Stoeren wir? Are we disturbing?
In and around Rostock today, commuting required improvisation, patience,
or a willingness to just say: “Fuck it. I’m going no where.”
or a willingness to just say: “Fuck it. I’m going no where.”
Bad Heiligendamm has now became the focal point for protests and thus all trains from Rostock heading west toward the fence surrounding Bad Heiligendamm were initially delayed, then rerouted, and finally
cancelled all together due to “threats to public security.” Over the last couple of days though most protesters have moved from Rostock or camps near to it to Camp Reddlich, 19 kilometers west of Rostock, and just south of the fence surrounding Bad Heiligendamm. The camp has hemorrhaged to overflowing, now home to 7 – 9000 inhabitants and the primary point of organizing.
We were up for a nice bike ride. From Rostock we pedaled through a social democratic paradise of wide bike lanes with dedicated bike stop signals situated next to the highway leading to Bad Doberan, the town nearest Camp Reddlich. Along the way, we stopped at a protest Info-point to procure maps, and gathered news about the latest police checkpoints and blockade locations. Here, the news is good: 10,000 have blocked Gate I, which lies on the western edge of the fence, 5,000 have blocked Gate II on the East. These gates are on the only two land routes into Bad Heiligendamm. We bike faster, bells ringing as we pass pedestrians and other cyclists.
The landscape is rolling hills covered by vast fields of grain. Above, helicopters survey the blockades, shuttle police to areas around Bad Heiligendamm, and deliver supplies to the summit.
A word on the security geography: The fence - which cost 12.5 million Euros ($17 million) to construct, and is 12 kilometers long, 2.5 meters high and topped off with barbed wire - surrounds the hotel Kempinski and the resort town Bad Heiligendamm. This area is Zone 1. Surrounding it is Zone 2; it varies – like the Berlin Wall – in its width but is generally about 200 meters from the fence. Inside of this zone, demonstrations have been banned. Yesterday, as we tried to enter into Zone 2, the no-demo zone, officers prevented us. The reason? "Just following orders," the officers said. Always a troubling reply when delivered by officers in Germany.
Arriving at Camp Reddelich, where thousands of protesters spread out in the fields yesterday, practicing their blockade tactics, spirits where high. Around 9:00 a.m. thousands headed to the fence. Cutting through the fields, they walked kilometers up to the border of Zone 2, then used tactics they had practiced the days and weeks before. When facing down cops, some demonstrators would stop, some would stand up, some would squat in the waist-high fields of wheat, others would run to the left, others to the right. The cops, not knowing what the demonstrators were planning, were overwhelmed not just by the range of possibilities but also by the numbers. Returning from the blockades, one protestor said, “it was awesome. It was a realization of thousands of peoples’ power to stop the G8.”
From the camp, we headed to Gate II. Here, thousands, perhaps five, blockaded the kilometers of road leading up to the gate as well as the railroad track running parallel to it. People were resting and sleeping on the pavement. Some read. A couple made out passionately among a group of dancers. Underneath the hundred year-old linden trees of the historic Lindenallee, others listened to “Make Capitialism History” soundtrack on the sound system.
But the means for state violence and repression waited menacingly nearby. At the fence: water-cannons, armored personnel carriers, and scores of cops. In the fields just beyond, helicopters landed and from
them disembarked new waves of green and blue clad Bullen. As the hours passed, more and more cops arrived, some with fire extinguisher-sized canisters of pepper spray on their backs. Their legs, arms, chests, and heads protected with armor.
Earlier today, the German Federal Constitutional Court banned the Star March scheduled to take place tomorrow plus the three proposed substitute events, which would have taken place outside the two zones.
The special police force set up for the G8 protests – KAVALA – argued in court that the protests would make delegates traveling to and from Bad Heiligendamm “feel unsettled” by the “emotional proximity” of the protests. Vibe watching is not just for the protest camps anymore.
Star March spokespeople issued a press release stating: "We don't see ourselves anymore as having any responsibility for the outcome of actions and demonstrations. The democratic route has been closed to us."
Not quite. At the gates and in the camps another discourse and another democratic process is at work. There’s the samba bands and the clowns, those who sit in the roads leading to the gates putting their bodies on the line and those that stand pensively on the side, but might sit in the roads next time, and the locals, who when asked by German television reporters what they think of the protesters, say “I hope they stay, I hate Bush.”
As we write, word has come through over the Indymedia news-wire that the police have begun to prevent the delivery of food and water to the now 500 blockaders of the fence gates. Will they move in at dawn when our numbers are at their lowest? Will they find, or fabricate, a pretext for a violent attack on the protests that hasn’t yet materialized? Or will tomorrow’s now illegal Star March be the object of their repression?
Throughout the week, we have spotted many protesters wearing canvas patches on their shirts reading “Stören wir?” It is a question posed about the demonstrations to non-participants. Are they bothersome? But it’s also put to the demonstrators. Are we disturbing enough?
For photos, check out:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372723.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372740.html
cancelled all together due to “threats to public security.” Over the last couple of days though most protesters have moved from Rostock or camps near to it to Camp Reddlich, 19 kilometers west of Rostock, and just south of the fence surrounding Bad Heiligendamm. The camp has hemorrhaged to overflowing, now home to 7 – 9000 inhabitants and the primary point of organizing.
We were up for a nice bike ride. From Rostock we pedaled through a social democratic paradise of wide bike lanes with dedicated bike stop signals situated next to the highway leading to Bad Doberan, the town nearest Camp Reddlich. Along the way, we stopped at a protest Info-point to procure maps, and gathered news about the latest police checkpoints and blockade locations. Here, the news is good: 10,000 have blocked Gate I, which lies on the western edge of the fence, 5,000 have blocked Gate II on the East. These gates are on the only two land routes into Bad Heiligendamm. We bike faster, bells ringing as we pass pedestrians and other cyclists.
The landscape is rolling hills covered by vast fields of grain. Above, helicopters survey the blockades, shuttle police to areas around Bad Heiligendamm, and deliver supplies to the summit.
A word on the security geography: The fence - which cost 12.5 million Euros ($17 million) to construct, and is 12 kilometers long, 2.5 meters high and topped off with barbed wire - surrounds the hotel Kempinski and the resort town Bad Heiligendamm. This area is Zone 1. Surrounding it is Zone 2; it varies – like the Berlin Wall – in its width but is generally about 200 meters from the fence. Inside of this zone, demonstrations have been banned. Yesterday, as we tried to enter into Zone 2, the no-demo zone, officers prevented us. The reason? "Just following orders," the officers said. Always a troubling reply when delivered by officers in Germany.
Arriving at Camp Reddelich, where thousands of protesters spread out in the fields yesterday, practicing their blockade tactics, spirits where high. Around 9:00 a.m. thousands headed to the fence. Cutting through the fields, they walked kilometers up to the border of Zone 2, then used tactics they had practiced the days and weeks before. When facing down cops, some demonstrators would stop, some would stand up, some would squat in the waist-high fields of wheat, others would run to the left, others to the right. The cops, not knowing what the demonstrators were planning, were overwhelmed not just by the range of possibilities but also by the numbers. Returning from the blockades, one protestor said, “it was awesome. It was a realization of thousands of peoples’ power to stop the G8.”
From the camp, we headed to Gate II. Here, thousands, perhaps five, blockaded the kilometers of road leading up to the gate as well as the railroad track running parallel to it. People were resting and sleeping on the pavement. Some read. A couple made out passionately among a group of dancers. Underneath the hundred year-old linden trees of the historic Lindenallee, others listened to “Make Capitialism History” soundtrack on the sound system.
But the means for state violence and repression waited menacingly nearby. At the fence: water-cannons, armored personnel carriers, and scores of cops. In the fields just beyond, helicopters landed and from
them disembarked new waves of green and blue clad Bullen. As the hours passed, more and more cops arrived, some with fire extinguisher-sized canisters of pepper spray on their backs. Their legs, arms, chests, and heads protected with armor.
Earlier today, the German Federal Constitutional Court banned the Star March scheduled to take place tomorrow plus the three proposed substitute events, which would have taken place outside the two zones.
The special police force set up for the G8 protests – KAVALA – argued in court that the protests would make delegates traveling to and from Bad Heiligendamm “feel unsettled” by the “emotional proximity” of the protests. Vibe watching is not just for the protest camps anymore.
Star March spokespeople issued a press release stating: "We don't see ourselves anymore as having any responsibility for the outcome of actions and demonstrations. The democratic route has been closed to us."
Not quite. At the gates and in the camps another discourse and another democratic process is at work. There’s the samba bands and the clowns, those who sit in the roads leading to the gates putting their bodies on the line and those that stand pensively on the side, but might sit in the roads next time, and the locals, who when asked by German television reporters what they think of the protesters, say “I hope they stay, I hate Bush.”
As we write, word has come through over the Indymedia news-wire that the police have begun to prevent the delivery of food and water to the now 500 blockaders of the fence gates. Will they move in at dawn when our numbers are at their lowest? Will they find, or fabricate, a pretext for a violent attack on the protests that hasn’t yet materialized? Or will tomorrow’s now illegal Star March be the object of their repression?
Throughout the week, we have spotted many protesters wearing canvas patches on their shirts reading “Stören wir?” It is a question posed about the demonstrations to non-participants. Are they bothersome? But it’s also put to the demonstrators. Are we disturbing enough?
For photos, check out:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372723.html http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372740.html
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