Since the “Battle of Seattle”, where in 1999 the WTO-minister conference had to be opened in front of an empty conference hall while barricades were burning in the streets, many hundred thousands of anti-globalization activists went to the streets: being militant or blocking infrastructure or participating in main events like the social forums.
They are part of the worldwide movement which formed at the end if the 90ies and whose activists fight for social emancipation and against a globalized neo-liberalism. Anti-summit activities of the radical left have the aim to disturb the symbolic representation of global power. In connection with action days and alliance-demonstrations, pictures of riots in the cities of Gothenburg, Geneva or Genoa provided a clear message: We deny any dialogue with those in power of an inhuman system.
The protests against the G8-summit 2007 have also a place in the history of resistance. In Heiligendamm, the staging of a G8-meeting was successfully disturbed.
More than 10 000 people delayed the arrival of summit-delegates on Wednesday, the 6th of June 2007. All access roads were blocked; anti-summit activists forced their way into the security zone having been declared a prohibited area around the conference location. Interpreters and staff could not get to Heiligendamm for hours – alone the air and see routes were still open till rubber boats managed to come into the range of vision of the conference location.
The success of the blockades is a success of the movement’s basis, which followed its aim with determination and confidence. The concept lived of the many activists, who prepared the blockades for months. The experience documents a further development of previous summit protests and strengthens the left internationally.
It shows that in future, we are to be expected.
We participated in the organization and realization of the protests in the frame of the federal network “Interventionist Left (IL)”. In our actions we focussed on the demonstration on June, 2nd 2007 and the campaign “Block G8”. Because of this, we will only deal with these actions in the following and not expand on the entire dimension of anti-G8 activities like the action days of global agriculture, flight and migration, militarism, war and torture, the blockades of the airport Laage, the counter-summit and “Move against G8”. It was our aim to develop big alliances of summit-opponents and to strengthen anti-capitalist positions within these alliances.
About 80 000 people took part in the big demonstration in Rostock. This result of mobilization is a big success for us, as it was achieved without any bigger participation of the trade union apparatus or left parties – different than in previous mobilizations of the anti-globalization movement. The demonstration and all other actions as well as the necessary infrastructure for the protests were organized from the bottom, meaning the non-parliamentary, non-institutionalized international movement.
On June 2nd, Rostock was turned into the fortress of a police state. Helicopters circled over the city, the population did not dare to go into the streets – the police- and media smear campaigns against “violent summit-opponents” had done their effect. On the advice of the police, most shops and restaurants stayed closed throughout the day. Armoured police units, boarded up window panes and heavy police vehicles of any kind characterized the situation. Before the first stone was thrown, the prophecy of violence had made itself true.
“make capitalism history”
With 8000 participants, the block “make capitalism history” of the Interventionist Left was the biggest block of the demonstration. The militant confrontation with the police at the end of the demonstration was a moment which could not be monopolized for a message of dialogue. It created an unmistakable refusal to the idea of a movement appealing to the G8. This could not be ignored, and thus it was essential in the following discourse of violence of the media and the political enemies to reduce the block to the metaphors “black” and “violent”. Considering the entire scenario of law and order-state and the attacks of the police on our block, it was right and an important experience to defend oneself together and at least in parts to counterattack.
But, the pictures delivered what the tremendous law and order measures had wanted for months. The material damage and the number of injured policemen did not in the least match with what the mass media tried to make believe of the “Battle of Rostock”. But the discourse on violence was enforced enormously. The media circulated every propagandistic lie; the last words of any news broadcast were spoken by police spokesmen. Being confronted with the alliance and the state power, some organizers of the protests did not manage to keep up a straight course. Comments on the confrontations at the edge of the demonstration increased, which could be interpreted as a general separation from militant actions or actually were meant as such. This is not astonishing with speakers of an organization like ATTAC! – this attitude corresponds with the political course of its functionaries.
However, even the IL-press delegate from our group unfortunately made statements of separation in several interviews. We were surprised by the powerful effect of the discourse of violence, the onslaught of the media and the impact of the smear campaigns were too much for us to handle and we relapsed with some of our statements into the jargon of the media and police. This did neither correspond with the actual positions of our group nor of its speakers and in future, we will argue for groups and organizations not to be represented by single individuals publicly without having a permanent feedback with their collective.
Block G8
Together with 10 000 people, we disregarded the ban of demonstrating around the prohibited area of Heiligendamm on Wednesday, the day of the summit starting. Collectively, we resisted the operations of water canons and teargas, tricked the police and once again, questioned the power monopoly of the state practically.
Because of this, we judge the blockades, which’s framework was organised by the alliance Block G8, as being no less militant than the demonstration a couple of days before. For the blockades, many thousands have organized; they were determined and knew what they wanted to do. Their form was composed by different traditions of action. In the phase of preparation, all alliance partners moved towards each other in this question. The transmission of this concept enabling various possibilities of participation worked well in advance and created the basis for their efficiency in practice.
The separation between the “black block” of Saturday and the peaceful blockades in the next week did not exist in reality, independent of the colours of the jumpers. Those blocking actively lead their way against the prohibited area, against water canons and police cordons. They came from the same spectrum as the participants of the big alliance-demonstration. They were the same radical summit-opponents, antifascists, antiracists, peace- and other activists from all left movements in Europe.
Many of those participating in the blockades and coming from rather moderate structures ignored the smear campaigns, the efforts of intimidation and decisions of their functionaries tending to the right, who had advised them to stay away from the blockades. This is what we call emancipatory politics in the best sense. The activists had recognized that not the militants, but the media and the spokesmen of some organizations wanted to functionalize them.
The police was not interested in pictures of brutal police violence for this day. But the image of a seemingly de-escalation should not ignore that also during the days of the blockades, a massive suspension of the right to demonstrate took place; showing clearly in the ban of several demonstrations during these days. The police sought and found situations, in which their actions seemed legitimate. Brutal operations, arrests and seriously injured people were the result. That the blockades nonetheless were such a success is owed to the many thousand participants who managed to realize the long-planned five-finger-system efficiently.
Block on
We have always stressed the point in our mobilization that the summit is a symbolic spectacle of power to legitimize the global conditions of power. So, success and failure of the movement have to be measured by asking whether it has been achieved to rob the G8 of this function in society. Did we succeed with our actions in de-legitimizing this summit and thus the global conditions of power symbolically being represented by it?
Our answer is yes. The demonstration as well as the blockades produced pictures which led to a de-legitimization of the summit through their irreconcilability and non-appellative character towards the G8. Together we managed to make the resistance against a world order visible, which has the agenda to ensure the functioning of the capitalist world market.
The character of the anti-globalisation movement 2007 in Germany has changed noticeably through the non-interest of the trade union apparatus and left parties. On the one hand, obviously less people have been attracted compared with other summit-protests. But on the other hand, those having been mobilized through the non-parliamentary movement were more active and radical in their political attitude than in other protests. This experience will be integrated in future forms of organizing. Many young people participated in the actions; their collective experiences of resistance will politicize and radicalize a new generation of protest.
The state and police measures, beginning already with the change of police laws in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (the province in which the summit was held), also belong to the evaluation of the protests. More than 17 000 policemen were operating. The army was active in the sphere of interior politics, acting under the title “technical help”. Though the usage of tornados for reconnaissance of the airspace was criticized in parts of the public, in general the usage of the army received very little criticism. During the protest days, more than 1000 arbitrary arrests were made. The right to demonstrate was limited massively by the banning of several gatherings and demonstrations. The paragraph 129a currently is going through a renaissance. Weeks before the summit, the accusation of forming a terrorist association contributed to a wave of police searches; in the meantime, houses of alleged militant summit-opponents are being searched on a daily basis. The broad solidarity of the protests of Heiligendamm will have enough opportunity to prove itself in anti-repression work in the next months.
At last, an anti-capitalist consensus has gripped in the movement far beyond the boarders of explicit radical left structures. Furthermore one can state that a major part of the activist basis has not allowed a separation, against the odds of smear campaigns and state repression, in spite of the difficulties evoking from the differences in political attitudes.
This general experience of different parts of the movement was the foundation of our common success against the G8. It also was an important moment for the many international guests from whom we know that they will discuss the possibilities of transferring these experiences into their conditions. And also for us, this paper marks only the beginning of an evaluation of the joint efforts. We will come together and think of further forms of action and organizing. The anti-globalization movement – of which many have said to be dead – is back and manifests its resistance more radical than before.
We have come to stay!
Antifascist Left Berlin
