2006-11-29

11. November Bewegung: BLOCK GERMANY

However, it is indubitable that as a movement our strength lies in our ability to innovate, and that the current proposals for Heiligendamm offer nothing but a repetition of tactics which have over recent years become increasingly ineffective, as the forces of order learnt from their mistakes and our internal weaknesses began to show through. For us it is clear that if the Heiligendamm G8 counter-summit goes as planned - with its array of single-issue demos, its symbolic blockade which will block nothing, and its camp which can be encircled by the cops at the slightest pretext - it will go down in history as the self-managed burial of the anti-globalisation movement.

We disagree with the alternative proposal of the "22nd of October Collective": to remain in our "own" cities or countries and fight locally misses what is most fruitful about mass gatherings. We need to make a camp in the vicinity of Heiligendamm in order to meet, discuss, get organized and feel our collective strength. We also need to engage in actions which test this strength and inspire new potential. But the relation between mass-gathering and mass-action has to be reconsidered, with the former functioning as a point from which to emerge rather than a base to which we retreat, and to which we become bound.

Recent years have shown the preeminence of tactics aimed at blocking the flows of commodities and capital. It is as if the relentless pace of globalization has become unbearable, and everyone can feel that the only reasonable response is to jam the machine. We can see from recent struggles in France, Bolivia, Algeria and Argentina that the only way to block them, is for us to be mobile. We must be free to move to places where we can be most effective. But above all, we must be clear that if we limit our action to blocking the delivery of supplies to a meeting whose organizers have such huge resources of time and money with which to prepare themselves, then we will be sacrificing ourselves for a goal which falls drastically short of our potential. We must raise our sights from an impractical and insufficient blockade of a lonely hotel on the Baltic sea, to blocking the economy, to blocking Germany. Also, only by opening up our struggle in such a way do we stand a chance of out-maneuvering the massive security force which will be mobilized against us.

In view of this we propose to massively congregate in the proposed camp 10 days before the start of the G8, to meet and plan together in peace, but to preempt the opening of the G8 with a massive exodus, away from Rostock where there is nothing to block, away from the high-security hotel where the G8-leaders are already blocked, towards one or more centers of capital and state-power (e.g. Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt...). And there to engage in a day of blockades which will have more than just a symbolic effect. A series of such days of blockades would constitute a literal movement with a singular purpose: to block the motor of accumulation of which the G8-leaders are just the interchangeable masks.

This proposal will require much organizing activity, possibly more than people had hitherto envisaged for July, but as opposed to the alternative of blocking ourselves in a corner of Germany where we can block nothing, it at least stands a chance of success.

[11. November Bewegung]