[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] February 12th 2007: Heiligendamm

[International Newsletter]

February 12th 2007: Heiligendamm

- Newsletter "shake g8 bikeride"
- UndoingCapitalism.
- Trade Unions on to the global arena!
- Concept of a Videoactivist network for mediawork around the G8 2007 in
Heiligendamm
- Global Invitation to: movinG8-RadioForum
- G8X Queer Resistance 2007 Germany

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsletter "shake g8 bikeride"

In your hands you hold the first newsletter of "shake g8 bikeride". It`s
the attempt to keep you up to date of the preperation process. A lot is
happening decentral and self- organised and having a summary isn't that
easy.

Infotour:

At the moment there is happening an eastern-europe infotour, which will
cover our route as well. It will be used to mobilise for the caravan and
also to contact and find possible stages on the way.

If you want to contact them, want to have an informational event in your
city, want to host the caravan, want to join it or just want to inform
yourself, you can write to resistencia07 at riseup.net

The route:

The caravan will start from Budapest. From 1.-5. april we want to get to
know each other there and find time to think about our structure, how to
find decisions, how to deal with media... From there we`ll head to Györ
(8. April), later to Bratislava (10. April), than north to Brno (14.
April), further to Wroclav (28. April) and Poznan (5. May). In Schwedt
(16th. May) we want to enter fortress Germoney. We are expecting
difficulties there and need support and publicity for it. After having
danced down the borders we are guest in the community "karlshof" which
are trying the concept of noncommercial agriculture. From there we`ll
join the other caravans in Wittstock, and together with them participate
in the go-in of the planned bomb-training area "bombodrom". ( up to 1.
June). United with all the others we`ll form an unstoppable wave which
will flood the G8...

"dancing down the borders" in Schwedt on 16.5.

We decided to cross the polish-german border in a no-border-action. The
german police will try to keep as much people as possible away from the
protest and a lot of activists will have problems in entering Germoney.
We want to focus publicity on the fact that even the
"schengen-agreement" will be interrupted and borders in general are a
constructed shit and should be abandoned. There`ll be a mobilisation
also from the german side and the press will be invited. The date will
be part of the anti-G8 choreography. This is a call to everyone to
particpate and to think about ways of de-masking the border-regimes of
the world.

Already organised stuff:

This is a rough summary of usable material, which has already been
organised. A tractor with a waggon will accompany us during our way. It
will carry cooking material, tools, costumes, first aid kids for bikes
and humans, as well as spare tires, maybe a laptop and space for more.
Though the tractor has an insurance and a good condition, we should be
prepared of having to leave it behind and having enough capacities on
our bikes. We'll have a fancy homepage from the end of february on and
the wiki, which we use for everything at the moment, will be just a
working-platform than. The adress is www.g8-bikerides.net At the moment
it's sending yourself directly to the wiki.

Next dates:

On the 23rd of february there will be a wonderfull benefit party in the
"drugstore" in berlin under the topic "tanks to spaceships" with djs and
maybe some bands. From the 24th-25th of february will be the next
preperational meeting in berlin. It will take place in the "OUBs", the
"Open University of Berlin". Starting time and how to get there will be
posted at the wiki.

Contact and infos:

the webpage, where you`ll find all infos and topics for the next meeting
will be collected is reachable under: www.g8-bikerides.net It's a page
we share with the "gr8chaoskaravaan", a caravan which starts in brussels
and which also heads to the G8.

You can contact the mailing-list fahrradkarawane07 at lists.riseup.net to
get in touch!

[www.g8-bikerides.net]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UndoingCapitalism.
Skills for Change

- Kapitalismus? Nein danke! - Antikapitalismus für alle - G8: Gebt Acht!
- Popular Education - Training for Change - Direct Education - Eine
andere Welt ist möglich - sexraceclass - Für eine Welt, in die viele
Welten passen - Caminamos preguntando -

Four workshops from 27th of April - 6th Mai 2007
- or if you want to: A ten-day workshop consisting of four sessions

in Schloss Trebnitz (northeast of Berlin)

What is the basic idea of these workshops?

It is not analysis of neoliberal globalisation which is missing, but
rather forms to transmit and exchange knowledge. And surely more ways to
inspire people to action! Political education from below, in the sense
of Popular Education, is underdeveloped within the globalisation
movement - and yet it´s not only way more fun than reading texts but it
also reaches and inspires more people.

In these four workshops you can experience and learn
-	about capitalism and anti-capitalism using popular education methods
- tools and approaches for training social activists to increase the
impact on vital progressive movements
- how to use all this for yourself and for ´teaching´ others, but also
to bring skills and awareness into a non-hierarchical organizing process
- to increase the democracy in our social movements.

Rosa Luxemburg-Foundation in cooperation with the Canadian Union of
Postal Workers and Training for Change.

II
Who will be doing the training?

Training for Change is a US-based group that spreads the skills of
democratic, nonviolent social change, with experience in countries of
the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Its concept of direct education
goes beyond the transmission of knowledge to focus on transformation:
both for workshop participants and for their ability to act within
society. It is based on the concept of popular education, which has its
roots in social movements and was first set out systematically by Paulo
Freire. Beginning with the lived reality of participants, visuals and
group dynamics are drawn upon heavily, rather than working from texts.
The objective is to be as inclusive as possible and, furthermore, to
draw upon the knowledge and abilities of all those involved.
Daniel Hunter is former Program Director for TfC who has facilitated
workshops in Africa, East Asia, India and Europe.
Erika Thorne is a Training Associate with TfC who has focused on
building effective coalitions, adressing racism, and daring to dream.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has been involved in the
global resistance movement as part of the network Peoples Global Action
since its very beginning. Besides, they´re an extraordinary example of
doing education in a different way: CUPW members join four weeks of
training on capitalism, sexism and racism. For many participants this is
changing their range of activism thoroughly: When in 2002 the G8, after
the events in Genua the year before, hid in the Canadian mountains,
Kananaskis, activists of the CUPW were the only ones crossing one
checkpoint after the other - ´delivering their mail to the G8 and,
finally, blockading the street.
Dave Bleakney is the CUPW´s National Union Representative for education
(Anglophone), he has held over a hundred workshops involving thousands
of workers.

III
What is each workshop about?

Anticapitalism for all
Fri., 27th April, 18.00 h - Sun., 29th April, 15.00 h

First we want to explore what anticapitalism means in our and other
peoples lifes - beyond dry analysis of capitalism but not without
understanding. Join us if you want to find out more about the issue,
and/ or if you´re thinking about spreading this to others. The session
will be directed towards addressing the interests of those who simply
come as participants, as well as those of people interested in the
further transmission of this knowledge as 'multipliers'.


Training for Social Action Trainers
Sun., 29th April, 18.00 h - Tue., 1st May, 15.00 h

Building on this, the second session will provide an opportunity to
depart from the role of participant and with guidance jump into
training, using the workshop as a learning laboratory. This is an
intensive training designed for activists wanting to inspire people, as
well as experienced facilitators wanting to take their skills to a new
level and learn how training can be used more effectively.

AS A PARTICIPANT, YOU WILL...

* Receive personal guidance from experienced trainers
* Take risks and try new approaches in a safe and supportive environment
* Increase your training options, refine your skills, and learn from
each other

IV

Advanced Training of Trainers
Tue., 1st May, 18.00 h - Fri., 4th May, 15.00 h

Deepen and broaden your facilitation skills in an advanced workshop open
only to those having attended the Training for Social Action Trainers,
or have experience. Together we'll tackle some of training's biggest
challenges - including doing cross-cultural work, handling conflict and
strong emotions, modifying workshop designs on the fly. And we will
experiment with new solutions.
In this three-day workshop, developing the ability to work with groups
and organizations will continue. The AdToT is not only of interest to
´teachers´. On the contrary, the more activists and concerned people are
able to develop these skills, the more democratic and effective our
social change work will be.

AS A PARTICIPANT, YOU WILL...

* Receive in-depth, personal coaching on your goals
* Prepare for cross-cultural work, including international training
* Learn about more training tools and how to use them effectively
* Use more practice time to experiment with new approaches in a
supportive setting

IV

Class Matters
Fri., 4th May, 18.00 h - Sun., 6th May, 15.00 h

The housing activists were stumped - they couldn't get people from the
local housing project to come to their meetings."Nobody there cares
enough to do anything!" they said.

CLASS IS THE MISSING PIECE
These were experienced activists. But like a lot of organizers, they
didn't have an awareness of the power of economic and social class. As a
result, they experienced frustration with other groups and their
organizing was less than effective.

CLASS INFLUENCES OUR ACTIVISM
Social class influences our lives subtly yet powerfully. It affects how
we feel about ourselves and how we treat each other. It influences how
much money we get in our lifetimes -- and how long our lives will be.
It's also influencing our activism, probably more than we realize.

Like racism, class prejudice gets in the way of effective
coalition-building. Like sexism and homophobia, it can deprive our
activist groups of the contributions of all. Unlike those forces,
classism is rarely brought out in the open. That makes it even more
powerful!

WHY IS CLASS SO HARD TO SEE SOMETIMES?
Class is everywhere. But from an early age, most of us were trained not
to see it. We were taught that our modern society is "classless," or
that we're all middle class. That training can make the effects of class
hard to spot at first.

ADRESS A TABOO: CLASS
Learn about class dynamics in groups and social movements.
Strengthen your activism for a deeper level of social change.


What we would like to add:

These workshops are part of the mobilisation for the protests against
the G8 summit in Heiligendamm/ Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in June 2007. But
at the same time they aim toward a movement beyond this event - a
movement for another world, and for a life that we like.

V
Organizational stuff

4 workshops in 1 - what does it mean?

You can take all four workshops for an intense, extensive training
experience. It´s a rare opportunity, and we recommend it! You can also
attend just one, two or three, according to your time and special interests.

And if my English is not sufficient?
Noch ein Hinweis auf deutsch und in anderen Sprachen:

deutsch: Diese Workshops werden auf Englisch stattfinden. Doch wollen
wir mit Flüsterübersetzung durch Freiwillige arbeiten: für Deutsch, und
wenn möglich für jede andere benötigte Sprache (in diesem Fall meldet
Euch bitte vorher!).
Es braucht also niemand Englisch beherrschen, aber alle benötigen eine
Offenheit dafür, dass nicht alle dieselbe Sprache sprechen. Genau wie im
richtigen Leben!

Castellano: Estos talleres serán en Inglés. En caso de que necesites una
traducci?n al castallano o otro idioma por personas voluntarias durante
el seminario: contáctanos antes por favor!

Français: La langue sera anglaise. Si tu as besoin de Française ou
d´autre langue par une personne volontaire pendant le workshop, prend
contact avec nous à l'avance s´il te plaît.

English: If you need any other language than English: Please get in
contact with us in time!
So no-one needs to be perfect in English, but we all need an
appreciation of the fact that not everyone speaks the same language.
Just like everywhere else!

VI
What will it cost you?

Before we tell, be beware:

- We will account your travel costs with the fee.
- The money is used for helping those from far away (including from
other countries) with their travel costs, to allow to participate; the
workshops themselves are fully subsidised.
- We don´t want you to stay off for money reasons. Instead: Sign in, pay
in advance (also as a kind of protective charge in order to ensure that
free spaces will not be wasted just because some people didn´t mean it
seriously when they signed in), and we´ll deal with it when you´re on
the seminar. Promissed.

* For the exact prices, see the Registration Form.

Registration Form

In case you register by e-mail, please give all information asked for in
the registration form below, and send it to:

habermann at rosalux.de

I register bidingly for

* all the workshops: 27th April - 6th May (100 €)
* the first workshop Anticapitalism for Everyone: 27th-29th April (20 €)
* the second workshop Training for Social Action Trainers: 29th
April-1st May (20 €)
* the third workshop Advanced Training of Trainers: 1st- 4th May (40 €)
* the fourth workshop Class Matters: 4th-6th May (20 €)

My Contact Info

* Name
* Address
* Phone
* E-mail
* remarks/ questions

Dietary and Medical Needs General Meal Preference:

Vegan (no animal products)
Vegetararian
Meat
Are there any foods you cannot eat? Please describe.

Child Care
If you need child care, please get in touch with us in advance.

Please registrate as soon as possible.

VII

Location:
Schloß Trebnitz Bildungs- und Begegnungszentrum e.V.
Platz der Jugend 6
15374 Müncheberg OT Trebnitz
Tel. 033477 519-0

Arriving by train:
Every two hours there are trains departing Berlin-Lichtenberg into the
direction Küstrin/Kostrzyn; after 50 min. travel get off at the station
Trebnitz. It takes another 10 min. walk to the castle. After
registration, we will send you more detailed information.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stop the G 8 Summit -
Trade Unions on to the global arena!

As trade union members from many countries we are part of the protest
against the G-8 summit 2007 in Heiligendamm. Like no other international
institution, these annual
summit meetings are symbols of world-wide neoliberal dominance. World
economic summits serve global coordination and division of power. That
way they stabilise the neoliberal world economic order with its ever
worse consequences for the majority of the people. An elitist minority
in that context appropriates the wealth that millions of people produce.

We support the protest against imperial power strategies and wars,
against the predatory exploitation of nature and the ever more
threatening climatic change. As against its promises, global capitalism
drives humanity into existential crisis. Without peace, nothing is worth
it. And without an answer to the threatening climatic catastrophe
nothing is worth it either.

The globalisation of capital and labour markets has placed the employees
in a world-wide competition against one another. Without scruples, the
workforces of individual countries, branches and locations are played
out against one another - in a dumping competition for jobs, working
conditions, wages and human dignity. As union members we therefore demand:
	
* The core work norms are a human right and must be imposed as human
rights. Among them there count the rights to the founding of trade
unions and to the conduct of

collective bargaining, the abolition of child and forced labour in work
and profession. Infringements must be made public and be followed by
harsher sanctions.
* Legal maximum work time: Work redistribution is the decisive means
against an unemployment 200 million high and 1.4 billon "working poor"
world-wide. Productivity advances must become social progress by way of
cuts in work time: the 30 hour-week being the goal, the 40 hour-week
must become the world-wide legal maximum labour time.
* Minimal wages that already exist, even if inadequately so, must become
world-wide minimal standard. At 60% of the respective national average
wage, they must be allowed to unfold global validity.
* Systems of public existential services and guarantees for the future
must be built up or respectively protected against privatisation and
commercialisation. Health, education, public security and the natural
bases of life should not become merchandise.
* Business protection and participation rights must be regulated by law
in order to guarantee the employees minimal protection against arbitrary
treatment by the employers.

The relationship of forces between capital and labour has dramatically
shifted to the benefit of capital in the course of globalisation. Global
financial markets and firms acting across borders in the meantime
dispose of a gigantic potential for extortion face to the nation states
(tax and environmental dumping, deregulation of labour markets) and face
to the trade unions organised solely on the basis of the nation state.

We have to get out of this historical defensive by staying right on the
heels of capital, overcome linguistic barriers and mutual ignorance and
recognise the communalities in our interests, cooperate across frontiers
at all levels of trade union activity and get together for protest and
resistance, for instance on occasion of the strike demonstration against
the Bolkestein directive, of the international strikes of the harbour
workers and sailors and now in June 2007 against the World Economic
Summit in Heiligendamm.

We know that we are still at the beginning of this road. Yet we also
know that only by the overcoming of competition among each other and
with the help of globally acting trade unions we will be able to
effectively counter globally acting capital.

Signatories
(Selection, an official publication with all first signatories will follow)

Detlef Baade, Business Councillor/Schweb representation/K-Sbv, Hamburg
Hagen Battran, GEW District chairman, Freiburg
Gerd Buddin, Vice chairman of the trade union ver.di, District of Berlin
Patrick von Brandt, ver.di Regional district youth secretary, Lower
Saxony-Bremen
Jeanine Geißler, ver.di youth education secretary, Hannover
Werner Dreibus, authorised representative of IG Metall, Offenbach
Roland Hamm, first authorised representative, IG Metall, Aalen
Ralf Krämer, ver.di trade union secretary, Berlin
Walter Mayer, IG Metall trade union secretary on pension, Berlin
Bernd Riexinger, ver.di District executive chairman, Stuttgart
Werner Sauerborn, ver.di trade union secretary, Stuttgart
Heidi Scharf, first authorised representative IG Metall, Schwäbisch-Hall
Michael Schlecht, ver.di trade union secretary, Berlin
Berno Schuckart, collegial representation, ver.di Hamburg
Sibylle Stamm, ver.di regional chairman, Baden-Württemberg
Roland Tremper, ver.di district executive chairman, Berlin
and many others.....

Contact:
Dirk Spöri, spoeri at gmx.net, tel. 0160 7942195, Auwaldstr. 29, 79110 Freiburg
Werner Sauerborn, werner.sauerborn at t-online.de
Translation: Carla Krüger; carlakrueger at t-online.de

[Trade Unionists against competition for location and world-wide wage
dumping]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Concept of a Videoactivist network for mediawork around the G8 2007 in
Heiligendamm

The Videoactivist-Network consists of filmmakers, who have set the goal
to help activists to present their own story and publicize it through
the medium of video. There have already been work-meetings on this
topic, 3-4 times a year, since spring 2005. These meetings have
consisted of existing networks as well as various groups and individuals.

The current focus of the network is the mobilization for and reporting
on the anti-G8 protests. To this point, we have discussed the following
concept, which we would like to present here:

Basics of Videoactivism

Videorecordings will be published on indymedia or similar structures.
Filmed actions will generally be pixelated, ie. people will be made
unrecognizable unless the filmed person has explicitly said otherwise.
The transmission of recordings by a legal-public or a private "program
institution" is only at the wish of the group being filmed. The one
exception is release of video to expose Nazis.
All material will be furnished with a logo to make "license offenses"
harder. We will provide a contact to handle questions for footage from
the press.

Before the Summit

Videos about globalization will be produced and published. A collection
of films on that topic will be put together for arthouse cinemas, public
access TV channels, and other venues. This collection is intended for
screening before the summit, but will be shown during and afterwards as
well. A specialized website for the purpose of distributing videos
around the g8 will be built or linked to from an existing site. We hope
to make multilingual subtitles available, and for that aim, we begin to
build a pool of translators.

During the Summit

Production of videoclips for the internet, to download or stream, as
well as temporary live-streams. This will provide up-to-date video
coverage of the summit from our perspective.

Working together with other media

We wish to work together with free radios and other videoactivists. To
this end, we seek preparatory discussions on the local, regional,
national, and international levels.
On the level of information exchange, we hope for cooperation with NGOs.

Infrastructure

The videoactivist network favors more decentralized locations for A/V
production. A mobile editting studio will be installed. An info-dispatch
for media activists should be build to collect and verify information.

Contact

videoactivism at nadir.org
g8-mediaactivism at lists.nadir.org

[videoactivism at nadir.org]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global Invitation to: movinG8-RadioForum
Bundesverband Freier Radios

Call for alternative G8-radio-coverage!

On the occasion of the G8-summit 2007, various counter-events and
actions are scheduled to take place in Northern Germany. At the start of
a week of protests (2nd to 8th June) approx. 100.000 people are expected
in Rostock and the surrounding area of the official venue of the summit
(Heiligendamm). This will include a large number of journalists and
media activists.

The German association of Free Radio Broadcasters (BFR) and the european
branch of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
(AMARC-Europe) are issuing a global call to participate in alternative
G8-radio-coverage!

We want to create a jointly organised and co-ordinated program of
different radios and radio groups to broadcast in as many languages as
possible. The basis of coverage is non-commercial and emancipatory. This
also means critical self-analysis of activities by the movement of those
who are opposed to globalisation in its current form.

The purpose of the coverage is to have continuous production of short
radiosegments and (live)broadcasts. The program developed on the spot
will be streamed via internet by as many radio stations as possible and
transmitted locally. The broadcast location will most likely be in an
independent media centre in Rostock. Four or five internet-audio-streams
are planned to allow simultaneous multilingual broadcasts. Depending on
needs and possibilities, there will be additional production sites.
(Please bring your own notebook computers, recorders and equipment.) In
order to allow "correspondents" or interested private individuals to
participate, we advise registering by April 30th (see below).

Broadcasts and segments can also be produced in advance. The deadline is
April 30th. Prior to the start of the protests, a multilingual "raise
your voice" - program will inform people about the impact of neo-liberal
politics on the local context of your radio stations. The goal is also a
critical examination of (new) social movements. We are interested to see
what social struggles have produced what experiences? What role does /
did your radio station play in this process?

We also aim to make this co-operation a space for social interaction and
to provide an opportunity to reflect on the different practice of free
radios. Active co-operation during such major events means creating
(counter-) publicity. This can be achieved by using structures and means
of production that reach beyond the influence of money and goods, e.g.
horizontal organizational structures, co-production, copyleft (free of
copyright restrictions). We want self- responsibility to create
non-discriminatory broadcasts! No racist, sexist, anti-Semitic,
war-mongering or other misanthropic content will be broadcast.

You are heartily welcome! We need your support!
supported by: AMARC - World Social Forum 2007, Nairobi, Kenya

You can also participate by:

- circulating this announcement
- pers. / techn. commitments, setting up g8-editorial staff
- taking responsibility for many little duties in Rostock
- participating in a preparatory conference Rostock III
 13.-15.04.07 - www.heiligendamm2007.de (ger../engl.)

contact (engl./span./french/ger.): g8 at freie-radios.de
Internet: www.freie-radios.de / www.amarc.org

Support for travel costs can not be guaranteed for the
moment. Perhaps with the help of donations? (see box)

-------------------------------
Donation-account:
Bank: OSPA Rostock
adr.: Am Voegenteich 23
acc.-name: RadioForum
IBAN: DE22130500000200068180
SWIFT: NOLADE21ROS
(tax-deductible)
catchword: broadcasting
or: legal aid
or: travel costs
------------------------------

P.S.: If this invitation serves for applications of visas: The BFR is
not responsible for travel or stay of participants.

Bundesverband Freier Radios
c/o Radio Unerhört Marburg
R.-Bultmann-Str. 2b 35039
Marburg


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G8X Queer Resistance 2007 Germany

Come and get involved in queering up the resistance to the G8 summit, in
north Germany 7-9 June. Currently there are ideas for a ..barrio" within
the large activists` camp near Rostock, to make the camp more ... camp.
>From this base we can organize actions and take part in demonstrations
as a visible queer bloc. There are also ideas to hold a preparation week
in Berlin at the end of May, including workshops, actions and a queer
performance night.This site will be updated regularly, so keep checking
to see how the plans develop.
Next meeting of the Berlin-based crew is on 25th of February 2007, 6 pm.
Venue: Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, Kreuzberg, Berlin

[http://queersagainstg8.blogspot.com]