2007-05-06

May 6th 2007, Heiligendamm

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[Update 23.00 MEZ: Only one person still arrested -- More information tomorrow]

Four still arrest after violent arrests of 100 bicycle demonstrators

100 participants in a peaceful bicycle demonstration violently arrested in Utrecht / NL: 4 people still arrested

*Pressrelease by the bicycle caavan info office in Rostock*

*Arrests clearly planned ahead by the police*
100 participants of a peaceful bicycle demonstration that was part of the bicycle caravan against the G8 were arrested in Utrecht yesterday in a planned and violent police action for not driving on the icycle path. They were kept in arrest under adverse circumstances - overcrowded cells, insufficient oxygen supply, without food - long into the night, their bicycles confiscated. Four people are still under arrest today, among them at least two member sof the bicycle caravan Gr8chaoskaravaan; one arrestee is being threatened with deportation and one is to remain arrested for two weeks for failing to pay a fine. None of the four remaining arrestees has had contact to a lawyer so far and it is not know where they are being kept.
Another caravan member was released but had his passport confiscated by the "foreigners police". The caravan info office protested against the criminalisation of protests actions ahead of the G8 summit and calls for solidarity actions "until everyone is out". Preparations for solidarity actions are currently taking place.

BACKGROUND:

The caravan and several supporters were leaving the town early saturday afternoon when the police closed in on them with batons drawn under the pretext that they had not used the bicycle path. The police assault took place without warning, very quickly and using a special unit. Due to the well prepared nature of the police action and the number of policemen involved, the caravan is sure that the action was clearly planned beforehand. "This action and the violence the police used against the peaceful bicycle protestors is untypical for the netherlands", Antje, a caravan member explains. "We can't find any other plausible explanation than this: That the protest against the G8 summit is to be criminalised and terrorized even ahead of the actual event."

The demonstrators were kept in overcrowded cells with little oxygen supply and no food long into the night. Their bicycles were cinfiscated and removed, the locks broken and the bikes themselves partly broken, although most of them were retrieved from the police depot today. The arrestees were accused of "heavy obstruction of road traffic" and were treated badly while under arrest; several people reported that the police threatened "we were tolerant today but don't participate in the action tomorrow or you'll really get to know us!". They were referring to an antiracist inspection of a deportation camp that the caravan wanted to participate in today. But the activists wouldn't let the police intimidate them - although mayn were too tired after the night in prison, a small delegation rode to the camp. Meanwhile preparations for solidarity actions are taking place in Utrecht and other towns. Activists had already called for solidarity actions yesterday. "The pretexts for arrests are becoming ever more hollow, the whole matter shows that any protest ahead of the G8 summit is unwanted and to be criminalised ahead. This is a massive interference with basic rights and we are not going to take it. We have called for solidarity actions until all prisoners are free and have their bicycles returned" says Andree Narres from the the info office of the bicycle caravans. The bicycle caravan had inteded to arrive in Nijmwegen later today where the local action days against the upcoming G8 summit are starting today. Now at least a part of the caravan will probably stay in Utrecht until the situation of the arrested caravan members has clarified.

Andree Narres: "The authorities aren't leaving anything undone to interfere with the caravan timetable. There are also fears that the caravans entry into Germany is to be made difficult by such criminalisation. An absurd scenario: To be denied entry for not having used a bicycle path!" exclaims Andree Narres. Germany wants to temporarily suspend the Schengen treaty to make it difficult or impossible for potential demonstrators to enter the country. Overall there are six caravans trying to draw attention to the protests against the upcoming G8 summit and protest issues such as migration, bio technology, environment, agriculture, social justice and civil rights as well as current struggles in these areas.

Information about the Gr8chaoskaravaan - western europe bicycle caravan against the G8 summit:
http://de.indymedia.org/2007/05/175412.shtml
Information about all bicycle caravans: http://dissentnetzwerk.org/wiki/Fahrradkarawanen_/_bicycle_caravans

Info office for all caravans
Karawanen-info-büro
G8-Protestzentrum Ehm-Welk-Schule
Knut Rassmussenstr. 108
18106 Rostock

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*21 - 22. 05* in Thueringen: The CARAVAN TOUR 2007 in Jena and Freienbessingen Refugee Lager Camp

The Central Call of the Caravan tour 2007:

we are here, because you destroy our countries solidarity against deportation for a world without exploitation, oppression and war

English:
pdf: call for the CARAVAN tour from mai 19 to june 4, 2007
http://thecaravan.org/files/caravan/Call_Tour_07_en.pdf
Deutsch:
Aufruf für die KARAWANE-TOUR vom 19.Mai bis zum 4. Juni 2007
pdf: http://thecaravan.org/files/caravan/Aufruf_Tour_07_de.pdf
http://thecaravan.org

Thueringen: CARAVAN 2007 TOUR - In Solidarity against Deportation
*21 - 22. 05* in Jena and Freienbessingen Refugee Camp
English & Deutsch; Programme: http://thevoiceforum.org/node/494

Nine years after the first caravan tour we call everyone for the third time to unite, stand up in solidarity with us against the system of exclusion, oppression and deportation in Germany. This time the Caravan tour takes place shortly before the meeting of the G8 - WAR Lord and the leaders in Heiligendamm -Germany with France, UK, USA, Russia, Canada, Italy and

When most of us: migrants; including refugees and migrants left our destroyed countries, we did not leave as free women and men. We were forced to leave by the unbearable and inhuman conditions that have been imposed on us there. Some people have acknowledged these conditions in various forms as hunger, wars, poverty, dictatorship and so on which has its root in the systems of exploitation, injustice and perpetual subjugation and eternal dehumanisation that have become the hallmarks of the world order that the imperialists G8 (the leading capital monopolists backed up by their states or governments) are imposing on us.

We are justified to say that the precursors of deportation are imperialism and capitalism. Deportation is an abuse of human right, an injustice perpetrated by the sadistic exploiters against the exploited who are hunted and slammed into the "Lager system" to face the deportation machinery with its weapons of manipulation, mind-bending, sexual abuses, exploitation, family separations and what have you. >>> http://thevoiceforum.org/node/492

Manifestation - Conference, Exhibition and Music

Programme: *21 - 22. 05* in Jena and Freienbessingen Refugee Camp

CARAVAN 2007 TOUR - In Solidarity against Deportation
*21 - 22. 05* in Jena and Freienbessingen - Thueringen: More info:
http://thevoiceforum.org

Also in Thüringen We Demand the Closure of All the Refugee Camps - Special the Freienbessingen Refugee Camp!

In Solidarity against Deportation for Deportation Stop! We reject the forceful isolation and exclusion of refugees for deportation! That we continue to campaign and protest, to struggle and to fight with every means possible against deportation! We demand the closure of all the refugee lager - camps and deportation prisons for deportation stop and for full residence for all!

Program - Thueringen: CARAVAN TOUR 2007 *21 - 22. 05* in Jena and Freienbessingen Lager Camp
Saturday, May, 19th to June, 1st 2007 in Jena: Exhibitions of Photography and Paintings by Activists from Thueringen and Berlin

Juliane Wedell: Here I am ! A Call from Outside Europe - Beyond the Spanish border in Morocco (Exhibition - Photo Project, see also:Info in Deutsch: http://thevoiceforum.org/node/443
Marco del Pra': Oury Jalloh protest Campaign (Photos)
African Arts and Symbols - The Works of the Togolese Painter Attikpasso Lawson from Erfurt

Saturday, May 19th 2007 at 19.00h: Official Opening by Osaren Igbinoba, Place: In Green House Library at Schillergäschen 5, Jena

May, 21st 2007
8.00 h: Welcome at Schillergässchen 5 in Jena
20.00 h: Conference: "No Compromise with Deportation! Racism Kills!" Podium discussion with the Caravan activists on mass deportation and the stay right propaganda of the IMK- Internal Ministers' Conference in Germany
Place:: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Ernst-Abbe-Platz/Carl-Zeiss-Str. 3

21.00h: Cultural Night - Live Band Music and DJs
Place: CALEIDOSPHERES Jena - Westbahnhof Gleis2/Ladestrasse 3

22nd 05.
9:00h: - 11.00h: Continuation of the discussion in Schillergässchen 5, Jena.
12.00h: Manifestation Holzmarkt in Jena
15.00h: Departure from Jena to Freienbessingen - Sonderhausen
16:00h: Freienbessingen: Manifestation with speaker's corner and live concert

Contact.: The VOICE Refugee Forum Jena Schillergässchen 5, 07745 Jena, Tel.: ++49 (0) 3641 - 6652 14
Mobile/Handy: ++49 (0) 176 24568988; Fax: ++49 (0) 3641 - 420 270
http://thevoiceforum.org, http://www.thecaravan.org

Call for the CARAVAN tour from Mai 19th to June 4th 2007: "We are here, because you destroy our countries! Solidarity against deportation! For a world without exploitation, oppression and wars!" http://thecaravan.org

Donation: The Voice e. V., Göttingen, KtoNR: 127 829, BLZ: 260 500 01, IBAN: DE97 2605 0001 000 1278 29; BIC: NOLADE21GOE, Bankinstitut: Sparkasse Göttingen. Stichwort: Karawanetour

we are here, because you destroy our countries
solidarity against deportation
for a world without exploitation, oppression and war

English:
pdf: call for the CARAVAN tour from mai 19 to june 4, 2007
http://thecaravan.org/files/caravan/Call_Tour_07_en.pdf
Deutsch:
Aufruf für die KARAWANE-TOUR vom 19.Mai bis zum 4. Juni 2007
pdf: http://thecaravan.org/files/caravan/Aufruf_Tour_07_de.pdf
http://thecaravan.org

Thueringen: CARAVAN 2007 TOUR - In Solidarity against Deportation
*21 - 22. 05* in Jena and Freienbessingen Refugee Camp
English & Deutsch;
Programme: http://thevoiceforum.org/node/494

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40 Years is Enough!
Six Days of Action against the Occupation of Palestine - June 6-12 2007
Global Day of Action - June 9 2007
Kibush 40 coalition - http://www.kibush40.org
The second week of June will mark forty years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is now the longest enduring military occupation in the world. While the Israeli government evades negotiations that would end the occupation and lead to a just peace, the lives of Palestinians continue to be crushed daily by closures and economic strangulation, their land confiscated for settlements and their communities made into prisons by the Segregation Wall.
At the same time, violence in the region continues to supply ideological fuel for the G8 governments in their 'War on Terror', explicitly declared as a never-ending, pre-emptive global war which justifies erasing civil liberties, supporting oppressive regimes, and attacking refugees and migrants. We are all victims of this war: in Palestine and Israel , in Iraq and in Colombia , in Germany and in the U.S.A.
With the occupation at forty it should be clear to all that its forceful hegemony cannot be resisted by established political means alone. This is both morally insufficient and doomed to practical failure. As a strategic and practical alternative, the "Occupation 40" coalition is calling for six days of actions to mark forty years of occupation, on June 6 to 12 2007. A Global Day of Action has also been called on June 9.
The coalition is a democratic and non-hierarchical action platform of grassroots Israeli groups and organizations. Peace organizations, artists, students' groups, internal refugees, anarchists, animal rights activists, communists and individuals participate in this initiative. The six-day convergence in Israel will include demonstrations, direct actions, discussions and cultural events.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available from http://www.boycottisrael.co.uk and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available at http://www.waronwant.org/download.php?id=443.
We hope that actions will be organized to be decentralized and trust them to the initiative and self-organization of affinity groups around the world.These days of action fit well into this summer's international action calendar:
• June 5 - An international day of action against militarization, wars and occupations, in the run-up to the G8 summit in Germany .
• June 6-8 - Protests against the G8, with the participation of Palestinian and Israeli activists and Palestine Solidarity groups from around Europe .
• June 6-12 - 6 days of action against the Occupation, in Palestine/Israel and Internationally
• June 9 - Rally in London , Global Day of Action Against the Occupation
• June 10-11 - Protest, teach-in and lobby in Washington DC
Please distribute this call widely, and please organise for action with your groups and networks. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine , and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.

Kibush 40 Coalition:
Anarchists Against the Wall - http://awalls.org
Coalition of Women for Peace - http://coalitionofwomen.org
Gush Shalom - http://gush-shalom.org
Hadash - http://hadash.org.il/
Indymedia Israel - http://israel.indymedia.org
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - http://icahd.org/
Machsom Watch - http://machsomwatch.org
Ta'ayush - http://taayush.org
Zochrot - http://nakbainhebrew.org

International links:
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USA) - http://endtheoccupation.org
Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid ( Canada ) - http://caiaweb.org
Enough Coalition ( UK ) - http://www.enoughoccupation.org