World Globalisation Newswire Archive

A meeting of the the worlds "key economies" is taking place, when it is clear to all economists, most people in the "cash industry", - most national leaders too - that the way it is structured at present is - almost for the sake of its loopholes,( to allow actual criminals a cash-laundry taxhaven loot hoarding effect,) for all serious purposes, inadequate - but the media havent raised this key question once.

2 boats of Greenpeace were hit by a german police boat trying to stop them reaching the Kempinski-Hotel (where the G 8 takes place) from the seaside. 3 Greenpeace activists were injured.

Here there are some pics from yesterday's blockade of the west gate near the town of Hinter Bollhagen. Around 2500 people left Reddelich camp in the early morning towards the west side of the fence. After around 4 hours of walking, mostly seeking the cover of the forests so to hide from the police helicopters, the protesters finally made the final push through a big field to block the road leading to the west gate.

By this time police had already brought in water canons and were ready to protect the road. Even though several groups of people managed to cross the police lines and do sit down protests as well as building some barricades. The stand off lasted for most of the day, effectively blocking the road 200 meters away from the gate for the whole day. Later in the afternoon, whilst the main group of people that by that time had ground to more than 3000 people were keeping their ground in front of the police lines, several smaller affinity groups spread around the fence trying to stretch police resources whilst others carrying on with smaller actions in different parts of the road.

Later in the evening police eventually dispersed those still on the blockade, injuring several people.

While people were blockading the west gate of the G8 security zone others were creating multiple barricades across the whole area. In this case behind the police lines.

Video Rush of the march of thousands to block the G8.

So over 1,000 people were marching up the hill towards the main road they wanted to occupy by the west gate of the G8 summit. Waiting at the top were dozens of cops and 3 water cannons...

Demonstrations against the G8 have been going on in the "Game" Second Life. People who cqannot make the real life demonstrations in Rostock have been demonstrating outside the Reuters office in the on-line world, and there is another large demonstration of solidarity with the Rostock demonstrators scheduled for tonight (Thursday 8pm GMT) outside the "Linden Mansion" - the "home" of the owners of the life simulator, Linden Labs.

SLLU, Second Life Left Unity, has created a Tribute Garden for people who are in the game to leave a candle, flower or other tribute in memory of the victims of capitalism/globalisation.

This morning it was announced at one of the camps that there would be an attempt at blocking the west gate of the G8. After just an hour and a half of planning the action set off towards its target. The Police quickly blocked the first road so everyone ran through a field and into the woods.

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These pics are from the east gate blockade which this lunchtime had been in place over 24hrs with people occupying the road through the night. This afternoon the blockade was still intent on remaining in place for as long as possible and hundreds of people were heading towards it to reinforce the position.

Jean Bricmont’s Humanitarian Imperialism is a book that, to use the overwrought (but in this case true) rhetoric of book blurbs, should be read by anyone concerned with rebuilding the left, stopping the Iraq war, or with the future of humanity in general. The subject of his book is the human rights ideology which insists that the US/the West is morally obligated to military intervene to protect the political and civil rights of various peoples around the world. He argues that this line of thought has been absorbed by most of the left in Europe (and, we would add, in the US), and that it helps account for the listlessness of the struggle against the Iraq occupation. Not a timid writer, Bricmont expends no energy deconstructing the discourse of human rights, or expounding on its intellectual genealogy. Instead, he focuses directly on the argument itself, and its multiple variants (such as the use of dubious historical backdrops, including the failure of the left to be sufficiently critical of Stalin, and the example of World War II). He further keeps things simply by avoiding philosophical questions of cultural relativism, instead simply trying to answer whether the military interventionist strategy in fact promotes the human rights it claims to. One wonders how the many defenders of humanitarian imperialism would respond to the arguments laid out in the book. Of course, they will simply ignore it, or perhaps slander the author (defender of Saddam/Stalin, etc.).

The police intrusion at the Rostock G8 camp this evening was a clear attempt at provocation.

Arriving in force they entered the adjoining field which had effectively been squatted to accomodate the spill over campers from when the site had become crowded.

Report follows below:

Successfull blockade of the south east entrance.

pics of sit-down protest of Block G8 campaign at about 7pm with 1000 people left. No food or water or blankets were allowed through by the police, who hoped that the blockade would therefore disperse earlier.

Medecins Sans Frontieres provided a visual spectacle to highlight the scandal of people dying in poor countries due to the price of life saving drugs. Credit to MSF's volunteers the water was filthy not to mention freezing.

Thousands of people left Reddelich camp early this morning to take part in the first day of blockades against the G8 summit. The main group which consisted of well over 5000 people moved towards the fence through fields and country roads. Other smaller affinity groups also left towards the fence 'protecting' Heiligendamm. Here there are a few photos of the main blockade which managed to break well inside the designated 'no-protest' zone, and successfully occupied the main road leading to Heiligendamm from the town of Bad Doberan, and just a few hundred meters away from the fence that protects the so-called 'red zone'.

At the time of publishing this report the blockade is still on, and growing in numbers as protesters from an earlier blockade of a military airport nearby are joining in. Police are bringing in water cannons and small tanks, but the protestors are staying put and resisting the blockade, some of which planning to stay overnight.

Here there are a few pics of the blockade so far ....

Pics from today's Block G8 mass action that left from the Reddlich campsite.

Thousands of people marched through the fields and forests before splitting into several different coloured blocks to take the main SE road to the G8 security fence.

This was one of several blockades which seem to have shut down all roads to the G8.

1000s managed to get into the 1st security zone which begins about 6km in front of the fence. They now are DIRECTLY at the fence. They began with the demontage of NATO razor wire.

Today, we went over to see what was going on at the supposed airport blockades at Rostock-Laage airport and found only a small number of protesters at each of the four rally points.

Today we visited the neighbouring Seaside village to Heiligendam; Kuehlungsborn where most of the press is located.