it’s getting too much and i’m getting too cold and i feel like escaping this place, when i run into a demo that saves the day. around the Common, in peak hour traffic: a not so large group of people is effectively blocking the traffic. two giant puppets – a skeleton bride and groom. these are people who responded to the international day of action called for by the EZLN, in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca.
i’m surprised at how long it takes before police comes. they finally come with a brigade on motorbikes, and try to herd the crowd as if they were the sheppards. the body of the crowd makes sure it doesn’t work. then an officer comes up with another strategy.
standing with his arms crossed next to his parked motorcycle in the middle of the street, in front of the crowd, he speaks once the crowd is close enough to hear:
“Listen. You know that this march is totally illegal. You have no permit to be here. But then of course, you are anarchists and anarchists are all about ignoring laws. But i’ll make you a deal. You can go on with the march, but on one lane, so that the cars can pass. And we’ll drive next to you, for your safety.”
the guy is definately enjoying it – his savoir-faire of recognizing the “anarchists” in front of him and knowing what they are all about. feeling he is the master of the negotiation. as his confidence grows he ventures into a joke:
“Let’s do it like this: you just follow me, I’ll be your leader.” big grin on his face.
the crowd kind of says that it needs a moment to decide (“Ah yes,” the officer replies, “You need to do collective decision-making now.” god, somebody went to the “how to deal with anarchists” training and needs to show it…). but that doesn’t really happen because basically the crowd kind of ignores him without really making a point of refusing his deal. soon after that it becomes a bit of a cat and mouse game with the police, the body of the crowd all of a sudden makes a short-cut through the Common, the police speed up on their motorbikes around the Common. i’ve almost been an hour with these people (and the sympathetic french indymedia woman) when i’m starting to feel really cold, albeit revitalized. okay, i realize, in other circumstances i would not have considered this a particularly uplifting or effective action, but immersed in academic conference/Marriot/shopping mall/the academic elitism of the place, definately changes one’s perspective. i also found out that there was a big rally organized by Hotel Workers Rising in the city today. returning to the Marriott in higher spirits.
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for a report on the action see http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/190138/ |