Protests Underway for G8 in Germany

by 1 of Media G8way - Media G8way Sun May 27, 2007 17:56

Courts Grant Appeal: Star March Can Happen

Star March Coalition

Press Release May 25th 2007

*G8 2007 Protests in Germany*

The Star March Intends to go all the Way to the Kempinski Hotel
'State of Emergency' Does Not Justify a General Ban

The urgent appeal of the Star March Coalition lodged at the Schwerin Court has
been successful. The Coalition had lodged a law suit against the general
demonstration ban issued by the police department. A general injunction over a
40 square kilometer area had been designated as a demonstration free zone. Such
an injunction would have been unprecedented in the history of Germany.

The Schwerin Court has only granted a partial lift of the injunction. The Star
March Coalition had registered their final rally at the Kempinski Hotel. With
this, the protest was to be taken to the addressees: The meeting of the Heads
of State of the G8. The Court has decided that demonstrations are allowed to
take place on 4 of 6 of the planned routes and at a distance of 200 m from the
fence.

The Court has explained that the "suspected threats to public security can be
sufficiently contained with less extreme measures than a general ban." Of
course we are happy that our right to demonstrate has been confirmed in the
first instance. A huge thank-you to the lawyers", Susanne Spemberg and Peter
Kromrey of the Star March Coalition explain. There had been a broad wave of
international criticism in response to the injunction. "However, we will
continue to question the ban on demonstrations within the area sealed off by
the fence. We will decide in the next few days whether to appeal against the
decision."

At the beginning of the week the groups affected by the total prohibition of all
assemblies at the military airport Rostock Laage had also lodged an appeal. In
the next days, the organization 'Jewish Voice', who had registered a rally at
the fence on June 5th, will also lodge an appeal. "We expect that with the
decision to allow the Star March to happen, all other bans will be lifted too",
Matthias Monroy of the Gipfelsoli Infogruppe states. All organizers have to make
individual cases against the ban.

The Star March Coalition is represented by the Hamburg-based lawyers Carsten
Gericke, Ulrike Donat and Cornelia Ganten-Lange. "We were all convinced from
the beginning that a complete ban could never be upheld", Carsten Gericke
comments.

The lawyers critcise that the police have been planning this injunction for
months: "Other de-escalating and staggered concepts were at no point taken into
consideration", it states in the appeal.

The police had argued that the ban was necessary because of a 'state of
emergency'.
A line of argument that invokes a 'state of emergency' denies citizens their
basic rights. The assumption that all large political events demand the
declaration of a 'state of emergency' would be a poor showing for the German
constitutional State, that could in future regularly curtail civil liberties
via such injunctions, without sufficient reason to do. Injunctions have never
stopped assemblies but have only contributed to escalation, because not enough
space was left for people to articulate their protest legally.

Carlo Paul of the Star March Coalition states,"With the Star March we want to
make our ideas for another possible world visible. Social revolutionaries,
globalization critics, peasants, trade unions, the environmental movement and
radical feminists: on June 7th we will all raise our voices against the
pernicious politics of the G8."

[Star March Coalition]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

German Federal State Prosecution Supports Escalation of G8 Protests

G8 summit protestors harshly criticised the comments of the Federal State
Prosecutor Monika Harms about the planned G8 protest camps. In different media
Harms defended the raids of 40 houses and political projects that happened two
weeks ago with supposed ?workshops in the camps that prepare people for
blockades and militant actions? during the summit protests.

'Once again, the state is producing an escalation spiral,' according to Jo
Smith of the International Press Group Media G8way. The statements of Harms
stigmatise all globalisation critics, and follow the logic of intimidation and
criminalisation of the movement during the past weeks. After house raids,
permanent controls and observation, she makes the people who will live in the
protest camps during the next weeks appear to be suspected terrorists.'

'The protest camps in Rostock, Reddelich and Wichmannsdorf are finally
constructed after months of difficult negotiations with the local and police
authorities. About 20,000 summit protestors are expected to live in the three
camps,'explains one of the camp organisers. 'After making our life hard
during the negotiations and preparations, the federal state prosecution now
claims that these are training camps for terrorists. The workshops Harms is
mentioning, however, are precisely designed to practice de-escalating behaviour
towards the police during blockades. Her statements lack any reliable knowledge
about the reality of the protests.'

Similarly misleading are the statements by the Federal Minister of Justice,
Brigitte Zypries. In the daily news programme 'Die Tagesschau' (The Daily
Show) she said that the previous raids of the houses of summit protestors had
nothing to do with the preparations of the summit protests. 'In the search
orders, however, it was literally written that the searches are necessary to
guarantee Germany?s reliability towards its G8 partners,' according to
organiser Jo Smith.

Also, leading officers of the federal criminal investigation department have
admitted already that the reason of the searches was to know more about the
anti-G8 protest scene. Obviously, the anti-G8 mobilisation does not provide
sufficient reasons for justifying the raids afterwards. The federal
government demonstrates in this way that it does not have any interest in
approaching the resistance against the G8 summit democratically nor through
de-escalating measures. 'This way, the government brings more damage than
some burned cars ever could. It attempts to scare demonstrators and prevent
them from taking to the streets,' says Smith. 'But we do not assume that
this strategy will work out. All the attempts to criminalize the movement have
so far led to an even stronger solidarity and mobilization against the politics
of the industrialized states.

All neighbours and journalists who want to get an impression of the camps in
construction are cordially invited to the Opening Day on Thursday, 31st of May,
starting from 2pm in Reddelich and Wichmannsdorf, and on Friday, 1st of June in
the camp at the Port of Rostock.

--
Media G8way does not claim responsibility for the content of the statements it
distributes on behalf of the groups or individuals who use its service. Media
G8way is an international press service for individuals, groups, networks and
(dis)organisations who understand themselves to be part of an independent
radical left movement against the G8.

Contact:
Alex Smith +49 16092437902
Jo Smith + 49 015774630348
g8-press-int@nadir.org
http://dissentnetzwerk.org/node/2669

by Righteous Pragmatist Sun May 27, 2007 17:54

You must be joking!

The G8 leaders are the political representatives of their respective nations - the largest economies in the world.

Is the political and economic future of the globe going to be decided by Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Hamas or Al-Qaeda instead?

The usual paleo-leftists who will be hanging around outside have no legitimacy either.

by SYer - SY Sun May 27, 2007 17:15

http://socialistworld.net/eng/2007/05/23g8.html

http://anticapitalism.org.uk/index.php