An Unhappy 60th Birthday Celebration for NATO

I am just recovering from the events of last weekend, which included being teargassed (although I was not at the epicentre of that) and spending 17 hours on a coach trying to reach a besieged city. But it has made very obvious to me and to those who were in Strasbourg for the protests over the 60th anniversary NATO Summit the level of militarisation which Europe is now undergoing and a brief introduction for the citizens of one French city of what occupation feels like.

I left London with a group of anti-war activists from all over England and Scotland on last Friday at 6am. Firstly, we were photographed by the Met before we even left and our licence plates were radioed through by the police to some distant authority either here or in France to warn them that we were en route. All was plain sailing, literally in the case of crossing the Channel, until we reached the outskirts of Strasbourg. All routes to the city had been blocked by the French authorities and it took us over two hours to reach our destination, trying a variety of various side roads. I finally got to where I was staying at 1am, having spent 17 hours travelling. I found my hotel full of police and the whole city centre closed off to all. 25,000 police had been drafted in for the summit. We later found out that the rail lines from Germany had been cut and that the Schengen Agreement had been suspended to disallow democratic protest at the wars which NATO is planning and the billions of pounds, Euros and dollars being spent from our public purse to continue hegemonic policies. There are some indications of the fortification of the city here from this French site and the views of the people living therehttp://www.dailymotion.com/related/x8vnfb/video/x8v010_20090401-strasbourg-ville-fortifie_news

The following morning we discovered that all the streets leading out of the city and towards the Rhine were being blocked by the CRS, the feared French riot police. Only residents living in the zone who had passes were allowed through and then only on foot or by bicycle. Together with a group of French trade unionists, an Irish peace activist living in Geneva and a German living in Switzerland, we tried to get through the various cordons. All routes seemed blocked off. To add to this surreal lock down of an entire city, a huge military convoy trundled through the city, with soldiers perched arrogantly on the top of the trucks and massive military helicopters (I counted five) hovered directly over the houses. Some of those I was with who had been at the European Social Forum meetings in Genoa etc, had said they never had witnessed anything on this scale. The French trade unionists has also never seen this level of police power and command of an entire city. One of them asked the police "Is this the Sarkozy democracy?"

Finally, as we managed to be mistaken for tourists, who were allowed into the tourist zone, we were able to make our way across the city to the demonstration which was in the harbour area. The original idea had been for the demonstration to meet on the Europa Bridge which links France and Germany but the Germans had shut down all rail links into Strasbourg. One person who had asked at the railway station about trains to Germany was told that all trains were cancelled.

The first thing we saw was large numbers of anarchists, called 'the Black Block' gathered near the Europa bridge. They were amassing paving stones and many were wearing masks and scarves. A large fire was burning on the bridge and German police with armoured cars and water cannon were on the other side of the bridge blocking access to Germany. Large numbers of police patrol boats were also in the Rhine. The Black Block had already set fire to a former customs post on the French side and plumes of smoke were rising. This was to become the leitmotif of the protests and the images which the media flashed around the world, totally ignoring the 30,000 demonstrators who marched for an end to war and NATO. The Black Block would later set fire to and destroy a hotel and several petrol stations, bus shelters and phone boxes in the area of the demonstration.

Back at the rally we heard various speakers including Bianca Jagger and Oliver Besancenot of the Left Party in France. Then the German person announcing the speakers told us that two groups using non violent direct action had managed to block the Summit for several hours that morning. Of course, none of this was reported in the media. I also saw French Greens there with Green pennants flying and spoke to them briefly. As the speakers continued we could see rising plumes of smoke from nearby and police firing tear gas from helicopters at the anarchists. The acrid smell of tear gas pervaded the area. The demonstration finally moved off and I was carrying a banner with Kate Hudson, Chair of CND, Andrew Murray, Chair of Stop the War Coalition and others. As we approached one of the bridges we could see that a ring of steel was drawn up with police vehicles with armoured fronts, it was similar to scenes from Northern Ireland riots. We turned into a narrow street over a goods railway line, which was surrounded by factories. By this time we could see that the Black Block had set fire to a hotel ahead and it was burning furiously. We allowed the fire engines to go through the demonstration.

The march came to a halt in this narrow street as the police had closed off the road ahead. I thought that this would be a perfect ambush site and this was indeed what happened. The police were now firing tear gas across the bridge behind us and we sat in the street hoping to move forward. The Black Block then moved several goods wagons across the line, effectively blocking the street and the police were coming from that direction. We could hear explosions ahead as tear gas was being fired. With the aid of several experienced international activists I made my way back along the rail line towards the river. This was because we could see that the Black Block were leading the rest of the demonstrators into a situation where they would be used as a shield and this is exactly what happened. Shortly afterwards the police tear gassed and attacked the demonstration. Panic then ensued and people tried to escape whatever way they could. I saw an unconscious woman being helped into a fire engine and several wounded journalists.

On our way back we found all routes back into the city closed off. Even the rail lines were being patrolled by the CRS. Finally at one check point we showed our papers to the CRS and were allowed through into the city. Passing through an area of social housing, with mainly ethnic minority inhabitants, we asked ourselves why none of these people had protested. The problem, which was discussed by many the following day at the conference, is that the French anti-war movement has not included the Muslim or ethnic minority groups at all and thus is much hampered. Indeed it was clear, when we could see their faces at all, that all of the Black Block were white.

There are some images of the demo here from a French site http://www.dailymotion.com/related/x8va4v/video/x8vnfb_la-recit-de-la-manifestation_news?ajax_function=get_video_list&ajax_arg%5B0%5D=%2Frelated%2Fx8va4v%2F1&ajax_arg%5B1%5D=x8va4v_affrontements-a-la-ganzau_news&ajax_rnd=1239093472981 As you will see the actions of the Black Block jeopardised considerably the other demonstrators and left them open to the considerable police brutality which was on display.

The following day at the conference we heard speeches from the US and Japanese peace movements, both of whom, especially the Japanese sent a considerably sized delegation. We also heard from the those opposing NATO membership of their respective countries in Ukraine and Georgia and I also made contact with one of the Russian speakers from a group based in St Petersburg. John Rees from Stop the War Coalition was announced as "representing the largest anti-war movement in Europe" which is probably the case. Rees in his speech attacked the militarisation of Strasbourg by the authorities but also criticised the Black Block for their actions. He added that the anti-war movement needed to take these alienated youth on board as otherwise their political frustration and aggression would be directed elsewhere. He also made the very strong point that Obama had only succeeded in getting a few thousand troops for the war in Afghanistan, whereas it had taken the French and German governments to send more than 35,000 police and security forces to pen down the anti-war movement in Strasbourg. The anti-war movement had to continue to be the internal resistance in Europe to NATO's wars in Iraq and Afpak (Afghanistan and Pakistan).

Kate Hudson made a strong speech from the floor attacking the "political cowardice" of the Black Block in using others as a human shield and then disrobing and melting into the general demonstration. She also asked what was the political point of smashing up bus shelters in a working class part of the city which were used by poor people to access public transport. This was applauded loudly by many present.

Some Irish speakers invited people to attend a major peace protest there in September and assured us that it would be impossible to block access over the borders as Ireland was an island. When some of these same speakers protested over the use of tear gas and violence by the police, some of the Greek contingent replied that they were being tear gassed all the time and that it was part of confronting the state in many of these continental countries. But it is clear that the NATO states are prepared to militarise their own societies and put their own cities under occupation in order to drive through the war agenda.

After leaving the conference and going back to the peace camp where many of the activists were staying, we discovered that the roads to the camp had been blockaded by the CRS and those leaving the camp were having their baggage searched along with their persons. The police were confiscating anything described as "propaganda". This included papers from the conference and banners in English, many of which they could not understand anyway. One our party had a camera and managed to take photos of this. I promised to raise this with our MEPs on my return to London as I am certain that it is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Outside the cordon sanitaire, many locals waved goodbye to our coach which had a police escort to the motorway. Indeed one of the things which impressed me the most was the number of peace flags, stating 'No to NATO' which were hanging from balconies throughout the city.

A long journey to London lay ahead, which was incident free, but I was glad that I was present for this historic protest, which I hope will not mark the beginning of a new era of NATO led wars. 60 years is enough. It is time for NATO to collect its pension.