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The precarious – Stockholm after the Gothenburg riots
No one likes to hang out at offices after the working day is done, but when we found ourselves squatting the lobby of the biggest commuting contractor in Stockholm we felt that staying late hours at the office need not be so bad after all. This was during a conflict over union representation that started in the subway, but after taking it to the streets we went one step further and took it to the contractors’ headquarters. The union representative brave enough to speak out about safety hazards in the Stockholm subway got fired, and we as part of the extra-parliamentary left as well, as daily commuters, saw it as an attack not only on the unions but as a threat to our physical safety as commuters.
Source: email weiter...Malmö-Gothenburg-Malmö 2001-2008
How the Swedish parliamentary parties betrayed the Global Justice Movement
It happened in the most unlikely country at a most unlikely place. The great international step forward in the repression against the global justice movement summit protests begun right in the middle of the cradle of the Swedish workers movement in Malmö. Some weeks later police were for the first time shooting at protesters in Gothenburg at an EU Summit and built a wall of containers around a counter summit, convergence center and school complex used for accomodation to end up violently storming the protest gathering arresting 456 people. The parliamentary parties supported the escalation of the repression of the demonstrators that followed, with Left Party leader Gudryn Schyman as a main betrayer of the movements. With this support the police could attack any demonstration and use any weapons legitimated by all parliamentary parties. 7 years later the global justice movement in Sweden and internationally gathers again in Malmö to exchange experiences on lessons learned and what conclusions to draw for the future.
Source: email weiter...Micael Björk: Between Frustration and Aggression - Legal Framing and the Policing of Public Disorder in Sweden and Denmark
Against the background of the European Union summits in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2001 and Copenhagen, Denmark in 2002, this article investigates the legal framing of police public order practices in conjunction with mass demonstrations and rioting in urban surroundings. Differences between legalistic and opportunistic ways of administering laws and regulations are illustrated, focusing on the policing of political disorder in two case studies with quite different outcomes. Theoretically, attention is also directed towards the notion of crisis, in terms of frustration and aggression. The basic argument is that the hyper-complexity of the legal framing in Sweden seems to have played an important, but unintended, role in the violent handling of the serious riots in Gothenburg; and that the legal powers in Denmark, in contrast, seems to have contributed to the less aggressive handling of the protest events during the European Union summit in Copenhagen.
Download full text: http://www.gipfelsoli.org/static/Media/Bjork_Public_Disorder_Sweden_Denmark.pdf
Source: Policing & Society, Vol. 15, No. 3, September 2005, pp. 305!/326Repression in Nordic countries
To understand what can be done about repression issues at ESF it could be useful to know something about the situation in the host countries. I am not an expert and my knowledge is superficial but I may have a general picture which may be of use to you. I guess that it is of importance that Nordic organisations get involved to make repression and important issue at ESF-5. The information and opinion below are from the perspective of Friends of the Earth Sweden and are not to be seen as the opinion of any organisation. They can be published for non-profit purposes.
Source: email weiter...Göteborg Antirepressions-Broschüre "The summer of resistance and the autumn of repression"
Liebe Leute, fast ein Jahr ist es her, dass in Göteborg ein sogenanntes Gipfeltreffen der Europäischen Union (EU) stattfand. Was Anlass genug war, um auf die Strasse zu gehen gegen kapitalistische Verwertungslogik, Rassismus, Überwachung und die anderen Ungerechtigkeiten, die uns tagtäglich als etwas normales und natürlichgegebenes unter die Nase gerieben werden.
Auch wenn die Strukturen von Herrschaft und Ausbeutung weit komplexer sind (und sich nicht allein an den einem oder anderen Gipfeltreffen verkürzt kritisieren lassen) ist es richtig und wichtig eine radikale Ablehnung des Bestehenden genau dort zum Ausdruck zu bringen.
Wenn sich die reichsten Länder der Erde treffen, um über eine einheitliche Witschafts- und Sicherheitspolitik zu beraten, ist das ein guter Anlass den Widerstand dagegen global zu organisieren. In der Öffentlichkeit war das Geschrei groß als die Demonstrationen die Spielwiese des “legitimen” Protestes verließen und sich mitunter zur Wehr setzten. Welch ein Mißverständnis, als allerorten das Auftreten von “Gewalt” beklagt wurde, geht es uns doch darum der Gewalt endlich eine Ende zu setzen. Doch jene Verhältnisse die Ausbeutung und Elend schaffen, die davon leben und die Gewalt aus allen Poren schwitzen, empfinden kaputte Schaufensterscheiben auf ihren Prachtstrassen als ein weit größeres Verbrechen. Ein Verbrechen, das jene die die Gewaltfreiheit für sich beanspruchen dazu legitimiert Jugendliche niederzuschießen. Nur durch Zufall starb in Göteborg niemand.
Source: www36.websamba.com weiter...The imaginary of racist discourse (re)exploited
An examination of the events at the EU-summit in Gothenburg 2001 and their racialisation by Swedish news media
Seattle, Prag, Gothenburg, Nice and Genua. These cities may form a chain of meaning, not only commenting their geographically location, but representing a force of potentiality for making another kind of world possible. Alternative conferences at these locations are one kind of possibility. Humans discussing environmental issues, privatisation, commute possibilities and demonstrate their void against the various problems they recognise in our contemporary world. But mainstream media have not been that interested in representing the cities, the events and the symbolic imaginary around them in that way. Instead, they have been interested in focusing on the clashes between the police and demonstrators.
Download on http://nicomedia.math.upatras.gr/conf/CAWM2003/Papers/Hultman_racial.pdf
Source: http://nicomedia.math.upatras.grHintergrund: Repression nach dem Göteborger Gipfeltreffen 2001
(Stand 16.6.2003)
Chronologie des Gipfeltreffens Göteborg 2001
14. Juni
Kurz vor 11 Uhr umstellt die Polizei das Hvitfeldska-Gymnasium, in der sich 500 Personen befinden und das von der Gemeinde den AktivistInnen und BesucherInnen des Gegengipfels als Unterkunft zur Verfügung gestellt wurde. Grund für die Belagerung soll das Gefahrenpotenzial sein, dass von den BewohnerInnen ausgeht. Mit Containern wird ein Belagerungsring um die Schule gebaut. Im Laufe des Nachmittags kommt es zu Auseinandersetzungen zwischen DemonstrantInnen und Polizei im benachbarten Vasapark. Nachdem die Polizei versucht die Schule zu stürmen kommt es zu Ausschreitungen.
Um 18 Uhr demonstrieren 12 000-15 000 Menschen friedlich anlässlich der Ankunft von George Bush. Anschließend strömen mehrere hundert Menschen zu der eingekesselten Hvitfeldska. Bis Mitternacht ist die Schule geräumt.
weiter...The Summer of Resistance and the Swedish Model
The following text is based on a discussion held at an info meeting about Gothenburg and Genoa prisoners in March 2003.
Background: The Swedish Model
Sweden has long been regarded as a model social democratic society; where an extensive welfare state has existed parallel with a highly developed capitalistic economy. This peculiar situation has been the result of a long tradition of cooperation and collaboration between the antagonistic parties, namely the Social Democratic Workers Party, its closely allied Lands Organisation union and the economic forces of capitalism with the industrial giants ABB, Ericsson, SAAB and Volvo at the forefront. The state and national ideology is based on the thought that through dialogue and understanding, all conflicts, no matter how large or small, can be amicably solved.
weiter...Support group "Steunmaarten" (Amsterdam)
Support group
The support organisation is trying to attract attention to the case of Maarten and the many other who are unjustly imprisoned or have been imprisoned in connection with the European Summit in Gothenburg in 2001. We are co-signers of the ‘call for justice’ drafted by the Swedish journalist Erik Wijk and we are striving for a fair trial for Maarten and all other victims. Because Maarten has no chance of a fair trial in Sweden, we demand the transfer of his case to a Dutch prosecutor, in the hope that he would indeed get a fair trial here.
weiter...Regulating Resistance: The ideological control of the protests in Gothenburg 2001
This C-paper is a study of state practices around the anti-EU demonstrations in Gothenburg 2001. Based on Louis Althusser’s recognition of repressive and ideological state apparatuses, I look at how a democratic state tries to control the political message of a demonstration, by relying on its force and ideology. My argument is that the state controls protests by locating them within a “space of sanctioned resistance.” Being defined by state practices and discourse, this space becomes a part of the state system and can because of that never oppose it. This strategy of inclusion is in other words a way for the state to locate resistance under its own umbrella, thereby silenting it to become nothing but a pseudo-affirmation of the freedom of expression within the democratic state system.
Download: http://hdl.handle.net/2043/1868
Source: http://dspace.mah.se