Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Sambatastic at DSEi hotel Dinner

steve | 12.09.2003 09:40 | DSEi 2003 | Anti-militarism | Sheffield

The Samba band were fantastic at the DSEi protest last night

Last night a select group of DSEi arms dealers were treated to a special dinner at the Royal Lancaster Hotel at Lancaster Gate on the north side of Hyde Park.

Protests started at around 6.30ish in the evening for the dinner which was scheduled for 7pm. Around the same time a group of 25 cyclists made their way up Park Lane and then turned right at Marble Arch down Bayswater road toward the hotel. Though few in number this itself caused a huge traffic build up and hopefully would have delayed some of the delegates arrival.

They arrived at the hotel which is situated in the middle a huge traffic island and proceeded to do laps around this one way system. After a while the Samba Band dressed in pink and black marched out to join them and stopped right outside the front entrance. This was a mixture of Sheffield and London people I think. People danced and the atmosphere was great.

Then without any warning a line of black clad police charged the band and dancers ramming them up against the barriers they'd erected on the pavement. The cops were unhappy because the band was not in the designated protest area. This all seemed very unnecessary, not least because the road where the band played remainded closed.

The policing was very obviously aggressive. Talking to cops you could tell they weren't happy. Police photographers pointed cameras at everyone all evening to scare and intimidate people. What other point could there be to take photos of the same people over and over again. And then the government get all upset when people wear masks.

In the most violent incident I heard a woman on a bicycle was hit by batton and had to go to hospital with a probable broken arm.

All around the area van loads of cops clad in black obviously looking for a fight. Attempts to just talk to them were often met with pushing and shoving and general aggressive attitudes. I imagine this might have something to do with the massive success of yesterday with so few numbers - somewhat humilating for the police. After spending 2 million on policing (according to a local Newham paper) arms dealers were delayed, paint bombed and the East side of London was gridlocked for a while from the 'street party' if one could call it that. In addition the London Evening Standard's headline was something like 'massive security breach' which referred to around 8 activists who had got into the arms fair with fake passes. Very cool.

They've also been under attack from Liberty and others for invoking the Terrorism laws to search protesters. Ironic to say the least when one considers what the protests are about.

But despite the cops aggro-attitude the crowd remained non-violent throughout. At the attempts to scare and intimidate didn't work. Despite being outnumbered by the mammoth police presence the crowd remained calm and joyous.

I have to say the Samba band was absolutely great and played some great tunes keeping the atmophere really lively and happy. The band really shone out like a beacon of light and completely foiled the cops attempts to create a scary, dark and oppressive atmosphere.

What was perhaps most amazing last night was what can be achieved with so few numbers. We were around 350 at the most then dwindling to perhaps 150 later on.

By about 11pm everyone was ready to go and the cops did their usual trick of penning everyone in. It was a somewhat pointless - I guess they were worried we might go on huge riot or something. People were let out in dribs and drabs pretty quickly though with no searches and or photographing this time.

All in all a great evening that shows that some music and a defiant, unafraid attitude is more important than just pure numbers.

steve

Comments

Display the following 12 comments

  1. Sambatastic is Humongous! Defend the Sambatists. — Hamlet
  2. I agree — Matt S
  3. Tongue in Cheek — Hamlet
  4. Great idea — James Thorne
  5. Road Stars and Riot Gloves — UK All Stars
  6. BIG thanks from a sambista...and some handy hints! — phatpat
  7. Keep On Sambing!! — maquinavaja
  8. Love to you all — Bollockschops
  9. just to caution — nobody in particular
  10. Training can be arranged — BCN mike
  11. Update on Police attack — steve
  12. we are all sambistas — erik
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech