[Onthebarricades] Germany G8 Blockades 11 - reports on protest camps, preparations

[Andy]

G8 CAMPS AND PREPARATION

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,2095866,00.html

Alternative G8 gears up for debate and protest


Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Tuesday June 5, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Riot police push back anti-G8 protesters during a demonstration yesterday in 
Rostock. Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/AFP/Getty Images.

The Group of Eight summit for leaders of the world's richest industrialised 
nations has become synonymous with what Tony Blair once dubbed an 
"anarchists' travelling circus" of anti-globalisation protesters.
Environmentalists, anarchists and NGOs (non-governmental organisations and 
charities) seize on the event as an opportunity to lobby for changes in the 
developed world's priorities.
Since the death of a protester at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001, the 
leaders and their teams of negotiators and diplomats are herded behind miles 
of perimeter fencing, protected by squadrons of police and even - it is 
thought - anti-aircraft missiles.
Germany's bill for hosting this year's summit alone at Heiligendamm, in the 
former East Germany, is estimated at around £68m, and this Saturday's 
opening demo in the nearby port city of Rostock saw stones thrown, a 
tear-gas response from German riot police and several hundred injuries.
That sparked a call by the British Wombles - white-clad anarchists with the 
slogan "move fast, strike harder" - for protesters outside the German 
embassy in London today to condemn the "heavy police brutality".
But organisers fear that the German Black Block of anarchists, predominantly 
from the Kreuzberg area of old West Berlin, are intent on direct action.
At Gleneagles in 2005, protesters tried to prevent the "second tier" of 
support staff, especially translators, from reaching the conference venue, 
but security was so tight they failed to do so.
Alongside the enclosed "green zone" of heads of state, politicians, 
"sherpas" (negotiators who agree outline positions in advance of the summit) 
and translators, there is an autonomous alternative event of workshops, 
seminars, concerts and street demos.
>From Britain, the largest organised contingent of demonstrators is likely to 
be from Globalise Resistance, an umbrella group of activists from the 
anti-war, climate change and anti-globalisation movements, who are promising 
to "spoil Tony Blair's farewell gig".
However, the group has been dubbed by others as "Monopolise Resistance" for 
being dominated by contingents from the Socialist Workers party.
>From France, the biggest protest group is Attac, which formed in the 1990s 
out of a campaign for a so-called Tobin Tax on international financial 
transactions.
With Heiligendamm out of bounds for anyone without a VIP pass, the G8 
"alternative summit" is being held in Rostock from today until Thursday.
The opening panel of the alternative G8 is "Rethinking globalisation" (5pm, 
Nikolaikirche, Rostock), with guest speaker Jean Ziegler, the UN special 
rapporteur on the right to food, alongside Thuli Makama of Friends of the 
Earth Swaziland and immigration campaigner Madjiguene Cissé from Senegal.
On Wednesday, as well as workshops and film screenings, a blockade and 
protest at Rostock airport are expected, as well as attempts to blockade the 
various entry points to the seven-mile long perimeter fence around 
Heilingendamm.
Also on Wednesday, British Marxist professor Alex Callenicos, professor of 
European Studies at King's College London, lecturers on "The movement for 
global justice - balance and perspectives" on a panel that also includes 
Susan George of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute.
Topical fringe meetings such as "The national missile defence and eastern 
and middle Europe" will probably find an echo at the real G8, judging by the 
frosty response by Russian president Vladimir Putin to US plans for missile 
basis in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Another seminar of interest to Economist readers as much as anarchists would 
be "Hedge funds: triggering the next financial crisis?"
It is also worth noting that, in accordance with its ideals, the alternative 
G8 will offer free round-the-clock crèches and fair-trade organic catering 
for "delegates".
"Alternative Nobel prize" winner and ecologist feminist Vandana Shiva will 
give the closing speech at the Nikolaikirche on Thursday.
The Indian economist won the "Right Livelihood" prize, known as the 
alternative Nobel, in 1993, for her work on biodiversity.
Thursday will see a final attempt to blockade the perimeter fence before a 
concert from

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,486748,00.html

June 05, 2007

Font:

PLANNING PROTESTS IN A DISUSED SCHOOL
Clowns Rub Shoulders with Anarchists in Anti-G-8 Headquarters
By Ulrike Demmer, Gunther Latsch and Marcel Rosenbach
While the world's leaders will be staying at a swanky Heiligendamm hotel 
during the G-8 summit, anti-globalization protesters are using a rundown 
former school in Rostock as their headquarters. But while they agree that 
"Another World Is Possible," their opinions differ on just about everything 
else.

www.gordonweltes.com
The anti-G-8 press office. The groups are headquartered in a disused school 
in Rostock.
If the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm is famous in Germany for being the 
"white city by the sea," then the Rostock district of Evershagen, located 
just 20 kilometers away, is its gray counterpart. Despite some recent 
colorful renovation work, the neighborhood consists mainly of drab concrete 
Communist-era apartment blocks.
A decrepit school building from the old East German days stands right in the 
heart of this concrete sprawl, directly on the four-lane 
Bertolt-Brecht-Strasse. Numerous banners hang from the facade, the walls are 
spray-painted with slogans like "Resistance Rocks" and "Nazis Suck," and the 
red-and-black flag of anarchy flies on the roof. In the fenced-in 
schoolyard, a group of longhaired young people are trying to piece together 
some kind of means of transportation from a huge pile of scrap bicycle 
parts.
Locals still refer to the building, which is situated next to a shopping 
mall, as the Ehm Welk School. In actual fact, the structure should have been 
demolished a long time ago -- a company had already been hired to tear it 
down.
FROM THE MAGAZINE

Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication.
But the G-8 summit in nearby Heiligendamm gave the crumbling old school a 
brief reprieve from the wrecking ball. Now the building has become the 
command center for the resistance. Since March, a mixed bag of G-8 opponents 
have been preparing their headquarters for the protest against global 
capitalism -- collecting discarded furniture and other reusable refuse in 
Saturday "subbotniks," as volunteer labor brigades were called back in East 
Germany.
The old school building serves a number of functions. It's an organizational 
office, a communal kitchen, a party zone and massive crash pad all rolled 
into one. But first and foremost it's an alternative media center. During 
the summit, there are plans to transform it into a studio, with live 
Internet TV broadcasts every night at 9:00 pm.
The school in Evershagen can be seen as a microcosm of the 
anti-globalization movement. If the building had a doorbell with a 
nameplate, there would have to be room for hundreds of first names and 
dozens of cryptic abbreviations.
Groups range from the "Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army," with its 
colorful rubber noses, to relatively established anti-globalization 
movements like Attac, to radical far-left anarchists. In the building's 55 
rooms, a myriad of different strategies for forms of action are debated. 
With so many divergent approaches under one roof, organizers have decided to 
call the school the "Convergence Center" -- a place to meet and find common 
ground.
 German "rock legend" Herbert Grönemeyer rounds things off.



http://www.newstatesman.com/200706040058

Day one: on the way to the G8
Tamsyn East
Published 04 June 2007
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In the first instalment in a series of articles on the G8 summit in Germany, 
Tamsyn from the World Development Movement describes why she thinks the G8 
is illegitimate.
As the G8 leaders jet into Germany to begin another barbed summit surrounded 
by thousands of feet of protective fencing (apparently costing 13 million 
euros!) and tens of thousands of angry protesters, Leila and I are 
frantically triple checking that our reports, leaflets and cameras are at 
the ready in time for our 7 o'clock eurostar.
Today is day three of a week of protest and debate in Rostock, the nearest 
accessible town to the summit, and we are on our way to make the World 
Development Movement's presence felt.
The news coverage I have seen in the UK has been slim so far but it seems to 
have been dominated by the activities of some violent activists and Blair 
and Merkel statements that the summit will be critical for Africa and 
climate change.
On the former I have heard from activists on the ground who are saying that 
the demonstrations have so far been peaceful with a diverse group of people 
taking part, including many children. The violence so far has been 
undertaken by a small minority.
On the G8 summit itself, I don't believe it will deliver for the 1.1 billion 
living in extreme poverty. The language of a recently leaked draft 
communiqué is pro-business and anti-development. It's pushing for investment 
deregulation, strengthening of intellectual property rights and the opening 
of markets. These sort of measures are more likely to lock millions into 
poverty.
Bush's recent proposal on climate change to set up long term voluntary goals 
for countries to reduce global green house emissions is nothing but an 
attempt to distract from the existing UN negotiating process. The US also 
opposes any mention of the need to stop average global temperatures from 
increasing beyond 2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
This kind of horse-trading over the G8 'text' is par for the course. And at 
the World Development Movement we have learned not to expect much from the 
G8 . The G8 is not accountable to anyone, it is a self selecting group and 
rarely delivers on the promises it makes. You only need to look at 
Gleneagles - the year of Make Poverty History -where expectations on debt, 
aid and trade were high. The promises made were disappointing - promises 
that in many cases have not been fulfilled .
With climate change dominating the agenda it would seem strangely perverse 
to fly to the event, though many decision makers inevitably will. In the UK, 
international aviation is the fastest growing source of emissions, yet even 
though these are increasing, and have a 2-4 times greater warming effect 
because they are emitted directly in the atmosphere, the government is 
refusing to include them in their own emission reduction targets.
We will be attending the alternative G8 summit in Germany- taking part in a 
number of workshops, demonstrations, protests and cultural activities, as 
part of the anti-corporate globalisation movement, we will speak out about 
the illegitimacy of the G8.
Tonight we will be catching the overnight train to Rostock from London, 
joining other activists who are making their way by land to the summit. On 
arriving in Rostock we will be setting up camp with other activists, before 
what I expect will be a busy few days.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=153416&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21

'Happy campers' ready for G8 showdown
Published: Wednesday, 6 June, 2007, 01:57 AM Doha Time


Activists from anti-globalisation organisation Oxfam dressed as (from left) 
US President George W Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime 
Minister Stephen Harper, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Japanese Prime 
Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President 
Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pinocchio costumes 
pose at Rostock's harbour yesterday
REDDELICH: Spirits were high, the food was good, and the mood among 4,500 
happy campers was determined yesterday in the largest of three makeshift 
villages for protesters on the eve of the G8 summit.
Undeterred by chilly weather, drizzle and 16,000 German riot police, an 
eclectic array of anti-G8 protesters from around the world were preparing 
their blockade strategies for the Group of Eight, eager to throw a spanner 
in the works where possible.
"The people are enjoying themselves and it's a very sociable atmosphere, but 
we all know we're not here just to have fun and there's a steely 
determination to disrupt the G8 meeting where we can," said Kevin J Smith, 
34, a demonstrator from London.
"We've had a fantastic culture programme here in Germany but everyone's up 
early today, attending the workshops and preparing to block the roads and 
shut down the G8," he added.
Set up in a meadow near Reddelich, 8km south of Heiligendamm, the camp of 
tents and converted vans has a surprising range of amenities: solar-powered 
showers, kitchens, a bar, a concert stage, toilets and even Internet 
service.
But today, when the three-day G8 summit begins, an alcohol ban will grip the 
camp, and the relaxed 'Woodstock' atmosphere will give way to the serious 
business of protest.
"We're here for a reason - to make a visible disruption of the events and 
show that there is a resistance to the G8," said Joanna Smith, 28, a 
sociology student from Birmingham, England.
Yesterday, Pascal Hovahl, a Berlin carpenter, was playing with his 
3-year-old daughter Phyllis at a makeshift playground in the camp at 
Reddelich, whose normal population is just 883. "She's having a great time," 
said Hovahl, 32, who left Saturday's rally in nearby Rostock just before 
violence flared.
"The atmosphere is great. We're all peaceful. It's the police that are 
causing all the stress," he added, just as a German Air Force fighter jet 
made a low pass above the camp.
The camp has a "concierge" to welcome arrivals at an entrance that is 
staffed 24 hours a day.
 The concierge provides information about such things as the special 
"demonstrators' rail ticket" (15 euros for the G8 week) and collects a five 
euro per day "donation" to live in the camp, which is divided up into a 
dozen areas or "barrios".
"It's a huge social event," said American Michal Osterweil, 28, a Ph.D. 
student at the University of North Carolina. "It's an amazing environment. 
It's why we come to the camps instead of staying in a hotel somewhere."
There were, however, almost no power outlets in the camp and about 100 cell 
phones were plugged into a few overloaded sockets for recharging at the 
concierge's tent.
The fighting that marred the Rostock rally is hotly debated.
Leaders of various anti-G8 groups have condemned the violence, but many 
campers accused the police of provocation and said violence was to be 
expected.
"There's a lot of discussion about the violence," said Kim Bryan, 30, from 
Brighton, England. "Some are adamantly opposed to it but others feel it was 
justified."
Osterweil isn't "a frontliner" but expects more trouble.
"Many people are glad the violence happened," she said. "The state 
repression was just too much for some. Our purpose is to block the G8. What 
are a few rocks compared to all the dying around the world caused by the G8 
policies?"
Many said they would do whatever they could to disrupt the G8 meeting. World 
leaders may avoid the demonstrations by flying into Heiligendamm by 
helicopter from Rostock airport, but their delegations may have trouble 
getting there.
"We'll disrupt as much as we can," said Sonja Brunzels, 43, from southern 
Germany. - Reuters


http://www.politics.co.uk/issueoftheday/economy/world-economy/world-economy/block-g8-we-will-cut-off-summit-from-its-infrastructure-$474492$474469.htm

Block G8: We will cut off summit from its infrastructure
Wednesday, 06 Jun 2007 12:25
The Block G8 campaign group have vowed to disrupt the summit today by 
blockading the roads used to transport food and media to the centre.

The summit is surrounded by a seven-mile fence but thousands of activists 
have gathered to surround the venue. Police are using water cannons to 
disperse the protestors.

There was widespread violence and disruption last Saturday when far-left 
groups and police clashed in the German city of Rostock. Both sides blamed 
the other for starting the violence, and there were several injuries on both 
sides.

Block G8, one of the groups organising the protest, said: "We will not only 
demonstrate; we will actively block the G8 and the access roads to the 
conference centre over which the staff of diplomats, translators and service 
providers need to pass in order to get to Heiligendamm.

"We will not leave these access roads voluntarily, because our action is not 
intended to remain symbolic. We want to actually and effectively block the 
G8 Summit and cut it off from its infrastructure: We've come, and we're here 
to stay," it said.

The group claims it is constituted of activists from "the environmental and 
anti-nuclear movement; the globalisation-critical networks and the radical 
left; from non-violent action and autonomous antifascist groups; from the 
youth-wing of political parties and trade unions, as well as church groups".

The protests mark the return of anti-capitalist movement to the media 
spotlight. Demonstrations organised around G8, WTO, IMF and EU summits were 
common towards the end of the last decade but took a back seat to anti-war 
protests following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6720291.stm

Q&A: Who are the G8 protesters?
Thousands of demonstrators have converged on Rostock in northern Germany, 
ahead of the G8 summit in nearby Heiligendamm. The BBC News website's 
Jacqueline Head examines the different groups protesting.
Who are the groups?

An estimated 30,000 people held protests at the weekend
There are a broad range of groups rallying, from environmental and 
anti-poverty campaigners to anti-globalisation and multi-faith groups, with 
one overarching common interest: social justice.
Organisations include the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), 
Greenpeace, Oxfam, Christian Aid, trade unions, Friends of the Earth, Block 
G8, Attac and "Black Bloc" demonstrators.
They are divided into two main thought camps.
One recognises the G8 as a legitimate way to bring about change, and uses 
the summit to lobby for causes they believe should be addressed or acted 
upon by the leaders.
The other is rallying against the notion of G8. They believe that having 
leaders from eight different nations making decisions on global issues is 
not democratic, and that those nations are responsible for many of the 
world's current problems.
What kind of people are marching?
There are a wide range of ages and nationalities attending rallies around 
the G8 summit.

Various ages and nationalities are represented in Rostock
They are reported to include boy scouts and over-50s groups.
Some movements, such as those under the Block G8 umbrella - a movement 
aiming to block the entrance to Heiligendamm - are made up primarily of 
young Germans, organisers say.
Others, such as GCAP or Greenpeace, have supporters in Germany from all over 
the world, including France, the UK, China, Japan, the Philippines and 
Africa, along with a wide range of ages.
What are the main issues for the protesters?
The most prominent issues centre on this year's G8 agenda - above all, 
poverty and climate change.
Many groups are calling for cancellation of developing nations' debt, trade 
justice, better healthcare, education, water and sanitation across the globe 
and action to tackle climate change.
Others are using the summit as a platform to draw attention to other issues, 
such as war and torture, GM crops, militarisation and "discriminatory" 
immigration policies.
GCAP are calling for the leaders to fulfil the promises they made at 
Gleneagles in 2005, saying that the G8 nations are falling short of the 
targets they originally set themselves.
Ciara O'Sullivan, GCAP spokesperson, said they plan to present UK Prime 
Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a petition of 
one million voices calling on them to fulfil their promises.
Tricia O'Rourke, spokesperson for Oxfam, said: "We are reminding them that 
they have to deliver."
"In 2005 in Gleneagles they promised they would increase aid to $50bn 
(£25bn) by 2010, but we recently calculated following current trends they 
will be short by $30bn."
Greenpeace have an action list they want the leaders to fulfil, which 
includes reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 30% by 2020 and 80-90% 
by 2050.
The EU has pledged to slash CO2 emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by the 
year 2020, and UK ministers have outlined proposals to cut emissions by 60% 
by 2050.
Greenpeace campaigner Agnes de Rooij said there was no point in the G8 
allocating aid to countries if they could not deliver on climate change.
"You can give aid to developing countries, but if you don't solve the 
climate problem it won't make any difference. They need to solve the climate 
problem or the aid won't be effective."
How are people protesting?
The majority of demonstrators are holding peaceful marches. Some have chosen 
to block roads with their bodies in an effort to stop traffic from entering 
Heiligendamm.
Others have drawn up action points they hope leaders will take note of, or 
petitions from different countries.
The majority are adamant that their protests are peaceful.
The Black Bloc, who include anarchists, wear black clothing and masks.
Campaigners on the ground say only a very small minority are involved in 
violence.
Why are people protesting against G8 itself?
Some people believe that the G8 is not a democratic method of making 
decisions that could affect the rest of the world, or that the countries 
involved are not effective in bringing about the right kind of change.
They want a more "democratic" approach - stemming from grassroots activism, 
rather than from the most powerful leaders in the world.
Block G8 is an umbrella of 125 groups organising a massive blockade against 
the summit.
Christoph Kleine, a spokesperson for the collective, said their protest is a 
"clear sign of our rejection of the G8 and our belief that the G8 is 
completely illegitimate.
"These are the governments of eight countries who think they can rule the 
world because they are the richest and most powerful. This is not 
democratic.
"We can see the result of domination by these countries - war, social 
injustice. They stand for the danger of climate change. They are the 
countries who are responsible for most of the emissions."
But other groups take a contrasting view and use the G8 summit to push their 
own agenda.
Tricia O'Rourke, from Oxfam, said: "The G8 have it within their power to end 
poverty. They can deliver on climate change. These are the people who can 
make a difference."


http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,132403,00.html

Makeshift German village for anti-G8 protesters
Camp has bar, solar-power showers, Internet
June 07, 2007




SPIRITS were high, the food was good, and the mood among 4,500 happy campers 
was determined yesterday in the largest of three makeshift villages for 
protesters on the eve of the G8 summit.

(Top) The camp has basic facilities like a bar and a place to wash 
dishes. -- Pictures: AP
Undeterred by chilly weather, drizzle and 16,000 German riot police, an 
eclectic array of anti-G8 protesters from around the world were preparing 
their blockade strategies for the Group of Eight, eager to throw a spanner 
in the works where possible.
Issues like global warming, Aids, poverty in Africa, and the world economy 
are expected to be discussed at the summit which starts today and ends on 
Friday.
But some protestors feel that despite its positive agenda, the G8 is a means 
by which powerful nations impose their will on poorer ones.
Mr Kevin Smith, 34, a demonstrator from London, told Reuters: 'The people 
are enjoying themselves and it's a very sociable atmosphere, but we all know 
we're not here just to have fun and there's a steely determination to 
disrupt the G8 meeting where we can.'
SOLAR-POWERED SHOWERS
Set up in a meadow near Reddelich, 8km south of Heiligendamm, the camp of 
tents and converted vans has a surprising range of amenities: Solar-powered 
showers, a bar, a concert stage, toilets and even Internet service.
When the three-day G8 summit begins today, an alcohol ban will grip the 
camp, and the relaxed 'Woodstock' atmosphere will give way to the serious 
business of protest.
'We're here for a reason - to make a visible disruption of the events and 
show that there is a resistance to the G8,' said Ms Joanna Smith, 28, a 
sociology student from the UK.

(Top) An anti-G8 protesters camp in Reddelich, Germany.
The camp has a 'concierge' to welcome arrivals and provide information about 
such things as the special 'demonstrators' rail ticket', which costs 15euros 
($31) for the G8 week, and collects a five euro per day 'donation' to live 
in the camp, which is divided up into a dozen areas or 'barrios'.
Each camp is self organised with campers taking on the collective 
responsibility for food, cleaning, security and other daily takes.
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.
'It's a huge social event,' said MsMichal Osterweil, 28, an American PhD 
student at the University of North Carolina. 'It's an amazing environment. 
It's why we come to the camps instead of staying in a hotel somewhere.'
There were, however, almost no power outlets in the camp and about 100 
handphones were plugged into a few overloaded sockets for recharging at the 
concierge's tent.
The fighting that marred the Rostock rally is hotly debated. Leaders of 
anti-G8 groups have condemned the violence, but some campers accused the 
police of provocation and said violence was to be expected.
Many said they would do whatever they could to disrupt the G8 meeting.
World leaders may avoid the demonstrations by flying into Heiligendamm by 
helicopter from Rostock airport, but their delegations may have trouble 
getting there.



http://www.grist.org/comments/dispatches/2007/06/05/G8/index1.html

Michael Levitin is a freelance journalist living in Berlin. He has written 
for Newsweek, Slate, and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

The Real Gains
As the G8 summit wraps up, a global movement gains steam


Dispatch: 1 | 2
Friday, 08 Jun 2007
CAMP ROSTOCK, Germany
Klaus had tromped through forests and across fields, marching 15 miles back 
here to his ramshackle tent at 3:00 in the morning, so it's understandable 
that he was too beat to be euphoric. He'd taken whacks from billy clubs and 
swallowed pepper spray as he and more than 10,000 demonstrators -- who 
employed a kamikaze-like "five finger" tactic, in which their groups split 
abruptly and individuals sprinted in all directions -- broke through police 
lines, blockaded roads and railways, and claimed victory in their bid to 
disrupt the G8 summit.




The face of a new movement?
Photo: Marc-Steffen Unger
Today, as rich-nation leaders wrapped up their Baltic coast vacation -- in 
which posturing about fighting climate change and poverty in Africa replaced 
any of the nuts-and-bolts strategies required for doing so -- the image of 
those celebratory masses of young people parading by the thousands across 
Germany's rolling farmland, with hundreds of slender white wind-turbine 
blades spinning symbolically in the background, has somehow overtaken the 
official debate in its seriousness and importance. In a not-yet-quantifiable 
way, the anti-globalization movement has been reignited in Rostock. 
Reinjected with passion. Reinforced with solidarity; with organization, with 
clear-marked acts of bravery, and with what author and activist Susan George 
called the public's "invincible" will to bring a more socially just world 
into being.

George, the former vice president of Attac and current chair of the 
Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, encouraged the direction the 
anti-globalization movement is taking alongside author John Holloway in one 
of several hundred panel workshops that took place at the Alternative Summit 
in Rostock. "Everyone knows that capitalism is raping the planet, this is 
absolutely clear," said the 73-year-old American-turned-French citizen. The 
public's first task, then, is "to denounce, to challenge, and expose [those 
in power] through detailed arguments, and to find spectacular, persuasive 
ways" to put issues like climate change and debt cancellation at the top of 
the agenda. "This movement is still very young and it has its best days 
ahead of it," she said.

Using a more blunt -- and in America, it would seem, unthinkable -- language 
of revolution, Holloway, who has been described as the poetic voice of the 
anti-globalization movement, spoke about "a moment of rupture," describing a 
vision of global social struggle filled with hope. We need "to think of 
revolution -- of the possibility of creating another world -- not in terms 
of a breakdown, but as a breakthrough," he said. He likened the weeklong 
events of protest in Rostock, and in Seattle and Genoa before it, as a 
"crack through which the seeds of a new society are pushing. We [the 
anti-globalization movement] represent a force that is pushing through and, 
like cracks in an ice floe, can spread with incredible and unpredictable 
speed."

A New Movement

Sound like over-the-top anarchic Euro-speak? Well maybe, coming from the 
intensely capitalist system we in America have embraced since our inception 
as an all-or-nothing option. But the point is that change is afoot, and that 
Klaus and his army of merry pranksters who lit up the Rostock region this 
week -- proving themselves unrelenting in their blockades and peaceful 
demonstrations despite the violence of tear gas, water cannons, and beatings 
police waged against them -- are the latest incarnation.




Protesters on parade.
Photo: Marc-Steffen Unger
Look also, if you haven't already, at Thursday's jaw-dropping, 
made-for-Hollywood high-speed boat chase that occurred a few hundred yards 
offshore from Heiligendamm, providing the biggest drama of the summit. Three 
rubber speedboats operated by Greenpeace succeeded in breaching the 
Navy-patrolled security zone. They intended to carry a petition demanding 
substantial carbon cuts to the heads of state, but instead got engaged in a 
15-minute, hair-raising adventure at sea. Dwarfed and out-horsepowered by 
the armored German military vessels that pursued them, the maverick pilots 
made risky maneuvers at top speed that could have easily lost them their 
lives; when the chase was over, in the moments before they were gathered 
into custody, they hoisted the banner "G8 Act Now" defiantly into the air, 
facing the helicopter cameras as their tiny boat rocked on the waves. It was 
bravest act of idealism -- putting the planet over their lives -- that I 
have ever seen.

As for the ways the G8 leaders did not act -- specifically, the way George 
Bush once again bucked scientific consensus and global political and public 
pressure in failing to come on board with specific targets to cut carbon 
emissions -- it's nothing we haven't heard. Merely agreeing to begin 
discussions in Bali in December on the road toward creating an international 
climate framework that can work as a successor to Kyoto was, apparently, 
enough a concession by the U.S. for embattled Chancellor Merkel to herald 
the "deal" a success. Depressing stuff.

But wait, there's an upside to the last six and a half years of criminal, 
irresponsible Bush leadership: the world, in the meantime, has gotten busy. 
At the Alternative Summit in Rostock, which went under the slogan "Another 
World Is Possible," I saw numerous examples of movements and initiatives 
that have sprung up virtually in direct response to American actions -- and 
may now be leading the rest of us with their progressive vision.

One is the modern peace movement in Europe, which Jan Tamas, chair of the 
Humanist Party in the Czech Republic, announced at a panel session on the G8 
and war is "just being born." The cause: America's aggressive approach to 
installing anti-missile bases in Eastern Europe, rekindling what many 
perceive here as old Cold War rhetoric. Tamas helped found the No To The 
Bases initiative last July; in February, his party ushered the Europe for 
Peace Declaration into being; and on Tuesday, he demonstrated with some 
2,000 people during Bush's visit to Prague to protest the proposed missile 
defense sites.

"Everything was going fine after the Berlin Wall fell," he said, "and now 
[they're saying] we should be stuck again in the armament race? The 
perception of the U.S.," he added, a country that formerly championed his 
people's right to freedom, "has definitely changed among Czechs in the last 
five years." (A note: After Bush's tummy-ache at the summit on Friday 
morning kept him out of meetings with China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and 
South Africa, he flew off to Poland to further his calls for a missile base 
in that country. But not before hearing out Russian Premier Vladimir Putin's 
proposal to form a joint U.S./Russian anti-missile platform in Azerbaijan 
instead, an offer that surprisingly perked up his ears.)

If peace campaigning is on an upswing thanks to aggressive U.S. policies, so 
is economic planning in countries where U.S. and World Bank strategies have 
failed, or have been absent altogether. In Latin America, for example, a 
transnational finance initiative known as the Bank of the South has been 
worked on by the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt, a Belgian 
NGO, along with the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez, and 
could go online as an institution as early as this month. Speaking to an 
audience of about 40 crammed into a stuffy room on the third floor of 
Rostock's Nikolai Church, the group's spokesperson, Virginie de Romanet, 
described the mega-cooperative as a Latin American counter to heavy hitters 
like the World Bank and IMF. The Bank of the South will give grants for 
social projects, housing, education, and health care in the poorest 
countries, she said, with the intention of "paying off the social debt the 
governments have toward their peoples. We talk about financial debts, but 
not about the social needs that have been abandoned in Latin America since 
neo-liberal plans have been imposed there [by the North] in the last 20 
years."

And then, of course, there were the workshops on the topic of the day, which 
the U.S. administration has disregarded, to the world's detriment, more than 
any other: climate. At a discussion called "Mobilization for Global Climate 
Action," activists, city council leaders, and students from around Europe 
brainstormed strategies to raise awareness for an international 
demonstration for climate to be staged December 8 during the talks in Bali. 
Given the mushrooming in recent years of so many groups focused on the one 
game in town -- Climate Alliance, Climate Action Network, Stop Climate 
Chaos, and Climate Forum, to name a few -- the issue confronting these NGOs 
now is how to "be concrete" with their message.

"We must be explicit in our goals" as groups and as a movement, said Klaus 
Milke of the research institute Germanwatch. For example, he said, Europe 
needs to turn its attention toward its less developed members like Poland 
and Romania, reaching out with something akin to "climate ambassadors" who 
will help bring those countries up to speed with carbon reductions and 
renewable technologies.

The climate movement, without question, has become a global driver bringing 
people and communities together. But some are worried that too much emphasis 
is going toward organizing protests for climate awareness and accumulating 
followers, rather than working on the hard-and-fast science and policy aimed 
at solving the crisis. "The strategy is to get bigger climate demonstrations 
every year. 'We'll have a demo, we'll make it bigger than the last one.' But 
I don't see a plan," says James Lloyd of the U.K. student environmental 
group People and Planet. "I think there needs to be a debate on what 
strategies for public awareness have the most impact. It's not a campaign we 
can fuck up -- and I'd hate to think five years on we're still organizing 
rallies."
The Herd Is Not Enough

Neither rallies nor blockades nor conferences among the world's elites will 
be enough to save us from the impending climate disaster. It will take, as 
Greenpeace said so simply from its boat at sea, Action Now. Already next 
week, a "Midnight Sun Dialogue" in Riksgransen, Sweden, among environment 
ministers from 20 countries will pick up in the area where Heiligendamm left 
off: by beginning to lay the groundwork to launch formal climate 
negotiations in Bali at the end of the year. Clearly, global leaders have 
heard the call and are now hustling to put one foot after the next in the 
glacial process toward writing a sound climate policy for the future.

Americans should learn from this week's large-scale, peaceful, and 
professionally organized turnout against the G8 in Rostock. They should be 
emboldened by European activists' efforts and should pick up where the 
blockaders on the Baltic left off. "We got sprayed, we got hit, but they 
didn't stop us," Klaus told me as he sat with sunburnt face, rolling a 
cigarette the morning after the all-night blockades. He was one of 6,000 
who'd made Camp Rostock his home for the week, and who walked away feeling 
that "with this political message, we made protest history in Germany. We 
said we'd block them and we blocked them. The rest is details."

As Tycho Boender, a Dutch activist and founder of the climate awareness 
group Inside Collective, told me, a lot about his and his country's future 
is riding on our world leaders' decisions about cutting carbon levels and 
developing renewables -- namely, in the kind of legislation they write and 
how quickly it can be made into law and enforced. Some parts of his country 
already sit six meters below sea level, he said. "I might need a snorkel to 
sit in my house soon."

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2007/490/index.html?id=np1343.htm

Activists with ideas
HAVING SET up camp amongst the five thousand or so protesters at the 
international anti-G8 camp, members of the Committee for a Workers' 
International (CWI) made their way to the starting point for the 
demonstration. We then assembled a contingent of up to 200 members and 
supporters representing our sections in Germany, Ireland North and South, 
England and Wales, Scotland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Festooned with posters, banners and placards, our truck headed the 
contingent. From here marchers heard speeches from Socialist Alternative 
(SAV) councillor Christine Lehnert (Germany), SAV and WASG executive member 
Lucy Redler (Germany), and UNISON executive member Roger Bannister 
(Britain).
Rapping about issues ranging from war and poverty, to the cuts in social 
security, to the lessons for today from the Communist Manifesto, SAV member 
Holger Burner put the message across that we need a socialist alternative as 
well as ensuring our bloc on the demo was among the liveliest.
>From 10am to 6pm when we left the closing rally of the demonstration for our 
CWI rally, CWI members worked tirelessly distributing leaflets, selling 500 
papers and raising 3,000 euros for our campaigns by selling political badges 
and T-shirts.
In a situation where all sorts of ideas were being raised, we were able to 
discuss with that highly significant layer of people who had come to the 
protest in the hope of finding a solution to the problems of capitalism.
This was reflected in the 150 people who attended our evening rally and by 
the fact that already a number of people had agreed to join the CWI. They 
included people who had travelled to Rostock with SAV members but who had 
not before been convinced of the need to join our ranks officially.
But in Rostock the CWI stood out. No other group had as many members who 
were confident to go out distributing material and engaging protesters in 
the crucial discussion of how the G8 and their system can be defeated.
No other bloc on the demonstration was so well stewarded or so clear in its 
political analysis. Speakers from our platform differentiated socialism from 
the rotten capitalist system we now suffer under but also from the 
undemocratic Stalinist system that had existed in the old GDR (East 
Germany).
We explained, in our material and in the discussions with youth, the crucial 
role that must be played by the working class and the need now for new mass 
workers' parties and for a socialist transformation of society.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/08/wsummit508.xml

Organised anarchists with a passion for protest

By Harry de Quetteville outside Heiligendamm
Last Updated: 2:17am BST 09/06/2007

With a waft of something illicit in the air and a phalanx of riot police in 
the background, a host of G8 protesters flopped on to the grass after a good 
hosing down from the water cannon.
More than 1,000 had assembled on cue in a scene that resembled Glastonbury 
pop festival between acts. "Just because we're anarchists doesn't mean we're 
not well organised," said Terry Hume, who left London for the G8 with 20 
friends two weeks ago.
>From anarchists to absurdists, from the violent revolutionaries of the 
'Black Bloc' to Greenpeace, a grand coalition of protesters once again 
gummed up the summit yesterday -- and Britain was well represented.
The vast majority were young, many were tattooed and pierced, and some were 
drenched by the police as, for the second day running, roads to the summit 
venue at Heiligendamm and the scenic railway reserved for the world's media 
were blocked.
Many protesters left their makeshift camps before sunrise in an attempt to 
outflank police.
"Obviously it's exciting, trekking through the forests and trying outwit the 
police," said Lorne Brown, who had travelled from Brighton.
"I want to express my disdain for the way the world is run," he added. "But 
there are people who just come for a punch-up."
The biggest reputations for violence came from within the ranks of the 
'Black Bloc', recognisable for their dark clothes, hoods and masks.
While most of the colourfully dressed protesters advocated peaceful 
opposition, many 'Black Bloc-ers' espoused violent revolution.
"A lot of people here are worried about the Black Bloc," said Lucas Schmidt, 
as police water cannon repulsed protestors. "I'm here to campaign for free 
education, not to have a fight."
Behind him, the showdown between protesters and security forces protecting 
the luxury resort was unfolding like a Napoleonic battle.
A few hundred yards from their goal -- the security fence surrounding 
Heiligendamm - demonstrators marched slowly towards their adversaries until 
they were in the line of fire. Then the police unleashed their liquid 
artillery, sending the most adventurous sprawling.
"We don't pose a threat. We post a symbolic threat," said Mr Hume, who said 
he was surviving on £3 a day.
He and his colleagues had bunked down with activists espousing a cocktail of 
environmental and globalisation concerns who were fully prepared to get 
doused by the police.
But for a minority of well-equipped and well-drilled others, violent 
revolution was clearly an end in itself.