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Post Seville report
Andrew F - 24.06.2002 16:32
Ooggetuige verslag van de gebeurtenissen in Sevilla.
I´m now in Barcelona and finally got online to write a report of the
Seville demonstrations.
There were two demonstrations on the Friday evening that we attended, both
had major problems with them.
The first was to be a ´Reclaim the Streets´ type event starting off from
one of the working class areas near the centre of Seville. Two anarchist
squats are located here although due to the heat a nearby square was used
for meetings. These events were organised by a grouping of anarchists that
included the CNT and various affinity groups but which had been set up in
such a way so as to exclude the CGT (CNT and CGT are two
anarcho-syndicalist trade unions in Spain that split in the 1980´s).
Although most of Seville had a low key police presence this district was
saturated with police.
It was almost impossible to enter or leave without being ´controlled´ by
the ´National Police´ which is the main demonstration control force.
Controlling meant that they would take your passport and note the details.
It also meant that they searched you and confiscated items they disliked.
By Friday this included bottles of water, apparently they had decided that
it was not permitted to carry more then one water bottle! It was generally
over 40C.
This intimidation would not have been that effective if the anarchists in
the square had managed to create a calm situation. Unfortunately the
reality is that there were a number of very pissed people who occasionally
smashed bottles and generally staggered around. Given that the cops were
itching for a fight and there were seldom more then 100 in the square at
any one time when you arrived you felt you were sitting in the middle of a
bulls eye that could be triggered at any moment of one of the drunks
decided to lob a few bottles in the general direction of the cops.
After a few minutes of this atmosphere we retreated to a near by bar where
at the hour of the demonstration we saw groups of riot police and scooter
cop squads (the cop on the back is armed with a plastic bullet gun) head up
to the square. It turned out the organisers had take the sensible route
given the numbers and called off the demo so in the end the cops didn´t get
to crack any skulls. Overall though the organisation of this demonstration
was very poor and reflected badly on the anarchists groups involved in it
although in reality the huge police presence probably made any effective
demonstration impossible.
The second demonstration we attended was odd to say the least. It had
apparently been called by local students in opposition to the privatisation
of the college but when we arrived we found a small demonstration of a few
hundred that was dominated by the competing paper sellers of the various
Leninist parties. Both sides of the demonstration were lined by more riot
cops with every fifth cop armed with a rifle topped with what I think was a
tear gas grenade launcher.
Quite why they bothered I don´t know, as the march moved off there was lots
of pushing as the various Leninists tried to maneuver their banners,
placards and flags to the front to they might appear on the front page of
the papers. Several middle aged and pot bellied men from the British SWP
bounced up and down with orange Globalise Resistance flags trying to look
like anti-capitalists. After a few minutes of this sort of nonsense we
pissed off.
We were all the more pissed off when we returned to the campsite and went
to the CGT tent. There we discovered we had missed a couple of
demonstrations that sounded a lot more useful including one against job
insecurity and another in support of immigrants.
The actual tent itself (and the bar that accompanied it) cheered us up. It
was a large 300 person marquee draped with anarchist flags and large red
and black banners many in 8 or more languages opposing capitalism and war.
Beside this was the bar area which included a smaller tent full of
anarchist literature and out the back was a large stage area.
This was the best of all. As we were sitting there large numbers of CGT
members started to arrive and it became obvious they had carried out a big
mobilisation for Seville. It was very positive to see whole families
arrived wearing anarchist bandanas and hats all the way from the kids to
the grandparents. But best of all the CGT had organised a free Flamenco
concert on a stage backed by a huge anti war an capitalism banner. The
music was fantastic to listen to so we stayed up way into the night when
the formal singing was replaced by informal singing around the bar.
This was regretted the next morning as at 9.00 we were to attend an
international anarchist meeting of Ínternational Libertarian Solidarity´
(or by the Spanish acronym of SIL). This brings together libertarian groups
from around the world including the biggest of the anarchist unions, the
Spanish CGT with around 45,000 members and the Swedish SAC which has about
10,000. It´s aim is to help anarchists in the global south, the projects
over the last year have concentrated on Brazil.
At this meeting we heard that the police had surrounded a nearby church
that had been occupied by immigrants with no papers. In the evening many
of the anarchists decided to gather there so we could create a zone into
which they could emerge and then move with them up to the demonstration.
As soon as a small groups of 15 of us started towards the square with out
anarchist flags a dozen or more police swooped on us and we were controlled
yet again (the fourth time for me in two days!). But as we moved towards
the square many of the local residents greeted us with enthusiasm, the best
of all being a car bearing a bride and groom on the way to or from a
wedding who beeped and waved as they passed.
The square was packed with well over 1000 anarchists and of course dozens
of flags. It seemed that people from all the Spanish anarchist groups had
put aside their differences for the event. We formed a cordon running from
the church doors into which the immigrants emerged as everyone chanted ´no one is illegal´. We then marched up to the head of the march. Once there we had to squeeze by the delegations that had already arrived.
Near the front we found a large CGT delegation which we had decided to
join, as well as red and black anarchist flags with CGT on them many of the
CGT members were wearing the red and black caps worn by the militias in the
Spanish Civil War.
It was very, very hot so the crowd pleaded with the residents of the
apartment above the road to throw water down on them. Huge numbers did
this with one enthusiastic young man 100 m down repeatedly filling a huge
bin and emptying this on the crowd from the 5th floor. This and the large
number of local who turned out to support the march showed there was a lot
of local support, indeed the vast majority of the 75,000 - 100,000
mobilisation was made up of local people. The CGT block was reported in the papers the next day as the largest on the block. There were perhaps 1500 to 2000 on it with dozens of banners
including two that had helium balloons attached to the top so that they
floated high above the march.
Apparently there was a 1000 plus block a bit further back from the CNT and other smaller anarchist blocks (including a
tiny black bloc of 100 or so) along the length of the march. Our bloc was great to march with as the chanting was both enthusiastic and spontaneous - there was no need for stewards equipped with megaphones to lead the chants as each section of the march constantly created new ones that passed through the crowd. Viva Anarchy was popular along with ´no one is illegal´, ´the people united will never be defeated´, ´resistance´,
´lets have a strike, strike, strike´. Other ones called the Spanish
president a ´cunt´and the ´son of a whore´ while some were aimed at the
police´.
Rather then walking along at a steady pace we would frequently stop, sit
down, and then jog along which was difficult for the first few times as the
contents of your pocket tried to jump out. At other times we walked
backwards chanting ÉU look at my arse´. At the end of the march we went down to the river bank for a CGT rally
which seemed to concentrate on the international anarchist presence and the
need for social revolution. At the end of it everyone stood up and clenched their hands over their head
as we sung ´A las barracadas´.
A tourist boat passed and the sight of over 1,000 people doing this lit only by the searchlight from a circling police
helicopter must have made a great photo.
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