2007-05-14

May 14th 2007 Heiligendamm

- NOW MORE THAN EVER: Smash G8 !
- Declaration of the Rote Flora about police raids at the 9th of may 2007 in Hamburg
- A Taste of the Coming Showdown
- news about the last dissent meeting in berlin

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NOW MORE THAN EVER: Smash G8 !

Information about the International Demonstration June 2nd in Rostock city, Germany and about the mobilisation to the Leftradical, Antifascist and Revolutionary Blocs in the center of Rostock.

INTRODUCTION

The razzias(raids) in Germany against 40 projects and homes of opponents of the G8 by the german police led to a enormous mobilisation-effect. Over 10,000 people of all different spectras of the leftwing movement came together in protests against the criminalisation of the anti-G8-movement. There have also been there have been protest-actions at german embassys in other countries all over Europe .
The central organising commitee of the demonstration on the 2nd of june meanwhile recognized more subscribers from different groups and organizations to the central call for the demonstration on june 2nd.

Infos at Indymedia: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370112.html

INTERNATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AT 2nd OF JUNE IN ROSTOCK/NORTH-GERMANY

On June 2nd there are TWO different demonstrations starting at different places - these two demonstrations with different marching routes will finish at the same end-point, Rostock harbour, for a joint rally. At midday the two demonstrations meet at different starting points with speeches and music at 1pm the demonstrations will start. The Demonstration at "Auftakt 1" (see map: http://www.heiligendamm2007.de/images/Demoroute_Rostock2.jpg ) which starts at Schutower Kreuz / Hamburger Strasse will lead through an industrial area where almost nobody lives.

The second demonstration route at "Auftakt 2" (see map: http://www.heiligendamm2007.de/images/Demoroute_Rostock2.jpg ) starts at the Central Railway station in "Platz der Freundschaft" square. This demonstration goes straight through the city centre and inhabited areas.

The joint end rally ("Abschluss-Kundgebung" / see map) with different speeches and concerts concludes at Rostock harbour near the city's old centre (Altstadt). Just a few s-bahn(city network train) stops away you can reach Rostock-Camp which can accomodate thousands of people.

The camp's programme begins on Friday June 1st and will continue until the end of the protests against G8. Also leftradical and internationalist groups will organize there own barrios in this camp with information-, film-, discussion- and culture-events. The convergence and media centre in Rostock already opened.

- Demonstration routes on the city-map: http://www.heiligendamm2007.de/images/Demoroute_Rostock2.jpg
- city map of Rostock: http://www.rostock-stadtplan.de/r6.htm
- Concert on the 2nd and 3rd of june in Rostock: http://www.move-against-g8.de/pages/programm/samstag.php
- Convergence Center Rostock: http://wiki.dissentnetwork.org/wiki/English

LEFTRADICAL, ANTIFASCIST, ANTICAPITALIST AND REVOLUTIONARY BLOC AT THE DEMONSTRATION AT 2nd OF JUNE

The Blocs of the radical and revolutionary left, the International Antifascist, the Anticapitalist and the Internationalist and Revolutionary Blocs are part of the Demonstration with starting point at the Central Railway Station at "Platz der Freundschaft" square. ("Auftakt 2" - see map of the demonstration routes) is in Rostock city centre.
These different leftradical blocs will march together one behind the other. There are international calls for the blocs by the different anti-g8-alliances, like by the Interventionist Left, many Antifa-Groups and anticapitalist Groups, the Anti-G8-Alliance for a revolutionary Perspective, parts from the Dissent-Spectrum, many Antifa-Groups from many european contries, many sections of the antiracism movement, groups of the latinamerican-solidarity movement, autonomous groups from different countries, the anti-imperialist anti-g8-alliance, revolutionary anti-g8-alliances from switzerland, organisations and groups from greece, italy, england, spain, basque country, catalunya, france, denmark, sweden and many other countries as well as trotskyist or internationalist organisations. The Demonstaration will start at 1pm.

At 11am pre-march events begin with music and speeches, at 12 o'clock the initial rally with speeches from Ibrahim Coulyband from Via Campesina, Piero Benocchi from the leftwing italian syndicate COBAS, from Tobias Pflüger from the left party of the european parliament and by Nancy Cardoso from Brasil/Porto Alegre.

TRAVEL INFORMATION BY AUTOBUS, TRAIN AND CARS

From all over Germany and also from some european countries many travel opportunities by bus are listed on the internet, where activists can travel for a small price. Attac for example is organising special Anti-G8 Trains to Rostock.
If you are coming from other countries you should be aware that there will be border-controls, as the german Minister of the Interior already announced.
Before reaching Rostock and all around Rostock on streets and motorways leading into the city there will be massive police controls. Also the police could tell you if you're coming by bus that you may only go the the parking place in the industrial area near the first starting point of the demonstration which starts outside the city,even if you want to travel to the second starting point at the central railwaystation in the inner city ("Auftakt 2").
However near the Central Railway Station there is also a big parking place for coaches and in the south from the City of Rostock there are more parking-places.

- Anti-Repression information "What to do if its burning" and "Red Help G8Xtra" by the Red Help Association with tips and information against repression,also for our comrades from foreign countries in different languages: http://www.rote-hilfe.de/topnews/g8_other_languages
- Travel Opportunities by bus and train: http://www.heiligendamm2007.de/Demo_Anreise.html
- Demonstration routes on the city-map: http://www.heiligendamm2007.de/images/Demoroute_Rostock2.jpg

Camp, Barrios and Sleeping-Places in Rostock

In Rostock,located just a few City-Train (S-Bahn) stops away from the city centre is the camp with thousands of sleeping places. There are different tents for gatherings,meetings, information-events and an Indymedia-tent with internet connections.
How to reach the camp: from the Rostock central railway station you go by City-Train (its a fast train in the city, all city-train-stations are marked with a sign with a green arrow as) in direction to "Warnemünde" (see routes of the trains on the maps at the train-stations). You go by the train to Train-Station "S-Bhf. R-Bramow" or to "S-Bhzf. Marienehe" where get off. >From "S-Bhf. Marienehe" you go over the railway tracks, then turn right,cross the empty parking lot and continue along"Fischerreihafen"and "Schlachthofstrasse"streets until you see signs which will direct you the way to the camp.

From "S-Bhf. R. Bramow" you go along the street "Schwarzer Weg" towards the harbour, then turn left at "Schlachtstrasse" and there you will see signs which will lead you to the Camp. At the Camp there will be different "Barrios" organized by different spectras and movements from the different countries. In these areas at the camp - the "Barrios" - there will be informations events,discussion gatherings, and film and cultural programms. Meals and drinks (food not bombs) will be organized by the camp organization together will the structures from the different "Barrios". Because there is not so much money its asked to donate some money to the camp structure if you can afford it for sleeping in the camp. Sanitary installations such as toilets and shower will be available.

the following areas/barrios in the Rostock-Camp we know of so far. more Barrios are planned, so watch out for more information:

++ Barrio Junirevolte (Socialist Youth Organization from the PDS | http://www.smash-g8.de/ )
++ Barrio Rojo ("Internationalist und Revolutionary Barrio" | http://www.antig8.tk/home_en.php )
++ Yellow Barrio (Student activists | http://block-g8ucation.org/ ) ++ Hedonist International Barrio ( http://www.hedonist-international.org/?q=en/node/156 )

- Map of the Camps: http://www.antig8.tk/aktivitaeten_2007_camps.jpg

ANTIREPRESSION

During the action days against G8 there will be "Legal Teams" (german: "ErmittlungsAusschuss"/"EA") who can be reached by phone all around the clock. The Legal Teams are in contact with many lawyers who will go to help the arrested/prisoners. The phone number will be published over the next few days at the homepage of the Legal Teams/"ErmittlungsAusschuss". The phone number of the legal teams also will be announced during the demonstration, at the convergence centres and at the camps. please write down this number (on paper or simply on your arms). if you or your comrades get arrested (even if just on the journey to Rostock) call this number and say the names and birth-date of the arrested persons. This will give the laywers the opportunity to ask for the people at the police prisons. if somebody gets released he or she should immediately call the number of the Legal Teams/"Ermittlungsausschuss" again to tell them that you or your comrade with whatever name and birthday did get released. This will help the lawyers to reduce needless work.

- Legal Teams/"Ermittlungsausschuss": http://www.ermittlungsausschuss.antifa.net/

Many informations about the german laws concerning the protest against g8 and how to act at manifestations can be found at the homepage of the Red Help Association, or will be distributed at the different convergence centres in different languages.

The Red Aid/Help (Rote Hilfe) Association exists in nearly all cities in germany and is a anti repression organisation where people from all different spectras of the leftwing movement work together and supports people from all different leftwing spectras if they are under repression by the german state. An example of the Red Aid's help is financial support of 40% of lawyers bills and fines. The money almost comes from the membership-fees of over 4,500 people.
However the Red Help/Aid Association surmises that this year they will require far more money to support everyone because of possible heavy repression, and therefore for the many prisoners of the upcoming anti-G8-protests.A special account for this has been set up for donations by the Red Help Association.

Donations within Germany:
Rote Hilfe e.V. Konto 191 100 462 BLZ 440 100 46 Postbank Dortmund Stichwort: "G8 Gipfel"
Donations outside of Germany:
Rote Hilfe e.V. IBAN: DE75 4401 0046 0191 1004 62 SWIFT-BIC: PBNKDEFF Postbank Dortmund Purpose: "G-8 Summit"
If you are sending donations from outside of the EU please make group or joint contributions of at least 50 euros. Otherwise only the banks will receive anything as the international transfer fees are very high.

- Donation Account Info: http://www.rote-hilfe.de/ueber_uns/spenden/donations
- Antirepression-Information and texts "what to do when its burning" and "red help g8xtra" in different languages: http://www.rote-hilfe.de/topnews/g8_other_languages
- Homepage Red Help/Rote Hilfe e.V.: http://www.rote-hilfe.de

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Declaration of the Rote Flora about police raids at the 9th of may 2007 in Hamburg

60 political projects, private flats and workingplaces all together were raided by the police by order of the Federal Prosecutors Office not only in Hamburg but also other countries of germany today in the morning. The official reason for that act was §129a StGB, which means "creation of a terrorist group" in context with the planned protests against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm at the beginning of june this year. We declare this act as a try of the ones in states power to discriminate and criminalize the wide organised campaign against the unhuman policies of the G8, which includes the energy-, GMO- and migrationpolicies of the G8. The convergence center Hamburg, which will take place in the end of may / beginning of june in the Rote Flora, should be a frame for protests as a place to go and platform for activist from all around the world. Topics will be networking, workshops and background-information about the protests and actions in Hamburg and Heiligendamm. The Rote Floras self definition is a noncommercial, autonomous quarter-center, in which more than 15 years diverse political and cultural projects and groups find their place. We interprete the massive activities of the police against our rooms as an attack against the movement as a whole and as a try to frighten all activists, who speak in public actively against the G8 and beyond. As we saw recently in the debate about the amnesty of Christian Klar (a former RAF member and political prisoner in germany) it is shown again how systematical criticism is been seen as a crime. What kind of repression from the police to expect for the next weeks could be seen already today, as the violent end of the spontan demonstration "for more free spaces" in hamburg caused several injured protesters and arrests. The unacceptable violations will not stop the mobilisation. We call all of you to take active part in the protests in the streets!

Rote Flora, 09.05.2007

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A Taste of the Coming Showdown

Chancellor Angela Merkel wants nothing to disturb the seaside harmony at the G-8 summit in northern Germany next month. But nationwide raids last week have upset leftist protesters of every stripe -- and set the stage for an unwanted showdown on the Baltic Sea.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks about Heiligendamm in warm, affectionate terms. The coastline is "wonderful," and so is the locals' hospitality. Merkel picked the idyllic Baltic Sea resort as a setting for this year's Group of Eight (G-8) summit of the world's leading industrialized nations from June 6-8 because it was the perfect place to convey an image of harmony to the "wider public around the globe."

But pictures broadcast in Germany last week weren't so pleasant. On Wednesday, around 900 police officers -- many of them masked members of special operations units -- stormed 40 apartments and offices belonging to leftists across the country. They looked for anti-globalization militants in book stores, video production studios and other left-wing centers in Hamburg, Berlin, and elsewhere. Even a theater office was raided. The main internet server of one anti-G-8 movement was also shut down.
The images were grim, and the rhetoric was downright martial: German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned of vague attacks while German federal prosecutors spoke darkly of a "terrorist network."
Across the German left-wing scene, though, the raids were a wakeup call. Around 4,000 protestors marched through Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood within hours; in Hamburg's Schanzen quarter demonstrators threw bottles and rocks. Globalization opponents in Amsterdam, Vienna and London called upon those sympathetic to their cause to head to Heiligendamm next month.
From the protesters' point of view, it's hard to imagine better publicity. The nationwide raid has sparked memories in Germany of brutal crackdowns on anti-nuclear demonstrators two decades ago. Now both police and leftists are preparing for a showdown near the Baltic: Just as the cops once had to fence off nuclear construction sites in West Germany to keep out protesters, a 12-kilometer high-tech steel fence has sealed off the summit grounds. It's already a symbol for the government's attempt to shut out public dissent.

Not postcard-pretty
This is hardly what Merkel wanted. The seaside resort near her East-German childhood home was meant to be a scenic backdrop for her shining moment among the world's elite. Merkel seems to enjoy foreign policy -- it's less frustrating than German domestic politics; it's one area where she can excel. She clearly enjoyed hosting US President George W. Bush last summer at a barbecue in the tiny village of Trinwillershagen not far from the Baltic coast, where he flattered her by saying he wanted to "look inside her soul."
But in June she also wants to avoid images like those at the 2001 summit in Genoa, Italy, where barricades burned and the police killed one young demonstrator. The federal court's justification for the raids last week showed just how high the pressure is to avoid violent protests. The concern, wrote the court, was a flareup "which could particularly damage the position of Germany as a dependable partner amid the eight most important industrial nations."

Ideally the summit will project an image as positive as the one in Gleneagles, Scotland, two years ago. Tony Blair managed to push through partial debt relief for the Third World and even garnered praise from critics like rock star-turned-poverty-campaigner Bob Geldof. But that summit was also marred -- as Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has pointed out -- by the terrorist bombings in London.

The most secure event in German history
On the agenda for this year's summit are topics like climate change, copyright protection, aid for Africa and greater transparency for international financial markets. The eight leaders, including US President George W. Bush and new French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- accompanied by 2,000 members of various government delegations -- will be tucked away on this pretty stretch of shoreline behind razorwire-topped fence. They'll be observed by 4,000 journalists, protected by 16,000 police and surrounded by up to 100,000 angry demonstrators. German organizers, in the end, will have spent almost €100 million and two years organizing the meeting.
Critics accuse G-8 leaders of pursing policies that reinforce poverty and inequality. They also claim the summit lacks democratic legitimacy. The highlight of one organized protest will be a concert by German rock musician Herbert Grönemeyer, who has taken up the efforts of U2 lead singer Bono to pressure G-8 leaders for more African aid. Lorenz Caffier, interior minister of the German state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania -- where Heiligendamm is located -- has said "all peaceful opponents of the summit are welcome." The closer the dreaded date comes, though, the more nervous local authorities seem to be.

The summit may well go down as the most secure event in German history. Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung will deploy nine navy ships and 1,100 soldiers. And surveillance of G-8 opponents has, at least temporarily, overshadowed efforts to combat Islamic terrorists.
At the start of 2007, Germany's domestic intelligence agency labelled globalization opponents an "operative focal point." Organizational meetings for protests at the summit were infiltrated by government informants, and in March authorities agreed to take preventative measures with other EU governments to keep a hard core of anarchists from Spain, Italy and Greece under control.
Germany will temporarily suspend the Schengen Agreement -- which allows passport-free travel among most European nations -- to set up border checks. Schäuble has also warned that police could hold potentially violent protesters in preventive custody. New mass-detention centers will be built. "Our guests have a right to demand that Germany does all it can to ensure their safety," says Wolfgang Bosbach, a conservative member of parliament and expert on security issues.

The Usual Suspects
Around this time of year, normally, the German Baltic coast begins to brim with summer tourism. But the atmosphere this May is different, at least for anyone belonging to an anti-G-8 group. Dissenters can count on being watched for hours at a time -- as one female activist from the anti-globalization group Attac recently learned. Several men in leather jackets tailed her for more than an hour until she took refuge in a police station in Rostock, the largest city near Heiligendamm. The police checked out the men and learned they belonged to Germany's domestic intelligence service.

Two other young leftists, known in Rostock as globalization critics, were stopped by police on the autobahn for two hours -- for a thorough but fruitless search of their car.
Still, last Wednesday's nationwide crackdown was less hard on young militant activists than it was on the scene's usual suspects from the past twenty years, including leftists like 68-year-old Fritz S. from Hamburg, 56-year-old Hauke B. from Berlin and the 65-year-old Armin M. from Brandenburg.
They're veterans of Germany's radical left. Fritz S., a physicist who taught regularly at a college in the northern city of Bremen, spent a year in jail in 1989 for supporting a terrorist group. All three men have been investigated over the years in several cases involving militants.
But proof that any of them have committed acts of violence is lacking. Germany's equivalent of the FBI, the Bundeskriminalamt, had to close a recent major investigation for lack of evidence. Fritz S. stood accused with 11 other suspects of sabotaging a number of German trains with metal hooks to protest the transport of nuclear waste from a processing center in France back to a depot in Germany. After phone taps, video surveillance and a number of apartment searches, federal prosecutors quietly dropped the case in 2003.
Still, prosecutors consider the three men masterminds of a clandestine network in northern Germany that has waged a militant campaign against the Heiligendamm summit since August 2005. Not even Germany's top federal prosecutor, Monika Harms, believes they were personally involved in certain nightly activities -- firebombing a Foreign Ministry guesthouse in October 2005, or torching a deputy finance minister's car in December 2006 -- but Harms does believe the old men might "at least have been involved in writing the self-incriminating messages" left at the scenes, or in recruiting young activists to commit the attacks.

Armin M., who lives in a small Brandenburg village and works against genetically modified crops, rejects the accusations. "It's all a propaganda show," he says, "that you just can't go on taking seriously."
A total of 21 suspects have been charged in the prelude to the G-8 summit. The most important piece of evidence against the three old men is a book published in 2004 called "Leftists in Motion." Its authors -- using the pseudonym "Graywacke INC" -- detail arson attacks against meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Berlin in 1988. The old leftists have now supposedly started a campaign against the G-8 summit "following this example." But Andreas Beuth, attorney for Fritz S., rejects his client's involvement in both the book and all the other charges.
In spite of such thinly-substantiated accusations, Konrad Freiberg, chairman of Germany's police union, justifies last Wednesday's raids as a pre-emptive attempt "to prevent future violence." But he admits federal prosecutors must "quickly put their evidence on the table," especially since the authorities have made several mistakes in the course of their investigations.

Consolidating the left
In 2003, a man named Jonas F. learned that federal investigators suspected him of belonging to a "militant group" after a billing mistake by his mobile provider O2 showed that his phone was being tapped. Awhile later, his name and the names of three other suspects appeared in the newspaper -- a warning the authorities tried to prevent. Another suspected G-8 opponent received an inadvertent letter from his local registry office that said federal police were investigating him for being part of a terrorist group.
These cock-ups have hurt the government's "zero tolerance for extremists" strategy -- at least politically. No sooner had federal prosecutors admitted their raids last week were aimed at "clearing up the structures" of various outfits than mainstream groups, like Attac -- which tries to distance itself from the extreme left -- showed solidarity with those being investigated. "The authorities are trying to divide the movement," says Attac co-founder Sven Giegold. "But the first indications are that they've done just the opposite."

Volker Ratzmann, an attorney and Green Party member in Berlin's city assembly, is incensed by "the thinnest search warrant I've ever seen." He says the authorities "are apparently trying to intimidate and collect more information." Even Berlin's interior minister, Erhart Körting, warns against "putting democratic protesters in the same category as a handful of criminals. That would be disastrous."
But the main result of last week's raids has been to push various factions of the left closer together. Claudia Roth, a Green Party leader who refused to back a general call to protest the summit because she couldn't support "one-sided blame" of the G-8, vehemently defended the protesters last week. She said it was "really shocking to put opponents of the G-8 summit and people critical of globalization in the same corner as terrorists" -- and marched in a protest on Wednesday in Berlin.
For her part, Merkel has tried to talk to critics. She met with Bono last week and will meet trade unionists and NGO groups on Monday. And for the last day of the summit Germany has invited the leaders of Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana to discuss the future of Africa. Representatives from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa will also come for talks about new rules for the global economy. Merkel's G-8 coordinator Bernd Pfaffenbach had hoped these events would soothe the anti-globalization crowd. The program in Heiligendamm, he said, is "not an agenda of topics that would fit the image of a club for the rich. Opponents of the summit just don't have an issue."
Maybe they didn't. Until last week.

[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,482855,00.html]

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news about the last dissent meeting in berlin

some news about the dissent meeting held at the weekend 5th/6th of may in berlin:

plan A will be as before with one exception:
* 1. there is one important change because the delegates and presidents will arrive on wednesday (6th of june) and not as expected on tuesday (5th of june), so that means the blockade of Rostock laage (military airport, where the delegates will arrive) will move from tuesday to wednesday, on tuesday there still will be the global action day of antimilitaristism around Rostock as well as other planned actions.

* 2. other blocks which are planning big and mass blockades (like block G8): we dont know yet if they will decide to call for mass blockades around heiligendamm on wednesday(6th of june)

* 3. at the meeting was consensus that decentral blockades should start before wednesday, as there will already be alot of delegates and people for summit-infrastructure around. For the day of antimilitaristism there must be actions planned too, and also after blocking the airport laage... it will go on with decentral blockades...

* 4. the camps- there was no favourised camp to go , but one idea was first to be around rostock (cos most of the actions are taking place there in the first days) and then maybe wednesday to move towards heiligendamm to the camp in reddelich in the countryside....

* 5. Demonstrations - 2nd of june
at the meeting people agreed we will still mobilize for both demonstrations, for the big demonstration in rostock and also against the nazi-demonstration in schwerin that same day.

here a short preview of plan a:

friday 1. of june:
squatting the bombodrom, ex bombing range which the nato wants to reactivate/
meeting point of bicycle caravans coming from eastern europe, westerneurope,
berlin, etc.

saturday 2. of june:
big demonstration in rostock + anti nazi demonstration in schwerin

sunday 3. of june:
global action day of agriculture in rostock / international networking meeting
of migrants in rostock rally with stops on supermarkets, laboratories for
genetical modified animals and crops on bikes, skaters, cars - east of Rostock

monday 4. of june:
global action day of migrants: freedom of movement is everybodys right.
morning:blockade of the Immigration office in Rostock near City Harbour
6pm:demonstration in rostock

tuesday 5. of june:
decentral blockades and antimilitaristic action in Rostock

wednesday 6. of june:
blockade of rostock laage airport (blockg8 might organise big mass blockades
around heiligendamm

thursday 7.of june:
starmarch to the fence, decentral blockades or plan b

friday 8. of june:
decentral blockades of departure and action day on climate change or plan b

aftermeeting end of july in france

[http://dissentnetzwerk.org/node/2569]