2007-05-18
May 18th 2007, Heiligendamm
- G8: Urgent appeal lodged against demonstration ban
- Call for a Superhero Block at the G8 2007
- Flash Radio is a podcast from and about the G8 2007 in Heiligendamm Germany.
- NEWS!
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G8: Urgent appeal lodged against demonstration ban.
If necessary, the 'star-march' coalition plan to take matters all the way to the federal courts.
G8 countries' foreign policies are given as the reason for the "police emergency".
Press Release May 18th 2007
[Gipfelsoli Infogruppe | International Press Group]
All demonstrations in the vicinity of Heiligendamm have been prohibited under a General Ban issued by the German Office for Association. The grounds behind the fence and a 4 kilometre area around the perimetre of the fence fall under the ban. With this ban, the protests are to be held at a 6 kilometre distance.
The planned 'star march' is one of the initiatives that is affected by these measures. With the motto, 'taking the protest to Heiligendamm', the star march is intended to end with a closing rally in Heiligendamm. Today, the star march coalition is lodging an urgent appeal against the ruling. A decision is expected at the end of next week. "If necessary, we will have our right to protest confirmed by the federal courts", a speaker for the star march coalition said. The prohibited area stretches from the camp in Reddelich almost all the way to the camp in Wichmannsdorf. A speaker of the BAO "Kavala" has declared that a congregation of 3 people within this area is illegal under the ruling. "This means that we can't even leave the camp in groups of 3 and walk next to one another without the police breaking us up", says a camp participant of the WomenLesbianTransgender Network. The rationale for the ban, according to "Kavala", lies with the foreign policies of the G8 countries. A "latent threat situation" exists for the representatives of the G8 countries because of the wars in "Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine". Even the German Government is perceived as endangered, because of its "increasing engagement in conflict regions". What is meant is the war in Afghanistan.
Hanne Jobst of the Gipfelsoli Infogruppe finds this reasoning absurd: "Protest is forbidden because it would have negative effects for foreign decision-makers. The G8 makes decisions that affect the lives of millions of people every day, without the legitimacy to do so, yet in the opinion of the police, the G8 should not have to be subjected to these people's anger".
Even popstar Herbert Groenemeyer has to admit this: "There is real anger", he explained in the German newspaper 'taz' the day before yesterday.
Conicidentally, this week in Scotland, charges against five activists who were arrested and detained on their way to a closing demonstration at the conference hotel in Gleneagles during the 2005 G8 summit, were dropped. "As always during summit protests the police use arbitrary and often illegal measures to prevent protest from reaching those it seeks to criticise", Gerda Achterhuis of the Dutch Dissent network argues. "The move to ban the demonstration does not surprise us. However, we will not let ourselves be intimidated and will continue to mobilise for the star march and all other actions against the G8 meeting."
Gipfelsoli Infogruppe: +49 0160 95314023
International Press Group: +49 160 92437902
Background:
Public statement of the police department Rostock (detailed justification for the ban, 23 pages): http://gipfelsoli.org/Repression/1701.html
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Call for a Superhero Block at the G8 2007
The Dispensables and precarious Superheroes called The Unbeatables are calling for a block at the mass demonstration and at the mass blockades against the G8 summit. Both entities are part of the ongoing struggles to understand and resist contemporary conditions of precarity of live and work.
The "Dispensables" and precarious Superheroes called "The Unbeatables" are calling for a block at the mass demonstration and at the mass blockades against the G8 summit. Together with tens of thousands of others, The Dispensables and the Superheroes will take part in the mass demonstration and the mass blockades during the G8 summit in northern Germany, Heiligendamm.
The Dispensables* wear white masks and red hoodies, occupying social welfare offices in countries where they are disappearing and invaded and ate from the plates of the rich and the political establishment in a Berlin restaurant.
The Superheroes have appeared over the past years in various settings: from mega barrios in the slums in Mexico to Superflex and Spidermum in the Euromayday parade in Milan. Also in Hamburg, activists, dressed as comic heroes, robbed groceries from a luxury delicatessen shop, distributed the booty amongst the precarious and called on people to join them in the Euromayday parade in Hamburg.
A common element of these diverse activities is that they highlight the invisibility of most precarious working and living conditions. They feel affinity with the sans papiers, piqueteros, landless peasants, and the invisibles.
At the same time, trade unions are no longer capable of representing the precarious work force. The one-time image of the workers movement (e.g. muscular man with hammer in his hand) does not represent a positive reference point for precarious workers. The figure of the Superhero makes the potential power of the precarious people visible: everyone can be a Superhero. It is not us who are dispensable, but capitalism!
Dispensable and illegitimate is also the politics of the G8, who share considerable responsibility for precarisation. It is our aim to link activism on precarity with the resistance to the G8 summit. We want to emphasise that the blockades are more than a one-off event: from the flying pickets of the Gate Gourmet labour struggles in Heathrow and DÃ1/4sseldorf to the piquetero blockades of the unemployed workers in Argentina and the blockades of the train tracks during the CPE protests in France: blockades have become essential elements in the struggles of the precarious. This is why we view the Block8 campaign as a general practise for every-day civil disobedience.
In this spirit: pack your super hero costumes, put on your white masks and travel to Heiligendamm! Dispensables and Superheroes, participate in the common block in the mass demonstration on 2 June in Rostock and at the mass blockades during the G8 summit in Heiligendamm!
More information on the Dispensables, Super Heroes, Euromayday and precarisation:
http://hamburg.euromayday.org
http://berlin.euromayday.org
http://www.ueberfluessig.tk
http://www.block-g8.org
Video: 'Superhero'-Block, Euromayday Parade, Hamburg
* The Dispensables (in German: die Überflüssigen) are people who carry out civil disobedience actions under the same name in different parts in Germany. The name signifies a critique of the capitalist economic system which has made certain population groups dispensable and forces people into precarity.
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370917.html]
uk.indymedia.org: Announcing Flash Radio G8 2007 Podcast
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Flash Radio is a podcast from and about the G8 2007 in Heiligendamm Germany.
Subscribe to our podcast about the actions against the G8 or listen to it online. From the 2nd June through till the 10th our 30 minute podcast will contain selected material recorded by our embedded citizen reporter teams.
The politics of the G8 have triggered criticism and worldwide protest for a long time. During the 2007 summit in Germany this will be visible in its various forms. Flash Radio interview teams will cover the alternative summit, blockades, actions and workshops, but will also deliver audible portraits of groups and individuals who have come to campaign and work for change.
To find out more about the podcast check out the website www.flashradio.wordpress.com
To subscribe to the feed copy and paste www.flashradio.wordpress.com/feed into your player. If you don't know how to subsribe to a podcast, it's all explained on the website, as well. To find out more, email us.
Our first podcast will be up on the site later this week on Friday 18th May. It will cover citizen journalism training for Indymedia, including some background information and how to publish to the newswire.
Flash Radio Team
e-mail: flashradio@aktivix.org
Homepage: http://www.flashradio.wordpress.com
[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370887.html]
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NEWS!
The "actionday Against Militarism, War and Torture - Blockade the G8 - Stop the Wars!" will now take place on two days. On the 5th of june, there will be an antilmilitaristic cruising in the city of Rostock, we will visit places, spaces or offices of e.g. military infrastructure, companies etc. Come along and be creative!
Meeting point: 11 h at the Camp in Rostock
On the 6th of june, we organize the actionday and blockades at the military airport in Rostock-Laage (near the highway A19 Berlin-Rostock), which is part of the infrastructure of the G8 Summit Conference and the militaristic policies of the G8 governments. There will be meetingpoints, demonstrations and actions during the landing of the chiefs of the G8 and their staff - all of them must be transported to their conference-hotel in Heiligendamm - and they also need the streets straight up to Heiligendamm.
But we will be there and show them, what we think of their aggressive war-politics!
Meeting-point: 10 h at the villages "Friedrichshof", "Kronskamp", "Striesdorf" and "Weitendorf", which are surrounding the airbase.
There will be maps and more infos on the camps and in the infopoints.
They can't land here with their war policies! We will express our opposition to war and to the G8 through many forms of protest and active resistance!
See you soon in Rostock-Laage, on wednesday, the 6th of june, when they try to fly in!