Brno, Czechia - 2 June 2001
There was the 3rd Street Party in Brno on Saturday, 2.6.2001. It was
organized by various nongovernmental activists, anarchists and other
individuals. In spite of bad weather it was joined by 800 people from
Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Germany, the United States and maybe other
countries. Its aim was to point out the problems connected with car culture
- and, on the local level, to critique the transport policy of the Brno
city government.
It started at a big parking place with speeches about the phenomenon of
street parties in general, the "problematic" draft text for a new czech
law on public rallies, and a summing up of the protests against the IMF and
World Bank summit in Prague last year. Music was produced by a live jazzrock
band and a jungle sound system. Loads of information materials about animal
and human rights, environmental and social problems and anarchism were available
- and there were drummers and jugglers too.
After two hours the people started a march headed by the Prague samba band
and a three-and-a-half-metre-tall puppet symbolizing the connection between petrol
and car multinational companies and high emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide. As the march was situated on a big road, where cars are coming
down from the D1 highway Prague - Brno, it caused a one-and-a-half kilometer
long traffic jam. This road was choosen also because it is full of petrol
stations and hypermarkets and symbolises the madness of consumerism and car
culture. The march stopped at a big crossroad near the city center and
blocked it for one hour. There were held more speeches about hypermarkets,
feminism, capitalism etc and the soundsystem played. After this the march
continued to a square, where the Street Party finished.
The gathering and the march too were announced and permitted, so there were
no problems with the police. Only because of the blockade we expect small
penalties - as every year.
Alice Dvorska
Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation
intersec@csaf.cz
www.csaf.cz/english