Whashington A16 +1
Latest Update from DC; the National Guard appears.
DATE: Mon, 17 Apr 2000
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A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
http://www.ainfos.ca/
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I AM EXTREMELY RELIEVED TO READ THIS. I got seperated from the other wobs before I knew that there were plans to regroup. I did an end run around the cops and just jumped in the first taxi that I saw, trying to act like nothing was going on. I am glad that nobody else got nabbed.
I am writing this only because I have an employer who actually did not think that it was going to be any problem for all of us to show up for work today. HA HA HA HA!!! After it finally dawned on them that half of our employees simply could not make it--a couple of them tried and then called us from payphones saying they were giving up--the bureau chief finally relented and is sending us home at noon. That is similar to what a lot of businesses are doing.
OK, the demonstration has taken on different tactics. A lot of people had to go home today and could not commit to direct action and/or getting arrested. Consequently, the idea of blockade actions are no longer viable. The IMF/WB meetings are going to proceed no matter what the demonstrators do. So, the previous affinity groups have merged their remaining members--still a considerable number of people--and have been taking temporary control of certain intersections for as long as they can hold out. A lot of busts are going down, but I have not heard even a ballpark guess. The media is being careful not to give out numbers until they know something solid.
According to the latest local news, a group of demonstrators has just retaken Pennsylvania Ave. and 20th Str, which is just west of the IMF/World Bank complex. This is the area that demonstrators held the longest yesterday. When I walked by it yesterday, it appeared to have the largest affinity group keeping it under control. The local TV news in now reporting that the police are using teargas to clear it out. They are showing a second confrontation at 20th and I.
The serious shit got started this morning around 8:30am when one affinity group made a move to take K Street between 17th and 18th Street, which is the heart of the downtown business section. The police used teargas to clear them out. The police have now extended the exclusion zone up to M Street and down to H Street.
I will have to save everything else that I have to say for tommorrow or the next day. I have lived in the DC area for most of the last 25 years and I am seeing a new step being taken by resistance movements. I have seen much larger demonstrations (Million Man March, Solidarity Day, etc.) been never a militant march of this size and organization. Even the local police chief, Ramsey, who is a new rock star for the local media, has said that this is "one of the most sophisticated groups that I have ever seen."
Because of my work commitments, I wasn't able to stay with an affinity group for an extended period, but this also gave me a chance to move around some yesterday. I saw some incredibly brave acts from demonstrators in confrontation with the police. I also saw some pretty mild looking demonstrators from religious organizations who got fucked up by the police with pepper spray.
One group that gets ALL of my respect is the students at George Washington University. Their campus has been an armed camp under total occupation for nearly a week. I will have more to say about this, but suffice it to say that the battle line literally runs right through their campus; the campus admin and the cops have inflicted their paranoia on the students all week; the students have had to live in conditions that you expect in a fascist dictatorship.
I will write everything down later, but I am about to get off work. I have to get back out there. There is another legal, licensed demo today on the Elipse. If I can't find our people near the barracades, I am going to head over there. Whatever else happens today, this has been a powerful event.
La Lucha Continua,
Mike