[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] Strasbourg/ Baden-Baden -- La Maddalena -- London

Wed Feb 25 13:05:31 CET 2009

- Strasbourg: Security zones
- NATO summit 2009: A democracy free zone
- Public Appeal for the Right to Demonstrate in Strasbourg
- E-3A AWACS to provide airspace security for NATO Defence Ministers meeting in
Krakow
- Interview with Werner Bonefeld
- G7 host Italy dives deep into recession
- Police brace themselves for 'summer of rage' against economic crisis
- WRI Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns
- CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS FOR A WORKSHOP ON "THE SURVEILLANCE GAMES"

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Strasbourg: Security zones

When NATO meets in Strasbourg, the city will be turned into a military fortress,
with up to 25,000 police protecting the NATO summit, and effectively leaving no
space for democratic protest.&#8233;
At the time of going to press, the exact locations of security zones in
Strasbourg were not yet known.

However, it is clear that:
* there will at least be two security zones: the neighbourhood around the Palais
de Musique et de Congres / Wacken and the cathedral / Palais Rohan
* Until 3 and 4 April, other security zones might emerge
&#8233;* The Lycee Kleber will be completely closed on 3 and 4 April&#8233;
* the markets will be closed
&#8233;&#8233;With these security zones, there is little space left for
democratic protest.

A map of Strasbourg with the summit venues is available at
http://wri-irg.org/system/files/public_files/br81-en-spread.png (8.8MB).

Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/6723

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NATO summit 2009: A democracy free zone

When the alliance of democracies meets, there is no space for democracy on the
streets

When NATO celebrates its 60th birthday in Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg on 3
and 4 April 2009, there will be a lot of nice speeches about the values of
democracy, and the need to defend democracy against a multitude of threats. But
while NATO might talk about democracy, democracy will be temporarily suspended
in huge areas of Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg.

Security zones and “no-go areas”

The complete picture of “security zones” and controlled areas is not yet clear,
but it is clear that the scale of this security operation and the restriction
to freedom of movement, freedom of assembly and democratic protest will be
unprecedented.

What is know so far is that in Strasbourg access to the old town will only be
possible with special access passes. All street markets, schools,
kindergardens, historic sights and more will be closed on 4 April. In addition,
public transport will be severely effected, with trams not being able to enter
the security zones, and the train line from Strasbourg to Germany will
suspended from Friday afternoon until Saturday morning. Strasbourg's mayor
Robert Herrmann did not rule out police searches of houses in the old city, and
adviced tourists not to visit Strasbourg on 4 April.

In Kehl, 700 people who live near the Passerelle, a pedestrian bridge over the
Rhine which will be the site of a symbolic handshake and photo opportunity for
the heads of states and governments, will be severely effected. From Friday
evening until Saturday morning (when all is over) they will not be able to
leave their houses without prior consent from the police, and only accompanied
by police. In addition, access to the Europa bridge, the main road connection
over the Rhine, will be closed for several hours, and even traffic on the Rhine
will be halted.

A similar concept will be in force in Baden-Baden, where German chancellor
Angela Merkel will receive the heads of states and governments on 3 April at
17.30hrs, before they dine at the Kurhaus Casino in Baden-Baden. Details for
Baden-Baden are not yet known, but it is expected that in Baden-Baden too there
will be no-go areas.

Democracy suspended

All this security leaves little room for democratic protest. At the time of
going to press, the authorities of Strasbourg halted the negotiations with the
International Coordination Committee No-to-NATO 2009 about the route for the
international demonstration, planned for 4 April 2009. While the organisers of
the demonstration want a route which will bring the protest close to the summit
itself, the authorities do not want to allow any demonstration in the centre of
Strasbourg, and want to divert the demonstration to the outskirts, where it
cannot be seen or heard by the presidents and prime ministers of the NATO
countries. This in fact is contrary to the French constitution and the European
Convention on Human Rights, as it will deny the citizenry to voice their protest
close to the object of their protest. Thus, the way the NATO summit is organised
turns all speeches and declarations of democracy that might be made at the
summit into a farce.

Block-NATO

Nevertheless, preparations are well under way to confront NATO with our protest.
War Resisters' International is part of a coalition of groups that plan to
blockade the NATO summit. Within the framework of this coalition called
“Block-NATO”, and founded at the Activist Conference in Strasbourg on 14/15
February, War Resisters' International works closely with its Belgian
affiliates Vredesactie and a range of German nonviolent groups in organising a
blockading point (see the call on page 1 and 2).

We will meet in the protest camp in Strasbourg-Neudorf (La Ganzau), to finalise
the preparations for the action and to provide a last opportunity to take part
in a nonviolence training. To make this blockade a success, we need your
support. Come to Strasbourg from 1-5 April 2009, to reclaim democracy!

Andreas Speck
Published in The Broken Rifle, February 2009, No. 81

Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/6717

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Public Appeal for the Right to Demonstrate in Strasbourg

Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy

February 17, 2009

TO:
The French Minister of the Interior
The Embassy of France in Germany
Members of the European Parliament

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

At the recent international conference in Strasbourg, 14-15 February, called to
prepare for demonstrations and protest actions during the NATO summit meeting
on April 3-4, 2009, those present learned that all demonstrations in the
central city are to be banned. In addition a ‘red zone’ limited to those with
special passes, and a new video monitoring system will be set up. Suddenly the
Schengener internal frontiers are to be restored, reflecting the motto: an
international military whirlwind, yes - democratic international action from
below – no.

For the more than 350 participants at the international preparatory conference,
this limitation of basic rights is not acceptable. The peace movement will
maintain its goal of demonstrating against the NATO Summit in downtown
Strasbourg with thousands of citizens.

The Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy was founded in 1980 by participants
in the Russell Tribunal on the human rights situation in the Federal Republic of
Germany (1978-79). In the framework of its activities and cooperation with the
peace movement, the Committee supports the call for *peaceful* demonstrations
around the NATO summit. The planned massive restrictions against the right of
assembly are incompatible with democracy and citizens’ rights. They are
evidence of the state apparatus’ deep-seated fear of the real ‘sovereign’ – the
men and women of the citizenry. On the occasion of the NATO meeting, the police
and military administration want to impose a ban on an entire region, between
Baden-Baden and Strasbourg, so that they can remain undisturbed by citizen
action. The sovereign is to be excluded. The Charter of Basic Rights of the
European Union, proclaimed with such celebration, would be perverted by the
NATO powers.

The right to freedom of opinion and assembly, thus the right to demonstrate, is
clearly the democratic basis for citizens in representative democratic
constitutional systems, which otherwise have little space for direct
expressions of the sovereign citizenry. Thus we demand from all politicians
that they refuse to accept any limitations of the basic freedoms during the
NATO summit. NATO’s war-like strategic planning must face critical public
debate and public protest. Citizens will not accept a democracy under a state
of police and military emergency.

We call on the responsible ministers and public authorities as well as all
politicians in charge, to commit themselves to the unrestricted right to
demonstrate during the days of the NATO summit meeting on the first weekend in
April, between Baden-Baden and Strasbourg.

Sincerely yours,

gez. Martin Singe

Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy, Martin Singe, Aquinostr. 7-11, D-50670
Cologne, Tel. +49-221-9726920

Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/6698

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E-3A AWACS to provide airspace security for NATO Defence Ministers meeting in
Krakow

MONS, Belgium – At the request of Polish national authorities, E-3A AWACS
aircraft from the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force (NAEW&C Force)
will provide airspace security and surveillance support during the upcoming
informal meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Krakow Poland from 19-20 Feb.
2009. The support, which will be conducted from airfields in Germany, will
provide continuous surveillance coverage for the duration of the event.

The use of E-3A aircraft for airspace surveillance and control has become an
important part of national and international efforts to ensure the safety and
security of political summits and other strategic world leadership events. Past
examples of other international events supported by the E-3A Component include:
the 2008 NATO Summit in Romania, the 2007 EU-Africa Summit in Portugal, the
2006 World Cup football competition in Germany, the 2005 G8 economic Summit in
the United Kingdom and the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Greece.

The E-3A aircraft, a modified Boeing 707, is equipped with radar capable of
detecting air traffic over large distances and at low altitudes. One E-3A
operating at 30,000 feet generates an air picture of aircraft movements from
high to low altitude that can detect targets within 400 km or 215 nautical
miles.

The NAEW&C Force is composed of two components: the NATO flagged E-3A Component
at Geilenkirchen, Germany which is comprised of 17 aircraft and multinational
crews from 14 NATO nations, and the E3-D Component at Waddington whose seven
aircraft and crews are British.

Note to Editors:

Background information can be found at: www.e3a.nato.int/html/media.htm

NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force, E-3A Component Public Affairs
Office
Tel: +49(0)2451-63-2480 Fax: +49(0)2451-7936 e-mail: pao at e3a.nato.int

Allied Command Operations Public Affairs Office at SHAPE:
Tel: +32 (0)65 44 4119 (week days 0830 – 1730)
Mobile: 0032 (0) 475 77 31 05 (week days 1730 – 0830, weekends and holidays)
Email: shape.pao at shape.nato.int

Source: http://www.nato.int/shape/news/2009/02/090216a.html

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Interview with Werner Bonefeld

This year there’s the NATO summit, the G8 in Italy, Cop-15 etc. Do you think
this could be the return of the anti-globalisation movement? Could, or should,
it take the same form that it did in the late 90’s and how do you think the
current financial situation affects this?

I don’t know. Of course the mobilisations in the late 90’s were disrupted by
9/11 and from then on took a tumble. They might come back as a consequence of
the financial crisis but it very much depends how the financial crisis is going
to pan out. The material effects of the crisis will be harsh. Uncertain is how
people will respond to the challenges and the pressures that they face. It’s
difficult to strike against money as it were. It’s much easier to strike
against an employer or even against repossession of houses. It’s possible to
organise there. But with banks it’s difficult to organise. Besides, the
business of negation is not to render banks responsible, and make them
accountable to their consumers, whatever that might mean. Such
‘responsibilisation’ belongs to the reality of bourgeois society. The business
of negation, the anti in anti-globalisation, is the creation of alternative
social relations by means of practical critique of existing social relations.
Such creation is always creation in movement. One has to see whether we will
see such a movement.

What I haven’t heard from the existing anti-globalisation movement is anything
akin to what happened in Argentina with the financial crisis in 2001. I am sure
there are discussions but I wonder what really has been learned from Latin
America. There have been very many discussions, in Europe at least, about for
example the Argentinean piquetero and the Zapatistas, and discussion as to
whether we are witnessing the emergence of a new social subject and new forms
of organisation. The outcome of these discussions have on the whole been rather
predictable. Yet, what is the reality of these movements for us, in Europe.
Suddenly, or not so suddenly, there is the long awaited and predicted crisis
and the movement seems paralysed. There’s an irony there. ‘What should we do?’
The whole learning process, particularly from Latin America was an academic
learning process, or a process of mythologisation. Solidarity with the YA BASTA
is easy for as long as the YA BASTA stays where it is, in Argentina, and
requires no other practical commitment in the here (and now). Solidarity with
the YA BASTA has to be a practical one, in one’s own social relations.

The big issue now is not whether the protestors who, say, were at Heiligendamm
in Germany, turn up again in great numbers. The big issue is rather whether the
YA BASTA assumes practical relevance. The composition of the movement will
change. In the past, it was easy to coalesce in critique of the so-called
neo-liberal state. The nationalisation of banks, employment guarantees by means
of government credit to ailing companies, etc., might well rupture the movement.
The state suddenly does what certain voices of the anti-globalisation movement
demanded – and this despite the fact that the socialisation of debt is intended
to guarantee, for want of a better expression, the privatisation of profits.
What is the relationship between the YA BASTA and the state?

In North America and Western Europe at least, there is this critique of finance
capitalism, that might come back again, that was the defining feature of the
anti-globalisation movement protests against the IMF and World Bank and other
sort of global financial institutions. Obviously people have always pointed to
the dangers of just criticising financial institutions and not, as you say, how
capitalism affects us on a sort of real person level. Do you think that might be
something that we are experiencing again? That the critique of finance
capitalism will run the risk of stereotyping and projecting?

It might; it might not. It depends, again, how it turns out. It would be good to
predict the future, but the critique of finance was always misguided I think.
There was always this separation between good capitalism and bad capitalism.
Bad capitalism was financial capitalism and the other capitalism was seen to be
the one that was suppressed by the bad capitalism. And the connection between
finance and production, between production and exchange, commodity form and
money form, that was never really drawn in this anti-globalisation movement.
The critique of speculation has to be a critique of the social relations of
production. That is, one should not divide between ‘bad finance capitalism’ and
‘good industrial capitalism’. The one depends on the other, and visa versa.

Especially in the current crisis here in England, what everyone’s been talking
about, from the conservatives to the socialists, is greed. That the reason we
have this crisis is speculation and greed by individual bankers. The work you
have done and that of others has pointed out that this may have a relationship
to scapegoating the Jew or anti-Semitism.

Yes, well that is one of these divisions between financial capital, on the one
hand, defined by greed and industrial capitalism on the other hand, not driven
by greed but by concrete matter and productive activity. That spurts over into
anti-Semitism - that’s quite right - and that’s where the difficulty lies, I
think, for the anti-globalisation movement. How does it confront or understand
the current crisis if it merely sees it as a crisis of greed, that is, as a
crisis of regulation, a crisis that is resolvable by the state by means of
responsible regulation. Responsible for whom? For the common good? What is the
common good in a capitalistically constituted society? The purpose of capital
is to make a profit. And that is, money must command labour. The demand for
better regulation, and a more effective integration of production and finance,
does indeed focus this purpose of money – to command labour. An
anti-globalisation movement that only focuses on the issue of greed does not
see the vampire that sucks labour out in the production process as the basis of
that greed.

So, for you then, is the way to avoid this problem a return to ideas of class
and class struggles? Ideas which the anti-globalisation movement quite
consciously has left behind?

I think what has to be left behind is the old social democratic or state
socialist idea of class. That idea was based on the notion of market position,
and sought to rebalance the inhumanity of exploitative production relations by
means of re-distribution. That is the concept of class that I think needs to be
overcome. In opposition to affirmative conceptions of class, we need to
rediscover class as a critical concept, a concept that belongs to a false
society. That is to say, class struggle is correctly understood the movement
against the existence of social classes. Class analysis does not partake in the
classification of people – its business is the critique of such classification.
Class struggle is the struggle to dissolve class society, relations of class
domination and exploitation, in favour of commune – this society of the free
and equal, an association of the freely assembled social individuals.

So if correctly understood, class should be a critical concept, not an
affirmative concept. The old class concept was an affirmative concept; it
affirmed class position. It wanted to re-distribute in order to create a fairer
deal, a new deal, for those on the wrong side, or the wrong end of the stick.
The critical concept of class, which is to dissolve class, battles against the
existence of class society.

So could such a movement against class, offering such a critique, be relevant in
today’s society? Could the anti-globalisation movement, if it reconstitutes
itself as such again next year, be an effective political player?

Again, I don’t know. It very much depends how the current crisis pans out. It
will affect jobs. It will affect income. It will be very bad for people heavily
in debt. How will they react? What will they do? And the reaction of these
people is, to a great extent, also a responsibility of the anti-globalisation
movement in terms of their critical intent of enlightened democracy – the
democracy of the demos that assembles in the street; a democracy of and in the
street. This democracy, this practical subversion of everyday life, if the
anti-globalisation movement is able to practice that then it will become
something new in terms of its composition, relationship to capital and its
state, organisational form, and negative purpose. If the anti-globalisation
movement is not able to do that then it might well be that those who carry the
brunt, financial and otherwise, of the crisis, might not be part of that
movement. In the British context, the white working class, impoverished as it
is, has tended in certain areas to go to the right rather than to the left.
That I think is also a responsibility, not just of those people who go to the
right, but also the responsibility of the anti-globalisation movement to
mobilise for democratic purposes – here and now. So it depends on the
mobilisation, who mobilises and where, and who is part of the mobilising
coalition.

On a practical level it can be argued that the anti-globalisation movement needs
a symbol, or a target around which to mobilise and that’s why summits are so
attractive. Do you that the oversimplification and ‘personification’ of
capitalism, which manifests in the targeting of summits and global elites, can
be avoided while the anti-globalisation movement continues to summit hop?

Well I think summit hopping is OK, who wouldn’t want to travel around the world
and see different places and do so for the sake of protest. Summits render
visibility to struggles, provide them with symbolism, but the struggle itself
takes place in other places I think. Summits do not struggle. Struggles are
always local, and their locality is the basis for their globality. That is, the
everyday struggle over the production and appropriation of surplus value in
every individual workplace and every local community is the basis of the class
struggle on a global scale. ‘Globalisation’ has not done away with everyday
struggle. Instead, it focuses it. If it really is the case that whole
communities are in danger of losing their houses, if people are dispossessed,
then the anti-globalisation movement will have to be a movement against
repossession.

I do not know whether there will be a movement against default, practically, on
the streets. A Latin American example is that people occupy their factories
when the going gets tough and the machines are in danger of being taken away.
Will that happen here? This is a practical question that cannot be resolved by
summits. It needs to be resoled in practice. Whether the (European)
anti-globalisation movement assumes class form is difficult to predict, but if
one looks at the often-mythologised struggles in Latin America, this is what
the struggles are, from the protection of the neighbourhood and of homes and
living-conditions, to the provision of food and water, and the
self-organisation of subsistence, from the factories to the land. And what
comes out of it? I don’t know. Whatever the future holds will depend on the
movement of the so-called anti-globalisation movement. Where will it move, what
will it move, if it moves?

Source: http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=260

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G7 host Italy dives deep into recession

ROME: Italy reeled on Friday from grim news which it will bring to the table as
the host of Group of Seven economic crisis talks, with data showing it is
deeper in recession than expected and protesters taking to the streets.

Italy, Europe's fourth-biggest economy, is host to the G7 talks on fighting the
spiralling crisis which begins with a working dinner Friday evening.

The new official data showed that output fell to the lowest level since 1980 in
the fourth quarter of 2008, at 1.8 per cent down from activity in the previous
quarter.

This was after shrinking by a downwardly revised 0.6 per cent in the third
quarter.

The worse-than-expected data - economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had
forecast a 1.3-per cent drop - came as tens of thousands of people thronged a
Rome square to protest against the economic crisis under the slogan "Not On Our
Backs."

The biggest trade union, CGIL, called the protest and a general strike to slam
the government's response to the financial crisis, saying it exposed already
vulnerable workers to further risk.

Protesters - mainly civil servants and metalworkers - came to Rome from all over
Italy, notably from the impoverished south of the country, but only some nine
per cent of the civil service workforce answered the strike call, according to
the civil service department.

"We should not have to pay for the mistakes of others, the banks the traders,
those who profit off our backs," said Juan Luis Finkbein, a metalworker from
northern Brescia.

"I have no desire to go on temporary layoff, but the problem is that the crisis
looks like it will affect every sector," Finkbein, who emigrated to Italy from
Uruguay 10 years ago, told AFP.

Problems at auto giant Fiat have been emblematic of the turndown, with sales in
Italy falling 20 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008, prompting the company
to call a string of temporary layoffs.

Conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reacting to the new recession
figures on Friday, said the "dimensions of the crisis are not yet fully
defined," adding that "we should view it, and we do view it, with concern."

In November, the Italian government launched a package of five billion euros
(6.5 billion dollars) for 2009 to cope with the economic slump, but the
opposition, unions and employers all criticised the plan as too modest to have
any real impact.

Last week, Berlusconi announced new measures worth two billion euros to boost
the economy and help the auto industry, while tying the aid to keeping
factories at home.

Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti initially suggested that Italy was safe
from the crippling effects of the US subprime crisis, which snared mostly
American and other European banks, particularly British ones.

And last month he said the capacity of the Italian economy to bounce back should
not be underestimated.

"One should be suspicious of GDP (gross domestic product) figures. Not only do
they not include the informal economy, but, above all, a large part of the
activity of our companies takes place outside of our borders," he told the
business daily Il Sole-24 Ore.

But last week the International Monetary Fund warned that Italy's recession
could stretch into 2010 "in line with the rest of the euro area, ... although
its financial sector has remained relatively resilient."

Alex Foti, an activist with EuroMayDay, a political day of action against
precarity mostly in western Europe, said: "There is a shift from precarity to
unemployment in Italy and the rest of Europe."

Segments of society he called "outsiders - young people, women, immigrants" will
be the first to lose their jobs, he told AFP, adding: "The great recession is
going to make it worse."

Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/G7_host_Italy_dives_deep_into_recession/articleshow/4126367.cms

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Police brace themselves for 'summer of rage' against economic crisis

Riot police are bracing themselves for a "summer of rage" with middle-class
victims of the recession joining activists to besiege the headquarters of
financial institutions.

Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police's public order
branch, said that he feared there could be "mass protest" at rising unemployment
and the downturn in the economy.

The officer added that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses
despite receiving billions of aid from the taxpayer, had also become "viable
targets" for protesters.

Mr Hartshorn, who is regularly briefed on potential causes of civil unrest, said
that "known activists" were planning returns to the streets, and intelligence
revealed that they may be able to call on more protesters than normal due to
the unprecedented conditions.

He said: "Those people would be good at motivating people, but they haven't had
the 'foot soldiers' to actually carry out (protests).

"Obviously the downturn in the economy, unemployment, repossessions, changes
that. Suddenly there is the opportunity for people to mass protest."

Other parts of Europe have already seen large-scale protests against the
handling of the economy.

Up to 120,000 people marched through Dublin on Saturday in an emotional and
angry national demonstration over the Irish Government's handling of the
economic crisis.

In the UK earlier this month, hundreds of oil refinery and power station workers
carried out a series of wildcat strikes over the use of foreign workers.

And across the Channel in France, a million people joined demonstrations to
demand greater protection for jobs.

Mr Hartshorn, who is regularly briefed on potential causes of civil unrest,
singled out April's G20 summit of the leading developed nations in London as
one of the events that could kick start a series of protests.

"We've got G20 coming and I think that is being advertised on some of the sites
as the highlight of what they see as a 'summer of rage'," he said.
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4786553/Police-brace-themselves-for-summer-of-rage-against-economic-crisis.html

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WRI Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns

TABLE OF CONTENTS

- Introduction

* About this Handbook and How to Use It
* What is Nonviolence and Why Use it
* How Does Nonviolence Work?
* Nonviolence Training: Role of Trainers; Potential Topics for Nonviolence
Training
* You and Your Group: Strengthening a Group; Exploring Differences; What Do You
Want?
* Historical Uses of Nonviolence: What Works Where; The Role of Pacifists;
Organising
* Case Study: Nonviolence Training in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
* Case Study: Otpor: People's Power in Serbia

- Gender and Nonviolence

* Introduction to the gender section
* What is gender
* An example of linking peace and gender issues: New Profile in Israel

- Tasks and Tools for Organising and Facilitating Meetings

* Introduction to the section
* Working Together
* Check-List for Organising a Training
* Check-List for Facilitating a Training

- Nonviolent Campaigns

* What Makes a Campaign Nonviolent
* Planning Nonviolent Campaigns
* Constructive Programme
* The Movement Action Plan
* Forms of Nonviolent Action
* Stages of Escalation
* Role of media
* Campaign case study guide

- Organising for Effective Nonviolent Actions

* Sending the protest message
* Coping with the stress and strain of taking a stand
* Humour and nonviolent actions
* Working in Groups: affinity groups, group process, decision making
* Check list for planning an action
* Role/in/before/after an action
* Legal support
* Jail support
* Evaluation

- Stories and Strategies

* Introduction
* International solidarity campaign with South Africa
* Seabrook - Wyhl - Marckolsheim - transnational links in a chain of campaigns
* International Antimilitarist marches
* Chile: Gandhi's Insights Gave People Courage to Defy Chile's Dictatorship
* Israel - New Profile learns from the experience of others
* Turkey- Building a nonviolent culture
* The applications of Augusto Boal's “Theatre of Oppressed” in Turkey
* South Korea - Challenges and successes of working in nonviolence
* Peace Community of San José de Apartadó,Colombia : A lesson of resistance,
dignity and courage
* Bombspotting - towards an European Campaign
* 15th of May - International Day of Conscientious Objection

- Exercises for Working in Nonviolence

* Introduction
* Hassle line
* Conflict line
* Brainstorming
* Speak out
* A gender dialogue for peacebuilders
* 10/10 strategies
* The tree
* Pillars of power
* Spectrum of allies
* Consequences of fear
* Tree and wind
* Decision making
* Cross spectrum
* Role playing
* Forum Theatre
* Tools for Grounding, Protecting, and Blockading
* Spectrum or Barometer

- Do it Yourself

- Handbook glossary of terms

- Resources

* List of related resources
* Resources for the printed version

- Links to WRI network

Source: http://wri-irg.org/node/3855

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CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS FOR A WORKSHOP ON "THE SURVEILLANCE GAMES"

Simon Fraser University at Harbour Centre, Vancouver, BC.

November 20-22, 2009

Mega-events such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, and high profile
political summits such as the G8 and World Trade Organization meetings have all
been identified as primary targets for terrorist attack and have undergone
extensive security and surveillance transformations as a result. Mega-events
now serve as focal points for security and surveillance proliferation. They are
microcosms of larger trends and processes, through which we can observe the
complex ways security and surveillance practices are implicated in unique
confluences of technology, institutional motivations, and public-private
security arrangements.

In the lead-up to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and under the auspices of the New
Transparency Project, we invite paper proposals for a workshop on the
surveillance implications of mega-events, including the following:

&#10146; security and surveillance and urban and critical infrastructure
protection
&#10146; mega-events as spectacle, public ritual and states of exception
&#10146; the spatial articulations of security and surveillance
&#10146; policy implications of security, privacy and mega-events
&#10146; the role of the private sector and the mega-event security complex
&#10146; the proliferation of technologies of (in)security
&#10146; participant experiences of identification and surveillance practices at
mega events
&#10146; the increasing commercialization of security and surveillance
&#10146; the historical and institutional legacies of mega-events

The objective of the Surveillance Games workshop is to examine these and other
themes two months before, and on the very site of, the 2010 Winter Olympic
Games. The questions at the centre of the workshop are relevant not only for
academics. The Surveillance Games workshop will also address issues that are
critically relevant to policy-makers, law enforcement agencies,
non-governmental actors, athletes, spectators, private sector representatives,
and media representatives. The workshop will hopefully involve representatives
from each of these sectors.

500 word proposals for academic papers on the surveillance implications of
Mega-Events should be sent to the co-organizers: Professor Kevin Haggerty,
Department of Sociology, University of Alberta (kevin.haggerty at ulberta.ca)
and Professor Colin J. Bennett, Department of Political Science, University of
Victoria (cjb at uvic.ca). The deadline for paper proposals is March 31st,
2009. Decisions on the program will be made by the end of April. The deadline
for the receipt of draft papers is September 30th, 2009. Proposals from all
social science, humanities and other relevant disciplines will be considered.
Selected papers from the workshop will ultimately be published in an edited
collection (publisher to be determined). Some funds are available through the
New Transparency Project for those who otherwise cannot obtain support for
travel and accommodation through their Universities, or other employers.

Source: http://www.surveillanceproject.org/projects/the-new-transparency