From the battle lines

I found this eyewitness account very informative. It may also give you some 
idea about the tactics some of the fighters on the streets have in mind.

Sabri 
**********

Nice eyewitness account from the battle lines

From Matthieu 
³ It was like going over the topı in 1914 ­ full on charge through the gas
into their lines, said someone after it was all over.
I was one of 20 or so comrades of the LRCI from France, Germany and Britain
who engaged the CRS repeatedly at the junction of Rue Barla and Ave de la
Republique in central Nice on D7.
The CRS had set up barricades across all the side streets leading off Ave de
la Republique down to the huge Acropolis where the heads of states and
thousands of hangers-on were limbering up for their Euro-summit.
The CRS has been in position from the early hours of the morning and various
well-dressed, lap-topped people with passes poured through the police lines
from 0600.
Meanwhile, two thousand anti-capitalist activists from all over Europe were
waking up (if they got any sleep at all!) back at the Convergence centre
(salle Leyritte)  less than a mile away in a huge sports hall near place San
Roche. The summit delegates were safely snug in four-star sea-front hotels
along a two mile stretch of coast that was entirely sealed off by the police
for the duration of the summit.
The anti-capitalist youth from Spain, Italy, France, Germany ­ yes and
Slovenia, Sardinia, Hungary, Poland, Greece et al ­ were up early too,
having slept head-to-toe (two thousands of us) at the Convergence centre
after a night of discussion and social chit-chat.
We assembled outside in ranks and marched to the local railway station where
we were greeted by hundreds already there.
Who were we exactly that had come to Nice, some veterans of Prague all
inspired by the battle of Seattle?
There were a thousand or so from Attac, the French-based campaign for a tax
on financial speculation. There were hundreds from the French Revolutionary
Communist League (LCR) and similar number from the ISO groups mainly from
the UK, Spain, Greece, France and Germany. Several hundred Basque
nationalist and Spanish activists of the anarcho-syndicalists of the CGT .
These and of course the LRCI made up the self-organised blocs and there were
as many again who belonged to small local groups or none at all.
For now as we headed north to the ave de la Republique were as one, agreed
on a  common plan to hit the police lines at three separate barricades along
the Republique.
The LCR and us and maybe one thousand others took the rue Barla, Attac led
the line at rue Smollet, while the Cliffites and Basque nationalists formed
the bulk at a third junction.
We lined up maybe 50 metres from the CRS line one rue Barla. The first two
ranks of 20 across were made up of veteran LCR ³service dŒordre² ­
experienced and responsible street fighters. The LRCI formed the tightly
knit third rank and behind came many more.
A glance ahead the CRS and we could see that they did not have the numbers
to physically defend their position from a sustained  and serious charge.
The half dozen CRS behind their front line gave us a clue to their tactics:
tear gas and pepper gas volleys would be their tactic of first resort not
last with the aim of dispersing us.
We grouped and tightened our ranks. Then we all leapt up and down as one and
the chant repeatedly rang out ­ ³Tous ensemble! Tous ensemble! Oui! Oui!²
We advanced cautiously and then more boldly. Ten metres away the first loud
explosions rang out over our heads. Volley after volley of tear gas
canisters burst, enveloping us. We were forced into retreat, coughing and
retching, sore-eyed. We regrouped and charged again, again repulsed.
Finally, we regrouped further back down rue Barla as the street was thick
with gas. Up went the chant: ³Police nationale, police du capital²
By now several dozen residents were out on their balconies, cheering us on,
and throwing down water, several even handed down lemons and saline to
relieve our eyes.
By now the ISO comrades had been repulsed from their positions and joined
the back of our contingent. The police decided to attack with gas again
before we marched forward. But this time the service dıordre had a surprise
for them. As the volleys exploded above us, we charged as one group through
the clouds and at the barricades.
We finally got to push the barricades and come to blows with the CRS for a
minute or so. But then many of us got pepper gas and long exposure to the
tear gas; finally we had to retreat and every street corner down rue Barla
was full of retching and doubled-up militants.
We had done our best. Maybe if we had decided on one point of attack from
the first we could have got through their ranks, several dozen with gas
masks and made a symbolic point. We could never have hoped to held such a
position but we would have made our mark better.
As it was we did well. Only a ring of steel and 15,000 CRS could protect the
bossesı politicians as they went about their business in making themselevs
and their decisions over our lives even more unaccountable than now,
liquidating our social gains and giving free run to the rule of
multinational corporations.
³Nice, Prague, Seattle ­ one world, one battle² We regrouped one more time
and as the service dıordre protected our backs from possible police charge
on our rear, we assembled all the forces from the three blocs and headed off
for a demonstration around the centres of old and new Nice and a short rally
before heading back to the Convergence centre.
It was at this point that the anarchos decided to smash the car showrooms
windows and trash BNP banks fronts and even phone kiosks  ­ all pointless
stuff which just gave the media an excuse to defocus the main event and the
collective political character of todayıs and yesterdayıs mass protest of
trade unionists.
Summit-hopping is great for sure. And many of the activists were already
planning for Barcelona next summer, or Gottenburg next June were the next
big EU summit takes place. We must always be where they are.
But D6 and D7 shoed the same split in the global anti-capitalist movement
that we have seen before: on D6 we saw 80,000 working class trade unionists
from Europe in Nice for the day to press for reforms on the EU. The next day
they were largely gone home, spirited away by their bureaucracies away from
the influence of the anti-capitalist minority.
Yet the 6-7,000 conscious anti-capitalists ­ whether socialist or anarchist
­ were young mainly working class but for the most part not oriented to the
organised ranks of the labour movements. This is a task, to overcome this
divide. To turn the anti-globalisation movement to the working class and
make the working class movement anti-capitalist. When D6 and D7 forces come
together on an anti-capitalist basis then we will be unstoppable.
Since Seattle there have been hundreds of mass working class strike based
actions around the world against IMF led programmes.
We need now to fuse this movement into one big global protest on 1 May next
year. Mass strikes wherever possible and mass actions against global
corporations and stock exchanges and IMF programmes - all need to happen to
take the movement onto a new plane and to keep the momentum going.

Matthieu a French comrade of the League for a Revolutionary Communist
International.