched up by the union in a dispute at work, and in a very angry mass meeting afterwards while I was speaking, I took out my union card to tear it up. Unfortunately it was made out of plastic like a credit card. It all turned out very embarrassingly.

Devrim

[Sasha]

Not at a protest, but back in the 80s we had just been stitched up by the union in a dispute at work, and in a very angry mass meeting afterwards while I was speaking, I took out my union card to tear it up. Unfortunately it was made out of plastic like a credit card. It all turned out very embarrassingly.

Devrim


this was the day devrim started to wear scissors everywhere?

[Iraultzaile Ezkerreko]

cmoney, your thing about people chanting "whose streets?" while on the sidewalk reminds me of getting blitzed in Madison during the protests and marching across streets with like twenty people chanting "whose crosswalk?" and singing "the internationale" and "solidarity forever" while walking down the middle of the streets at like midnight. That was so much fun, hahaha.

[bcbm]

man hearing entire bars randomly bust into the internationale was pretty sweet

[svenne]

I think spontaneous demonstrations arise all over the world when people go from bar to bar. Also: singing The Internationale at bars, on the evening of may first. We once had a song fight; on one side: mostly members of our anarcho-syndicalist youth federation, and on the other side: the social democratic youth federation.

My most awkward moment was when Arbetarmakt/Workers Power Sweden arranged a demonstration in solidarity with the greece protests some year ago. Nothing wrong with that, but only 30 people showed up. They still insisted on doing a 20 minute walk through the propably most upper class area in the whole of Sweden. People mostly looked on us, and i could see the "WTF. I'll never have to be afraid of the leftists, at least" in the eyes of the bourgoiseu. After leaving the demonstration (too bloody awkward), i watched them while they held a speech in front of a mostly empty square. Even worse (and a bit more sectarian) was when i critizised the whole thing on the only big leftist forum in Sweden, and it ended up with the smallest trotskyist group in Sweden, telling me that a bloody union with 6000 members did nothing for international solidarity. This union happens to be the only one that is organising people without papers (got no idea what it's called in english, so i just translated it word for word from Sweden), but the trotskyites just felt that their demonstration was a more important thing...

[Ravachol]

Hah, there was this one demo which ended in a scuffle between the black bloc and the riot cops in a very, very narrow shopping street. Suddenly I smell a strong odour and see this moron in a balaclava coming out of a side-street, behind the black bloc pouring a full can of gasoline on the street and trying to light some kind of 'flaming barricade' or whatever. What he didn't quite think through, however, was that he nearly closed the black bloc in between the riot squad and the fire...:rolleyes:

[Wanted Man]

In the Netherlands, it usually gets kind of awkward when people start walking and you count the numbers. :rolleyes: And then everyone walks along at a snail's pace as if it's just a stroll in the park.

Even worse are those fucking "demonstrations" where you don't get to march at all, with a few-hundred people on the biggest square in the city, so that you need some pretty damn manipulative camera techniques to make it look massive in any way.

I can't think of any interesting stories otherwise. The days of spending lots of money just to attend a protest on the other side of the capital are pretty much over for me; I don't think it's worth it. We did once attend this protest against the occupation of Iraq with a few dozen members and any old red flag that we could find. After the protest itself, we walked back through one of the busiest shopping streets with all that stuff and we had our own little impromptu march. I like to think that we must have at least entertained some tourists.

[Honggweilo]

After the protest itself, we walked back through one of the busiest shopping streets with all that stuff and we had our own little impromptu march. I like to think that we must have at least entertained some tourists.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Breken_met_bush_demo_23_09_2006_Groepsfoto.JPG/800px-Breken_met_bush_demo_23_09_2006_Groepsfoto.JPG

oldskool party hardy

[Nox]

One of the funniest times was when our protest was counter-protested by conservatives across the street and a snowball fight ensued. Plenty of casualties (peoples car) were hit during the process (downtown during rush hour/5:00pm) but because it was winter, no one had their windows down or cracked, besides smokers.

It was awesome. I think I landed a few in the face. I tried building a barricade but I quit after 2-3 feet.
When I was going back to my car, I ran across the street and hit a guy with a snowball while yelling "go terrorists!" (because a couple of times earlier in the year we had been called "terrorists' by passerby's) Being the klutz that I am, I of course had to embarrass myself by slipping on ice afterward.

Haha, I found myself in a very similar situation to yours a while back, me and some friends, and a bunch of their friends (all of us were communist or anarchist of varying degree) were following a group of fascists and when they realised who we were a short swearing battle ensued, then all of a sudden out of the blue a passer by throws a snowball at one of my friends, he caught it and threw it at the fascists, a huge snowball war soon erupted, we had a laugh and even waved them off afterwards :D

[An archist]

Meeting up with some dutch antifa for a day of bloccading, we decided we'd get some breakfast beforehand and ended up in a bakery where e thrid of the clients were old folks, a third were riotcops and the rest were us, black-clad anarcho's.


A protest against a forest destruction where we had a banner saying "minder poen, meer groen" wich means "less money, more green" bystander cheered us on thinking the banner read "minder Polen, meer groen" of "less Poles, more green"

[An archist]

A really funny moment was when people got arrested for throwing water balloons at a bunch of nationalists.
The cops were convinced the balloons were filled with piss, because one of the nationalists had piss all over his pants.
There was no piss in the balloons.

[F9]

Haha, I found myself in a very similar situation to yours a while back, me and some friends, and a bunch of their friends (all of us were communist or anarchist of varying degree) were following a group of fascists and when they realised who we were a short swearing battle ensued, then all of a sudden out of the blue a passer by throws a snowball at one of my friends, he caught it and threw it at the fascists, a huge snowball war soon erupted, we had a laugh and even waved them off afterwards :D

:confused::blink::sneaky::huh: :glare::ohmy::closedeyes::unsure: :mellow:

really?i dont believe that.or i dont want to believe it, not sure

[Thirsty Crow]

Okay, I think An archist is currently #1 :laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
Seriously, the breakfast incident seems like a perfect movie scene.

And the piss :laugh::laugh:

[Sasha]

Seems kinda harsh...

didnt loose any sleep over it, anyone walking with white power symbols through amsterdam central station should expect nothing more than the possibility to end up in a ambulance, they just had the badluck the station on this day happened to be swamped with hundreds of hardcore antifascists making the ambulance a sure bet.

its a lot more justly targeted than the famous story of a bunch of hefty london antifa who cornered this skinhead in white laces, NF symbols and union jack shirt making a public phone call on a west end street, turned out the presumed fash was in fact an actor performing in a musical on the west end who popped out the theater rehearsals for a phonecall and couldnt be bothered to take of his costume... best bit is he escaped a sure savage beating by performing an aria on the spot. :lol:

[Ravachol]

didnt loose any sleep over it, anyone walking with white power symbols through amsterdam central station should expect nothing more than the possibility to end up in a ambulance, they just had the badluck the station on this day happened to be swamped with hundreds of hardcore antifascists making the ambulance a sure bet.


I'm gonna wear a thorhammer and a black sun next time i'm in Amsterdam, just for the lulz!

[Sasha]

you wouldnt believe it, worked at a "all in the family" themed dress-up house festival yesterday and lots of ppl came dressed up as "hells angels" inc homemade colors.
they really where really shocked when i asked them to take of their gear before leaving the festival because they could get killed for that shit.
how fucking naive can kids be....

[PhoenixAsh]

I am not sure if I should be telling this one....

a lot of years ago when I was 18 a German buddy of mine and I were in Germany for an antifa protest. We were all having a party the day before and both of us overslept (read: had a huge hangover and refused to wake up) and the rest just left without us. So when we finally awoke we were late, were still really drunk and had no idea where we should go.

We quickly got dressed in out gear....which at that time mainly consisted of black semi-military clothing, hoody and all, with a scarf around our faces and sunglasses on.

So we bought a map...which wasn't much help since we only knew the adres of the guy we were staying with and not much else...counting on them to get us where we needed to be. Luckilly for us we managed to get up with the tail of the demo after a very anxious hour.

We walked in the demo for about 30 minutes completely focussed on finding the people from our group in a sea of people wearing black not really paying attention to anything else...when my friend leaned over and said: "These people have really nice haircuts. We may be in the wrong demo. What do you think?"

He really said that.

As the world came into focus and we started to take a really good look at our surroundings. My heart litterally skipped a few beats. We noticed we were really definately in the wrong demo. So we kept really really silent...buttcheecks clenched and all. We planned to make a dash at the earliest opportunity into one of the side streets.

One came up...I was making my way to the side of the demo and was just about to leg it... When my friend who was already ahead of me gets the brilliant idea to try and safe some face.... yells: "Death to all fascists!" and throws a rock before he disappears into the sidestreet.

I wasn't there yet...I was still at the side of the demo. So I made a mad dash for it. And several of the demo follow me thinking I am running to get the fucker. So I am running into the side street surrounded by a dozen or so really pissed off and hyped up Neo's ...who think I am a great sport for being the first to go after this anti.

All of us were running straight into the cops. Who arrested most of the ones in front. Including me. I was really relieved. Until I was locked into the same room with these bastards. And to put injury to insult (or whatever) they were all expressing how they liked how I showed initiative.

The cops never laughed so hard in their entire lives...but they were kind enough to lock me in a seperate room next to the neo's before they told them. There was a huge roar and I spend two hours there listening to how they would gut me like a fish. Before the cops let them go.

Not me. I was freed three hours later. For my own safety offcourse..

My friends came pick me up and thought the incident hillarious....and I was the target of some nasty hazing that evening. After they threw ice cold beers over me and having to drink Yoghi child drink most evening...I was eventually given a huge quantity of wodka...and made to sleep in the kitchen in the dogs basket waking up with writing all over me.

O...and my demo buddy? He ran into the side street. Managed to avoid the cops by taking off his hoody and throwing it away and yelling to the cops that the fascists were breaking off from the main demo. Hence the cops. He managed to find the real demo. Joined up...like nothing happened. And never ever said anything about me. He thought it all a great joke....and to this day he happilly tells this story every party we have.

Though...I must say I have since then gotten more than equal with him :D

[Astarte]

When I went to the founding national convention for the WIL (workers' international league) years ago, I got really drunk and threw up all over the comrade's patio who I was staying with, and then in his sink, and was terribly hung over for half of the conference the next day. That should have been a sign I wasn't cut out to be a Trot from the get go.

[RHIZOMES]

Any time a 9/11 truther comes to a protest yelling "9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB" or "RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT". Despite the protest having no relevance to 9/11 except tenuously (i.e. against the NZ terror raids), and the fact that the protest isn't happening in America so noone in the crowd is gonna suddenly vote Ron Paul.

[Susurrus]

Any time a 9/11 truther comes to a protest yelling "9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB" or "RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT". Despite the protest having no relevance to 9/11 except tenuously (i.e. against the NZ terror raids), and the fact that the protest isn't happening in America so noone in the crowd is gonna suddenly vote Ron Paul.

Lol, what? They have Paul fanatics in other countries? That's hilarious, considering how much America first style patriotism is part of his platform.

[praxis1966]

You know, I'd never really had anything funny to say about protests... Or at least I thought I didn't until this morning when I started thinking about the recent opBart actions I went to. They don't really compare to some of the stories here, but the unclad phalli I saw there were a bit annoying. Oh sure, there was plenty of foolishness going around at those protests (one of the folks from Anonymous was carrying a picket sign that read I HAVE TO PEE) but seriously, why did not one but two dudes feel the need to show up naked? I know it's San Francisco and all but damn, bruv, this ain't Bay to Breakers.

[The Man]

I have a funny protest story:

I met Glenn Beck one time at a Tea-Party for da lulz.

[Nox]

didnt loose any sleep over it, anyone walking with white power symbols through amsterdam central station should expect nothing more than the possibility to end up in a ambulance, they just had the badluck the station on this day happened to be swamped with hundreds of hardcore antifascists making the ambulance a sure bet.

It was the other one I was talking about, when you mistakenly attacked fellow leftists. If something like that happened to me, I would beat the crap out of the attacker just for being too stupid to make sure who I was first.


I have a funny protest story:

I met Glenn Beck one time at a Tea-Party for da lulz.

How did it go?

[Sasha]

It was the other one I was talking about, when you mistakenly attacked fellow leftists. If something like that happened to me, I would beat the crap out of the attacker just for being too stupid to make sure who I was first.



german antifa:
http://img3.imagebanana.com/img/4cr6nm07/bochum_block.jpg

german nazi's:

http://www.morgenpost.de/multimedia/archive/00090/sh_autonomenationali_90427b.jpg

you see why shit gets confusing fast, we are used to mix ups...

[ellipsis]

I brought a red flag on the end of a 20 flag pole to a protest. I should have read the invite because the rally was like 20-30s doing situationalist actions/street theater. And then me with a HUGE flag....

[Sam_b]

Student occupation against the siege of Gaza which lasted three days afrter comrades held a university building.

Chanting 'occupation is a crime!' wasn't the best move, probably.