Last week Co-mutiny was held in Bristol where people converged from around the country to attend the week long event. Workshops, skills shares and direct action were on the timetable and there was plenty to keep an activist engaged. Climate justice, financial collapse and autonomous spaces were some of the themes on the agenda.
The convergence space was an impressive cathedral with a series of passages, cavernous halls and darkened rooms perfect for the event. There was space for people to sleep, a kitchen which kept a daily supply of skipped food – never before have I been able to eat as many Waitrose Glace cherries as I wanted – and even an ingenious temporary boiler system kept us supplied with hot water.
The walls were covered in an array of murals, messages, late night graffiti rambles, as well as banners and posters which helped to give the feeling of an even bigger cultural shift from the by-gone cathedral. I slept in a room that was previously decorated by a theater company. It was quite an experience to wake up with a huge, blue mural sky, indoors. As much an art gallery as a convergence space, walking around Bristol it is apparent that this is the norm in the city, in the Montpelier area you are faced with an amazing mural or a graf piece at every corner.
Throughout the week a fair amount of time was put into making banners and props for the planned action on the Saturday. The impressive pirate ship, built onto a shopping trolley, got a lot of attention especially wheeling or careering it around the city streets where there were a lot of bemused university freshers.
The week culminated on the weekend with a carnivalesque tour of the city to repossess the banks. There were a range of costumes and masks from anarchist nuns, animals, pirates and general carnival attire.
The plan was to take a whirlwind tour of the banks and offices and to cause general havoc around the streets of Bristol. We hit our first bank and although a few people got into the lobby we were repelled by the police.
Custard pies were thrown and a vicious cat and mice game incurred with the police jumping on a few people. When we tried to help out everyone piled in, including the police horses. Yeah, good plan who’s ever idea that was. Arrests were made and we moved onto the next target. Faces from the offices peered from above with fear, no, more like general interest on their faces. Anything to take them away from their spreadsheet day lives. Big up to the guy who glued himself across the front doors of bank trapping the bankers in at lunch time.
Along the route we kept up constant outreach to onlookers and passers by who gave mostly positive feedback, promising to look into the ethical bank, Triodos, rather than the high street banks. It was a shame to see that most people were aware that banks invest into things like the arms trade and climate chaos, but find it hard to switch across because of the effort involved or the fact that the banks have them trapped into loans, morgages and interest rates.
The day progressed, but unfortunately we seemed to lose momentum as we rambled on to the tenth bank. Although a few people spoke up, it was a bit demoralising having no energy to effectively or even metaphorically ‘repossess’ the banks. The outreach was encouraging though and it was good to get back to the Cathedral at the end of the long day to get some homemade soya burger mush stuff and a brew.
Categories ,Arms Trade, ,Autonomous space, ,bristol, ,Cathedral, ,Climate Justice, ,Co-mutiny, ,outreach, ,protest, ,repossess the banks, ,skipping, ,squat
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