World G8 Germany 2007 Newswire Archive

Here are some documents translated into English about German police tactics and strategies - useful for anyone going to the G8 Summit protests.

Musicians, MPs, Academics, Media and Civil Society Personalities Support "Block G8" Call for Mass Blockades of G8 Summit

Prominent musicians (like the British pop band Chumbawamba, Tocotronic lead-singer Dirk von Lowtzow, and electro-pop artist Bernadette La Hengst), MPs (like Ulla Jelpke, Nele Hirsch and Heike Hänsel of DIE LINKE), academics (like Prof. Joachim Hirsch (Frankfurt), Prof. Wolf Dieter Naar (Berlin) and Prof. John Holloway (Mexico)), media personalities (like journalist Naomi Klein (author, 'No Logo')), playwrights and poets (like Howard Zinn and Dennis Brutus), and civil society personalities (like Walden Bello (Director, Focus on the Global South), Vandana Shiva (Founder, Navdana) and Sven Giegold (attac Coordination Committee) have all pledged their public support for the Block G8 campaign for mass blockades of the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm next month.

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.

Video: Superhero block, Euromayday Hamburg 2007

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

Incredible! As reported today on indymedia Germany  http://www.germany.indymedia.org/2007/05/176460.shtml a spokesman of the Einsatzleitung of the police declared the planned international anti-G 8 protest march in Rostock on june the 7th for illegal and forbidden!

Riots in Hamburg after a demonstration against the police repression in Germany.

This morning (Wednesday May 9th) police raided about 40 buildings in Germany, including several social centres and private homes in Berlin and Hamburg, as well as the alternative web provider so36.net . Police forces searched the "Rote Flora" in Hamburg as well as parts of the "Bethanien" in Berlin. Both places are planning to be decentralised convergence centres for the G8 protests of early June.

We want to show solidarity with the German movement and express our right to protest against the upcoming G8 in June. We want to defy police repression and show we are not intimidated by it!

Friday May 11, 6pm
Kempinski Courthouse Hotel
19-21 Great Marlborough St, London, W1F 7HT

According to mainstream media, over 800 policemen were involved in raiding 40 left-wing political objects with the support of 20 public prosecutors.

Whilst German television channels reported live from the razzias in the big cities, according to the populist press farms in Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg and Niedersachsen were also affected.

Several reasons were given so far for the raids, which nevertheless seemed to centre on and affect mainly infrastructure and logistics around the protests against the G8 summit.

Several main hubs of political projects associated with the forthcoming G8 protests have been raided by the police in Germany.
Amongst them a social centre in Hamburg, which will open in three weeks as the first convergence centre in Germany.

Several project and flats in hamburg and berlin are being raided at the moment.
In hamburg 4 flats, one office and the the Rote Flora, where the Convergence Center begins in 3 weeks are being raided.
In Berlin it is the Mehringhof, mad, bethanien project (libertad office and Glocal anti g8 office) , fusion, kanalb (radio and media project), so36.net (tech collective and alternative internet hoster) ect ect ect.

After a surprising and completely unwarrented arrest of around 100 bicycle activists and members of the "Gr8chaoskaravaan" western european anti G8 bike caravan on Saturday, the last arrestee was finally released last night. Arrestees report of police violence and ill arrest conditions. Legal consequences for both activists and police.

Peoples Action Net made a nice video about the anti-G8 Bicicle demonstration, of which more than 100 people got arrested saturday May 5th in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Today a bicycle demo against the G8 was held in Nijmegen, Holland..

Netherlands, Utrecht: An anti-G 8 bike rally heading towards Heiligendamm, Germany, where the G 8 will take place in june, was arrested by police.
About 115 people were arrested and brought to the headquarter of the police. The bikes were taken away from the owners and are now in posession of police. Police officials say the people were arrested because they were too many to drive in normal traffic.

The following is the English translation of the Interventionist Left's (IL) call to action against this year's G8 Summit in Heiligendamm. The IL are a German-wide network of groups (including: AKU Wiesbaden; Antifaschistische Linke Berlin (ALB); Antifaschistische Linke International (A.L.I.) Göttingen; AVANTI – Projekt undogmatische Linke; Für eine linke Strömung – FelS (Berlin); gruppe d.i.s.s.i.d.e.n.t.; the Federal Coordination, "Krieg ist Frieden" (KIF); the German-wide campaign Libertad!; Organisierte Autonomie (Nürnberg); radikale linke (rl) Nürnberg - Projekt für revolutionäre Organisierung; Rote Aktion Kornstraße (Hannover)), publishing projects (ak - analyse und kritik; Fantomas; arranca!; and so oder so) and a number of individuals. More information is available via the IL website, here: www.g8-2007.de

Saturday April 14th, 2007 15:59 Shut down G8 Summit! Conflicts make Europe

This weekend in the city of Rostock there have been three days of discussion rounds to prepare the demonstrations against the G8 meeting.

The upcoming actions against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm will present considerable challenges for the creativity and stamina of activists. After all, the idea is to effectively block all the entry points. The problem is that an enormous army of security and public order forces will be present and try to prevent the same. But history has shown that everything can be blocked. Below you will find some useful stories about the practice of blockades. This text will be updated as new ideas pour in.

Rising Tide has now produced a number of flyers and posters to help publicise the 08.06.07 International Day of Action against Climate Change & G8 - availble to download from the Rising Tide website.

Reporter Josh Wolf Freed - Thanks to all who campaigned on this one....

Sharing of Unedited Video and Minor Grand Jury Cooperation Leads to Release

On April 3rd, independent reporter Josh Wolf was freed from federal custody after spending 7 1/2 months in prison for failing to turn over video footage to a federal grand jury. The unedited video was the target of the federal grand jury subpoena that caused him to be held at the federal holding facility, in Dublin, CA for over 226 days, a record amount of time for any journalist in U.S. history.

That morning, Josh wrote on his blog, "During the course of this saga I have repeatedly offered to allow a judge to be the arbiter over whether or not my video material has any evidentiary value. Today, you the public have the opportunity to be the judge and I am confident you will see, as I do, that there is nothing of value in this unpublished footage."

Full Story at  http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/03/18388445.php

The following is a call by trade unionists in Germany and internationally against the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm. Groups and individuals can sign up here:  http://www.g8-gewerkschafteraufruf.de/index.php?lang=en