2009-02-25
- Strasbourg: Security zones
- NATO summit 2009: A democracy free zone
- Public Appeal for the Right to Demonstrate in Strasbourg
- E-3A AWACS to provide airspace security for NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Krakow
- Interview with Werner Bonefeld
- G7 host Italy dives deep into recession
- Police brace themselves for 'summer of rage' against economic crisis
- WRI Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns
- CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS FOR A WORKSHOP ON "THE SURVEILLANCE GAMES"
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Strasbourg: Security zones
When NATO meets in Strasbourg, the city will be turned into a military fortress, with up to 25,000 police protecting the NATO summit, and effectively leaving no space for democratic protest.
At the time of going to press, the exact locations of security zones in Strasbourg were not yet known.
However, it is clear that:
* there will at least be two security zones: the neighbourhood around the Palais de Musique et de Congres / Wacken and the cathedral / Palais Rohan
* Until 3 and 4 April, other security zones might emerge
* The Lycee Kleber will be completely closed on 3 and 4 April
* the markets will be closed
With these security zones, there is little space left for democratic protest.
A map of Strasbourg with the summit venues is available at http://wri-irg.org/system/files/public_files/br81-en-spread.png (8.8MB).
Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/6723
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NATO summit 2009: A democracy free zone
When the alliance of democracies meets, there is no space for democracy on the streets
When NATO celebrates its 60th birthday in Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg on 3 and 4 April 2009, there will be a lot of nice speeches about the values of democracy, and the need to defend democracy against a multitude of threats. But while NATO might talk about democracy, democracy will be temporarily suspended in huge areas of Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg.
Security zones and “no-go areas”
The complete picture of “security zones” and controlled areas is not yet clear, but it is clear that the scale of this security operation and the restriction to freedom of movement, freedom of assembly and democratic protest will be unprecedented.
What is know so far is that in Strasbourg access to the old town will only be possible with special access passes. All street markets, schools, kindergardens, historic sights and more will be closed on 4 April. In addition, public transport will be severely effected, with trams not being able to enter the security zones, and the train line from Strasbourg to Germany will suspended from Friday afternoon until Saturday morning. Strasbourg's mayor Robert Herrmann did not rule out police searches of houses in the old city, and adviced tourists not to visit Strasbourg on 4 April.
In Kehl, 700 people who live near the Passerelle, a pedestrian bridge over the Rhine which will be the site of a symbolic handshake and photo opportunity for the heads of states and governments, will be severely effected. From Friday evening until Saturday morning (when all is over) they will not be able to leave their houses without prior consent from the police, and only accompanied by police. In addition, access to the Europa bridge, the main road connection over the Rhine, will be closed for several hours, and even traffic on the Rhine will be halted.
A similar concept will be in force in Baden-Baden, where German chancellor Angela Merkel will receive the heads of states and governments on 3 April at 17.30hrs, before they dine at the Kurhaus Casino in Baden-Baden. Details for Baden-Baden are not yet known, but it is expected that in Baden-Baden too there will be no-go areas.
Democracy suspended
All this security leaves little room for democratic protest. At the time of going to press, the authorities of Strasbourg halted the negotiations with the International Coordination Committee No-to-NATO 2009 about the route for the international demonstration, planned for 4 April 2009. While the organisers of the demonstration want a route which will bring the protest close to the summit itself, the authorities do not want to allow any demonstration in the centre of Strasbourg, and want to divert the demonstration to the outskirts, where it cannot be seen or heard by the presidents and prime ministers of the NATO countries. This in fact is contrary to the French constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, as it will deny the citizenry to voice their protest close to the object of their protest. Thus, the way the NATO summit is organised turns all speeches and declarations of democracy that might be made at the summit into a farce.
Block-NATO
Nevertheless, preparations are well under way to confront NATO with our protest. War Resisters' International is part of a coalition of groups that plan to blockade the NATO summit. Within the framework of this coalition called “Block-NATO”, and founded at the Activist Conference in Strasbourg on 14/15 February, War Resisters' International works closely with its Belgian affiliates Vredesactie and a range of German nonviolent groups in organising a blockading point (see the call on page 1 and 2).
We will meet in the protest camp in Strasbourg-Neudorf (La Ganzau), to finalise the preparations for the action and to provide a last opportunity to take part in a nonviolence training. To make this blockade a success, we need your support. Come to Strasbourg from 1-5 April 2009, to reclaim democracy!
Andreas Speck
Published in The Broken Rifle, February 2009, No. 81
Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/6717
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Public Appeal for the Right to Demonstrate in Strasbourg
Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy
February 17, 2009
TO:
The French Minister of the Interior
The Embassy of France in Germany
Members of the European Parliament
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
At the recent international conference in Strasbourg, 14-15 February, called to prepare for demonstrations and protest actions during the NATO summit meeting on April 3-4, 2009, those present learned that all demonstrations in the central city are to be banned. In addition a ‘red zone’ limited to those with special passes, and a new video monitoring system will be set up. Suddenly the Schengener internal frontiers are to be restored, reflecting the motto: an international military whirlwind, yes - democratic international action from below – no.
For the more than 350 participants at the international preparatory conference, this limitation of basic rights is not acceptable. The peace movement will maintain its goal of demonstrating against the NATO Summit in downtown Strasbourg with thousands of citizens.
The Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy was founded in 1980 by participants in the Russell Tribunal on the human rights situation in the Federal Republic of Germany (1978-79). In the framework of its activities and cooperation with the peace movement, the Committee supports the call for *peaceful* demonstrations around the NATO summit. The planned massive restrictions against the right of assembly are incompatible with democracy and citizens’ rights. They are evidence of the state apparatus’ deep-seated fear of the real ‘sovereign’ – the men and women of the citizenry. On the occasion of the NATO meeting, the police and military administration want to impose a ban on an entire region, between Baden-Baden and Strasbourg, so that they can remain undisturbed by citizen action. The sovereign is to be excluded. The Charter of Basic Rights of the European Union, proclaimed with such celebration, would be perverted by the NATO powers.
The right to freedom of opinion and assembly, thus the right to demonstrate, is clearly the democratic basis for citizens in representative democratic constitutional systems, which otherwise have little space for direct expressions of the sovereign citizenry. Thus we demand from all politicians that they refuse to accept any limitations of the basic freedoms during the NATO summit. NATO’s war-like strategic planning must face critical public debate and public protest. Citizens will not accept a democracy under a state of police and military emergency.
We call on the responsible ministers and public authorities as well as all politicians in charge, to commit themselves to the unrestricted right to demonstrate during the days of the NATO summit meeting on the first weekend in April, between Baden-Baden and Strasbourg.
Sincerely yours,
gez. Martin Singe
Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy, Martin Singe, Aquinostr. 7-11, D-50670 Cologne, Tel. +49-221-9726920
Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/6698
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E-3A AWACS to provide airspace security for NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Krakow
MONS, Belgium – At the request of Polish national authorities, E-3A AWACS aircraft from the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force (NAEW&C Force) will provide airspace security and surveillance support during the upcoming informal meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Krakow Poland from 19-20 Feb. 2009. The support, which will be conducted from airfields in Germany, will provide continuous surveillance coverage for the duration of the event.
The use of E-3A aircraft for airspace surveillance and control has become an important part of national and international efforts to ensure the safety and security of political summits and other strategic world leadership events. Past examples of other international events supported by the E-3A Component include: the 2008 NATO Summit in Romania, the 2007 EU-Africa Summit in Portugal, the 2006 World Cup football competition in Germany, the 2005 G8 economic Summit in the United Kingdom and the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Greece.
The E-3A aircraft, a modified Boeing 707, is equipped with radar capable of detecting air traffic over large distances and at low altitudes. One E-3A operating at 30,000 feet generates an air picture of aircraft movements from high to low altitude that can detect targets within 400 km or 215 nautical miles.
The NAEW&C Force is composed of two components: the NATO flagged E-3A Component at Geilenkirchen, Germany which is comprised of 17 aircraft and multinational crews from 14 NATO nations, and the E3-D Component at Waddington whose seven aircraft and crews are British.
Note to Editors:
Background information can be found at: www.e3a.nato.int/html/media.htm
NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force, E-3A Component Public Affairs Office
Tel: +49(0)2451-63-2480 Fax: +49(0)2451-7936 e-mail: pao@e3a.nato.int
Allied Command Operations Public Affairs Office at SHAPE:
Tel: +32 (0)65 44 4119 (week days 0830 – 1730)
Mobile: 0032 (0) 475 77 31 05 (week days 1730 – 0830, weekends and holidays)
Email: shape.pao@shape.nato.int
Source: http://www.nato.int/shape/news/2009/02/090216a.html
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Interview with Werner Bonefeld
This year there’s the NATO summit, the G8 in Italy, Cop-15 etc. Do you think this could be the return of the anti-globalisation movement? Could, or should, it take the same form that it did in the late 90’s and how do you think the current financial situation affects this?
I don’t know. Of course the mobilisations in the late 90’s were disrupted by 9/11 and from then on took a tumble. They might come back as a consequence of the financial crisis but it very much depends how the financial crisis is going to pan out. The material effects of the crisis will be harsh. Uncertain is how people will respond to the challenges and the pressures that they face. It’s difficult to strike against money as it were. It’s much easier to strike against an employer or even against repossession of houses. It’s possible to organise there. But with banks it’s difficult to organise. Besides, the business of negation is not to render banks responsible, and make them accountable to their consumers, whatever that might mean. Such ‘responsibilisation’ belongs to the reality of bourgeois society. The business of negation, the anti in anti-globalisation, is the creation of alternative social relations by means of practical critique of existing social relations. Such creation is always creation in movement. One has to see whether we will see such a movement.
What I haven’t heard from the existing anti-globalisation movement is anything akin to what happened in Argentina with the financial crisis in 2001. I am sure there are discussions but I wonder what really has been learned from Latin America. There have been very many discussions, in Europe at least, about for example the Argentinean piquetero and the Zapatistas, and discussion as to whether we are witnessing the emergence of a new social subject and new forms of organisation. The outcome of these discussions have on the whole been rather predictable. Yet, what is the reality of these movements for us, in Europe. Suddenly, or not so suddenly, there is the long awaited and predicted crisis and the movement seems paralysed. There’s an irony there. ‘What should we do?’ The whole learning process, particularly from Latin America was an academic learning process, or a process of mythologisation. Solidarity with the YA BASTA is easy for as long as the YA BASTA stays where it is, in Argentina, and requires no other practical commitment in the here (and now). Solidarity with the YA BASTA has to be a practical one, in one’s own social relations.
The big issue now is not whether the protestors who, say, were at Heiligendamm in Germany, turn up again in great numbers. The big issue is rather whether the YA BASTA assumes practical relevance. The composition of the movement will change. In the past, it was easy to coalesce in critique of the so-called neo-liberal state. The nationalisation of banks, employment guarantees by means of government credit to ailing companies, etc., might well rupture the movement. The state suddenly does what certain voices of the anti-globalisation movement demanded – and this despite the fact that the socialisation of debt is intended to guarantee, for want of a better expression, the privatisation of profits. What is the relationship between the YA BASTA and the state?
In North America and Western Europe at least, there is this critique of finance capitalism, that might come back again, that was the defining feature of the anti-globalisation movement protests against the IMF and World Bank and other sort of global financial institutions. Obviously people have always pointed to the dangers of just criticising financial institutions and not, as you say, how capitalism affects us on a sort of real person level. Do you think that might be something that we are experiencing again? That the critique of finance capitalism will run the risk of stereotyping and projecting?
It might; it might not. It depends, again, how it turns out. It would be good to predict the future, but the critique of finance was always misguided I think. There was always this separation between good capitalism and bad capitalism. Bad capitalism was financial capitalism and the other capitalism was seen to be the one that was suppressed by the bad capitalism. And the connection between finance and production, between production and exchange, commodity form and money form, that was never really drawn in this anti-globalisation movement. The critique of speculation has to be a critique of the social relations of production. That is, one should not divide between ‘bad finance capitalism’ and ‘good industrial capitalism’. The one depends on the other, and visa versa.
Especially in the current crisis here in England, what everyone’s been talking about, from the conservatives to the socialists, is greed. That the reason we have this crisis is speculation and greed by individual bankers. The work you have done and that of others has pointed out that this may have a relationship to scapegoating the Jew or anti-Semitism.
Yes, well that is one of these divisions between financial capital, on the one hand, defined by greed and industrial capitalism on the other hand, not driven by greed but by concrete matter and productive activity. That spurts over into anti-Semitism - that’s quite right - and that’s where the difficulty lies, I think, for the anti-globalisation movement. How does it confront or understand the current crisis if it merely sees it as a crisis of greed, that is, as a crisis of regulation, a crisis that is resolvable by the state by means of responsible regulation. Responsible for whom? For the common good? What is the common good in a capitalistically constituted society? The purpose of capital is to make a profit. And that is, money must command labour. The demand for better regulation, and a more effective integration of production and finance, does indeed focus this purpose of money – to command labour. An anti-globalisation movement that only focuses on the issue of greed does not see the vampire that sucks labour out in the production process as the basis of that greed.
So, for you then, is the way to avoid this problem a return to ideas of class and class struggles? Ideas which the anti-globalisation movement quite consciously has left behind?
I think what has to be left behind is the old social democratic or state socialist idea of class. That idea was based on the notion of market position, and sought to rebalance the inhumanity of exploitative production relations by means of re-distribution. That is the concept of class that I think needs to be overcome. In opposition to affirmative conceptions of class, we need to rediscover class as a critical concept, a concept that belongs to a false society. That is to say, class struggle is correctly understood the movement against the existence of social classes. Class analysis does not partake in the classification of people – its business is the critique of such classification. Class struggle is the struggle to dissolve class society, relations of class domination and exploitation, in favour of commune – this society of the free and equal, an association of the freely assembled social individuals.
So if correctly understood, class should be a critical concept, not an affirmative concept. The old class concept was an affirmative concept; it affirmed class position. It wanted to re-distribute in order to create a fairer deal, a new deal, for those on the wrong side, or the wrong end of the stick. The critical concept of class, which is to dissolve class, battles against the existence of class society.
So could such a movement against class, offering such a critique, be relevant in today’s society? Could the anti-globalisation movement, if it reconstitutes itself as such again next year, be an effective political player?
Again, I don’t know. It very much depends how the current crisis pans out. It will affect jobs. It will affect income. It will be very bad for people heavily in debt. How will they react? What will they do? And the reaction of these people is, to a great extent, also a responsibility of the anti-globalisation movement in terms of their critical intent of enlightened democracy – the democracy of the demos that assembles in the street; a democracy of and in the street. This democracy, this practical subversion of everyday life, if the anti-globalisation movement is able to practice that then it will become something new in terms of its composition, relationship to capital and its state, organisational form, and negative purpose. If the anti-globalisation movement is not able to do that then it might well be that those who carry the brunt, financial and otherwise, of the crisis, might not be part of that movement. In the British context, the white working class, impoverished as it is, has tended in certain areas to go to the right rather than to the left. That I think is also a responsibility, not just of those people who go to the right, but also the responsibility of the anti-globalisation movement to mobilise for democratic purposes – here and now. So it depends on the mobilisation, who mobilises and where, and who is part of the mobilising coalition.
On a practical level it can be argued that the anti-globalisation movement needs a symbol, or a target around which to mobilise and that’s why summits are so attractive. Do you that the oversimplification and ‘personification’ of capitalism, which manifests in the targeting of summits and global elites, can be avoided while the anti-globalisation movement continues to summit hop?
Well I think summit hopping is OK, who wouldn’t want to travel around the world and see different places and do so for the sake of protest. Summits render visibility to struggles, provide them with symbolism, but the struggle itself takes place in other places I think. Summits do not struggle. Struggles are always local, and their locality is the basis for their globality. That is, the everyday struggle over the production and appropriation of surplus value in every individual workplace and every local community is the basis of the class struggle on a global scale. ‘Globalisation’ has not done away with everyday struggle. Instead, it focuses it. If it really is the case that whole communities are in danger of losing their houses, if people are dispossessed, then the anti-globalisation movement will have to be a movement against repossession.
I do not know whether there will be a movement against default, practically, on the streets. A Latin American example is that people occupy their factories when the going gets tough and the machines are in danger of being taken away. Will that happen here? This is a practical question that cannot be resolved by summits. It needs to be resoled in practice. Whether the (European) anti-globalisation movement assumes class form is difficult to predict, but if one looks at the often-mythologised struggles in Latin America, this is what the struggles are, from the protection of the neighbourhood and of homes and living-conditions, to the provision of food and water, and the self-organisation of subsistence, from the factories to the land. And what comes out of it? I don’t know. Whatever the future holds will depend on the movement of the so-called anti-globalisation movement. Where will it move, what will it move, if it moves?
Source: http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=260
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G7 host Italy dives deep into recession
ROME: Italy reeled on Friday from grim news which it will bring to the table as the host of Group of Seven economic crisis talks, with data showing it is deeper in recession than expected and protesters taking to the streets.
Italy, Europe's fourth-biggest economy, is host to the G7 talks on fighting the spiralling crisis which begins with a working dinner Friday evening.
The new official data showed that output fell to the lowest level since 1980 in the fourth quarter of 2008, at 1.8 per cent down from activity in the previous quarter.
This was after shrinking by a downwardly revised 0.6 per cent in the third quarter.
The worse-than-expected data - economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 1.3-per cent drop - came as tens of thousands of people thronged a Rome square to protest against the economic crisis under the slogan "Not On Our Backs."
The biggest trade union, CGIL, called the protest and a general strike to slam the government's response to the financial crisis, saying it exposed already vulnerable workers to further risk.
Protesters - mainly civil servants and metalworkers - came to Rome from all over Italy, notably from the impoverished south of the country, but only some nine per cent of the civil service workforce answered the strike call, according to the civil service department.
"We should not have to pay for the mistakes of others, the banks the traders, those who profit off our backs," said Juan Luis Finkbein, a metalworker from northern Brescia.
"I have no desire to go on temporary layoff, but the problem is that the crisis looks like it will affect every sector," Finkbein, who emigrated to Italy from Uruguay 10 years ago, told AFP.
Problems at auto giant Fiat have been emblematic of the turndown, with sales in Italy falling 20 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008, prompting the company to call a string of temporary layoffs.
Conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reacting to the new recession figures on Friday, said the "dimensions of the crisis are not yet fully defined," adding that "we should view it, and we do view it, with concern."
In November, the Italian government launched a package of five billion euros (6.5 billion dollars) for 2009 to cope with the economic slump, but the opposition, unions and employers all criticised the plan as too modest to have any real impact.
Last week, Berlusconi announced new measures worth two billion euros to boost the economy and help the auto industry, while tying the aid to keeping factories at home.
Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti initially suggested that Italy was safe from the crippling effects of the US subprime crisis, which snared mostly American and other European banks, particularly British ones.
And last month he said the capacity of the Italian economy to bounce back should not be underestimated.
"One should be suspicious of GDP (gross domestic product) figures. Not only do they not include the informal economy, but, above all, a large part of the activity of our companies takes place outside of our borders," he told the business daily Il Sole-24 Ore.
But last week the International Monetary Fund warned that Italy's recession could stretch into 2010 "in line with the rest of the euro area, ... although its financial sector has remained relatively resilient."
Alex Foti, an activist with EuroMayDay, a political day of action against precarity mostly in western Europe, said: "There is a shift from precarity to unemployment in Italy and the rest of Europe."
Segments of society he called "outsiders - young people, women, immigrants" will be the first to lose their jobs, he told AFP, adding: "The great recession is going to make it worse."
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/G7_host_Italy_dives_deep_into_recession/articleshow/4126367.cms
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Police brace themselves for 'summer of rage' against economic crisis
Riot police are bracing themselves for a "summer of rage" with middle-class victims of the recession joining activists to besiege the headquarters of financial institutions.
Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police's public order branch, said that he feared there could be "mass protest" at rising unemployment and the downturn in the economy.
The officer added that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions of aid from the taxpayer, had also become "viable targets" for protesters.
Mr Hartshorn, who is regularly briefed on potential causes of civil unrest, said that "known activists" were planning returns to the streets, and intelligence revealed that they may be able to call on more protesters than normal due to the unprecedented conditions.
He said: "Those people would be good at motivating people, but they haven't had the 'foot soldiers' to actually carry out (protests).
"Obviously the downturn in the economy, unemployment, repossessions, changes that. Suddenly there is the opportunity for people to mass protest."
Other parts of Europe have already seen large-scale protests against the handling of the economy.
Up to 120,000 people marched through Dublin on Saturday in an emotional and angry national demonstration over the Irish Government's handling of the economic crisis.
In the UK earlier this month, hundreds of oil refinery and power station workers carried out a series of wildcat strikes over the use of foreign workers.
And across the Channel in France, a million people joined demonstrations to demand greater protection for jobs.
Mr Hartshorn, who is regularly briefed on potential causes of civil unrest, singled out April's G20 summit of the leading developed nations in London as one of the events that could kick start a series of protests.
"We've got G20 coming and I think that is being advertised on some of the sites as the highlight of what they see as a 'summer of rage'," he said.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4786553/Police-brace-themselves-for-summer-of-rage-against-economic-crisis.html
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WRI Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
* About this Handbook and How to Use It
* What is Nonviolence and Why Use it
* How Does Nonviolence Work?
* Nonviolence Training: Role of Trainers; Potential Topics for Nonviolence Training
* You and Your Group: Strengthening a Group; Exploring Differences; What Do You Want?
* Historical Uses of Nonviolence: What Works Where; The Role of Pacifists; Organising
* Case Study: Nonviolence Training in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
* Case Study: Otpor: People's Power in Serbia
- Gender and Nonviolence
* Introduction to the gender section
* What is gender
* An example of linking peace and gender issues: New Profile in Israel
- Tasks and Tools for Organising and Facilitating Meetings
* Introduction to the section
* Working Together
* Check-List for Organising a Training
* Check-List for Facilitating a Training
- Nonviolent Campaigns
* What Makes a Campaign Nonviolent
* Planning Nonviolent Campaigns
* Constructive Programme
* The Movement Action Plan
* Forms of Nonviolent Action
* Stages of Escalation
* Role of media
* Campaign case study guide
- Organising for Effective Nonviolent Actions
* Sending the protest message
* Coping with the stress and strain of taking a stand
* Humour and nonviolent actions
* Working in Groups: affinity groups, group process, decision making
* Check list for planning an action
* Role/in/before/after an action
* Legal support
* Jail support
* Evaluation
- Stories and Strategies
* Introduction
* International solidarity campaign with South Africa
* Seabrook - Wyhl - Marckolsheim - transnational links in a chain of campaigns
* International Antimilitarist marches
* Chile: Gandhi's Insights Gave People Courage to Defy Chile's Dictatorship
* Israel - New Profile learns from the experience of others
* Turkey- Building a nonviolent culture
* The applications of Augusto Boal's “Theatre of Oppressed” in Turkey
* South Korea - Challenges and successes of working in nonviolence
* Peace Community of San José de Apartadó,Colombia : A lesson of resistance, dignity and courage
* Bombspotting - towards an European Campaign
* 15th of May - International Day of Conscientious Objection
- Exercises for Working in Nonviolence
* Introduction
* Hassle line
* Conflict line
* Brainstorming
* Speak out
* A gender dialogue for peacebuilders
* 10/10 strategies
* The tree
* Pillars of power
* Spectrum of allies
* Consequences of fear
* Tree and wind
* Decision making
* Cross spectrum
* Role playing
* Forum Theatre
* Tools for Grounding, Protecting, and Blockading
* Spectrum or Barometer
- Do it Yourself
- Handbook glossary of terms
- Resources
* List of related resources
* Resources for the printed version
- Links to WRI network
Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/3855
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CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS FOR A WORKSHOP ON "THE SURVEILLANCE GAMES"
Simon Fraser University at Harbour Centre, Vancouver, BC.
November 20-22, 2009
Mega-events such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, and high profile political summits such as the G8 and World Trade Organization meetings have all been identified as primary targets for terrorist attack and have undergone extensive security and surveillance transformations as a result. Mega-events now serve as focal points for security and surveillance proliferation. They are microcosms of larger trends and processes, through which we can observe the complex ways security and surveillance practices are implicated in unique confluences of technology, institutional motivations, and public-private security arrangements.
In the lead-up to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and under the auspices of the New Transparency Project, we invite paper proposals for a workshop on the surveillance implications of mega-events, including the following:
➢ security and surveillance and urban and critical infrastructure protection
➢ mega-events as spectacle, public ritual and states of exception
➢ the spatial articulations of security and surveillance
➢ policy implications of security, privacy and mega-events
➢ the role of the private sector and the mega-event security complex
➢ the proliferation of technologies of (in)security
➢ participant experiences of identification and surveillance practices at mega events
➢ the increasing commercialization of security and surveillance
➢ the historical and institutional legacies of mega-events
The objective of the Surveillance Games workshop is to examine these and other themes two months before, and on the very site of, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The questions at the centre of the workshop are relevant not only for academics. The Surveillance Games workshop will also address issues that are critically relevant to policy-makers, law enforcement agencies, non-governmental actors, athletes, spectators, private sector representatives, and media representatives. The workshop will hopefully involve representatives from each of these sectors.
500 word proposals for academic papers on the surveillance implications of Mega-Events should be sent to the co-organizers: Professor Kevin Haggerty, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta (kevin.haggerty at ulberta.ca) and Professor Colin J. Bennett, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria (cjb at uvic.ca). The deadline for paper proposals is March 31st, 2009. Decisions on the program will be made by the end of April. The deadline for the receipt of draft papers is September 30th, 2009. Proposals from all social science, humanities and other relevant disciplines will be considered. Selected papers from the workshop will ultimately be published in an edited collection (publisher to be determined). Some funds are available through the New Transparency Project for those who otherwise cannot obtain support for travel and accommodation through their Universities, or other employers.
Source: http://www.surveillanceproject.org/projects/the-new-transparency