Paganarchy Press

Tuesday July 5th was a crazy day. Dozens of different autonomous affinity groups all planning and organising a multitude of different actions. It was discussed that if many groups are planning actions and they are not in contact with each other then some groups would probably succeed though many would fail. Our affinity group - a gaggle of London clowns thought it would be best to join in the main blockade on the road to Gleneagles. What happened on Tuesday night and Wednesday before Gleneagles is a story in itself -



Last Night a fairy saved my life.

Tuesday night on the way to Gleneagles was absolutely hellish. The cops stopped us to hassle us nine times. Each time was slightly different. I was thoroughly searched six times. Many of the cops were extremely hostile to me and the clowns I was with. It was extremely intimidating but that seems to be the price we have to pay when we want to speak out against injustice these days. I suppose I had better get used to it! Nah fuck that - I don't want to get used to state-sanctioned bullies. It's disgusting.

After many hours of walking through the streets, trying to avoid this harassment, finally at about 3am we found a field we could take shelter in, but one of the gaggle announced he had hay-fever so a small number of us when and slept in a dirty puddle in a road. We were under-dressed and it very cold. It started pissing it down on us and was extremely annoyed, wet and tired.

Then what? Then the midges came out and swarmed us looking for a feed! So not only were we cold, wet and tired but we were majorly harassed by these tiny bugs as well as the police. Evil Sorcerors cursing us couldn't have done more to put us off the path if they'd tried! We didn't get much sleep. Maybe half an hour or so and the puddle we slept in slowly got deeper. Egads what a night!

When morning came, a few of the gaggle could take no more and went back to camp. The rain and cold and tiredness and midges had been too much - but combined with the ongoing police harassment, that was trivial. However half of us went on, determined to make it to Gleneagles. Personally I felt that I had put so much time (1 year or so) into preparing for the G8 protests that I couldn't give up no matter how much it ruined me. So, we started the walk along the freeway towards Gleneagles. We were stopped and searched (harrassed) a few more times before getting to Blackford.

By this time, I was extremely distraught and in tears. Although it was only really about 8am, I felt that the first day of direct action and protests had essentially failed. I didn't know at that time that many groups had created successful blockades and in many cases had stopped traffic and stopped delegates from getting to Gleneagles. Even though our group had been majorly picked on, we were apparently an extremely effective decoy allowing other groups to succeed where we'd failed! However, I didn't know this at the time...

We had breakfast in Blackford but I was by this time an emotional wreck. I found it really hard to comprehend the extreme levels of state-sanctioned harassment I was being subjected to. That people can be so viciously sadistic to each other is beyond me. Where does this come from? I know the world is full of terrible acts of persecution, violent discrimination and outright fascism, but I had never before been this intensely at the receiving end of it.

Our gaggle and some other random people finished breakfast and were stopped and victimised as we left the cafe. The cops stole many things from us including Miss P's soap bubbles. Why did they steal her soap bubbles except to cause more distress???

The harassment got to me - On the 11th time I was stopped I broke down knowing I wouldn't be able to make it to Gleneagles. I would stay in Blackford and watch the gaggle continue the journey without me... I shouldn't stop off here on my own the gaggle advised. If only someone would stay with me???

Then out of the corner of my teary eye I saw a wondrous and beautiful fairy.

The night before she had been given a lift to the official drop-off point but scarily for her, none of her fairy clan had turned up. In fact, they had been dropped off at an altogether different place. She too had suffered police harassment and had spent the night in a different puddle with some people she didn't know. Different puddle, different midges, different police - same harassment! A fairy shouldn't have to go through this kind of distress!

The fairy and I were stopped by police one more time but we simply couldn't handle the stress, so we ran into the Blackford church yard and took refuge. Police were hurling abuse at us over the church wall but they didn't come in. We went out the back onto the church lawn, and cried under a tree. A very sad distressed clown and a very sad distressed fairy became very close friends very quickly. Her name was Jen The Fairy and she was beautiful. We swapped stories, nurtured each other, helped each other overcome the harassment we'd been victim to and slowly got our acts together. Talking to her restored my faith in both fairy and humankind. And it was really chuffing to know that she felt the same way about me. A clown had made a fairy's life better. Yippee!

After two hours of recovering, healing and grounding in the church, we both decided "right, it's only the 1st day of protests out of three. We should go back to the camp site and come again another day." We left the church, careful to see there were no cops hanging around and then started the slow walk back to Stirling.

But just as we left the church a bus pulled up with "Auchterarder" written on the front. (Auchterarder is the name of the town in which Gleneagles sits). We both looked at each other and jumped onto the bus! Having nurtured each other back to full fairy and clown health we were once again ready to hit the crowds and express our opinions... She donned her wings and I my nose... Oh yes, we did protest that day, and how!

I haven't seen nor heard from Jen The Fairy since that morning in Blackford, but if anyone sees her, please give her my love. You'll know her when you see her from the twinkle in her eyes. Oh yeah, and the fairy wings.



Update August 20th: I found my fairy! More on this soon...