On Saturday 6th of June, while D-Day commemorations were happening elsewhere, around 80 members of the virulently anti-Semitic Dutch neo-nazi party the NVU, where marching on the streets of the Hague,

A counter demonstration was called by Dutch Anti-Fascist Action, which drew over 300 protestors, including a contingent of around 80 protestors from the Queeruption 6 gathering which was taking place in the Africa squat in Amsterdam that weekend. Queeruption is an international d.i.y. gathering of radical queers from various countries and continents, which takes place in a different location each year See:  http://www.queeruption.nl/
After discussing the issues in our general assembly we decided to join the demo. Members of Amsterdam and London Rhythms of Resistance samba bands gave workshops in samba drumming and dance and a band and dance troupe was created for the day from participants at the gathering.
The demo mostly consisted of lots of Anti-Fa kids in their black hoodies and sunglasses, a large and colourful contingent of queers, some in drag, with samba band and dancers and around 10 members of International Socialist, the Dutch version of the SWP.

The city authorities had given permission to the march, but only as long as it srtictly stuck to a prescribed route. After about 20minutes of parading through The Hague, the marchers left the prescribed route with the intention of blocking the fascists route. The police reacted with extreme violence attacking the procession from horse back and on foot with riot shields and batons. At least 8 protestors where hospitalised. I saw one woman trampled by a cop on a horse, continue to hit two men, who where trying to carry her to safety , around the head and shoulders with his baton. Another directed his aggression against one of the large samba drums or surdos. Things quieten down a bit and the samba began to play and some the protestors began to dance, playfully mocking the macho stances of the cops who now surrounded the protest.

But this interval was short lived as the riot police resumed their attack, battoning protestors until we were surrounded in a tight semi-circle of about 250 people with our back against the wall of a building. The cops stood in attack poses with their shields and batons raised in a line around us. At intervals a snatch squad would move forward and pull someone out with extreme aggression. One guy standing near me, was hit full square by a cops baton across his skull and fell down on the ground cold unconscious.

After a number of such attacks there was another lull and the police announced in Dutch that we were all being arrested for being on an illegal demonstration. They continued to surround us with raised batons. Someone in the crowd began to sing the Gloria Gaynor gay anthem, I Will Survive and the crowd of international queers joined in with gusto. This was followed by other show songs against fascism including numbers from Grease, the Sound of Music, the Tears For Fears song Shout and Queen's 'We are the Champions'. In between we chanted loudly ' We're here- We're Queer - We Not Going Shopping'. This display of collective defiance and humour seemed to both bemuse and hearten our anti-fascists friends and cheered us up no end. Most cops , though not all, relaxed out of their attack poses the sense of immediate violence defused slightly.

We discussed amongst ourselves the idea of making a break for freedom, but concluded that in the push many of us would be beaten and hurt badly, whist only a few lucky ones would make it though. So we went forward one at a time as the snatch squad returned and let ourselves be taken. Each of us was searched with arms out and legs outstretched against a wall, our possessions put in a bags, our hands tied behind our backs with plastic ties. We were put on several busses and taken to the police station, Locals waved and gave us clenched fist salutes as we drove by.

At the police station it was chaos. They put us in holding pens in the yard, where many of us slipped our ties and help others to undo theirs. There were so many of us they just didn't know what to do with us. We were all searched again and photographed one by one, then most of us where taken into the police basket ball court, where we where tied or hand-cuffed together in lines on the floor. This process took hours and we were without food and water until late in the evening. All of the 250 or so people arrested were charged with being on an illegal demo and fined 200 Euro, which most refused to pay. Around 20 protestors where charged with more serious events relating to being part of a group 'engaged in public violence'.

All of this took many long hours to process. I got out around 11pm, but many were not let until around 5 or 6 the next day. A friend, who was in this final group of protestors who had been held in the police station basement tied together throughout the night reported that they where not told they where being released when they brought out. Instead they were informed by the cops that they where now being taken to the gas chambers.

I would like to especially thank the Dutch Anti-Fascist people who waited to meet people as they were released from custody and who are now organising a legal challenge to the police brutality and the authorities attempts to criminalise our protest. They can be contacted if anyone needs info or support on E-mail:  info@afanederland.org phone: 071-5135606 postal address: PO Box 224 2300 AE Leiden.

As a small group of us waited to catch the night train back to Amsterdam, a straight boy looked at us and spat "Fuckin' Faggots" at us in English. His reaction was a normal one. Part of the state sanctioned normality we are resisting- a normality where it is okay to demonise migrants, travellers and queers, to belittle women and terrorise us with individual and collective violence. Where it normal for the authorities to allow fascists to openly parade though city streets, while trampling on the rights of the marginalised, who are the real majority of the people in this world to manifest our rejection their dead end politics of hate.

Back at the Africa squat, a warm welcome awaited us.

Full reports and updates are available on Dutch Indymedia;  http://indymedia.nl/

A collective English language statement by Queeruption 6 can be found at
 http://indymedia.nl/nl/2004/06/19455.shtml

More Photos are at  http://indymedia.nl/nl/2004/06/19440.shtml