2007 G-8 Summit, Heiligendamm, Germany
Dismantle the G-8!
No to the Criminalization of Dissent!
Another World Is Possible!
As the Group of Eight (G-8) conduct their June 6-8 summit, the peoples’ movement against imperialist globalization and war has converged in Rostock near Heiligendamm, Germany where the summit is taking place. The biggest imperialist powers including the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Japan make up the G8, with the U.S. maneuvering to use the group to secure a world empire under its dictate. Within this context the peoples’ forces are denouncing the G-8 as an illegitimate organization, and under the banner Another World Is Possible, the peoples’ forces are championing alternatives to the neo-liberal agenda dictated by this tiny elite to the rest of the world.
A counter-summit, concerts, demonstrations, blockades and other activities are characterized by this spirit which opposes the marginalization of the vast majority of the world’s population whose needs are not represented by the G-8 and who otherwise figure only as pawns in the schemes of the financial oligarchs to become richer at their expense. A very broad call has gone out for “anyone who is searching for alternatives to globalization in its current form” to participate.
Months of work have gone into organizing these counter actions. It is reported that 80,000-100,000 people participated in the first mass action in Rostock on June 2.
Amongst the concerns being brought forward by the movement to oppose the G-8 are:
• social justice and the growing gap between rich and poor on the world scale
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destruction of the natural environment
•
peaceful relations between nations, including political resolution to conflicts
•
just relations of trade and economies organized to serve the peoples’ interests
Meanwhile, the government of Germany in its capacity as host nation is implementing a provocative agenda which criminalizes dissent in the name of security. All manner of violations of rights and societal norms are taking place on the basis that the influx of anti-globalization protestors represents an exceptional circumstance calling for exceptional measures. Inter Press Service reports:
“Over the last several weeks the German government tightened controls on civil society groups and leftist anti-globalization activists in order to prevent, as the official lines goes, ‘violent disruptions’ of the G8 summit of industrialized countries that Germany is hosting this week.
“Since mid-May, the German government has ordered searches of private homes and offices of German anti-globalization activists, interrupted Internet connections, seized computers and cellular telephones, and even temporarily suspended the application of the Schengen Agreement, the treaty that guarantees the free movement of persons across European borders.
“Until June 10, all persons traveling into Germany must pass through identity controls at all airports and other border crossing points. The government also suspended the constitutional right to demonstrate near Heiligendamm, the Baltic seaside resort that is the venue of the Group of Eight summit June 6-8.”
Reuters reports that 16,000 police will be on duty during the summit, “the biggest force assembled in recent times in Germany,” and that a 2.5 m tall “12 km security fence has been built around the resort itself to keep demonstrators and militants away from the summit.”
The mass demonstration of 80,000-100,000 people which took place on Saturday, June 2 in Rostock, a city near the site of the summit and the arrival point for the G-8 leaders set the tone of the militant opposition to the G-8. A callout for the action called it an “Action Day against militarism, war and torture: block G8, prevent wars!” Bright flags, banners and puppets could be seen throughout the demonstration, with slogans such as “Shut Down G8,” “Another World Is Possible,” and “Trade Justice” and “Stop G8 Global Dictatorship” to name a few.
The German state implemented its policy of criminalizing dissent. Referring to the actions of 13,000 police deployed against the demonstrators, www.antig8.tk reports: “Without any cause the cops attacked many of the Blocks in the demonstration. After this the situation escalated. During the defense of the demonstration many comrades got injured. After the escalation by the police special forces and when a police water tank did drive into the concert at the harbor, massive street riots did break out in the city center of Rostock.”
Monty Schaedel, a spokesperson for the Rostock Action Alliance, which organized Saturday’s demonstration, said the police “contributed to the escalation of violence” with their “unprofessional and clumsy” behavior. The police officers were “hitting blindly through the mass of people,” without any tangible, rational objective, he said.
“If police officers equipped with heavy combat suits, helmets, and rubber bats go into a crowd of 1,000 demonstrators, this can be only understood as a provocation,” Schaedel said. He noted that prior to the demonstration, police had given assurances that “de-escalation teams” would participate in the rally to prevent outbreaks of violence.
“During the demonstration, there were no signs of these ‘de-escalation’ police teams,” Schaedel said. “On the contrary, police acted as to feed the spiral of violence.” News agencies report 1,000 injured including 400 police and large numbers of protestors.
Elsewhere in Europe, demonstrators also gathered in Hamburg, Germany as well as London, Britain to denounce the G-8.
In spite of the attempts to destabilize and intimidate the movement, the counter-summit and other activities are going ahead as planned.
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Update on G-8 Summit
G-8 Summit Successfully Blockaded
“The blockades are working!” is the message from activists participating in actions against the 2007 G-8 Summit being held in Heiligendamm, Germany.
This success was achieved in spite of massive repression organized by the German state in the form of 16,000 police and 1,500 soldiers patrolling the summit site and surrounding areas. Police had barred streets and other entry points leading to Heiligendamm on Monday and German authorities had banned protests in the immediate vicinity of the resort. Nevertheless, demonstrators militantly carried on their actions to shut down the G-8. The outer perimeter was breached and some 1,000 demonstrators were able to reach the 12 km long 2.5 m high concrete and razor-wire fence surrounding the resort town, supposedly out of range of the protestors.
According to reports, the first day of the blockades on June 6 saw virtually all of the roads that lead to the Summit blocked by as many as 10,000 demonstrators. Throughout the day different groups set out to shut off access points to the G-8 venue. Many groups used a variety of tactics during the day, from sit-down road occupations to construction of barricades to breaking through police lines to reach their blockade locations. Despite police use of water cannons, mounted police and helicopters to ferry in reinforcements, many more than expected made it through the no-protest zone to establish blockades right at the G-8 security fences. The full picture of the successes scored by the protestors on day one, despite the massive criminalization of dissent is still emerging.
A report of the actions on June 7 provides an update:
“Northeast Gate: Peaceful — more than 1000 people at the blockade. This gate is plan C of the delegations. Entering through it is in itself a defeat.
“East Gate: Total victory at the blockade. The police can not make a step forward without asking permission of the protesters. So far there is no report of confrontations.
“West Gate: Big confrontations. Massive police presence. Police are on the street, but the protesters are fighting in the field. Some 2000 people from [Camp] Reddelich went to support the hundreds [from Camp Wichmannsdorf]. The fighting itself is preventing the entrance of the delegations. The protesters are trying to regain the street.”
As of June 4 the Legal Team’s interim report stated that approximately 322 people had been detained; at least 10, mostly youth, were awaiting trial; unlawful prolonged detention was taking place; grave violations of rights are reported to have been committed by the police, including against lawyers; Kavala, the G-8 special police department, and operational commanders wrangled over who has authority: the operational commander criticized police tactics during the demonstrations.
June 6
Organizers said there were more than 10,000 people on the blockades. Some 5,000 settled down directly in front of the police-controlled Gate II of the fence in Bad Doberan. Six helicopters dispatched 100 police in front of the blockade and two water cannons were standing by. Banners read: “Sink the G8 Summit!”
The blockade from Admannshagen successfully circumvented the police lines, and more than 500 people made their way to the ‘Küstenstrasse.’ At Gate II, demonstrators started to dismantle the razor wire. Activists camped out overnight to hold the blockade at Gate II near Bad Doberan.
June 5, Rostock
June 5 was an Action Day Against Militarism and War. An anti-militarism demonstration in Warnemünde started with some 500 participants, but police were able to restrict the demo to one lane of the road. At the train station, police searched people as they arrived and took their personal details.
About 300-400 hundred people gathered at the headquarters of Caterpillar which manufactures bulldozers used by the Israeli Occupation Forces to demolish Palestinian houses and lands. A short rally with some speeches was held. Following this, 1500-2000 people participated in a demonstration against arms manufacturer European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) near Rostock where police numbers increased significantly. The mood was militant. There were many speeches and police were kept at a distance from the rally. In the early evening George W. Bush was expected to arrive at the Rostock-Laage Airport where several protests were organized to “greet” him.
June 4
The theme of June 4 actions was Freedom of Movement and Equal Rights for All. In the morning several decentralized actions took place in Rostock, which included one at the city’s Immigration Office and another at the Sonnenblumenhaus in Lichtenhagen where Nazi attacks against refugees took place in 1992. These were followed by a demonstration in the city center and a conference in the evening. Police are reported to have acted aggressively throughout the actions. They charged into the protest at Sonnenblumenhaus in a snatch operation and also carried out random stop and search operations at train stations, stopping groups of people and buses on their way to the demonstrations.
June 3
On Sunday, June 3, around 5,000 people took part in a demonstration as part of the Agriculture Day of Action in the city of Rostock under the theme of “Resistance is Fruitful” to denounce the G-8’s agricultural policies. Farmers, peasants, small producers, landless people and agricultural workers from countries around the world, including Canada, Nicaragua, Brazil and Nepal participated, represented by Via Campesina, among other groups.
The colorful, peaceful protest of roughly five hundred demonstrators gathered near the Departments of Agriculture and Environment at the University of Rostock and marched towards downtown. The faculty of these departments took part in the march, riding into town in a covered wagon towed by a trailer. Enormous puppets in the shapes of carrots and other vegetables marched alongside farmers.
Criticizing the G-8’s hollow rhetoric of fighting hunger and poverty, the march underscored how the wealthiest industrial nations systemically pursue neo-liberal policies such as privatization of land and water that are to the detriment of land, workers and farmers.
The demonstration included groups that occupy land, oppose genetically modified foods and gather seeds to preserve traditional crops. Protestors stopped along the way at LIDL, the German discount store, calling attention to how cheap prices are delivered by exploiting farmers who are paid less than the costs of production for their milk and by exploiting workers by also underpaying them. Additional stops at McDonald’s and Burger King highlighted concerns about modern mass production of food. After the march, bike rides were planned to Gross Luesewitz to protest the agricultural-genetic technology there.
Despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration, there were reports that police tried to provoke the protestors. Earlier in the day a group of people staged a sit down solidarity protest outside the detention center on Industrie Street where most of those arrested are being kept, and another took place later in front of the court on Werder Street.
Life at the Camps
For the past week protesters have been gathering at various camps in the areas surrounding Rostock and Heiligendamm. Three camps, one in Rostock, one in Reddelich and another in Wichmannsdorf are hosting 3-5,000 protesters each. Each camp is self-organized with campers taking on the collective responsibility for food, cleaning, security and other daily tasks. Each night in large nightly meetings held in huge circus tents campers gather to report on the day and to gather volunteers for the many tasks. This is also where decisions are made about important questions regarding safety and security. Each camp is divided into barrios. The barrios are self-organized by groups, countries, regions, and political background. Some barrios are simply made up of individuals.
On the evening of June 6 independent media reported a heavy police presence around the Rostock camp. Legal teams were negotiating. Police wanted to search the camp but did not provide a search warrant — only a request. According to independent media reports, there did not appear to be any legal basis for a search of the camp reports said. About 100 police cars and two water cannons were standing outside the camp, along with some 500 police.
Ban on Demonstrations Found Unconstitutional But Maintained Nonetheless
On June 6 the German federal constitutional court banned the star march scheduled for June 7 (a star march is a march beginning at multiple points converging on one location). The ban included the three substitute events outside both banned areas. The reasons given for the ban were the events since the demonstration on June 2 in Rostock and the “defamatory depiction of the police,” said a news release from the Star March Coalition. However, paradoxically, the court declared the general ban and the decision of the Higher Administrative Court of Griefswald to be unconstitutional.
The Kavala special G-8 police agency argued in their reasons for the ban that delegates could “feel unsettled” by the “emotional proximity” of protests. Good relations to other states would be endangered as a result. A further argument made by the police was a “police state of emergency.” With 16,000 officers the police claimed to not have enough power to properly accompany the march. It was alleged that the Star March Coalition had a general intent to blockade.
Together with the organizers it was agreed that the political content of the anti-globalization movement would be made visible at the demonstration.
The court took a different view — neither “the mere threat to public order,” nor the “sensitivities of foreign politicians” could justify an assembly ban it said. The court described the police’s security concept as being explicitly “directed against the act of assembly” as from the start freedom to assemble had “no prospect of reasonable enactment.”
As a precaution in case of a complete ban the Star March Coalition had registered substitute protests outside the banned zones. Due to “security concerns” even these protests were banned. This meant that a virtual third banned area has been set up outside the fence and the so-called security zone.
“That is an unparalleled and scandalous act against the articulation of political opinion,” said the organizers who registered the protests. (In Germany all public assemblies must be registered in advance with the police.)
“The broad international protest against the G-8 clearly shows that a substantial part of the population reject the politics of the G-8,” stated Suzanne Spemberg of the Star March Coalition. “It is political motives that want to keep the protest invisible — or indeed to criminalize them. The police implement the decisions, and not unusually in the most brutal fashion,” continued Spemberg.
The Star March Coalition has decided not to register any further assemblies or demonstrations. “We don’t see ourselves anymore as having any responsibility for the outcome of actions and demonstrations. The democratic route has been closed to us,” Spemberg concluded. Along with the ongoing “Block G8” coalition blockades, many other far-reaching decentralized actions against the G8 have been announced.
Lawyers for the organizers Ulrike Donat and Carsten Gericke stated: “Even though we deeply regret the outcome as the chance to have a peaceful protest has been taken from the organizers, the decision is in form and content — due to the reasons given — a complete success for freedom of assembly and a slap in the face for the authoritarian agenda of the Kavala police agency and the Greifswald Higher Administrative Court.
“In any case reality has already outdated law — freedom of assembly will, as it always has in history, occur on the streets and will not be quelled by courts. The rigid security concept of the police agency ‘Kavala’ which culpably neglected cooperation with the organizers has completely failed.”
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Photos
People from Camp Reddelich reached the demonstration exclusion zone near the village of Brodhagen.
About 2,000 people in the fields near Admannshagen are attacked by police.
Actions directly in front of the police-controlled Gate II of the fence in Bad Doberan. Banner reads "Sink the G8 Summit!"
June 4 actions theme: Freedom of Movement and Equal Rights for All!
In related news, hundreds of people demonstrated against the visit of George W. Bush to Prague on his way to the G-8 summit, particularly against the plans to station U.S. missile systems in the Czech Republic. The U.S. plans to establish missile systems in Eastern Europe has been a source of conflict between the U.S. and Russia at the G-8 Summit.
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There Are Alternatives!
Support the International G-8 Alternative Summit
The politics of the G8 have triggered criticism and worldwide protest for a long time. During the 2007 summit in Germany this will be visible in its various forms. One important event will be the Alternative Summit to be held in Rostock, June 5-7. Anyone who is searching for alternatives to globalization in its current form is invited.
Even though the heads of state and governments of the G8 represent only 13 percent of the world’s population, they will nevertheless deal with questions concerning the world economy, development, environment, war and peace, as well as other issues which concern all of humankind. As usual however, priority will be given to satisfying national interests which are often narrow minded and short term.
This will not change in 2007. Revealingly, the German government has declared “investment security” to be the leitmotiv of the summit. The current form of globalization has produced and continues to produce many losers and very few winners.
One of those losers is social justice. Poverty and social polarization are increasing worldwide. While the number of people fighting starvation has risen from $840 million to $854 million over the last ten years, the tiny minority of millionaires and the super-rich were able to double their wealth from 16 trillion to 33 trillion dollars. Another group that benefits from this type of globalization are the so-called global players such as institutional investors and multinational corporations. Simultaneously, poverty and social insecurity are on the rise even in most developed countries.
Another loser is the environment. The current economic model and the corresponding way of life is leading to a catastrophic climate change, destroying bio-diversity, and plundering the planet’s natural resources. The very basis for human life on this planet is being destroyed. And the politics of the G8, focused on unlimited growth and unregulated market dynamics, severely intensify global environmental problems.
Peace and international security are on the losing side as well. More and more causes for conflict are accumulating incessantly. Nationalism, racism, fundamentalism, violence, terror, and war are once again being promoted. Instead of long-term conflict prevention strategies we are witnessing an increasing militarization of international politics. G8 states are either at war, or in some indirect way involved in armed conflicts. Among the losers of globalization, women are especially affected. Millions of people are forced into migration or sheer plight by miserable living-conditions. Alongside, the first world is increasing its fortification against migrants.
We cannot allow all this to continue! Globalization in the interest of the majority of the people works differently. We want a democratic globalization from below, globalization of justice and social security. We want fair relations and fair trade between developed and developing countries. We want an economy based on solidarity. The economy must serve the people, not the other way round! We demand a responsible and sustainable treatment of our environment. We stand for peaceful and political solutions of conflicts.
There are alternatives to the politics of the G8. We want to present and discuss them in public. Also, we want to exchange ideas, and collectively work on answers to the many remaining questions.
The Alternative Summit will be held from June 5 (5pm) through June 7 (1pm). Additionally, there will be various connected events that will focus on specific topics. Interested organizations, networks, and individuals may register for holding workshops during the Alternative Summit.
Contact: workshops@g8-alternative-summit.org,
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G-8 Camp Working Group
In the beginning of June 2007, the governments of the seven most important industrial countries and of Russia will meet for the “G-8 Summit” in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm.
The “Group of the 8” (G-8) is an institution without legitimacy. Nonetheless, as the self-named informal world government, it takes decisions that affect the whole of humanity. The policy of the G-8 stands for neoliberal globalization, privatization and deregulation. The world marked by the dominance of the G-8 is a world of wars, of hunger, of social division, of environmental destruction and of walls against migrants and refugees. Against that, we shall demonstrate in many ways, by rallies, blockades and an alternative summit, in a creative and diverse way and show up the alternatives. Together with millions of people in the whole world, we say: Another world is possible!
For this reason, starting at the end of May, tens of thousands of people will travel into the region around Rostock and Heiligendamm. We expect these people to be welcomed in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the same way as the G-8 delegates. Therefore, it is required to create the necessary infrastructure (water, electricity, sanitary installations) in order to offer us the possibility to participate in a well-rested state in the events and actions. We shall manage this, as is customary at meetings like that, by the organization of camping sites. We want these sites to be under the eyes of the powerful so as to confront them with our alternatives before the eyes of the entire world public. The place and the infrastructure of the camps are chosen in such a way as to carry out our protest under the eyes of the rulers and to make our positions clear beyond the immediate action of the protests.
The camp will be a protected space for children, migrants (women and men) and all those, who together with us will give a face to these days. Everyone (he or she) by their responsible action contributes to shaping this protected space and to guaranteeing the security of all participants.
We want to realize this together and in mutual respect. Because the alternative to war, hunger and environmental destruction does not emerge at exclusive and secluded summit meetings behind fences, but from below, out of the global movement of people and initiatives who are committed to another better world.
Rostock, March 31, 2007
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An Open Letter to the Press Rostock, G8 2007:
We Who Oppose the G8 Will Not Be Silent
We Will Not Be Stopped!
Here in Rostock, Germany, as major protests begin against the G8, the world press is not looking beyond the story of the battle — a partial story at best — and asking how or why it is happening.
Summit after summit, we have seen the same pattern in the media. The images of black clad protestors hurling rocks at police, the stories of senseless hooligans — those whom the government says should be punished and locked away.
These stories and images of street fighting do nothing but spread fear, criminalize protests, divide social movements, and distract the public from the story of the G8 and their unaccountable polices that are spreading militarism, poverty, violence, environmental destruction and climate change.
It is easy to condemn those who throw a rock or burn a car, but most of what we are seeing in Rostock is police blatantly provoking violence, using that same violence to justify ever more heavy-handed repression. Each day we are experiencing constant harassment, searches and humiliation imposed on us in the streets and on bikes, trains and borders, with no evidence of crime.
According to an official statement 13,000 police were present in Rostock on Saturday — all were well-armed and wearing lots of protective gear. There were small bands of police running into crowds, pushing, shoving and encircling protestors in a legally permitted rally. We saw nonviolent protestors who were trying to de-escalate the situation bludgeoned with batons and pepper sprayed. We saw huge water cannons infused with toxic chemicals spraying indiscriminately. Why is the press not reporting these acts of violence by the police? If violence makes such good headlines, why does the violence of poverty created by G8 policy go un-condemned?
Perhaps we might begin to understand if we look deeper. We may see that such violent confrontations have become a symptom of social and economic systems that value property over life, prisons over education, sprawl over sustainability, borders over migration, war over peace. We might see that it is in the interest of the police and the G8 to have such street fights, to justify the 90 million euros spent on security (in Germany alone). We might understand that repression and the violence of police are designed to thwart democracy and silence dissent.
We understand that things are terribly wrong and that without such protests our voices will not be heard at all. We who oppose the G8 will not be silent and we will not be stopped.
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