Hot day in Seville

Friday June 21, 2002 12:23

by Andrew - The Struggle site

A report from Seville, see tha ainriail list for yesterdays report

We entered Seville yesterday by takeing
the back roads across the mountains from
the Costa del Sol. We hoped this might avoid
the road blocks around Seville but it didn´t
and on the outskirts we were stopped by the
Guarda Civil.

We were ordered out of the car and spent around
15 minutes on the edge of the road as two
cops went through our passports and bags while
two more stood a bit back with machine guns. The
impression was that this hold up was no more then
a demonstration that we were being watched as the
search was pretty perfunctionary and our passport
details were hand written on a clip board. After a
while we were allowed to move on with - rather oddly
- the senior cop saluting us as we drove off!

From talking to others it appears most people are
being stopped on arrival in a similar manner but
we have not heard of anyone being refused entry.
Interestingly there are no Guarda Civil visible
in the centre (they are almost exclusivly a
force for policing protest) the cops on the
streets are the local force.

The offical protest campsite is on an island
at the opposite end of the city from the hotel
where the delegates are staying. Last night
there were probably around 150 tents there with
the major number expected to arrive today and
tomorrow. With the current numbers its quite
decent with showers and toilets. This morning
the anarcho-syndicalist CGT was setting up
a huge marque beside the entrance which will
function as a bar.

There is a far sized anarchist presence in the
site so we spent a good bit of last night
meeting comrades and catching up on the
news. It appears that yesterdays general strike
was quite succesful with transport and construction
being shut down completly. The demonstration in
Seville attracted around 15,000 with a fairly sizeable
red and black block. Seville itself was almost
completely shut down, the few bars that were open
were full of strikers.

Today is a day of decentralised action which basically
means there are many protests big and small happening
across the city. We have decided to concentrate on
the Reclaim the Steets ones which will climax in a
street party staring at 17.00. Tomorrow evening will
see the main march with upwards of 100,000 expected
to take part.

I´ve just come from having a look at the delegates
hotel. As we had heard there is a fence erected around
it but it is not very impressive, perhaps 2m of chainlink
wire sitting on top of concrete barriers. The police
presence is fairly low key and the centre is still full
of tourists. However we have been told that around 3,000
plain clothes police are in Seville and many people
on the campsite had been stopped by these characters
around town to have their passports inspected.

The low key presence reflects the expectation that
the protests will be fairly non confrontational. Indeed
the main demonstration is timed to take place after
the summit has closed so there is no opportunity for
it to try and blocade the summit. There is quite a bit
of discussion about this - this return to the
´stage army´ mobilisation is due in part to the
fact that the protest is largely organised by
the Socialist Party which is actually in
governement in Andalucia (but in opposition
in Spain).

It could be that tonights RTS could try and
move on the hotel - certainly many people
want to play more of a role here then acting
as a stage army for the politicians and self
appointed ´representative´of the movement. So
if there is trouble it will almost certainly
be this evening. In any case Seville seems
certain to demonstrate that there is a need
to look at ways of ensuring that the
movement does not get killed off by reformists
turning it into a token stage army.

Andrew