2007-01-29

January 29th 2007: Heiligendamm

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Germany: Raids continue in lead up to NATO and G8 summits

Repression January
News about Repression that took place in January 2007
from: https://hamburg.dissentnetzwerk.org/

January 17, Munich: Police raids after call to blockades

(17.01) In Munich police raided 5 objects (public spaces like a book shop and a cafe but also private flats)! Officially they argued with the call to the blockade of Rostock Laage airport, which is announced on the homepage no-nato.de and indynews.net in a call to fight the anti-NATO conference in munich in february (also announced in pamphlets they took from the places). This call would be a "call for illegal activities". Bavaria is one of the most repressive parts in germany, a demonstration in munich is planned allready to fight back repression. german article

Update: They did not search 5 but all together 11 objects in munich. Contradictionary they took the magazins but not the call to rostock, where the same text was written. Also they took in one flat 5 computer instead of only the one of the person which they wanted to seach, so this is against official legal situation.

In munich different places were raided by the police. Named as a reason was the call to blockade the airport Rostock-Laage published in several broshures and in the call for protests against the socalled security-conference [a privatelly organized sub-summit where politicians, weapons industrials and nato-generals harmonize their strategies, Anm.d.ü.]. Raided were several places: The Cafe Marat, a bookshop, a printshop, where the incriminated brochures were thought to be produced, a community centre, as well as the people (we know of three) who oown the domain of some websites, where the call for blockades have been published - namely no-nato.de and indynews.net.

In one WG, where one of the people affected lives, 5 computers were confiscated, while the permission to search only named one person.

Seized were flyers of the latest radical-left siko-call "G8 und SiKo angreifen [Attack G8 and Siko]" (see no-nato.de), brochures containing a resumée of 5 years of mobilization against the SiKo (to be ordered on no-nato.de). Sometimes only one page was ripped out of the brochure (page 22, if you want to know in detail).

As mentioned above, the reason given was "calling for criminal offences", referring to the planed blockade of the airport Rostock-Laage (cited in the permission-to-search-paper was "Flughafen stürmen" - storming the airport), which is regarded as 'Nötigung' [coercion, which is considered a crime]. The official permission-paper also explicitly notes that the participants of the summit will land on this airport.

The raids clearly are meant as a blow towards the mobilization against the G8, but also against the left as a whole. To this point in time it is not known, what kind of reaction will follow, people will meet in the evening in the Marat.

Don´t let them get us down! Attack G8 & SiKo! Storm & block the airport Rostock-Laage!

January 22, Police entered youth center in Erlangen (Bavaria)

The annual NATO meeting in munich will take place in two weeks, repression is continuing. after a wave of searches in 11 objects in munich some days ago, now the police entered a youth center in the city of Erlangen (Bavaria) at the 22nd of January. The police said they wanted to talk to the responsible of the house in the morning and destroyed the door after nobody opened. They searched for material related to G8 and anti-NATO to criminalize the center. They took flyers, made photos (also from antifascist symbols, which are called "illegal" after last years courtcase in Stuttgart) The Bavarian police seems to have the wish to play the role of the most active against social movements as usual. The youth center is one of the few selforganised centers existing in Bavaria and officials try to frighten active people. The activists see the repression also in the context of the attacks on projects happening all over Germany and Europe the last months, like in Copenhagen. They write it is not clear if it is the start of a federal repression against G8 now, but it is clear that criminalisation of the fight against the NATO summit in Munich and against the G8 summit as well as the repression against alternative and selforganised projects is not acceptable. Solidarity with the comrades facing repression in Munich and elsewhere!

(Text translated and shortened, original from TAG - Temporaere Autonome Gruppe)

On Saturday there will be a demonstration in Erlangen

See also: (German original) http://de.indymedia.org/2007/01/166670.shtml

[http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070123235521727]

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Berlin, Germany: Police raid squat organizing anti-G8 activities, supporters force end to raid

Police harrasment against "Köpi" in Berlin
January 14, 2007

by Köpi-Fan - International Squatter Brigade Report
Indymedia Denmark
http://www.indymedia.dk

About 50 riot policemen and some other state-control institutions occupied for about 1 hour some rooms and the yard of KÖPI - cultural-autonomous center in Berlin. It was second police-ride on the house in 10 days. Police focused amoung others on gathering of the anti-g8 related materials. Since some weeks the "Anti-G8-Soli-Cafe" takes place in KÖPI on weekly basis... On the night from Friday to Saturday (12/13.01) police entered for a second time in this month the space of autonomous center in Berlin "KÖPI". This time they focused on the rooms of the cultural venue located in the house. About 50 riot policemen and some other state-control-inststitutions (there is still not information of what institutions exactly were involved in this ride) occupied for about 1 hour these rooms and as well as the yard of the house. They did not manage to enter any other community rooms or the house itself.

Appart of the typical harrasments during the ride they focused obviously on all materials (posters, flayers, banners, stickers ...) related to the anti-g8-mobilisation. Witnesses talk about some anti-g8 stickers being literaly "scratched down" out of the walls and taken with...

The people in the house were taken by surprise. However in about 1 hour around 100 people arrived to Köpi from all around the city to bring the end to this occupation. Supporters gathered on the street out of Köpi while people from the house locked themselves inside. Some people were watching police activities inside the rooms. When the pressure of the supporters on the cops become to escalate on the street, police decided to get away. Angry people helped them with some flying objects.

In spontanious reaction on this obvious provocation, and certainly a beginning of the longer police strategy connected to the anti-g8 activities going on in the city, about 70 people blocked some streets and conduct spontanious demonstration through Kreuzberg-district in the middle of the night. Demonstration was stopped by cops after about 30 minutes. I do not have information about any arrestments so far.

Since some weeks the "Anti-G8-Soli-Cafe" takes place in KÖPI on weekly basis.

More detailed reports about the state harrasments against the KÖPI-house
are awaited.

In this year the police planed some evition in Berlin
some houses in rigaer Street, new bethanien, brunnen street, schwarzer kanal and some more do some actions against this!!

Köpi blir,Ungdomshuset blir
no eviction nowhere!!!
Related Link: http://koepi.squat.net/

[http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070116122745127]

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Anti-G8 activists plan several protests

ROSTOCK, Germany, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Opponents of the 2007 Group of Eight summit to be held in Heiligendamm, Germany, are planning a series of disruptive protest events.
More than 450 anti-globalization activists this past weekend agreed to conduct a series of peaceful demonstrations designed to disrupt next year's meeting of the world's most powerful heads of state.
The Berliner Zeitung newspaper said the activists met in Rostock, just a few miles from Heiligendamm, the lavish 19th century spa resort the German government chose to be the venue of its G8 summit.
On June 5, when the heads of state are scheduled to arrive at Rostock-Laage airport, the anti-globalization activists will conduct an all-day event against "militarism, war, torture and the Ausnahmezustand," to encircle and block the airport, the newspaper said.
A rock concert with German pop star Herbert Groenemeyer, discussion forums and sit-ins are also planned.
Meanwhile, costs for the summit's security are ballooning. The state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has just asked to allocate an additional $16 million for a security fence around the summit's venue, upping total security costs to nearly $120 million.
The far-right has also said it will protest the summit and its participants: The neo-Nazi NPD party, which recently made it into the state's parliament, wants to submit a resolution stating that U.S. President George W. Bush is "not welcome" in the north-eastern German state.
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20061115-092442-2831r

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G8 protesters commit arson in Germany

HAMBURG, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- It is believed that militants opposed to the G8 summit set for Germany next year committed arson in protest of the meeting.
The arson attack was carried out at the home of the German Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Mirow, Deutsche Welle reported Thursday. Police in Hamburg, Germany, said that extremist opponents of the G8 summit in June were behind the arson attack Mirow's wife's car.
The police are sure that the culprit was an extremist group that is against the G8 summit because the group sent a note claiming responsibility for the vandalism, Deutsche Welle said.
The G8 is comprised of the eight of the richest nations in the world: Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, France, Italy and Russia.
A spokesman told Deutsche Welle the attack marks the 37th incident by G8 opponents. Thirteen of the 37 attacks were arsons.

[http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/20061228-034803-2336r/]

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Police And Protesters Prepare For G8 Summit Clashes

Both protesters and German authorities this week stepped up preparations for clashes this summer at the Group of Eight (G8) summit, set to take place at a Baltic seaside resort in Germany.

About 100 militant protesters from the anti-globalization movement Attac trained in sit-in tactics over the weekend in the German city of Hanover. The anti-G8 group is expected to carry out hit-and-run protests, seeking gaps in cordons of tough riot police assigned to the summit.

At the summit site in Heiligendamm, situated in remote countryside north of Berlin, contractors were this week erecting the first stretches of a temporary anti-protest security fence around an expensive grand hotel surrounded by mature trees and overlooking a white-sand beach.

Topped with coils of razor-wire, the 2.5-metre-high fence will ultimately be more than 12 kilometres long and will end in the sea, just to make sure that protesters do not wade past the barrier into the top-security zone.

The fence, enhanced with infra-red sensors and closed-circuit TV cameras, is designed to keep out both protesters and cranks and will cost the German hosts 12.5 million euros (17 million dollars).

The protesters were quick with their answer to the fence: they hung a banner on the steel grating saying "Fence In Capitalism!"

The June 6-8 meeting will bring together the G7 leaders, representing the seven main Western industrialized nations, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose participation extends the line-up into a G8.

German authorities plan to deploy 15,000 police and soldiers to ensure the meeting takes place without a hitch. Police intelligence reports estimate 100,000 protesters may show up outside the fence.

The security forces plan to rehearse tactics in March to counter the protesters, based on their past behaviour.

Protesters with Attac, a Europe-wide leftist organization, associate the G8 with efforts to liberalize world trade. Attac does not believe this spreads prosperity, but claims it leads to poverty.

"World trade is organized to benefit big companies, not ordinary people," asserted Ingmar Vogelsang, 33, a German man who travelled to the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland to join in protests and aims to be at the forefront of demonstrations this year.

In Hanover, Jutta Sundermann, who helped establish Attac seven years ago, was last weekend counselling dozens of would-be protesters on psychological tactics, for example how to stare down riot police.

"They'll be standing in front of you with grim faces: big, all dressed up, armed," she warned. Protesters had to keep their poise.

Some of the German protesters are still at school. One, Judith, 16, explained that she had already taken part in leftist protests against neo-Nazis and in support of university students complaining at tuition fees.

Attac plans to organize many more pre-summit meetings to marshal its forces before the date.

Since Heiligendamm is located in remote countryside, the demonstrators aim to use an old military tactic: cutting overstretched supply lines. The protesters aim to hold sit-down protests on roads near the resort.

[http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_9354-Police-And-Protesters-Prepare-For-G8-Summit-Clashes.html]

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Anti-G8 Infotour USA February 18-April 7!

The tickets are booked! The Anti-G8 Infotour will arrive in Los Angeles on February 18, travel by hook or by crook to Seattle, fly to New York City on March 30, then fly out of NYC on April 7.

Contacts are needed in Vancouver, maybe Tijuana, and we have no contacts for NYC, Philly or DC. Please help out with at least a few East Coast contacts!

We will send a proposal for specific tour dates soon, but please contact us ( send an email to goodniteg8@riseup.net ) right away so we can firm up dates and try to get them in various magazines for February editions.

Here's an overview below about what the presentation consists of:

The first part that talks about the history of the G8, including going over Germany protest experience in Cologne '99 and Munich '92 (20-30,000 or more protestors each time.)

The second part is about the latest going on in Germany with preparations for resistance against the July 6-8, 2007 G8 Summit. If you download any of our English language presentations, you will see that some are a few months old. They will be current for the USA Infotour and there will be English information about the German mobilization. Discussions will take place with local hosts to determine likely audiences and whether people already expect to come to Germany for the protests, or whether it is a more general audience that could benefit from other knowledge, such as about the G8 in general, or about how such activist mobilizations function in Germany/Europe.

The presenter has over 10 years activist experience in USA, 4 years in Germany, and has been at G8 demonstrations in Germany '92 + '99, Denver USA '97, Scotland '05, and helped with Independent and Int'l press work for Russia '06.

Hope to see you soon!
Dissent! Infotour
Germoney

more details below:

Presentation about G8
from Dissent! Network Wiki:
http://dissentnetzwerk.org/wiki/Presentation_about_G8
almost all infos downloadable here: http://gipfelsoli.org/Media+Tools.html

1. Block on Background of the G8 (circa 40 Minutes)

* Film "Why close the G8?" (Mobilisation film for G8 2005, Scotland;
14. min., Download with most other films and power points at
http://gipfelsoli.org/Media+Tools.html )
* Background on the history of the G8-Summit and protests against
it, (lecture with Power-Point-Presentation, ca. 15 min.
* A summary of resistance to the G8, with the possible showing of
short films.

We also like to tell about the effects of the G8 from those not from the "Global North". Therefore we often show short films from the "Raised Voices" project made up of short Videoclips with Interviews from people from Africa or South America regarding the politics of the G8. We generally show one or two 3 minute film clips.

2. Block: Heiligendamm, G8 2007 (ca. 40 Minutes)

* The political and geographic situation of the immediate region of
Rostock, Bad Doberan and Heiligendamm using a Power-Point-Presentation
* Explaination of the main relevant local groups, (Fundus-Gruppe,
Kempinski, a Local Citizens initiative, the Left Party, Residents, City
and Regional parlaments etc.)
* The situation of various groups mobilising against the G8, their
activities and next meetings:

Left + radical groups

* The International Mobilisation Camp in August 2006
* Left Network/Linkes Bündnis, BUKO
* No Deportations/No Borders-Network
* Attac
* NGO'S
* Militant Actions related to G8 2007
* Social Forum
* Left Party (PDS/Linkspartei)
* Bicycle Caravan
* Rhythms of Resistance
* WomenLesbianTransgender-Resistance, etc.

At the close we like to start an open public discussion. Possible topics
include:

* Pro and Contra regarding large Summit Mobilisations
* Would the resources for such a big mobilation not be better used
for local projects?
* Working together with other left groups
* Concrete action plans and ideas
* Possibilities to work together
* How to build/support local structures (in the local place we are)

[http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070109223717286]