[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] May 18th 2007, Heiligendamm

[International Newsletter]

May 18th 2007, Heiligendamm

- G8: Urgent appeal lodged against demonstration ban
- Call for a Superhero Block at the G8 2007
- Flash Radio is a podcast from and about the G8 2007 in Heiligendamm Germany.
- NEWS!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G8: Urgent appeal lodged against demonstration ban.
If necessary, the 'star-march' coalition plan to take matters all the way to the
federal courts.
G8 countries' foreign policies are given as the reason for the "police
emergency".

Press Release May 18th 2007
[Gipfelsoli Infogruppe | International Press Group]

All demonstrations in the vicinity of Heiligendamm have been prohibited under a
General Ban issued by the German Office for Association. The grounds behind the
fence and a 4 kilometre area around the perimetre of the fence fall under the
ban. With this ban, the protests are to be held at a 6 kilometre distance.

The planned 'star march' is one of the initiatives that is affected by these
measures. With the motto, 'taking the protest to Heiligendamm', the star march
is intended to end with a closing rally in Heiligendamm. Today, the star march
coalition is lodging an urgent appeal against the ruling. A decision is
expected at the end of next week. "If necessary, we will have our right to
protest confirmed by the federal courts", a speaker for the star march
coalition said. The prohibited area stretches from the camp in Reddelich almost
all the way to the camp in Wichmannsdorf. A speaker of the BAO "Kavala" has
declared that a congregation of 3 people within this area is illegal under the
ruling. "This means that we can't even leave the camp in groups of 3 and walk
next to one another without the police breaking us up", says a camp participant
of the WomenLesbianTransgender Network. The rationale for the ban, according to
"Kavala", lies with the foreign policies of the G8 countries. A "latent threat
situation" exists for the representatives of the G8 countries because of the
wars in "Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine". Even
the German Government is perceived as endangered, because of its "increasing
engagement in conflict regions". What is meant is the war in Afghanistan.

Hanne Jobst of the Gipfelsoli Infogruppe finds this reasoning absurd: "Protest
is forbidden because it would have negative effects for foreign
decision-makers. The G8 makes decisions that affect the lives of millions of
people every day, without the legitimacy to do so, yet in the opinion of the
police, the G8 should not have to be subjected to these people's anger".

Even popstar Herbert Groenemeyer has to admit this: "There is real anger", he
explained in the German newspaper 'taz' the day before yesterday.

Conicidentally, this week in Scotland, charges against five activists who were
arrested and detained on their way to a closing demonstration at the conference
hotel in Gleneagles during the 2005 G8 summit, were dropped. "As always during
summit protests the police use arbitrary and often illegal measures to prevent
protest from reaching those it seeks to criticise", Gerda Achterhuis of the
Dutch Dissent network argues. "The move to ban the demonstration does not
surprise us. However, we will not let ourselves be intimidated and will
continue to mobilise for the star march and all other actions against the G8
meeting."

Gipfelsoli Infogruppe: +49 0160 95314023
International Press Group: +49 160 92437902

Background:
Public statement of the police department Rostock (detailed justification for
the ban, 23 pages): http://gipfelsoli.org/Repression/1701.html


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call for a Superhero Block at the G8 2007

The Dispensables and precarious Superheroes called The Unbeatables are calling
for a block at the mass demonstration and at the mass blockades against the G8
summit. Both entities are part of the ongoing struggles to understand and
resist contemporary conditions of precarity of live and work.

The "Dispensables" and precarious Superheroes called "The Unbeatables" are
calling for a block at the mass demonstration and at the mass blockades against
the G8 summit. Together with tens of thousands of others, The Dispensables and
the Superheroes will take part in the mass demonstration and the mass blockades
during the G8 summit in northern Germany, Heiligendamm.

The Dispensables* wear white masks and red hoodies, occupying social welfare
offices in countries where they are disappearing and invaded and ate from the
plates of the rich and the political establishment in a Berlin restaurant.

The Superheroes have appeared over the past years in various settings: from mega
barrios in the slums in Mexico to Superflex and Spidermum in the Euromayday
parade in Milan. Also in Hamburg, activists, dressed as comic heroes, robbed
groceries from a luxury delicatessen shop, distributed the booty amongst the
precarious and called on people to join them in the Euromayday parade in
Hamburg.

A common element of these diverse activities is that they highlight the
invisibility of most precarious working and living conditions. They feel
affinity with the sans papiers, piqueteros, landless peasants, and the
invisibles.

At the same time, trade unions are no longer capable of representing the
precarious work force. The one-time image of the workers movement (e.g.
muscular man with hammer in his hand) does not represent a positive reference
point for precarious workers. The figure of the Superhero makes the potential
power of the precarious people visible: everyone can be a Superhero. It is not
us who are dispensable, but capitalism!

Dispensable and illegitimate is also the politics of the G8, who share
considerable responsibility for precarisation. It is our aim to link activism
on precarity with the resistance to the G8 summit. We want to emphasise that
the blockades are more than a one-off event: from the flying pickets of the
Gate Gourmet labour struggles in Heathrow and DÃ1/4sseldorf to the piquetero
blockades of the unemployed workers in Argentina and the blockades of the train
tracks during the CPE protests in France: blockades have become essential
elements in the struggles of the precarious. This is why we view the Block8
campaign as a general practise for every-day civil disobedience.

In this spirit: pack your super hero costumes, put on your white masks and
travel to Heiligendamm! Dispensables and Superheroes, participate in the common
block in the mass demonstration on 2 June in Rostock and at the mass blockades
during the G8 summit in Heiligendamm!

More information on the Dispensables, Super Heroes, Euromayday and
precarisation:

http://hamburg.euromayday.org
http://berlin.euromayday.org
http://www.ueberfluessig.tk
http://www.block-g8.org
Video: 'Superhero'-Block, Euromayday Parade, Hamburg

* The Dispensables (in German: die Überflüssigen) are people who carry out civil
disobedience actions under the same name in different parts in Germany. The name
signifies a critique of the capitalist economic system which has made certain
population groups dispensable and forces people into precarity.

[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370917.html]
uk.indymedia.org: Announcing Flash Radio G8 2007 Podcast


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flash Radio is a podcast from and about the G8 2007 in Heiligendamm Germany.

Subscribe to our podcast about the actions against the G8 or listen to it
online. From the 2nd June through till the 10th our 30 minute podcast will
contain selected material recorded by our embedded citizen reporter teams.
The politics of the G8 have triggered criticism and worldwide protest for a long
time. During the 2007 summit in Germany this will be visible in its various
forms. Flash Radio interview teams will cover the alternative summit,
blockades, actions and workshops, but will also deliver audible portraits of
groups and individuals who have come to campaign and work for change.
To find out more about the podcast check out the website
www.flashradio.wordpress.com
To subscribe to the feed copy and paste www.flashradio.wordpress.com/feed into
your player. If you don't know how to subsribe to a podcast, it's all explained
on the website, as well. To find out more, email us.
Our first podcast will be up on the site later this week on Friday 18th May. It
will cover citizen journalism training for Indymedia, including some background
information and how to publish to the newswire.

Flash Radio Team
e-mail: flashradio at aktivix.org
Homepage: http://www.flashradio.wordpress.com

[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370887.html]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS!

The "actionday Against Militarism, War and Torture - Blockade the G8 - Stop the
Wars!" will now take place on two days. On the 5th of june, there will be an
antilmilitaristic cruising in the city of Rostock, we will visit places, spaces
or offices of e.g. military infrastructure, companies etc. Come along and be
creative!
Meeting point: 11 h at the Camp in Rostock
On the 6th of june, we organize the actionday and blockades at the military
airport in Rostock-Laage (near the highway A19 Berlin-Rostock), which is part
of the infrastructure of the G8 Summit Conference and the militaristic policies
of the G8 governments. There will be meetingpoints, demonstrations and actions
during the landing of the chiefs of the G8 and their staff - all of them must
be transported to their conference-hotel in Heiligendamm - and they also need
the streets straight up to Heiligendamm.
But we will be there and show them, what we think of their aggressive
war-politics!
Meeting-point: 10 h at the villages "Friedrichshof", "Kronskamp", "Striesdorf"
and "Weitendorf", which are surrounding the airbase.
There will be maps and more infos on the camps and in the infopoints.
They can't land here with their war policies! We will express our opposition to
war and to the G8 through many forms of protest and active resistance!
See you soon in Rostock-Laage, on wednesday, the 6th of june, when they try to
fly in!