critical mass and end of the horses

Personal account of an early biker - bored of uniforms

At 9.30 we were still waiting for more people to join in Bank Junction. We started off at about 10am, with a big sound system and lots of people in costumes.

Our first stop was the Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS, next to Bishopsgate. There we were informed that RBS heavily invest in fossil fuels. RBS has recently given a massive loan to EON, the company behind the coal power station in Kingworth, where the last climate camp took place.

Back on Bishopsgate, we went then to the Deutche Bank, where again the sound system person informed us that this bank has been actively involved in "carbon trading", which means planting trees to "offset" the excessive carbon emissions that companies in the rich part of the world should not be producing if they were complying with their companies' signed treaties. This tree-planting has been done in lands of indigenous peoples in the poor part of the world that have been how the land that they need for their own food is used for this business without their being able to do anything about it. We were told that carbon trading is now big business, and that it basically consists of selling the air we breath.

From where we were, across the road, was the Carbon Exchange, which, we're informed, gives us in the Rich West the ability to use more carbon than we have agreed to use in order to try and stop climate chaos. Big companies in developing countries are said to be making money by selling their carbon credits to big companies in rich countries so that they can use more carbon.

We're told about a company in South Korea that discovered a product in the 70s that is useful to "decarbonate" the air, but for some mysterious reason it has not made this discovery public, nor used the product, until now, so it has been allowing the South Korean population to be unnecessarily polluted for about 40 years. Now that it is selling this product, this company still makes (10 times?) more money selling carbon trade credits than producing and selling this de-contaminating product.

At this point the Space Hijackers took on the microphone to ask us for support because their tank had been "stopped", surrounded by police. We went there to show our support but the cops didn't seem very prepared to allow the tank move peacefully.

At about 10.30 we moved south towards London Bridge. Last stop before crossing the bridge was a spot next to premises of Caterpillar, the company providing home-destroying bulldozers to the Israeli government, and right next to an "Abbey" branch, now property of Grupo Santander, currently in the process of buying most of the Hispanic world and part of the rest, and object of protests and contempt in Spain and Latin America.

From there crossed London Bridge and then Tower Bridge back to the north bank of the river. Next to the tower, we were served with free vegan food reclaimed from the system's daily waste. There we were joined by the Dancers and then moved on to join the Climate Camp.

In the meantime police had moved on to close all streets that lead to Bank junction to the traffic, and at noon they were preparing to completely cordon off the area, allowing people in but not out, except city workers.

At 12.15 people were in Bank Junction already penned in and allowed in but not out. In Princess Street there were to lines of cops, separated by about 100 metres. The "outside" line, away from the crowd penned in, was reinforced with three vans crossed.

At 12.30, Queen Victoria Street, on the west side of Bank Junction, it didn't look like the police had formed a line, but quickly formed at the shout of one of their offices, then moved away from the pen, still forming a line, and pushing people away from the junction, so the police line came to block the access of people coming both from Poultry Street and Queen Victoria Street. The police were wearing bullet proof vests.

In Mansion House Place, a small alley way approaching the Junction from St. Stephen's Row in the South, police were also forming two lines separated by a few metres, cordoning off the junction and only allowing families and city workers out.

A single line of vans combined with cops blocked the point where King William Street and Lombard Street meet.

A few minutes later horse mounted police were forming the lines instead of policemen on foot.