07.11.2006

g8andwar: FROM THE HEATHLAND TO THE BEACH

BLOCK THE BOMBODROME AND 2007 G-8!
The G-8, war, refugees, and migration belong together. The logic that links them is plain to see for anti-militarist, autonomist, and anti-patriarchal groups like ours. Deportation, massive privatization programs, intensified exploitation, and the enclosure of all the common resources in reach: only the backing of a state war machine makes these aims realizable. The combination of the G-8 and the bombing range in the Kyritz-Ruppiner heathland (between Rostock, Hamburg, and Berlin) presents us with an opportunity to expose these connections in some lasting anti-militarist actions and images. The plan is to take back the area marked as a bombing range - and to do it together with local protest and resistance groups immediately before the G8 Summit.

The goal of the temporary occupation, possibly a short-term re-appropriation of the Bombodrome area, is to discredit the German military (Bundeswehr), which wants to take over this land against the will of the overwhelming majority of the local inhabitants. And of course to block the bombing range. The Bundeswehr's goal is to build for itself and NATO a practice grounds to conduct training for comprehensive air warfare, including tactical nuclear weapons. This will be the largest such bombing range on the European mainland. German strategists are calculating that this training range, and smaller ones like it in all the states of the German federation, will increase Germany's military influence, not least with a view to gaining a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

To the Bombodrome in Heidesand*
The Bombodrome has already produced a regional resistance movement with a long history. In the larger cities of the surrounding region, connections to the main elements of antimilitarist theory and praxis can be seen. And of course "NO WAR" is a central slogan of the global counter-globalization movement. If resistance can come together on these issues, the movements can reach a new critical mass. We want to make this happen. Concrete social processes coming out of the experience of working cooperatively against the Bombodrome, military air base, and Summit meeting could produce links that will last far beyond the event of the G-8. Making these links of cooperation durable would seriously hinder both the realization of the Bombodrome and the preparations for future wars.

To take this a step further: Looking ahead to joint action before the 2007 Summit and also beyond it, we're focusing on the chance to bring together local inhabitants with anti-militarists and diverse antiwar groups from other areas. Something like this has already been done with the Startbahn-West close to Frankfurt and the anti-nuke campaigns in Wackersdorf and in the Wendland - two rural areas in Germany. It's in the very mixture of the coalition that differential quantity leads to a new quality of radical social processes. Respect for difference and diversity builds the base, and on this base we want work together with the local groups of the region to broaden the resistance to the bombing range. It's important that our actions in this direction are adapted to the local situation, so that we can effectively use the international momentum of the anti-G-8 mobilization to expose the connections between the Bombodrome and the Rostock-Laage airport on the one hand and on the other the larger issues of militarization and the G-8. A temporary occupation of the grounds, the elimination of the illegally constructed fences, or the removal of the target pyramids for bombing runs to more suitable locations may not seem so radical to "real Summit stormers." However, for the local region and for the development of an anti-militarist praxis that bridges the regions, such an action just before the Summit events would be an enormous step. (See the box for details about action ideas.)

One idea we've come up with so far is to turn the pink-colored target pyramid into a widely-recognized symbol of resistance, much as anti-nuke campaigns in Wendland did with their "X". Why pink? There have already been many actions in the Bombodrome; in one of them a control tower was painted pink - until the Bundeswehr blew it up. Apparently the German military sees pink as a threat to its manhood.

Back to the Airport...
The Rostock-Laage airport is centrol in the military ensemble in Northern Germany and is part of the Summit infrastructure. In 2006, when Bush met with Chancellor Merkel, "Air Force One" landed there. And quite a few of the G-8 participants and heads of state want to use the airport to arrive at the Summit. Its landing strip is today already a runway for Eurofighters: Rostock-Laage is the base for the 73rd fighter squadron (the so-called Steinhoff** squadron). The Eurofighters have a central meaning for both the Bundeswehr and NATO. During the football World Cup, stealth bombers were ordered into the air. And bombers taking off from Rostock-Laage will fly to the Bombodrome for training. The airport lies directly on the Berlin-Rostock Autobahn and presents itself as an ideal field for actions. Tuesday, 5 June 2007, is Action Day for Rostock-Laage. This is a tremendous chance, not just to criticize the creeping militarization of everyday life here and the wars raging globally, but also to expose to view and attack a concrete part of the infrastructure.

The meaning of the Rostock-Laage airport for the Bombodrome is also clear for local opponents of the bombing range. We want to bring together the protests against this infrastructure - crucial to the capacity of Germany and NATO to conduct wars globally - with the local protest movement against the Bombodrome. In this one Action Day, we see the possibility for a collaboration among people from diverse contexts. So after the Action Day at the bombing range, the Rostock-Laage airport will be blockaded on 5 June - the very day politicians and their entourages will be arriving. The blockade of the airport aims at the scandal of militarization, at war as the producer of refugees, at the belligerent "world order politics" of the G-8 states, at the accelerating expansion of the Bundeswehr - and at the bombing range. It gives the Summit protests a clearly anti-militarist, anti-patriarchal expression. And it gives the Summit gangsters some concrete problems to chew on. The whole G-8 spectrum will be challenged to discuss a central and extensive mobilization that could bring off vivid protests at the Bombodrome and the most diverse actions at the Rostock-Laage airport, in the middle of intense public and media scrutiny.

The combination of the Bombodrome, the military airbase, and the arrival of presidents offers a unique opportunity to make visible the thematic and practical(!) links between different areas. And, in connection with the G-8, to expose Germany as a main pillar of global state of exception, militarization and war.

Deligitimize the G-8, strengthen the anti-militarist and anti-patriarchal movement, live Alternatives - for globalized solidarity and a clear "NO" to all war.

No War G-8 Coalition

* Heidesand means the sandy ground in the heath area of the planned Bombodrome.
** Named after Johannes Steinhoff, a German Wehrmacht fighter pilot (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Steinhoff)

Online: www.g8andwar.de
Email: g8undkrieg@so36.net

MEETING DATES

21 November 2006, 6pm
open workshop for ideas
How to bring together the resistance to the Bombodrome with the anti-militarist actions against the Rostock-Laage airport, in connection with the G-8 Summit?
Place: Neuruppin, Cafe Hinterhof, Rudolf-Breitscheid-Str. 38

16 December 2006, Noon
Action meeting for Rostock-Laage (nation-wide and open to all)
Place: Berlin-Kreuzberg, Bethanien, Southern Wing

PLAN OF ACTIONS

In numerous meetings of local and intra-regional groups, the following action concept was developed:

2 June 2007
Camp for Settlers and Friends
In a greetings action for the Euro-march and Caravan, the association for art and culture in Freien Heide are organizing a hangar concert.

3 June 2007
Temporary Settlement of the Area
Gathering and prelude to the actions at Rostock-Laage airport.

Reconstructed target pyramids can be used as huts: "Every target a home." Echoes and afterimages of the target pyramids could appear everywhere across the whole region, just like the "X" suddenly appears every year in Wendland. Whoever marks their living and work spaces with a target pyramid signals: "If bombs fall anywhere, they fall on us all." In this way the target pyramid becomes a symbol for anti-militarist resistance - as a warning optionally in the red and white color scheme of the originals or in anti-militarist pink (see the Pink-Point action at the former Soviet command tower, from the 2002 Summer Action Days).
A "Pattern Hut" or Community House should be constructed as a glimpse toward a future town of huts. ("We'll be back, don't worry!")
Further creative decoration actions.
At 2pm, participation in the Protest Hike of the Freie Heide Citizens' Initiative. Actions to be arranged so as to permit participation in the Protest Hike.

On Sunday buses to Rostock will be arranged for out-of-towners. For Tuesday's blockade action buses will be organized to take people from the region to Rostock-Laage airport, where they can participate visibly as inhabitants of the effected region.

The idea is to show the connection between the increasing militarization of politics and society and the decisions that will be taken by the eight most powerful industrial nations when their heads of state have their Summit.

[g8andwar]

Images: