Gipfelsoli Newsletter March 12th: Heiligendamm
Gipfelsoli Infogruppe | 12.03.2007 21:01 | Globalisation | Other Press | Social Struggles
March 12th: Heiligendamm
- Move fast, strike harder...
- Protocol g8 workshop at pga wintermeeting 2007 in hamburg
- ATTENTION ALL WHO SUPPORT OUR WORK here at Replacements Needed & PeaceGuard. We need your involvement today!
- Overview of the Protests Against the G8 Summit
- "Hitler no longer to be an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan"
*Subscribe:
https://lists.nadir.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gipfelsoli-int*
- Move fast, strike harder...
- Protocol g8 workshop at pga wintermeeting 2007 in hamburg
- ATTENTION ALL WHO SUPPORT OUR WORK here at Replacements Needed & PeaceGuard. We need your involvement today!
- Overview of the Protests Against the G8 Summit
- "Hitler no longer to be an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan"
*Subscribe:
https://lists.nadir.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gipfelsoli-int*
About globalized solidarity and protests against unsolidary globalizatition
About globalized solidarity and protests against unsolidary globalizatition
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G8 Heiligendamm 07: just another counter-summit?
Move fast, strike harder...
The G8 circus is coming to Heiligendamm. As recent summits have moved to more remote areas, we have felt our strength decline, mainly because they increasingly control the playground and everything around it. In Seattle, Prague and Genoa our strengths were in being inventive and surprising the police. This allowed us the freedom to stage effective direct actions and disrupt the summits. The time has come to seize back the initiative.
We all agree that converging on Heiligendamm and staging actions there could be a constructive and empowering experience. However previous experiences with summit mobilisations have shown the need for us to become more flexible in our protests. Being fenced in and blocked from taking effective actions as happened in Gleneagles and St. Petersburg is both unconstructive and disempowering.
Over the last few years the most effective way for the dispossessed to attack capital has been to directly block the flows of commodity. This was done by the dock workers on the American west coast in 2002, the unemployed movement in Argentina since 1997, the Algerian insurgents in 2001 and the CPE struggle in France, last year. We should learn from this and aim to block the flows of capital ? be this the flow of numbers in the digital world of the stock exchanges or the flow of cargo trucks on the motorway.
Our proposal is that we converge on the capitalist fortress in Heiligendamm and experience the power and energy of acting and living as a large group, but only for as long as we are effective and it increases our power. It means going along with the current perspectives of trying to block the summit and the flows all over Meck-Pomm but to come there prepared for radical changes of strategy: if the time comes when we are blocked from being effective, we should be prepared to move and take the battle to the capitalists where they are more vulnerable.
Through this shift in strategies we want to preserve the power and energy that we have felt in previous summit mobilisations, but at the same time create new capacity for disruption. Practically, and as a starting point, we need to create the collective capacity to make quick decisions and to be mobile at any time. We are not bound to one place as they are, and that is a great strength, allowing us to force the police to stay one step behind us, caught in their rigid structures. Our tactics should be those of mobile raids, not of laying an unwinnable siege.
With this in mind, we encourage activists to come to Heiligendamm prepared to move the battlefield, which requires us to be our own nomadic base. Organisationally, we commit to preparing a structure for sharing information and managing logistics which is able to move along with us.
The flows we propose to block are global and without borders. Many are affected by them but only few have the resources to be present at Heiligendamm. We encourage all those who can't come to the G8 to take partin the battle, blockading the flows wherever in the world they are.
Come prepared!
- anti-G8 international meeting- February, 11th, 2007.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocol g8 workshop at pga wintermeeting 2007 in hamburg
19 people were present, several people also involved in the dissent network.
It was quite a short time and mostly the workshop was raising questions rather than answering...
Internationals from variouse countries participated, from italy, spain, greece, swiss, new zealand and uk. But the wintermeeting in general was not focussing on g8 but on international networking and strategies about continuity.
We started with a round:
What are you interested in about this workshop and what background you have?
- interest in general infos
- infotour in greece
- radio project at anti g8
- interest how to be in touch and to find each other local at the protest
- convergence center rostock: interested in mobilisation in the rest of the world
- umsonstladen hamburg: go to heiligendamm or not not shure
- local hamburg: interest in practical infos for the affinity group
- swiss: interest in info-input
- dissent and pga: how to bring it together and mobilise international?
- struggle in general and pga as an instrument
- convergence center hamburg: what kind of structure do we need for european mobilisation
- connection to economical struggle and general system is important
- international mobilisation and what is still needed and what is going on is of interest for germans
- italy just started
- spain infotour, there was a meeting about international meeting in warsaw in madrid
- meetings in different cities in spain are planned
- uk dissent: quite frustrating because connections died and network did not exist after summit but now tendency to reconstruct for g8 in germany
- stockholm fundraising parties and busses
- france: since infotour paris every month a meeting (including attac)
- new zealand: links but only local demonstrations, connection via topics, wto connection, in scotland was a barrio with a couple of local activists
- greece: infotour last year, lack of information, translations are running, infoposter project, two more infotours in greece
short update about warsaw meeting
following international anti g8 meeting in rostock 17th of april in rostock (see: www.dissentnetwork.org)
questions, topics about g8 from madrid
- interest in massiv blockades, because not flexible in the region as foreigners / language
- problem with conspiracy, experience in scottland was difficult non english speaking, so many things and where to go?
- include internationals in decentral blockades when they arrive befor the summit starts to have propper information about region
- task for locals: inform people where to meet which kind of people, convergence spaces important, send delegates there for international people
- borderpoints: police interfer and lawyers at borders to make things easier
- costs?
- announcement of shengen agreement shut down in middle of may, bordercontrols will be reintroduced
- convergence centers are not for sleep, it should be clarified, because some internationals are irritated
[PGA Wintermeeting]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTENTION ALL WHO SUPPORT OUR WORK here at Replacements Needed & PeaceGuard. We need your involvement today!
The PeaceGuard Northwest is sending a small group of street medics to the G8 Conference in Heiligendamm, Germany June 6th, 2007 to June 8th, 2007 and we need your help. We are asking that our supporters help sponsor us in this endeavor. Also during the months of June through September 10th Mr. Hays will be going to Mexico and several islands in the Caribbean conducting audio/video interviews concerning the influence of the G8 upon that region. This is an expensive and dangerous endeavor and one that is vitally important. These interviews will be shared with many activists groups at home and abroad and will help expand our knowledge of how the G8 and our own actions are impacting the world. If you want to help sponsor this trip or are part of a group who may be able to help do so please respond by email with your contact information if you plan on making a contribution to
peaceguard@replacementsneeded.com
Thank you so much for joining us on this important and necessary journey. Without your generous support we would not be able to take our activities outside the borders of our great nation and to let the world know that we are not sitting idle while they plot and plunder the very planet that we must ALL share.
PeaceGuard Northwest and Replacements Needed thank you for your support.
Donations can be made out to: Thomas Hays
In "subject" line please put "PeaceGuard G8 Trip"
Send checks to;
Thomas Hays
Po Box #20798
Seattle WA 98102
Or donate online at http://replacementsneeded.com/id43.html
THANK YOU!
[ http://replacementsneeded.com/id56.html]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overview of the Protests Against the G8 Summit
Resistance to the G8 summit in Rostock in June 2007 is taking shape. Capitalism, the imperialist wars of the US - with the active help of the EU -, the Hartz IV unemployment reforms, tuition fees and more all form part of the anti-capitalist protests. The Action Plan for the period between June 2 and June 8 has been carved out. Now, we - or rather, you - have to turn ideas and plans into concrete proposals for action! Take part in the preparations! Get active!
The Choreography of G8 Resistance
A rough and incomplete overview.
Friday 1 June
Anti-military actions: www.g8andwar.de.
Opening of the anti-G8 camp.
Opening events in Rostock.
Saturday 2 June
International Demonstration in Rostock: www.heiligendamm2007.de
Concerts: www.move-against-g8.de
Sunday 3 June
Day of Action on Agriculture
Networking and International Events in Rostock
Concerts: www.move-against-g8.org
Monday 4 June
Day of Action on Migration. Actions at detention camps and immigration departments, as well as a demonstration in Rostock city centre. Followed by a panel discussion on migration in the evening. http://nolager.de/
Tuesday 5 June
Actions Against Militarism, War, Torture and the Global State of Exception. Blockade of Rostock-Laage airport as the G8 leaders arrive. www.g8andwar.de
Tuesday 5 - Thursday 7 June
Alternative/Counter-Summit in Rostock. http://www.g8-alternative-summit.org/en/ Additional events at the protest camp.
Wednesday 6 June
'Block G8' blockade of the Summit infrastructure through means of civil disobedience. www.block-g8.org
Further actions in the area around Heiligendamm.
Thursday 7 June
Multiple marches (the 'Sternmarch') to Heiligendamm from nearby Nienhagen, Kühlungsborn, Bad Doberan and Kröpelin www.dissentnetwork.org
Demonstrations and 'Block G8' blockades www.block-g8.org
Followed by Herbert Grönemeyer and others' 'Music and Messages' concert www.deine-stimme-gegen-armut.de
Friday 8 June
Final/closing rally or demonstration (details to be confirmed).
*****************************************
The main planning meetings for the protests against the G8 summit were two "Action Conferences" that took place in Rostock in March and November 2006. See: www.heiligendamm2007.de. Several hundred people from Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Korea, Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, the USA and other countries gathered at each conference.
The participants were from all areas of the left. There were representatives from anarchist and communist groups, leftist unions, Attac, various NGO's, environmental and ecological groups, socialist parties (Linke.PDS), anti-fascists, anti-racists and other groups from the social movements.
The conference resulted in the formation of Working Groups ('Arbeitsgruppen', or AGs in German), which are preparing specific actions separately. Some of the more important are the following:
1. AG Mass Demonstration - Saturday, June 2, 2007
2. AG G8, Agriculture and Genetic Technology - Sunday, June 3, 2007
3. AG Migration Action Day - Monday, June 4, 2007
4. AG Against Militarism, War and Torture - Tuesday, June 5, 2007
5. AG Mass Blockades - Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Additionally, there are various working groups that are dealing with practical themes, for example the AG Camp(s), AG Nazis/Extreme Right-Wing and the G8, AG Culture/Concerts, AG Alternative Summit.
1. AG Mass Demonstration - Saturday, June 2, 2007
The date for the mass demonstration in Rostock is Saturday, June 2, 2007. We want to create a broad international mobilization and to lay the necessary foundations for it. The mass demonstration should be an element of the summit mobilisation that brings together all participants across the political millues. It should express the multiplicity of the protest and of the resistance against the G8.
Therefore, there should be political and organisational unity in the demonstration, expressing mutual solidarity. On the one hand, this means that we want a demonstration in which everyone - including families with kids if possible - can participate and feel safe. On the other, it means that the demonstration will react together and in solidarity in response to any possible (police) attack against part of the demonstration.
Contact and further information: www.heiligendamm2007.de
2. AG G8, Agriculture and Genetic Technology - Sunday, June 3, 2007
The working group "G8, Agriculture and Genetic Technology," expanded at the last conference in Rostock. Here are the planned actions:
* Beginning in March, an Info-Tour will head from Austria to Rostock. In the cities in which the tour stops, actions will take place in public spaces and information events will be held.
* On April 17, 2007, we will participate in the global day of action of "Via Campesina" about land rights.
* On May 22, 2007 we will organize a day of action around the topic of "Seeds and Biodiversity."
* On Sunday, June 3, 2007, we will call for a day of action. We will mobilise in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern but are also calling for solidarity action in other localities and for an International Day of Action. Actions around the topic of genetic technology have already been planned. We want to harvest the fields of genetically modified produce around Rostock with as many people as possible.
* On Monday, June 4, 2007, actions in front of supermarkets are planned around the topic of groceries.
Contact and further information:
dissentnetzwerk.org/wiki/Arbeitsgruppe_G8_und_Landwirtschaft
www.dosto.de/gengruppe/g8_2007/index.php
www.gendreck-weg.de
g8_landwirtschaft@yahoo.de
3. AG Migration - Monday, June 4, 2007
The following actions are planned:
Before the G8 summit:
- Numerous information tours with activists from Eastern Europe, Africa and the US
- Cooperation with EuroMayDay events (Hamburg, Berlin, Hanau and other places)
- Thematise the relationship between migration and precarity
- Caravan tour starts 1-2 weeks prior to the G8 summit and visits sites of resistance
• During the protest in Rostock
- Bloc particularly dedicated to migration at the large demonstration on June 2.
- Transnational networking meeting on June 3
- Migration day of action on Monday, June 4 - decentralized actions, demonstration and event in the evening
- Speakers and workshops at the alternative summit
Contact and further information: www.nolager.de
4. AG - Against Militarism, War and Torture - Tuesday, June 5, 2007
A central part is the blockade of the military airport of Rostock-Laage where the politicians, advisers and other participants in the G8 summit will arrive. In the summer of 2006 President Bush already traveled to Rostock through this military airport.
Further dates:
• May 31, 2007 - Arrival at the camp of the "Euro-March" and the "Caravan for the Rights of Immigrants"
• June 1, 2007 - Occupation of the "Bombodrom" land, in connection with the actions at Rostock-Laage military airport. (The "Bombodrom" refers to a very large military base in northern Germany between Berlin and Rostock, which is used by NATO for exercises. It is the largest area in Europe for military training with bombs and missiles.)
Contact and further information:
www.freieheide.de
www.g8andwar.de
www.freieheide-nb.de
g8undkrieg@so36.net
5. AG Blockades - Wed., June 6; Thursday, June 7; Friday, June 8 (beginning Wednesday)
The Working Group was prepared by the Block G8 Coalition.
Block G8, first of all, presented the basis for the mass blockades:
-Effective blockades
-Open for activists with no experience
-Based upon mass participation
-To be followed through in a transparent way
The concrete realisation of this is still in process within the Coalition. Independent of the concrete planning by Block G8, the fact remains: Lots of different blockades by different milieus will happen. Block G8 is just one amongst many. As a result, there is a necessity to co-ordinate and network different blockade concepts.
Contact and further information: www.block-g8.org
[ http://www.g8-2007.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=21]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hitler no longer to be an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan"
Gipfelsoli Infogroup: Right-wing globalization critique must be rejected
Formally, Adolf Hitler is still an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan. He was elevated to this status by town officials in 1932.. Prior to the NSDAP coming to power here, Bad Doberan had been the first municipality to grant Hitler this title.
Heiligendamm, where this year's G8 summit will be convened, belongs to the administrative district of Bad Doberan. The two towns are connected by the Lindenallee (Lime Tree Avenue), which Hitler once praised as "the most beautiful of Germany". The Dammchaussee ('Dam Road'), the road leading into the Lindenallee, was subsequently renamed 'Adolf-Hitler-Strasse' (Adolf Hitler Street).
This Nazi honorary citizenship has already attracted high levels of international attention. From Iceland to Israel, from Russia to Portugal, G8-critics attending the Dissent! network Infotour events have been outraged. At present the Infotour team are on the road in 40 US cities as well as in Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, Greece and Mexico.
As a result of initiatives of the German left-wing party, 'Die Linke', the formal recognition of Adolf Hitler as an honorary citizen Bad Doberan will finally be revoked. However, summit opponents argue that this step does not go far enough.
"The town of Bad Doberan should make an official statement to the international protest movement that it endorses left-wing and emancipatory protest against capitalism and rejects the right-wing globalization critique", suggests Geert Achterhuis of the Dutch Dissent! network.
In Mecklenburg Vorpommern (the region Heiligendamm and Bad Doberan are part of), the NPD ('National Democratic Party', the most successful extreme right-wing party in Germany) is using the G8 summit as an opportunity to circulate their inhumane nationalistic propaganda. Dressed in anti-capitalistic rhetoric, this propaganda demands more privileges for Germans at the expense of refugees and other underprivileged groups.
The NPD has announced their anti-G8 demonstration for June 2nd 2007, parallel to the large left-wing demonstration that will take place in Rostock. Within the German left, a broad mobilization against it has begun.
On February 25th 2007 the NPD attended a "citizens assembly" in Bad Doberan, organised by "Kavala", the special police branch preparing for the summit protests. "Kavala" has been touring the region around Heiligendamm for the past two months, informing locals of planned road closures and bathing restrictions.. "No opportunity is missed to warn locals about 'vandalism' and brand left-wing protests or blockades as 'violence prone', explains Adam Jones from the Gipfelsoli Infogroup. Udo Pastoers, the NPD parliamentarian in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, along with 25 other Nazis distributed flyers at the citizens assembly and stayed until the end. Adam Jones is surprised, "Neither Knut Abramowski's [head of "Kavala"] PR team nor the citizens assembly of Bad Doberan seemed to be particularly bothered about this"
[Gipfelsoli Infogroup]
Further (German language) sources:
* Daily Newspaper 'Junge Welt' about the NPD in Bad Doberan:
http://www.jungewelt.de/2007/03-07/007.php
* For a critique of right-wing anti-globalization politics, see for example:
http://projekte.free.de/lotta/inhalt/nr26.htm
* Kavala praises the citizens assembly:
http://www.polizei.mvnet.de/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3498&Itemi
d=265
* Hitler, honorary citizen of Bad Doberan:
http://www.sjd-falken.de/h/hi30dbr.htm
* Dissent! Infotour dates: http://wiki.dissentnetwork.org/wiki/Infotour
[Gipfelsoli Infogroup, March 9th 2007]
G8 Heiligendamm 07: just another counter-summit?
Move fast, strike harder...
The G8 circus is coming to Heiligendamm. As recent summits have moved to more remote areas, we have felt our strength decline, mainly because they increasingly control the playground and everything around it. In Seattle, Prague and Genoa our strengths were in being inventive and surprising the police. This allowed us the freedom to stage effective direct actions and disrupt the summits. The time has come to seize back the initiative.
We all agree that converging on Heiligendamm and staging actions there could be a constructive and empowering experience. However previous experiences with summit mobilisations have shown the need for us to become more flexible in our protests. Being fenced in and blocked from taking effective actions as happened in Gleneagles and St. Petersburg is both unconstructive and disempowering.
Over the last few years the most effective way for the dispossessed to attack capital has been to directly block the flows of commodity. This was done by the dock workers on the American west coast in 2002, the unemployed movement in Argentina since 1997, the Algerian insurgents in 2001 and the CPE struggle in France, last year. We should learn from this and aim to block the flows of capital ? be this the flow of numbers in the digital world of the stock exchanges or the flow of cargo trucks on the motorway.
Our proposal is that we converge on the capitalist fortress in Heiligendamm and experience the power and energy of acting and living as a large group, but only for as long as we are effective and it increases our power. It means going along with the current perspectives of trying to block the summit and the flows all over Meck-Pomm but to come there prepared for radical changes of strategy: if the time comes when we are blocked from being effective, we should be prepared to move and take the battle to the capitalists where they are more vulnerable.
Through this shift in strategies we want to preserve the power and energy that we have felt in previous summit mobilisations, but at the same time create new capacity for disruption. Practically, and as a starting point, we need to create the collective capacity to make quick decisions and to be mobile at any time. We are not bound to one place as they are, and that is a great strength, allowing us to force the police to stay one step behind us, caught in their rigid structures. Our tactics should be those of mobile raids, not of laying an unwinnable siege.
With this in mind, we encourage activists to come to Heiligendamm prepared to move the battlefield, which requires us to be our own nomadic base. Organisationally, we commit to preparing a structure for sharing information and managing logistics which is able to move along with us.
The flows we propose to block are global and without borders. Many are affected by them but only few have the resources to be present at Heiligendamm. We encourage all those who can't come to the G8 to take partin the battle, blockading the flows wherever in the world they are.
Come prepared!
- anti-G8 international meeting- February, 11th, 2007.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocol g8 workshop at pga wintermeeting 2007 in hamburg
19 people were present, several people also involved in the dissent network.
It was quite a short time and mostly the workshop was raising questions rather than answering...
Internationals from variouse countries participated, from italy, spain, greece, swiss, new zealand and uk. But the wintermeeting in general was not focussing on g8 but on international networking and strategies about continuity.
We started with a round:
What are you interested in about this workshop and what background you have?
- interest in general infos
- infotour in greece
- radio project at anti g8
- interest how to be in touch and to find each other local at the protest
- convergence center rostock: interested in mobilisation in the rest of the world
- umsonstladen hamburg: go to heiligendamm or not not shure
- local hamburg: interest in practical infos for the affinity group
- swiss: interest in info-input
- dissent and pga: how to bring it together and mobilise international?
- struggle in general and pga as an instrument
- convergence center hamburg: what kind of structure do we need for european mobilisation
- connection to economical struggle and general system is important
- international mobilisation and what is still needed and what is going on is of interest for germans
- italy just started
- spain infotour, there was a meeting about international meeting in warsaw in madrid
- meetings in different cities in spain are planned
- uk dissent: quite frustrating because connections died and network did not exist after summit but now tendency to reconstruct for g8 in germany
- stockholm fundraising parties and busses
- france: since infotour paris every month a meeting (including attac)
- new zealand: links but only local demonstrations, connection via topics, wto connection, in scotland was a barrio with a couple of local activists
- greece: infotour last year, lack of information, translations are running, infoposter project, two more infotours in greece
short update about warsaw meeting
following international anti g8 meeting in rostock 17th of april in rostock (see: www.dissentnetwork.org)
questions, topics about g8 from madrid
- interest in massiv blockades, because not flexible in the region as foreigners / language
- problem with conspiracy, experience in scottland was difficult non english speaking, so many things and where to go?
- include internationals in decentral blockades when they arrive befor the summit starts to have propper information about region
- task for locals: inform people where to meet which kind of people, convergence spaces important, send delegates there for international people
- borderpoints: police interfer and lawyers at borders to make things easier
- costs?
- announcement of shengen agreement shut down in middle of may, bordercontrols will be reintroduced
- convergence centers are not for sleep, it should be clarified, because some internationals are irritated
[PGA Wintermeeting]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTENTION ALL WHO SUPPORT OUR WORK here at Replacements Needed & PeaceGuard. We need your involvement today!
The PeaceGuard Northwest is sending a small group of street medics to the G8 Conference in Heiligendamm, Germany June 6th, 2007 to June 8th, 2007 and we need your help. We are asking that our supporters help sponsor us in this endeavor. Also during the months of June through September 10th Mr. Hays will be going to Mexico and several islands in the Caribbean conducting audio/video interviews concerning the influence of the G8 upon that region. This is an expensive and dangerous endeavor and one that is vitally important. These interviews will be shared with many activists groups at home and abroad and will help expand our knowledge of how the G8 and our own actions are impacting the world. If you want to help sponsor this trip or are part of a group who may be able to help do so please respond by email with your contact information if you plan on making a contribution to
peaceguard@replacementsneeded.com Thank you so much for joining us on this important and necessary journey. Without your generous support we would not be able to take our activities outside the borders of our great nation and to let the world know that we are not sitting idle while they plot and plunder the very planet that we must ALL share.
PeaceGuard Northwest and Replacements Needed thank you for your support.
Donations can be made out to: Thomas Hays
In "subject" line please put "PeaceGuard G8 Trip"
Send checks to;
Thomas Hays
Po Box #20798
Seattle WA 98102
Or donate online at
http://replacementsneeded.com/id43.html THANK YOU!
[
http://replacementsneeded.com/id56.html] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overview of the Protests Against the G8 Summit
Resistance to the G8 summit in Rostock in June 2007 is taking shape. Capitalism, the imperialist wars of the US - with the active help of the EU -, the Hartz IV unemployment reforms, tuition fees and more all form part of the anti-capitalist protests. The Action Plan for the period between June 2 and June 8 has been carved out. Now, we - or rather, you - have to turn ideas and plans into concrete proposals for action! Take part in the preparations! Get active!
The Choreography of G8 Resistance
A rough and incomplete overview.
Friday 1 June
Anti-military actions: www.g8andwar.de.
Opening of the anti-G8 camp.
Opening events in Rostock.
Saturday 2 June
International Demonstration in Rostock: www.heiligendamm2007.de
Concerts: www.move-against-g8.de
Sunday 3 June
Day of Action on Agriculture
Networking and International Events in Rostock
Concerts: www.move-against-g8.org
Monday 4 June
Day of Action on Migration. Actions at detention camps and immigration departments, as well as a demonstration in Rostock city centre. Followed by a panel discussion on migration in the evening.
http://nolager.de/ Tuesday 5 June
Actions Against Militarism, War, Torture and the Global State of Exception. Blockade of Rostock-Laage airport as the G8 leaders arrive. www.g8andwar.de
Tuesday 5 - Thursday 7 June
Alternative/Counter-Summit in Rostock.
http://www.g8-alternative-summit.org/en/ Additional events at the protest camp. Wednesday 6 June
'Block G8' blockade of the Summit infrastructure through means of civil disobedience. www.block-g8.org
Further actions in the area around Heiligendamm.
Thursday 7 June
Multiple marches (the 'Sternmarch') to Heiligendamm from nearby Nienhagen, Kühlungsborn, Bad Doberan and Kröpelin www.dissentnetwork.org
Demonstrations and 'Block G8' blockades www.block-g8.org
Followed by Herbert Grönemeyer and others' 'Music and Messages' concert www.deine-stimme-gegen-armut.de
Friday 8 June
Final/closing rally or demonstration (details to be confirmed).
*****************************************
The main planning meetings for the protests against the G8 summit were two "Action Conferences" that took place in Rostock in March and November 2006. See: www.heiligendamm2007.de. Several hundred people from Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Korea, Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, the USA and other countries gathered at each conference.
The participants were from all areas of the left. There were representatives from anarchist and communist groups, leftist unions, Attac, various NGO's, environmental and ecological groups, socialist parties (Linke.PDS), anti-fascists, anti-racists and other groups from the social movements.
The conference resulted in the formation of Working Groups ('Arbeitsgruppen', or AGs in German), which are preparing specific actions separately. Some of the more important are the following:
1. AG Mass Demonstration - Saturday, June 2, 2007
2. AG G8, Agriculture and Genetic Technology - Sunday, June 3, 2007
3. AG Migration Action Day - Monday, June 4, 2007
4. AG Against Militarism, War and Torture - Tuesday, June 5, 2007
5. AG Mass Blockades - Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Additionally, there are various working groups that are dealing with practical themes, for example the AG Camp(s), AG Nazis/Extreme Right-Wing and the G8, AG Culture/Concerts, AG Alternative Summit.
1. AG Mass Demonstration - Saturday, June 2, 2007
The date for the mass demonstration in Rostock is Saturday, June 2, 2007. We want to create a broad international mobilization and to lay the necessary foundations for it. The mass demonstration should be an element of the summit mobilisation that brings together all participants across the political millues. It should express the multiplicity of the protest and of the resistance against the G8.
Therefore, there should be political and organisational unity in the demonstration, expressing mutual solidarity. On the one hand, this means that we want a demonstration in which everyone - including families with kids if possible - can participate and feel safe. On the other, it means that the demonstration will react together and in solidarity in response to any possible (police) attack against part of the demonstration.
Contact and further information: www.heiligendamm2007.de
2. AG G8, Agriculture and Genetic Technology - Sunday, June 3, 2007
The working group "G8, Agriculture and Genetic Technology," expanded at the last conference in Rostock. Here are the planned actions:
* Beginning in March, an Info-Tour will head from Austria to Rostock. In the cities in which the tour stops, actions will take place in public spaces and information events will be held.
* On April 17, 2007, we will participate in the global day of action of "Via Campesina" about land rights.
* On May 22, 2007 we will organize a day of action around the topic of "Seeds and Biodiversity."
* On Sunday, June 3, 2007, we will call for a day of action. We will mobilise in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern but are also calling for solidarity action in other localities and for an International Day of Action. Actions around the topic of genetic technology have already been planned. We want to harvest the fields of genetically modified produce around Rostock with as many people as possible.
* On Monday, June 4, 2007, actions in front of supermarkets are planned around the topic of groceries.
Contact and further information:
dissentnetzwerk.org/wiki/Arbeitsgruppe_G8_und_Landwirtschaft
www.dosto.de/gengruppe/g8_2007/index.php
www.gendreck-weg.de
g8_landwirtschaft@yahoo.de 3. AG Migration - Monday, June 4, 2007
The following actions are planned:
Before the G8 summit:
- Numerous information tours with activists from Eastern Europe, Africa and the US
- Cooperation with EuroMayDay events (Hamburg, Berlin, Hanau and other places)
- Thematise the relationship between migration and precarity
- Caravan tour starts 1-2 weeks prior to the G8 summit and visits sites of resistance
• During the protest in Rostock
- Bloc particularly dedicated to migration at the large demonstration on June 2.
- Transnational networking meeting on June 3
- Migration day of action on Monday, June 4 - decentralized actions, demonstration and event in the evening
- Speakers and workshops at the alternative summit
Contact and further information: www.nolager.de
4. AG - Against Militarism, War and Torture - Tuesday, June 5, 2007
A central part is the blockade of the military airport of Rostock-Laage where the politicians, advisers and other participants in the G8 summit will arrive. In the summer of 2006 President Bush already traveled to Rostock through this military airport.
Further dates:
• May 31, 2007 - Arrival at the camp of the "Euro-March" and the "Caravan for the Rights of Immigrants"
• June 1, 2007 - Occupation of the "Bombodrom" land, in connection with the actions at Rostock-Laage military airport. (The "Bombodrom" refers to a very large military base in northern Germany between Berlin and Rostock, which is used by NATO for exercises. It is the largest area in Europe for military training with bombs and missiles.)
Contact and further information:
www.freieheide.de
www.g8andwar.de
www.freieheide-nb.de
g8undkrieg@so36.net 5. AG Blockades - Wed., June 6; Thursday, June 7; Friday, June 8 (beginning Wednesday)
The Working Group was prepared by the Block G8 Coalition.
Block G8, first of all, presented the basis for the mass blockades:
-Effective blockades
-Open for activists with no experience
-Based upon mass participation
-To be followed through in a transparent way
The concrete realisation of this is still in process within the Coalition. Independent of the concrete planning by Block G8, the fact remains: Lots of different blockades by different milieus will happen. Block G8 is just one amongst many. As a result, there is a necessity to co-ordinate and network different blockade concepts.
Contact and further information: www.block-g8.org
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http://www.g8-2007.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=21] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hitler no longer to be an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan"
Gipfelsoli Infogroup: Right-wing globalization critique must be rejected
Formally, Adolf Hitler is still an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan. He was elevated to this status by town officials in 1932.. Prior to the NSDAP coming to power here, Bad Doberan had been the first municipality to grant Hitler this title.
Heiligendamm, where this year's G8 summit will be convened, belongs to the administrative district of Bad Doberan. The two towns are connected by the Lindenallee (Lime Tree Avenue), which Hitler once praised as "the most beautiful of Germany". The Dammchaussee ('Dam Road'), the road leading into the Lindenallee, was subsequently renamed 'Adolf-Hitler-Strasse' (Adolf Hitler Street).
This Nazi honorary citizenship has already attracted high levels of international attention. From Iceland to Israel, from Russia to Portugal, G8-critics attending the Dissent! network Infotour events have been outraged. At present the Infotour team are on the road in 40 US cities as well as in Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, Greece and Mexico.
As a result of initiatives of the German left-wing party, 'Die Linke', the formal recognition of Adolf Hitler as an honorary citizen Bad Doberan will finally be revoked. However, summit opponents argue that this step does not go far enough.
"The town of Bad Doberan should make an official statement to the international protest movement that it endorses left-wing and emancipatory protest against capitalism and rejects the right-wing globalization critique", suggests Geert Achterhuis of the Dutch Dissent! network.
In Mecklenburg Vorpommern (the region Heiligendamm and Bad Doberan are part of), the NPD ('National Democratic Party', the most successful extreme right-wing party in Germany) is using the G8 summit as an opportunity to circulate their inhumane nationalistic propaganda. Dressed in anti-capitalistic rhetoric, this propaganda demands more privileges for Germans at the expense of refugees and other underprivileged groups.
The NPD has announced their anti-G8 demonstration for June 2nd 2007, parallel to the large left-wing demonstration that will take place in Rostock. Within the German left, a broad mobilization against it has begun.
On February 25th 2007 the NPD attended a "citizens assembly" in Bad Doberan, organised by "Kavala", the special police branch preparing for the summit protests. "Kavala" has been touring the region around Heiligendamm for the past two months, informing locals of planned road closures and bathing restrictions.. "No opportunity is missed to warn locals about 'vandalism' and brand left-wing protests or blockades as 'violence prone', explains Adam Jones from the Gipfelsoli Infogroup. Udo Pastoers, the NPD parliamentarian in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, along with 25 other Nazis distributed flyers at the citizens assembly and stayed until the end. Adam Jones is surprised, "Neither Knut Abramowski's [head of "Kavala"] PR team nor the citizens assembly of Bad Doberan seemed to be particularly bothered about this"
[Gipfelsoli Infogroup]
Further (German language) sources:
* Daily Newspaper 'Junge Welt' about the NPD in Bad Doberan:
http://www.jungewelt.de/2007/03-07/007.php * For a critique of right-wing anti-globalization politics, see for example:
http://projekte.free.de/lotta/inhalt/nr26.htm * Kavala praises the citizens assembly:
http://www.polizei.mvnet.de/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3498&Itemi d=265
* Hitler, honorary citizen of Bad Doberan:
http://www.sjd-falken.de/h/hi30dbr.htm * Dissent! Infotour dates:
http://wiki.dissentnetwork.org/wiki/Infotour [Gipfelsoli Infogroup, March 9th 2007]
Gipfelsoli Infogruppe
