Taking The Bridge
'We're taking the bridge?" "We're taking the bridge." By the time the march through Paris reached the river by the Eiffel Tower a very simple plan was taking shape. The location tells you what to do. Here was a bridge in a spectacular spot, a perfect place for an act of civil disobedience. On the bridge we could create a dilemma. If it is filled from one end to other with sitting people, what can the police really do? Attack? No. That's a river and those are people who could fall and drown. We had the cops well and truly fucked. The day before, under the emergency powers, nearly 30 of us had been scooped up on our way to a protest at Le Bourget. The men were all handcuffed, a few of the women were put in coffin sized enclosures in a van and we were all driven at high speed to a police station. It was a rough ride and one of the women vomited upon being released from a van cell so small she could only turn her head. I found I had to brace myself