G8 Protest - A Huge Success : Melbourne Indymedia

Looking at the photos of the anti-G8 protests online today it is clear that the social movement for global peace and justice is alive and kicking. Although mainstream press reports have predictably labelled the protest as contained and a failure it is obvious from online coverage on particularly on U.K. Indymedia that despite the 18,000 police deployed - ten thousand demonstrators who camped in the area around the G8 meeting in Germany that have been able to undertake hugely disruptive, peaceful and spiritid non-violent civil disobedience.
The photos of thousands of demonstrators peacefully facing off to riot police really looks like the protest has the same peaceful, celebratory vibe that we saw in Melbourne on the at the S11 demonstrations in 200 against the WEF. The photos revealling smiling, peaceful defiance at its best. The police with their water canons and robo-cop gear look overwhelmed and unsure how to tackle the thousands on the blockades.
The German protesters took a very simple approach - blocking the access roads into the summitt. They accepted that delegates would be flown in but the thousands of support staff and supplies are needed to keep a summitt like this stocked with fresh caviar etc So the simple act of sitting on a road is hugely effective. If only we had taken a similar approach against the recent G20 protests in Melbourne!
The determination of the crowds is inspiring - when German police blocked and detained people on buses heading to the perimeter fence of the G8 summitt - they simply walked in huge convoys the 14 miles to the fence. Many thousands have also stayed out to brave the cold, diminished numbers and increased risk of police violence to stay on blockade gates overnight.
Power to the People! May they continue their peaceful resistance against the assembled war criminals and planet destroyers assembled within the gates. The criminal cabal of the world leaders cant be trusted to meet together without endangering the safety of others. To think that Bush and Putin and co are really interested in helping the worlds poor and combatting climate change is beyond a joke. This G8 has been met not with celebrity politics and concerts but a determined peaceful army of protesters. Fantastic stuff!

See links to photos and stories below

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/06/18425401.php

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/371754.html

http://de.indymedia.org/ticker/en/

'The Fate of Certain World Leaders' -

http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_14.html?page=66#1155

please add Little Johny Howhard version, adapt and apply to the Tampa/Children Overboard/Weapns of Mass Destruction/Austrlian Wheat Board etc lieing political Leaders of Ozfailure too.

I agree! Its great to see some of the courage and bravery of well planned and coordinated physical intervention that we saw in Seattle and then again at S11 in Melbourne rather than the just trashing and running that characterised the useless protests against the G20.

Its always good to see people in direct intervention, getting in the way and holding the line against cop violence - rather than throwing, running and hiding.

It's enough to restore my faith in the global justice movement!

In a lesson for both the StopG20 walking wounded and those railing about 'diversity of tactics' in the lead-up to APEC the devastatingly effective results of a powerful, coordinated nonviolent blockade of the G8 summit is a stark reminder. A reminder that you can't go past good-old grassroots organizing and planning if you want to be effective.

The nonviolent blockades surrounding the G8 that we are seeing at the moment were planned well in advance and partly seems based upon the lessons of the Gorleben Caster shipment blockades.

The Block G8 campaign concept called for a mass blockades choreographed for maximim intervention:

"On June 6 2007, we want to - and will - massively and effectively blockade the opening of the G8 Summit, the meeting of the heads of government of the world’s 8 most powerful states, in Heiligendamm, near Rostock in Germany.

With blockades of civil disobedience in which thousands of people from different political, social and cultural backgrounds can participate, we will express an unmistakable ‘NO!’ against the G8. A radical ‘NO!’ which cannot be ignored. A public, offensive and practical expression of the lack of legitimacy of the G8 and their policies of neoliberal, globalised capitalism; of wars; of social and racist exclusion; and of environmental destruction. We will actively disrupt the G8, occupying and blockading the streets required by the diplomats, translators and supply vehicles to reach Heiligendamm. We want to practically and effectively stop the Summit and cut it off from its infrastructure."

According to basic indy and mainstream media reports - and incredibly considering the 18,000 police and naval operation set to stop them - they seem to have actually achieved this!

In a similar way that US activists developed sound grassroots organising structures in the months leading up to Seattle in 99 and spent months training 5000 + people in basic nonviolent blockading techniques - activists at the G8 have organised impressively.

Backed by activist trainings, orientations for new people, legal back-up and by bringing together an impressive array of supporting activist networks under the banner of solidarity and mutual support organisers have achieved something - and built on the lessons of previous summits and activist history.

Most pertinent for us here in Melbourne was how Block G8 organisers called for and developed solidarity links and support structures before the event - rather than just demanding it from everybody after the inevitable clampdown.

http://www.block-g8.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=53

We can only hope that the 'fuck-you' diversity-of-tactics attitude that we have seen in Australia of late might shift back to some across the board solidarity, planning and effective movement building before APEC.

The true champions of social justice aren't those rioting in the streets.

That's easy to do.

The real heroes are the ones quietly 'fighting' behind the scenes in hospitals, schools, palliative care establishments, legal aid centres everywhere. You won't see them smashing other people's things. They're more into creating things. You won't see them fighting with police. They're too busy teaching, caring, advocating for the marganilised and dispossessed.

Don't confuse self-centred wankers with heroes.

There's really no comparison.

"We want to practically and effectively stop the Summit and cut it off from its infrastructure."

Bad luck, shithead. You didn't quite make it.

Yes but there is always the "out of control" tendency which like at the G20 here in Melbourne last November polarised protesters with their action against the Police vehicle and the media hyped hunt for them and subsequent Court case which are a Trial by Media spectacle. The campaign is not paralysed by these either "well intentioned militants" or "provocateurs" but it has always been part of the scene alas.
Like the paper sellers/party builders the point is to get a critical mass of so many that any "tendency" is just that one of a DIVERSE movement...not all anti-war campaigners are political or religious or Nationalists, violent or non-violent...this multitude of tactics is the best way to deal with those who would claim to be the Leaders, the vanguard, the Militants whatever by being in so many numbers and types that anyone who attends can easily work out that such control freask speak only for themselves not all of us.
So in this case the black bloc speaks for the black bloc not the anti-g8 campaign just as the quietist/token protest scene do not either.
Beware those who proclaim otherwise all they do is drive a wedge split the ranks to further their own careers and the State encourages such squabbling. In Germany the anti-nuclear train campaign splits up the tracks into zones which the farmers, the pacifists, the bust shit up, the Politicians, the religious followers etc can each defedn witht their own people and not dictate to other regins of the protest...new people are free to choose who they hang out with and what tactics to do.
Seems like that kind of worked at Crown Casino WF protests in 2000 with different Gates being run by different associations - lest we forget that although In Unity is Strength is also diversity !

The Black Bloc: The Demonized Face of G8 Protests
June 08 2007

Anarchist Movement: Violent anarchists have been dominating the headlines when it comes to G8 protests. Known as the Black Bloc, they see themselves as the ultimate opposition. Other demonstrators blame them for causing new problems.

Here is an example of Socialists in the Trotsky lead Russian Red Army heir tradition wanting to purge 'autonomists' and anarchists like the non-violent mafia they both would dob in those 'out of control'. Ironic how Authoritarian both "different" or diverse these two wannabe politician rackets are, ie they agree to disagree on Power (ie getting it and holding on to it) but agree to purge those who do not follow their Line, the correct stratgy, ie their Leadership, their Vanguard...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jun2007/rost-j07.shtml

WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Germany
Anti-G8 demonstration violence in Rostock: questions and contradictions
By Marius Heuser and Ulrich Rippert
7 June 2007

Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author

The acts of violence that occurred during the mass demonstration against the G8 summit last Saturday in Rostock have led to noisy appeals from the German political and media establishment for tougher police measures. Many commentators have chosen to blame the mass of demonstrators and the organisers of the protest for the excesses, and then sought retroactively to justify the attacks on the right to demonstrate and freedom of assembly that preceded the demonstration.

Reinhard Mohr writes in Spiegel-Online that, as far as he is concerned, the demonstrators as a group were responsible for the riots because they did not distinguish themselves clearly enough from violent anarchist elements (so-called “autonomes”). Anyone who labels the elected heads of government and other G8 summit participants “gangsters and criminals” should not be surprised at the outbreak of violence, Mohr concludes. The author began his journalistic career as an editor of the Frankfurt anarchist pamphlet “Pavement Beach,” which justified the street battles fought in the 1970s by his colleagues Joschka Fischer and Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

Michael Bauchmüller from the Süddeutschen Zeitung draws a link between the burning of cars and masked stone-throwers and a political perspective that questions the existing social order. “All those, however, who together with the G8 want to consign the whole system to history [... ] should remain at home for the next few days. They are the bearers of discord in a world that is struggling for a better future.”

While the photos of street battles and reports of a thousand injured, including 430 policemen (it turns out that of the reported total of 400 injured and 30 severely injured policemen just two visited a hospital and these two were not so badly injured that they had to be kept in overnight), are being eagerly used to criminalise any fundamental criticism of capitalism, there is a decided lack of interest on the part of politicians and the media in determining precisely what took place in Rostock.

In fact, the demonstration began peacefully and proceeded for many hours before marchers arrived at the final rallying place at the city’s docks. At this point the protest had a decidedly festive character with theatre and cultural groups at the forefront. Demonstrators and organisers were shocked by the sudden outbreak of violence, with participants making a number of attempts to pacify both the stone throwers and the police.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that hard-liners in the German interior ministry—in particular Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (Christian Democratic Union-CDU)—had announced the probability of outbreaks of violence weeks before, and then on the evening of the demonstration, with news stations showing burning cars and road barricades, called for a further arming of the police. Meanwhile CDU politicians are proposing the deployment of the notorious anti-terror GSG9 commando force at demonstrations and the equipping of police with rubber bullets. The next step can be predicted: a call from Schäuble for the use of the German army to suppress domestic opposition.

If, however, one begins considering the Rostock events by posing the question, “Who benefited from the riots?” then it is clear that the demonstrators lose out on all fronts. The interior ministry, on the other hand, is using the riots to justify both those attacks already carried out against freedom of assembly (as well as the assault carried out against left-wing organizations and globalization opponents, whose offices and dwellings were raided in the middle of May) and to prepare new and even more far-reaching attacks and police measures.

In this respect it is necessary to examine a number of obvious contradictions in the behaviour of the police and the security forces.

How is one to account for the fact that the police had warned weeks before of “autonomous rioters,” but then allowed a closed formation of “black bloc” anarchists to parade unmonitored on one of the two demonstrations? Why wasn’t this “black bloc” accompanied by experienced police units, as is usually the case? Why was a police vehicle then parked provocatively in the middle of the area leading up to the final rallying point? According to several eye-witness reports, the attacks carried out by some members of the “black bloc” on this vehicle were the trigger for the intervention by police. Why was no attention paid to repeated calls by the organisers of the rally for the removal of the vehicle by the large numbers of police escorting the demonstration?

Who gave the order to obstruct photo journalists from taking pictures during the peaceful phase of the demonstration? Why were the authorities so keen that photos not be taken?

It is well-known that at the start of the year the German authorities intensified the infiltration of undercover agents into the “violent autonomous movement.” In its May 14 edition, Der Spiegel magazine wrote, “At the beginning of the year the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) declared globalization critics to be an ‘operational focal point.’ All preparatory meetings are observed, the groups involved are infiltrated” by undercover agents.

Just one week before the demonstration, on 29 May, the Bild newspaper reported on “secret police plans” in preparation for the G8 summit. According to Bild, the first point of a three-point plan reads, “Undercover agents who were infiltrated a long time ago by the intelligence services are to provide early evidence of planned disruptive actions.”

The question therefore arises: how many undercover agents were operating in the “black bloc”? What information about acts of violence were communicated to the police command by these undercover agents, and why was nothing undertaken to prevent these acts of violence? Moreover, were undercover agents involved in the outbreak of violence, and to what extent?

These are urgent questions that need to be investigated. In view of the large number of casualties, it is necessary to clarify the role played by undercover agents. Until this information is made available, it is impossible to rule out the use of undercover agents as agents provocateurs on the demonstration.

Genoa 2001

The events of the G8 summit in Genoa in June 2001 took place just a few years ago and are still fresh in the memory. During the course of the protest, young demonstrator Carlo Giuliani (23) was killed. His family and other victims of police violence fought for years to clarify the circumstances leading up to his death. Finally, the Italian public prosecutor’s office declared that the violence at the Genoa demonstration had been initiated by a hard core of approximately 200 persons, a considerable number of whom were either undercover policemen or right-wing extremists hired by the police. The provocateurs discussed their tactics with police, disguised themselves as anarchists and mixed with peaceful demonstrators before undertaking their criminal operations.

While the rioters were left largely undisturbed, their violence in Genoa became the pretext for the police to move with extreme brutality against the rest of the demonstrators. A good deal of evidence has emerged about the police provocation. There are numerous reports of the use of massive force on their part. Guiliani was shot by a cop. At the same time a particularly savage assault took place on the Pascoli school, where hundreds of demonstrators were surprised in their sleep and savagely beaten. Afterwards a number had to receive treatment in intensive care units.

The pretexts given by Italian police to justify its raid on the school were completely disproved by the public prosecutor’s office. Police even brought along their own Molotov cocktails to plant on the young people sleeping at the school.

Anyone who believes that similar things could not happen in Germany is simply ignorant of history.

At the end of the 1960s the undercover agent Peter Urbach supplied bombs and weapons to members of the Berlin APO (Extra-Parliamentary Opposition), which later constituted one of the initial elements of the Red Army Faction (RAF). Ten years later a member of the BND blew a hole in the wall of the prison in the town of Celle in an attempt to stage a prison outbreak by RAF member Sigurd Debus and thereby enable the police to infiltrate the organization.

There have been numerous reports in Germany of the use of police provocateurs in more recent years. In May 1993 when East German miners from Bischofferode protested in front of government buildings to oppose the closure of their pit, policemen garbed as anarchists smuggled themselves into the demonstration and then threw bottles and stones at their colleagues in uniform. When some workers intervened to stop the rioters and hand them over to the police, the latter showed a complete lack of interest. Instead the police officers arbitrarily seized a number of workers and beat them brutally.

There have also been a number of reports of the role of deliberate police provocations in connection with the Gorleben anti-nuclear protests.

Eye-witness reports

In this connection it is necessary to take eye-witness reports by demonstrators in Rostock very seriously. On the Indymedia web site, a number of demonstrators have described their experiences. Almost all of the reports stress that for most of the day the demonstration had proceeded in a very calm and peaceful manner. At the same time, several demonstrators observed—independently of each other—that some members of the “black bloc” functioned independently of the main body of anarchists and seemed to be in contact with the police.

Thus Rainer Zwanzleitner reports on Indymedia, “We were part of the demo, which came from the direction of Hamburg Street, quite near the front. When we reached the city’s docks we observed how a group of police (approx. 10-20) positioned in front of a building site fence began, as if by command, to calmly commence putting on their helmets, i.e. to prepare for action. There had been no incidents up until that point.”

Fearful of a police intervention, Zwanzleitner removed himself with his group from this police cordon and continued to move towards the stage set up for the planned final rally. “From there we could observe that the police had set off towards the head of the demo point. At about the same time several police units from the direction of the city centre piled into the demonstration, which had come from the railway station.” The final rally had already begun and after approximately 10 to 15 minutes a member of the organising committee appealed by microphone for the police to withdraw and desist with their provocative deployments.

Instead the opposite took place. A police helicopter circled directly over the stage and flew so low that its noise dominated the entire area near the public-address system, making communication from the stage impossible.

“When it became calmer we left the site of the rally at the docks and proceeded towards the pedestrian zone. What we saw on the way was nothing less than a police camp. There were police vehicles everywhere.” Meanwhile another threatening situation was brewing at the university square.

“A group of perhaps between 20 and 30 demonstrators dressed in black entered the square followed by police units. Some of these demonstrators remained at the square, some continued on to the city hall. Then we saw another 3 or 4 figures dressed in black, who differed considerably, however, from the usual picture of an ‘autonome’: They were notably broadly built, identically dressed (thin nylon anoraks, identical trousers and their faces were masked). Under the thin clothing it was possible to identify body armour. And even more remarkably: they left the square, fully masked, in the opposite direction to the others, i.e. directly towards the police, who were moving in. We were then unable to ascertain where they went to next.” (http://de.indymedia.org/2007/06/180968.shtml)

Other participants on the demonstration report that they noticed that members of the “black bloc” brusquely rejected political material in the form of leaflets and flyers. “This is new for me with regard to the autonomous left ... I had the impression that something was not right with these people, they did not appear to behave like lefts, nor like left anarchists, “ was the report by a participant, Anna U.

“Organisational stupidity”

It is not only demonstrators who have criticized the provocative behaviour of the police. In Deutschlandradio Kultur Munich police psychologist George Sieber described the actions taken by police in Rostock as “operational stupidity.” The police were following outdated tactics and reacted with disproportionate force, Sieber said.

When asked how the violence came about, he answered, “It was like this: an escalation had already taken place, long before it really heated up in Rostock. What everybody could see was how police officers appeared with very unusual body armour, at first glance one might have confused them with marines in Iraq.”

When asked by a reporter whether he thought the escalation had been caused by the police, Sieber said the escalation had already taken place: “They proceeded on the basis of extreme danger or actually felt such a danger, and then resorted to security precautions that represented a severe violation of human rights. This is what I call escalation—that was in fact the highest level of escalation.”

The demonstration was initially peaceful. “We had two observers on the spot, who notified us by telephone, ‘there is an atmosphere here which resembles the Love Parade [an annual musical event in Berlin],’” Sieber reported. “Things first really got going when a police car was damaged and then a great deal happened, which one would describe as disproportionate reaction on the part of police officers.”

Sieber criticized the fact that the security forces had proceeded almost exclusively “in fixed formation.” Such deployments, “in fixed formation, in the form of a chain, as a combat patrol,” are completely outdated and have been described since “approximately the 1970s as simply operational stupidity.” In Rostock “everything actually took place in opposition to what is taught in the textbook. And the officials naturally learn at the police academy that one should not do it such a way.” Therefore “this deployment was from the start completely inappropriate.”

Following repeated demands by the surprised reporter, who asked whether he was really accusing the police command, Sieber replied, “No, this is not a reproach; it is possibly even what was politically intended.”

This is precisely the question: Were events set in motion with the knowledge that photos of burning autos and stone-throwing rioters could be used to justify the attacks on the right to demonstrate that had already taken place and to prepare for a new assault on democratic rights? Was this what was “politically intended”?

An investigation is necessary to determine whether the riots were the result of a planned manoeuvre, in which undercover police operated as agents provocateurs in the “black bloc,” while the police reacted with closed formations and the police command prepared to carry out a deployment which resulted in several hundred injured demonstrators.

We appeal to readers who took part in the demonstration and possess any important information about what took place to send us their material and establish contact with the editorial board.

G8 has been and gone and while it is fun to go through the entrails for who was to blame for State Violence it seems that not as nasty as Belusconi the Belusconi lite PM Prodi was just as keen to have the 'nice protesters' corralled through the proper channels to applaud him and Emperor Bush at a concert ala Bono at last year's G20 here in melbourne. Bracks and son to reign over us Rudd are very keen on State violence too so after APEC and nasty Howard etc State violence get ready for Howard lite Rudd State Violence kids. But I digress here's a cross post from abc

Sunday, June 10, 2007. 7:06am (AEST)
Italian protesters clash with police during a rally against the visit of US President George W Bush.

Italian protesters clash with police during a rally against the visit of US President George W Bush. (Reuters)

Anti-Bush protesters clash with Rome police

An otherwise peaceful protest march by tens of thousands against the visit of US President George W Bush to Rome turned violent, as police clashed with stick-wielding demonstrators.

Protesters wearing hoods and helmets and brandishing sticks were seen throwing bottles and other projectiles at police in the Campo dei Fiori, close to the end point of the protest march at Piazza Navona.

When police began surrounding the demonstrators, the march organisers called on them to disperse, but about 100 stayed on to resist.

The ground-floor windows of a bank and a fast food restaurant were damaged in the unrest, the first incident to mar an otherwise peaceful march by a crowd estimated at more than 150,000 by organisers.

The anti-globalisation activists, anarchists and left-wing radicals staged the noisy march in a festive atmosphere, chanting "No Bush, No War," while also slamming Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi for hosting Mr Bush "with honours."

A separate protest at Rome's vast Piazza del Popolo gathered supporters and politicians of the far left flank of Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition Government for a rally and pop concert.

Stephanie Westbrook of the Rome-based US Citizens for Peace and Justice told AFP the group wanted "to express our feelings regarding both the Bush administration policies as well as what we see as the Italian Government's support of these policies."

She listed as examples Mr Prodi's approval of the expansion of a US air base in the north-eastern city of Vicenza, support for the US plan for a missile defence system to be deployed in eastern Europe, and a recent contract to buy 122 F35 jet fighters from the United States.

Some 10,000 police including hundreds in riot gear were providing security for Bush's visit.