We've had a busy weekend here in Göteborg. On Saturday there was a large
permited march against the war that drew over 40,000 people. There was a
large anarchist bloc, which was a mixture of SAC militants and autonomous
groups and individuals. This bloc had a music van which energized
everyone. We marched from one square, Gustav Adolfs Torg, up Avenyn
(where the riots were during the EU summit) to Götaplatsen. When the
anarchist bloc reached Götaplatsen the music van was rolled away (which
had been given to the bloc by the sanctioned march organizers and
couldn't be part of an illegal march) and people began to put on masks
and regroup. This obviously concerned the police a lot and maybe even
more the peace police both of which tried to discourage us from leaving
the square while at the same time trying to find out where we were going.
As soon as we had the numbers and our drum group started up we began
moving, the whole time follower by police and demo guards. It should be
noted that although breakaway marchs are business as usual for anarchists
in the states it is a new tactic in Sweden that we are just trying out.
For this reason there was an amount of anxiety about the march which
might have prevented a more pro-active sentiment. We had a succesful
snake march through the financial district though. Lots of chanting and
druming, along with handing out flyers. The frontline was a group of
women carrying a banner that said in english 'Capitalism Is Endless War'.
The only real confrontation of the day was when we went down a small side
street with several porn shops which people targeted with spraypaint and
rotten fruit. A squad of riot police was deployed but with quick thinking
we turned around and ended the demo in a nearby square (Jarntorget) where
people de-bloced and listened to a speach linking capitalism to the
current war on Iraq.
After the march people went to a nearby theatre where a conference called
'creative resistance' was continuing from the night before. This was a
gathering that functioned as a forum for dialogue, presentaions and
brainstorming. It was a very positive atmosphere with people who had
never talked before interacting and getting to know each other. Towards
the end of the evening people split in to groups to plan for actions on
Sunday.
The next day a group began at noon by creating different spectacles in
Nordstan, the main shopping mall in the center of town. People played
frisbee in stores, would line up and gawk at consumers through windows,
etc. This action was succesful although people were kicked out of stores
several times. I see this as a yippee type action that was mostly fun and
surreal. Food Not Bombs also had there Sunday serving where several dozen
people gathered. There was a heavy police presence in the city center, so
we had to be creative. One group went to Stena Lines, a passenger boating
company who has been renting out ships for the transport of military
goods for the Britain, and did a die in. To create a distraction for the
police so that this action could occur, other groups put on masks and ran
through shops in the city center, doing basically nothing but looking as
suspicious as possible. Of course we easily got police attention to the
extent that a couple comrades were driven of in a police van only to be
dropped off several blocks away! The Stena Line die in went off without a
hitch and after a while the group decided to go to Nordstan (shopping
mall) to do the same. Here though 13 people were arrested and held for
several hours. I do not have any information on whether or not people are
facing charges. The day ended with the 'people's kitchen' where there was
a prenentaion of Anti-Facist Action over the past ten years. Afterwords
there was a discussion of the weekends actions and how to continue the
momentum. It was decided that people could meet regularly at a certain
cafe to discuss and plan further. There is also a more formal
group/network that is organizing more anti-capitalist actions against the
war. We can be contacted at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
None of these autonomous actions have been published by the mainstream
press here, and even Saturdays large permitted march received scant
coverage relative to the coverage of our march on Feb. 15, which was
smaller than this weekends. It seems the capitalist press instead of
demonizing the anti war movement is trying to make it not exist. For
photos check out:
http://sweden.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=39368&group=webcast
http://sweden.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=39574&group=webcast
Although the resistance against the war on Iraq is currently very widespread and seemingly growing there seems a lack of information about what people are doing. The hope is that people are just too busy organizing and acting to be able to write about their actions. We hope to recieve more updates from around the world as the struggle continues. In solidarity with the people of Iraq, the resistance worldwide, especially those busting there ass in San Francisco and Athens- it is you who inspire us. LET'S MAKE OUR RESISTANCE THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS REVOLUTION!
