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 and sort of surf the van to avoid getting smashed. No crime had been committed, they were "only" checking our papers, but without ever telling us what was happening we were given the same clear message we'd heard since before arriving in Paris: under the terror laws protesters would be largely at the mercy of right wing pigs.
We always knew the cops would have a field day but what was truly surprising was the huge effort rally and march organisers put into breaking up the sit-in on that bridge. We were there for one hour, could have been there for 12, but could not fight off the increasingly desperate, angry and bullying organisers who insisted the thousands of people move on to their planned toothless happy clapper events either under the Tower or several hundred metres further on. I mean, we have control of a bridge in one of the most famous locations on Earth and you want to give that up because it's not part of the plan? You're a bit of a fucking idiot.
Eventually some person addressed the people on the bridge with two total loads of shit that ended the sit-in suddenly. One load consisted of the garbage information that cops had us surrounded. This made zero sense. Our whole time in Paris we were surrounded so what are you actually doing other than spreading panic? The other steaming load was that "local French activists" wanted us to move. An English person was saying this.
Feeding people lies shouldn't have worked but it came with the moral force of people whose plans have been changed slightly and must now assert their dominance over people whose heads aren't up their arses. The people on the bridge were winning, they had already won and this was going to be a big act of civil disobedience that rang out across the world. People in the movement primarily to live out their control fantasies made sure that never happened. It's just a shame that our commitment to nonviolence meant we were in no position to throw these turkeys in the fucking river.
D12 was billed as a day of Red Line Action, a day that we would make a stand. When people actually made that stand it was felt by people I will be ignoring from now on that the collapse of the climate talks into a heap of bullshit and horror was not enough of an incitement to warrant people sitting peacefully on a bridge, harming no one. Thanks to these fuckers I and my people and dozens of others we were with were put in a dangerous situation as we attempted to make our way to one of the two "safe" locations. I experienced plenty of fear in Paris and suddenly finding ourselves cut off with no witnesses was right up there. Bear in mind we were making our way to new spaces because assholes wanted us to be "safe". Instead we found ourselves being surrounded by cops in a part of a park with no eyes on us and had to retrace our steps. From a position of power to total shit in 5 minutes. And that was that. The sit-in and it's power was over.
The fuckwitted thing about it is the sit-in was the safest place to be while being effective. I have no idea what these organisers were there to do. Talk about taking radical action? Discuss the possibility of an actual protest? They might as well be fucking cops.
We learned a lot in Paris, met people who matter and are now back in Melbourne plotting and scheming. I saw how to carry out a revolution so that will be my focus from now on, working with people around the world, people who lost their last shred of tolerance for half-assed writing letters to Santa activism in the City of Love.
"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 and sort of surf the van to avoid getting smashed. No crime had been committed, they were "only" checking our papers, but without ever telling us what was happening we were given the same clear message we'd heard since before arriving in Paris: under the terror laws protesters would be largely at the mercy of right wing pigs.
We always knew the cops would have a field day but what was truly surprising was the huge effort rally and march organisers put into breaking up the sit-in on that bridge. We were there for one hour, could have been there for 12, but could not fight off the increasingly desperate, angry and bullying organisers who insisted the thousands of people move on to their planned toothless happy clapper events either under the Tower or several hundred metres further on. I mean, we have control of a bridge in one of the most famous locations on Earth and you want to give that up because it's not part of the plan? You're a bit of a fucking idiot.
Eventually some person addressed the people on the bridge with two total loads of shit that ended the sit-in suddenly. One load consisted of the garbage information that cops had us surrounded. This made zero sense. Our whole time in Paris we were surrounded so what are you actually doing other than spreading panic? The other steaming load was that "local French activists" wanted us to move. An English person was saying this.
Feeding people lies shouldn't have worked but it came with the moral force of people whose plans have been changed slightly and must now assert their dominance over people whose heads aren't up their arses. The people on the bridge were winning, they had already won and this was going to be a big act of civil disobedience that rang out across the world. People in the movement primarily to live out their control fantasies made sure that never happened. It's just a shame that our commitment to nonviolence meant we were in no position to throw these turkeys in the fucking river.
D12 was billed as a day of Red Line Action, a day that we would make a stand. When people actually made that stand it was felt by people I will be ignoring from now on that the collapse of the climate talks into a heap of bullshit and horror was not enough of an incitement to warrant people sitting peacefully on a bridge, harming no one. Thanks to these fuckers I and my people and dozens of others we were with were put in a dangerous situation as we attempted to make our way to one of the two "safe" locations. I experienced plenty of fear in Paris and suddenly finding ourselves cut off with no witnesses was right up there. Bear in mind we were making our way to new spaces because assholes wanted us to be "safe". Instead we found ourselves being surrounded by cops in a part of a park with no eyes on us and had to retrace our steps. From a position of power to total shit in 5 minutes. And that was that. The sit-in and it's power was over.
The fuckwitted thing about it is the sit-in was the safest place to be while being effective. I have no idea what these organisers were there to do. Talk about taking radical action? Discuss the possibility of an actual protest? They might as well be fucking cops.
We learned a lot in Paris, met people who matter and are now back in Melbourne plotting and scheming. I saw how to carry out a revolution so that will be my focus from now on, working with people around the world, people who lost their last shred of tolerance for half-assed writing letters to Santa activism in the City of Love.
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