[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] Strasbourg/ Baden-Baden -- London
International Newsletter
gipfelsoli-int at lists.nadir.org
Tue Mar 17 20:59:22 CET 2009
- Links NATO 2009
- LEGAL CHEAT SHEET – MANIF /ACTIONS NATO COUNTER-SUMMIT – 2009
- Strasbourg Legal Team Charter
- Germany, France to renew border checks due to NATO summit
- Red Zones Baden-Baden
- The 'Summer of Rage' starts here! - Call from London Anarchists
- To All Those Who Fight 4: Anarchy, Autonomy, Ecology, Queerness
- Biggest police operation for a decade to be launched at G20 summit in London
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Links NATO 2009
Camp | Village Strasbourg
* Strasbourg 207, rue de Ganzau, Neuhof, Strasbourg
* english http://village09.blogsport.de
* francais http://village2009.blogsport.de
* deutsch http://camp09.blogsport.de
* polski http://oboz2009.blogsport.de
* http://natogipfel2009.blogsport.de/images/campprsentation_01.pdf (adress,
maps, opportunities for action; pdf)
*
http://schlomoh.blog.lemonde.fr/files/2009/03/nouveau-plan-village-anti-otan.1236762208.doc
(plan of the camp | village from march 10, might me modified)
Legal Teams
* Strasbourg +33 (0)3.68.46.02.62 | legalteam-strasbourg at effraie.org
* KTS Freiburg +49 (0)761 409 725 1
Medical Team
* medical at otan2009.org
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LEGAL CHEAT SHEET – MANIF /ACTIONS NATO COUNTER-SUMMIT – 2009
THE LEGAL TEAM’S PHONE NUMBER: 03.68.46.02.62
ADVICE:
* Before, during and after the protest: stay in groups, never alone !
* Do not forget to always have with you: your identity card/ visa/ telephone
card/ paper and pen/ glasses (rather than contact lenses)/ your medication (if
necessary).
* Leave someone your name, surname, birthdate, and shout it to someone if
you are arrested.
* Write the Legal Team’s phone number on yourself.
* Do not bring a camera or video camera with you: there are teams there to
cover the protest.
* Avoid taking your personal telephone filled with your contacts and
pictures: your friends will thank you!
* All products that alter your behaviour (alcohol, drugs, etc.), knives or
weapons of any kind are of course factors that aggravate the situation in the
case of an arrest.
* Bring a scarf or something to hide your face throughout the protest or
when close to specific clashes: this is not illegal in France.
* Start educating yourself to recognise different types of police (whether
in uniform or not). You can often tell those in civil attire because they stay
in groups, and observe the situation at the beginning of the protest. The
mobile regiments of the Gendarmerie have the number of their unit on their
back, such as 1A, 3B (etc.).
* Know that a special service of the police (not the General Information)
was recently created to infiltrate groups in a friendly manner.
* Never forget that there are MANY police in civil attire: Never speak
freely in the streets about your protesting and avoid using any names.
* Do not hand out stickers or flyers from your organisation to just anybody.
The police are not allowed to ask you to take off a sticker stuck on yourself;
the same goes for flags or banners.
* In the case of widespread, violent repression or other: Always keep cool,
be sure to observe the situation, react quickly.
* If the police try to target an activist, stop and together create a human
chain, keep a united front and remain in solidarity: in this way, a lot of
violent repression can be avoided and injured individuals evacuated.
* Protect the injured and try to call the Medical Team.
* If you are stopped by the police: Stay calm and polite, the police are
quick to accuse you of offence(s) “rebellion, insult”.
LA LEGAL TEAM
During this counter-summit, most of the lawyers assigned by the court will be
lawyers from the Legal Team, and will be in permanent contact with the Legal
Team, so
* If you are stopped and put into police custody, you will not be able to
contact the Legal Team. You must ask for “a lawyer assigned by the court”.
* If you are presented before a judge after being taken into custody, ask
the State-appointed lawyer if s/he is part of the Legal TeamIf not, tell
her/him that you want a lawyer from the Legal Team.
* If you have witnessed an arrest, notify the Legal Team as soon as possible
with the following information Name of the person/ Place/ Number of people put
into custody/ Which police service/ Number of police. Describe as best you can
what happened and do not hesitate to put it down on paper. Your testimony is
important and will only be seen by the Legal Team – in any other case, keep it
safe!
* If you have been released, notify the Legal Time as soon as possible and
produce as detailed a testimony as you can.
IDENTITY CHECK / VEHICLE SEARCH
* If the police do an ID check, you have the right to communicate with the
people around you and to ask them to be your witness, or to telephone to notify
those close to you of your “hold up”.
* A “pat-down” may be done: This is an external feel of your clothes (not a
physical search).
* The police have the right to search a vehicle (unless it is a dwelling).
The vehicle may be immobilised for up to 30 minutes.
* Questioning (PV in France): If you were mistreated make it known on the
Report. Do not sign anything you do not agree with. If you do not agree, add
what is missing and put a line through the remaining blanks so that there is no
clean space to add anything else. If you are not ok with what is written: do not
sign! And in all cases, ask for a copy!
* If the police are not “satisfied” by the papers presented, they can bring
you in to the station for an “identity check”.
THE IDENTITY CHECK
* It cannot go on longer than 4 hours starting from the beginning of the
control (when the police first stopped you).
* From the beginning of the check, the police have to propose that you
contact one person of your choice, and inform you of your rights to notify the
State prosecutor (Procureur de la République).
* Do not say anything other than your name. You do not have to respond to
any other questions. Simply state “I have nothing to say”.
* Police Questioning: The same advice as for the ID check. Always add any
police violence that occurred during the control/ the transport/ your time at
the police station.
* If you give a false identity or if you refuse to give your identity: the
police can take your finger prints and picture. If you refuse, this can cost
you up to 3 months in prison and €3750.
* After 4 hours either you are let go or you are kept in police custody.
POLICE CUSTODY
* You are placed into police custody if there exists “one or more plausible
reasons to suspect that you have committed or have attempted to commit an
offence”.
* This provides the police with the right to interrogate you, to
curtail/impede your communication with others, to further investigate the
evidence they have against you.
* Length of time: Starting from the moment you were stopped or from the
beginning of the identity check, police custody can last up to 24 hours and is
renewable. It can last up to 96 hours for “association to a gang” and up to 144
hours for “terrorism”.
* From the outset, demand an interpreter where necessary, and be sure to
have your rights read to you: the accused offence, the right to notify a member
of your family, contact a lawyer and see a doctor. Ask to notify someone close
to you; this can only be refused by the State prosecutor.
* You are immediately entitled to see a doctor and a lawyer. You may them a
second time if your detention is renewed, after the 24th hour of detention.
Askthe police officer present.
RIGHT TO SPEAK TO A LAWYWER
* After giving your civil status (name, surname, date, place of birth), you
have the right to remain silent or state “I have nothing to declare”. Anything
you say can and will be used against you, and the people you mention. We
suggest you remain silent until you speak with your lawyer.
* A full body search when in police custody implies being stripped by an
officer of the same sex. Only a doctor has the right to practice several full
body searches.
* DNA sample (buccal swab using a long cotton bud to scrape the interior of
your cheek or spitting onto blotting paper): this cannot be done without your
permission. If you are arrested for “insult and rebellion” the police do not
have the right to take a DNA sample.
* Refusing is possible (and advisable!) but it is an offence. The police can
take a DNA sample from exterior bodily elements (cigarette buds, hair
) and the
results can be used against you in a court of law. Be aware that refusing the
buccal swab for your DNA is a militant action against DNA databases.
* Throughout the detention, try to stay cool despite physical and
psychological pressure from the police: Brutality, threats, intimidation,
humiliation, cronyism, etc.
AT THE END OF YOUR DETENTION
* If you are let go: for the police questioning at the end of your
detention, the same advice holds as for the identity check. The police validate
the conditions of the detention. It is inadvisable to sign the document in the
case of your prosecution. A signed Report can cause problems for your lawyer
during your defense.
* The State prosecutor decides on whether to prosecute or not. If there is a
prosecution, s/he can decide either:
o to pursue the investigation: you will be presented to an examining
magistrate;
o to judge you at another moment: you will receive a convocation,
either given to you by a police officer when you are let out of custody, either
later at your address ;
o to hold a hearing right away: you will be brought directly to the
court.
* IMPORTANT: if you are presented to a judge at the end of your detention
(either examining magistrate or directly to the court), accept legal aid from a
lawyer: you can choose a lawyer or ask to see a state appointed lawyer; in the
latter case, verify with the lawyer that s/he is in fact a lawyer working with
the Legal Team.
* You can refuse an immediate hearing: preparing your defense with your
lawyer is always preferable, even if this means preventive jail time. Talk
about it with your lawyer.
* If you have a limited income, you are eligible for free Legal Aid.
FOR NON-EUROPEANS
* You may be subject to “a warrant or notice of expulsion” and an
administrative detention for up to 48 hours.
* You can challenge both decisions although during this time you remain
under police custody.
* You have the right to demand medical assistance, a lawyer, and interpreter
and to be put in contact with your consulate/embassy and one person of your
choice: ask that this person call the Legal Team, or call yourself.
* Administrative detention can be extended by a judge for up to 15 days, and
may be renewed once. You have the right to appeal the extended detention.
* Request to see the person from CIMADE as soon as possible (a French NGO
working with uprooted people, especially undocumented immigrants in France):
this NGO can help you specifically with regards to contesting the decision of
expulsion and administrative detention.
* As during police custody, you must be well treated during administrative
detention: do not stand for any violence, neither physical nor moral/verbal.
IN THE CASE OF POLICE VIOLENCE
* Remember to take pictures of your bruises, cuts, etc.
* Keep all stained (with blood) or torn clothes, if the case arises;
* With a doctor: (If it is at the Emergency, do not say anything about the
facts!)
* Be sure to have a detailed medical certificate registered: verify that it
contains a description of all your injuries and your complaints.
* Always ask for Temporary Work Disability – even if you are unemployed!
* When you see a doctor during police custody, make sure s/he is witness to
your injuries and records them! If you have no injuries at the time of your
medical examination, do not hesitate to ask the doctor to note the absence of
injuries on the medical certificate. This can eventually be used as proof that
you suffered violence by the police after/during your police detention.
* You can press charges (and it is suggested to do so!)
* Contact an anti-repression group that works against police violence,
police profiling and database collection, etc.
FOR MORE DETAILS AND INFORMATION (ON ALL THE AFOREMENTIONED POINTS, ON POLICE
VIOLENCE, ETC.), WE SUGGEST CONSULTING THE LEGAL GUIDE AVAILABLE AT THE
INFOPOINTS AND ON THE LEGAL TEAM’S WEBSITE.
legalteam-strasbourg at effraie.org
Source: email
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Strasbourg Legal Team Charter
acted for the NATO counter-summit April 2009 in Strasbourg
The Strasbourg Legal Team was created as part of the NATO counter-summit of
April 2009 in Strasbourg. It is defined as follows:
1
The Strasbourg Legal Team does not substitute the law, and has as its objective
to facilitate legal aid for all the participants of the counter-summit with
regards to the police and the law of States.
2
The Strasbourg Legal Team reassembles activists sharing convictions related to
its objective. In this way, it reassembles in particular people of the
anti-NATO coordination, the anti-NATO collective, and other structures, or
individuals unrelated to any structure. It is independent and non-affiliated to
any other organisation, including neither political party nor political
structure.
3
The Strasbourg Legal Team will not replace support collectives, being either
solidarity or anti-repression, that manifest before, during and after the
counter-summit.
4
The Strasbourg Legal Team cooperates and coordinates its actions with its
analogous structure on the German territory:the Freiburg Legal Team.
5
The Strasbourg Legal Team will be in contact and will work with the
lawyers’joint committee that has as its objective to defend the totality of
individuals taken in by the police throughout the counter-summit, in the
conditions defined by the above Article 1.
6
The Strasbourg Legal Team manages an information point for legal assistance/aid
and a street team. Within this setup, it will organise a telephone platform in
a non-public space with a telephone number and email address that is accessible
and available to all. The information will be given to the participants of the
counter-summit via the telephone platform and the information point. As many
languages as possible will be represented in order to best respond and provide
aid to those stopped by the police
7
The Strasbourg Legal Team will regularly provide the numbers of known arrests,
charges and incarcerations. If necessary, it will publish statements to rectify
the official press releases. It reserves the possibility to produces its own
statistics.
8
The Strasbourg Legal Team will be in contact with all the participants of the
counter-summit.
9
The Strasbourg Legal Team will not provide any names without the person(s)
involved having discussed and confirmed this request with their lawyer. It may
give, with the approval of the person(s) concerned, information to the support
and anti-repression collectives
10
The Strasbourg Legal Team assumes only a logistic and technical form. It will
not involve itself in the political debate. Because of this, the individuals
constituting the Strasbourg Legal Team should not express themselves
politically as members of the Legal Team or in its name.
11
The Strasbourg Legal Team will not establish a defense strategy, and thus it is
up to the individuals, lawyers, and anti-repression collectives to do so.
12
The Strasbourg Legal Team takes up its functions the 20th of March, in order to
mitigate all preventive arrests, and will spontaneously disband April 12th to
leave room for the solidarity collectives and for the appropriate political
expression against the repression. All public information will then be made
available to the anti-repression collectives. The Legal Team is committed to
not keeping any private/confidential information including information
involving court hearings.
Contact legalteam-strasbourg at effraie.org
Source: email
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Germany, France to renew border checks due to NATO summit
Berlin/Prague - Germany will temporarily renew random border checks at its
external borders due to the NATO summit that it organises along with France at
the beginning of April, the German Interior Ministry told CTK today.
The Czech Interior Ministry also confirmed to CTK that checks on selected
border-crossings within the Schengen area with unguarded internal borders would
be introduced due to the NATO summit.
According to the German ministry, France is also preparing similar measures.
The German Interior Ministry explained the measure with the need to prevent the
inflow of potential perpetrators of crime. The border checks will also concern
internal flights from one Schengen country to another and marine ports.
Germany will host the NATO summit in Baden-Baden and Kehl on April 3-4 together
with the French Strasbourg that will probably be the venue of the meeting of
NATO countries' representatives.
U.S. President Barack Obama will be among top politicians attending the summit.
People who would like to travel to Germany during the summit must expect to be
checked at the border.
However, the German Interior Ministry declined to say for tactical police
reasons where precisely border checks will be renewed and when.
It said, however, that the scale of the security measures would be limited to
the necessary level.
The Czech Republic joined the Schengen area without border checks in December
2007, along with other new EU members from central Europe and the Baltic
states.
The countries which have signed the Schengen treaty can decide to temporarily
renew border checks on their external borders if they organise big political or
sports events.
In the past, Germany, Austria and Portugal resorted to the measure in connection
with soccer championships.
Germany also temporarily renewed border checks due to the G8 summit that was
held in Heiligendamm in 2006.
Source:
http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/germany-france-to-renew-border-checks-due-to-nato-summit/366071
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Red Zones Baden-Baden
See map http://dissent.fr/sites/default/files/Baden-baden-zones.jpg
Security Zone 1-3 (red)
No acces for unauthorized people. Only notably can access this area. The 3
security zones are affecting only the “Kurhaus”, “Kurgarten” and the “Dorint
Hotel” . Expected to be closed from 1st. to 4th. April (10H).
Security Zone 4 (yellow)
Secured with security fence. Start of the build up: Thursday morning, 2nd.
April, starting at the void part. The security with fences ends Saturday, the
4th April at 10H. To this zone only inhabitants, carers, Staff and visitors
after previous announcement AND only in company with the police can access this
area.
Security Zone 5 (blue)
>From Friday morning, 3rd April. No restrictions for habitants and guests. No
Akkreditation necessary. Selective controls previewed. High Police presence.
Source: http://dissent.fr/node/162
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The 'Summer of Rage' starts here! - Call from London Anarchists
G20 London Summit: A rebellious call for days of action, March 28th - April 2nd
2009
March 28/09 // Militant Workers: Direct Action Bloc
'Put People First' Anti-G20 demonstration, 11am Central London
As the financial crisis has spurred a global economic recession the reality of
the situation is being faced by us all – price hikes and wage cuts, job losses,
spiralling debt and repossessions.
The institutions of government and global finance are making us pay for their
mistakes, giving themselves hefty bonuses for the privilege.
As big banks get billions of our money to bail them out, the Post Office is
threatened with privatisation and mass redundancies to claw back the pension
hole!
Government and bosses, while protecting their own interests, are steadily losing
their grip as the anger of the working class becomes more and more apparent
after a decade of enforced 'social peace'.
Putting working class anger first
The recent wildcat strikes at the Lindsay Oil Refinery saw workers take action
for themselves, without union backing.
Thousands of workers across the country walked out in sympathy strikes – a
practice still outlawed under the Thatcherite anti-trade union laws. No
repercussions were suffered by the workers - a lesson to us all.
And although we oppose such slogans as “British Jobs for British Workers”, we do
not dismiss the experiences, anger and positive action of those workers to
develop a pro-working class position, based not on capitalism's demands for
inter-worker competition, but on international class solidarity.
If we want social change we must fight without prejudice for it.
Solidarity is not a word but a weapon
Our purpose is to put direct action at the core of any fightback - against the
repossessions and redundancies that we will face over the coming months and
years, to restate our commitment for an international unity amongst all working
class people regardless of nationality, race, sexuality or religion.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with all those who take direct action against
their current situation (against the state and its institutions, against the
bosses and the capitalism they cling to), and confront those who seek to hinder
or recuperate that action - fascist parties like the BNP, government forces, the
trade union elite and the corporate media. The memory of the miners strike,
Wapping, Poll tax lingers long and hard.
2009 is our summer of rage - we are only as strong as the power we give
ourselves.
Join the direct action bloc on the Put People First mass demonstration on
Saturday March 28th 2009. Meet in Victoria Embankment Gardens, 11am. Look for
the red and black flags.
April 1/09 // Reclaim The Money
Meet in the Square Mile (London's Financial centre) to take back what's ours
World leaders, including Barak Obama, are set to meet at Docklands Excel Centre
in London's East End, for the G20 financial summit on April 2nd, to sort out
the global crisis they themselves conspired to create.
While unemployment escalates along with debt and poverty - we are told to
tighten our belts, not to complain, to have faith in bankers, bosses and
politicians, these leaders are preparing the biggest shake up in the history of
capitalism since the 1930s.
We can only imagine what is on offer as their solution - from the people that
brought us wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, from the heads of economies
that continue to concentrate the world's wealth in the hands of a tiny minority
from the obscene rich and powerful who continue to steal the products of our
labour and time, forcing us to fight amongst ourselves for what's left.
We are living in uncertain, dangerous times, where we can either allow our
futures, and the future of our children, to be decided by the same class of
people that have brought us into this crisis (and continue to profit from our
misery) or we can decide to get rid of the lot of them and organise society
differently - for our own benefit and of the benefit of those around us; those
we work with, those we live with, for a future based on our collective needs.
We are their crisis
Let's make this a chance for a fundamental change in society. Let's reclaim the
history of working class struggle for a new free world, for a global human
community fit for all, not the undeserving rich elite who are happy to see our
lives ruined if it means that they stay in charge and at the top.
Join thousands of disgruntled, angry, pissed off people on the streets of the
financial district. As the bankers continue to cream off billions of pounds of
our money let's put the call out – RECLAIM THE MONEY, storm the banks and send
them packing.
April 1st in the square mile, City of London financial district
See also: Climate Camp in the City
G20 Meltdown: Call Out
April 2/09 // G20 London Summit, Excel Centre, Docklands
A day of fucking up the summit and other adventures. Be warned. Be aware. Be
ready!
Source: http://www.wombles.org.uk/article2009033111.php
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To All Those Who Fight 4: Anarchy, Autonomy, Ecology, Queerness
To all media activists, creative workers, radical artists, union organizers,
immigrant and precarious youth
In 2009, as millions are made unemployed by the bankruptcy of neoliberalism,
hopefully all insurgent people and networks out there will unite on the 1st of
May for a global mayday against financial capitalism and state repression, and
for social redistribution and self-emancipation...
>From Precarity to Unemployment: the Great Recession and EuroMayDay
Neoliberalism and monetarism have ended up ruining the world, like the
antiglobalization movement always said they would: like two mad scientists,
they proved socially, environmentally, and economically unsustainable. And so
they fucked up majorly and have produced the worst economic crisis since the
times of Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler.
Problem is that it's hard to cheer because the vast majority of those
laissez-faire bankers and deregulating economists are still in charge, still
dictating the terms of the game. Those who precipitated the crisis with their
foolish policies of banking deregulation, welfare privatization, trade
liberalization, labor deunionization are still at their desks! They tell us we
should be quiet, accept layoffs and wage cuts, take some fiscal stimulus if we
are lucky, and after 2010 we will again live happily under capitalism ever
after.
BULLSHIT! And they are throwing trillions at the banks who have made the
riskiest of bets on real estate, paid off millions in bonuses to assehole CEOs
and let the economy hang dry when the debts were called in. Trillions for
bankers, cuts for people. This is the European equation. Not only this is
scandalously immoral, it's economically counterproductive. Banks are hoarding
liquidity for fear of going bust and don't supply new credit.
As Keynes and Kalecki first showed, during great depressions monetary policy
doesn't work, since it falls into a liquidity trap. Only social spending,
public investment and redistribution away from profits and rents toward wages
and transfers is gonna do the trick. For three decades, as they were happily
pocketing the quantum leap in social productivity afforded by the information
revolution, the élites said there was no public money for services, schools and
the precarious many, while hedge funds and private equity funds were siphoning
off zillions for the super-ritzy few. They said wages had to stay low, because
global competitiveness demanded it, until income distribution became as
absurdly unequal as it had gotten on the eve of the Great Depression. No wonder
another major depression has ensued. This crisis is no random phenomenon, it was
caused by the venality and stupidity of the financial and political elites.
The Great Recession is shaking capitalism at its foundations and undermining its
social legitimacy. America, Europe and East Asia, the core centers of global
capitalism, have been hit particularly hard. The North American economy is
sinking fast. Europe is following suit. Ireland risks going the way of Iceland.
The meltdown is reaching the heart of European capitalism. And the Baltics,
Eastern Europe and Ucraine threaten a financial abyss for the eurozone.
Japan, like Korea, has experienced a dramatic drop in exports and industrial
production. China faces a socially problematic slowdown in growth. The global
downward spiral has become self-reinforcing and hundreds of thousands of jobs
are lost every month. The specter of deflation and serial bankruptcy looms
everywhere. Millions of people will soon become unemployed in the EU.
The majority of those being laid off are temporary, precarious, immigrant
workers in all sectors of the economy. They were the last hired and are now the
first being fired. Neoliberalism has made an entire generation flexible and/or
precarious, now its final demise is making a whole generation unemployed. From
precarity to unemployment: this is what free-market globalization and the
European Single Market have finally led to.
In Europe, the eurocracy remains committed to the stability pact and monetarism,
to competition and the race to the bottom for workers' rights and social
services. Interest rates stay positive, deficit spending is very weak, incomes
keep going down, layoffs are spreading at an alarming rate, xenophobia is
increasing among the native working class; this is the situation we're in.
Following Polanyi, we can say the euro is the political equivalent of the gold
standard in in the interwar period, forcing deflation on the throats of
european workers as a way of macroeconomic adjustment to the depression.
While in America neocon market bigotry has been finally unsaddled, in Europe
orthodoxy reigns, since the very same gerontocratic elites are still at the
helm untroubled, dictating yet another round of social sacrifices so that they
can continue remain at the top.
We must overthrow them. We, the precarious youth and migrant generation of
Europe must rock Strasbourg, Brussels, Frankfurt, the eurozone and the rest of
the continent to establish a neutral, social, radical europe.
The task is immensely daunting, no doubt. But in Athens, Malmoe, Sofia, Oslo,
Vilnius, Riga, in the Italian, French, Spanish student movements, in French and
Belgian general strikes, in the countless demos for Gaza in all the cities of
Europe, where muslim and dissident youth joined forces against european
xenophobia as much as against israel's ferocious militarism, we have seen that
large-scale rebellion, mobilization, protest is possible.
It will only increase in the next months, starting with London against G20
(Financial Fools Day!) and in Strasbourg against NATO in early April.
The Great Depression led to keynesian policies, union counterpower and the
fordist welfare state. We must act to make sure that the Great Recession leads
to economic redistribution, social emancipation, ecological community.
In the short term, the fiercest fight will be around the destination of the huge
flows of public money that are being poured to prime the economic pump. This
should be our position: One trillion euros for basic income, not for banks!
Socialize credit: spend money on precarious workers, not on wealthy bankers!
In Europe, this crisis can either go authoritarian right or social left, there
will be nothing in between. It can either strengthen to sarkozist statism and
the EU police state, fan the flames of xenophobia and islamophobia, further
scapegoat immigrants and the undesirables, or it can newly empower the
precarious and the excluded in huge struggles, produce universal entitlements
like a european basic income and free higher education, give rise to new forms
of urban democracy, new forms of solidarity between service and cognitive
labor.
In the global recession, the euro is posing itself as the new reserve currency,
as the new standard of international value. This means reinforcing the power of
property and amassed wealth in euroland. If European monetarism is alive and
kicking, the crisis has exposed the cracks and faults already existing in the
EU. After having being beaten thrice at the ballot, the Union has been unable
to devise a common response to the crisis, and countries are left to their own
means and national policies, which they are using to heavily subsidize their
banks and corporations. Subsidies are going to shareholders and bondholders,
not to the unemployed or underemployed.
In Malmö at the ESF, Michael Hardt saluted the General Freeters' Union in Japan
as the first revolutionary syndicate in the world committed to the cause of
migrants and/or precarious, and EuroMayDay in Europe for trying to do the same:
Oficinas de los Derechos Sociales have established a network of social defense
for migrants and precari at s in Spain: ChainWorkers and Intelligence Precaria
have created social media for precarized workers in airports, call centers,
publishing, education in Italy; Helsinki mayday is part of the social center
movement fighting antiziganism and zero tolerance on street culture, and of the
student movement that has just occupied the university; the Liège mayday
network, which organizes precarious and migrants and connects with Brussels,
Ghent and other cities, is providing impetus to the first explicitly radical
european network active in countersummit protests and theoretical strategizing
to finally bring revolution to the EU. Soon the times will be ripe to create a
distinctive political tendency that will put the 20th century red and green
left in the reformist league where it today belongs. Pink postcapitalism is
near! (((<--- Pass the Molotovs, brother; a decade of "pink postcapitalism,"
whatever the heck that is, oughta pretty well take the edge off.)))
We should also build a paneuropean biosyndicate of the precarious and the
unemployed, the excluded and the exploited, the discriminated and the arrested.
The alternative is the slide toward patriotic sectionalism and even xenophobia
that was noticeable in the strikes in the UK energy industry.
Mass unemployment will make the sirens of proletarian nativism and racism very
seductive. Transnationalist solidarity must be organized, it won't happen by
default in the Great Recession. We have to organize the precarious and the
unemployed youth, the second generation born in Europe that yearns for freedom
from police persecution and equality of treatment and opportunity: et's fight
the police state, let's reclaim the welfare state; we are all punk islamic
queers! (((<--- I want the T-shirt, only, uh, I want to see Newt Gingrich
wearing it.)))
EUROMAYDAY 009: Creative Anarchy, Social Autonomy vs the Crisis and its Makers
MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, THE FIRST OF MAY WE'LL MAKE YOU PAY!
Source: http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/03/09/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Biggest police operation for a decade to be launched at G20 summit in London
The biggest police operation for a decade will be launched next month for the
G20 summit after protesters said they planned to bring chaos to London.
Business groups are warning staff not to schedule important meetings in the
capital because of the likely disruption.
Tens of thousands of protesters are preparing to descend on the City and the
Excel centre, where the two-day summit is being held.
Whitehall officials are also understood to be preparing contingency plans to
move the conference elsewhere in the country if the security of the summit is
jeopardised.
Although the summit is dubbed “the G20” there will be 22 countries represented
at the meeting, including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia,
Saudi Arabia and the United States.
As well as the heads of state, more than 1,000 officials and civil servants are
expected on April 1 and 2, including the heads of the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank.
Police are preparing to launch their biggest street security operation in
Britain since the May Day riots nine years ago, with more than 5,000 Met and
City of London police expected on the streets to maintain public order and
protect the foreign leaders.
Sources said that it is a “unique” challenge.
One potential flashpoint is in the heart of the City, where thousands of climate
change protesters are already planning to set up camp at the Carbon Trading
Exchange.
An umbrella group called “G20 Meltdown”, representing 67 different protest
groups from anti-war demonstrators to anarchists, promises to “reclaim the
City, thrusting into the very belly of the beast: the Bank of England”.
The Daily Telegraph has learned of plans by four columns of protesters to march
on the Bank of England from different train and Tube stations on the eve of the
summit, April 1.
Local shops said police had already started to warn firms in the City and
eastern parts of London of potential trouble in two weeks’ time.
Police will brief community groups and businesses next week on the latest
intelligence of potential threats.
Part of the challenge for policing the operation is that many of the heads of
state will be staying at their embassies in Belgravia.
This will mean that their motorcades will be travelling across London to where
the summit is being held in a conference centre in the Docklands.
Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the civil service, said: " It is going to be
challenging to move so many heads of state and government around London.
“Obviously we will do all we can to minimise disruption but we need to keep
these various heads of states secure.”
Sir Gus also made reference to the particular risk around American presidents,
after previous attempts on the lives of former heads of state.
He added: “American presidents, you know we know the history, so they are
rightly very careful about security.”
The cost of the summit is already mounting. Yesterday the Cabinet Office said
the cost to the taxpayer of the two-day event would be £19million.
This estimate includes all major costs – staffing, the venue, and event security
and policing.
However, it does not include the disruption costs to businesses, which the
London Chambers of Commerce said would be £5million a day. If there is trouble,
this will rise “significantly”.
Colin Stanbridge, the chambers’ chief executive, said: "We are immensely proud
that the G20 is coming to London but there is concern about the possible
disruption to day-to-day business.
“We are confident that the Met and City police will be well prepared, but we
would ask the authorities to consider the full implications for firms when
making their security arrangements.”
The Federation of Small Businesses, which represents more than 200,000 small
firms across the UK, has warned its members not to try to hold important
meetings in London that week.
Stephen Alambritis, a spokesman, said: “We are warning our members not to
arrange important meetings in London that week.”
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said: "The Metropolitan Police is very
experienced in policing events and demonstrations and deals with 4,500 a year.
“There will be a large security operation surrounding the G20 event, to deal
with the event itself and any demonstrations that may occur.
“The Metropolitan Police are committed to, and will always facilitate, lawful
protest.”
By Christopher Hope, Richard Edwards and Oliver Gregory
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/4986303/Biggest-police-operation-for-a-decade-to-be-launched-at-G20-summit-in-London.html
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