update from Brussels

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday December 18, 2001 16:12 by tracey - gluaiseacht

update from Brussels

hi everyone, we,re all okay, but absolutley freezing. the direct action today was cool. it started off kinda slow so we watched all the groups go by for a while, just as we decided to join the march again beside the black bloc they smashed a bank, so we stayed marching with them and just down the road we watched a police station being smashed. the cops came nowhere near us so we all continued down the road, it was so cool all the groups marched together unlike genoa. some cars were smashed and a petrol station too. we all gathered at the university and hung out for a while then the cops were behind us and in front of us. but there was no hassle we left in small groups by a side street at some stages we were walking past the cops. they havent been confrontational at all, they havent used gas but they have water cannons ready, its so cold that if they used them it would be so much worse than gas. so were finished the direct action today, it was impossible to get near the conference centre, but maybe tomorrow? later we are going to the airport to take part in a blocade. tomorrow we are going on the anarchist march and then the street party. the buzz here is much more easy going than genoa, its really colourful, theres loads of bands and crazy stuff like a huge globe with dancers coming out of it, all the groups are marching together and if we dont disrupt the conference we are definatly reclaiming the streets. we going to talk to loads of people about sellafield tonight and tomorrow. see you all in sellafield, in peace, tracey