| Back |   

The Good Bus started as an idea to get autonomous activists from Ireland to the G8 in Evian, not just to take part in blockades & demonstrations but also to actively be involved in planning them, & to be able to evaluate these actions afterwards.

A bus was just one idea of how to get to Evian. The bus never materialised. A diverse collective of individuals prepared to take action against the nasty corporate elements that fuck up our world did. In all the good bus trip lasted 15 days. We plan to put on some workshops sharing our experiences from this trip in various locations around Ireland, & at the Grassroots Gathering in Dublin in June.

Check out the good bus site http://www.oocities.org/thegoodbus/

What follows is my view from the bus…

Annemasse, France 26-31 May 03 

We arrived in Annemasse tired, weary at around 11pm after two days travelling. We weren’t quite sure of how we’d find the Anti Capitalist camps when we received our first taste of hospitality from the local people, as within minutes we were being ferried in a van & cars the couple of kilometres to the camp.

We were some of the first people to arrive at the camps, & the first thing I noticed was row upon row of chemical toilets (& my excitement at the thought of days digging shit pits was slightly dashed). There were 2 camps in Annemasse; Intergalactique & VAAG. ‘The good bus’ decided to put our tents in VAAG, but not pledge any allegiance & we certainly attending meetings, discussions & parties in both camps. In fact most of the meetings I took part in were tactical discussions on blockades involving both camps. VAAG was rather more makeshift with homemade communal tents & seats where as Intergalactique had fancier marquees & ‘real seats’. It was difficult to pin down significant differences between the two camps & much easier to identify similarities.

It was a little difficult at times to get a handle on the camps & our first few days were a little disorientating. Both camps were organised into ‘barrios’ (neighbourhoods) local areas that organised together to look after the daily needs of the camp (cooking, security, health & safety) & facilitate smaller areas of discussion.

A real credit to the organisers of the camps was the good neighbourly relations with the townsfolk. There were posters around the town to counter media & state sponsored propaganda, & to explain the importance of these actions against the G8. These were not only fly posted around town but actually displayed in shop windows. Everywhere we went people asked us if we were here for the G8 & greeted us with hospitality, the proprietor of an internet café refused payment, a grocer produced a fine selection of cheeses for us to sample, & we were even given a tour of an exotic dancing club when trying to track down a beer!

The main action we took part in Annemasse was a Carnival for the people of the town, to sort of introduce ourselves en mass. Admittedly I’m fairly crap at estimating crowd numbers (better that the police though!) but I’d put it at around 5000-7000 people taking part with samba, street performance, fly-posting crews, anarcho jazz, flag waving, dancing & general merry making. Police had barricaded several areas in the town but had a very low-key presence. A silent protest was held to remember the police repression in Genoa & to appeal for peace during the actions in Evian.  

No Border Action, Genève, Switzerland 30 May 03

Friday was the No Border Action (http://www.noborder.org) in Genève. This demo was officially sanctioned with a negotiated route with the police & the organisers had asked the participants not to engage in property destruction (during this demo). The reason for this was to avoid arrests as many people taking part in the demo did not have papers to be in Switzerland & any arrests would certainly result in deportation for them.

 We crossed the French/Swiss border in style by squatting the train from Annemasse to Genève. Squatting trains is fun & became a theme over the coming days. You basically get on a train with lots of people (there were several hundred of us) and wait for it to take you to your destination. We were concerned that the Swiss police may be expecting us in Genève, so we alighted at an unofficial stop in the suburbs by pulling the communication cord (emergency stop). Support from drivers was obvious as they waved us off signalling their horn as we jumped from the train. 

We moved en mass through suburbs waving, cheering & singing  ‘Óró `sé do Bheatha `Bhaile’, doing our bit to promote the Irish Language to our European comrades. The first thing that struck me when we hooked up with the larger demo & certainly something that would fit nicely in an Irish context was the sight of a tractor pulling a heavy metal sound system! The demo consisted of around 10,000 people & was a whirlwind tour of who’s who in nasty capitalism in Genève.

The first building we stumbled upon on was the WTO headquarters. It was fairly surreal when a banging sound coming from the gates promptly turned into the sight of the huge fortress gates swinging open. A police photographer on the roof of the building was getting rather snap happy when he was narrowly missed by a green flare sent by a black clad messenger. Several more flares were thrown in the direction of the building. Our affinity group decided to move on with the larger demonstration in respect & solidarity for the people without papers. There was a real sense of euphoria & surprise at the ease at which the WTO was breached.  Police & activists showed restraint in a situation that had a lot of potential to turn nasty.

At the International Migration Office tear gas was deployed after a few windows got smashed & some newspapers set on fire. The rest of the demo went off without anything too dramatic happening, & was a whole lot of fun & to my knowledge without arrest. Other buildings visited included the UN, & the Embassies of several countries. The police were fairly low key, we were hoping this was how the ‘peace loving’ Swiss authorities may play it in the coming days.

Lausanne, Switzerland 31 May-2 June 

After another morning of border crossings ‘san papiers’ on foot, tram & train squatting we arrived in Lausanne.  A number of ‘the good bus’ crew had been participating in blockade strategy meetings & felt that Lausanne was the place we were most needed.

First impression of the Lausanne camp was ‘what the fuck have we been doing the last 6 days in Annemasse’! The location was stunning on the shores of lake Genève with the Alps looming impressively over Evian on the opposite shore. There were 2 camps in Lausanne one a squatted public park & the other Camp Bourdonnette an official camp.

In Lausanne I attended an NVDA (non violent direct action) workshop hosted by the RANT network from the US. This workshop rocked & proved to be essential over the course of the coming day. I took part in a Pink & Silver tactics meeting, sharing ideas between affinity groups for the following days blockade.  

(7 of the Good Bus crew decided to take part in the Aubonne Bridge Action where two climbers closed off a motorway by suspending from a bridge. One person was seriously injured when police cut the rope. You can read a report from the Irish activists here http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=51053&start=60 )

11 of the Irish crew took part in the Lausanne blockade; I was part of a pink & silver affinity group taking part in the rolling blockade. With a few hours sleep under our wing we assembled at 6am on Sunday 1^st June for the rolling pink & silver / black bloc blockade. The black bloc looked particularly sexy massed into several thousand & with some pretty impressive barricading equipment & a punk rock sound system. Not to be outdone pink & silver had ‘rhythms of resistance’ samba, a solar/wind powered sound system, dancers, a fuckload of radical cheerleaders, bubbles & squeaky balloons.

We moved through the city in jubilant form. There were 7 strategic points that we aimed to disrupt to stop G8 delegates reaching the Lausanne port the crossing point to Evian. Pink bloc created physical barriers in our wake by liberating crowd barriers, billboards, skips, flowerpots & anything that was available. These were heavily fortified and strengthened by black bloc, with the contents of local building sites & fire.

There was a short stand off at the Olympic Museum that was protected by fences & we were doused with water hoses (police were not impressed when they got squirted with a super soaker in retaliation!)  In discussions within the affinity groups it was unsure if we had enough numbers to split into groups for multiple simultaneous blockades. Whilst this seemed to our affinity group the most strategic course of action there were obvious safety concerns. We decided to stay en mass for the time being.      

Tear gas was first deployed when the pink & silver block decided to try & dance our way through a police line. At first we were sprinkled with water cannons (& were concerned it may contain pepper spray) & then tear gas canisters were shot over peoples heads & into the middle of the crowd. Luckily most people (myself included) were well prepared for tear gas, with goggles, bandana soaked in lemon juice & gas/dust mask. The gas stings like fuck on your face & it’s difficult to breathe. A few people without any gear were falling on the ground & those of us better prepared helped pick them up & get them to a safe area. We had to run, as there was such a heavy deployment of gas. Immediately when we got out of the tear gas area decontamination groups sprayed us with Maalox solution that usually comes in mint flavour & is extremely refreshing.

We were repeatedly tear gassed within the space of several hours. Flash grenades were deployed with relish by police, (I know of at least one person who was hit by a tear gas canister & one injured by a flash grenade). Many locals from Lausanne were also getting caught in the crossfire, however this didn’t make them anymore antagonistic towards us & at one point some townsfolk were handing out juice & strawberries. It was quite an empowering feeling to be continually under assault by the police but managing to remain calm & dance, sing, & continue our blockades, the sound system & samba were fantastic.

Most of our affinity group were missing since the first deployment of tear gas. We heard around a hundred black & pinks were surrounded by police & tried to make our way towards this group to provide support. However it seemed more & more like every way we turned was being blocked by police with tear gas, & eventually we seemed to end up back at the campsite.  

Bourdonnette Camp Siege, Lausanne, Switzerland 1 June 03

In a sense our bloc did not really decide to go back to the camp. It retrospect we may have been herded by police blockading & repeatedly tear gassing us until it seemed there was nowhere else to go. Many of us were certainly not ready to go home as we heard the British & US delegations were arriving within the hour, but some of our group was missing & concerns for their safety had to take precedent over the blockade.

With mixed emotions & confusion we returned to the camp. Within minutes it was clear that our camp was surrounded. Not just by police but huge police/military vehicles & medical vehicles.  In every direction you could see large mobilisations of police.   

What ensued was in my opinion a great credit to our organisational capabilities. When the Swiss police began their siege of the Bourdonnette camp, activists in the camp immediately gathered to collectively discuss a course of action (including translations between, French, English, German, Spanish & Italian). A consensus was reached that we would not show our passports/id cards to the police in solidarity with those without papers & anyone who was blacklisted. We decided to non-violently resist arrest by sitting down & locking arms. 

Police began to forcibly remove individuals in groups of around 10. By the time it came for me to be dragged away (around four hours into the siege) all fear had dissipated & a surreal carnival atmosphere ensued. We’d just danced in a congo line around the police, & playfully jostled for pole position to be taken away first (anything to get out of the hot sun). Theatrical parodies of police repression were staged between police lines & the activists non-violently resisting arrest. My favourite chant on the day was the Sham 69 classic ‘when the kids are united’. There was a real sense of solidarity & those of us who felt we had less at stake were happy to volunteer to be detained first in hope that those without papers would not be detained.

My hands were bound behind my back in plastic cable ties exceedingly tight. I was held in a marquee with other detainees for around 40 minutes & then bundled into the back of a truck with around 10 others. The windows were blacked out & we were taken to a police station/detention centre about less than half an hour drive from the camp.  I was one of the first to be taken out of the van (having asked to use the toilet for over an hour). I was asked to stand against a wall in a garage for about 10/15 minutes. I was then taken inside & searched, my passport taken & photocopied, my personal possessions removed, photographed, & taken to a cell. The police were courteous & the bed in the cell was the best sleep I’d had all week.  After around 4 hours in a small cell with new Swiss & German friends I was taken into what seemed suspiciously like a line up room (a big mirror at one end) given back my possessions bundled back into another van with around 6 others & dropped off close to the camp where we’d originally been detained. I was detained around 4pm & released around 11pm.

At no time was I given any explanation as to why I was detained, or given access to a translator, or at no time was I told I was being arrested or given any information in regard to my legal rights.

It wasn’t until the next morning that we had accounted for everyone from ‘the good bus’ & then it was time for a break.  The ‘good bus’ spent several days chilling out in France in an attempt to unwind & to make sense of everything we just experienced. We held an evaluation meeting to talk about what we had learnt, what we could improve upon & how we can apply our new skills to our activism in Ireland. We’ve got some good ideas. Watch this space… 

More coverage of Evian at www.indymedia.org/g8/

 | Top of Page  |  Back  |