2007-02-07 

February 1st 2007: Heiligendamm

- solidarity support
- G8 Mobilisation Meeting- UK National Gathering
- Some News From Neo-Colonial-British-Island Activists
- New wall for G8 leaders prompts protests in Germany
- Germany warns of left-wing terrorism at G8 summit
- Protesters Carry Out Series of Attacks Ahead of G8 Summit
- Another razzia in Berlin
- Invitation to the PGA Wintermeeting

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solidarity support
G8 Mobilisation Meeting- UK National Gathering
Some News From Neo-Colonial-British-Island Activists
New wall for G8 leaders prompts protests in Germany
Germany warns of left-wing terrorism at G8 summit
Protesters Carry Out Series of Attacks Ahead of G8 Summit
Another razzia in Berlin
Invitation to the PGA Wintermeeting

the annual nato meeting in munich will take place in two weeks, repression is continuing. after a wave of searches in 11 objects in munich some days ago, now the police entered a youth center in the city erlangen (bavaria)
the police said they wanted to talk to the responsible of the house in the morning and destroyed the door after nobody opened. They searched for material related to G8 and anti-nato to criminalize the center.
they took flyers, made photos (also from antifascist symbols, which are called "illegal" after last years courtcase in stuttgart)
the bavarian police seems to have the wish to play the role of the most active against social movements as usual. The youth center is one of the few selforganised centers existing in bavaria and officials try to frighten active people. The activists see the repression also in the context of the attacks on projects happening all over germany and europe the last months, like in copenhagen. They write it is not clear if it is the start of a federal repression against G8 now, but it is clear that criminalisation of the fight against the NATO summit in munich and against the G8 summit as well as the repression against alternative and selforganised projects is not acceptable. Solidarity with the comrades facing repression in munich and elsewhere!
(text translated and shortened, original from TAG - Temporaere Autonome Gruppe)
on satureday there will be a demonstration in erlangen
see also:

[http://de.indymedia.org/2007/01/166670.shtml]

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G8 Mobilisation Meeting- UK National Gathering
date change to 28/01/06
Sunday 28th January 2007, 10:30am- 5pm
The Sumac Centre, Nottingham

From 6-8 June 2007, the G8 Summit (the meeting of the heads of state and government of the USA, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia) are planning on meeting in Germany.
Inspired by the original aims and actions of the Dissent Network in the UK, some of the libertarian left in Germany have adopted the same name and similar aims:
Stop the G8 summit
and in order to do so create a network of ongoing solidarity on an
international level.
There is to be a Meeting to discuss G8 Mobilisation for 2007, to be hosted by Sumac Centre in Nottingham on the 28th January. Limited accommodation is provided for those who wish to travel from afar. In particular, those wishing to travel to the venue on Saturday 27th to have informal pre-meetings.
Please email if you require accommodation:
sumac [at] veggies.org.uk
Food will be provided for by Veggies, for a small cost.
The mobilisation is committed to bottom up, decentralised organising.
Activists from the mobilisation have toured internationally to involve as many people as possible. The tours arose from an international gathering for the mobilisation, called Campinski, near the German G8 summit venue last summer. The UK leg of the tour in October saw activists from the UK 2005 mobilisation, Russian 2006 mobilisation and Germany 2007 mobilisation working together. The tour visited the Anarchist Bookfair in London, Brighton, Reading, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool Leeds, Birmingham and Cardiff. People at all these venues felt that it would be good to have a one day gathering for feedback and discussions on the G8 2007 mobilisation.
This callout is in consequence to those peoples' wishes.
Please contact dissentprocess@ yahoo.co. uk with agenda items.
Suggestions include
* lessons from G8 2005
* feedback on German processes and mobilisation
* future meetings in the UK

[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/360150.html]

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Some News From Neo-Colonial-British-Island Activists

After recovering from the G8 in Scotland and having plenty of time to reflect on what worked and what didn't, a first nationwide meeting took place in Nottingham/Sherwood Forest to discuss how we can usefully contribute to the mobilisation against the G8 in Germany.
People from all over the country attended the meeting and we got the feeling people were keen to mobilise.
In the spirit of Robin Hood, it was decided to rob everything from the rich and give it to the poor.
In order to do this, a network of infopoints will be created (starting in nine cities): to provide contact for people throughout the UK, to distribute publicity materials and to continue to mobilise locally.
These infopoints will also be used to coordinate transport to Germany.
The dissent!-email list will be used for organising against the G8 in Germany and the UK dissent! (dissent.org.uk) website will be reanimated.
There was a discussion about how to organise ourselves once in Germany and the plan is to have a UK infopoint at the camp so that people can orientate themselves.
Blockades were discussed: booklets will be produced for new people to explain 'activist code' (e.g. lock-on), work will be done on communication possibilities during actions and we'll find and distribute more information regarding the terrain of the area e.g. maps and photos.
We also plan to organise practical training days. People felt the main aim at this stage in the mobilisation is to distribute information so that people feel able to plan their actions. There will be another nationwide meeting at the end of March.
Death to King John!
Death to the Sheriff of Heiligendamm!

[http://dissentnetzwerk.org/node/565]

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New wall for G8 leaders prompts protests in Germany

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The first sections of a controversial 2.5-metre high steel and cement security fence that will protect a Group of Eight summit in June went up on Monday in the northern German resort of Heiligendamm.
Protesters on the outskirts of the Baltic Sea village that was part of Communist East Germany said they oppose the 12-km (7.5 mile) long fence topped by barbed wire, video monitors and movement sensors because it revives memories of the Berlin Wall.
The fence and accompanying security measures are designed to shelter world leaders from any militant or terror attack when the resort, 250 km north of Berlin, hosts the G8 summit in June.
"It's tasteless to build a fence like this in a country that has had enough experience with walls," said Monty Schaedel, a protester from the German Society for Peace and coordinator for demonstrations. He expects 100,000 anti-G8 protesters in June.
"Behind this fence there will be no democracy, no freedom of speech and no demonstrations," he added.
Heiligendamm, which has a population of just 280, is a historic seaside resort which President George W. Bush visited during a trip to Germany last year. The resort is striving to restore its reputation as an elegant holiday destination.
Local officials defended the structure and dismissed comparisons with the Berlin Wall, the symbol of divided Cold War Europe which came down in 1989.
"You can't compare this to the Berlin Wall at all," said Axel Falkenberg, police spokesman coordinating the G8 summit.
"Anyone who lived in Communist East Germany and had to cross the border to live in freedom would tell you this is completely different. This fence is to protect the visiting heads of state. You can't turn a blind eye to the terror and militant threats."
Frank Neumann, head of the company that has 15 weeks to put up the wall, said it would be made of 500 tonnes of steel -- enough metal to build a ship.
To prevent anyone from tunneling beneath the fence, construction workers have rammed 50-cm long steel grating into the ground.
The fencing, 4,600 dark green steel segments weighing 75 kg (165.3 lb) each, is 2.5 metres (8 ft 2.4 in) high and 2.45 metres wide. The segments are attached to cement pillars weighing 900 kg each.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has warned Germany must be on guard against terror attacks from left-wing extremists as well as Islamic groups during its G8 presidency after several recent attacks that police said appeared to be linked to the G8.
On Dec. 27, a car in front of the home of Deputy German Finance Minister Thomas Mirow was set on fire while the windows and walls of his house were splattered with paint.
The German office for the protection of the constitution warned in early December of possible attacks from left-wing extremist groups opposed to the policies of the G8, a grouping of industrialised nations that comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15613907.htm]

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Germany warns of left-wing terrorism at G8 summit

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany must be on guard against the threat of
terrorist attacks from left-wing extremists as well as Islamic groups during its Group of Eight (G8) presidency, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday.
In an interview to appear in Saturday's Die Welt newspaper, Schaeuble said that it would be dangerous and foolish to underestimate the threat of left-wing attacks, in particular at the G8 summit in June in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm.
"Based on all the information we have accumulated so far, we will need to take into account not only of the threat of Islamic terror during the G8 but also left-wing extremists," he said.
"That is being analysed and the public is aware of it, but it tends to be neglected," he added, adding left-wing extremist groups appear to be forming networks with other groups such as Basque guerrillas ETA and Colombia's left-wing FARC rebels.
"They're mobilising," he said. "There will be a lot of demonstrators (at Heiligendamm) and many will be coming with the best intentions.
But violent excesses cannot be ruled out."
Schaeuble said he was concerned left-wing attacks were seen as "a noble form of political protest" by some in Germany.
There have been several left-wing attacks in Germany in recent months that police said appeared to be linked to the G8 presidency this year.
On December 27, a car in front of the home of deputy finance minister Thomas Mirow was set on fire while his house's windows and walls were splattered with paint. Police said they had obtained a letter claiming responsibility for the attack.
The three-page letter criticised the planned G8 summit in Heiligendamm.
The letter said Mirow, 53, was singled out because: "He is responsible for coordinating financial policies."
The German office for the protection of the constitution warned in early December of possible attacks from left-wing extremist groups opposed to the policies of the G8, a grouping of industrialised nations that comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12310888.htm]

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Protesters Carry Out Series of Attacks Ahead of G8 Summit

Protesters in Germany have attacked a luxury hotel where the next G8 summit will be held in June. The action comes just days after an arson attack on a politician's house. Meanwhile politicians bicker over who will pay for the massive security operation.
Anti-globalization protests have become a routine part of the annual G8 economic summits, and activism against the meeting in Germany planned for June 2007 has already started -- with attacks this week on a politician's house and the luxury hotel that will host world leaders.
The Kempinski Grand Hotel in Heiligendamm on Germany's Baltic coast was attacked with paint balls in the early hours of Thursday morning. According to the interior minister of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the hotel is located, the attack caused damage to a value of ?1,900 ($2,500). Leaders from the G8 member states will meet in the hotel at the summit in June 2007.
An unnamed group sent a letter to the German news agency DPA claiming
responsibility and writing that the attack was a prelude to a series of protests against the summit. "It doesn't matter how many police are on the ground," the letter read. "There are more of us and we want to be at the site. And we will manage to do that."

According to a spokeswoman for the hotel, three or four paint balls were used in the attack. "The damage was small but ugly," she said. The paint was removed from the hotel by cleaners, and the hotel has since beefed up security on its grounds.

It is the second anti-G8 attack in two days. In the early hours of Tuesday morning there was an arson attack on a house in Hamburg belonging to Thomas Mirow, a state secretary in the federal Finance Ministry. Mirow's wife's car was set on fire and paint balls were thrown against the wall of the house.
Mirow described the attack as "an act of banal violence of rare
senselessness," saying that it was not the way to gain support for a fair world order.

The arson attack was the 37th protest in Germany to date by militant G8 opponents, according to a police spokesperson from the special "Kavala" police unit which has been created for the G8 summit.
A massive fence around Heiligendamm
The Group of Eight industrial nations, or G8, has for years been the target of protests from anti-globalization protesters, who call it a club of rich nations and criticize it for failing to solve global problems like climate change and abject poverty. Annual G8 summits have been the focus of at times violent protests, most notably at the 2001 summit in Genoa.
Germany assumes the presidency of the G8 group at the start of 2007, and will host the summit on June 6-7.

Heinz Fromm, president of Germany's Office for the Protection of the
Constitution -- its domestic intelligence agency -- told German daily Die Welt on Friday that he expected more protests from globalization opponents ahead of the Heiligendamm summit. "We have been observing strong efforts towards mobilization (in the activist scene) for a long time," he said, adding that militants were planning a campaign of "continuous attacks on institutions and people who represent the phenomenon of globalization."
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's state premier Harald Ringstroff told DPA on Wednesday that opponents of the summit would be given a platform for peaceful protests. "It's part of our democracy that each individual is allowed to give his or her opinion -- and there are very good reasons for some criticisms," said the politician, who belongs to the left-of-center Social Democratic Party.
Still, a huge security operation is planned to cope with the 100,000
protesters which police are expecting. As part of security precautions, a massive fence will be built around the resort town of Heligendamm, with construction work planned to begin on January 2. The costs for the over 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) long and 2.5-meter (8.2-feet) high barrier are expected to be over $12.5 million ($16.5 million).

Squabbles over money
Ringstroff is currently embroiled in a debate about who will pay the
summit's bills -- which are meant to be split between the federal government and the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state government.
The summit is currently estimated to cost a total of $92 million, over twice an earlier estimate of $45 million, but still significantly below the? 120 million cost of the 2005 summit in Gleneagles in Scotland. The federal government has said it will pay around $23 million of those costs -- leaving Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to come up with the remainder, around $68 million.

However, Ringstroff told DPA that the costs for the state would be
significantly lower than the oft-quoted ?68 million figure. He said
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania would "not bear the main share of the costs."
The main sticking point is who will pay for the use of police from other German states, which is estimated to cost around $34 million. Currently Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is responsible for these costs. However SPD politicians from the state have recently called for the federal government to pay for the extra police, warning that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania might not be able to host the summit if the federal government does not provide more money. The federal government responded by saying that relocating the summit was not a serious proposition. Ringstroff told DPA that solutions for meeting the costs of police from other states were "in the offing."
Originally the summit was supposed to cost the state only $10 million. Critics however claim that Ringstroff knew the real costs of the summit as early as January 2006 but did not want to make them public ahead of state elections in September 2006.

[http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,457017,00.html]

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Another razzia in Berlin

On the night from Friday to Saturday (12/13.01.2007) police entered for asecond time in this month the space of automoust center in Berlin "KÖPI".
This time they focused on the rooms of the cultural venue located in the hause. About 50 riot poliocmen and some other state-officials (there is still not information of what institutions ecactly were involved) occupied for about 1 hour these rooms and the yard of the house. They did not manage to enter any other community rooms or the house itself. Appart of the tipical harrasments during the ride they focused obviouslyon all materials (posters, flayers, banners, stickers ...) related to the anti-g8-mobilisation. Witnesses talk about some anti-g8 stickers being literaly "scratched down" out of the walls.
The people in the house were taken by surprise. However in about 1 hour around 100 people arrived to Köpi from all around the city to bring the end to this occupation. Supporters gathered on the street out of Köpi while people of the house locked themselves inside. Some people were watching police activities inside the rooms. When the pressure of the supporters on the cops become toescalate on the street police decided to get away. Angry people helped them with some faying objects.
In spontanious reaction on this obvious provocation, and certainly begining of the longer police strategy connected to the anti-g8 activities going on in the city, about 70 people blocked some streets and conduct spontanious demonstration through Kreuzberg-district in the middle of the night. Demonstration was stopped by cops after about 30 minutes. I do not have information about any arrestments so far.

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Invitation to the PGA Wintermeeting

• www.pgaconference.org • www.agp.org • AGP.ORG

Friday, 23rd of February to Sunday, 25th of February 2007
in the Rote Flora, Hamburg evaluation, network tools, future gathering and continuation of common projects and actions
Please send contributions to the winter meeting on the various issues if you can't be there, especially on the various projects started during the conference.

Friday evening
starting at 6 pm in the Rote Flora: food, welcoming, presentation and exchange of infos...
Saturday
starting at 9 am with breakfast and at 10 am with setting up the program of the day (when to take food, breaks, what space for which topics, additions,...)

A Evaluation
• Evaluation of the last conference
• Evaluation of the continuation of projects arising from the last conference like server network, autonomous spaces, movin'europe caravan , kids group, racism group, global war and energy group and others...

B Pga tools / Newsletter, website and infopoints
• spreading existing documents : pga presentation (there's is an update to be done), newsletter and reports of the conference
• infopoints : spreading the survey, contacting groups and organizing the webpage
• edition of the coming issue of the PGA newsletter / content

C Perspectives
• perspective about the next conference :
regional meetings
debate about forms and content
next convenors
in the evening there is the option to ask people from / related to Hafenstrasse to discuss a bit or make a short overview of the history and situation now, if there is an interest (please announce befor the weekend) Anyway there are also pubs in the project to visit and some other places...

Sunday
same structure like Saturday: starting at 9 am with breakfast and at 10 am with setting up the program of the day
A. Infos exchanges and coordination
(various ideas depending on participants involvment and interest) :
• G8, no border camps and other international projects of campaigns and actions in the coming months. updating about it so that we can bring infos and ideas in our own networks
• update on the chiaps ecuecentro and possible links with pga
• update on oaxaca solidarity actions
• update on international squatting solidarity (f.e. Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen)

B. various practical works
...could be done about the newsletter, content of the website...
There could be also skill exchanges for next people interested concerning the organisation of conferences : contacts, visa, money, structures, logistic whatever...
---...---
For special needs at the meeting contact us, so that we are aware and/or can try to support you and announce in general when you plan to participate that we can coordinate and calculate.
A map of the location see here
Please bring material about local activities (especially related to our topics) with you to exchange media and other material for the pga infopoints.
Hope to see you (on the barricades and elsewhere),
pga infopoint hamburg

contact: schwarzmarkt-pga riseup.net