Today’s Preliminary AFB Ysterplaat Anti-War Protest, reportback

Okay, so here is what happened this morning.

After some initial car trouble, we eventually got to AFB Ysterplaat, a little later than planned , parked outside and then donned Food Not Bombs T-shirts, proceeding to picket the entrance while more cars filled with military types and I guess, some “arms dealers” drove past into the base.

Then a huge contingent of kitskonstabels arrived with one rather scrawny dog. A cameraman and reporter from the Cape Times luckily pitched up before anything nasty could happen and the presence of a very large camera stopped what could have been an awkward situation. One comrade then decided to attach a Food Not Bombs banner to one of the SADF poles and was surrounded by some burly men.

She then engaged about fifty officers in a discussion around the metaphysics of revolt and the machinations of the peace movement including the problematic notion of resistance to war versus peoples power. We managed to hold our ground for about 45 minutes after which the gathering crowd got tired of us and a very large man with lots of badges and shiny stuff on his lapels decided to read me the riot act. I was told to move 50 metres away from the base and after looking at his incredibly large cannon I chose to call it a day and regroup my comrades somewhere else.