A-Infos (en) US, Bay Area, Reportback: Palo Alto Reclaim the Streets! - May 20

A Revolutionary Streetparty, a Suburban Insurrection...
On May 20th, hundreds of rebellious youth, students, and workers converged
on downtown Palo Alto. United by an effective critique of global
capitalism - weaving together the dominance of the G8, the monotony of
modern urbanism, and alienated suburban boredom - local youth, joined by a
small number from around the Bay Area and Central Valley, successfully
reclaimed the streets. Marching behind banners exclaiming "Reclaim the
Streets!", "Resist the G8, Empire, and Global Capital", and "Live Without
Dead Time!", approximately 250 demonstrators (by police and media
estimates) left Lytton Plaza on a march which shutdown the entire downtown
Palo Alto commercial district for well over an hour.

A block later an occupied police cruiser was attacked - its windshield
shattered - with one arrest and police driven away from the march. As
police scrambled to contain the demonstration, protesters counted down and
swarmed a police barricade attempting to prevent them from reaching
University Avenue. On University, demonstrators barricaded the street with
a large dumpster and occupied a block of Palo Alto's largest commercial
artery. As people danced in the street, protesters spraypainted
anti-capitalist messages on the street, government property, and a
Starbucks storefront. The march reversed and continued down University.

With police failing to maintain control of the situation, an American
Express foreign currency exchange center and bank was attacked, a flagpole
shattering its window. Police attacked the march - again with numerous
dearrests - and managing to arrest only one protester. Next an E-Trade
storefront was attacked and suffered damage to its windows. Streets were
blockaded with newspaper boxes as demonstrators circled around to make a
second pass through downtown.

As the march passed the City Hall/Police Station complex protestors broke
off, spraypainting anti-statist messages on the building. After failing to
contain the demonstration and activating the emergency response mutual aid
system, Palo Alto police were joined by additional riot-control units from
the East Palo Alto and Mountain View departments. The march was attacked
by police following an attempt to return to University Avenue and some
protestors suffered injuries from batons. Again every arrest attempt was
thwarted, and police were unable to breach or contain the march as it
turned down an alley. Later a Borders bookstore and Longs Drugs were
temporarily invaded, as demonstrators appropriated commodities and a
combination of confused and supportive employees stood aside and watched.
After being driven away from downtown by subsequent police attacks,
marchers dispersed without further arrests. Police continued to surround
several blocks and buildings, conducting searches and setting up
checkpoints - all of which proved futile.

The Palo Alto Police Department was completely unprepared and proved
entirely incapable of making arrests, maintaining control, or containing
the march until riot-control units arrived from neighboring cities. The
media have shown that they lack an intellectual framework to comprehend
the revolutionary anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian theory which
local youth and students grasped and appropriated so intuitively. They are
left to blindly quote call-outs, posters, and protester soundbits, and
mourn the corporate property destroyed by a reified praxis which they
cannot understand. Despite this, working people and consumers in the area
seemed to grasp the crux of the confrontation, as many voiced support and
joined in spontaneously.

In all, corporate property was defaced and destroyed at at least three
different locations, government property was defaced, and police property
was destroyed. Local youth and students joined forces with anarchists to
dance, confront the police, and recreate their suburban environment - in
every sense of the phrase. The entire downtown commercial district was
closed to traffic for well over an hour. Only two successful arrests were
made.

Palo Alto Was Just a Warning Shot...

This is not the end. As the Bay Area and entire West Coast mobilizes for
an revolutionary anti-G8 convergence this July, this is just the beginning
- and things are only going to build from here. Watch anarchistaction.org
for updates - we'll see you in July!

Pictures:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/05/1738691.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/05/1738667.php

Corporate Media:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=1395
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/11704300.htm

www.anarchistaction.org/rts
From: rts-pa@riseup.net

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