[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] May 12th, Heiligendamm – Russia

[International Newsletter]

May 12th, Heiligendamm – Russia

- G 8 BREAKING NEWS !! police declares protest march on june 7th illegal
- Call of La Via Campesina, 11th of May 2007
- "Speak with them": Spaces for Voices from the South in Heiligendamm
- The Summit "Russia-European Union" - repressions against Libertarian Forum
- Anti-G8 militants feeling rejuvenated after German police crackdown
- Germany-G8-Violence
- Minister threatens to place G8 opponents in custody

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!! G 8 BREAKING NEWS !! police declares protest march on june 7th illegal

Incredible! As reported today on indymedia Germany
http://www.germany.indymedia.org/2007/05/176460.shtml a spokesman of the
Einsatzleitung of the police declared the planned international anti-G 8
protest march in Rostock on june the 7th for illegal and forbidden!

The protest march was planned that way: many marches from Bad Doberan,
Kühlungsborn, Nienhagen, Kröpelin unite in Heiligendamm to one march.

Police yesterday said these marches have to be cancelled completely because they
could make it impossible for police and for first aid to act freely.

Organisations and members of the german anti-G 8 movement will go to court to
fight for their right to protest.

German conservative press, like Focus and Die Welt came up with all sort of
lies: a journalist with the pseudonym hal wrote that left-winged terrorists
would threaten to execute G 8 members:
http://www.welt.de/politik/article864740/G-8-Gegner_sollen_Exekutionen_erwogen_haben.html

And more repression: minister Schäuble plans, with the help of old 3rd Reich
laws, pre-emtive arrests:
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,482291,00.html
no G 8 !

[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370354.html]


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Call of La Via Campesina, 11th of May 2007

G8 feeds the corporations, Join us in Rostock to feed alternatives!
The heads of state and government of the world's eight wealthiest and most
powerful countries will meet from June 6-8 in Heiligendamm on the Baltic Sea in
Northeastern Germany. These eight governments decide and implement neo-liberal
policies that increase the number of hungry people in the world, that bring war
in most of the regions, that deepen the environmental crisis and that create
social unrest worldwide. Small-scale farmers, peasant and landless workers
worldwide are among the first victims of these policies. The trade
liberalization and privatisation policies they impose steal our resources and
our knowledges and make it increasingly difficult for us to make a living from
agriculture. Their environmental irresponsibility destroys the biodiversity and
the natural wealth we depend on for our livelihoods. Among the 854 millions of
hungry people in the world, three-quarters are rural people. The millions of
migrants who are denied their basic rights and of unemployed urban poor living
in shanty towns are our brothers and sisters who have been chased away from
their land. We believe that the current agricultural crisis, that goes along
with a huge environmental, social and cultural crisis, is not a fatality. Food
sovereignty, agrarian reform, re-localization of the food production and
sustainable peasant-based agriculture are genuine alternatives to the
neo-liberal impasse.
We will come to Rostock to demand the right for the new generation to become
farmers! We will come to Rostock to say that farmers worldwide, not
transnational companies, are able to feed the world! We will come to Rostock to
demand Food sovereignty and Agrarian reform now!
We call farmers in Europe and worldwide, young people and all citizens, to join
the mobilisations in Rostock to protest against the G8 and call for
alternatives.
June 2: International protest rally June 3: Action day on agriculture
* 10:00 Demonstration against GMOs, supermarkets and corporate-controlled
agriculture
* 18:30 Youth Assembly for the Right to land and to farming, Mau Club, Rostock
June 5-7: Alternative Summit June 6: Blockades
End Corporate control over our food! Access to land and agriculture for the
Youth !

For more information: Morgan Ody, +32 22 17 31 12; morganody at yahoo.fr


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"Speak with them": Spaces for Voices from the South in Heiligendamm

Planned by: John Holloway (Mexico), Dorothea Haerlin and Oliver Pye (attac
Germany), and Jai Sen (CACIM, India)

Bringing voices from the South to Heiligendamm - not to speak as much about them
but with them - is the aim of an intercontinental exchange of experiences on the
occasion of the G8 Summit. The main focus of the project is on the direct
encounter between people from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe in a
full-day workshop with John Holloway (see aim 1) and appointments for possible
media networking across continents for long-term co-operation (2). The meeting
of theorists (Ana Esther Cecena, Chico Whitaker, John Holloway, Jai Sen, etc.)
with activists from all continents enables a debate on "Open Space" as a new
approach to enhance theory. (3). Furthermore, there is the idea of a Speakers
Tour to include people in the discussion process who were not able to travel to
Heiligendamm (4).

A. Planned Events (large public event, workshops, speakers tour, etc.)

Berlin:
30th May:
Large inaugural event in the Grips Theatre Berlin with Chico Whitaker (WSF),
Wangui Mbatia (People's Parliament), etc.

31st May:
Discussion event in Berlin (Haus der Demokratie):
"You are 8 - We are everywhere" (preliminary title suggestion) John Holloway
discusses with friends from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Rostock
June 3rd:
Full-day workshop with John Holloway at the Camp:
"Another World Is Possible - yes - but it exists already despite- against-and
beyond capitalism". A global exchange of experiences between people from
Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.

June 4th:
Morning at the camp: Debate about "Open Space as an open theory approach"

June 6th:
Afternoon at the Alternative Summit: "Open Space - New Ways in Theory and
Practice"

Before and after the Summit: Speakers' Tour through several cities

People interested can contact:
Dorothea Haerlin: dorotheahaerlin at gmx.de
Oliver Pye: oliver.pye at web.de

B. Aim:

1. Direct Exchange of Experiences:
At the big camp near Heiligendamm a space shall be created for a direct exchange
of experiences between people from different continents that have already
started to realise a life in dignity despite-against-and beyond capitalism.

During my visit in Kenya just after the WSF in Nairobi to women's groups, youth
support projects in the slums and a water project in the rural area, I kept
thinking: A direct contact with people from other continents that I have
already met in the slums of Buenos Aires, in Chiapas/Mexico, the "Assembly of
the poor" / Thailand or in Venezuela, to enable a space and look for travel
funding for people from the South for a direct exchange of experiences could be
an important task for people from the North. This is the aim of a full- day
workshop on June 3rd at the G8 Camp, organised together with John Holloway.

2. Media Networking:
In all continents projects are being developed with a common aim of visualising
people without a voice, "Sin Vox", in a through alternative media. Building a
network of these projects is therefore another aim. We would like to invite
several people who are active in alternative media. Shannon Walsh, a Canadian
filmmaker working in South Africa, has offered to accompany this project and
others during the G8, a valuable documentation for further work.

3. Open Space:
Looking for another world, we need another, new theory formation. The
participation of people like John Holloway, Ana Esther Cecena, Chico Whitaker,
Nicola Bullard and others that have been invited to the Alternative Summit
provides a great chance for a debate between theorists and activists.
This exchange of ideas shall occur in two workshops about "Open Space". The
debate started in Nairobi already on initiative of CACIM (Critical Action
Centre in Movement, India) and CCS (Centre for Civil Society, South Africa) in
several workshops. The approach "Open Space" is to be discussed at the camp and
then at the Alternative Summit as a new theoretical approach, also in
preparation for a planned conference on the same topic in New Delhi (India)
next autumn, and also in preparation for the other form of next year's (2008)
WSF as global action days.

4. Learning from the South:
Those that cannot travel to Heiligendamm should be enabled to participate in the
discussion by a Speakers Tour and meet the guests from the South that have
travelled so far. Their reports from every- day life are an important
contribution to counter the negative images from these continents existing in
the North. They are often portrayed as people without money, food, peace,
education, etc. as if they were nothing. Still, they are living their lives,
laugh at least as much as people in the North, mostly more and have maintained
traditions of solidarity or built them from scratch, from necessity, yes, but
can't we also find the beginnings of another world that we are looking for in
the "cold North" ?

This project is far from finished - unfortunately, we also do not have the funds
yet - and we welcome any kind of support (financing ideas, co-operation on
contents for the individual events, looking after guests, help with
translations also outside of events, etc.).

Please contact the current organisers:
Dorothea Haerlin, dorotheahaerlin at gmx.de
Oliver Pye, oliver.pye at wed.de

For the Speakers Tour:
Oliver Pye, oliver.pye at web.de

Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
www.cacim.net
Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, 2433 2451

Check out the OpenSpaceForum @ www.openspaceforum.net

Subscribe to WSFDiscuss, an open and unmoderated forum on the World Social Forum
and on related social and political movements and issues. Simply send an empty
email to worldsocialforum-discuss- subscribe at openspaceforum.net

And, NEW ! : Join CEOS at openspaceforum.net, the CEOS (Critical Engagement with
Open Space) listserve for exchange and coordination on open space theory and
practice and to facilitate a critical discussion of the idea of 'open space'.
Just send an empty mail to CEOS-subscribe at openspaceforum.net


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The Summit "Russia-European Union" - repressions against Libertarian Forum

The repressions against "Intergalactic Libertarian Forum" which should take
place during the Summit "Russia - the European Union" on 16-18 of May have
begun in Samara (Russia). Yesterday May, 10 the police organised a search in
the public center. In this center the Coordinating Committee of the libertarian
forum was based. Coordinators of the Forum planned to held discussions and
working groups in different rooms on that center. Today, May 11, the building
of the public center has been closed by the local authorities.
Searches and the prohibition to enter the building blocked up the work of the
public center and several human rights and ecological NGOs (i.e. ?ssosiation
for the protection of the rights of the voters "VOICE", project "Maintenance of
the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly', youth cinemaclub etc.), although
the repressions were aimed at the Libertarian Forum but not these groups.

More information:
samaramay07 at rambler.ru
http://samara-may.livejournal.com/


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Anti-G8 militants feeling rejuvenated after German police crackdown
Germany-G8-Violence

Militant opponents of the upcoming G8 summit, due to be held in the Baltic Sea
resort of Heiligendamm from June 6-8, feel they have gained the momentum to
stage violent protests during the meeting of world's richest nations following
the recent police crackdown in several north German cities.
Radical leftist and anti-globalization groups have pointed out that Wednesday's
police raids against the leftist militant scene will only increase tensions
ahead of the G8 summit which may lead to major violence.
A spokesman for a German radical leftist group lashed out at the de-escalation
strategy of the police.
"De-escalation is spelled differently," the weekly Der Spiegel news magazine
quoted Benjamin Laumeyer as saying.
Pointing to "different forms of actions", Laumeyer would not rule out the chance
of violence during the summit.
Another anti-globalization group 'Dissent Netzwerk' (Dissent Network) also
refused to distance itself from violence.
"Every protest has its legitimacy," a spokesperson was cited as saying.
A member of the anti-G8 group 'Block G8' accused police of working on an
escalation strategy.
"We want to prevent an escalation but it is not only in our hands", said
Christoph Kleine.
The recent police sweeps have led to a renewed solidarity wave in the leftist
camp, triggering massive mobilization efforts.
Only hours after the police raid, thousands of people took to the streets of
Berlin and Hamburg, leading to brief violent protests.
"We have never had such a mobilization potential," said Carl Kemper of 'Dissent
Netzwerk'.
Even more moderate groups of the anti-G8 movement, among them church and youth
groups, trade unions and leftist parties, have at least for now displayed
solidarity with the more radical elements.

Moderate and radical anti-globalization activists had been involved in heated
discussions in recent weeks over how to protest during the G8 meeting.
"There is an ongoing debate among anti-globalization groups as to how to protest
during the G8 summit. Some are calling for soft actions but some are calling for
more violent measures such as blocking airports and throwing stones," said the
spokesman of a Berlin-based VENRO non-government agency, Gerhard Gad.
"Groups like Attac have harsher positions," he added.
The anti-globalization organization Attac had strongly condemned Wednesday's
police raids urging massive anti-G8 protests.
"Our slogan is 'More than ever now: Support G8 protests!," Attac was cited
saying in a statement.
"We won't let ourselves to be intimidated. We will continue our information and
mobilization campaign against the neo-liberal world economic policy and
aggressive war policies of G8 members," it added.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to demonstrate against the G8 summit as
a record number of 16,000 police will be deployed to contain the protests,
making it the largest security operation in the history of Germany.
Protestors will also try to stage a sit-in at the military airport in the
northern city of Rostock-Laage where the G8 delegations are due to land, in a
bid to block their arrival.
The latest threats by hardline anti-globalization groups have further alarmed
German security officials in the wake of a series of fire-bombings on the homes
and vehicles on political and industrial leaders in Berlin and Hamburg.
German authorities warned that they will show no mercy on militants seeking to
disrupt the G8 summit.
The Interior Minister of Mecklenburg-West Pommerania Lorenz Caffier, whose state
will host the summit, announced police had the powers to impose up to 10 days of
preventive custody on potential offenders.
"We also have the possibility of speeding up court proceedings. We will do
everything to ensure a peaceful summit," added Caffier.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has already said that Germany will
reinstate border controls in a bid to prevent potential terrorists and
anti-globalization militants from entering the country.
There also plans for a suspension of the so-called Schengen accord which allows
passport-free travel arrangements for many European Union countries.
Police has established a special nationwide commission, codenamed 'Kavala' whose
primary function is to focus on all security issues related to the G8 meeting.
As part of the security measures, police have constructed a 2.5- meter-tall
barbed wire security fence around the conference site.
The cost of the 13-kilometer fence, equipped with closed-circuit video cameras,
is around 12.5 million euros.
The fence is also aimed at stopping anti-G8 militants from approaching the
conference center.
Protestors have already announced that they wanted to get as close to the site
of the G8 meeting as possible.

[http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0705122950150821.htm]


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Minister threatens to place G8 opponents in custody

Berlin - Extremists planning to disrupt next month's Group of Eight summit of
the world's richest nations could be placed in preventive custody ahead of the
meeting, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Friday.
Schaueble said in a series of press interviews that potential troublemakers
could be detained for up to two weeks if there are firm indications they are
planning criminal actions.
The minister has already announced that Germany was reimposing border checks in
efforts to quell violent protests at the June 6-8 summit in the Baltic Sea
resort of Heiligendamm.
Normally German borders are open and passengers on flights from many European
Union countries, the so-called Schengen nations, do not need to show passports.
The Interior Ministry said it needed to stop potential offenders, mainly
opponents of globalization, from entering Germany to protest at the summit.
Schaeuble said Germany expected an increased security threat during the summit.
He said the fact that Germany was not not subject to terrorist attacks during
major events such as last year's football World Cup 'does not mean we will be
spared this time.'
On Wednesday, police launched a crackdown against left-wing extremists believed
intent on disrupting the talks between leaders from Germany, Britain, Canada,
France, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia.
Some 900 officers searched 40 sites in six German states, confiscating
computers, data and other documents, but making no arrests.
The raids triggered peaceful protests by anti-globalization activists in several
cities, resulting in clashes with police in the northern port of Hamburg.
Prosecutors said militant leftists opposed to globalization had carried out a
series of petrol-bomb attacks over the past year on homes and cars of
industrialists and officials in Berlin and Hamburg.
German police say they expect 50,000 to 100,000 protesters to gather next month
near Heiligendamm. Most of the protesters were expected to peacefully listen to
anti-G8 songs at a pop concert.
But police unofficially estimate that 3 to 5 per cent of the protesters do not
subscribe to non-violence and might try to evade police roadblocks and fences
and invade the summit.

[http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1303038.php/Minister_threatens_to_place_G8_opponents_in_custody]