En dan de relbetoging waarin de laatste dag uitmondde..

Tuesday 22nd

To be honest, at the beginning of the day, I didn't expect too much from this day of protest as highschools had classes during the afternoon when the gathering for the protestmarch was planned. Still a 1000 to 1500 protesters turned up at the Jubelparc. Soon it became clear that today, freedom of speech was not something that was considered by the security forces as our manifestation was only allowed to march for not more than one minute. We were stopped in a street only 100 meters away from the initial meeting point. On one hand this was no surprise since we were only a few 100 meters away from the place were the EU summit with Bush was held. Nevertheless, no one got demotivated, on the contrary, slogans were yelled as like we were 4000 the day before.
'Bush, go home!,
'Bush, Blair, CIA, how many kids did you kill today?!'
'George Bush, we know you daddy was a killer too!
'George Bush Assasin!'
This and all possible variations were yelled in the direction of the EU summit. Various banners coloured the crowd and a samba band from Gent played their music, on which a few hundred people danced on as it created a nice atmosphere and kept you warm. I joined them since I had carried my djembé with me. It WAS a party! So far so good. But when hours passed by people got frustrated (understandebly as I was frustrated as well) as we didn't want to be locked in this one street as no protest were there this day. So (half)empty cans were thrown at the police. A few bricks as well and occasionally some balloons filled with paint or some small fireworks. What did they expect? That more than thousand people would come to brussel, yell some slogans and go back home because they were not allowed to have a protestmarch?! Police reinforcements were sent in at the other side of the barbed wired fences. Then the first molotov exploded (most probably thrown by one of the black block). We immedeatly withdrew ourselves 10 meters away from the frontline as we were standing whole at the front at the barbed wired fences eye in eye with the blue force and we knew, now it was going to get rough. One minute later, the watercannon came in action, but we were able to stay out of its reach. As we were pushed back, we could see that the policeforces were already preparing to close in on us. They came from two directions at the same time. The two girls that were with us and were not that used to this kind of outcome of a manifestation, decided that it would be better for them to leave the area. I passed my djembé to one of them since it would not be of much use anymore. They barely could escape the trap the police was setting up for the remaining crowd that was not just going to give up. Since I was now freed from my heavy instrument I could join the manifestation again in a more mobile manner. It was only a few minutes later since the girls left that the riot police charged into us. We were driven into the parc where a struggle started. Panic amongst the police as some of them got closed in by a large grouped of protestors. On the protestor side, flagsticks turned into spears. The police reacted with their weapon sticks. Minute after minute, more police gathered and it became impossible to organize some resistance. I had to pull back my friend a few times since he was getting a bit too aggressive. Otherwise they would have him arrested. Now the whole parc was being sealed off and they started to drive everyone together under this large triomph arc in the parc. We were now with 300 left and we were contained on a small surface (a circle of 20m diameter), completely surrounded, 7 watercannons standing behind the circle of riotpolice and their wall of shields. We were kept there for 2 hours. The police easily took its time to get every protester left there on their videocamera. Things got a bit rough again as the group tried to break out the circle, and the hat of the leading cop that was argueing with some of the protesters was tipped off is head but a few warnings through the megaphone and some threatening with the watercannon got things cooled down again as it was cold and no one wanted to have a full blast from the cannon. So after 90 minutes, women and girls were allowed to leave the circle. Eventually, my friend and I were released as well. But not before I was put against the wall, hands against the wall, legs spread, and completely checked. My backpack was completely emptied and every different piece that was in it carefully checked. He even had a look at my course of rural deveopment from that morning.. This procedure took at least 5 to 10 minutes. After this I was finally released. The robocop, ckecking me said 'thank you for you cooperation'. I could have said something back but at that time I was already 'very small' and intimidated so I just didn't say anything and looked down while I was putting everything back in order and getting some of my clothes on again. Anyways, this is how three days of protest against a war criminal ended. We went all back to our moms and had a nice quiet night, knowing that I will be back at the upcoming G8 in scotland.

Johan

om Johans tradfietie verder te zetten post ik ook in meerdere delen.

Waar ik maandag voor op de trein te springen op de UZA moest zijn voor mijnen arm, had ik dinsdagmorgen les.

Ik moest nog bij de Ceulemans langst omdak het 's morges vergeten was maar die was er ni meer. Daardoor had ik wel mijn bus gemist. Afspraak was nu de lokale aktie in Antwerpen: Groenplaats. Doordat ik een bus te laat had was de betoging al begonnen en kon ik op de radio van de chaufeur horen dat de bus rond zou rijden omdat de nationalestraat al was afgezet. Aan't tropis instituut ben ik dan afgestapt om de betoging tegemoet te loppen. Zo kon ik goed zien hoe de politie hier was opgesteld. In vergelijking met Brussel waar om de halve meter een een gehelmde stond was dit natuurlijk niks, maar toch redelijk veel volk op de been voor een scholierenstaking(want dat was het voornaamste deel van derze betoging). Er moeten verschillende scholen leeggelopen zijn want ondanks het feit dat Bush natuurlijk niet in de buurt was kwam er toch een goeie 500 man. Welke vreedzaam maar wel luid anti-imperialistische slogans roepend door antwerpen liepen. Ik had hier helemaal geen problemen met de politie verwacht wat terecht bleek. Toch zagen we na afloop nog een waterkanon voorbijrijden dat zer in brussel blijkbaar konden missen. Of was het mss een sneeuwkanon geweest dat voor de feërieke sfeer moest zorgen?

Na deze lange teksten zullen ankel de meest strijdbare nog aan het lezen zijn(al probeerde ik het een beetje prozaïs te maken. Deze zullen dan ook zeker geïntereseerd zijn in verdere acties . Deze keer tegen het asociale belijd van onze eigen regering(al is de anti-bush beweging zeker ook tegen het feit dat onze leiders perse vriendjes willen zijn met bush).

Blokbuster heeft het initiatief genomen om 19 maart een nieuwe jongerenmars voor werk te hoeden. De jongeren delegaties van de ABVV en de ACV doen ook mee. Net zoals de  KAJ. Bedoeling is om een krachtig sygnaal aan de regering te geven dat we hun smoesjes niet meer geloven maar dat ze werkelijk iets moeten doen aan de groeiende jongerenwerkeloosheid en de kwaliteit(en kostprijs) van het onderwijs. En dit in het kader van gelijkheid tussen verschillende groepen arbeiders, werkelozen, mannen/vrouwen, allochtonen/autochtonen... 

meer info op de julie al wel bekende site http://www.lsp-mas.be/lsp/index_jomars.php