From: undercurrents alternative news <underc-AT-gn.apc.org>
Subject: Undercurrents in Washington DC: April 17th
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 05:24:46 -0700


Report April 17th 2000
Undercurrents in Washington DC
Videoing in a gas mask in the torrential rain is something we thought that
we would never have to do. Two Undercurrents video actvists are in
washington DC, USA to report on the World bank/IMF protests this week.
Sunday Aprl 16th saw riot plice gear up and fire vollies of rubber bullets,
pepper spray and tear gas in to the demonstration near the white house. All
our previuos experience never pepared us for this but now we feel that we
could report just about anywhere under any conditons. Buying a gas mask for
$20 in an army surplus store which sold machine guns, bazookas and had
torpedos and missile cases lying around outside seemed along way away from
reporting non violent direct action but we found ourselves kitted up with
rubber Israeli army issue masks and extra filters. 
Today , Monday 17th we are on the streets at 6am once again to report the
news not seen on the news. USA media is more interested in the traffic
disruptions (50 blocks of Down town Washington sealed off by armed robo
cops and armoured cars)than the 15,000 people blockading the streets and
showing their anger at the worlds largest unregulated institution.
Undercurrents, fresh from capturing exclusive footage of Gordon Brown
(Chanceller of Britain) being turned away from the World bank meeting by
protesters, made our way to the events this morning. We stumbled onto a
scene which resembled a war zone. The aftermath of a small group of
activsts having being gassed, batoned, and shot at by rubber bullets. Blood
covered the streets and sidewalk, gas masked plice stood by menacingly with
large sticks causing a very heavy atmosphere. We interviewed bloodied women
with eyes streaming from being gassed by chemicals. Blood pouring from
their faces, reporters were also singled out for gas treatment and we
escaped as police started picking off fellow journalists for arrest
(witnesses detained means the story does not gettng the worlds attention). 
A few hours later, undercurrents is on the scene as thousands of non
violent activists blockade an access road to the world bank HQ. Police
responded with fire extinguisers sized canisters of pepper spray liberaly
covering the front of the demonstraton like a water cannon.People reacted
by donning gas masks (a standard requirment it seems if you attend a
protest here) and sitting in the road defiantly. Messages are passed back
through the protest in waves of sentences repeated all the way down the
line...superb tactics and keeps all informed. Trained protest medical teams
rush forward to neutralise the pepper spray from those without masks.
Undercurrents video activists donned gas maks and discovered that it is
still possible to record and operate perfectly while wearing them. Will
Britain become like this one day we wonder?

This is undercurrents signing out, Washington DC.    
Check our website for updates on http://www.undecurrents.org 

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