2009-03-03

3.3.2009 Strasbourg/ Baden-Baden -- London -- Hokkaido

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Natogipfel in Baden Baden zum Desaster machen!

Sie reden von "Sicherheit" und „Humanität“, doch ihre Politik hat Krieg, Folter und globale Militarisierung zur Folge. Anfang April 2009 will die NATO in Strasbourg und Baden-Baden ihren 60. Geburtstag feiern. Sie beabsichtigt, ein neues strategisches Konzept zu verabschieden, das wie das bisherige der Aufrechterhaltung der ungerechten Weltwirtschaftsordnung dient und den ungehinderten Zugang zu den Rohstoff- und Energievorräten der Welt mit militärischer Gewalt zu sichern versucht, sie schließt dabei weder Präventivkriege noch den Ersteinsatz von Atomwaffen aus. Mit der Integration des US-Raketenmschutzschirmes in Polen und Tschechien die alte Natostrategie der Blockkonfrontation gegen Russland wiederbelebt, deren Auswirkungen sich jüngst in Georgien zeigten. Die Militarisierung der Europäischen Union ist keine Alternative zur NATO, sondern ebenfalls ein gefährlicher Irrweg.

NATO-Staaten, allen voran die USA, führen weiterhin Krieg im Irak. Deutschland ist mit der US-Airbase in Ramstein die logistische Drehscheibe des Einsatzes. Bei dem zunehmend agressiveren Vporgehen der Allianz in Afgahnistan zeigt sich immer deutlicher, was Besatzungstruppen bewirken: Sie brutalisieren die Gesellschaft, schaffen mehr Elend und mehr Bombentote. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass auch unter dem neuen US-Präsidenten der Druck auf Deutschland erhöht wird, noch mehr Soldaten nach Afghanistan zu schicken.

Der „Krieg gegen den Terror“ wird aber nicht nur in Afghanistan geführt, sondern auch zu Hause. Kriege in aller Welt gehen mit einem ständigen Demokratieabbau im Inneren und einer fortschreitenden Aushöhlung des Grundgesetzes einher. Mit sogenannten "Sicherheitsgesetzen" werden Grundrechte ausgehebelt und Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Ausspionieren privater PCs und eine allgegenwärtige Überwachung "legalisiert". Gleichzeitig wird die Bevölkerung an die zunehmende zivil-militärische Zusammenarbeit im Inland gewöhnt, wie z. B der Einsatz der Bundeswehr beim G98 i Heiligendamnm zeigte. In allen zivilen Bereichen der Gesellschaft, Institutionen, Organisationen und Vereinen drängt sich die Bundeswehr auf und versucht militärisches Denken zu verankern. Öffentliche Gelöbnisse, Militärkonzerte, Rekrutierungsversuche in den Arbeitsämtern, Schulbesuche und Zusammenarbeit mit Vereinen und Kommunen sollen das Kriegshandwerk wieder als Normalität erscheinen lassen.

Nato geht Baden Baden

In Baden Baden soll das diesjährige Militärspektakel am 3.4 mit einem Festessen und anschließendem Operbesuch der Nato Regierungsschefs begonnen werden. Eine treffliche Gelegenheit, ihnen in die Suppe spucken, und ihnen direkt neben ihren Tagungsorten so auf die Nerven gehen, daß ihnen beim Opern-Festakt Hören und Sehen vergeht. Die Auswahl Baden Badens mit seinen Glimmer und Glitzerläden, den zig 5 Sterne Hotels, luxuriösen Tagungssälen und den dort vorhandenen Fernseh- und Rundfunkanstalten als favorisierter Eröffnungsort ist auch den polizeilichen Erwägungen geschuldet. Man will so den Gipfelbeginn und viele der schlafenden DelegationsteilnehmerInnen kompakt an einer Stelle haben und und man meint diese im vergleichsweise gut abzuriegelnden Oosbachtal vor möglichen Protesten abschirmen zu können.

Wir gehen gewinnen

Wir wollen den Spieß umdrehen und lassen es erst gar nicht zum Festakt kommen. Denn Polizei und GipfelorganisatorInnen haben ein Problem. Sie haben einen extrem engen minutiösen Zeitplan. Viele DelegationsteilnehmerInnen werden erst in letzter Minute von dem ebenfalls von Protesten heimgesuchten G20 Gipfel in London anreisen.

So eine Militär und Politshow braucht Vorbereitung, braucht Logistik. Allein für Baden Baden werden 2000 DelegationsteilnehmerInnen erwartet, die irgendewann am Freitag in die Stadt müssen, und das über lediglich 2 dafür vorgesehene mögliche Straßen. Viele Gruppen bereiten sich darauf vor, ab Freitag mittag in die Rote Zone einzusickern, aber auch Blockaden auf diesen(wenigen) Straßen, über die Baden Baden erreichbar ist, zu errichten. Es wird sicher viel passieren. Auch viel Unvorhergesehenes. Wer rechnet schon mit Auto- oder Fahrradpannen mitten auf der B500. Wir können sicher sein, daß nicht nur die vielen hunderte und tausende von GegendemonstantInnen diese Wege verstopfen, sondern daß es vor allem die Polizei sein wird, die sich und dem Gipfel mit ihrern Wasserwerfern und Räumpanzern im Wege stehen wird. Helfen wir Ihnen, Baden Baden dicht zu machen. Wir müssen nur früh genug sein, um die Vorbereitungen zu verlangsamen, gut informiert (über Schleichwege, Tagungsorte, Hotels etc) und gut koordiniert sein.

Darüber hinaus freuen sich sicherlich alle am Protest beteiligten Menschen, wenn es eigenständige Aktionen, nicht nur in Baden Baden, sondern auch an anderen benachbarten Stätten des Gipfels, z. B. den Hotels Bühler Höhe. ... gibt, an denen den Delegationsteilnehmern auf die Pelle gerückt wird.

Wir wollen mit diesem Protest ein Zeichen gegen die menschenfeindliche Politik der NATO setzen.

Organisatorisches

Die Gruppe "Nato geht baden" versucht derzeit, von Donnerstag nachmittag bis Samstag mittag einen Infopunkt in Baden Baden in Bahnhofsnähe einzurichten, an dem sich AktivistInnen über die Situation informieren und sich in großen Gruppen besprechen können. Es soll dort Versammlungszelte, Verpflegung, sanitäre Einrichtungen, Infos, medizinische und rechtliche Hilfe geben, und für Leute, die nicht mehr weiterkommen, die Möglichkeit, dort zu übernachten. Es soll aber kein Camp im eigentlichen Sinne sein, das findet in Straßburg statt, dort gibt es am Donnerstag auch weitere Vorbereitungstreffen für „Block Baden Baden“.

Vermutlich wird es eine
Demonstration Fr. 3.4. ab 11 Uhr
vom Infopunkt in Richtung des Tagungsortes geben.

Nach erfolgreichem in die Suppe spucken verfolgen wir sie abends weiter nach Straßburg.

allgemeine Blockade und Vorbereitungsinfos:
block-baden-baden@riseup.net

Die Gruppe "Nato geht baden" hat dringend Bedarf an Leuten, die bei der Vorbereitung und Errichtung des Infopunktes mitarbeiten, Kontakt bzgl. Infrastrukturevorbereitung: camporga@riseup.net

Wir freuen uns auf euch....

Weitere Vorbereitungen

Schließt euch zusammen, bereitet euch gut vor, kommt zu - und organisiert regionale Vorbereitungstreffen. Kommt zu dem internationalen Vorbereitungstreffen am 7. März (vorraussichtlich 14 Uhr), Karlsruhe,
Ort: Planwirtschaft, Werderstr. 28, Karlsruhe-Südstadt
Wahrscheinlich wrden wir Samstag fertig, aber bei Bedarf kann Sonntag noch weiter vorbereitet werden, evtl. an einem anderen Ort in Karlsruhe, informiert euch dann an dieser Stelle, falls ihr So erst kommt, ob und wo...

Für weiter Anreisende gibt es in geringer Zahl Pennplätze, wenn ihr Pennplätze braucht, meldet diese unbedingt vorher unter block-baden-baden@riseup.net an, (Zur Orientierung: Die Planwirtschaft grenzt an den Werderplatz an Werderstraße/Wilhelmstraße, die nächstgelegene Haltestelle ist „Kongresszentrum“. Von dort sind es ca. 3 Gehminuten.)

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

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Solidarität mit Yldune, Julien, Mathieu, Manon, Gabrielle, Elsa, Binjamin, Bertrand und Aria

In Frankreich werden neun Menschen beschuldigt, Mitglied einer kriminellen Vereinigung mit terroristischen Zielen zu sein. Zwei von ihnen sitzen seit dem 11.9.08 im Knast. Insgesamt fünf seien observiert bzw. kontrolliert worden, als sie sich in der Nähe von Bahnstrecken des Hochgeschwindigkeitszuges TGV aufhielten, wo es später aufgrund von Hakenkrallen in den Oberleitungen zu zahlreichen Verspätungen im Zugverkehr kam. Zeitlich fiel dies zusammen mit Arbeitskämpfen der Bahnarbeiter_innen und dem anstehenden Castor-Transport aus Frankreich nach Deutschland. Während den Hausdurchsuchungen bei den Beschuldigten seien neben Eisenrohren und Schweißgeräten "anarchistische Literatur" gefunden worden.

Das erinnert doch sehr an einen Fall in der Bundesrepublik.

Auch hier wird der Vorwurf erhoben, sieben Berliner seien Mitglied einer zunächst "terroristischen", inzwischen "kriminellen Vereinigung" - der Militanten Gruppe. Drei von ihnen sollen bei einer militanten Aktion beobachtet worden sein: Der versuchten Zerstörung von Bundeswehrfahrzeugen. Das war im Sommer 2007, einige Zeit bevor der deutsche Bundestag über die Verlängerung des Afghanistaneinsatzes der Bundeswehr entscheiden sollte. Auch in Berlin wurde bei den Hausdurchsuchungen linke Literatur entdeckt: Neben einem Minihandbuch für Militante waren es Werke von Karl Marx bis Karl-Heinz Roth.

Politische Repression und die Kriminalisierung linker Politik erfordert eine politische Antwort. Solidaritätsarbeit kann sich mit den Vorwürfen politisch auseinander setzen. Das ist nicht leicht und konfliktgeladen. Wir versuchen es trotzdem.

Unseren französischen Freund_innen und Genoss_innen wird von Politikern und Medien vorgeworfen, internationale Kontakte in die USA, nach England, Belgien, Italien, Griechenland und Deutschland zu pflegen. Angesichts der Globalisierung ist uns schon lange klar, dass internationale Kontakte, Netzwerke und Organisierungen notwendig sind, um dem internationalen Kapitalismus wirksam etwas entgegenzusetzen. So haben wir uns an internationalen Mobilisierungen beteiligt und sind zu politischen Protest-Events gereist. Zum G8-Gipfel 2007 in Heiligendamm haben wir in unseren Zusammenhängen, in der Interventionistischen Linken, bei dissent, im revolutionären Bündnis besonders auf internationale Kontakte gesetzt und beispielsweise auf den Sozialforen für die Proteste mobilisiert. Wir haben dabei solche Menschen angesprochen wie diejenigen, die jetzt in Frankreich des Terrorismus beschuldigt werden. Und das gilt ebenso für die laufende Mobilisierung gegen den NATO-Gipfel in Strasbourg und Baden-Baden im April 2009. Bei den dort geplanten Aktionen des zivilen Ungehorsams brauchen wir unsere französischen Genoss_innen. Sie müssen raus aus dem Knast. Wir wollen mit ihnen gemeinsam auf den Straßen in Deutschland und Frankreich für eine Welt ohne NATO und ohne Kriege kämpfen. Das verstehen wir als Teil unserer internationalistischen Politik.

Unseren französischen Freund_innen und Genoss_innen wird eine militante Praxis vorgeworfen. Linke französische Gewerkschaften verstehen diese Militanz als Beitrag zu ihren Arbeitskämpfen. Auch wir setzten in Heiligendamm bewusst auf regelverletztenden Protest und Widerstand. Auch beim Castortransport gehören Gesetzesverstöße - von Sitzblockaden bis zu Hakenkrallen - zum Repertoire. Es ist legitim, sich auch mit diesen militanten Formen der Atompolitik entgegenzustellen. Es ist legitim, mit Hakenkrallen in Arbeitskämpfe einzugreifen, gegen Castortransporte und gegen kapitalistische Ströme vorzugehen. Und zum Bau von Hakenkrallen braucht man Metallrohre und Schweißgeräte.

Unsere Freund_innen und Genoss_innen in Frankreich, ebenso wie in Deutschland, werden in den schwärzesten Farben gemalt. Staatsanwälte, Politiker und Medien werfen ihnen vor, Terroristen und Kriminelle zu sein. Wenn sie unter Terrorismus meinen, für eine Gesellschaft zu kämpfen, in der Ausbeutung und Unterdrückung überwunden sind, dann sind auch wir Terroristen. Dieses Verbrechen gestehen wir ein. Auch wir überlegen am kommenden Aufstand und wie wir ihn vorbereiten können. Denn wir wollen eine andere, bessere Welt. Und wer die herrschenden Verhältnisse überwinden will, muss etwas gegen sie tun. Das, was unseren Freund_innen und Genoss_innen vorgeworfen wird, ist ein notwendiger Beitrag dazu.
Unsere Freund_innen und Genoss_innen in Frankreich, dem Land der Revolution von 1789, hätten sich von der Action Directe inspirieren lassen. Als Menschen, die unter Solidaritätsarbeit auch verstehen, linke Politik zu verteidigen, sehen wir keinen Anlass, diese Meldung der britischen Times zurückzuweisen. Die Genoss_innen der Action Directe und anderer Stadtguerillagruppen wie RAF und Roten Brigaden wollten auch nur die Revolution. Warum sich nicht bei ihnen Inspirationen holen?

Temporäre Gruppe Ziviler Ungehorsam

Source: http://tarnac9.noblogs.org/post/2009/02/25/solidaritaet

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Festive Resistances against NATO !

Art is our weapon

Organisation of the festive, cultural and artistic resistance actions during the NATO counter summit in Strasbourg-Khel and Baden-Baden from the 1st to the 5th April 2009.

If i can’t dance it’s not my revolution !!

http://effraie.org/mailman/listinfo/anti-otan-kultur

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Klima-Camp heizt den G20 ein!

Klima-Camp wird aktiv in London am 1. April (Fossil Fuels Day), wenn sich abends die Staatschefs der G20 treffen

Treffen wir uns! Klima-Camp 2009 /// Stoppen wir den C02-Markt /// Weil die Natur nur einmal bankrott gehen kann

Zuerst haben die Börsenhändler mit unseren Wohnungen, unseren Jobs und unserem Geld spekuliert — mit verheerenden Ergebnissen. Jetzt spekulieren sie mit unserem Klima und dem zukünftigen Leben auf der Welt — und noch einmal werden sie von unseren Regierungen bejubelt. Durch Schaffen eines verrückten CO2-Rechte-Systems haben die Unternehmen einen Weg gefunden, Klimagase zu produzieren und gleichzeitig riesige unverdiente Gewinne zu machen.

Mittlerweile rechtfertigt die britische Regierung ihre Erlaubnis für eine dritte Startbahn in Heathrow und ein Kohle-Kraftwerk in Kingsnorth damit, dass dieser neue “CO2-Handel” wie von Zauberhand ihre ganzen Emissionen verschwinden lassen werde.

Sie geben die Macht über unser Klima den gleichen Leuten und Systemen, die die Finanzkrise hervorgebracht haben. Allen echten und gerechten Alternativen wird keine Chance gegeben.

Wir müssen diesen Unsinn stoppen!

Wir haben gegen die Heathrow-Startbahn ein Camp gemacht, und wir haben gegen das Kohle-Kraftwerk in Kingsnorth ein Camp gemacht. Jetzt ist es Zeit, dass wir gegen das Hauptproblem ein Camp machen: den totalen Glauben an ungeregelte Märkte und endloses Wirtschaftswachstum. Am 1. April kommen die G20-Staatschefs in London an. In der Zeit der Klimakrise ist ihre Antwort auf den Marktzusammenbruch, dass sie Autoherstellern Geld geben, die Ausgaben erhöhen um den Verbrauch anzukurbeln und genau die Leute retten, die uns diese Krise bereitet haben — dadurch wird die Klimakrise noch schlimmer werden.

Lass sie nicht fliehen, ohne Krach zu machen: Komm zu unserem Camp im Londoner Zentrum! Wir versammeln uns am Mittag des 1. April an der Europäischen Klimabörse (European Climate Exchange), Hasilwood Haus, 62 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AW. Bring mit: ein einfaches Camping-Zelt, wenn du eines hast, einen Sack, ein Windrad, ein tragbares Kino und Aktionsideen… stell Dir eine andere Welt vor.

Lasst nicht die Narren der Finanzwelt und der Öl- und Energiekonzerne entscheiden!

Für Details und Aktualisierungen: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20

Source: email

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G20 Meltdown April 1st 2009

Come to London’s biggest ever street party!

On Financial Fools Day, The City of London will form the backdrop for the biggest mobilisation of the people since more than a million marched against the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Thousands and tens of thousands are expected to take to the streets to coincide with the G20 summit of world leaders who are flying into London. The same bastards who got us into this mess are trying to pull the biggest April Fools trick in history – to pretend that the global economic meltdown can be fixed and they are the ones best qualified to do the fixing. To get away with this effrontery, these bankers will do all they can to mask themselves with the charisma of Barack Obama, due to arrive here that morning. We’re not fooled.

We have global economic and environmental meltdown. We have home repossessions and unemployment spiraling out of control. We have unjust wars. And for what? Presidents and premiers are plotting to shore up the tottering capitalist system to ensure business as usual and wealth creation for the few, at the expense of the many.
That’s why a lot of angry people, hardworking taxpayers, activists, pensioners, the unemployed, people who’ve lost their homes and savings, small business and shop workers, and all manner of victims of the economic collapse are joining forces in new and powerful coalitions to express their rage. On Financial Fool’s Day, we will take our protest to the belly of the beast: the Bank of England in London’s financial square mile.
April Fools Day is hereby declared a public holiday!
On 1st April at 11 a.m. parades will join up at four railway stations around the edge of the square mile – Liverpool St, London Bridge, Cannon St and Moorgate – and snake their way though the City to converge at the Bank of England for 12 noon.
Each procession will be headed by one of the Four Horsefolk of the Apocalypse, commanding their forces against
1)Climate chaos (Green horse, Liverpool St),
2) War (Red horse, Moorgate),
3) Job/savings/pensions losses (Silver horse, London Bridge) and
4) Home repossessions (Black horse, Cannon Street).

G20 Meltdown calls for as many people as possible to join us for
Banquet at the Bank, bring food, fun and games to share – a very rare delicacy will be served, bankers brains! If you want to Eat the Bankers join the Silver horse in a zombie block!
The Trial of Capitalism, for crimes against the planet – send’em to the gallows, politicians, war criminals and bankers hanging from every lamppost! If you want to press the charges for war crimes join the Red horse!
The Rainforest arrives in the City, Giant anacondas up the pillars, macaws shitting on the statues, polar bears on melting icebergs. Join the Green horse in animal mask or bring greenery for gorilla invasion of the urban jungle!
The World Turns Full Circle, The 360th anniversary of the Diggers, English Revolutionaries for the Earth, a ‘Common Treasury for All’. Join the Black horse with diggers’ spades to celebrate!
Can we overthrow this corrupt and despised government? Yes, we can!
Can we live sustainably and avert climate chaos? Yes, we can!

Can we defy the database police state and restore our ancient freedoms? Yes, we can!
Can we make capitalism history? Yes, we can!

http://www.g-20meltdown.org
http://graveyard.at

Source: email

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Anarchists plan City riot for day G20 leaders arrive in London

Anti-globalisation activists are plotting a mass demonstration against bankers in the heart of the City of London, it was revealed today.

Police are on full alert ahead of the protest, planned for 1 April – the day world leaders arrive in the capital for the G20 summit.

Thousands of demonstrators, including anarchists and anti-aviation activists, are planning a series of protests, aiming to capitalise on disenchantment with City financiers who are blamed for dragging the economy into recession.

The event, dubbed ‘Financial Fools Day’, is likely to cause mass disruption as demonstrators try to block traffic and buildings by lying in tents and sleeping bags across the road.

One source suggested the protest would include a ‘spectacular action’.

Organisers said on the Climate Camp website: ’Join us for camping, workshops, protest, positive alternatives, direct action and community.

‘We need to stop this foolishness… Bring a pop-up tent if you have one, sleeping bag, wind turbine, mobile cinema, extra shoes, action plans and ideas… Let’s imagine another world.’

Protesters hope to mobilise ‘anti-fatcat’ sentiment among students and workers affected by the credit crunch as they demonstrate against the financial system, and are inviting activists to ‘set up camp’ in Britain’s financial centre.

One environmentalist source said: ‘People are angry about losing their jobs and bankers still getting their bonuses. People are also up in arms about the Government bulldozing anti-airport legislation through, as we saw with the third runway at Heathrow.’

Police have become adept at controlling such demonstrations and preventing widespread disorder of the type that occurred during the May Day and poll tax riots in the Nineties.

But there are fears that small groups will still manage to wreak havoc.

Police sources said: ‘Angry activists and aggressive City trader types are a volatile mix, as we have seen before.’

During the 1999 City Riot, which left 46 people injured and caused up to £2million damage, fights broke out between City workers and anarchists protesting in the streets and in private premises.

The April protest has captured the imagination of anarchists. Some are plotting further demonstrations against the G20 on the day of the summit on 2 April.

One protester said the example of Athens, where young Greeks have been rioting for several months since police shot dead a teenager, could provide further inspiration.

An anarchist wrote in an online ‘blog’: ‘The combination of the recession, the inspiration of the Greek anarchists and the G20 summit being in london on 2 April gives us the opportunity to mobilise far larger than usual numbers on to the streets… Seize the time.’

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1151034/Anarchists-plan-City-riot-day-G20-leaders-arrive-London.html

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The Festival is Over - Japan Resistance Report 2008

Japan can be described as a decaying high-tech quasi-corporatist island state, hostile to many of its neighbouring countries. Several Japanese companies which benefited from slave labour in WW2, Mitsubishi etc, still operate. Japan is re-arming itself militarily and has never firmly broke with its fascist & imperialist past, the state attempts to enforce a high level of social control but even so, there does remain tumultuous outbreaks of anarchy that no-one can predict occurring, moments of incredible beauty, like Osaka in 13-21 June 2008, when an incident of police brutality sparked fierce rioting in Kamagasaki, a working class district.
The government is very repressive against the social movements in no small part to the serious revolutionary disturbances of the 60’s & 70’s onwards, with some underground autonomous groups still existing in hiding today. Japan is not the stable, comfortable place that the media tries to portray, and there are many people living a very precarious life of poverty and exclusion.
Not only in violent response to repression was there was a stark difference between the 6 day riot in Osaka and the anti-G8 events which took place almost simultaneously in Hokkaido, northern most island of the Japanese archipelago.

In Hokkaido a tiny number of anti-globalisation activists, socialists, pacifists, environmentalists, NGOS, and of course, anarchists, were systematically suppressed in Sapporo from the onset of the entire organised counter-events. They were violently prevented on the most minor terms from having a peaceful street demo with a sound-system truck, the driver absurdly wrestled out by a posse of cops in a characteristic move of attacking vulnerable demos where the cops feel they can be aggressive and have the sanction of the media to do so. The sound-demo in Tokyo was the usual suppressed event, despite the evident rage of some of the people against the police restrictions. Anti-globalisation academics flew in and flew out again, presentations and counter-conferences were organised, promoting this or that new book or hip social theory in venues where you usually had to pay to enter. The spectacle was maintained, commodities were sold, careers were trod.
The media build-up to the G8 was extremely questionable, with mainstream media meeting the German anti-G8 ‘Dissent’ delegation in the months before the events at the air-port like movie-stars. Unfortunately the ‘Dissent’ delegation participated with the mainstream media, something we completely disagree with, viewing it as counter-productive and antagonistic to our hostility to the agenda of the corporations and government. The media was customarily both hysterically curious and dismissive, with the accompanying usual alerts to hold the image in the mind of terrorists like the Japanese Red Army, Aum or Al-Qaeda.
The base population simply got on with their lives. In Osaka when a day-worker was discovered beaten and tortured by the inner-city police during the G8 clampdown period, the whole area lit up with unmediated anti-police, anti-system rage, it didn’t matter so much that there was also a secondary G8 ministers meeting happening at the time in the city, we guess people were pretty angry. In addition the squatted parks around the city act as semiautonomous areas of free space, with information and material distribution,
so the news spread fast. There is a closeness to the people who have known each other in a collective fight for some time and they know the lay of the city to their advantage. Kamagasaki is a fighting working class neighbourhood, they do not need to be convinced by a street-party to dance. The anti-G8 events were characterised by a strong focus on structure, on the logistics of organising an ‘event’. The actions borrowed the structure of past anti-G8 action; in particular organisers in Japan used their experience of the G8 in Germany the previous year.
We don’t doubt the sincerity of the people who spent so much time and effort in organising the resistance against the G8, but for us this structure was applied superficially. There was not much analysis of how and why people wanted to act against the summit, or what the aims of action were. There seemed to be a lack of preparation for an attack from the cops and lack of de-centralised actions outside the central sounddemo( s), which seemed to come from lack of initiatives and conflictual attitude of solidarity on the part of the Japanese groups and also internationals not sufficiently understanding the operating environment. The international anti-G8 infotour for the G8 was extensive, across many countries and continents, why was the mobilisation so weak? Did it rely too much on a dependency for ‘outside’ numbers and pose a logistical complexity beyond the capabilities of the organising initiative?
In contrast to the more spontaneously created, structureless rioting in Osaka, the G8 action involved hierarchical organising. While on the surface borrowing the structure of previous anti- G8 events, the idea of leadership was very present in the organisation. The only way out is to completely denounce their methods and their ambition, what exists of it. Space seems significant in this, the lack of autonomous spaces in Japan affected the mentality of organisation; without the actual physical space to situation oneself in, it’s difficult to practice and build nonhierarchical collective organising for a mass of people. Although lacking in much action, the anti-G8 events did create some discussion around the methods of organisation. The challenge of a small, politically diverse, international group, trying to react against the G8 created an environment where there was no alternative but to engage as a group, and discuss political tactics.
In Hokkaido anti-G8 camp, internationals were separated from the decision making process and told that any action that was not approved by the organisers would result in certain arrest, job loss and prison (for the central organisers), therefore the usual putting pressure on everyone to toe the line. Also the inappropriate plan to march 20 Km in the countryside where there would be little chance to have any effect on the actual proceedings of the G8 is irritating to say the least.
The lack of opportunity for discussion around the tactics chosen by the central activist clique was dis-empowering and shows the weakness in the adoption of structure without adequately thinking about content. Without a collective confrontational position to capitalism on our own terms , our ‘resistance’ appears to amount to nothing but words, a gesture, a trend, then back to our routines.
Unfortunately, as well as this superficial structure, the NoG8 action was without a sense of spontaneity, raw feeling, passion, anger, or catalyst for action, as was seen in Osaka. Combined with massive amounts of self-repression, and the reality of a huge police presence, the result was an event lacking in direction or power.

“Coming nowhere near to the goal of ’shutting down the summit’, the protests were largely characterized by complacent marches in the shadow of $280 million dollars spent on security and 21,000 police goons lined up against a mere 1,000 or so protesters. From the beginning, the organizers formally negotiated with the police and paid the price: the marches passed nowhere near the meeting site and instead were forced into routes through the countryside at obscene distances, epitomized by a 22km daytime march through mountains and forest roads that only 100 people attended after the vast majority of participants denounced it and refused to attend. Despite the ‘good behavior’ of the organizers, four activists were nevertheless arrested for pathetically arbitrary reasons, such as having three people at a time on the sound system float (only two were allowed). Media coverage was mostly absent, even in ‘independent media’ despite the presence of hundreds of cameras. It is safe to say that the protests were not noticed at all, and even on their own limited terms were failures. Will there be people brave enough to admit this?” anonymous rebel/datacide This is not so much just a critique of some of our Japanese comrades as a critique of the Pavlovian activist mindset whereby a generic response is rolled out regardless of the specifics of people and place. What success the G8 protests achieved was found in bringing together new interactions between Japanese anti-capitalists and internationals.
What happened – or didn’t happen – in Japan is no surprise. An international call out was produced because that is what was expected: that is the model – unreflected, insupportable (in terms of infrastructure) and inappropriate. The fact that Japan is, as a political, social and subcultural entity, so extremely different from those places where these summits have been held and attacked before simply threw the poverty of the ritual into sharp relief.
So, for us the anti-G8 protests were characterised by massive self-surveillance and self-repression, and difficulty in breaking out of a sense of isolation and individualization. The ‘activist’ response to the G8 was dis-empowering in contrast to the necessary, spontaneous chaotic rioting in Osaka which was grounded in a reality of social conflict against the conditions of a repressive daily life.

The G8 action and the Osaka riots highlighted a stark divide between people pushed to a point of necessary action, and the ‘activist scene’, where there is a feeling of having too much to lose to take action. Comparably, this situation in Japan is suggestive of where the organised ‘activist scene’ in United Kingdom is at from an outsiders perspective: revolving around structured events, without either a depth of analysis, spontaneity or position of conflict, leading to an inactive ‘scene’ and decaying ‘sub-culture’, without clear targets and ways to fight them.
Anarchists and other uncontrollables in Osaka felt it was pointless going to Hokkaido, the struggle is in their city, most certainly away from the concentrated forces of the enemy in a rural area. This is where only those who readily control mass access to transport and personnel can win the engagement due to the environment. They felt that also there was an undiscovered element of ‘white supremacy’ in the assumption that imported Anglo-Atlantic models will be the best ones for the Japanese situation, and that ‘activist’ methods can be a symbolic theater that is not based on collective action in the face of a repressive system, but is a reaction to a temporary media event of authority. Also maybe only more financially solvent North American and European activists have a possibility to enter and this was not automatically available to closer comrades in East Asia. This effects not only the amount of people who come but also maybe the readiness for conflict, due to the heavy sentences given out by the Japanese state, which are a different reality, it is not a joke. Japanese prisons are notoriously harsh but they are nothing compared to the realities of life in many prisons of the majority world. When you add together the possibility of not clearing immigration because of problems with visas, money, if you are an international, and then heavy jail time for very minor actions, you have to think very clearly about the situation you find yourself in. If we face this much repression for centralized ‘legal’ ‘pacifist’ public actions, we have to seriously think about the social terrain we find ourselves in and how best to act.
In Japan, the problem is one of visibility, of having a visible anti-capitalist/anarchist infrastructure, as the resources available to the anti-capitalist movement are small, there are few infoshops, collective housing projects, squats etc. The state uses media, secret police, surveillance, manipulation, judicial harassment and imprisonment in a thorough manner, anyone who is identified as a threat will find themselves constantly on minor charges, house searches, this amounts to personal harassment, stalking, it is intended to be injurious to the mentality and so on, to hold people into keeping respectful of the seemingly allencompassing power of the government. So, the G8 in Japan was difficult to react against. Obviously G8 summits are organised in a way that anyway tries to remove the possibility of sparks of conflict or catalyst, such as holding them in remote rural locations. The ‘countryside’ in the industrialised world is always a ‘theme park’ or an ‘unforgiving advantage’ to those with superior technology, logistics and control of movement.
Despite it’s problems, Osaka benefits from having a long-running class struggle based practically on resisting the conditions of daylabour. The revolt against capitalism is already a potential in the tens of thousands of exploited who find themselves rolled over in this economy. It consists in recognizing that the currency crisis is a result of the search for capitalist value in the American markets since the fall of the Soviet Union, and not a result of the particular failures of bank policy in any one country. That’s where new allies, new struggles and new praxis emerge from. The antiglobalization movement has been stone-cold dead for years. The G8 protests were so far distanced from actual on-the-ground praxis in Japan that it is difficult to think of them apart from something like an anime convention.
The revolt against the industrialised world will not come from the countryside now the majority of the world lives in cities, it comes from within the contradictions and excluded zones of the mega-metropolis’ themselves, the most critical place to stop the economy, and seize control of the streets.

Kamagasaki has been rebelling since the 1960s, but only rarely have there been effective interventions there that have had the potential to get bigger (most notably the new left interventions of the 70s, but even that was really problematic). We have to find a way to overcome the limitations of riots, to destroy not only the police station but the economy, to push for a social war and the end of capitalism. To push a situation of disparate anger into a position of class strength and selforganisation. Repeatedly going to places of conflict where the possibilities are defined by the agenda of the state we see as a dangerous mistake, the ‘difficult’ condition of modern warfare is ‘urban’ precisely because this is the arena where our everyday lives are made. Where the commodities are produced and sent forth, where the utilities are run, where the octopus of cables multiples and spreads, where the schools, hospitals, bureaucratic and financial houses are run.
This is what is at stake. For a future without capital & coercion. Some anarchists always in exile.

Osaka comrade given prison term for riot

Greetings with indomitable soul
19th Nov 2008, comrade Y-San received an unjust sentence of 2 years and 2 months despite our struggle for his rescue. He has already been in custody in Osaka prison, not knowing when and where he will be sent. He says he wants to get out and come back even if it is only one day earlier. We will continue to visit him with articles, keep a place for him to come back and prepare ourselves for revenge.

(ABC Osaka/Free Workers Union)

Source: http://325collective.com/325_6.pdf

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In the Shadow of G8: Repression and Revolt in Japan

Over the past week and a half, an unprecedented political crackdown has been enacted in advance of a series of economic summits around the country. Despite this, the brave workers of Kamagasaki stood up against the stiff security environment in riots against the brutal beating of a day laborer over the past five days. The twin situations of repression and revolt deserve to be examined in more detail.

Repression

In the run-up to the series of summits, over 40 people were arrested in pre-emptive sweeps of broad left and anarchist groups.

On May 29th, 38 people were arrested at Hosei University in Tokyo at a political assembly against the G8. These large-scale arrests were carried out by over 100 public security agents after the students staged after a march across campus protesting the summits.1 All of the arrestees are still jailed, and among them are apparently some leadership of the Chuukaku-ha Leninist organization, one of the largest organizations of its kind in Japan.

On June 4th, Tabi Rounin, an active anarchist from the Kansai region, was arrested on accusation of having his address registered at a location other than where he was living. When arrested, his computer, cell phone, political flyers and more was taken from him; these items were used when detectives interrogated him, asking him about his relationship to internationals possibly arriving for the G8, as well as his activity around Osaka. He would be the first obviously political arrest masked as routine police work.

On June 12th, an activist from the Kamagasaki Patrol (an Osaka squatter and anti-capitalist group), was arrested for allegedly defrauding lifestyle assistance payments. This person has been constantly followed by plainclothes police and even helicopters during demonstrations. Clearly, his arrest was planned with the idea of keeping him away from the major anti-summit mobilizations and he will be held without bail for the maximum of 23 until the summit is over. The office of an anarchist organization called the Free Worker was raided in order to look for 'evidence' in this comrade's case.

The same day the Rakunan union in Kyoto was raided, with police officers searching their offices and arresting two of their members on suspicion of fraudulent unemployment insurance receipt. One of these two arrested are accused of funneling money received from unemployment insurance to the Asian Wide Campaign, which was organizing against the economic summits. In the meantime, Osaka city mobilized thousands of police with the pretext of preventing terrorism against the summit, setting up inspection points and monitoring all around the city. But the strengthened state high on its own power inevitably deployed it in violence, and turned the day laborers of southern Osaka against it in riot.

Revolt

Kamagasaki is a traditionally day laborer neighborhood that has experienced over thirty riots since the early 1960s. The last riot in Kamagasaki was sparked in 1990 by police brutality and the exposure of connections between the police and Yakuza gangs.

The causes this time were not much different. A man was arrested in a shopping arcade near Kamagasaki and taken to the Nishinari police station where he was punched repeatedly in the face by four detectives one after another. Then he was kicked and hung upside down by rope to be beaten some more.

He was released the next day and went to show his friends the wounds from the beatings and the rope. This brought over 200 workers to surround the police station and demand that the police chief come out and apologize. Later people also started demanding that the four detectives be fired. Met with steel shields and a barricaded police station, the crowd began to riot, throwing stones and bottles into the police station. Scraps with the riot police resulted in some of their shields and equipment being temporarily seized. The riot stopped around midnight with the riot police being backed into the police station. The next day they brought over 35 police buses and riot vehicles into the Naniwa police station with the intention of using these against the rioters.

During the riot, the police surveilled rioters from the top of the police station, from plainclothes positions and from a helicopter. Riot police with steel shields were deployed all around the neighborhood in strategic places to charge in when the action kicked off. The workers organizations which by the second day were maintaining the protest had chosen a good time to do so because the police department proved unwilling to unleash the direct, brutal charges seen in the 1990 riot due to the international spotlight focused on them. On Saturday a police infiltrator was found in the crowd, pushed up against a fence and smashed in the head with a metal bar.

(A shield captured from cops by riot participants)

The riot has lasted since the 13th and every night there is a resumption of hostility between the day laborers and the cops. Workers so far refuse anything less than the fulfillment of their demands in light of the police brutality incident. Despite the call from more 'moderate' NGOs to 'stop the violence' there has been no let-up in hostility towards the police, although the real level of violent confrontation is not as strong as the weekend of the 13th-15th. The riot has been characterized by the participation of young people as well as the older day laborers in confrontation with the police. As the guarantors of everyday exploitation under capitalism who have to assertively maintain the constant dispossession of the urban working class, the police have many enemies. This they are finding out every night.

Over the past couple of days there have been points where more than 500 people have gathered and rioted around the neighborhood. Police have responded mainly by defending the Nishinari police station, their home base, while getting back up from the local Naniwa police station, which has a riot countermeasure practicing lot, and holds tens of anti-riot vehicles. Despite this mighty arsenal, the police were perhaps surprised when they deployed their tear gas cannon on the first day only to be met with cries of joy and laughter. The use of force no longer has any spell of intimidation, it is simply expected.

Still, the combined brutality of the police and their riot vehicles has netted over 40 arrests (including of many young people), many injuries and even blinded one worker with a direct shot of tear gas water to his right eye.

The struggle here is inevitably limited by the particular situations of day laborers, who are dispatched to their job sites and have no direct access to the means of production that standard wage workers would. This prevents them from for instance calling political strikes against police brutality, and hitting powerful interests in the city where they really hurt. As workers deprived of these means to struggle, the day laborers will always have the riot as a method not only of collective defense but for also forcing concessions from the city in the form of expanding welfare access, creating jobs, backing off of eviction campaigns etc. While these are more or less important gains strictly in terms of survival, it is important to explore the possibilities of spreading the antagonism of the Kamagasaki workers to the larger population of exploited people in order to imagine doing away with this power structure once and for all.

It is unclear exactly where the situation is headed, but we can know for sure that the real repression in Kamagasaki will arrive after the summits have ended and the focus is off of the Japanese government. Then we will see the raids, the arrests and the scapegoating of particular individuals for the righteous outburst of class violence that these riots are. Instead of quietly accepting their fates as people to be trampled upon, the participants have directly attacked the wardens of wage labor who guarantee the violence of everyday slum life.

Overall, the ongoing repression against those involved in organizing against the G8 summit as well as Kamagasaki should not convince anyone that the ruling class here is once again afraid of the working class. In repressing certain left groups organizing against the economic summits, the Japanese government is more interested in preventing a movement from emerging that starts to question capital at the macro level, than actually attacking an existing one. On the other hand in Kamagasaki, the state tries to deny the possibility of antagonism in a major metropole and the visibility of this revolt, for fear of it spreading. This is why most news reports have blacked out the ongoing riots in Kamagasaki. The concreteness and universality of the Kamagasaki revolt truly threatens to expand beyond the borders of police violence. Visitors to Kamagasaki from near and far have over the past five days participated and found their own struggle in riots fought by total strangers. The ruling class fears and knows that it cannot control this horizontal sympathy and the real practice of revolt that accompanies it.

Source: http://www.325collective.com/social-control_repression-and-revolt-g8-japan.html