Into the West: a failed opportunity on the streets of Galway on Friday night.

galway | eu | news report Monday January 19, 2004 15:34 by anonymista - no organisation

News Report and Opinion.

A crowd of no more than 300 gathered at the top end of Eyre Square. There was a bit of chanting, with the usual 'build up' (i.e. start a chant and then make it faster, faster). Nobody was really dicussing tactics or what was actually going to happen. Was this going to be a blockade or just a march?

So the march kicked off, walked around one and a half sides of the square, roughly 300 metres, and then came to a dead stop at the appointed police line (see the Indymedia video clip for this). I dont know who in Galway organised the route of the march but what exactly was the point of it? Marches do have a point - it would have been great to have it go down Shop Street so passers by might become interested, involved, or even just aware that something was going on.

At the police line the chanting got louder for a while, a bit of noise. Then it died off. Then people started to drift away. The crowd stayed there for around ten minutes, not doing anything. Around 20 of us decided that this was a waste of time, so we ran off around the side of the square down a laneway which led into a convent or a school of some sort. As we turned around we saw the main crowd drift slowly.. slowly.. to the right, with the cops following them across the barrier line all the way.

We then came back around to the corner of the square closest to the Great Southern hotel. It was here that some of the EU cars were coming in, we tried to block a couple of them but the cops and the mounties were actually greater in number down this road.

We then headed up towards the hill nearer the Radisson. There was a manned Garda roadblock here, but they were letting some cars and people through. A hotel manageress was there checking the names of people staying in the hotel if they wanted to get down towards the Radisson. At this stage there were only around 30 of us - some people from the Grassroots Gathering, some non-aligned anti capitalist heads, a few LASC and IPSC'ers, a couple of Green Party members, and some other people from a workers party which name I cant remember.

This was a crucial junction. If we had managed to blockade this junction successfully and then one other then the flow of ministerial traffic between the two hotels would have been disrupted. But our numbers were insufficient. In the distance we could hear the endless chanting from the main group - but despite repeated attempts by phone and by people going down personally, they didnt come up to where we were.

Eventually when the EU traffic started to come through, the Garda (including the Special Branch) pushed people back out of the way with barriers etc. There simply wasnt enough of us to hold the road (see the video footage again for this).

Two of us tried to get around towards the Radisson via the car park to our left where there were building hoardings, but the Garda grabbed them and arrested them for "traffic obstruction" (in a car park??). They were later released, without charge as far as I know.

Around half an hour later some people from "Another Europe is Possible" eventually showed up, including their leader Rory Hearne, but by this stage it was way too late, the chance was lost. Three Garda vans had driven up and emptied their contents into the area in front of us, and they now had two lines of fencing. We called it a night and went home.

This was the first time we'd ever seen the Special Branch get physically involved against demonstrators. Normally one of them will indicate to one of the Green jacketed-grunt scumbags to push us aside but this time they waded in themselves and did the dirty work. Not sure if this was because they wanted to set an example or what. Prime scumbags the lot of them, resorting to physical aggression and personal insults against women and the like. Fuck them all.



Questions and issues then. Are "Another Europe is Possible" actually going to confront the EU at all or are all their demos going to be the usual chanting etc within the allocated Garda protest pens?

Are tactics, aims, methods, and objectives going to be discussed at meetings or is it just going to be politicking?

Are we actually going to confront the EU with direct action or just a weak simulation of street opposition?

Can anyone from the Another Europe is Possible group please tell us what the EU Justice Ministers meeting protest this Friday will entail?

What is the point of having a march if it is not through public areas and only lasts 300 metres?


Personally, I think anarchists have more respect for NGO's etc that actually say they are not into street demonstrations and do work in other ways. This happened at the ISF when people from Trocaire, Comhlamh etc didnt want to get involved in street demos - which is fair enough.

But whats the point in calling a protest if its going to be ineffective in all ways?


Everyone: get your asses down to the Street Theatre on Thursday evening. Meet up at the Central Bank at 5pm.