Trauermarsch in Bonn mit 600 Menschen

Some extra stuff on what took place in Bonn.

On friday-night, just after Carlo was shot in Genoa, people at the rising-tide camp felt they had to do something. Others were planning for saturday, but we needed to express our emotions in one way or another, so we went into the city. Some of us had plans to disrupt a classical concert @ Munsterplatz, where supposedly delegates of the climate summit would be present. This to let them know what happened, to show that protest is universal. But the concert had ended already. In the city we met a group of people with banners and a megaphone, and we joined them. Together, there were about 40 of us. We walked silent, sometimes stopped to use the megaphone to tell the people in the city what had happened in Genoa and how we felt about it. This happened sometimes in German, sometimes in English. Then we met the police. The demo was not registered, but the police did not forbid us to have the demo, they asked us if we had a route so they could 'guide' us. We didn't, but the cops told us that as long as we stayed in the pedestrian zone (were we had been all that time, 'cause that was were the people were) we could proceed with the demo, no worries. Probably to avoid us blocking any streets, harrassing any people or thrashing any buildings, they still went on and 'guided' us. But in the end, having one green van in front of you and two vans following you does, in a way, draw more attention, which made the demo slightly more effective.

Saturday night, a more organised thing took place. We gathered at Munsterplatz, lit candles, some moody music was playing. As a few hundred people had gathered, some speeches were made. During the gathering, Antifa was handing out flyers. In German, with the header in English reading "Do the right thing, riot now". After the antifa speech, about 50 to 100 people started shouting "No Justice, No Peace, Fight The Police". Which basically upset the other people there. "Shut up!" some others shouted. After shouting the above two or three times, they silenced. The atmosphere got a little bit scary, however. Some older people, that were in Bonn that day for the lifeboat-action of the BUND, felt alienated and left.

(more on the Saturday-evening demo at
 http://www.climate.indymedia.org/article.php3?sid=20010722145941


The march started, was meant to be silent, but never was. People did not shut up. Police behaviour was variable. On the one hand, one van of riot cops came driving past, the cops hanging out of their vans, heavily bored and uninterested. A bit further up, the van was awaiting us with a running diesel engine. So far for the silent march, as far as it was one anyway. On the other hand, most of the police vans at the back of the march had turned their lights off in respect, i was told.

Back at Munsterplatz, a memorial wall had been erected, where people could place their message and leave their candles. Many of the messages were agressive, most were sad. This, and the few silent moments before the speeches, were in my opinion the most respectful moments of the evening.

I passed the memorial wall again that night at 4:30 AM. The wall was still there, and a few candles were still burning. One of us hadn't seen the wall yet, and he burst in tears. As we sat there, silently, a man came standing next to us. He was a bit fat, wore an expensive suit. No words were spoken. But you could see he was impressed as well. To me, it made a difference, that this solidarity thing was also being picked up by people outside of the action-movement.