Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 23:04:55 -0400 Subject: Re: Fwd: Mike Flugennock's Account of the Black Bloc From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-dojo.tao.ca> Ed: I haven't heard any anarchists comparing the black bloc to Marines. That comparison has been made by other people. I'm sending an article written by a student who is appreciative of what the Black Bloc did. I think this shows how out of touch you are with the pulse of the movement. This is a shame, because these are exciting times to be an anarchist. You should see all the email I'm getting from young people who want to set up anarchist clubs in their schools. Or the letter I got from a 69-year-old grandmother who read the Time magazine article and sent me a note wondering what anarchism would mean for her. Chuck0 -------- Wesleyan Attacked by Police Wesleyan Attacked by Police; story printed day after in Middletown Press, I'll be posting all stories and pix soon, but my story here has stuff most media left out, plus I was there By MEL ASH Middletown Press Staff WASHINGTON -- All the weeks of non-violence training and intricate planning from Wesleyan University’s activists was over in a few seconds -- seconds that seemed like an eternity. The students, 120 in all, were in Washington as part of a nationally coordinated protest against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank with the avowed purpose of shutting down the meetings of those organizations. The students awoke at 4 am after only an hour’s sleep. The evening before the big day was filled with contingency planning in case of tear gas and police involvement. Both these fears were confirmed on the streets of Washington at 10:55 Sunday morning. The students boarded a bus in the bitterly cold dawn and made the seven-mile trek downtown where they proceeded to lock down. Locking down, in movement parlance, means to attach metal devices to each other, making it nearly impossible for police to remove protesters blocking an intersection, which is precisely what Wesleyan students did. All streets around the IMF, and World Bank buildings similarly blocked by what were called Affinity groups: well-organized cadres of protesters. Wesleyan students occupied "slice E" where the young groups were concentrated while other areas were held by Union Affinity groups and others. The purpose of blocking the street was to prevent delegates to the IMF meetings from gaining access. At least 10 students were linked arm to arm in the middle of the intersection at 21 and E streets near George Washington University, only a couple of blocks from the headquarters. Numerous delegates were stopped, including a group of French attendees. Protesters surrounded them, chanting slogans and yelping to prevent them from using their cell phones. The Wesleyan hard lockdown was surrounded by fellow students who engaged in a "soft lockdown," linked arm to arm. At exactly 10:53 a.m., after hours of non-violent, peaceful protest, a bus pulled up on an open street near the Wesleyan blockade, and nearly a dozen policemen in riot gear poured out and ran towards the students. Immediately a chant went up: "This is a non-violent protest." No attempts were made on the part of the students to provoke the police, but nevertheless the officers waded into the crowd, billy clubs swinging, aimed at heads and faces. The locked-down students, including leaders Adam Hurter, Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, Sarah Norr and Abe Walker, unlocked as fast as they could, but Brian Edwards-Tiekert, a Wesleyan senior wasn’t fast enough, as he was struck in the face by a police officer’s club. Edwards-Tiekert was pulled back by students and handed to medics, his face covered with blood. Other students moved forward to protect their peers with their own bodies as shields. Sarah Wright, a Wesleyan affinity group member got it much worse, receiving a broken nose and broken front teeth. The crowd was in a frenzy, chanting. "The whole world is watching." Just behind the officers were the cameras of major networks taking it all in. There might have been more injuries were it not for the sudden appearance of the self-styled "Black Blocks" anarchist roving bands, led by veterans of the Seattle protest. The 25 or so charged between the students and police, under a huge black banner, dressed head to foot in black, ski masks and tear gas masks. The police swung at the anarchists, but they hit back, and the police retreated back down the street. Clouds of tear gas blew down the street as the police attempted to drive the anarchists away, causing the Wesleyan students to wrap bandanas soaked in vinegar around their noses to protect themselves. The students could hear the sound of the fighting and breaking glass as the battle moved further away. Finally, the police scambled back aboard their bus and roared away to the cheers of hundreds who’d rushed to the scene. Some other Wesleyan students returned just as celebrating broke out with reports of police running down students with motorcycles and then running over their arms and legs. Said Olivia Haviland of Wesleyan: "It was horrible. They were trying to be peaceful and the cops just kept running them over." The incident took place on the Mall, in the shadow of the Washington Monument. The Wesleyan affinity group managed to get back to their lodgings later in the day for a planned return to Middletown this afternoon. At this time, there are no further reports on the number or extent of injuries suffered by the group. © The Middletown Press 2000
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