[Onthebarricades] Germany G8 Blockades 10 - immigration centre protest; Greenpeace protest; small and unusual protests

[Andy]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2633469.ece

Friday, June 08, 2007
By Tony Paterson
Protests at Germany's G8 summit took a spectacular turn yesterday as police 
launched a high-speed boat chase through the Baltic and rammed two 
Greenpeace inflatable speed boats which had breached a maritime security 
zone, pitching crew members overboard and injuring three.
Dramatic television footage of the chase shot from helicopters showed a 
small armada of Greenpeace inflatable boats driven by outboard motors 
speeding into a 10-kilometre wide security zone off the seaside resort of 
Heiligendamm hosting the summit, taking police patrol boats completely by 
surprise.
After some delay, five high-powered police vessels went in hot pursuit of 
the Greenpeace intruders in a chase worthy of a James Bond film. For at 
least 10 minutes, the police and Greenpeace played a game of seaborne cat 
and mouse, churning the deep green waters of the Baltic white with their 
spiralling boat wakes.
The chase was brought to an abrupt halt when the biggest and most powerful 
police vessel, a 30-foot long Swedish built "Combat boat" capable of 50 
knots - rammed and swamped one of the Greenpeace inflatables and pitched all 
four of the boat's oilskin-clad crew into the sea. Three of the crew were 
injured in the ramming and had to be taken to hospital.
In another encounter, the police boat swamped a second Greenpeace inflatable 
and stopped it. The activists unfurled a banner reading "G8-act now."
Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace Germany said the environmental protest group 
had wanted to deliver a petition to the G8 leaders by sea. "The G8 countries 
have caused most climate change and their leaders should face up to their 
responsibilities. The world is tired of empty words and demands action now," 
he said.
However Greenpeace later denounced the police decision to ram their craft as 
"totally irresponsible".
Greenpeace's success in breaching the summit's security zone marked another 
defeat for the 16,000 police drafted in from throughout Germany for the 
meeting of G8 leaders in the Baltic town of Heiligendamm. By the time world 
leaders had arrived at the summit on Wednesday, thousands of anti-G8 
protesters had breached the security zone on the land side and managed to 
block all roads leading to the venue.
Yesterday, police allowed anti-G8 protesters to get right up to the eight 
mile- long razor-wire fence surrounding the summit. But they used water 
cannon and baton charges to clear demonstrators staging sit- down blockades 
on roads leading to the town. Protesters flew banners condemning G8 leaders 
as "criminals" and daubed the words "Evil Empire" over a road sign bearing 
the name of Heiligendamm.
Police, who said they had made more than 160 arrests during clashes with 
demonstrators, admitted yesterday that they were exhausted and had decided 
to reduce security operations in areas that were non essential. "W0000 
people flocked to an anti-G8 concert entitled " Voice against Poverty" 
featuring U2 singer Bono and the German rock star Herbert Groenemeyer in the 
port city of Rostock in the afternoon. Singers and artists from eight of the 
world's poorest countries were invited to perform at the event.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_headline=appeal-to-big-heads--&method=full&objectid=19251510&siteid=66633-name_page.html

6 June 2007
APPEAL TO BIG HEADS
OXFAM wheeled out lying Pinocchios in a peaceful protest against the G8 
summit in Rostock, Germany, yesterday.
The effigies of world leaders included George Bush, left, German's Angela 
Merkel, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair. 
Yesterday, the leaders of the G8 industrialised nations were heading for the 
annual summit in nearby Heiligendamm.
They were bracing themselves for difficult talks aimed at combating climate 
change and for criticism from aid groups over pledges to relieve African 
poverty.

http://euronews.net/index.php?page=info&article=426439&lng=1

G8 protesters try sea invasions and music

Protesters are no nearer to crashing the G8 summit venue in Heiligendamm in 
spite of valiant efforts to stage a waterborne invasion. After a thrilling 
chase, German police rammed two inflatable tipping their anti-G8 crews into 
the Baltic and leaving three of them injured.

On land, police used water cannons and pepper spray to clear anti- 
globalisation activists from one of the roads leading to the seaside resort. 
In the nearby city of Rostock, approximately 70,000 people attended a 
protest concert staged by Bob Geldof and Bono. The rock stars have been 
lobbying world leaders at the summit to honour pledges of aid they made to 
Africa two years ago.

http://jurnalo.com/jurnalo/storyPage.do?story_id=40592

Greenhouse gas emissions
Balloon protest fails at G8, blockade ends
Friday 08 June 2007 11:58
Police helicopters forced a hot-air balloon to land Friday when it attempted 
to invade the aerial exclusion zone at the G8 summit on Germany's Baltic 
coast.
The environmentalist group Greenpeace mounted the flight, hanging a yellow 
banner underneath the blue-and-white balloon's gondola saying "G8 act now," 
overstamped with the word "failed. " The balloon took off from near the port 
city of Rostock.

Three police helicopters approached the balloon, creating strong air 
turbulence which forced the balloon and its two occupants to land, a 
Greenpeace spokeswoman said.

The air space around the summit venue at Heiligendamm was closed to all 
traffic Friday, with 18 key nation leaders at the resort.

G8 leaders agreed Thursday to consider plans to halve harmful greenhouse gas 
emissions by 2050, but set no fixed goals. Most environmental organizations 
have criticized the deal as insufficient.

http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=14450256&p=y445x3xz&n=14450344

Geldof and Bono in plea to G8 leaders

07/06/2007 - 8:14:45 PM

Proponents of debt relief for Africa were harsh in their assessment today of 
nearly two-year-old promises by the G8.

They remained hopeful however that leaders meeting in Germany would hold 
true to their pledge of providing money and help to reduce poverty on the 
continent.

Musician and social activist Bono told a crowd attending a protest concert 
in Rostock, near to the summit in Heiligendamm, that he had a "very tough 
meeting" with Chancellor Angela Merkel and was convinced, at one point, he 
might have to throw in the towel.

Fellow activist and music producer Bob Geldof said the U2 singer - with whom 
he has turned aid to Africa a global campaign - became depressed during 
their meeting with Ms Merkel.

Geldof said the German chancellor was talking about sending only €700m to 
Africa, instead of the €1.5bn they believe is needed.

But Geldof said he was hopeful that Ms Merkel, who on today announced an 
agreement among the G8 on climate change, could persuade leaders to act on 
Africa.

"It is still a long, long way off before the poor of this world will 
experience justice," Geldof said.

http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/333/8943/Rage-Against-The-Machine.html

Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello Escapes From G8 Protest By Boat

Rage Against The Machine rocker Tom Morello was forced to make his escape by 
boat after performing at last Saturday's Move Against G8 protest in Germany. 
Morello was playing at the Rostock event, attended by between 50,000 and 
60,000 people, under his solo guise as The Nightwatchman when riots broke 
out.

Morello says, "I headed into the crowd. Police began to attack the crowd 
with water hoses and tear gas. There were big fires. I saw members of the 
black bloc throwing bottles at police. After my set, I had to escape via 
small boat to the Baltic Sea. There were police boats blockading the 
entrance to the festival and we snuck out under cover of darkness."

http://jurnalo.com/jurnalo/storyPage.do?story_id=40663

Heiligendamm
Nudist protesters invade beach near G8 summit
Friday 08 June 2007 15:44
Protesters, some of them nude, invaded one of the secure zones at the G8 
summit in Germany on Friday, holding a mini-demonstration on a beach in 
front of the media centre.
The summit venue at Heiligendamm and the media centre further along the 
coast at Kuehlungsborn have been closed to the public. In the countryside 
nearby, protesters have been holding rallies and sit-down demonstrations 
since Wednesday, defying a legal ban.

On Friday, the protesters stood in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea, 
about 5 kilometres from the luxury hotel where 17 national leaders were 
winding up their talks at Heiligendamm.

Police let them chant for a while, then ushered the group out of the 
restricted zone.

Holidaymakers on the beach had earlier scraped a political "Stop G8" message 
in the sand of Kuehlungsborn Beach. dpa jbp ds

http://bushradionews.blogspot.com/2007/06/anti-g8-protests-focus-on-flight-and.html

Anti-G8 protests focus on flight and migration
SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE G8 SUMMIT IN GERMANY
By Brenda Leonard
05 June 2007

The Anti-G8 campaign is organised around theme days, and June 4 had marked 
the flight and migration day, focussing on refugees and their rights.

At the first demonstration sit-down yesterday morning at the Werf Strase 
foreigners office in Rostock, Germany, about two thousand people gathered to 
protest against the treatment of refugees. At this centre refugees and 
migrants are allegedly tortured and prosecuted on a daily basis. Decisions 
are also made here on which status people without EU citizenship will 
receive.

Hagen Kopff, organiser of the demonstration says, “What we have today the 
fourth of June is in the frame of anti-G8 protests. The day is about flight 
and migration, and our central demands are: global freedom of movement, 
equal rights for all and the slogan of our refugee friends of course. We are 
here because you destroy our countries. To speak about the background of 
flight migration and to say again the G8 are mainly responsible for the 
poverty, for the wars, for this free trade agreements which bring so much 
problems. For example, Africa, where people are forced to flight, so this is 
what we explain in our action day today.”

According to reports, some 400 protestors pelted police with bottles as they 
protested restrictions on refugees and asylum seekers in G8 countries. After 
a demonstration that took place over the weekend in Rostock, police have 
been continuing with strategies of provocation and obstruction. On the day 
following the mass demonstration, the police continued to patrol the 
situation in the state of Mecklenburg – Vorpommern. German Chancellor Angela 
Merkel has condemned the violence and warned that the authorities will not 
tolerate such action.

World leaders are meeting in Heiligendam, Germany for the 33rd G8 Summit.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sasha_simic/2007/06/marching_orders.html

Marching orders
The police tried to stop us showing our solidarity with immigrants and 
refugees at a demo in Rostock, Germany yesterday. They failed.
Sasha Simic
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June 5, 2007 6:30 PM | Printable version
Yesterday was the Flight and Migration Day of Action in Rostock. The 
organisers and the police expected 2,000 people to march in solidarity with 
immigrants and refugees in Rostock. In fact, 10,000 turned up. So did a 
considerable portion of the 16,000 police who have been mobilised to 
"protect" the G8. They turned up in heavy armour and with two water-cannon 
wielding armoured cars.
The police weren't happy that we were there and decided that the march would 
not go ahead.
The demonstration was scheduled to start at one o'clock. We were kept 
waiting for over an hour. Speakers spoke from the back of vans and kept us 
up to date with what was happening. One spokesman told the crowd, first in 
German and then in heavily accented English that: "The police have decided 
not to let us pass. We demand that the police piss off."
An African activist for refugee rights climbed onto a van to tell the crowd:
"We are marching today for equal rights for all human beings. We will have 
to shout that message very loud today because the police cannot hear us. The 
only thing they hear is the order to shoot or to torture or to beat ... "
After two hours of waiting our negotiators came back with a demand from the 
police. They would "allow" the march, which was to go through Rostock and on 
to the docks, but the demonstrators were to carry no sticks, no bottles, 
wear no masks or balaclavas and were to carry ... no axes. I wondered why 
they were so specific about axes. Would carrying a chainsaw be acceptable?
They drove the water cannons away. We began to march but stopped after five 
minutes. Another message came back. The police would march alongside the 
demo and would not tolerate scarves, sunglasses or hoodies being worn.
Our spokesman responded that this was a provocation and "unacceptable 
bullshit". He was right. The police, after all, were dressed in protective 
black armour, wearing balaclavas under their black Darth Vader-style helmets 
and they all had very big sticks. And though they didn't have axes, they 
were all carrying pistols.
Who would blink first?
We started to march again. The demonstrators - mostly very young activists 
from a variety of different traditions - were jubilant. We had won. We were 
marching in solidarity with people - refugees, asylum-seekers and 
immigrants - who the G8 have attacked without mercy. They have been the 
victims and scapegoats of the great neo-liberal crusade.
The march stopped again. The police helicopter hovering above us had, 
apparently, spotted a few masked youths in the crowd. We laughed. Earlier 
the police presence had scared us. Now they were absurd. We marched on.
The march ended at the end of the afternoon. The police asked the march to 
disperse as it approached the town centre. They hadn't expected so many to 
turn up. They didn't believe so many would make common cause with refugees 
and asylum-seekers. They were wrong. We knew - if they didn't - that "Kein 
mensch ist illegal".

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=11899

Marching for migrants rights in Rostock


The migrant demonstration (Pic: » Guy Smallman)


Heavy policing around the march (Pic: » Guy Smallman)

Monday was flight and migration day of action at the G8 protests. 
Demonstrator Sasha Simic spoke to Socialist Worker about the events.
“Participants took part in a range of actions,” he explained.
“In the morning a demonstration tried to visit the memorial to the victims 
of the racist attack on an immigrant hostel in 1992, but it was disrupted by 
the police.”
The main focus was a march for migrant rights. Organisers had expected 
2,000, but closer to 10,000 showed up.
Marchers were young and committed, with a large contingent from the new Die 
Linke party.
“It was cold and damp and we were confronted by an massive police presence.”
“The police were in full ‘robocop’ riot gear and had two water cannon 
lorries.
“I couldn’t believe how threatening the police have been. On Saturday's 
march I saw policemen beating up a guy in a wheelchair.
“We had four or five flatbed trucks spread through the crowd with sound 
systems and people standing on them relayed the police’s stranger and 
stranger announcements.
Masks
“First they said we couldn’t march as some people were wearing masks. They 
demanded that the crowd disperse.
“When that didn’t happen they agreed that it could proceed as long as there 
were, ‘no sticks, no bottles, no masks, no axes’. No axes!
“We marched for about 10 minutes, then the police announced that they couldn’t 
see everyone clearly from their helicopters and the march had to stop.
“Again we refused to disperse.
“After negotiations it was agreed we could continue if there were no 
scarves, no sunglasses and no hoodies.
“Finally they stopped the march for being too big!
“But, by now there was something of a carnival atmosphere, with rave music 
and the international clown army raising spirits.
“Demonstrators chanted, ‘No borders, no nations! Stop the deportations!’
“We finished with local black activists and other anti-racist speakers gave 
speeches form the back of the lorries in an impromptu rally.”

http://de.indymedia.org/2007/06/180996.shtml

Protest at Immigration Detention Center
no more borders houston! 04.06.2007 15:00 Themen: Antirassismus G8 
Heiligendamm
Immigrant rights activists have locked themselves to the entrance gates of 
the Houston Processing Center, an immigration detention facility in North 
Texas.
Immigrant rights activists have locked themselves to the entrance gates of 
the Houston Processing Center, an immigration detention facility in North 
Texas.
a statement from the activists:

This week the leaders of the richest and most powerful 8 countries in the 
world are meeting in Germany for the Group of 8 (G8) conference. During the 
G8 gathering these leaders will continue to strategize and promote the 
economic and political policy of neoliberal "globalization". These 8 
nations, which compose 65% of the global economy have pushed for an economic 
system which impacts the whole world, making the rich richer, and 
impoverishing millions..Today, June 4th, the Dissent! Network in Europe has 
called for a Global Day of Action for freedom of movement and equal rights 
for all! We here in Houston, Texas, USA have heard this call to action and 
share the same concerns as our brothers and sisters in Europe and all over 
the world who are taking action today in solidarity with migrants and 
refugees of the global economy. [read the full communique]

How to help: a legal support fund has been established and we need your help 
for bail and other legal fees: You can donate online via Paypal ( 
https://www.paypal.com - click 'send money') to the 
seditioncollective at yahoo.com email account c/o Sin Fronteras Legal Aid. You 
can mail well concealed cash, checks or money orders with a blank recipient 
info to: Houston Sin Fronteras Legal Aid c/o Houston ABC PO Box 667614 
Houston, TX, 77266-7614


MORE INFORMATION houston.indymedia.org

http://de.indymedia.org/2007/06/181293.shtml

Migration demo: police officer in charge is disempowered by Kavala
RAV - translation 04.06.2007 23:14 Themen: G8 Heiligendamm Repression
Several lawyers of he legal team participated in the “demonstration for the 
freedom of global movement and equal rights in Rostock", which course was 
blocked massively by the MAO Kavala. Police with eight water canons and 
evacuation van surrounded the demo participants for several hours and 
delayed the beginning oft the march for more or less two hours. They stopped 
it from time to time because the demonstration laws were reportedly not 
observed. During the demonstration the press office of Kavala claimed, it 
was stopped because 2.500 disguised, violent participants were present. 
There the police officer in charge said however that there was no criminal 
offense and there was no disguised participant at all.
When the demo arrived Parkstrasse at around 17:15 the officer in charge 
announced, that the approved demo route was illegal due to an order oft the 
demo authority. The reason for that was that the demo was registered only 
for 2.000 participants, but 10.000 were present. The legal team pointed out 
that this is not a legal argument for an actual prohibition of the demo at 
all and that the demo authority thought of 5.000 participants when it gave 
its approval. The runaround route would lead through deserted streets in the 
industrial area anyway and not to the inner city. Therefore the demo 
organization offered to walk a runaround route, which would have led through 
broad avenues in the inner city. The official argument of the demo authority 
of the seemingly too many participants was therefore out-dated.

Despite the remonstration of the officer in charge, Kavala insisted on the 
factual prohibition of the demonstration without giving a real reason.

The legal team was not able to achieve anything although it tried several 
tactics. This confirms the impression that the legal team/lawyers emergency 
department has for a couple of days: Kavala does on the one hand search for 
escalation and on the other hand it disempowers the officers in charge.

For further information contact the press office of the legal teams/lawyers 
emergency department via this numbers: 01577-4704760, 0163-6195151, 
0179-4608473.