30 000 against Bush in Vienna

by egal
Today in Vienna, the capitol of Austria, more than 30000 people demonstrated against the EU Summit and the meeting with G.W.Bush.

The city of Vienna got one day "state of emergency" because of the visit of G.W. Bush. Thousands of police-forces were brought to Vienna, houndrets of Secret Service Agents controlled the situation, two "no go areas" in the city where installed, the highway was closed, and no car was allowed to stay at the roads which bush will use.

At the moment Austria is the "Presidency of the Council of the European Union" and so Bush was invited to take place at the summit. An other problem is that the right cancelor Wolfgang Schüssel needs publicity for the election campaign (election in okt. or sept.). But also the sozialdemocratic President (Fischer) had no problems shaking hand with a warcriminal.

Some recistance actions in Vienna:

• the government of the 9th district in vienna decidet official (with the green and the sozialdemocrats) that Bush is not welcome in Vienna.

• some small demonstrations yesterday

• one person hided in one "no go area" for one day and tried to put a banner at a hous near the Intercont hotel where Bush stayed for the night.

• 12 Persons put a verry big transparent also near the hotel, down from a house.

• a wildcatstrike of the pupils in Vienna and a demonstration with about 4000 people at 9 am.

• a verry big demonstration with about 30000 people against Bush and the EU-Summit, against war and capitalism at 17. pm.

• a small demonstration in the night to free the prisoners from the big demonstration with some clashes with the police, but at the end freedom for all prisoners but one.

Don´t belive the massmedia. The hardest one seems to be the "Gardian" talking about 350 People (!) at a small demonstration ... 30k is a verry big demonstration for vienna, with 1 700 000 people living here. Today we got big support from whole Austria (Salzburg, Linz , Graz and others), and some support from the states around us (Germany, Slovakia, Italy).

At the moment indymedia austria is down, but you can look at some noncommercial pics at http://www.pbase.com/clandestino/image/62253886