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hot day in sevilla
Andrew - 21.06.2002 14:47
Ooggetuige verslag van protesten in Sevilla
Subject: [ainriail] Hot day in Seville We entered Seville yesterday by taking the back roads across the mountains from the Costa del Sol. We hoped this might avoid the road blocks around Seville but it didn^Òt, and on the outskirts we were stopped by the Guarda Civil. We were ordered out of the car and spent around 5 minutes on the edge of the road as two cops went through our passports and bags while two more stood a bit back with machine guns. The impression was that this hold up was no more then a demonstration that we were being watched as the search was pretty perfunctory and our passport details were hand written on a clip board. After a while we were allowed to move on with - rather oddly - the senior cop saluting us as we drove off! >From talking to others it appears most people are being stopped on arrival in a similar manner but we have not heard of anyone being refused entry. Interestingly there are no Guarda Civil visible in the centre (they are almost exclusively a force for policing protest) the cops on the streets are the local force. The official protest campsite is on an island at the opposite end of the city from the hotel where the delegates are staying. Last night there were probably around 150 tents there with the major number expected to arrive today and tomorrow. With the current numbers its quite decent with showers and toilets. This morning the anarcho-syndicalist CGT was setting up a huge marquee beside the entrance which will function as a bar. There is a far sized anarchist presence in the site so we spent a good bit of last night meeting comrades and catching up on the news. It appears that yesterday^Òs general strike was quite successful with transport and construction being shut down completely. The demonstration in Seville attracted around 15,000 with a fairly sizeable red and black block. Seville itself was almost completely shut down, the few bars that were open were full of strikers. Today is a day of decentralised action which basically means there are many protests big and small happening across the city. We have decided to concentrate on the Reclaim the Streets ones which will climax in a street party staring at 17.00. Tomorrow evening will see the main march with upwards of 100,000 expected to take part. I^Òve just come from having a look at the delegates hotel. As we had heard there is a fence erected around it but it is not very impressive, perhaps 2m of chainlink wire sitting on top of concrete barriers. The police presence is fairly low key and the centre is still full of tourists. However we have been told that around 3,000 plain clothes police are in Seville and many people on the campsite had been stopped by these characters around town to have their passports inspected. The low key presence reflects the expectation that the protests will be fairly non confrontational. Indeed the main demonstration is timed to take place after the summit has closed so there is no opportunity for it to try and blockade the summit. There is quite a bit of discussion about this - this return to the ´stage army´ mobilisation is due in part to the fact that the protest is largely organised by the Socialist Party which is actually in government in Andalucia (but in opposition in Spain). It could be that tonight^Òs RTS could try and move on the hotel - certainly many people want to play more of a role here then acting as a stage army for the politicians and self-appointed ´representative´of the movement. So if there is trouble it will almost certainly be this evening. In any case Seville seems certain to demonstrate that there is a need to look at ways of ensuring that the movement does not get killed off by reformists turning it into a token stage army.
Andrew
 Website: http://www.struggle.ws/
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