van Indymedia.nl

De acties zijn georganiseerd om te protesteren tegen het Europese crisisbeleid dat in het geheel niet gericht is op structurele hervormingen, en hoofdzakelijk de armsten en zwaksten in de periferie van de EU treft. In een eerdere bijdrage op Indymedia is meer te lezen over de beweegredenen en doelen van de actiedagen en over de voorbereidingen van de activisten: https://www.indymedia.nl/node/4544 Ook staat hier meer over maatregelen van de kant van politie en justitie om elke geplande demonstratie of blokkade onmogelijk te maken. Toch gingen de acties door. Hieronder een overzichtje van gisteren en vandaag.

Woensdagochtend werd het Occupy-kamp in Frankfurt ontruimd. 200 mensen hebben zich vreedzaam verzet en zijn weggedragen. Dit kamp was er al sinds oktober en de bewoners hebben nooit iemand kwaad gedaan. Maar tijdens Blockupy wordt geen enkel protest tegen de bankiers meer getolereerd.

Woensdagavond is de Street Rave die was verboden toch doorgegaan. Zonder al te grote problemen, al deed de politie wel moeilijk over spandoeken.

Vandaag (donderdag) kwam de bus met activisten vanuit Nederland aan. Het grootste deel van de middag hebben ze geprobeerd het centrum binnen te komen. Het was de bedoeling om vandaag diverse pleinen te bezetten als voorbereiding op de blokkade morgen. Maar elke poging werd of door de politie weggeveegd of omsingeld. Enkele metrohaltes zijn gesloten en rond het centrum probeert de politie iedereen die er alternatief uitziet tegen te houden. Dit resulteerden en een kat-een-muis-spel met veel geren. Tot nu toe zijn er echter te veel katten in het spel. Er zijn heel wat mensen aangehouden, maar het lijkt erop dat de meesten ook weer snel op vrije voeten komen. De groep uit Nederland is in elk geval nog compleet.

Bussen vanuit Hamburg en Berlijn werden onderweg uren stil gezet en gecontroleerd. Alle inzittenden kregen een ‘Platzverweis’ voor de binnenstad van Frankfurt, wat inhoudt dat je in overtreding bent en een fikse boete riskeert als je daar toch wordt gesignaleerd.

De enige actie die wel door mocht gaan was de door het Komitee fur Grundrechte und Demokratie aangevraagde demonstratie tegen de repressieve maatregelen. Hier zijn enige duizenden mensen op af gekomen. (Videoverslag van Attac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rLvh6zLcNew#!)
Uiteindelijk heeft deze demonstratie er wel toe geleid dat de Paulsplatz in de binnenstad door blockupyers werd bezet en er een paar tentjes werden neergezet. Dit gold later ook voor de Römerberg. Aan het begin van de avond heeft de politie de pleinen echter weer schoongeveegd.

Het grootste deel van de groep vanuit Nederland zet de tenten op bij de Universiteit. Aan het begin van de avond is de politie hier nog langsgekomen om wat te intimideren, maar er is nu een afspraak dat men hier mag overnachten mits er vannacht vanuit de kamp geen acties plaatsvinden. En de politie blijft duidelijk aanwezig.

Voor morgen (vrijdag) staat de blokkade van de Europese Centrale Bank gepland. Geheel verboden, maar het gebeurt toch. Ondertussen werken de banken zelf goed mee met de verstoring: De ECB heeft diverse activiteiten verplaatst, vele gewone banken hebben besloten de komende dagen helemaal dichte te blijven en bankiers is geadviseerd in casual kleding naar het werk te gaan. Als de blockupyers nu morgen eens allemaal in een net pak de straat op gaan kunnen ze die banken zo overnemen.

Een andere activiteit die voor morgen is aangekondigd is een boekpresentatie door David Graeber. Deze schrijver die vooral bekend is van zijn boek ‘Direct Action’ gaat met zijn nieuwe boek ‘Debt’ in op de mythe van de schulden. Deze bijeenkomst om 16:00 zal ook worden aangegrepen om op een legale wijze bij elkaar te kunnen komen. Door alle controles en omdat er zo ongeveer een samenscholingsverbod geldt is het niet makkelijk om actie-vergadering te houden.

Samenvattend kan worden gesteld dat de politiemacht van 15.000 agenten (die in ploegendienst) door de straten rijden en marcheren de meeste geplande acties frustreren, maar dat ook het reguliere bankiersleventje danig in de war wordt gestuurd. En de ECB en de andere banken staan in elk geval een aantal dagen flink in de schijnwerpers.

Check de komende dagen ook indymedia.nl en http://www.globalinfo.nl/tag/frankfurt/ voor updates.

Frankfurt: Court of appeal decides: even more protests banned

After the local judge in Frankfurt approved most of the bans that local authorities had declared for the protests against the ECB in Frankfurt, the court of appeal in Kassel now gave its verdict. It approved all the bans, and even declared one more protest forbidden: the ‘rave against the Troika’ of Wednesday evening. Apart from the demonstration from Saturday, this was the only event that the previous judge had allowed (under conditions). http://de.indymedia.org/2012/05/330095.shtml

The rave went on happily tonight (picture: https://twitter.com/#!/henninghenke/status/202822151143821312/photo/1) Loads of police surrounding the demonstrators and demanding banners to be taken down. One of the banners read: “Our Solidarity Against Your Crisis” First subwaystations have been closed of by the transport company, as anounced

There is still one other demonstration in Thursday that is not prohibited: the demonstration against the repressive measures called for by the Komitee fur Grundrechte und Demokratie (starting at 12:00 at Paulsplatz).

Blockupy calls for a demonstration to start in front of Central Station to join the Grundrechte-demonstration. http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/406

The Occupy-camp near the European Central Bank has been evicted in the morning of Wednesday. Some 200 persons ‘resisted peacefully’ and were dragged away. Some riotcops got a nice load of paint over them. After the eviction police started to erect fences around the park and the ECB-building.

Film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv2s6O3mJVc&feature=youtu.be

pictures http://www.fr-online.de/blockupy-frankfurt,15402798,15421232.html

Pictures of surroundings of ECB today

https://picasaweb.google.com/107194122403576087216/May16201203#

Video streams: http://bambuser.com/v/2651370

Blockupy Call & Newsletter urges “everybody to come to Frankfurt”

http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/402

OWS declares solidarity with blockupy

http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/2012/05/16/ows-announces-solidarity-with-blockupy/

Towers of Mordor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SxEHmSFrL4&feature=youtu.be

Police claims to expect 30.000 demonstrators, of which between 2000 and 3000 could be ‘militants’. 5000 policemen and women to be deployed.

The car outside of the house of the German head of the EU task force for Greece Horst Reichenbach has been blown up in Potsdam, the action was claimed by ‘friends of Loukanikos’

http://de.indymedia.org/2012/05/330101.shtml

(Below in English) Belangrijkste nieuws: de ‘persoonlijke betredingsverboden’ zijn ingetrokken omdat ze bij een rechtszaak niet geldig zouden worden verklaard en de politie dan op z’n donder zou krijgen. Overigens zijn de paar toegestane activiteiten uitdrukkelijk onder de waarschuwing dat het verboden is in de binnenstad op te duiken met zaken als opblaasboten en -palmen. Benieuwd hoe ze dat gaan handhaven.

Frankfurt Update, Wed May 16

Blockupy-actions are starting now. Police have announced to want to evict (‘temporarily’, but if the occupiers do not collaborate it might be for good) the occupy camp in front of the ECB that has been there since October 15 last year. Occupiers have declared that they will ‘resist peacefully’ and Blockupy called for solidarity. On Tuesday police started to surround the camp with fences: http://www.fnp.de/fnp/region/lokales/frankfurt/hochsicherheitstrakt-frankfurt_rmn01.c.9843013.de.html

Also the surroundings of the neighbouring ECB has been fenced off with barbed wire.

Latest newsletter with handy info (in German): http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/394

There is also (more) good news: police decided to withdraw the ‘personal bans’ that more than 400 people got sent home, forbidding them to be in the Frankfurt area from May 16-20. The reason to withdraw the ban is the fear that the bans might not hold in court. https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/60626

Meanwhile many meanstream media report that the blockades are already functioning. The ECB is organising police escort for some of their personnel, and changing venues for some of their activities (Reuters: – The European Central Bank plans to hold its mid-month policy meeting early, move staff out of its headquarters and shift a farewell event for one of its board members out of town, all to avoid clashes with anti-capitalist ‘Blockupy’ protesters. (…) The ECB has also shifted a farewell event for outgoing board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, due to be attended by policymakers from around the world. It was originally to be held at one of Frankfurt’s plushest hotels, just a stone’s throw from the ECB’s headquarters. Instead it will now be held out of town with guests to be told the exact location only hours beforehand. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/15/uk-ecb-blockupy-idUKBRE84E0OZ20120515)

Other banks decided to close down completely http://www.visavis.de/modules.php?name=djnews&djn_id=264423–

The Commerz Bank is closing it offices from Thursday on http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/05/15/commerzbank-to-close-central-frankfurt-offices-during-protest/ Others are boarding up, or removing signs from their buildings, in the hope that demonstrators don’t recognize them. Some smaller businesses have declared to be on the side of the demonstrators and to have made good business with demonstrators. One of the occupy-activists appears to be a trader himself: http://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2012-01/Occupy-Frankfurt-Banker Then there is this hilarious report that bankers have been instructed to ‘dress casually’ and not come to work in their usual dress (= suit and tie for men, women can be a bit more frivolous) but wear ragged jeans instead. http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article106318318/Banker-verkleiden-sich-aus-Angst-vor-Protestlern.html

In an interview with two activists from an antifascist organisation we can also read about the propaganda from the side of the authorities. One of the arguments for all the repressive measures, is the fact that an anti capitalist demonstration on March 31 turned violent. One police officer was hospitalised, as media don’t stop repeating, claiming that he was ‘severely wounded’. He was, but it turned out that it was mainly pepper spray he got, and he could leave the hospital the next day after they examined him and had that outcome. Police sprays pepper spray on demonstrators as a habit almost, and in large quantities, but not one of the victims got any media attention. http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/antifa-frankfurt-blockupy–wir-lassen-uns-den-widerstand-nicht-verbieten-,1472798,15241564.html

John Holloway in the Guardian: Blockupy Frankfurt is a glimmer of hope in times of austerity (Popular protests such as Blockupy offer an alternative to capitalism for those facing a life hunting through garbage cans) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/14/blockupy-frankfurt-austerity-protest

As the famous folksinger B.Dylan once wrote: You don’t need to be in Frankfurt to block a bank

More information: http://www.blockupy-frankfurt.org http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/ http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/ http://de.indymedia.org/ https://linksunten.indymedia.org/ http://www.ea-frankfurt.org/

More information: http://www.blockupy-frankfurt.org

http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/

http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/

http://de.indymedia.org/

https://linksunten.indymedia.org/

http://www.ea-frankfurt.org/

http://twitter.com/#!/Blockupy

Popular protests such as Blockupy offer an alternative to capitalism for those facing a life hunting through garbage cans. by John Holloway via guardian.co.uk.

One face looks towards a dark, depressing world. A world of closing doors. A closing of lives, of possibilities, of hopes. These are times of austerity. You must learn to live with reality. You must obey if you want to survive, give up your dreams. Do not expect to live by doing what you like. You will be lucky to find a job at all. Perhaps you can study, but only if your parents have money. And, even then, do not think that you can study something critical. Criticism has fled from the universities. What is the point of criticising when we all know that the world is set in its course? There is no alternative, just the reality of the rule of money, so forget your dreams. Work hard in whatever scrap of employment you can find, or else look forward to a life of hunting through garbage cans, because there will be no welfare state to protect you. Look at Greece and be warned.

This lesson of despair was learned by Dimitris Christoulas, who shot himself in Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens on 4 April. A 77-year-old ex-pharmacist whose pension was wiped out by the austerity measures imposed by the governments of Europe, he said: “I can find no other solution than to put an end to my life before I start sifting through garbage cans for my food.”

This is the meaning of austerity. This is what the governments of Europe and the world are trying to impose on the people – all the governments are the servants of money, whether they speak from apparent positions of power, like the German government, or whether they are the simple functionaries of the international bank system, like Lucas Papademos or Mario Monti. The austerity measures do not just impose poverty, they cut the wings of hope.

That is the direction the world is heading in, but is that all there is? The death of Christoulas faces in two directions: it is despair, but also a refusal to accept despair. In his suicide note he writes: “I believe that young people with no future will one day take up arms and hang this country’s traitors upside down in Syntagma Square just as the Italians hanged Mussolini in 1945.” Hope glows in the very depths of despair.

The basis of that hope is a simple no: no, we will not accept your austerity. No, we will not accept the obscene inequalities of this world we live in; no, we will not accept a society that is hurtling us towards our own destruction. And no, we will not suggest alternative policies. We do not want to solve your problems because the future of capitalism is the death of humanity. Even if capital solves this crisis, the next one will not be far away, even more destructive. We will not obey you, politicians-bankers, because you are the dead past, we are the possible future.

That is our hope: we are the only possible future. But our possible future is no more than a possibility. Its realisation depends on our being able to turn the world around. How do we turn the world around? Christoulas speaks of young people taking up arms and hanging the politicians from the lampposts. The politicians of the world know that it is not just fantasy: that is why in Greece they are afraid to go out in the streets, that is why all over the world they are giving more and more arms and powers to the police. Yet it is not by arms that we can turn the world around and create something new. Guns are their weapon, not ours. Our fury is the fury of refusal, of stifled creation, of indignation.

But our refusal means little unless it is supported by an alternative creation. Refuse and create. Our “no” to the old world will not hold unless we create a new world here and now. Representative democracy has failed and we build a real democracy in our squares, our meetings, our protests. Capital fails to provide the basics of life and we form networks of mutual support. Money destroys, and we say “no, we shall create a different logic and a different way of coming together”, and so we proclaim “no home without electricity” and organise the reconnection of the electricity supply whenever it is cut off. Debt collectors come to take away our homes and we organise mass protests to stop them. People go hungry and we create community gardens. The drive for profit massacres human and non-human life and we create new relations, new ways of doing things.

All of this is inadequate, all is experimental, but that is the way to go, that is the new world of mutual recognition struggling to be born. Perhaps we cannot yet change the whole world, but we can create and we are creating it here and now, we are creating cracks in the system and these cracks will grow and spread and multiply and flow together. We can and will stop it, we shall turn the world around.

Ga mee met de bus. Schrijf je hier in.

Frankfurt: Blockupy ban upheld by judge

The Verwaltungsgericht in Frankfurt has given its verdict on the complete ban of all protests and demonstrations that Frankfurt authorities have declared for the period of May 16-19. The verdict was extremely disappointing as almost the whole lot was approved (that is to say: the judge followed the authorities). Only the demonstration of Saturday 19th might be allowed, and the ‘Rave against the Troika’ on Wednesday, depending on agreements on the route. 11 other activities that applied for a permit – including a monthly wake organised by religious activists, remain prohibited.

The judge declared that he followed information provided by the police that ‘public order might be in danger’ and ‘the rightsf the local shop owners, bbbank workers and inhabitants to be of more weight than that of those wanting to demonstrate’. http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/blockupy-frankfurt-verwaltungsgericht-bestaetigt-blockupy-verbot,1472798,15240644.html

Meantime a few hundred people demonstrated outside the court. http://de.indymedia.org/2012/05/330018.shtml

The organizers will appeal the verdict at the higher court in Kassel, unknown is if when that court will decide a verdict.

In other towns also gatherings took place to protest the ban, and call continue to be published urging people to all come to Frankfurt. The influential Komitee fur Grundrechte und Demokratie has called for a demonstration against the prohibitions on Thursday 17th (12:00 Paulsplatz, ie. in the ‘forbidden’ zone and period). http://www.grundrechtekomitee.de/node/495

On the website of the main organizers of the protests, musician Konstantin Wecker also urges to “come massively to Frankfurt. We will not let them prohibit our concerts, nor our demonstrations”. http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/aufrufe/kwecker02

Also in other towns and places in and outside of Germany protest against the ban is heard. At the Subversive Forum in Zagreb a declaration was issued, signed by many prominent political activists: http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/aufrufe/zagreb

Probably the first test of how things will go in Frankfurt is the early next Wednesday as the occupy-camp in front of the European Central Bank – there since October 15 (the camp that is, not the ECB) – will be ‘temporarily dismantled’. The occupiers have declared that they will not leave voluntarily and will ‘resist peacefully’. Eviction is due for 7 am. http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/artikel/occupy-frankfurt-von-raeumung-bedroht-blockupy-beginnt-jetzt-am-mittwoch-165-um-700-morgens

Blogging the Ban: http://www.criticallegalthinking.com/2012/05/14/administrative-court-upholds-blockupy-ban/

The number of people that received a ‘personal ban’ is now officially 419. http://www.hr-online.de/website/rubriken/nachrichten/index.jsp?rubrik=74262&key=standard_document_44750956

The anti-repression helpgroup EA advises everybody to appeal their ban. http://www.ea-frankfurt.org/

The public transport in Frankfurt (Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (VGF) will close of some of its metro and train stations in the inner city during the days of protest. http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/blockupy-stadt-will-bahnhoefe-sperren,1472798,15237080.html

Extra: International Autonomous Committee against capitalist normality explains the urgency and potential of the situation: http://de.indymedia.org/2012/05/330007.shtml

More information:

http://www.blockupy-frankfurt.org
http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/
http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/
http://de.indymedia.org/
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/
http://www.ea-frankfurt.org/

from REinFORM.nl

The parties of the previous governmental coalition PASOK (socialists) and Nea Dimokratia (conservatives) that support the memoranda and the harsh austerity policies suffered huge losses. In particular, they lost about 3.000.000 votes and received together 32% of the total votes. This is a dramatic drop as their usual percentages range between 75-85%. The denouncement was also expressed via the low turnout for Greek standards. This time the turnout was 75%, the lowest ever in the last 40 years.

The main winner of the elections is the left wing coalition SYRIZA. For the first time since 1958 a left wing coalition wins the second place with 16.78% (52 seats).  SYRIZA is opposed to the austerity policies and the memorandum (memorandum = the austerity policies and reforms that the previous Greek governments agreed with the EU and the IMF in return for the loans). With respect to the sovereign debt, SYRIZA believes that Greece should stop serving it at least partially. SYRIZA stands for the participation of Greece in the EU and the Eurozone but struggles for reforming their structures in favour of the people. In these elections, the main political proposal of SYRIZA was the formation of a left-wing coalition government of left parties.

At the fourth place ended the Independent Greeks (right wing anti-memoranum party) with 10.6% (33 seats). The Greek Communist Party came fifth with 8.28% (26 seats). A dark moment in the Greek political history is the entrance of the neo-nazi party Xrysi Avgi in the parliament with 6.97% (21 seats). This party is partly supported by the Greek political and economic elite, as it functions as a counterbalance to the left, and as they provide paramilitary support to the riot police during demonstrations and launch murderous attacks against immigrants. Unfortunately, the fake use of an anti-memorandum and anti-systemic discourse deceived a large number of people.

Last party with parliamentary representation is the DIMAR (Democratic Left), with 6.11% (19 seats). This party is in favour of EU and Eurozone. Although it wants Greece to disengage gradually from the memorandum, it has declared that it will respect the agreements that are already made with the EU and the IMF. The party stated that they will not be in a government coalition with Nea Dimokratia and PASOK.

For the first time in the Greek political scene, anticapitalist left (ANTARSYA) gets a non-marginal election result. ANTARSYA over-triplicated its support and received 1.2%. ANTARSYA demands the unilateral write-off of the sovereign debt, the immediate exit of Greece from the Eurozone and the EU, the nationalization of banks and privatized companies and the stop of austerity policies.

If one looks at the results of the elections, it is clear that the majority of people voted against the austerity policies and the memoranda. However, Troika, the EU and the Greek elite are trying to overrun the majority vote of the Greek people against the austerity policies and the memoranda. The vice president of the European Commission Olli Rehn stated on 8 May, “We respect the electoral result, we expect democracy, and now, we expect the Greek political forces to form a coalition government supporting reforms and recovery of Greece”. This statement was followed by repeated interventions from Merkel and Barozo who stated that the agreed austerity policies cannot be altered. Although suffering severe losses, Nea Dimokratia and PASOK want to form again a government. Due to a completely undemocratic reinforce proportional electoral system Nea Dimokratia received 108 seats with just 19.8% of the votes, while PASOK has 41 seats. DIMAR agreed to form a government of national unity with the aim of preserving the participation of Greece to the euro At the same time, all three parties and the media try to push the actual winner of the elections, SYRIZA, to abolish its standpoint for a partial stop in serving the debt and against the memorandum by joining the government of national unity.

It is time to act. It is clear that only the struggle of the people can give the ultimate solution. The people toppled the Papandreou government that introduced the memorandums. The people pushed the puppet government of the banker Papademos to disintegration. The people can prevent them from grabbing the power again and impose new harsh austerity measures. The people can also enforce to a possible left government to keep its promises and reverse the austerity policies. Finally, if this first struggle is successful, then the movement in Greece and Europe will need to give a difficult fight against the forces that will try to push Greece into isolation and push forward a reactionary reform in the whole Europe. It is time to act.

Ga mee met de bus. Schrijf je hier in.

Nb: Vanuit Nederland gaat een bus naar Frankfurt (vertrek donderdagochtend vroeg, terug zaterdagnacht) waarvoor nog enkele kaartjes verkrijgbaar zijn. Je kunt hier (online) boeken:

Naast de grote demonstratie van zaterdag 19 mei (12:00 voor Centraal Station Frankfurt) en de streetrave van woensdag 16 mei, is nu ook het occupy-kamp (dat al sinds 15 oktober gevestigd is in het park voor de ECB) verboden verklaard tijdens de protestdagen. Voor 12 andere activiteiten die aangemeld werden – waaronder volstrekt onschuldige maandelijkse wakes – is tot dusver geen vergunning verleend. In plaats daarvan wordt door politiek en media een ongekende hetze tegen de demonstranten gevoerd.

In een debat in het parlement van de deelstaat (Verslag lokale zender HR werd verklaard dat het verbod nodig zou zijn omdat de demonstranten gewelddadig zouden kunnen zijn, waarbij geweld desgevraagd gedefinieerd werd als “het hinderen van het vrije kapitaalsverkeer”. Bovendien, werd in het debat gesteld, heeft de ECB “de plicht om ongestoord 24 uur per dag zijn werk uit te voeren, vooral in tijden van crisis”. Het optreden van sprekers van CDU en FDP werd ook door de actievoerders met enthousiasme onthaald en omgebouwd tot een (van de vele, zie eerdere links hier) opruiend filmpje.

(Overigens wordt Frankfurt geregeerd door een coalitie van CDU, FDP en Grünen…)

Duitstalig overzicht ontwikkelingen rond verbod.

In dagblad Tageszeitung wordt de hoogste verantwoordelijke voor het openbare ordebeleid in Frankfurt, Markus Frank, geinterviewd. Hij zegt 40.000 demonstranten te verwachten en windt er geen doekjes om: ze willen proberen de blokkade te verhinderen, jammer dan voor democratische rechten.

Links Duitsland laat zich door dit wapengekletter niet van de wijs brengen en is dit wel gewend. De verboden worden nu juridisch aangevochten en “hoe dan ook, de protesten gaan door”. Ook is er in de binnenstad huis aan huis een brief verspreid waarin verzekerd wordt dat kleine middenstanders niets te vrezen zullen hebben van de acties, en er eerder van zullen profiteren omdat er tienduizenden mensen zullen komen die ook moeten eten en drinken. In een aparte brief worden bankemployes gewezen op de blokkades van vrijdag 18 mei, die “de ECB en andere banken zullen treffen”. “U zult die dag dus niet naar uw werk kunnen, maar de actie is niet tegen bankwerkers persoonlijk gericht”. (zie hier links naar de brieven).

Tot nu toe zijn dergelijke ‘algehele verboden’ altijd bij de rechter gesneuveld (zelfs als er aantoonbaar ‘geweld’ van de kant van demonstranten dreigde, zoals bij de blokkade van nazi-marsen in Dresden of atoomtransportblokkades bij Gorleben). Het effect van de spierballentaal vanuit de politie en lokale regering, is dan ook vooral dat er nu in het hele land opgeroepen wordt om naar Frankfurt te komen.

Zaterdag is 12 mei, internationale occupy wederopstandig dag en dan zal er ook in Frankfurt wat gebeuren

Overigen:

*) Nieuwe mobilisatieclips:

get up, stand up – Occupy – we make it

Spaanse duitser

Attac mobi-clip

Het Betere werk.

*) Barrio Anticapitalista (in het komende tentenkamp)

*) Programma van de Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (van de partij Die Linke) in Frankfurt.

*) Nieuwe internationale oproep tegen EU-crisis-politiek en om naar Frankfurt te komen:

Ook muzikanten roepen op om te komen.

*) Skyline Frankfurt met alle bankgebouwen:

*) Als je dan toch in Frankfurt bent, kun je deze politieke miniatuurtentoonstelling bezichtigen:

*) Italianen naar Frankfurt

Ondertussen in de VS

Groot verzamel-feature over Frankfurt op indymedia Duitsland

Ga mee met de bus. Schrijf je hier in.

Bus vanuit Nederland

Voor contact met de Nederlandse voorbereidingsgroep:

blockupy-frankfurt-nl@riseup.net

Algemene websites over de actie (meest Duitstalig):

http://www.blockupy-frankfurt.org

http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/

Lokaal Radicaal links Frankfurt http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/

Eerdere berichten op kritischestudentne.nl onder: http://www.kritischestudenten.nl/campagne/blockupy-frankfurt/ 

Het VU-bestuur presenteert megabezuinigingen en marktdenken als onvermijdelijk, maar het zijn keuzes. Veronruste VU’ers betwijfelen de legitimiteit van het huidige college van bestuur.

Het college van bestuur rolt bezuinigingen van ongekende omvang uit over de VU. Werknemersorganisaties plaatsen kanttekeningen bij de noodzaak en uitwerking van de voorstellen die leiden tot drastische reorganisatie met onvoorspelbare gevolgen. In de afgelopen maanden is de toon van het VU-bestuur scherper geworden en ontvouwde het steeds verdergaande plannen. De miljoenen vliegen ons om de oren, maar ondertussen verschraalt het opleidingsaanbod en moeten in de bedrijfsvoering in hoog tempo tot wel vierhonderd arbeidsplaatsen verdwijnen.

Het lijkt wel alsof de VU wordt gekoloniseerd. De wetenschappelijke cultuur wordt geïnfiltreerd door de managementcultuur. De universiteit wordt geleid door bestuurders die geen hart lijken te hebben voor de universitaire sector, voor onderwijs en onderzoek. Zij herprofileren de universiteit als een economische entiteit, maken er een bedrijf van. Dat voelen we in het personeelsbeleid, het beleid ten aanzien van wetenschap en onderwijs en ook in de dagelijkse uitvoering van onderzoek, onderwijs en ondersteuning daarvan.

Dit college wil de VU hervormen op een manier die regelrecht indruist tegen een lange traditie van goed werkgeverschap en het streven naar een excellente kwaliteit van onderwijs en onderzoek. Medewerkers en studenten hebben onvoldoende zeggenschap over de voorgestelde wijzigingen van hun werk- en studeeromgeving. Zo vervreemdt het bestuur zich van de praktijk van de universiteit.

Drijfzand

De kolonisatie moet leiden tot een metamorfose van de universiteit. Van een kennisinstituut met een belangrijke sociale en maatschappelijke functie wordt de VU veranderd in een massaproductiebedrijf. Nieuwe functies hebben hun intrede gedaan, die vervuld worden door managers die van wetenschap geen benul hebben en zich gedragen als goedbetaalde slavendrijvers die zich focussen op kostenverlaging, productieverhoging en cijfermatige voorspelbaarheid. Zij voelen zich niet verbonden met de kerntaken van de universiteit, of met studenten en medewerkers. Ze hebben ook geen inzicht in de omstandigheden waaronder ‘excellente’ wetenschap optimaal gedijt. Het geheel wordt vertaald in nieuwe concepten die we kennen uit de bedrijfscultuur.

Faculteiten kunnen op zulk drijfzand geen coherente, stabiele onderwijsagenda meer formuleren en uitvoeren. Onderwijsprogramma’s worden voortdurend omgegooid. Onderwijs wordt grootschaliger en studies worden omgebouwd tot goed verkoopbare, platte Ikea-pakken, waarin keuzepakketten worden aangeboden met hapklare kennisbrokken. Studenten krijgen steeds minder begeleiding en beschikking over faciliteiten.

Onderzoek is alleen nog waardevol als het door fondsen en liever nog derde geldstroom bekostigd wordt en verschijnt in high-ranking tijdschriften. Kennisvalorisatie is het nieuwe doel. De nadruk op flexwerken, ‘flexibiliteit’ in managementjargon, en door beurzen gefinancierd onderzoek maakt langetermijnbeleid onmogelijk.

Tegelijk wordt het niet-wetenschappelijk personeel met ontslag bedreigd. Vaste aanstellingen verdwijnen in een gestaag tempo. Meer dan 50 procent van het academisch personeel is jonger dan 35 jaar. De flexschil – het aantal mensen op een tijdelijk contract – is op onze universiteit toegenomen tot meer dan 40 procent. Dit alles bedreigt de onderlinge cohesie, betrokkenheid en continuïteit op de VU.

Het zijn keuzes

De VU gaat gebukt onder een chaos van vernieuwingsbeleid dat ondoorzichtig tot stand komt, zonder bewijs dat het positieve resultaten zal hebben voor het onderwijs, onderzoek of onze ‘concurrentiepositie’. De bezuinigingen worden aangekondigd als een onvermijdelijke natuurramp, maar zijn in werkelijkheid beleidskeuzes van het bestuur. Het bestuur kiest ervoor te bezuinigen op personeel en tegelijkertijd miljoenen te investeren in prestigieuze gebouwen. Het kiest voor een marktmodel. Het kiest ervoor om kleine wetenschapsgebieden af te stoten en onderwijs op afstand te plaatsen. Met welk recht maakt het bestuur deze keuzes? Wij betwijfelen de legitimiteit van het huidige college van bestuur. Het heeft de werkvloer volledig buitenspel gezet.

De universiteit is geen productiebedrijf en kan dat ook niet worden. Kennisontwikkeling en -verspreiding is iets anders dan het produceren van koekjes. Wetenschap is eerder te vergelijken  met een koraalrif dat alleen levensvatbaar is in een organisch uitgebalanceerd netwerk van omstandigheden.

Wat we nodig hebben is een nieuwe bestuurscultuur. Een universiteit moet zeker ook kennis ontwikkelen om maatschappelijke problemen mee te helpen oplossen, maar dit betekent niet dat ze primair door economische motieven moet worden gedreven. In deze nieuwe cultuur krijgen wetenschap, onderzoek en onderwijs prioriteit. De werkvloer krijgt zeggenschap. Het leger aan intelligente, talentvolle universiteitsmedewerkers is bereid om daaraan in onderlinge verbondenheid vorm te geven.

8 mei 2012

Verontruste VU’ers komen tweewekelijks bijeen op donderdagmiddag; de eerstvolgende bijeenkomst is donderdag 10 mei, 16.00 uur in 12A-39. Wij roepen iedereen die de VU een warm hart toedraagt op zich aan te sluiten.

MANIFESTATIE

Manifestatie voor VU-medewerkers over de bezuinigingen: woensdag 23 mei, 11.15 uur bij het Atrium (gebouw Medische Faculteit). Aansluitend kunt u de openbare overlegvergadering over de bezuinigingsplannen tussen de ondernemingsraad en het college van bestuur bijwonen.

by Katharine Ainger on guardian.co.uk.

The recurring image of the indignados, the Spanish movement that pro tested against the “economic dictatorship of the markets”, is a kind of democratic Mexican wave of upraised, waving hands. Rippling in a crowd of thousands, the emotion that moves with it can be charged and palpable.

This contagious symbol of agreement was used to build consensus in public assemblies as the movement erupted last year to occupy public spaces across Europe. It seems to say that democracy is a living being; something you do, not something you have, and that people are here to reclaim it.

This Saturday, 12 May, the waving hands of the indignados will return to the plazas of Spain, and the Mexican wave will ripple outwards as part of a day of action for the 99% in hundreds of cities worldwide, from Athens to Santiago.

The indignados grasped early on that the economic crisis was also a political crisis, and their struggle is for a fundamental renewal of democratic politics. While the markets can destroy livelihoods in milliseconds, the slow, halting meetings in the plazas, and the smaller local assemblies that spread from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, embody participatory democracy.

And in the wider context of loss of political legitimacy in Europe, where decisions are made at technocratic meetings of finance officials, and austerity is being locked into the EU constitution with the new fiscal compact – not to mention the rising appeal of the far right from France to Hungary to the Netherlands – their commitment to genuine democracy is more important than ever.

One year on, the mood is more sombre and mature, with a real sense of the difficulty of the endeavour and the stakes involved. A three-day encampment is planned for this weekend in Plaza del Sol in Madrid and other Spanish squares across the country to make visible their numbers and their demands. These include “not one more euro to rescue the banks”, “quality education and health” and “dignified and guaranteed housing”.

This is in a context of palpable rising frustration among the general population, as a bailout for Spain looks ever more likely. Youth unemployment is over 50%, university fees doubled, and Bankia, a bank with assets that come to almost a third of the Spanish economy, is about to receive between €5bn and €10bn of public money. Many people who would not normally participate in social action are reaching the limits of their tolerance, and the protests will be huge.

Meanwhile repression by the state is becoming increasingly fierce. Police use of rubber bullets during the recent general strike in Barcelona led to two people losing an eye and left another with a ruptured spleen. A proposed law would make it “an offence to breach authority using mass active or passive resistance against security forces and to include as a crime of assault any threatening or intimidating behaviour”, and simply blockading traffic or using social media to organise protest could land you in jail for two years.

Recent attempts to criminalise the movement have been met with the trending hashtag on Twitter, #HolaDictadura (Hello Dictatorship). The country retains the memory of the Franco years, and the understanding that democracy is something you have to defend, that it is something it is possible to lose. As rights that took decades of struggle to win back are being wiped away in moments, a group of activist grandparents who will be taking part in the 12 May protests invoke their long memories: “We refuse to lose the rights we once fought so hard for.”

The indignados are not just defending health, education and social security, or resisting bank bailouts. They are demanding a popular audit of the national debt – in fact many of Spain’s problems stem from toxic private debt, not public debt – and their demand for a universal basic rent offers a real critique of current policy.

The indignados are likewise beginning attempts to construct concrete alternatives to the present system. They have published a Manual of Economic Disobedience, and are working on solutions that return economic control into local hands. More than 200 time banks now exist across the country, with an estimated five new ones springing up a month. Local currencies, barter markets and networks of co-operatives are slowly developing.

Filling the gaps in the current system with these nascent alternatives not only offers practical ways for people to survive the crisis; they embody the fundamental idea of the indignados that democracy is something you do, not something you have. On the 12 May, they hope once more to make this idea globally contagious.

Waarom was dit protest alweer belangrijk? Lees: Waarom ‘Frankfurt’ (16-19 mei) iedereen aangaat

Ondertussen wordt in Duitsland een Poging tot verbod ‘Frankfurt’ gedaan door de autoriteiten. De  organisaties achter de actiedagen slepen de stad Frankfurt voor de rechter, maar trekken zich er verder weinig van de repressie aan en gaan door met voorbereidingen. Hieronder vind je meer informatie over de actieplannen.

In Nederland zijn er inmiddels 3 informatie bijeenkomsten geweest in Amsterdam en Tilburg. Er volgen nog twee avonden in Utrecht. Er zijn nog twee activiteiten te gaan: op woensdag 9 mei in de Rooie Rat een info-avond over Blockupy, en op 14 mei in de ACU een Affinity groepen en Blokkade workshop.

:: Collectief vervoer ::

Vanuit Nederland wordt er collectief vervoer georganiseerd naar Frankfurt en terug. Het zal mogelijk zijn om in Amsterdam of Nijmegen op de bus te stappen.

Vertrek do. 17 mei
07:00 Amsterdam Amstel Station
09:00 Nijmegen

Terugkomst zo. 20 mei
In de loop van de ochtend/vroege middag

Ga mee met de bus. Schrijf je hier in.

(LET OP! je zitplek is pas definitief gereserveerd bij betaling)

De bus vertrekt op donderdag 17-05-2012 om 07:00 uur vanaf station Amsterdam Amstel. Vervolgens kun je in Nijmegen nog instappen waar de bus weer vertrekt om 09:00 uur. Wij verwachten rond 15:00 uur aan te komen in Frankfurt. Wij zullen op zaterdag nacht om 00:00 uur weer aan de terugreis beginnen.

Maak 65,- Euro over op 25.46.48.614 ten name van Vrienden van KSU, onder vermelding van de naam die je hieronder hebt in gevuld + “Blockupy Bus”. Pas als je het geld overgemaakt hebt wordt een plek in de bus voor je gereserveerd.Je zal dan een mailtje ter confirmatie ontvangen. In het confirmatie mailtje zal ook informatie staan over wat je allemaal wel en niet moet mee nemen voor deze actiedagen. Houd er rekening mee dat de kans zeer groot is dat de bus en inzittenden grondig zullen worden onderzocht bij de grens. Zorg dat de autoriteiten geen rede vinden om ons allemaal terug te sturen!

Wil je je niet via dit formulier aanmelden, dan kun je ook kaartjes voor de bus kopen bij de Rooie Rat in Utrecht en het Fort van Sjakoo in Amsterdam.

— Geef je hier op voor de bus —

Contact: 06-86218079 – blockupy-frankfurt-nl@riseup.net

:: Overzicht van Acties op 17, 18 en 19 mei (Engels) ::

• May 17: Taking the squares
• May 18: Block ECB & Flood Frankfurt
• May 19: Demonstration

May 17: Taking the squares

On Thursday, May 17, we will take over the Gallusanlage and Taunusanlage areas as well as other central plazas near the city center of Frankfurt in critical masses. Starting in the morning, a cultural and political program will take place at various places. From these places at the latest, or as soon as we get off of the busses, train, subway or S-Bahn, we will swarm out and find our way to these areas, pitch our tents and in doing so, occupy these places. In these occupied places, diverse protest events as well as assemblies and plenaries at which we will collectively decide on our further moves and actions. These tent villages will serve as assembly and event spaces, as well as sleeping places. Moreover, they provide us with a good point of departure for the blockade action in the financial district
on the following day.

With this action, we are expressing the real claiming of public spaces as well as our connectedness and solidarity and the inspiration we have experienced through the struggles at Tahrir Square in Cairo, the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Syntagma Square in Athens and the many Occupy camps throughout the world. As is the case with all occupation actions, the “take the squares!” action will have a strong element of
improvisation. However, an infrastructural base will exist. Community kitchens and portable toilets, water supplies, etc., will be in place – although these might not be immediately available during the occupation action. Subsequent to the successful occupation, we will all have to work together to achieve a situation of “security” and provisions at the tent villages. But it should be repeated once again: we will be in the center of Frankfurt, where there accessible infrastructure already exists.

Pack your tent and whatever else you need (see packing list)! Be in place on Thursday at 2 pm at the latest and participate in the take the squares swarming! At 6 pm, the final information meetings will take place in the tent villages at the occupied areas. At 8 pm, the delegates’ plenaries for affinity groups to prepare for the blockade action will take place. Be there and get involved! We are all the action!

May 18: Block the ECB & Flood Frankfurt with autonomous actions

Block the ECB

Early in the morning on May 18, demonstration groups coming from multiple directions in the city center will begin to move in order to block all entrances of the Eurotower. To accomplish this, we will use mobile blockade fingers to flexibly react to police concepts and actions, and we will – if necessary – obstruct the adjacent streets in order to make it impossible to access the ECB.

Creative resources

The blockade groups that are making preparations have agreed on a common action consensus. The consensus mentions that each blockade finger will carry diverse objects and symbols in line with thematic concentrations in order to simultaneously visualize the diverse elements of our resistance against the authoritarian crisis regime. We will use shopping carts, cooking pots and hospital beds to criticize the impositions and cuts of social policies as well as policies of privatization in the healthcare system. Cardboard military tanks will symbolize the militarization of society and show the connection between war and crisis. Boats and ladders will symbolize resistance against the border regime. Giant marionettes will refer to the precarious labor relations of (not only) migrants. The protest against education policies will be present in a book block made of oversized books. We will use ventilators, stilts and yucca palms to express the struggles against global climate change. We will use barrels, white protection suits and masks to expose the countless disastrous ecological catastrophes, such as Fukushima and Deep Water Horizon. We will use all of these symbols and objects – which will also include red-and-white barrier tape and woolen thread – in order to effectively set up and hold onto substantive blockade points.

Flood Frankfurt with autonomous actions

For example, an encirclement of Deutsche Bank is in preparations. In front of both DB towers, the bank’s special role in speculation in food and land grabbing will be brought to light – in conjunction with an action in Bremen on April 17, 2012. Street theater will allow us to advertise “toad migration” in the front yard. With loudspeakers, sirens, large banners and gas-filled balloons, we will make our protest visible and audible – even in the highest floors of the tower.

Climate activists discuss how they understand Flood Frankfurt with three suggestions: in the Frankfurt city walls, a “boring tower” will be constructed to investigate a “secure nuclear waste repository” for atomic waste in the salt deposit underneath the financial city plaza;  the metal-cast bear in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange will mutate to a “polar bear”, symbolic of the destruction of nature perpetrated by the regime of capitalist growth logic;  pestering the “uranium society”, which is engineering the extraction of highly-toxic uranium in Niger and Namibia for the nuclear corporation Areva: how much do you earn by poisoning the African population with radioactive “Yellow Cake”? There are many ways to think about how to make visible the ecological crisis of capitalism and those who engineer it and profit from it, right in the “global city” of Frankfurt.

Be it a surprising go-in in a bank branch or a temp employment agency, be it a flash mob at a financial investor or at an arms business, be it a bold action to put up posters on a bank construction wall or on the glass front of a airline company involved in deportation – we hope and are planning on many diverse creative and independent forms of action on May 18 in which we – as already took place in the morning with our symbols – express the resistance and struggles in different social and political fields. Whether announced or not, whether as recognizable demonstration or as inconspicuous congregation, all actions should contribute to the transformation of the financial center into a colorful and loud zone of protest for the entire day.

Blockade working group for Blockupy Frankfurt

May 19: Demonstration

Character and aims of the demonstration on May 19

The demonstration on May 19 is the closing element of the European action days in Frankfurt from May 16-19 against the crisis dictatorship. We will convene at 12:05 near the Main Train Station, at Baseler Platz. Loud, diverse and resolute, we will progress through Frankfurt and we will reach the closing rally at 5 pm at Willy-Brandt-Platz, directly in front of the European Central Bank (ECB). We intend to collectively carry our protest against the austerity dictatorship to this actor. Together, as thousands of participants from many European countries, we will send a clear and visible message of international solidarity against the authoritarian crisis management and the policies of impoverishment of the troika, consisting of the EU Commission, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The international demonstration will denounce the destructive policies of the troika as well as the German Federal Government that acts as its motor. Their politics oppose the will and the needs of the population.

To visualize our protest, we will carry diverse thematic messages on banners and signs. We will express our grievances and make demands. In addition to conventional banners, we will have symbols that call attention to everyday situations and struggles. For example, ladders and rubber boats symbolize the perilous efforts of illegalized migrants to cross highly-militarized EU borders; cardboard tanks criticize war, militarization and the corporations that profit from it; oversized dolls and shopping carts throw light on the precarious working relations of millions of people; barrels and protective gear visualize the countless devastating ecological catastrophes, such as Fukushima and Deep water Horizon. Our imaginations have no limits.

At the demonstration, we intend to show the size, strength and diversity of our colorful and broad protest and make the networks, initiatives, parties and individuals participating in Blockupy loud and clear. The demonstration will represent the loudness and multilingual assemblage of the many persons who expressed their protest and resistance in the assemblies, sit-ins and creative actions of direct democracy in the streets of Frankfurt on the previous days.

Course of action and route of the demonstration
The demonstration symbolically begins at 12:05 Middle European Time in the proximity of the Frankfurt main train station (Baseler Platz) with an opening rally, and should end at 5 pm with a central closing rally at a stage in front of the ECB. In between, the demonstration will circle the Frankfurt city center in one line of demonstration. When we reach Deutsche Bank, the line will divide into two and symbolically surround the Frankfurt financial district from two sides, meeting to unite again at the closing rally.

At the rallies and during the demonstration, various groups and guests will state their reason for protesting. Voices will be heard from Greece, Italy and North Africa, as well as from attac, Occupy, labor unions, the interventionist left, and the party Die.Linke. The demonstration will end with an Iries Révoltés concert.

For a free right to demonstrate
During the demonstration, we intend to create a situation that is transparent for all participants and in which they consider and support each other in solidarity and collectively advocate for a successful demonstration. All persons are welcome and should feel safe at our legally registered demonstration; this especially applies to persons in wheelchairs and families with strollers. We intend to arrive at the location of the closing rally and end the demonstration together.

We insist that none of the participants feel discriminated, mistreated or excluded due to age, clothing, sexual orientation, gender and/or origin. This applies to arrival at the opening rally, during the demonstration as well as to departure after the closing rally. We refuse discriminating and intimidating controls in the run-up to the demonstration and the possible deadlocks of parts of the demonstration by plainclothes police officers. We expressly underscore that there is no place for racist and neofascist slogans and organizations at our demonstration.

We strongly disagree with sensationalist press reports about the Blockupy days in Frankfurt, which obviously serve to increase circulation instead of reporting on our aims and the content of our actions. We see the danger that already in the run-up to the action days, a constraint on our freedom to demonstrate and freedom of opinion is being legitimated by propaganda.

An immediate concern of our demonstration is direct communication with the citizens of Frankfurt and educating the interested public about the content and aims of our protest and resistance against the current crisis politics.

In this way, we demonstrate our European and international solidarity.

Blockupy!

:: Agenda :: 

9 mei – Utrecht: Basta! Infoavond: #Blockupy Frankfurt
Aanvang: 19:30
Organisatie: Kritsiche Studenten Utrecht / Basta!
Locatie: Boekhandel de Rooie Rat, Oude Gracht 65, Utrecht
Contact: info@bastadebat.nl / kritischestudentenutrecht@gmail.com
Site: http://www.kritischestudenten.nl/agenda/blockupy-de-europese-centrale-ba…

14 mei – Utrecht: ACU-Alarm-cafe – blokkadetraining & affiniteitsgroepen
Aanvang: 19:00
Over affiniteitsgroepen en het vormen van affiniteitsgroepen voor de komende strijd
Organisatie: ACU-Alarm-cafe
Contact: alarm@acu.nl
Site: http://www.acu.nl/alarm
contact: blockupy-frankfurt-nl@riseup.net