On Friday, I attended a direct action at Old St. I was part of a cyclists ‘critical mass’, but we ended up blocking the round-about at Old St for a period of time with a group of walkers. I was expecting a sit down protest - but instead it was a march - spontaneous. The police lay back waiting to see what was going to happen, but on realising we were going to stay to block the roads into the city, then they mobilised to contain the group. Using very aggressive tactics, they confined us and the crushed us into a small space (something called a kettle I believe). They managed to get the traffic flowing, but enough cyclists had escaped to keep slowly cycling and re-blocking traffic. I wondered whether this was really the best time to do such an action. Although some passers-by (and even Drivers) supported the anti-war sentiments, others (all drivers) just got angry and abusive (not that the cyclists care, being anti-car and more critical of petrol-consumers in general). The idea is not to upset people on their way home from work, but to use non-violent direct action to disrupt the running of the city. We all feel strongly enough that the shamful stance of the Goverment is enough that everything we can do, we will (non-violently, at least in my case).
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