2007-02-07

February 6th 2007: Heiligendamm -- Genoa -- Gleneagles

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What the hell is up with the 2007 G8 mobilization for Heiligendamm, Germany?

Massive protests against the 2007 G8 summit meeting of neoliberal globalizers and warmongers at the Baltic Sea resort Heiligendamm near Rostock in Germany are scheduled before and during the June 6-8 meeting. The G8 is the annual meeting of the leaders of the 8 richest nations in the world. Every summer, these people meet behind closed doors, with no published agenda, and no publicly available meeting minutes. For some reason, they invariably meet near a big ass golf course. Many people in Germany, Europe and the world are sick of the empty promises of the G8 - saying they will help the environment or help fight African poverty and then doing nothing, or worse. The G8 meeting is the best chance to show a big fat middle finger to leaders who dominate the world and to show that another world is definitely possible.
Past protests at G8 summits, EU conferences or WTO meetings have played a central role in the deepening and broadening of the movement against the centralization of wealth and power in a few hands, and in favor of economic justice for workers, environmental sustainability, peace and alternatives to corporate control. Activists are mobilizing throughout Europe for protests and counter-summit activities.
To invite people in the USA to come to Germany for the G8 the Dissent! Infotour will be traveling across the West Coast of the USA from February 18 to March 30, 2007, and in New England the first week of April 2007. Not long ago in the city of Rostock, Germany - population 200,000, about 15 miles east of G8 host town Heiligendamm - over 500 local people formed a "flash mob" and stormed the Rostock City Hall to protest city cuts in social services while the city and regional government were spending millions to pay for the locally controversial G8 Summit. In Bad Doberan - population 12,000, about 5 rural miles south of Heiligendamm - this past summer, activists moved beyond stereotypical activist communication methods and passed out 3,000 flyers and leaflets to locals in a mass door-knocking action that was hailed by locals as the most successful singular political action since the wall came down in 1989.
The anti-G8 activists also spoke to every business in the central district to explain their concerns, as well as to talk to locals about why there might be 100,000 protesters visiting their small town area in 2007 to protest the G8. In Kuehlungsborn, - population 4,800, about 4 miles west of Heiligendamm - the Dissent! Infotour has already made two presentations, including one at the 4-star Morada Resort, which will be host to 3,000-4,000 international journalists at the official 2007 G8 Press Center. Locals are not impressed by the fact that the G8 is coming to their region, and they are getting more and more pissed off that their regional government is spending 68 million euros of their tax money to support a closed meeting of the leaders of the eight richest countries at a time when 18% of locals are unemployed.
The largest European left radical mobilization in years is taking place in Germany right now. The German military has announced that they will cooperate on training manoeuvers with police and provide medical and communications infrastructure. The military will also take responsibility for air protection with AWACS and sea protection with warships. Special top G8 cop Knut Abramowski looked nervous when he told a crowd of local business people and politicians that he expects 100,000 activists to protest, and that he hopes disruptions will be kept to a minimum during the G8 summit June 6-8.
Why is Knut so nervous? The truth is that he, just like any of the many full time anti-G8 activists in Germany these days, have absolutely no idea what to expect from protests during the G8. He knows that the first mass protests will take place June 2, when there will be a mass liberal demonstration in Rostock (www.g8-germany.info), and radical antifascist activists will be on the streets to block a planned neo-nazi march. Both could get out of control, even though up to 40 water cannon trucks plan to be on call.
Things are actually more likely to move radically outside police management capabilities by the 5th of June, when Bush and friends arrive at the Laage airport on their way to the G8 summit, and the anti-G8 bike rides and anti-war campaigners will be en masse in the region. Actually, even though there are call-outs by over 100 German NGO's and various groups to participate in protests in the region, many groups have already said they support decentralized actions and plan to organize major blockades and actions across Germany, from North to South, East to West.
So, has your appetite been whetted? It has not been since Seattle that large protests have shook the consciousness of the global north. However, anti-G8 organizers from Italy (G8 2001), France (G8 2003), and UK (G8 2005) all seem to be in agreement the German mobilization for 2007 is much larger than anyone has ever seen against the G8. We hope to see you on tour, or even better, on the German barricades in June 2007!
For more info or to find or schedule tour dates near you, check www.dissentnetwork.org or www.g7.utoronto.ca.
jfk,
Dissent! Infotour Group, Germany
For more info or to help host the USA Infotour, write to:
goodniteg8 [at] riseup.net
Written for Slingshot, January 14, 2007. @nti-copyright

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Germans prep for G8 summit violence

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- German authorities are preparing for violence by 100,000 anti-globalization protesters at the G-8 summit in June, following a wave of vandalism.
The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, Heinz Fromm, told Focus news magazine at the weekend that authorities were on the alert following a wave of vandalism and other attacks by leftist and anarchist militants organizing against the summit.
Just last month, the hotel where the G-8 leaders will meet June 6-8 in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, just north of Berlin, was paint bombed; and there were arson attacks on the home and car of the German deputy finance minister, Thomas Mirow, in Hamburg to protest his role in organizing the event.
The magazine said police have reported 37 attacks by anti-summit militants in recent months.
One German security official not authorized to speak to the media told United Press International that the tempo of such attacks would likely rise in the months leading up to the summit.
"The intensity is going to rise," he said, adding that while authorities were confident security measures could keep both protesters and terrorists out of the event itself, "the real concern is what happens at the perimeter, and outside it."
German authorities plan to deploy 15,000 police and soldiers to ensure security at Heiligendamm, and anticipate up to 100,000 protesters, German media reports say.
Authorities have also begun work on a $17 million fence, topped with coils of razor-wire and baked with infra-red sensors and closed-circuit TV cameras, to block the seaside resort off from the land. The fence will run into the sea, to prevent protesters from wading past it.

[http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20070130-032120-1725r]

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AFRICAN STRUGGLES, GLOBAL STRUGGLES

Social Movements Assembly at the World Social Forum 30 Jan 2007 08:36 GMT
Nairobi, 24 January 2007
We, social movements from across Africa and across the world, have come together here in Nairobi at the 2007 World Social Forum to highlight and celebrate Africa and her social movements; Africa and her unbroken history of struggle against foreign domination, colonialism and neo-colonialism; Africa and her contributions to humanity; Africa and her role in the quest for another world.
We are here to celebrate and reaffirm the spirit of the World Social Forum as a space of struggle and solidarity which is open to all people and social movements regardless of their ability to pay.
We denounce tendencies towards commercialisation, privatisation and militarisation of the WSF space. Hundreds of our sisters and brothers who welcomed us to Nairobi have been excluded because of high costs of participation.
We are also deeply concerned about the presence of organisations working against the rights of women, marginalised people, and against sexual rights and diversity, in contradiction to the WSF Charter of Principles.
The social movements assembly has created a platform for Kenyans and other Africans from different backgrounds and communities to present their struggles, alternatives, cultures, talents and skills. It is also a space for civil society organisations and social movements to interact and share the issues and problems affecting them.
Since the first assembly in 2001, we have contributed to building and strengthening successful international networks of civil societies and social movements and reinforced our spirit of solidarity and our struggles against all forms of oppression and domination.
We recognise that the diversity of movements and popular initiatives against neo-liberalism, world hegemony of capitalism and imperial wars, is an expression of a world resistance.
We have now to move towards a phase of effective alternatives. Many local initiatives are already existing and should be expanded: what is happening in Latin America and other parts of the world -- thanks to the joint action of social movements -- shows the way to establish concrete alternatives to world capitalist domination.
As social movements from all five continents gathering in Nairobi, we express our solidarity with the social movements in Latin America whose persistent and continuing struggle has led to electoral victories for the Left in several countries.
Actions
We are calling for a broad international mobilisation against the G8 in Rostock and Heiligendamm (Germany) 2-8 June 2007.
We will mobilise in our communities and movements for an International Day of Action in 2008.

[http://www.indymedia.org/pt/2007/01/879374.shtml]

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EU meetings
Overview

14. - 16.January informal EU meeting of the minister of inner affairs and law in Dresden
18.-20.January informal EU meeting for working and social aspects in Berlin
9. - 10.February EU ministers of finance meets in Essen
12. - 13.February in Berlin informal meeting culture and media
01. - 02.March in Heidelberg informal meeting education
01. - 02.March in Wiesbaden informal meeting "defence"
12. - 13.March in Bonn/Petersberg informal ministers meeting cooperation with trikont
30. - 31.March in Bremen informal meeting of ministers of foreign affairs ("Gymnich-Treffen")
19. - 20.April in Aachen informal meeting health
20. - 22.May in Mainz/Rheingau informal meeting of the agriculture-ministers
23. - 25.May in Leipzig informal ministers meeting about city planning and territorial cohesion
01. - 03. June in Essen informal ministers meeting enviroment

[https://hamburg.dissentnetzwerk.org/EUmeetings/Overview]

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The European Security Strategy

Concepts and Technologies against Terrorism
The 10th European Police Congress (12 - 14 February 2007) deals with new concepts and technologies for counterterrorism. This is one of the main points of the upcoming EU-Presidencies of Germany, Portugal and Slowenia in 2007 and 2008 that includes the implementation of a common European Security Strategy against Terrorism.
At the 10th European Police Congress, the following topics will be discussed in a main programme of two days and eight panel Sessions:
Main Programme:
* Cooperation Concepts of international Secret Services
* European Alliances and Intelligence as a Prerequisite in the Fight against Terrorism
* The Capabilities of the "THW" for the European Security Network
* The European Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina
* The new way ahead in the Fight against Terrorism
* The Security Architecture of the G8-Summit in Germany
* The transformation of the national Security Identity
* Transformation of the ESDP? Which Approaches of Member States and Europe are Required for Optimised Counterterrorism?
* Transformation, Bundling and increased Sufficiency of the National Security Architecture
Panel Programme:
* Counterterrorism in Europe: Financing, Detection and Reaction
* Network Europe: Information and Telecommunication Systems
* European Border Protection: Chances and Challenges of the Schengen-Enlargement
* Security Networks: Bundling of Resources - A future Perspective?
* European Police Missions: International Missions and Concepts
* The Policeman of the Future: Equipment, Capabilities, Reuirements
The Conference is free of charge for MoP´s, Members of Embassies, Policemen, Militaries, Blue-Light-Organisations and Administrations.

[http://www.europaeischer-polizeikongress.de]

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Shut Em Down! Dissent Lives On... Report of UK Anti-G8 Gathering

G8 2007, 1st UK Gathering (A Personal Report).
Following on from last years anti-G8 UK info-tour, organised by Cardiff Anarchists along with Russian and German friends, this weekend saw the first UK-based gathering discussing resistance to the 2007 G8 Summit. Approx 35 people, from across the country and beyond, showed up to create what must be one of the most speedy and productive gatherings in UK history...
Kicking off an hour late (well you can't mess with tradition!), the group quickly agreed that we were there to discuss our summer holiday to Germany to help shut the 2007 G8 Summit down - though obviously we would support any actions and events taking place in the UK at the same time. Following this, we were quickly brought up to speed on the mobilisation so far, the main networks involved, the potential convergence spaces and actions planned, as well as hearing some stories from the 'Camp-inski' anti-G8 camp which took place in Northern Germany in August 2006 and reflections on the tactics, equipment and policing styles of German cops. Comrades also noted the international character of the mobilisation, and a few people plan to attend the next international meeting taking place in Warsaw in February.
Getting down to practicalities, it was agreed that while we are not organising a mobilisation in the same way as 2005, we do want to mobilise as many people as possible to Germany. For this reason it was agreed to set up 'info-points' around the country, as well as a new website. Stickers will be produced in large quantities, as well as newsletters, and distributed to the info-points and social-centre's. On the question of transport, whilst most people seemed to favour making their own way there, some folks liked the idea of 'mass-transportation'. It was agreed that we would make travel-info and other useful stuff available through the website, and that 'mass-transportation' would be investigated and discussed again at the next gathering. Likewise, the issue of whether to meet up as a 'UK mobilisation' once in Germany (and if so, how) and whether to camp together as a 'UK barrio' or based on tactics, will be looked at again at the next gathering. A media training day should be organised nearer the time of the summit, and local first-aid and self-defence workshops are being organised in a couple of places, with the potential for UK wide versions being investigated.
The last discussion was dreaded by all, but passed in seconds (and 30 minutes early!) with a unanimous decision: We are the Dissent Network.
So, the website should be up at http://www.dissent.org.uk/ very soon, decisions will be fed into the international meeting coming up in Warsaw and the next UK gathering will take place towards the end of March, most likely in Reading. Details will be confirmed shortly and publicised in all the usual places, hope to see ya there!
Cheers...
RGA
e-mail: rgacollective@hotmail.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.dissentnetwork.org

[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/361115.html]

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Genoa: the trial of 25 activists starts again

On the 16th of January, the trial against 25 activists charged with "sacking and devastation" during the Group of 8 Summit held in Genoa in July 2001, was opened again after a long continuance, due to the decision to change some judges of the Court. The hearings should go on for one month, until the 16th of February.
The first witness was the police officer Zampese, who at the time wrote a chronology of the events surrounding the summit. He had already been heard on the 11th of October, 2005. In his opinion, the G8 was "ravaged" by violent activists, the police did not act against the people, nobody was beaten, and no one hurt by policemen.
Supporto Legale is the association that is supporting all of the activists on trial, as well as the legal proceedings against the police officers accused of violence, torture, and abuse of power. Supporto Legale denounces the way the hearings are held, and the use of people like Zampese as witnesses.
Furthermore, on the 17th of January, a new development came out in the trial against 29 police officers charged with falsification of evidence and slander in connection with the violent military-style raid carried out by police in the Diaz School where Genoa activsists were sleeping and working during the G8. Two petrol bombs, which had initially been used as evidence of violent behavior on the part of the activists who had been in the Diaz school, but which were later discovered to in fact have been deliberately planted there by police officers, are now missing. The trial has been stopped now, waiting for the recovery of the molotovs. Meanwhile, people are waiting for members of the Italian parliament, whose request for a parlaimentary inquiry into the G8 was stopped by the previous right-wing government, to propose the inquiry again to the new ruling coalition.
One of the proponents of the inquiry commission is Haidi Giuliani, the mother of Carlo Giuliani, a young man shot and killed by police during the G8. She is now a Senator for the Italian Rifondazione party. The call for a parliamentary inquiry represents a growing request for human rights, against the inhumane mass detention of migrants, and against police brutality in Italy. Another important voice still requiring an explanation is the one of the mother of Federico Aldrovandi, a young man beaten to death by police whose killers wererecently sent to trial.

[http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/01/879113.shtml]

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San Francisco: Charges dropped against 2005 anti-G8 protester Gabe Meyers

Charges Dropped Against Gabe Meyers
No Trial for Gabe Meyers
January 9, 2007
San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia
http://www.indybay.org/
On January 8th, Gabriel Meyers walked out of court victorious when all charges from his arrest at a 2005 anti-G8 demonstration were formally dismissed by a superior court judge. The SF District Attorney's Office decided not to pursue the case because of potential witness testimony and video footage that indicated that police had unsafely sped into a crowd of demonstrators, which Meyers was part of. Prosecutors were originally saying that Gabriel Meyers was arrested that night for placing a styrofoam sign under this patrol car's wheels.
Meyers was in final stages of jury selection when the decision to drop the charges was made. He had been awaiting trial for 15 months and had made some 40 court appearances in that time period. He made no statement as he left court, other than that he was glad and grateful to be free.
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What I got to say
by Gabe Meyers
January 12, 2007
It has been four days since the offical statement by the court that I was free and I have been very humble since then because I know that there are many people who do not share that same freedom. I have realized throughout this ordeal that being an opponenet of injustice can sometimes lead to you being a victim of it. There are many people still locked up in prisons because of their beliefs and their commitment to ending oppression in all forms. They must not be forgotten and we must not take our freedom for granted.
I would like to start by thanking some people who helped me along the way. First of all my lawyer Eric Luce. Job well done! Also Henry Dohering and everyyone else who worked on my case at the SF Public Defenders Office. I would like to thank my legal support team from the Midnight Special Law Collective. Paul, Greg, Sam, Scott, Dan, and Kris, you all did a great job in your own positive contribution. I would like to thank the people over at the National Lawyers Guild, thanks for your support and help in revealing the truth about that night. Mark Vermulhen and Hunter Pyle for their legal advice and I am sorry that I did not attain you as counsel. I would like to thank California Anarchist Prisoner Support and Prisoner Resistance Project for letting me speak at their events. I would like to thank Bill Carpenter and the folks at Indybay for providing media coverage and letting me post articles and court appearances. I would like to thank Josh and Liz Wolf for their support and I hope Josh will get out of jail soon. Hopefully my release will lead to his. I would like to thank Manish Vadiya at Critical Resistance. Maybe we can write an op-ed about my realase. Slingshot newspaper for publishing an article about my case. Grand jury resisters Nadia Winstead and Richard Brown for their courtroom support and all of those who showed up to suppport me in the early hours of the morning at such a cold solemn place such as 850 Bryant street. I know you didn't want to be there as much as me; thanks for coming. If there is anyone I missed, don't worry you are not unappreciated.
For the past 17 months the goverment has kept going throught he court process threatning to take me trial. For that period of time, the truth about what happened has not been made public. If I was to have gone to trial, the truth about what happened would of come out in a court room. This is one of the reasons why they dropped the charges and advoided trial.
But the truth still need to come out. So if you really want to know, the truth is that I was about to go to trial for running out of the way of out of a police car that was recklessly speeding into a crowd of protestors on a dark unlit street, and that I inadvertently stopped them( thank god or peole would of been run over) by dropping a large styrofoam sign to run out of the way of the patrol car. The sign then then fell underneath the wheels of the car.
When I ran out of the road and on to the sidewalk, I was chased to by Officer Michael Wolf, the cop riding in the passenger seat of the car. He takled me to the ground from behind on the sidewalk and held in me down in a choke hold where I was asphixiated by him (as it was made apparent by the photograh and video taken of me and largely ignored by the courts) I never tried to lynch myself. Being arrested that night and going through the court process, I felt that I was the one being lynched. That police officer had no right to of first strangle me and then charge me with a crime. It is he who is a criminal. I am very dissapointed that nothing has been done about him, or his partner for driving unsafely, by the internal affairs divison of the SF Police Department or the SF District Attorneys Office.
There must not be a double standard about the investigation of this protest. The government must acknowldge that there was criminal misconduct by the police if they are going to say that was some from the protestors, and they must acknowledge that the police instigated this by driving into the crowd at a dangerous speed.
I am sorry about how unfortunate the events and the aftermath of that night were. I don't believe that Offier Sheilds should of been hit over the head, it could of killed him, but Officer Sheilds shouldn't of driven into the crowd at that speed, someone could of been killed or hurt badlly by him. He was also reported using his baton on someone, even by his partner in his police report. These sort of actions usually have a tendency to anger people and sometimes they respond with physical force as they did that night.
I am wrapping up this chapter in my life, but events like these continue on a daily basis throughout the world . We must continue to struggle for justice until all are free. No one is free when others are oppressed. What has happened on the 8th of July in 20005 should serve as an example that rights and freedom to dissent can be taken at anytime suh as they have done to Josh Wolf, threatened to do to me, and currently doing to Cody Tarlow. It should also serve as reminder that the state will even result to violence such as running people over, choking individuals, and beating them with batons and clubs. I am glad that things were not as worse than they have been from that night (as they are in other places of this globe), but their were still crimes by the police that were committed and they must not go unanswered. It is our duty to make sure they don't.
Thank you everyone for your support and solidarity. I am sure I will see you all at another protest,
Gabriel Mark Meyers

[http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070116130502382]