2009-03-09

March 9th 2009 Strasbourg/ Baden-Baden -- London -- La Maddalena -- Huntsville

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Make NATO summit in Baden Baden a desaster!

They talk about security and humanity but the result of their politics is war, torture and global militarisation. In early april the NATO wants to celebrate their 60. anniversary in Strasbourg and Baden Baden. They intend to conclude a new which - like the previous one - will conduce to the maintenance of the inequitable world economic order and is the effort to ensure their unobstructed access to the raw material- and energyresources of the world by military force. Thereby neither proactive wars nor the first-time use of atomic weapons is excluded.

With the integration of the US missile defense shield in Poland and Czechia the former block confrontation strategy of the NATO against russia - whose effects recently became apparent in Georgia - was revived. The militarisation of the EU is not an alternative to NATO but likewise a dangerous abberation.

NATO states, USA ahead, still make war on Irak. Germany with its US airbase in Ramstein is the logistic turntable of the military actions. With the increasingly agressive course of actions of the alliance in Afghanistan it shows more and more distinct what occupation armies bring about: They brutalize society, create more misery and more bombdead people. It is on the cards that even under the new US president the pressure on Germany to send out still more soldiers to Afghanistan will increase.

Nato geht Baden Baden (Nato comes a cropper with Baden Baden)

On the 3.4. in Baden Baden the annual military spectacle will open with a feast and a subsequent opera visit of the NATO heads of governments. A splendid opportunity to cook their goose and to get on their nerves right beside the meeting places, so that they won't believe their eyes when solemnly going to the opera. The choice of
Baden Baden with its glittering dainty-shops, all the 5-star hotels, the luxurious conference halls and the nearby located radio stations and TV broadcasters as favoured place for the opening events is also owed to police contemplations. The intention is to accomodate many of the delegationparticipants staying overnight compact at one place
and it is thought that it is relatively easy to protect them from protesters in the easy to close off Oosbachtal ('valley of the Oos stream').

We come to win

We want to turn the tables and let the ceremonial act not take place. Because the police and the organisers of the NATO-summit have got a problem. Their time scedule is extremly narrow. A lot of delegationparticipants will arrive at the last minute directly from the G20 summit in London - which will also be haunted by protests.

Such a military- and politics-show needs preparation, needs logistics. For Baden Baden alone 2000 delegates are expected who need to go to the city at some time, and therefore only 2 streets are provided and possible. We can be sure, that not only the many
hundreds and thousands of protesters but the police itself with their water canon vehicles and vacatingtanks will be the ones standing in the path of the summit.
Let us help them to shut down Baden Baden. We only have to be early enough to slow down the preparations, be well informed (about rat runs, meeting places, hotels etc.) and be well coordinated. It would be fine, if groups were to take part of the preparations just yet.
There are coordinating- and prepationmeetings at the dissent!-meeting and at the international actionconference in Strasbourg. The actual state of affairs and how you can chime in preparations in your region you can learn by writing to block-baden-baden@riseup.net.

On the day of the summit there will be an info point with rudimentary catering, with legal aid and sanitary facilities nearby the railway station of Baden Baden, where one can discuss the actual situation in a safe environment. There will be a demonstration starting at the info point leading to the conference hotel, which will be announced for a possible approachroute beginning at 6 am. To allow all activists to take part in the gatherings in Strasbourg, all gatherings in Baden Baden will end at 10 pm. We will organise few shuttle busses from Baden Baden to Strasbourg and back.

Above, all people participating at the protests will surely be glad about independent actions, not only in Baden Baden but also in adjacent sites of the summit as the hotel Bühler Höhe... , where you can pester the delegates.

With this protest we want to point the way against the misanthropic politics of the NATO

Looking forward to see you.... some snowed under

Source: http://www.block-baden-baden.int.tc/

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Basic Information: Antimilitarist Convergence Center in Freiburg

Before the protests against the NATO summit taking place on the 3rd and 4th of April 2009 in Strasbourg and Baden-Baden there will be a Convergence Center (CC) from the 25th to the 31st of March in Freiburg, in the south-west of Germany. The CC will serve as an infopoint and as a space to meet and connect for the activists coming to the protests in the region.
We offer space for accommodation, food, legal aid and assistance, medical aid, an independent media center and space to work preparing the protests. Moreover there should be lectures, discussions, talks and workshops.
To organize all this a lot of helping hands are needed. So at the 4th of March starting at 7 pm in the Autonomous Center KTS, Freiburg, the groups taking part will inform about the CC to invite helpers. The evening will be started with a delicious bio-vegan dinner.

Antimilitarist Convergence Center Freiburg

Before the protests against the NATO summit taking place on the 3rd and 4th of April 2009 in Strasbourg and Baden-Baden there will be a Convergence Center (CC) from the 25th to the 31st of March in Freiburg, in the south-west of Germany. After the CC there are plans for camps as well as meetingpoints near the locations of the NATO summit. The Anti-NATO-Plenum in Freiburg will organize bus shuttles to these camps and meetingpoints.

The CC will serve as an infopoint and as a space to meet and connect for the activists coming to the protests in the region. We offer space for accommodation, food, legal aid and assistance, medical aid, an independent media center and space to work preparing the protests. Moreover there should be lectures, discussions, talks and workshops. Antimilitarist action days as well as a demonstration in Freiburg supported by the CC are planned for the end of March. For further information visit our homepage: http://www.kts-freiburg.org/cc

Infopoint

There will be at least one infopoint, where you can get information like what is planned when and where. There will be nice people knowing the place (where to sleep…), maps of the town and the region as well as a Newsticker about what has happened.

Independent Media Center (IMC)

Indymedia linksunten will set up an Independent Media Centre in the CC before and during the summit. From here, part of the media work for the protests against the summit will be co-ordinated. You can write your articles here, create indy-prints, edit video or publish photos. http://linksunten.indymedia.org

Vegan Activist-kitchen

The activists kitchen will prepare warm food each evening and a breakfast buffet all day long. We cook vegan and for donations. Helpers and food donations are always needed and welcome.
Contact: diy-kueche@no-log.org
No food no fight! – No helpers no food!

Legal team & Rote Hilfe

During the days of the CC as well as the protests against the summit of the NATO the group of the Rote Hilfe (legal team) working in the KTS will be active. We will help and support activists and comrades being affected by repression with legal, psycological and moral assistance. Moreover we offer profound information, pamphlets and brochures against repression and about the current laws.
Further and general information about the Red Aid: http://www.rote-hilfe.de / and the Legal Team: http://www.ermittlungsausschuss.antifa.net
And as usual: No statements to the cops and justice institutions! Solidarity is our weapon!

Activists-Workshop

To prepare for a good protest, there will be space at different places for all the craftswomen and men among us. Useful materials for making banners, disguising, building biles or huge puppets are most welcome in the days before the summit. Do it yourself!

Autonomous Medics

They are the ones who take care of us if there is trouble and we got injured. There will be some space to rest and the Autonomedix to help out.

Source: http://linksunten.indymedia.org/en/node/524

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NATO summit organisers brace for trouble

France - French authorities expect violent protests during a NATO summit in Strasbourg next month, the mayor of the eastern French city said Sunday.

Security measures put in place for the April 3 and 4 gathering of the alliance’s 26 leaders “go far beyond what I had imagined,” said Mayor Roland Ries.

“I really do think that there is a very real risk of seeing peaceful protests denegerate into violence because of hooligans and anarchists who will come from across Europe,” Ries told AFP.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will mark its 60th anniversary and discuss Afghanistan at the summit in Strasbourg and in Kehl across the border in Germany.

The Strasbourg mayor said protesters will have no access to the summit venue in the centre of the city, but declined to provide details on specific planning.

“In terms of security measures and disruption caused to citizens during these two days of the summit, they go far beyond what I had imagined,” Ries told AFP.

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2009/March/international_March646.xml§ion=international

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BRISTOL Dissent G20 call out! and general meeting!

An Anti-authoritarian call-out for resistance to the London G20 Summit

G20 SUMMIT IS COMING TO LONDON

...to attempt to re-build confidence in global financial markets.

2 DAYS OF DIRECT ACTION are planned in the city:

- Capitalism isn't in crisis - Capitalism IS crisis;
- Don't bail-out the banks, SINK THEM!

APRIL 1st (Financial&Fossil Fools Day)

* Financial Fools Day Street Party
Assemble at Cannon Street, Moorgate, Liverpool Street or London Bridge stations 11am to form four marching blocks heading towards the Bank of England for 12-noon, in the 'Square Mile' of the City of London.
See: http://www.g-20meltdown.org/
Bring a portable radio!

* Climate Camp in the City
The climate camp are camping in the European Carbon Exchange, Hasilwood house, City of London 12-noon.
See: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20
Bring sleeping bag and goodies!

* Fossil Fools Day: 'Your Party's Over!'
Climate Criminal BP is celebrating its centenary with cocktails and canapes at the British Musem. And we will be there too, between 6-7pm, to say ‘Your party’s over!'
Meet at 6pm at the British Museum’s Gt. Russell St. gate
See: http://www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org
Bring banners, musical instruments, a sense of climate justice and a nonsense of foolery.

APRIL 2nd (The day of the G20 summit)

* Crash the Stock Exchange
Eat capitalism for breakfast. Disrupt the traders whose financial egomania perpetuates global injustice: let's shutdown trading for the day.
Meet outside the London Stock Exchange, 10 Paternoster Square, City of London, London EC4M. 7am (traders arrive at 7am, trading commencing 8am). Nearest tube: St Pauls - have a pleasant journey in... tubes might be busy.

* Excel Centre
Direct action all day against the Excel Centre, Canning Town where the G20 will be meeting
ExCeL London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1XL

A coalition of groups including: The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, The British Muslim Initiative, and CND have called two protests at the G20; a march and rally in central London on the afternoon of April 1st, and a protest to the conference itself on April 2nd.
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task...id=27

WHY? WHY? WHY?

“...an international summit to seek solutions to the global financial crisis...” - (The Foreign Office)

The G20 group is composed of finance ministers from the world's most 'advanced', 'emerging' economies and the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and the World Bank.

On the 2nd of April 2009 they will be meeting at the Excel Center, London. The main aim of this summit is to discuss how to re-build confidence in the financial markets and “re-stabilise” the world economy given the current financial crisis.

But the problem is much deeper - even within these so called 'advanced' economies (the G20), inequality has increased over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, labour organisations have been smashed and the environment pillaged. Outside of these 20 'richest', the situation is worse with extreme poverty, war and environmental destruction that serve to line the pockets of a tiny minority.

This crisis IS capitalism.

We have already seen the demands made to the G8 to 'make poverty history' thrown back in our faces - just 4.3% of the Wall Street Bailout money would have ended world hunger - it's clear where their priorities lie. Equally, what reason do have to trust these leaders on environmental promises when their "solutions" to the economic crisis are precisely those that will wreck the environment further - emergency loans to car manufacturers and increased consumption.

We oppose this summit, global capitalism and the pathetic forms of democracy that rubber stamp their existance. In London's square mile our futures are gambled away every working day in the stock exchange. The banks (private profiteering institutions) get bailed out by public money; we get job losses and home repossessions.

The g20 'leaders' only have power that they have taken from us, if they were able to solve this crisis we wouldn't be in it! The guardians of the financial systems (bankers and traders) are nothing but an obstacle to any solution. Its time to vote with our feet and start taking things back.

DON'T BAIL OUT THE BANKS - SINK THEM !!!

There will also be a meeting at the Kebele on Saturday 7th March @ 2pm to discuss Bristol mobilisation for the G20 protests.

DISSENT G-20

Source: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/689962

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MI5 ALERT ON BANK RIOTS

TOP secret contingency plans have been drawn up to counter the threat posed by a “summer of discontent” in Britain.

The “double-whammy” of the worst economic crisis in living memory and a motley crew of political extremists determined to stir up civil disorder has led to the ­extraordinary step of the Army being put on ­standby.

MI5 and Special Branch are targeting activists they fear could inflame anger over job losses and payouts to failed bankers.

One of the most notorious anarchist websites, Class War, asks: “How to keep warm ­during the credit crunch? Burn a banker.”

Such remarks have rung alarm bells in Scotland Yard and the Ministry of Defence.

Intelligence sources said the police, backed by MI5, are determined to stay on top of a situation that could spiral out of control as the recession bites deep.

The chilling prospect of soldiers being drafted on to the streets has not been discounted, although it is regarded as a last resort.

What worries emergency planners most is that the middle classes, now struggling to cope with unemployment and repossessions, may take to the streets with the disenfranchised.

The source said “this potent cocktail is reminiscent of the poll tax riots which fatally wounded Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1990”.

Last night Scotland Yard vowed it was ready to face any threat. A source said: “We do have a policing plan in place and we have riot police officers trained for such measures.”

But other senior police leaders fear the force will be unable to cope.

Were that to be the case, the ­Government has a contingency plan to deploy troops on the streets of Britain’s major cities.

A senior source said: “This is a very real, and very serious, problem.

“I can tell you there have been crisis talks in Whitehall about this.

“Half the senior officers in Britain have been warning the Home Secretary about the dangerous effects that reducing police manpower may have this summer, especially in the industrial heartlands.

“We are not just talking about the problems of immigration and British jobs for British worker. We are also talking about mass unemployment.

“In many of our industrial cities, this will not be measured in the hundreds, but in the thousands. With unemployment, comes the risk of increased crime. Some forces, such as South Wales, have publically ­stated they would be swamped.

“Others are keeping it quiet, but you can be sure they are trying to make the Home Secretary listen, ­before it’s too late.”

The “protest season” is due to ­begin on April 1 with the G20 Summit in London next month, followed by the 60th anniversary of Nato in Strasbourg a few days later. May Day is also ­potentially a flashpoint.

Ministers cannot afford to allow ­latent public anger at Government policy to get out of hand if they are to maintain credibility through what promises to be ­Gordon Brown’s most testing period as Prime Minister.

The Stop the War coalition, orchestrating the G20 protest, said: “The first week of April could be a week of world leaders will never forget.”

The British authorities want to avoid a repeat of the rioting that scarred British cities in the 1980s Then, as now, the country was in recession with rising unemployment and deep public hostility to perceived social divisions.

Today that anger is focused on the banks, with their bonus culture surviving despite billions being paid in taxpayer bail-outs.

This has fomented in the outrage over news that senior executives will be rewarded for their failure.

Sir Fred Goodwin, former boss of RBS, has refused to hand back his £693,000-a-year-pension even as the ailing bank announced a £24billion loss last year, the single largest loss in British corporate history.

Early warnings of trouble ahead came from the furore over last months “British jobs for British workers” protest and wildcat strikes across the country.

This week Britain’s most senior police officer warned that the summer could bring a wave of protests orchestrated by extremists in which ordinary people, fired by their own anger and fear at the economic downturn – became “foot soldiers”.

Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Met’s public order branch, identified the G20 as the possible start of a “summer of rage”.

Murray Benham, head of campaigns at the UK-based World Development Movement, accused Supt Hartshorn of “scaremongering”.

“Scaremongering from the police will not stop us because the price for failing is too high.

“People are understandably angry about the impact of the economic crisis on their jobs, savings and plans for the future.”

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/86981/MI5-alert-on-bank-riots

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Questa terra è la nostra terra

From 18 to 20 April 2009 will be held in province of Treviso the Agriculture Ministers’ meeting which will define the world policies on agriculture. We believe that this is an important opportunity to give voice to the experiences of those who, in our territory and in the world, struggling for food sovereignty, against the GMOs (genetically modified organism) for the environment and food, for protection, sustainable use and natural resources of democracy, in a word, for our land.

We live today the profound crisis of a global system based on exploitation, environmental destruction, plunder of resources, poverty, which has demonstrated its profound limitations, which is why we think there is a need to undertake a new journey to find the relationship with the land and the environment, the sense of a humanity worthy.

For this we propose to all the civil society, farmers, the environment committee, the buying groups combined, to give life to the Meeting-Festival “Questa terra è la nostra terra” as the time for discussion, comparison and mobilization in the Province of Treviso in the days of April of the G8.

An opportunity to enhance ties in common with the land, the culture, the typical food production, free from GMOs, the mobilizations against the environmental devastation, the alternative energy and creativity of our territories.
A moment of collective narrative of a different relationship with the land, the environment and resources.

First signatories:
Monica Tiengo, Ass. Ya Basta Treviso;
Tino Zandigiacomi, Città Bene Comune;
Andrea Zanoni Paese Ambiente;
Comitato “18 Aprile” De’Longhi Treviso;
Pace e Sviluppo Treviso;
Berto Zandigiacomi Italia Nostra;
Paride Danieli, Verdi Treviso;
Rete Radiè Resch, Associazione di Solidarietà Internazionale, Gruppo di Lancenigo-Maserada-Spresiano;
Lucia Tamai Ass.ne ALISEI – Silea;
Gigi Calesso, Un’altra Treviso;
Romeo Scarpa, sega@tura;
Rino Rasera, Lega Ambiente;
Sergio Costanzo, Comitati Antenne Treviso;
Renzo Favretto, Casier;
Loris Donazzon, Villorba;
Fabiola Caramel, Amici del Parco Mogliano Veneto;
Fabio Tomaselli, UbikLab, Treviso;
Susanna Lazzarato, Meduna di Livenza;
Mario Fardin, Vittorio Veneto.

For info, membership and subscriptions to newsgroups write to questaterra@yahoo.it

http://questaterralanostraterra.blogspot.com

Source: email

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Italy To Host G20 Leaders At July G8 Summit

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Monday that Italy would host leaders of the G20 at the end of a G8 summit in Sardinia in July and that their talks would focus on new rules for the financial system.

"We will have the G20 as well on the third day of talks at La Maddalena (in Sardinia)," he told a conference near Milan.

"On this occasion we will prepare a legal system, new rules to stop the phenomenon of excessive securitisation in the financial system, the use of derivatives that led to this crisis," said Berlusconi. Italy currently chairs the G8.

A top Italian diplomat told Reuters in January Italy would be prepared to expand the G8 summit to include the G20, which is chaired by Britain, if there were a need after the April 2 summit of the G20 in London.

The G8, grouping the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia, tackles global challenges from the economy to the environment. The G20, made up of the top 19 economies plus the European Union, has the task of reviving growth and reforming the financial sector and oversight bodies.

Source: http://www.javno.com/en-world/italy-to-host-g20-leaders-at-july-g8-summit_241135

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Huntsville: Security zone for G8 will include residences

Planning for the security of the 2010 G8 Summit is still in the conceptual stage, but Tim Charlebois, planning and operations coordinator for the OPP for both the 2010 Olympics and G8 Summit, says the second ring of the security zone will include local residences.

Charlebois spoke Friday to an audience of about 340 people at the Muskoka Futures Symposium at Deerhurst Resort.

“The G8 is . . . the largest annual security event in the world. It’s about getting eight people in a room,” he said.

Although Charlebois couldn’t say exactly where the security perimeters would be, he did say that the security zones would be split up into concentric rings around the summit site.

The first ring will be under the purview of the RCMP, since they have jurisdiction over the security of international guests and dignitaries, said Charlebois.

“The second zone that will be established will be the interdiction zone, which will be under the management of the OPP. We have not established exactly where that will be, but I can tell you that it does not go into the built-up area of Huntsville. . . . Will people be living inside that zone? Yes.”

Charlebois said that a liaison team has been established to work with residents, businesses and protesters coming to the summit, and that they would sit down with all households who may be in the security zone to meet the residents and explain what living in the zone will entail.

“Everything is going to be done to minimize the impact of the people who live inside the security zone, (but) if it was me, I would leave town,” he said. “There’s an accreditation process that will be put in place for people who live inside those zones . . . . They will be free to come and go on a daily basis as much as you would any other time.”

Charlebois also commented on the fact that many who live in the area are considering renting their residences out as accommodations during the summit.

“For those that may be in the interdiction zone, you may want to wait awhile before you go far down that road,” he said. “If there was somebody that we deem to be a security risk and you rent your house out to that person . . . we will not let them in.”

In addition to the two primary zones, there will also be a surveillance zone, as well as traffic control throughout the region and a co-ordinated effort with Canadian Border Services, said Charlebois.

Also a focus of the security team will be the protesters coming to get their message splashed across the international media.

“They’re coming. All you have to do . . . is go on the internet right now because everything’s there (about their plans for G8),” he said. “How many people are coming to Huntsville? That is anybody’s guess.”

When discussing the downtown core of Huntsville, Charlebois said traffic would be a considerable problem.

“When you look at 3,000 RCMP officers, 3,000 media, 3,000 OPP and a couple thousand military, there’s no room for protesters,” he said.

He also noted that, while no definite perimeters have been set, there will be traffic restrictions on waterways in the Deerhurst area.

“There will be strict controls put on the waterways in this area,” he said.

When asked by an audience member about whether the Parry Sound airport would be used for the summit, Charlebois said he couldn’t comment on that until the RCMP and Norad decide on where the secured, or no-fly zones, will be.

Source: http://www.huntsvilleforester.com/article/130090

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Anti-Terror Unit to Terrorize 2010 Olympics

Counter-terror force to help with Olympics

March 2, 2009, Vancouver Sun

Troops from the Canadian army’s elite Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorist unit will be assigned to help provide security at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, a senior military official said on Monday.

Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden’s statement came as something of a surprise. The military does not usually comment on the deployment of the JTF2, which is the most important part of its so-called Special Operations Forces.

Asked by Parliament’s defense committee whether JTF2 members would be at the Games, McFadden replied: "Special Operations Forces will be assigned to support the operation of the Vancouver Olympics."

Some of the troops will back the RCMP, who are responsible for overall security, while others will be placed on standby, he said, but declined to specify how many would be involved.
The Canadian government says it plans to spend about $900 million for security for the 2010 Games, including $212 million for the military. Police security planners say the threat level for the Games in February 2010 is considered low, but the budget and security plans assume a medium threat level.

In addition to the troops, protection for the Olympics will be provided by 7,000 police officers from around the country and 4,000 private security personnel.

Source: http://www.no2010.com/node/850