2007-03-18

March 18th 2007 Heiligendamm

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THE 'BLOCK G8' CAMPAIGN CONCEPT FOR A MASS BLOCKADE OF THE G8 SUMMIT IN HEILIGENDAMM

On June 6 2007, we want to - and will - massively and effectively blockade the opening of the G8 Summit, the meeting of the heads of government of the world's 8 most powerful states, in Heiligendamm, near Rostock in Germany.

With blockades of civil disobedience in which thousands of people from different political, social and cultural backgrounds can participate, we will express a unmistakable "NO!" against the G8. A radical "NO!" which cannot be ignored. A public, offensive and practical expression of the lack of legitimacy of the G8 and their policies of neoliberal, globalised capitalism; of wars; of social and racist exclusion; and of environmental destruction. We will actively disrupt the G8, occupying and blockading the streets required by the diplomats, translators and supply vehicles to reach Heiligendamm. We want to practically and effectively stop the Summit and cut it off from its infrastructure.

The central expression of our blockade will be to show that thousands of highly diverse people have decided, together, to personally - and with their bodies - blockade the Summit. Many will announce their participation in the blockade publicly, showing their names and faces. Regardless of how and where we arrive at the camps and on the streets around Heiligendamm, we have a common project: One mass blockade with diverse cultural articulations. Those not organised in groups - and without blockading experience - will also be able to participate and receive the solidarity of others. There will be no limits to our creativity. We see the connection between the functionality and political articulation of the mass blockade as important. The 'Überflüssigen' (i.e. 'The Superfluous' - a direct action group who have been visible in many of the social protests in Germany over the past few years) with their red sweatshirts and white face-masks have already announced their intended presence, rebel clowns will also be there, as will samba drummers. Colourful does not mean black, but black belongs to colourful.

We come from the environmental and anti-nuclear movement; the counter-globalisation networks and the radical left; from non-violent action groups and antifascist milieu; from political party and trade union youth organisations and church groups. We want to bring our diverse blockading experience at anti-nuclear waste (CASTOR) transports, anti-war actions, nazi demonstrations and previous summit protests together in Heiligendamm - as a powerful and determined mass action with thousands of people and the methods of civil disobedience.

Our objective is to blockade. Therefore, we will overcome the police's barriers; pushing them out of the way, going around them, or cannily flowing through them. We will not allow ourselves to be stopped, distracted, or to get embroiled in the police's possible strategy of escalation. Our objective is to reach our blockading destinations. Our protection is our concept of diversity, mass participation and desired (media and other) publicity. We need sleeping bags and everything required for 24 hours on the blockades. There are lots of people who will simply sit down and blockade the street with their bodies. In addition, there are people who will remain standing, linking arms in chains and using foam and balloons to protect their bodies. Some will push back against those attempting an eviction, to make it more difficult for them. All these different blockade forms will show solidarity with each other and will not endanger one another. We will remain together and hold our common position. Through the means of civil disobedience, we will resist by showing solidarity. We do not want to injure anyone. We will effectively and enduringly blockade the Summit.

GET INVOLVED WITH 'BLOCK G8'

Register in your media and/or in a 'Declaration of Intent' that you support the 'Block G8' campaign. Produce publicity for 'Block G8', organise events and collect supporters.

Build blockade groups locally and prepare for the Summit. Be creative and organise action trainings. The better prepared, the more effective the blockade.

If you are not sure if you will find the time to take part in the blockades of the G8 Summit, declare your solidarity with the actions of the 'Block G8' campaign and support us with a donation.

The 'Block G8' campaign is one of many concepts for blockading the G8 which we support in their different action forms in different locations around Heiligendamm. We will, therefore, share responsibility for co-ordinating the overall choreography of blockading activities.

www.block-g8.org
info@block-g8.org

THE CALL

BLOCK G8
MOVE. BLOCK. STAY.
At the beginning of June 2007, the heads of state and government of the eight largest economic powers will come together for the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm near Rostock.As an act of civil disobedience, we will blockade this Summit.
Our reason: The politics of the G8 stand for neoliberal, globalised capitalism, which dramatically increases the gap between the rich and poor worldwide. With the ""Block G8" campaign, we say ""No!"" and reject the legitimacy of the G8!

Different initiatives and movements are calling for resistance to the Summit. People from around the globe will articulate their protest through a diverse range of actions. The ""Block G8" campaign is one part of this. Take part in the protest actions and take a stand against the politics of the G8!

RESISTANCE AGAINST THE G8 - FOR A GLOBALISATION FROM BELOW
In June 2007, the voice of the powerful will not be the only one to be heard: Tens of thousands of people from around the globe will gather to demonstrate against the G8 and to take action together. Almost every milieu of the globalisation-critical movement have been called upon to protest. The other world will make its voice loud and clear and stand up for a globalisation from below: for equal rights; for political and cultural rights for all human-beings; for the right to global freedom of movement; for the responsible use of natural resources worldwide; for the guaranteeing of public spaces and goods; and for global social justice.

MASS AND LASTING BLOCKADES - WE'VE COME, AND WE'RE HERE TO STAY!
The ""Block G8"" campaign are organising blockades as an action of civil disobedience in which thousands of people from different political, social and cultural backgrounds can take part. Together, through these actions, we articulate a clear ""No!"" towards the G8. In doing so, however, we will not only demonstrate; we will actively block the G8 and the access roads to the conference centre over which the staff of diplomats, translators and service providers need to pass in order to get to Heiligendamm. We will not leave these access roads voluntarily, because our action is not intended to remain symbolic. We want to actually and effectively block the G8 Summit and cut it off from its infrastructure: We've come, and we're here to stay!

During the actions, we want to create a situation which is transparent for all the blockaders and in which the participants in the action show solidarity by taking care and supporting each other. Everybody needs to take responsibility for the success of powerful and decided blockades and mutually respect the borders and the protest cultures of all the participants. Potential police brutality, for example during the eviction of a blockade, has to be resisted, together, by showing solidarity and using the methods of civil disobedience.

TOGETHER AGAINST THE G8 SUMMIT
Behind the concept of the mass blockades there are groups, organisations and individuals belonging to: the environmental and anti-nuclear movement; the globalisation-critical networks and the radical left; from non-violent action and autonomous antifascist groups; from the youth-wing of political parties and trade unions, as well as church groups. We bring diverse blockade experiences with us: from the anti-nuclear waste (CASTOR) transports in the Wendland (in North Germany), from the successful blockades of neo-nazi marches in Berlin, Kiel and Leipzig, from the ""Resist" campaign against the Iraq war, and from the protests against previous G8 summits.

The "Block G8" campaign understands itself as a part of a broad societal resistance against the G8. The mass blockades, therefore, will fit in with the other actions and demonstrations and be agreed upon with other groups and initiatives. Our actions build on the summit protests of previous years. In 1999 at the protests against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle it was possible, for the first time, through mass blockades and other actions, to delay the conference's opening ceremony for hours -- an event which resonated throughout the world and marked the arrival of the globalisation-critical movement. With the actions in Seattle, the first cracks in the project of neoliberal globalisation were shown. Let's enlarge these cracks together in Heiligendamm!

EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART! THERE ARE DIFFERENT POSSIBILITIES:
Declare your participation in the ""Block G8" campaign. Already, ahead of the Summit, we want to generate pressure against the G8 through thousands of declarations of intent. We want thousands of people to declare, as far as possible, that they will take part in the blockades in June 2007. State your solidarity. If you already know that you cannot go to Heiligendamm, express your solidarity with the blockaders by signing this declaration of solidarity. Form local groups and prepare, together, for blockades in Heiligendamm. The success of the blockades depend, amongst other things, on well-prepared groups and individuals. We offer trainings for action groups. Get in touch. Organise events near you. We will happily come and explain about the G8, to report on the idea behind the ""Block G8" campaign, to give an impression of the state of preparations and the possibility for taking part in actions.

MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT: WWW.BLOCK-G8.ORG

THE G8 SUMMITS ARE A SYMBOL. They serve those in government as a demonstration of their power. Their news reports: There is no alternative to the new world order. With our action, we want to clearly reject the apparent lack of alternatives.

AT THE G8 SUMMIT, POLITICS ARE CONCRETELY MADE AND COORDINATED; a politics in which the interests of big business and financial investors are central. Around the globe, the dramatic division between the rich and the poor is worsened; accompanied by the widespread dismantling of social and democratic rights. When the G8 talk about debt relief and aid programmes for the poor, they remain silent about the fact that hunger, poverty and indebtedness are the result of neoliberal, globalised capitalism. The politics of the G8 lead to the unabated destruction of the basic requirements for human life, secures the access of a few states to the majority of resources, and is ultimately imposed through wars.

THE G8 IS AN INSTITUTION WITHOUT LEGITIMACY. It is a Club of the governments of only eight states which arrogates to make decisions that affect the lived realities of people around the world. It is not about different policies being formulated at the G8 summits; far more it is about calling into question and rejecting the legitimacy of the G8 and its politics in general.

SUPPORT US WITH A DONATION

Preparing and seeing through blockades costs a lot of money: The printing of this flyer and other materials, action trainings, office costs, infrastructure during the actions and much more... Whether 5, 10, 25, 50 Euros or (gladly) more - every donation helps us to say, together with you, ""No!"" to the G8.

ACCOUNT FOR DONATIONS
Account Name: Block G8
Account No.: 400 870 0801
Sort Code (BLZ): 430 609 67
Bank Name: GLS Gemeinschaftsbank
THE "BLOCK G8" CAMPAIGN ARE:
X-tausendmal quer [Anti-nuclear civil disobedience network]
IG Metal (Trade Union) Youth Dessau
AVANTI - Project for an undogmatic left
BUKO - Federal Coordination for Internationalism
Antifascist Left Berlin
BASTA! Left Youth Lübeck
BUNDjugend [Youth Federation for the Protection of Nature and the Environment]
AKU Wiesbaden [Environmental Working Group Wiesbaden]
Fantômas magazine editors
IG Metal (Trade Union) Youth Halle
Antifa-KOK Düsseldorf and Area
Münster Institute for Theology and Politics
Green Party Youth Federal Steering Committee
Radical Left Nürnberg
Interventionist Left
IG Metal Youth Berlin
['solid] - the socialist youth
Antifascist Left International Göttingen
Workshop for Non-violent Action Baden
Activists from attac
Junge Linke.PDS Sachsen [Left Party.PDS (Youth) Sachsen]
Pax Christi - Commission for Global Economy, Ecology and Social Justice
Kairos Europa
FelS (Für eine linke Strömung) Berlin [FelS (For a leftwing Current) Berlin]
Organisierte Linke Karlsruhe [Organised Left Karlsruhe]
Vereinte Linke Laustiz [United Left Lausitz]
Anti-G8 Plattform München [Anti-G8 Platform Munich]
AK Interntationalismus München
Freitagskafe München
solid.org - Organisierung linker Basisgruppen [solid.org - Organisation of
leftwing grassroots groups]
Gipfelsoli Infogruppe [Summit Solidarity Info Group]
Sozialistische Jugend - die Falken LV Berlin [Socialist Youth - the Falken
Berlin]
IG BAU - Ortsverband Hamburg-Nord [Industrial Trade Union for Construction,
Agriculture and Environment - Hamburg North, Local Union]
Widerstandsgruppe Worms-Wonnengau (WWW) [Resistance Group Worms-Wonnengau
(WWW)]
['solid] Nidersachsen
Autonome Jugendantifa Nürnberg (AJA) [Autonomous Youth Antifa Nürnberg (AJA)]
IG Metall (Trade Union) Youth Erfurt
Antifa-Soest
Social Forum Saar
Pax Christi Trier
Ecumenical Network Rhein-Mosel-Saar

CONTACT
Kampagne Block G8
Nernstweg 32
22765 Hamburg
Germany

info@block-g8.org
www.block-g8.org

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the blanket: Damned by Debt Relief

In July 2005, when the leaders of the world's 8 wealthiest nations (the G8) announced their decision to cancel the debt of 18 of the world's poorest nations, Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof gave thanks on behalf of the 'people without a voice', describing the offer as a 'victory for millions'. With the stroke of a pen many of the world's poorest people would, in Geldof's words, 'wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny'. While few, outside a handful of super rich celebrities, actually bought into Geldof's claim of 'mission accomplished', the G8 deal was effectively sold through the western media as an important milestone in the struggle against global poverty. Yet amidst all the back slapping of the G8/Live 8 jamboree, it's striking that nobody was asking ordinary people from indebted nations what they thought about it all.
The exclusion of ordinary Africans, Asians and South Americans from most media discussions around global poverty is the starting point for a new documentary, shot in Ghana, one of the beneficiaries of the G8 deal. Worldwrite's Damned by Debt Relief (www.worldwrite.org), filmed by a young volunteer crew, takes a critical look at the impact of debt relief and poverty reduction strategies from the point of view of ordinary Ghanaians, while delivering a broadside to the smug complacency of the 'mission accomplished' brigade. A welcome antidote to 'poverty awareness' films like Orphans of Nkandla (www.makepovertyhistory.org/video), Damned by Debt Relief makes the case for a fairer distribution of the world's resources through the power of argument. Making no appeal to sentimentality, the overriding emotion is anger, not pity.
'This is the fact about debt relief. It does not deliver development and it also denies us the freedom to pursue development'. For people like DeRoy Kwesi Andrew, a science teacher based in Accra, the much-hyped G8 deal has delivered no worthwhile benefits, while seriously undermining local attempts to break the cycle of poverty through development. Andrew angrily dismisses the G8 deal as rubbish: 'Debt relief has given us nothing but it has taken away very much: our independence, our ability to develop, our self respect.....take away your debt relief, Bob Geldof, get off our backs!'
While many in the West remain divided on the causes of global poverty, most believe that the industrialised nations have, at the very least, a humanitarian duty to alleviate its worst effects. So when, at the height of last year's Live 8/ G8 awareness raising campaign, UK Chancellor Gordon Brown expressed 'outrage' at levels of poverty and infant mortality in Africa, his anger seemed to give voice to a mounting sense of frustration among many in the West, who, twenty years on from Live Aid, were seeing countries like Ghana collapse further and further into what appeared to be irredeemable poverty. For some, western aid was part of the problem because it encouraged ever greater levels of dependency among the poor, while financing avarice and corruption among Africa's ruling elites. For many, however, Africa's growing poverty was, at least in part, a consequence of its indebtedness, where poor sub Saharan countries were transferring around $30 million a day in repayments to western development banks, in the context of tens of thousands dying each day from diseases associated with poverty. From this perspective DeRoy Kwesi Andrew's repudiation of the G8 deal seems incomprehensible.
In summer 2005, as the G8 gathered at Gleneagles, Make Poverty History (MPH), an alliance of individuals, NGOs, celebrities, politicians and trade unionists, was mobilising public opinion, to pressurise world leaders to 'fulfil their obligations and promises to eradicate poverty' . Given that the industrialised nations currently consume around 86% of the world's resources, while almost a fifth of the world exists on less than $2 a day, MPH was pushing at an open door, highlighting the sheer injustice of institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund endlessly extracting billions of dollars in interest from the poorest of the poor. But instead of pushing the case for a substantial transfer of economic and technological resources, which would open up opportunities for the world's poorest nations to aspire to decent living standards and real political power, the MPH campaign focused instead on the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UN endorsed poverty reduction targets, promising only minimal healthcare and primary education to the very poorest, alongside the halving of $1a day poverty and hunger by 2015. In other words, if every single MDG target were to be met over the next 10 years, hundreds of millions throughout the world would continue to suffer extreme poverty, while millions more simply survived at the most basic level.
According to Damned by Debt Relief, countries like Ghana are not simply facing the challenges of economic poverty at home but are further constrained by a poverty of expectation among donor nations in the West. For in order to qualify for debt relief, Ghana has been forced to draft poverty reduction strategies, agreeing social and economic targets dictated by western governments and aid agencies, which are orientated towards implementation of MDGs, aimed at the alleviation of poverty rather than economic growth. Although local taxes have risen to 'match fund' delivery of new poverty reduction programmes, development is restricted to low cost, community orientated schemes, which neither build the productive capacity of the nation nor work towards universal access to water, electricity, health care and higher education- the kind of public services we in the West take for granted.
According to journalist, Kwesi Pratt, editor of Insight magazine, the most negative impact of debt relief has been this loss of economic sovereignty, where foreign organisations determine how money is to be spent and everything rotates around what the donor wants, which in almost every case is small scale and localised rather than much needed investment in infrastructure, agriculture or industry,
Adding insult to injury, debt relief has not generated any new revenue streams for countries like Ghana, as the G8's much vaunted $72 billion debt write off simply represented a transfer of funds from G8 Treasuries into the vaults of the international banking system. Not a single cent will be invested into poor nations, and yet, while no new money is available, the G8 debt relief programme is reinforcing inequalities between rich and poor nations, where powerful international banks and aid agencies call the shots. As Kwesi Pratt points out, countries like Ghana with Highly Indebted Poor Country status are being told, 'You owe us so much, we are not going to take the money from you, you generate the money yourself through taxation, through your productive activity, don't pay it to us, keep it, but we are going to tell you how to invest that money.'
Demonstrating a nostalgia for the good old days of the Victorian Workhouse, 'donor approved investments', like the waterless toilet blocks serving 27,000 people in Ajumako-Bisease, provide worthy targets for the film makers' derision. Staffed by an elderly 'volunteer' cleaner not even equipped with basic materials to effectively carry out her work, the toilet block is proudly branded with the rainbow logo which denotes 'highly indebted nation status', otherwise known as a national declaration of bankruptcy. The rainbow logo turns up again and again on everything from rubbish bins to local cottage industries, where women engage in low skill, small scale manufacturing, financed by cold as charity loan schemes, which offer pitiful amounts of start up capital and from which men, being labelled un-creditworthy, are excluded.
For millionaire celebrities, World Bankers, UN and G8 political leaders, it's easy to grasp the appeal of low rent poverty reduction programmes like these, but less clear why trade unionists and anti poverty activists have embraced conservative political projects, which seek to lift half the world's poor from abject to grinding poverty within ten years. Perhaps the answer lies in a political culture, which, admitting no value in the material benefits it enjoys, adopts a romantic view of other people's poverty. So here in the relatively prosperous West, where industrialisation has already delivered highways, homes and hospitals, we believe we can afford some complacency, but, as this film shows, for the poor of Ghana, without sufficient infrastructure to support industrial or agricultural development, getting back to nature quite literally means scratching a living off the land.
For Nash Kwadjo Abbey, a community worker from Amamole village, near Accra, the need for industrial and economic development is a matter of life and death. Abbey demonstrates a building made from mortar and thatch, a family home, where a roof recently collapsed in heavy rains, killing a small child. 'What do people want? Concrete buildings with good roofing, zinc or slate. People need industries, good infrastructure. We need change.' 'What's your ambition?' one of the filmmakers asks a market trader selling imported shoes in Accra. 'I want to travel', she smiles 'but I don't have the money to travel, so I'm staying here!'
Socialists from my father's generation were inspired by a belief that scarcity and human need could be eradicated, not by forcing humanity back to nature, but through harnessing the power of human ingenuity and production for the benefit of all. For thousands of millions of people around the world, technological advances have already delivered improvements against almost every objective measure of human experience from life expectancy to daily food intake to infant mortality rates. Before industrialisation, where at least 200 out of every 1,000 children died in their first year, infant mortality globally is now down to 57 in every 1,000 thanks to advances in nutrition, hygiene and medical care. In terms of technological and political achievements, humanity owes a great debt to previous generations and still has much to be proud of in the present day; and yet a consensus is growing around claims that industrial development has made the world more dangerous and less hospitable. The new philosophy of 'scaling back' threatens to turn back the clock for thousands of millions, while trapping millions more at unacceptable levels of deprivation, hunger and disease.
Damned by Debt Relief contributes to one of the most important debates of our time, opening up contemporary orthodoxies to challenges from those who are not only excluded from the benefits of progress but don't even get to join in the debate. Its time we started listening and maybe asking a few awkward questions of our own, about the progressive credentials of political and social movements, which appeal to some of the most conservative instincts in society; those who desire to sustain human dependency and vulnerability to nature.
Pauline Hadaway • Fourthwrite, Winter 2006

http://www.worldwrite.org.uk
http://www.makepovertyhistory.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality
http://lark.phoblacht.net/PH130307.html

[http://www.jpberlin.de/badespasz/presse/wp/?p=644]

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Make multitude, make autonomy, make worlds

Venice, March 30, 31 and April 1 | 2007
Global Meeting : Program
Saturday March 10th, 2007

Hacer multitud, construir autonomia, crear mundos
Venice, March 30, 31 and April 1 | 2007
Centro Sociale Rivolta - Piazzale Carlo Giuliani - Marghera

By Globalproject in collaboration with Associazione Ya Basta and Uninomade
Three days of meetings and workshops with the aim of collectively building knowledge, thought, and projects within and against Empire.

Friday March 30
From 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. - Recording of participants
11.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. - Grand opening with the presentation of Global Meeting's political purpose.
Panels

Friday, March 30th
3.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.
"Latin America, lower left: autonomous routs of social movements"
Coordinator: Luis Hernández Navarro - Editor of "La Jornada" - Mexico
Sebastián Scolnik - Situaciones - Argentina
Cesar Altamira - Professor - Argentina
Ricardo Montoya - Activist - Colombia
Jose Heriberto Salas Amac - Fronte del Popolo in Difesa della Terra, Salvator Atenco - Mexico
Marc Villà - Communication operator - Venezuela
Gilvânia Ferreira da Silva - Director of MTS, Maranhao - Brasil
David Alejandro Suarez Changuan - Professor, University of Quito - Ecuador Oscar Olivera - Coordinadora de defensa del Agua y la Vida - Bolivia

9.00 p.m. to 11.00 p.m.
"Asia: subjects and conflicts in the whirl of capitalistic development"
Coordinator: Sandro Mezzadra, Professor, Univerty of Bologna (Italy)
Ranabir Samaddar - Professor, South Asian Forum for Human Rights - India
Wang Hui - Professor, Tsinghua University Beijing - China
Chukki Nanjundaswamy - President of Krrs Organization of agricultures Karnataka - India
Brett Nielson - Professor, University of Technology, Sydney - Australia
Saturday, March 31st

9.00 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.
"USA: social struggles within neo-con crisis"
Stanley Aronowitz - Distinguished Professor of Sociology, City University of New York - USA
Heather Gautney - Assistant professor of sociology, Towson University, Maryland - USA
Ashanti Alston - Critical Resistance - USA

11.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
Mediterranean Shores. European borders
"Middle East: Can there be a future of rights against war, occupation, apartheid and fundamentalism?"
Coordinator: Michele Giorgio - Journalist
Musthapha Barghouti - Almubadara - Palestine
Yitzhak Laor - Writer - Israel
Alaa Abd El Fattah - Activist and webmaster of www.manalaa.net - Egypt
Uri Gordon - Anarchists against the wall - Israel
"Turkey-Kurdistan: the enlargement of EU. Extension of rights or new form of repression and control?"
Coordinator: Orsola Casagrande - Journalist
Yuksel Genç - Writer and activist - Kurdistan
Ertugrul Kürkçü - Journalist and curator of Bianet - Turkey

From 15.30 p.m.
"Europe: the building of a constituent political space for struggle and self-government"
Mobilisations against G8 Summit (June 2007 - Rostock Germany)
Delegations from European movements shall attend the meeting.

From 10.00 p.m
Assalti Frontali, LaKermés VJ+DJ Fighting Club
Sunday, April 1st

From 10 a.m and all morning long, the spaces of Global Meeting are available for meetings and deepenings.

From 14.00 p.m - Happening - General meeting
We shall start off from a global reading of the "Italian anomaly": mobilisations against the new US army base in Vicenza - as well as many other struggles in the name of the commons, the environment and territory, citizenship rights, against detention centres - show the renewed energy of social movements. The real autonomy of such routes puts an end to all kinds of hypocrisy and reopens an attitude of confrontation for all those who do not accept subordinating the development of conflicts to the logics of power and the work of institution.
Web-page: www.globalproject.info E-mail: globalmeeting@globalproject.info

[http://www.globalproject.info/art-10902.html]

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Hot news from Convergence Center Rostock:
Intergalactical subversion now!

In the past two weeks interesting things happened in Rostock. Municipal
authorities granted an empty school in Evershagen(Suburb) to the
protest-movement, with the condition that there have to be people living
in the building to protect it from vandalism!? Knowing about the rather
uncertain room/place-situation in Rostock, convergence center crew took
this first possibilty and entered concrete/the school on mid march.
Unfortunetly the school has been ripped/ "made empty" before giving the
key to us, only leaving an intention to get the school and the yard
running for resistance till (before) summit-time! So from now on BE
WELCOME to support or visit us! Places to sleep and spaces for workshops
should be no problem anymore.

feel the summit-fever

con - verge : get close, get to know each other, walk together!

Get started! contact: cc-rostock(supposed to be @)riseup.net

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Greenpeace sends protest ship to G8 climate change talks

Potsdam, Germany (dpa) - A ship from the environmental organization Greenpeace sailed to within sight of the venue where environment ministers from the world's leading industrial nations began discussions near Berlin Friday on how to combat climate change.
Sailing on Lake Jungfernsee in Potsdam, south-west of the German capital, the ship carried the slogan "Stop talking - act now" on its sail.
It positioned itself in front of the Schloss Cecilienhof Hotel, where the Group of Eight ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Britain, Japan, the US and Russia are meeting with their counterparts from India, China, Mexico Brazil and South Africa.

[http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=4741]

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German Counter-Terrorism Agency Sees G8 Summit As Likely Attack Target

Text of report by German newspaper Die Welt website on 17 March
[Unattributed report: "BKA Sees G8 Summit as Most Likely Target"]

Despite the latest threats by video, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation does not consider additional security measures in Germany to be necessary. Among other things, the BKA is worried about globalization opponents, right-wing radicals, and Internet crime.
Following the latest Islamist video message on the Internet, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation sees an increased terror danger. But at the same time, President Joerg Ziercke warned against dramatizing the situation. "There is no cause for panic," he said at the annual press conference in Wiesbaden. The BKA does not feel that significantly more extensive measures to avert the danger are necessary. But according to Ziercke, the distance from the United States, the UK, and Israel in the threat by Islamist terrorists has narrowed and the abstract threat has increased further. The BKA says the video message seized on 10 March with the call on Austria and Germany to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan reveals no concrete evidence of attacks. However, a threat situation has developed that could serve fanaticized individual perpetrators or groups as a source of legitimacy for an attack.

Ziercke and the "Digital Quantum Leap"
Ziercke called for a reorganization of bugging operations. Following the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2004, acoustic residential surveillance came to an almost complete halt. Consequently, he now proposed that in the future the recordings from a residential surveillance would be presented to a judge who would then decide which parts the police may use.
In addition, the BKA president reiterated his demand for online searches of computers with a court order. "The digital quantum leap in virtual space demands new police methods of procuring information," Ziercke said. He claims online investigation is necessary because criminals are increasingly using the Internet for exchange and planning. The confiscation of computers no longer yields anything since data are now stored on the Internet and protected by passwords. Prosecution is only possible "if we succeed in intercepting data online." In 2005 there were 62,000 criminal offences recorded with information and communication technology and 118,000 offences using the Internet. The Internet plays a central role in, for example, child pornography. In 2005 there were 8,200 cases involving 6,400 suspects, a rise of 13.2 per cent. Besides the mostly no-cost traditional exchange of child pornography on the Internet, since 2000 the BKA has observed a growing market in commercial websites.

G8 Summit at the Top of the List
The BKA also notes that the Internet is increasingly being used as a means to commit crimes. One variant is to use spam e-mails to install Trojans on third-party PCs, department head Juergen Maurer said. Using the disguised programmes, an offender can use other computers for his purposes such as connecting them together unnoticed to paralyse company servers with massive inquiries. Using this power, the perpetrator can then blackmail the firms concerned. In the area of terrorism, the G8 state summit scheduled for the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm is right at the top of the list of potential attack targets. The agency is assuming a continuation of the "militant campaign" initiated last August. Thus far, leftist militant groups have committed 78 criminal offences nationwide. These included 18 arson attacks, eight in Hamburg and five in Berlin.
According to WELT ONLINE information, the number of right-wing extremist criminal acts rose considerably last year. An increase in so-called propaganda offences is primarily responsible for this. One reason for this, according to the BKA, could be that such acts were simply noticed more than before because of the strong police presence, for example at the soccer World Cup. A rising trend was also observed in violent acts. The right-wing scene is growing increasingly self-confident, said Klaus Wittling, the BKA department head for police state security. He said the new self-confidence among the right-wing can be seen in the increasingly public scenes of crimes and provocative action precisely in leftist neighbourhoods or alternative strongholds. Evidence of stronger structures of a "right-wing terrorism" was not recorded. But non-prohibited right- wing extremist parties formed a "people's front" and are working together more intensively than before.

Source: BBC Monitoring European

[http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/872895/german_counterterrorism_agency_sees_g8_summit_as_likely_attack_target/index.html?source=r_technology]

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Donations for the G8-Summit anti-repression work

In the face of the police's threats it is really necessary for the left movement to prepare for the coming repression before the summit and to collect donations for the anti-repression work we will have to do. The Rote Hilfe ("Red Aid"), a leftist solidarity organisation with nearly 40 groups all over Germany, reckons that a five-digit euro-sum will be needed for solidarity work for trials only. This is why the whole left movement has to make joint efforts in solidarity work. Experience from previous summits shows that the fight against the criminalisation of activists requires much energy for a long time and especially very much money. Everybody can show solidarity by donations - NOW.

Donations within Germany:
Rote Hilfe e.V.
Konto 191 100 462
BLZ 440 100 46
Postbank Dortmund
Stichwort: "G8 Gipfel"

Donations outside of Germany:
Rote Hilfe e.V.
IBAN: DE75 4401 0046 0191 1004 62
SWIFT-BIC: PBNKDEFF
Postbank Dortmund
Purpose: "G-8 Summit"
If you are sending donations from outside of the EU please make group or joint contributions of at least 50 euros. Otherwise only the banks will receive anything as the fees are very high.

[http://www.rote-hilfe.de/ueber_uns/spenden/donations]