Enragé
4th May 2012, 01:43
Dont know if this has already been posted about, but the anarchist 1st of may demonstration in amsterdam was crushed by a mass of riot police after having walked for 200 meters.
This came after the mayor (member of the dutch Labour Party), earlier in the day, had told the press he feared "violence at a squatters' demonstration" and that there were indications that the "black block, a violent part of the squatters' movement" would be present. Most of the media simply took over this lie, even though any idiot could have found online it was an anarchist demonstration and 10.000 flyers and 3000 posters had been distributed, mainly in amsterdam but also around the country. The mayor said he has great respect for the right to protest so he didn't ban the demonstration outright. Also this the media took over without question. The excuse to crush the demonstration was that some people were wearing something to obscure their faces. As you can see in the vids below, only a handful of people actually did. Also "fortified banners" were not allowed and sticks on which to attach flags were dubbed weapons. 23 people were arrested and were charged with resisting arrest, insulting a police officer, sedition and failure to comply to a police order. After we had been completely stripped of anything that made us resemble a demonstration (banners, flags, signs) we were let go and we retreated to a safe place nearby. On the way there we did shout some slogans, and people waved at us from their windows, making 'v-signs' with their fingers or clenching their vist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDMCfHFPAQ [can someone tell me how to embed vids in a post?] At 0.35 you can see what happened just before the police intervened.
At http://www.at5.nl/podium/80417/video-vuurwerk-en-charges-bij-demonstratie you can see a video which shows the start of the police operation very well.
At least we got alot of sympathy from the people in the neighborhood, who started chanting 'Let them go!'. In the eyes of many the hero of the day was a guy who pushed a car in the back of the police line which it surrounded us. Also the turn-out was quite good for dutch standards, and better than last year.
Police repression on the first of may is becoming a trend in the Netherlands. In 2011 an anarchist demonstration in Utrecht was surrounded and attacked numerous times. In 2010 a communist (mostly maoist and stalinist) demonstration in Rotterdam was ordered to give up all flagsticks. After they did, the demo was attacked and dispersed, and numerous people were arrested. That year as well, an anarchist demo in Nijmegen was met with police violence.
Any attempts to protect ourselves from police violence are turned into a pretext for the use of police violence. At the moment we do not know how to deal with this repression. Suggestions are more than welcome. All we know is we have to continue, and take heart in the fact that the state is apparently so scared of us they need to crush us at the outset, as well as that the people who witnessed the police violence first hand will tell their friends and family not to believe the media. And that hopefully we will find them on our side next time. So that we will be many more. So that the police cannot crush us so easily.
This came after the mayor (member of the dutch Labour Party), earlier in the day, had told the press he feared "violence at a squatters' demonstration" and that there were indications that the "black block, a violent part of the squatters' movement" would be present. Most of the media simply took over this lie, even though any idiot could have found online it was an anarchist demonstration and 10.000 flyers and 3000 posters had been distributed, mainly in amsterdam but also around the country. The mayor said he has great respect for the right to protest so he didn't ban the demonstration outright. Also this the media took over without question. The excuse to crush the demonstration was that some people were wearing something to obscure their faces. As you can see in the vids below, only a handful of people actually did. Also "fortified banners" were not allowed and sticks on which to attach flags were dubbed weapons. 23 people were arrested and were charged with resisting arrest, insulting a police officer, sedition and failure to comply to a police order. After we had been completely stripped of anything that made us resemble a demonstration (banners, flags, signs) we were let go and we retreated to a safe place nearby. On the way there we did shout some slogans, and people waved at us from their windows, making 'v-signs' with their fingers or clenching their vist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDMCfHFPAQ [can someone tell me how to embed vids in a post?] At 0.35 you can see what happened just before the police intervened.
At http://www.at5.nl/podium/80417/video-vuurwerk-en-charges-bij-demonstratie you can see a video which shows the start of the police operation very well.
At least we got alot of sympathy from the people in the neighborhood, who started chanting 'Let them go!'. In the eyes of many the hero of the day was a guy who pushed a car in the back of the police line which it surrounded us. Also the turn-out was quite good for dutch standards, and better than last year.
Police repression on the first of may is becoming a trend in the Netherlands. In 2011 an anarchist demonstration in Utrecht was surrounded and attacked numerous times. In 2010 a communist (mostly maoist and stalinist) demonstration in Rotterdam was ordered to give up all flagsticks. After they did, the demo was attacked and dispersed, and numerous people were arrested. That year as well, an anarchist demo in Nijmegen was met with police violence.
Any attempts to protect ourselves from police violence are turned into a pretext for the use of police violence. At the moment we do not know how to deal with this repression. Suggestions are more than welcome. All we know is we have to continue, and take heart in the fact that the state is apparently so scared of us they need to crush us at the outset, as well as that the people who witnessed the police violence first hand will tell their friends and family not to believe the media. And that hopefully we will find them on our side next time. So that we will be many more. So that the police cannot crush us so easily.