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Sunday, July 17, 2005

Scotland and Stuff

It's funny how the frequency of my blogging seems to be inversely proportional to the amount of interesting things happening in my life. July thus far has been a major example of this.

I've spend the last week vegging out and recovering from the week prior, which was one of the most intense I've had in awhile.

It started out on the 2nd of July with the big Make Poverty History event in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was great to see over 200,000 people all wearing white in support of the global campaign against poverty. I helped put up SPEAK's biggest dress in the world and staff it as people wandered through. It was 2 m shorter it should have been due to the centre pole breaking during set up. This meant that the skirt caught the wind much more than it should have, putting pressure on the stakes that were holding down the edges. So throughout the day we were constantly fighting what one person called a "Marilyn Monroe" situation. then watched it almost blow away in the wind. Near the end of the day we lost the battle and had to evacuate the dress and do a chaotic, but controlled take down.

After resting on Sunday I went on to Stirling where I was part of the Prayer-I58 neighborhood at the rural convergance space and eco village. The week was the longest time was the longest and most immersive time I've spent in an autonomist/permaculture space. It was a really positive experience. The vegan food was amazing. The composting toilets were impressively non-smelly. The consensus-based meetings, though sometimes ridiculously long, were bearable because they were facilitated by Starhawk, my favorite pagan and all around amazingly committed activist.

On Wednesday, the 6th of July I left the camp at 3 am to do support work with a march that was aiming to block the M9, an express way 5 miles away. After 20 minutes we ran into our first police line. Which is when I realised I wasn't in the U.S. anymore. Instead of standing around and chanting and linking arms, etc, the folks at the front of the line charged in immediately with their intertubes leading. You can see video footage here: https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/317377.html

European protestor street tactics leave Americans in the dust when it comes to charging police lines and controlled chaotic energy. The police couldn't contain them, partly because they didn't have enough people, but also partly because the march of 500-1000 people didn't quite know where it was going, a tactic that in retrospect seems to have been successful but at the time was just really annoying. After about half an hour the affinity group I was with decided to break off. We ended up reading the litany of resistance to riot cops as they surged past us. Driving rain and helicopters overhead combined to make it my most powerful experience of the litany ever. After a lengthy search by police we made it back to the eco village, exhausted but content. We found out later that a fair chunk of the marchers somehow made it past police lines to the M9 which they blockaded for most of the morning. Chalk one up for chaos as a tactic.

The next morning at 2:30 am we were all awoken by shouts that the police had arrived at the camp. Seems they had realised that it would be much easier to blockade us in the camp rather than chase us all over the surrounding area. So I was one of about 4000 people sitting inside a police blockade on Thursday when I heard about the bombings on Thursday.

This attack hit home for me in a way no terrorist attack thus far has. The routes and stations affected are on the north side of central London and I know them well. The number 30 bus runs from Hackney, where the SPEAK offices are to central London. I take the Picadilly line from Kings Cross station every time I meet friends coming into Heathrow. Edgeware Road is blocks away from Regents Park where I play ultimate Frisbee every Sunday. These are places as well known to me as County Road 38 or Plymouth Avenue.

This is not to be overly dramatic, but just to say that these bombings were close to home, not far off and surreal like those in Madrid or Bali. As I've processed the news over the last two days I've noticed and grief and anger coming to the surface in ways they haven't during other attacks. Although this attack was many times less devastating, I've begun to understand what 9/11 meant for many New Yorkers. And I've begun to appreciate the resilience of Londoners in the face of horror.

So all this is to say why I haven't been blogging recently. But now that things are back to more mundane and normal I'll be sure to post with much more frequently.

P.S. To see some other of my photos from the week you can go to http://gallery.nonsensesoftware.com/G8
posted by Unknown @ 7:05 PM

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