G8 Summit protests approach in Germany, this year

German activists prepare for G8 summit

Some say that the anti-globalization movement is dead. Others never liked that term and called it the Global Justice Movement. Everyone agrees that the days of successive summits is over. However the issues that gave rise to this movement are just as present today as ever. Faceless capitalism controls the economy and makes life or death choices for millions, a few rich men and even fewer women dominate the decision making process. The need for change is as urgent as ever and the struggle for a more livable world goes on.

The G8 or eight most economically developed nations (ignoring China) will meet in Germany from June 6-8 and we will be there. Our goal is to protest them and create models of the world we want to live in, in our camps and organized spaces. Some have criticized summit protests and felt that all activists should focus on local issues. While many will keep up that focus some of us will take one week out to unite and come together in a unified and massive ‘No’ to those in power.

Germany has a large activist scene and many concerned people not in the scene. Preparations have been going on for one and a half years. Almost all sectors of the left are mobilizing to protest the G8. Unions and youth groups, radical left and even churches will be there with anti-nuclear protestors and anti-fascists.

The G8 will meet in an exclusive hotel at the seaside. There will be a large fence enclosing the whole area and a much larger area that is off limits to dissent. Sixteen thousand police will guard them. They have already shortened their meeting in anticipation of our protests.

There will be three camps to hold thousands of people. One will be in the city of Rostock and two in the countryside near the summit. Here we will practice collective living and meeting our own needs without governments. We will get to know each other, share stories and create bonds of friendship while learning of struggles throughout the world. This coming together and sharing is vital to keep movements infused with new ideas, form becoming too insular and stagnant.

On June 2 there will be a massive protest in Rostock. All of the unions and other moderate groups will be there as well as thousands of radical activists. Up to 50,000 are expected. It could be an exciting protest with so many people. Also this day the fascists will march in Schwernin (against the G8) and thousands will oppose them. The plan for June 6 is a massive blockade of all the roads around the summit. Many moderate direct action groups have called for the roads around the summit to be blockaded to stop the staff and thousands of other attendees from getting to the summit. Obviously those who make major decisions that affect all of our lives refuse to consult with anyone outside of the privileged few. We view the summit as an illegitimate and will try to stop it. The Block G8 groups will have sit-down blockades on the roads. The military airport, Rostock Laager, will be used to by the G8 and will be blockaded as well. Some groups will use tactics other than sitting in roads. All in all a large array of groups will be active on this day. On June 7 there was a ‘Star March’ the converge on the summit. It was denied permission but now can mach up to 200 meters from the fence on four routes. The goal is to get to the hotel. Other actions are banned but we do not need the governments permission to oppose it.

Earlier, on May 28 there is a meeting of the European Union Foreign ministers and Asian representatives in Hamburg. Many will protest there as a warm up.

On May 9 the police raided 40 houses and offices of left organizations in Germany, ahead of the summit. It was widely seen as a fishing expedition to gather information on the left. Thousands poured out in the streets later that night. There were 5,000 in Berlin and the police action has only given people more energy to protest.

On May 21 three Info Points opened in Berlin and one opened in Hamburg. There is already a school serving as an info point in Rostock and people are coming from all over to set up the camps and organize the protests. People are coming to Germany from many countries and the display of resistance should be strong.

For information check out: http://www.dissentnetzwerk.org and click on ‘en’ just under the title for English. Or check out http://www.gipfelsoli.org for information and history of other summits including videos. It has an other languages section that is mostly English.

In the meantime activists have been busy locally. There have been many dozens of attacks on targets related to the G8. Most of these have been paint bombs and window smashing but also there have been quite a number of cars burned. Sometimes in direct relation to the G8 and sometimes against gentrification, as was the case on may 18 when an actor’s 75,000 dollar SUV was burned. In Berlin alone over 40 cars have been burned. Hamburg has burned many as well and one type of new luxury car was burned in Hamburg and one in Berlin. Berlin then burned several police cars.

Berlin and many other parts of Germany are covered with graffiti, stickers, posters, fliers and banners against the G8. Every day the newspapers have articles on preparations for the protests. Come and be a part of it. The world’s rulers want us to be history but we will make history instead.


The piece below is quite nice about recent German Press and was written by other people.

About what is going on in the immediate region of G8:

Today the (Rostock) Convergence Center Baltic Sea (see links from
dissentnetwork.org) opened. It's fucking cool! People are arriving from
all over, fixing bikes, building computers, cooking for 100 people here
and those building nearby Rostock Camp, cleaning and supplying the art
room. The Contact Group built a cool Safe Space room and some nice women
from all over are chilling out there. There are mixed and women's only
sleeping spaces and it totally rocks here! That is the literal case, as
tonight is a punk and ska gig, and tomorrow hardcore punk. Another local
anti-G8 NGO has it's grand opening in the city centre, and their
bar/cafe is staying open until G8. Lots of people are putting together
wireless connections to keep info flowing.

About local impressions in Redelich, that is where there will be a camp
for a few thousand. 13 people went there 10 days ago to say hi and give
out basic info flyers and to tell about how a few thousand of us would
be arriving there in a week. People seemed a bit nervous of violent
protest, but generally fairly well informed about problems of the G8 and
quite understanding of reasons for protest. Last week the local butcher
was afraid of "militant vegans", but today someone said that he has met
the nice people building up the camp and has been giving them water and
electricity. Around 40 or 50 people are building up the camps in
Reddelich and Rostock, but of course more would be useful.

...ooops, gotta go now, but that is the short version, some small
protests or actions here every day too,
ciao!


I would like to give you a short roundup of a discussion which is at the
moment taking place in german press before the g8. I think that press
coverage is an important factor to the success of the summit.
Reading the international press, this discussion is not being reported
outside germany.
I guess the last information on this list about the current situation in
Germany - were the mails about the raids and the demonstration ban.

Here some more information besides this.

The growing repression against the G8 protests shows astonishing results.
Instead of applauding the actions of the states most parts of the liberal
and left press bring almost each day an article on the repression against
the protest and sometimes critizing heavily the police's/state's policies
and actions as not adequate and breach of constitutional rights, creating
a general mood more positive towards the protest than towards the police.

It all started with the raids. The press first was applauding, but from
the second day on they started critizing the action and making fun of it
(as some of the searched were 60+ and as others had been informed
beforehand about the repression and as some part of the raid aimed at the
publishers of a book which has been published for already five years).
Later on some newspapers were starting to question the need for those
raids and the aim of it. Was it to frighten? (which they critised as
anti-democratic). And thanks to the press the raids show results which
haven't been expected. Strenghtend by the press, as they claim that the
raids strengthen the protest, the protest is strenghtened, like a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
Another thing which made the press think was, that nobody was arrested.
They are asking. If those people are really dangerous terrorists - why let
them run around freely - if they are not dangerous, why those raids?

The second step was, that the minister of interior Wolfgang Schaeuble
(christian conservative party) announced, that protestors might be
arrested preventivly/preemptively. There came a second outcry in the press
- as this affects the right to demonstrate, which is officially a basic
right in the german constitution.

The third step was the ban of the demonstration around Heiligendamm and
the airport Rostock Laage. A new outcry followed. Refering to a court
decision of the high time of the protest against construction of nuclear
power plants (which granted demonstrators the right to demonstrate in
audible/visible distance to the addressee of the protest), large parts of
the liberal press defended the right of demonstration (some even said,
that this right has to be granted, even if violence can be awaited).

The fourth bigger thing was the news that the german police took from some
of the raided odor-samples. This caused another outcry, as this is a
method which has been used by the Stasi (the GDRs intelligence apparatus -
known now e.g. by the movie: Das Leben der Anderen - The lives of others).
Some politicians now started to compare the means of the policies with
those of the Stasi (which is a strong accusation in Germany) and some
newspapers followed.

And just today newspapers announced that the police has been opening
letters to find 'claims of responsibility' after some more fires had been
burning cars). This is also heavily attacked, as the privacy of
correspondance is also an 'untouchable' right of the german constitution.

All those news are seen just as a further part of the legislations which
have been passed as anti-terrorist laws since the 70ies and again stronger
after 9/11.
As for example online raids of computers, a central databank of
fingerprints...

All together those news create now an atmosphere which helps the protest
on one side, as people are now sympathising with the protest, in order to
defend 'democratic liberties'.
The problem of this support is: nobody is really talking about the
contents of the protest anymore, why are we against, why demonstrating -
this is not as important to the press at the moment, as the question: are
we still living in a democracy?

Therefore the manifestation on the second might be in large parts also a
demonstration against the state repression and against a police state.

But the possitive effect of the press coverage are:

- the press is regarding the protest rather possitively, which is
supported by a rather press work from the protest (though they very often
also mention, that this is only for the peaceful protest, but there is no
real gauntlet for the more radical parts)
- the press tries to understand why people are demonstrating and doesn't
create as much, as during other summits, the picture of barbarians
destroying everything, and instead give space to some protestors to
express themselves
- the discussion about violence from demonstrators is not in the center.
the press rather critizises the police actions and the police's efforts to
criminalize the movement or to divide it shows no results (though i don't
know whether this is a result of the press coverage, or of the long
collaboration of large parts of the movement)
- several papers claim that the police is escalating and fear another
genoa (but now seeing thereby the genoa riots rather as a response to
police escalation)


The above described is mostly spread by supra-regional papers of liberal
or left orientation mostly read by intellectuals in larger cities.
for sure, not all articles are positive, but above written in my opinion
describes the basic tenor of the discussion.

To the region around Heiligendamm:

I can't really tell how it is in the region of the protest.
This region is the hindmost german province where people never have been
facing such a big protest and are partially extremly frightend by it,
whereas the police helps to create fears.


Star March Coalition

Press Release
May 25th 2007

*G8 2007 Protests in Germany*

*Courts Grant Appeal: Star March Can Happen*
The Star March Intends to go all the Way to the Kempinski Hotel
‘State of Emergency’ Does Not Justify a General Ban

The urgent appeal of the Star March Coalition lodged at the Schwerin
Court has been successful. The Coalition had lodged a law suit against
the general demonstration ban issued by the police department. A general
injunction over a 40 square kilometer area had been designated as a
demonstration free zone. Such an injunction would have been
unprecedented in the history of Germany.

The Schwerin Court has only granted a partial lift of the injunction.
The Star March Coalition had registered their final rally at the
Kempinski Hotel. With this, the protest was to be taken to the
addressees: The meeting of the Heads of State of the G8. The Court has
decided that demonstrations are allowed to take place on 4 of 6 of the
planned routes and at a distance of 200 m from the fence.

The Court has explained that the “suspected threats to public security
can be sufficiently contained with less extreme measures than a general
ban.” Of course we are happy that our right to demonstrate has been
confirmed in the first instance. A huge thank-you to the lawyers”,
Susanne Spemberg and Peter Kromrey of the Star March Coalition explain.
There had been a broad wave of international criticism in response to
the injunction. “However, we will continue to question the ban on
demonstrations within the area sealed off by the fence. We will decide
in the next few days whether to appeal against the decision.”

At the beginning of the week the groups affected by the total
prohibition of all assemblies at the military airport Rostock Laage had
also lodged an appeal. In the next days, the organization ‘Jewish
Voice’, who had registered a rally at the fence on June 5th, will also
lodge an appeal. “We expect that with the decision to allow the Star
March to happen, all other bans will be lifted too”, Matthias Monroy of
the Gipfelsoli Infogruppe states. All organizers have to make
individual cases against the ban.

The Star March Coalition is represented by the Hamburg-based lawyers
Carsten Gericke, Ulrike Donat and Cornelia Ganten-Lange. “We were all
convinced from the beginning that a complete ban could never be upheld”,
Carsten Gericke comments.

The lawyers critcise that the police have been planning this injunction
for months: “Other de-escalating and staggered concepts were at no point
taken into consideration”, it states in the appeal.

The police had argued that the ban was necessary because of a ‘state of
emergency’.
A line of argument that invokes a ‘state of emergency’ denies citizens
their basic rights. The assumption that all large political events
demand the declaration of a ‘state of emergency’ would be a poor showing
for the German constitutional State, that could in future regularly
curtail civil liberties via such injunctions, without sufficient reason
to do. Injunctions have never stopped assemblies but have only
contributed to escalation, because not enough space was left for people
to articulate their protest legally.

Carlo Paul of the Star March Coalition states,“With the Star March we
want to make our ideas for another possible world visible. Social
revolutionaries, globalization critics, peasants, trade unions, the
environmental movement and radical feminists: on June 7th we will all
raise our voices against the pernicious politics of the G8.”