----- Original Message ----- From: <berlin at socrates.berkeley.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists1.panix.com> Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 12:15 AM Subject: indymedia report
>
> this kind of sarcastic whiny guy who missed out on seeing the violence he
> was looking for mentions ChuckO. Do you recognize who this is?
>
> Photos and Truthful Reporting About A16
> by Libertarian Socialist News 10:40pm Sun Apr 16
> '00
> address: PO Box 12244 Silver Spring MD 20908
> phone: 202-237-3774
> bwhite at libertariansocialist.com
>
> Libertarian Socialist News is the only
> honest
> unbiased source for news on protests and
> demonstrations. Photos and
> Text. Audio/Video
> soon.
>
> print article
>
> A16 Goes Great!
> CD Flops, Anarchists Disappear, Protest Peaceful,
> CNN Is Full Of Shit
>
> April 16, 2000
>
> http://www.libertariansocialist.com/cgi-bin/bbmat.cgi?script=libsoc
> We are right now uploading photos to
> http://www.libertariansocialist.com/04_16
>
> Hey, I was at the protests. I saw the incident
> where "police used pepper
> spray and batons on protesters", and that is
> bullshit! The protest was peaceful -- super
> peaceful. The CD was a bad
> joke, and all the anarchists had disappeared by
> noon. I don't know what protest CNN went to, or any
> of the other networks,
> but I think they were given the story and are
> making things up to fit their story line.
>
> First, the CD was an absolute failure. Myself and
> one comrade walked
> around the entire World Bank area. The World
> Bank and IMF were not shut down. In fact, there
> weren't enough protesters
> to even block all the entrances. We walked six
> blocks from the Ellipse before we even saw a group
> of protesters "locked
> down." And do you know what those protesters
> were doing? They were whining! They were sitting
> there going "these things
> are heavy" and "can we take them off now?" It
> was a fucking joke!
>
> Then, when we got onto the GWU campus, there were a
> lot of protesters
> locked down. In fact, there were enough that they
> blocked the entire West side of the
> protests. However, that was pointless,
> because all the streets on the Eastern and South
> sides of the bank were open.
>
> Further, these people had "blockaded" the
> street. With what, you might
> ask? String! No joke. These guys blockaded the
> streets with colored yarn. Hahahahahahahaha! It was
> so hilarious. And,
> they put out some dumpsters with wheels, which the
> police promptly wheeled back. We do have photos.
>
> So, as we're waking along 21st Street, we're trying
> to cross an
> intersection. They've got string all over it, so to
> avoid the
> string, we decide to walk around it. But the CD
> people thought we were
> trying to get through their line, even though there
> was
> no reason to think that. One grabbed me, I almost
> broke his arm, and tried
> to explain we were just trying to cross the street.
> Then, these guys were so desperate to stop
> *somebody*, *anybody*, from
> "breaking their line", that the got the whole
> street
> on their feet. Why? We weren't sure. We were going
> parallel to their line,
> not across it, and if we had wanted to, we could've
> literally just beaten the shit out of all of
> them. So we just kept walking,
> they seem confused, and then all sat back down.
>
> We then saw some anarchists -- the only anarchists
> in force we saw all
> day. They were parading. One of them didn't like
> my shirt, which read "Innocent Bystander". He said
> "Innocent Bystander,
> what the fuck does that mean?" I responded by
> saying "It means if you say one more word to me I'm
> gonna kick your
> fucking ass." This hard-core anarchist then very
> sheepishly decided to keep marching. (Most people
> liked my shirt, but two
> people argued.)
>
> By the time we got to the Northeast corner, it was
> clear the blockade had
> failed. There were no protesters past about 18th
> street, even though those streets were sealed off
> for delegate access. We
> then walked around the entire bank building.
>
> There was one confrontation between police and
> protesters the entire day,
> and we walked into it on the tail end of it. That
> was the confrontation where CNN is reporting
> "police used gas and
> batons." But it was bullshit. Apparently two guys
> who
> looked to be about in their fifties tried to break
> the police line, and the cops
> hit them with their batons, and the guys got their
> head bloody and got pepper sprayed. They were
> treated by ambulances
> that came, and were let go. However, the situation
> was pretty tense, and it did look for a minute like
> tear gas might be fired,
> so that's when we busted out with gas masks.
>
> However, by the time we returned to that square,
> about two hours later,
> everyone had vacated. This was not unusual, since
> every had vacated most of the places by about 2 PM,
> but maybe there was
> some more action we missed.
>
> About seventeen thousand people attended the march
> and various rallies
> combined -- these rallies were spread over about a
> twenty block area, and the largest group was about
> seven to eight
> thousand who attended the main protest. Every sort
> of
> communist weirdo, including several little New York
> and Chicago based
> groups I've never heard of, were there. There were
> probably about a thousand communists overall,
> including about three
> hundred members of the International Socialist
> Organization, some from as far away as Canada. None
> of the local
> communists were there; we hypothesize they were all
> arrested.
>
> The march was peaceful and huge. There was no
> fighting anywhere, and
> no conflicts between demonstrators and police
> once the early morning confrontations were
> over. While we were waiting to
> photograph the march, we ran across this chick
> who we had seen speaking the other night, who was
> doing a TV interview.
> She was telling the television the CD people had
> stopped delegates from getting in. Then we heard
> the story, and realized
> the "delegates" they had "stopped" were our LSN
> photo crew! So we butted in on the interview,
> though she didn't mind, and
> told the truth. As soon as we started giving a
> story
> different than what the camera wanted to hear, the
> camera turned off.. This
> woman then explained to us that the demonstrator's
> entire communication's network had broken down
> because of yesterday's
> arrests, and that she really had no idea if the CD
> had
> been effective or not. She seemed disappointed to
> hear that they hadn't
> had an effective blockade since at least 11 AM
> (this
> was at 1:30 PM), but thanked us.
>
> The march happened and was peaceful. We took a lot
> of photographs,
> particularly of the pathetic attempt at civil
> disobedience these guys made, and of their
> "roadblocks" (look at the
> photo of the two car "roadblock", it's funny. The
> protest
> rally was good. The radicalism was laughable. We
> enjoyed ourselves, and
> had a great dinner afterwards.
>
> -----
>
> Libertarian Socialist News
> Post Office Box 12244
> Silver Spring, MD 20908
>
> lsn at libertariansocialist.com
> http://www.libertariansocialist.com
>
> -----
>
> PS: We just want to point out that by the time of
> the march, all of the
> "anarchists" were gone. Also, Chuck Munson did not
> appear to have attended the march. We saw many
> people we know there,
> but no Chuck0, and we were looking for him or
> *any* local DC anarchists.
>
> PPS: We've now seen the ABCNews report and some of
> the other reports.
> One possibility is that the reporters were smoking
> crack, but instead of that, we think the reporters
> are merely printing any
> crap demonstrators told them. We were at this
> "confrontation" by the Treasury building, we were
> there just after Noon, at
> the time and place tear gas was allegedly fired, we
> thought tear gas was going to be fired, we put on
> gas masks, and there
> was *no* gas used. Furthermore, there was no *sign*
> that gas had been used. There were two older guys
> with bleeding heads.
> Period. All this news coverage is bullshit and lie
>
> www.libertariansocialist.com
>
>