April 24: Actions against the IMF / World Bank
Event kicked off with rally and speakers at Franklin Park. Anarchist drum corps was meeting by a tree where a womyn wearing a captain america ski mask was waving a big black flag. March started soon after with festive drumming and flag waving.

[ pic: crowd shot of gathering at Franklin park ]

http://www.fetusinbloom.com/albums/album22/DSCN7818

There was lots of minor property destruction. A few anarchists were hitting up cop cars, traffic signs, the streets, expensive SUVs, and sides of buildings with spraypainted anarchy signs and other messages. Hundreds of anti-IMF stickers were deployed on all nearby surfaces. A few people were also keying some windows and cars. A few climbed light posts and attached black flags, chanting 'Who's pole! Our pole!'

Demonstrators also burned a U.S. flag, condemning it as the largest international terrorist organization to chants of 'brick by brick, wall by wall, we'll tear the U.S. empire down'. We oppose the idea of man-made borders to keep people divided: we are all one humanity fighting one struggle. Even an anarchist tossed a black flag into the fire to oppose the idea of flags altogether.

At one point cops pulled someone out from the crowd and arrested him. The black bloc locked arms and rushed the pigs, shouting 'today's pig, tomorrow's bacon! . The cops quickly pulled back while dozens of photographers rushed in and started taking up-close pictures of the bloc. Foolishly so, we just allowed them to photograph us while we stood perfectly still.

The radical cheerleaders / pink bloque also had a large presence at the demonstration with festive dances and cheers to add liveliness to the march.

Passing by a McDonalds, crowds chanted anti-McDonalds slogans as the black bloc spraypainted anarchist signs on their wall. Humorously enough, some stalinists left the march for a bit to grab a burger at McDonalds, and while they were eating they waved the USSR flag against the window towards the march. Some anti-corporate globalization protesters indeed...

[ pic: communist consumers unite! ]
http://www.fetusinbloom.com/albums/album22/DSCN7838.jpg

Festival of Resistance / Really REALLY free market
The march returned to Franklin Park to be greeted with live music, book giveaways, rally + speakers, etc. Free vegan food and drink was served by Food Not Bombs. Open mic sessions where people read poetry and There were several open mic sessions with drumming and dancing.

April 25: March for Womyn's Liberation

Radical cheerleader / black bloc march
After morning food servings, the radical cheerleaders and the black bloc marched from Stanton Park to the rally site, filling the streets with pep and joyful resistance. We marched through some of the neighborhoods, through the ranks of the mainstream liberals at the main rally area, and then by several federal buildings in downtown DC.

[ pic: radical cheerleader / black bloc march ]


Tearing it up with mad dancing and festive drumming, the radical cheerleaders added some much-needed festive resistance to the day's events which was otherwise filled with mainstream liberals holding mass-produced picket signs. Much joyful dancing, spontaneous make-out sessions, and banners reading 'end the occupation of our wombs', 'we're pro-choice and we riot', etc.

[ pic: radical cheerleaders get down! ]




At one point several pigs on motorcycles tried running through our ranks from behind. Locking arms, and with much pushing, we were able to prevent them from passing for several moments while a few anarchists kicked their cycles, temporarily disabling one. We were closely followed by several obvious undercovers standing behind police lines and talked to cops and pointed out people in the crowd. Several U.S. flags were burned as well, receiving good responses from the crowd and massive booing when cops tried stamping out the fire.

[ pic: we don't need no water, let the mother fucker burn ]


[ pic: police trying to run through the black bloc ]




Anti-choice bigots
Rows of motorcycle cops protecting ignorant moralists, right-wing extremists, and religious fundamentalists(seperation of church and state?). Numbering in the hundred or so at best, they made disgusting attempts to startle people by showing doctored photos of messed up aborted fetuses, catering to blind emotions and moralism instead of providing rational arguments. Most were uttering ridiculous prayers and religious dogma. They were met with a rowdy bunch of radicals who and got up in their faces and made out with each other. A few water balloons were chucked at their signs on their trucks during the march.

[ pic: Bigots / getting up in their faces ]


Mad dancing / flag waving on truck
Several anarchists climbed a nearby truck and proceeded to wave black flags, fill the air with colorful bubbles, play drums and dance joyfully, contributing to the festivity of the event. Press people also climbed aboard after realizing that was the most fantastic view of the rally with crowds of people spanning as far as the eye can see in every direction. We expected to eventually be kicked off the truck by the pigs, but we had more to worry about the mainstream liberal organizers. The 'security' for the march, composed by authoritative march organizers, demanded that people get off the ban. Even though the crowds were digging it and press people were taking some of the best photos of the rally, the mainstream organizers actually called the cops on us. When we asked them to join us, they gave us the finger. Who's side are they on? Later on they had paid volunteers to circle the fan for hours, physically preventing people from climbing the van. Someone attached a sign that said 'you may take our lives but never our truck!', which really irked the authoritative march organizers.

[ pic: waving that black flag on the truck ]


Festive dance circles

During the rally, several drum circles broke out by where the black bloc / radical cheerleaders were hanging out. People started playing all sorts of random instruments and danced about in a very lively festive fashion. It was a very empowering experience and even some older people not part of the radical contingent joined in. Everyone we talked to later today said that the presence of energetic young people was an inspiring sight to see.

[ pic: festive dance circles ]


Conclusions
The placement of both events on following days helped foster discussion between issues. The streets were flooded in days in advance of people coming down for the March for Women's Lives. This helped bridge the gap between these linked struggles against patriarchy and global capitalism, since these issues are tightly linked - it's all one struggle.

Because the WB/IMF demonstration were less militant then previous actions, the corporate media has tried to spin it saying that the anti-corporate globalization movement is dying and becoming irrelevent. Turn off your TV. The streets of DC were filled with creative resistance, and the actions were a very empowering experience to those who attended. Joyful dancing and festivity can be a more uniting, empowering experience than smashing windows. Even though there was little direct action or property destruction, it does not mean that this were not effective actions. In the words of Emma Goldman, "If I can't dance, then it's not my revolution".

Report-back from HackThisSite.org. Photographs courtesy of fetusinbloom.com(more pics available there).

Please add comments, personal accounts, and photos if they are related to some of the above events.