The Long March on Farmleigh [Ireland Mayday, EU]
May 11, 2004 - 7:10am -- hydrarchist
hydrarchist writes... well here is a report from an organizer with the Dublin Grassroots Network, protagonist of the demonstrations and actions "Against the Europe of Capital/No to Fortress Europe" which took place simultaneous with the official celebrations of EU enlargement that took placfe in Ireland on the Mayday Weekend. For the record, I was present myself but am not the author ;-)
The long march on Farmleigh
In terms of the development of a libertarian movement in Ireland
the march on the EU
summit at Farmleigh will probably be seen as a turning point. For
the first time the movement mobilized large number of people from
outside its own ranks, in a demonstration that was in direct defiance
of the Irish governments attempt to ban such demonstrations.
The march was just one aspect of a weekend of activities that had
been planned and prepared for over the 6 or so months before the
Mayday weekend by the Dublin
Grassroots Network. I intend to write on or link to stories about
each of these in due course, as all were worthwhile. Here I
concentrate on the march on Farmleigh.
The idea of marching on Farmleigh came up early on in DGN planning
meetings. Not everyone thought this was a great idea. Some thought
all our actions should involved direct action and others doubted that
we could get enough people to go on a march to make it worthwhile.
Nevertheless after some discussion the idea of a 'Bring the noise'
march on Farmleigh was agreed as one of a number of events for the
weekend. As with all the other events the details were left to be
worked out by an autonomous sub group of those interested in the
march.
Pic: The front of the march on Farmleigh on the Navan road. From
uk.indymedia.org, photographer not credited there. I'd no camera with
me so all these photos come from indymedia, photographer is credited
with the name used to post them to indymedia
The 'Bring the noise' theme was inspired by demonstrations in
Argentina in recent years, which were in turn inspired, by
demonstrations against the dictatorship in Chile. The core idea is
that everyone brings some noisy implement (e.g. pot lids) to make as
much noise a possible. We recognized that there was no way the
government would allow a march to get within sight of the EU heads of
state but we figured we might get close enough for them to hear us.
The plans for the 'Bring the noise' march were released on the DGN
web site and included in the
50,000 leaflets DGN
published. Thousands of stickers and posters that also advertised the
meeting up point at Parkgate street were also prepared and would be
distributed in the weeks before the demonstration.
The media storm that then broke surprised us. We had expected a
certain number of scare stories about violent protesters but we were
not prepared for headlines like 'Anarchist army plans bloodbath in
Ireland' or 'Anarchists to gas 10,000 people'. Almost immediately it
became clear that the government had ordered the Gardai to identify
the Farmleigh march as a major threat of violence. We were told
15,000 foreign anarchists were on their way to Ireland and that the
flash point was to be Parkgate street around the time our march was
due to start.
In the early days no government or Gardai source was willing to
put their names to such crazy scare stories. Instead stories citing
unnamed sources were written by the crime correspondents of the
papers. As the nature of the 'crime correspondents' job is to lick up
to the Gardai press office in return details of the latest rape and
murder stories it was quite clear who these unnamed sources were. We
also had tabloid journalists claiming to have infiltrated meetings of
those planning to travel to Ireland; meetings that invariably turned
out to be publicly open and publicly advertised events.
The government created a feeding frenzy of scare stories from
these leaks where absurdity would be piled on absurdity. Each new
absurd claim would be the background for the announcement of the
preparation of more repression for the weekend; this in turn would
justify the next absurd claim. Many would have been amusing (remember
the 'sharpened CD's to be thrown Ninja style'!) were they not being
used to throw
people into jail and to launch a large-scale harassment campaign
of activists trying to advertise the events.
Although DGN was caught by surprise by the sheer volume and
absurdity of these accusations luckily we had decided to set up a
fairly large media-working group, which included 4-mandated
spokespeople. Once this was up and running we successfully poured
cold water on many of these scares and in particular the DGN
appearance on the Late Late Show which gave DGN a human face
undermined the more absurd stories.
In the days afterwards for the first time sources started to be
given for the stories and ministers appeared on radio to debate us,
or more accurately misrepresent the reasons for our protest. Best of
all the same crime correspondents who had peddled the most ludicrous
scare stories now came out with 'well these were just worse case
scenarios'. Some of the tabloids continued to spread scare stories
but with others publishing articles at least partially rubbishing
these scares anyone paying attention was becoming more and more aware
of what was going on.
As we rolled into the last few days before the protest we started
to get some positive coverage although we had great difficulty
getting any media interested in
the issues we were
protesting about. However despite
police
harassment the bulk of our leaflets were being distributed and
fresh posters and stickers advertising the events were going up as
fast as the government, working through the local council, get tear
them down. All the scare stories had also had the effect of everyone
knowing that protests were going to take place over the weekend.
Perhaps most amusingly the government suddenly realized that the
scare stories were also terrifying those they hoped would attend the
remaining public welcome events. We were treated to the hilarious
sound of the Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche, on national
radio trying to explain that even the 'violent protesters' had no
record of targeting public event. These just days after Bertie had
labeled all those who intended to protest as hooligans!
Pic: Watercannon in action on the Navan road: From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
On the Thursday before the summit march the government played its
last card. It ordered the Gardai to
prevent our march taking
place. An alarmist Prime Time on RTE (state TV) that evening included
a detailed plan as to how uniformed Gardai had been ordered to attack
our march as it made its way down the south quays and how the riot
squad would be waiting to attack anyone who reached our assembly
point at Parkgate street. The word ban was never used but it was
clear that in effect the government had banned a peaceful but noisy
march.
Finding this out some 40 hours before the march was due to start
caused something of a panic. We expected to have a number of people
with us throughout the day and that group could try and march through
the pre-meditated Gardai assault to the march assembly point. However
as the whole point of calling the march was to give more people a
chance to join us this would have made very little sense.
On the Friday morning the people who had been planning the details
of the Farmleigh march got together with a number of other DGN people
who happened to be in the indymedia centre. We put a proposal to them
that we would shift the assembly point to O'Connell street and call a
protest rally there for 6pm against the government's decision to ban
the march. To that rally we would put the proposal that the best way
to protest the ban was to defy it and march on Farmleigh where the
summit was to take place.
Notices were circulated on indymedia and a
press release was issued.
The media work turned out to be very important here as it was the
only way we had to inform the bulk of the population that the new
assembly point for the march was a couple of kilometers from the
previously advertised point.
That evening after the Critical Mass we got together the remaining
people who had volunteered to help out on the Farmleigh march and
sketched out the new plan with them including agreeing a new route.
We also decided that if we reckoned some people would try and push
through police lines that we would halt the march at a great enough
distance for this to happen without people on the march being
unwittingly sucked into such an effort.
From the start the Farmleigh march had been argued for as a
non-confrontational event that anyone could turn up for with a
minimum risk of arrest. To make this very clear we had issued
guidelines in advance of the march explaining this and asking those
who wanted to go beyond these
guidelines to do so
separately from the march. This was not because we had any
ideological objections to such an attempt; it was simply that we
wanted to tell people who were thinking about coming exactly what
they could expect.
This had been a subject of some controversy in particular with the
relatively small numbers of international activists who had arrived
in Dublin. Some were inclined to misread the guidelines as either an
ideological statement of pacifism or as an insistence that everyone,
everywhere in the city must follow them. For the most part this was
cleared up at a meeting involving most DGN activists and most of the
internationals. One tactical difference that still existed was on the
question of what we would do when we got to a police line. The
guidelines clearly stated that we would not try and push through but
many people both Irish and international felt that at least a token
effort should be made.
Pic: Front of march forms up on O'Connell street. From
indymedia.ie by Chekov
While we respected their freedom to adopt different tactics we
needed to also stick to the guidelines we issued. We figured the best
way to do this would be to halt our march some 100m short of the
police lines so that those who wanted to push through could leave it
and so try to push through without automatically involving everyone
else when the police attacked.
By the time Saturday morning dawned we did not know what to
expect. Would our new assembly point be announced by the media? Would
the riot police attempt to occupy that as well? Would people be
scared away or would they react against the scare stores and the ban
by tuning up.
The early news was not good. Only 100 turned up for the first
event and 8 of these were cops disguised as demonstrators, two with
face masks (the only masked up people on the protest at that point).
We also heard that the trotskyist organizers of a rival march (the
AEIP carnival) had actually announced on a Newstalk106 (Dublin news
station) that our march was
cancelled
and so that everyone should go on theirs instead.
However as the day progressed things got better. But lunchtime
there were a couple of thousand of us and most of the radio news
bulletins were announcing our new assembly point. They were also
giving regular updates on what we were doing; this apparently created
a good sense of momentum if you were listening to the reports at
home.
Just after five o'clock we literally crossed the last major
barrier when over 1,000 of us marched from the south side of the city
to the north. This meant we had got lots of people along with our
banners and flags across the river that divides the city. We had
feared that the police might try and close the river bridges to
prevent us doing so.
Around 1,000 people marched to the assembly point arriving before
6pm. Within 20 minutes we were joined by thousands more. The
government's tactics had backfired big time and a demonstration I had
hoped might break the 1,500 mark had three or four times as many
people on it.
It is worth noting at this point that as usual there is some
controversy about just how many did turn up. My own estimates would
be that over 5,000 were at the start up point and over half of these
marched most of the way to Farmleigh with us. By the time we reached
the police line some 6km from our start point some 2000 remained.
Others have different estimates. While, by international standards,
this is a fairly small crowd, in the Irish context it was huge. The
biggest previous turnout on a libertarian organized demonstration
would have been the 300 or so who showed up for the anti-war direct
action at Shannon airport in March 2003. With few exceptions left
marches typically attract around 1,000 people or less.
As the numbers were more than we had hoped for we were under
prepared for communicating with this many people. While we really
needed a PA and a truck to speak from we made do with a megaphone and
standing in a shopping trolley. Three people spoke and the under the
statue of Jim Larkin the proposal
was put to the crowd that we march on Farmleigh. Those that could
hear assented and those who couldn't got to vote with their feet!
Pic: Meeting in
progress on O'Connell street: From indymedia.ie by Noise
machine
Pic: Meeting in progress on O'Connell street:
From indymedia.ie by Noise machine
We formed up behind the DGN banner which read 'No border, no
nations; Against a Europe of capital'. The entire front of the march
was made up of anarchist flags and banners followed by a black bloc
formation and then the rest of the march. Out front of the banners
were a hundred or so media jostling for the best spot and asking
which way we were going.
They weren't told because although we were going to follow the
most obvious route we wanted to keep this known only to a very small
group who would lead the march. This would give us some chance of
delaying a Gardai blocking operation and force the journalists to
march with us rather than wait behind police lines. We figured better
to have them embedded with us than the cops.
Right at the start some people let the media know what we had
thought of their coverage to date by spraying 'liars' on the side of
RTE, the state broadcasters, TV van. This of course made the news;
there is no story so important to journalists than one about
themselves. A couple of stupid minor scuffles broke out between
people on the black bloc and journalists who shoved cameras in their
faces. However given the level of media hysteria and the tension of
not knowing what the Gardai would do the vast majority of journalists
were treated considerable better by us than they were to be treated
by the Gardai (who hit some and water cannoned others). And a least
one camera man actually punched someone on the bloc after he was
pushed to one side as it passed! Some media outlets tried to make a
story of this afterwards but it was really a case of 'handbags at 10
paces' rather than any real confrontation. From the point of view of
the protest it was not useful and in at least some cases just
provided the media with the story they were looking for and seeking
to provoke.
We were lucky with the weather and what had threatened to be a
dull and overcast day turned out to be fine sunshine and one of those
pleasant warm evenings you sometimes get in early May. So the crowd
was in high spirits as we set off. There was chanting ('whose
streets, our streets' 'Our passion for freedom is bigger than their
prisons'), drumming and the sound of 1200 whistles that had been
donated by a supporter! There was also a guy out front; his suit
festooned with fake dollar bills playing traditional tunes on a tin
whistle using a megaphone for amplification. We might not have called
it a carnival but it certainly felt like one.
Pic: Rear of march forming up on O'Connell street: From
indymedia.ie by Noise Bloc
The streets were quite deserted but as much of our route lay
through residential areas many of the people came out to watch us
pass. Here were these hordes that they were told would 'burn Dublin
to the ground'. While a very few heckled far more came into their
gardens and exchanged banter with the marchers. Some allowed women to
use their toilets and a quite a few even joined us.
Later the cops were to claim that we had somehow tricked them by
changing our route at the last moment. It is likely they though we
would either take King street or the North Circular road but we knew
they had a blocking position prepared at Hanlons corner and had no
intention of walking into this. As we progressed rumors swept the
march that 'someone had seen the cops massing just around the corner'
but every time cyclists went ahead to check they found the road ahead
empty.
Those who had already taken part in the rest of the day's events
had probably marched 10 or 14k before we even set out on the 9k march
to Farmleigh. For those unfamiliar with Dublin Farmleigh house is
situation at the back of the world's largest enclosed park, the
Phoenix park that has an 11km wall enclosing it. The whole park was
sealed off and two lines of fences and a heliport had been built
inside it, by the Ashtown gate. Additional fences topped with razor
wire had been built around Farmleigh itself and many of the roads
leading to the park were closed off.
As we marched up the New Cabra road we went through a dip over one
of the railway bridges. Looking back as the front of the march came
out of this dip I could see the road behind densely packed with
people for a couple of 100 meters. Perhaps half had already dropped
out but a good 3,000 were still marching on.
Pic: Front of march on the New Cabra Road. From indymedia.ie by
Circus Crew
Turning from the New Cabra road onto the Navan road would be the
big test of the crowd's discipline. Here there was a McDonalds with
only a very thin line of uniformed Gardai and a series of huge glass
fronted car showrooms, all but the Mercedes one unguarded. It had
been agreed that there would be no property damage on the march, this
would test that resolve and perhaps give the state the excuse to
intervene. But the discipline held and we all marched past.
The Navan road is a long and wide straight road lined with houses,
schools and a library. To the left side street after side street runs
down to the wall of the Phoenix park, each was guarded by a small
number of uniformed officers. Given that there were thousands on duty
they probably hoped we would be tempted to try one of these narrow
streets where we would have been trapped against the wall of the
park. We marched on; already well within their red zone.
From our point of view the safest point for them to stop us would
be the Ashtown roundabout. Here we would be less than 100m from the
park and only about 200m from the heliport they had built to ferry
the EU leaders in and out. After this point we would have to march on
narrow country lane ways with the high wall of the park on one side.
If the road was unblocked that is what we would have done but it
would have taken us out of sight into an area that we could easily be
bottled up in.
Around 1km from the roundabout we stopped to take a break and
allow stragglers catch up with the march. People on bicycles reported
that very large numbers of Gardai seemed to be forming up at the
Ashtown gate but that the cyclists were being prevented from getting
closer by plain clothes secret police. At this stage it also became
clear that the black bloc wanted to advance to the police lines and
at least mount a token attempt to push through them.
Pic: Black bloc forms up facing police lines on the Navan road.
From indymedia.ie by Chekov
After a 20 minute break we set off. Ahead a solid line of bright
yellow could be seen, the fluorescent vests of a triple line of cops
stretching across the roundabout entrance. If we were confident that
no break though would be attempted we would have marched right up to
that line before halting. As we reckoned one would be attempted we
halted at the last junction onto the Navan road, a little over 100m
from the roundabout.
Two people on megaphones announced to the crowd that the DGN march
was halting here and asked them to step to one side so that anyone
who wanted to go right up to the police line could pass through. A 50
strong black bloc passed through with a banner reading 'Resist the
Europe of capital' and advanced up the road with the vast majority of
the crowd either following them up or going up ahead of them.
They stopped just short of the police line and then with arms
linked advanced into the police line, trying to push through. After a
minute or so it started to break and with a command the uniformed
Gardai retreated to be replaced by riot police. Journalists behind
the front line reported seeing rank after rank of riot police lining
the road that turned down to the Navan gate. Behind the riot police
came the water cannon and this proceeded to start blasting the crowd.
Pic: Pushing against the police line (top). From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
At the point the Gardai plan started to come apart. They probably
hoped to provoke a violent response from the crowd in order to
'justify' the millions the government had spent on their security
operation. Unfortunately for them they were a little more creative
than this. The Gardai were greeted with a range of bizarre sights.
Some protesters danced in the water jets in front of the massed riot
police. One man with a large pot he had been using as drum caught the
spray and threw it back at the riot police. A woman with goggles and
a snorkel danced up and down in front of police lines. And a couple
with umbrellas broke into 'singing in the rain'.
Time for some
escalation. A
riot cop stepped through the lines and struck a man dancing in front
of the shields three times. The women with the goggles and snorkel
received similar treatment. The water cannon switched to high
pressure and was used to blow journalists overlooking the scene from
a high granite wall off the wall, preventing any embarrassing
pictures from that excellent vantage point. One cameraman was knocked
out as he hit the ground 2m below but regained consciousness after a
few minutes. The SKY News live camera feed was also knocked out by
this attack.
Pic: Riot cop (under red arrow) hits dancing man (under
second red arrow) for the third time: From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
Pic: The view from the wall seconds before journalists
are blasted off it by the watercannon. From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
A few plastic bottles and flags were thrown at the police line and
one heroic individual managed to jump onto the window grill of the
water cannon but still the Gardai lacked the response they badly
needed. Things were not going to plan. They advanced on the crowd,
batoning more people and pushing people along with their shields. An
indymedia reporter was hit in the chest by the water cannon jet and
temporally knocked unconscious. Protesters were knocked over by the
water cannon and suffered broken bones as they were slammed into the
ground. People were grabbed at random out of the crowd and arrested.
Pic: Camera man after being knocked off wal by water cannon (the
can's were not his!). From indymedia.ie by Chekov
In the meantime the DGN banners back at the junction had turned
around to be facing back into town. We did not want a rout to develop
as people could be injured and intended to lead a slow retreat back
into the city centre. Each time we saw the water cannon advance 20 or
so meters we moved the banner 20 or so meters down the road. People
began retreating back to the banners from the front line but with the
exception of one 'revolutionary party' that had already left the
scene almost everyone else halted behind the banners, anxious that no
one should be left behind.
Pic: Retreat prepared, the bright light in the centre is the
lights on the water cannon. From indymedia.ie by Circus Crew
After what felt like a long time the long slow march back into the
city centre started. The water cannon and riot police were repeatedly
attacking the back of the march but each time a rout looked likely
people used the megaphones to ask people not to run but to walk
slowly. This worked and we managed to stay together as a block. At
the back people had formed a line to stop the riot police penetrating
the line and there were more arrests here as the riot police batoned
people, again trying to provoke a panic.
Every side street we now passed was lined with rank after rank of
riot police. It may have been intimidating but they failed to break
our spirit and we marched together as a bloc, stopping from time to
time to allow the stragglers to catch up. After a while the riot
police broke contact with our back, probably because it was tiring
moving around in all their protective gear.
Throughout the march and indeed the weekend many, many cops
disguised as demonstrators were spotted amongst us. Some were easy to
spot as they wore a tiny black earpiece in one ear. Some seemed to be
trying to stir up trouble and just after we had broken contact with
the riot police two of these characters near the front of the crowd
started shouting that we should stop and turn to face the cops. They
were quickly surrounded by people chanting 'where's your number?' and
cleared off. We marched on soon leaving the massed ranks of cops
behind as we turned onto the New Cabra road.
Overhead as we marched back down the New Cabra road the police
helicopter circled shining its spotlight into the crowd. Here it is
reported that a middle aged man with a strong Wicklow accent and one
of the giveaway black earpieces appeared from nowhere and asked what
was planned when we got back into town. 'Were we going to riot?' This
character was ignored and soon got bored and drifted off.
On the way back we stopped briefly outside Mountjoy prison whose
entrance was lined with ranks of cops. We knew that at least one of
our comrades was inside and chants rang out in the hope she might
hear them. We marched onto Dorset street and on to O'Connell street
where we had planned to disperse.
Pic: Part of the march on the way to Phibsboro. From indymedia.ie
by Circus Crew
On the way up many of the reporters wanted to know why we were
going up the Navan road rather than heading for one of the closer
park gates. There were many reasons for this, chief amongst them that
this was likely to be the closest point we would get to Farmleigh
(around 1.5km as the crow flies, 3km by road). But another was that a
heliport had been built just inside the gate for ferrying the EU
dignitaries to and from the ceremony.
As the riot squad were deployed in Ashtown and the flashing lights
of the water cannon came forward out of the dusk I looked to the
right. From the heliport a string of large passenger helicopters were
taking off. I don't know if they heard us 'bring the noise' but
whichever of the 25 EU leaders were in those helicopters could look
out their window to the left and from the commotion below see that it
is true to say that "we are everywhere".
The government had tried to terrify the population of the city in
advance of the march, both to make them hostile to the protesters and
to scare people who were thinking of joining in. Despite this
thousands did turn out on the march. The Gardai attacked the crowd
with batons and water cannons, injuring some and arresting around 29
but they failed to panic us and we marched together back into town.
The government showed it is willing to suspend civil liberties in
order to suppress protest. We showed that
we will
resist them.
Joe Black
"
hydrarchist writes... well here is a report from an organizer with the Dublin Grassroots Network, protagonist of the demonstrations and actions "Against the Europe of Capital/No to Fortress Europe" which took place simultaneous with the official celebrations of EU enlargement that took placfe in Ireland on the Mayday Weekend. For the record, I was present myself but am not the author ;-)
The long march on Farmleigh
In terms of the development of a libertarian movement in Ireland
the march on the EU
summit at Farmleigh will probably be seen as a turning point. For
the first time the movement mobilized large number of people from
outside its own ranks, in a demonstration that was in direct defiance
of the Irish governments attempt to ban such demonstrations.
The march was just one aspect of a weekend of activities that had
been planned and prepared for over the 6 or so months before the
Mayday weekend by the Dublin
Grassroots Network. I intend to write on or link to stories about
each of these in due course, as all were worthwhile. Here I
concentrate on the march on Farmleigh.
The idea of marching on Farmleigh came up early on in DGN planning
meetings. Not everyone thought this was a great idea. Some thought
all our actions should involved direct action and others doubted that
we could get enough people to go on a march to make it worthwhile.
Nevertheless after some discussion the idea of a 'Bring the noise'
march on Farmleigh was agreed as one of a number of events for the
weekend. As with all the other events the details were left to be
worked out by an autonomous sub group of those interested in the
march.
Pic: The front of the march on Farmleigh on the Navan road. From
uk.indymedia.org, photographer not credited there. I'd no camera with
me so all these photos come from indymedia, photographer is credited
with the name used to post them to indymedia
The 'Bring the noise' theme was inspired by demonstrations in
Argentina in recent years, which were in turn inspired, by
demonstrations against the dictatorship in Chile. The core idea is
that everyone brings some noisy implement (e.g. pot lids) to make as
much noise a possible. We recognized that there was no way the
government would allow a march to get within sight of the EU heads of
state but we figured we might get close enough for them to hear us.
The plans for the 'Bring the noise' march were released on the DGN
web site and included in the
50,000 leaflets DGN
published. Thousands of stickers and posters that also advertised the
meeting up point at Parkgate street were also prepared and would be
distributed in the weeks before the demonstration.
The media storm that then broke surprised us. We had expected a
certain number of scare stories about violent protesters but we were
not prepared for headlines like 'Anarchist army plans bloodbath in
Ireland' or 'Anarchists to gas 10,000 people'. Almost immediately it
became clear that the government had ordered the Gardai to identify
the Farmleigh march as a major threat of violence. We were told
15,000 foreign anarchists were on their way to Ireland and that the
flash point was to be Parkgate street around the time our march was
due to start.
In the early days no government or Gardai source was willing to
put their names to such crazy scare stories. Instead stories citing
unnamed sources were written by the crime correspondents of the
papers. As the nature of the 'crime correspondents' job is to lick up
to the Gardai press office in return details of the latest rape and
murder stories it was quite clear who these unnamed sources were. We
also had tabloid journalists claiming to have infiltrated meetings of
those planning to travel to Ireland; meetings that invariably turned
out to be publicly open and publicly advertised events.
The government created a feeding frenzy of scare stories from
these leaks where absurdity would be piled on absurdity. Each new
absurd claim would be the background for the announcement of the
preparation of more repression for the weekend; this in turn would
justify the next absurd claim. Many would have been amusing (remember
the 'sharpened CD's to be thrown Ninja style'!) were they not being
used to throw
people into jail and to launch a large-scale harassment campaign
of activists trying to advertise the events.
Although DGN was caught by surprise by the sheer volume and
absurdity of these accusations luckily we had decided to set up a
fairly large media-working group, which included 4-mandated
spokespeople. Once this was up and running we successfully poured
cold water on many of these scares and in particular the DGN
appearance on the Late Late Show which gave DGN a human face
undermined the more absurd stories.
In the days afterwards for the first time sources started to be
given for the stories and ministers appeared on radio to debate us,
or more accurately misrepresent the reasons for our protest. Best of
all the same crime correspondents who had peddled the most ludicrous
scare stories now came out with 'well these were just worse case
scenarios'. Some of the tabloids continued to spread scare stories
but with others publishing articles at least partially rubbishing
these scares anyone paying attention was becoming more and more aware
of what was going on.
As we rolled into the last few days before the protest we started
to get some positive coverage although we had great difficulty
getting any media interested in
the issues we were
protesting about. However despite
police
harassment the bulk of our leaflets were being distributed and
fresh posters and stickers advertising the events were going up as
fast as the government, working through the local council, get tear
them down. All the scare stories had also had the effect of everyone
knowing that protests were going to take place over the weekend.
Perhaps most amusingly the government suddenly realized that the
scare stories were also terrifying those they hoped would attend the
remaining public welcome events. We were treated to the hilarious
sound of the Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche, on national
radio trying to explain that even the 'violent protesters' had no
record of targeting public event. These just days after Bertie had
labeled all those who intended to protest as hooligans!
Pic: Watercannon in action on the Navan road: From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
On the Thursday before the summit march the government played its
last card. It ordered the Gardai to
prevent our march taking
place. An alarmist Prime Time on RTE (state TV) that evening included
a detailed plan as to how uniformed Gardai had been ordered to attack
our march as it made its way down the south quays and how the riot
squad would be waiting to attack anyone who reached our assembly
point at Parkgate street. The word ban was never used but it was
clear that in effect the government had banned a peaceful but noisy
march.
Finding this out some 40 hours before the march was due to start
caused something of a panic. We expected to have a number of people
with us throughout the day and that group could try and march through
the pre-meditated Gardai assault to the march assembly point. However
as the whole point of calling the march was to give more people a
chance to join us this would have made very little sense.
On the Friday morning the people who had been planning the details
of the Farmleigh march got together with a number of other DGN people
who happened to be in the indymedia centre. We put a proposal to them
that we would shift the assembly point to O'Connell street and call a
protest rally there for 6pm against the government's decision to ban
the march. To that rally we would put the proposal that the best way
to protest the ban was to defy it and march on Farmleigh where the
summit was to take place.
Notices were circulated on indymedia and a
press release was issued.
The media work turned out to be very important here as it was the
only way we had to inform the bulk of the population that the new
assembly point for the march was a couple of kilometers from the
previously advertised point.
That evening after the Critical Mass we got together the remaining
people who had volunteered to help out on the Farmleigh march and
sketched out the new plan with them including agreeing a new route.
We also decided that if we reckoned some people would try and push
through police lines that we would halt the march at a great enough
distance for this to happen without people on the march being
unwittingly sucked into such an effort.
From the start the Farmleigh march had been argued for as a
non-confrontational event that anyone could turn up for with a
minimum risk of arrest. To make this very clear we had issued
guidelines in advance of the march explaining this and asking those
who wanted to go beyond these
guidelines to do so
separately from the march. This was not because we had any
ideological objections to such an attempt; it was simply that we
wanted to tell people who were thinking about coming exactly what
they could expect.
This had been a subject of some controversy in particular with the
relatively small numbers of international activists who had arrived
in Dublin. Some were inclined to misread the guidelines as either an
ideological statement of pacifism or as an insistence that everyone,
everywhere in the city must follow them. For the most part this was
cleared up at a meeting involving most DGN activists and most of the
internationals. One tactical difference that still existed was on the
question of what we would do when we got to a police line. The
guidelines clearly stated that we would not try and push through but
many people both Irish and international felt that at least a token
effort should be made.
Pic: Front of march forms up on O'Connell street. From
indymedia.ie by Chekov
While we respected their freedom to adopt different tactics we
needed to also stick to the guidelines we issued. We figured the best
way to do this would be to halt our march some 100m short of the
police lines so that those who wanted to push through could leave it
and so try to push through without automatically involving everyone
else when the police attacked.
By the time Saturday morning dawned we did not know what to
expect. Would our new assembly point be announced by the media? Would
the riot police attempt to occupy that as well? Would people be
scared away or would they react against the scare stores and the ban
by tuning up.
The early news was not good. Only 100 turned up for the first
event and 8 of these were cops disguised as demonstrators, two with
face masks (the only masked up people on the protest at that point).
We also heard that the trotskyist organizers of a rival march (the
AEIP carnival) had actually announced on a Newstalk106 (Dublin news
station) that our march was
cancelled
and so that everyone should go on theirs instead.
However as the day progressed things got better. But lunchtime
there were a couple of thousand of us and most of the radio news
bulletins were announcing our new assembly point. They were also
giving regular updates on what we were doing; this apparently created
a good sense of momentum if you were listening to the reports at
home.
Just after five o'clock we literally crossed the last major
barrier when over 1,000 of us marched from the south side of the city
to the north. This meant we had got lots of people along with our
banners and flags across the river that divides the city. We had
feared that the police might try and close the river bridges to
prevent us doing so.
Around 1,000 people marched to the assembly point arriving before
6pm. Within 20 minutes we were joined by thousands more. The
government's tactics had backfired big time and a demonstration I had
hoped might break the 1,500 mark had three or four times as many
people on it.
It is worth noting at this point that as usual there is some
controversy about just how many did turn up. My own estimates would
be that over 5,000 were at the start up point and over half of these
marched most of the way to Farmleigh with us. By the time we reached
the police line some 6km from our start point some 2000 remained.
Others have different estimates. While, by international standards,
this is a fairly small crowd, in the Irish context it was huge. The
biggest previous turnout on a libertarian organized demonstration
would have been the 300 or so who showed up for the anti-war direct
action at Shannon airport in March 2003. With few exceptions left
marches typically attract around 1,000 people or less.
As the numbers were more than we had hoped for we were under
prepared for communicating with this many people. While we really
needed a PA and a truck to speak from we made do with a megaphone and
standing in a shopping trolley. Three people spoke and the under the
statue of Jim Larkin the proposal
was put to the crowd that we march on Farmleigh. Those that could
hear assented and those who couldn't got to vote with their feet!
Pic: Meeting in
progress on O'Connell street: From indymedia.ie by Noise
machine
Pic: Meeting in progress on O'Connell street:
From indymedia.ie by Noise machine
We formed up behind the DGN banner which read 'No border, no
nations; Against a Europe of capital'. The entire front of the march
was made up of anarchist flags and banners followed by a black bloc
formation and then the rest of the march. Out front of the banners
were a hundred or so media jostling for the best spot and asking
which way we were going.
They weren't told because although we were going to follow the
most obvious route we wanted to keep this known only to a very small
group who would lead the march. This would give us some chance of
delaying a Gardai blocking operation and force the journalists to
march with us rather than wait behind police lines. We figured better
to have them embedded with us than the cops.
Right at the start some people let the media know what we had
thought of their coverage to date by spraying 'liars' on the side of
RTE, the state broadcasters, TV van. This of course made the news;
there is no story so important to journalists than one about
themselves. A couple of stupid minor scuffles broke out between
people on the black bloc and journalists who shoved cameras in their
faces. However given the level of media hysteria and the tension of
not knowing what the Gardai would do the vast majority of journalists
were treated considerable better by us than they were to be treated
by the Gardai (who hit some and water cannoned others). And a least
one camera man actually punched someone on the bloc after he was
pushed to one side as it passed! Some media outlets tried to make a
story of this afterwards but it was really a case of 'handbags at 10
paces' rather than any real confrontation. From the point of view of
the protest it was not useful and in at least some cases just
provided the media with the story they were looking for and seeking
to provoke.
We were lucky with the weather and what had threatened to be a
dull and overcast day turned out to be fine sunshine and one of those
pleasant warm evenings you sometimes get in early May. So the crowd
was in high spirits as we set off. There was chanting ('whose
streets, our streets' 'Our passion for freedom is bigger than their
prisons'), drumming and the sound of 1200 whistles that had been
donated by a supporter! There was also a guy out front; his suit
festooned with fake dollar bills playing traditional tunes on a tin
whistle using a megaphone for amplification. We might not have called
it a carnival but it certainly felt like one.
Pic: Rear of march forming up on O'Connell street: From
indymedia.ie by Noise Bloc
The streets were quite deserted but as much of our route lay
through residential areas many of the people came out to watch us
pass. Here were these hordes that they were told would 'burn Dublin
to the ground'. While a very few heckled far more came into their
gardens and exchanged banter with the marchers. Some allowed women to
use their toilets and a quite a few even joined us.
Later the cops were to claim that we had somehow tricked them by
changing our route at the last moment. It is likely they though we
would either take King street or the North Circular road but we knew
they had a blocking position prepared at Hanlons corner and had no
intention of walking into this. As we progressed rumors swept the
march that 'someone had seen the cops massing just around the corner'
but every time cyclists went ahead to check they found the road ahead
empty.
Those who had already taken part in the rest of the day's events
had probably marched 10 or 14k before we even set out on the 9k march
to Farmleigh. For those unfamiliar with Dublin Farmleigh house is
situation at the back of the world's largest enclosed park, the
Phoenix park that has an 11km wall enclosing it. The whole park was
sealed off and two lines of fences and a heliport had been built
inside it, by the Ashtown gate. Additional fences topped with razor
wire had been built around Farmleigh itself and many of the roads
leading to the park were closed off.
As we marched up the New Cabra road we went through a dip over one
of the railway bridges. Looking back as the front of the march came
out of this dip I could see the road behind densely packed with
people for a couple of 100 meters. Perhaps half had already dropped
out but a good 3,000 were still marching on.
Pic: Front of march on the New Cabra Road. From indymedia.ie by
Circus Crew
Turning from the New Cabra road onto the Navan road would be the
big test of the crowd's discipline. Here there was a McDonalds with
only a very thin line of uniformed Gardai and a series of huge glass
fronted car showrooms, all but the Mercedes one unguarded. It had
been agreed that there would be no property damage on the march, this
would test that resolve and perhaps give the state the excuse to
intervene. But the discipline held and we all marched past.
The Navan road is a long and wide straight road lined with houses,
schools and a library. To the left side street after side street runs
down to the wall of the Phoenix park, each was guarded by a small
number of uniformed officers. Given that there were thousands on duty
they probably hoped we would be tempted to try one of these narrow
streets where we would have been trapped against the wall of the
park. We marched on; already well within their red zone.
From our point of view the safest point for them to stop us would
be the Ashtown roundabout. Here we would be less than 100m from the
park and only about 200m from the heliport they had built to ferry
the EU leaders in and out. After this point we would have to march on
narrow country lane ways with the high wall of the park on one side.
If the road was unblocked that is what we would have done but it
would have taken us out of sight into an area that we could easily be
bottled up in.
Around 1km from the roundabout we stopped to take a break and
allow stragglers catch up with the march. People on bicycles reported
that very large numbers of Gardai seemed to be forming up at the
Ashtown gate but that the cyclists were being prevented from getting
closer by plain clothes secret police. At this stage it also became
clear that the black bloc wanted to advance to the police lines and
at least mount a token attempt to push through them.
Pic: Black bloc forms up facing police lines on the Navan road.
From indymedia.ie by Chekov
After a 20 minute break we set off. Ahead a solid line of bright
yellow could be seen, the fluorescent vests of a triple line of cops
stretching across the roundabout entrance. If we were confident that
no break though would be attempted we would have marched right up to
that line before halting. As we reckoned one would be attempted we
halted at the last junction onto the Navan road, a little over 100m
from the roundabout.
Two people on megaphones announced to the crowd that the DGN march
was halting here and asked them to step to one side so that anyone
who wanted to go right up to the police line could pass through. A 50
strong black bloc passed through with a banner reading 'Resist the
Europe of capital' and advanced up the road with the vast majority of
the crowd either following them up or going up ahead of them.
They stopped just short of the police line and then with arms
linked advanced into the police line, trying to push through. After a
minute or so it started to break and with a command the uniformed
Gardai retreated to be replaced by riot police. Journalists behind
the front line reported seeing rank after rank of riot police lining
the road that turned down to the Navan gate. Behind the riot police
came the water cannon and this proceeded to start blasting the crowd.
Pic: Pushing against the police line (top). From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
At the point the Gardai plan started to come apart. They probably
hoped to provoke a violent response from the crowd in order to
'justify' the millions the government had spent on their security
operation. Unfortunately for them they were a little more creative
than this. The Gardai were greeted with a range of bizarre sights.
Some protesters danced in the water jets in front of the massed riot
police. One man with a large pot he had been using as drum caught the
spray and threw it back at the riot police. A woman with goggles and
a snorkel danced up and down in front of police lines. And a couple
with umbrellas broke into 'singing in the rain'.
Time for some
escalation. A
riot cop stepped through the lines and struck a man dancing in front
of the shields three times. The women with the goggles and snorkel
received similar treatment. The water cannon switched to high
pressure and was used to blow journalists overlooking the scene from
a high granite wall off the wall, preventing any embarrassing
pictures from that excellent vantage point. One cameraman was knocked
out as he hit the ground 2m below but regained consciousness after a
few minutes. The SKY News live camera feed was also knocked out by
this attack.
Pic: Riot cop (under red arrow) hits dancing man (under
second red arrow) for the third time: From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
Pic: The view from the wall seconds before journalists
are blasted off it by the watercannon. From indymedia.ie by
Chekov
A few plastic bottles and flags were thrown at the police line and
one heroic individual managed to jump onto the window grill of the
water cannon but still the Gardai lacked the response they badly
needed. Things were not going to plan. They advanced on the crowd,
batoning more people and pushing people along with their shields. An
indymedia reporter was hit in the chest by the water cannon jet and
temporally knocked unconscious. Protesters were knocked over by the
water cannon and suffered broken bones as they were slammed into the
ground. People were grabbed at random out of the crowd and arrested.
Pic: Camera man after being knocked off wal by water cannon (the
can's were not his!). From indymedia.ie by Chekov
In the meantime the DGN banners back at the junction had turned
around to be facing back into town. We did not want a rout to develop
as people could be injured and intended to lead a slow retreat back
into the city centre. Each time we saw the water cannon advance 20 or
so meters we moved the banner 20 or so meters down the road. People
began retreating back to the banners from the front line but with the
exception of one 'revolutionary party' that had already left the
scene almost everyone else halted behind the banners, anxious that no
one should be left behind.
Pic: Retreat prepared, the bright light in the centre is the
lights on the water cannon. From indymedia.ie by Circus Crew
After what felt like a long time the long slow march back into the
city centre started. The water cannon and riot police were repeatedly
attacking the back of the march but each time a rout looked likely
people used the megaphones to ask people not to run but to walk
slowly. This worked and we managed to stay together as a block. At
the back people had formed a line to stop the riot police penetrating
the line and there were more arrests here as the riot police batoned
people, again trying to provoke a panic.
Every side street we now passed was lined with rank after rank of
riot police. It may have been intimidating but they failed to break
our spirit and we marched together as a bloc, stopping from time to
time to allow the stragglers to catch up. After a while the riot
police broke contact with our back, probably because it was tiring
moving around in all their protective gear.
Throughout the march and indeed the weekend many, many cops
disguised as demonstrators were spotted amongst us. Some were easy to
spot as they wore a tiny black earpiece in one ear. Some seemed to be
trying to stir up trouble and just after we had broken contact with
the riot police two of these characters near the front of the crowd
started shouting that we should stop and turn to face the cops. They
were quickly surrounded by people chanting 'where's your number?' and
cleared off. We marched on soon leaving the massed ranks of cops
behind as we turned onto the New Cabra road.
Overhead as we marched back down the New Cabra road the police
helicopter circled shining its spotlight into the crowd. Here it is
reported that a middle aged man with a strong Wicklow accent and one
of the giveaway black earpieces appeared from nowhere and asked what
was planned when we got back into town. 'Were we going to riot?' This
character was ignored and soon got bored and drifted off.
On the way back we stopped briefly outside Mountjoy prison whose
entrance was lined with ranks of cops. We knew that at least one of
our comrades was inside and chants rang out in the hope she might
hear them. We marched onto Dorset street and on to O'Connell street
where we had planned to disperse.
Pic: Part of the march on the way to Phibsboro. From indymedia.ie
by Circus Crew
On the way up many of the reporters wanted to know why we were
going up the Navan road rather than heading for one of the closer
park gates. There were many reasons for this, chief amongst them that
this was likely to be the closest point we would get to Farmleigh
(around 1.5km as the crow flies, 3km by road). But another was that a
heliport had been built just inside the gate for ferrying the EU
dignitaries to and from the ceremony.
As the riot squad were deployed in Ashtown and the flashing lights
of the water cannon came forward out of the dusk I looked to the
right. From the heliport a string of large passenger helicopters were
taking off. I don't know if they heard us 'bring the noise' but
whichever of the 25 EU leaders were in those helicopters could look
out their window to the left and from the commotion below see that it
is true to say that "we are everywhere".
The government had tried to terrify the population of the city in
advance of the march, both to make them hostile to the protesters and
to scare people who were thinking of joining in. Despite this
thousands did turn out on the march. The Gardai attacked the crowd
with batons and water cannons, injuring some and arresting around 29
but they failed to panic us and we marched together back into town.
The government showed it is willing to suspend civil liberties in
order to suppress protest. We showed that
we will
resist them.
Joe Black
"