This article is also available in Portuguese.

Indymedia was founded in Germany in 2001 as de.indymedia.org; a second version appeared in 2008 as linksunten.indymedia.org. The latter was founded to focus on radical politics in southern Germany, but it soon became the most widely used webpage for German-speaking activists. As the original German Indymedia page became technically outdated and swamped by trolling, more and more people switched to linksunten.indymedia.org. In 2013, de.indymedia.org was almost shut down because there weren’t enough people involved.

In the last couple of years, more and more attention has accumulated around linksunten, which offers a space for people to post anonymously. For example, in 2011, a communiqué appearedon the platform claiming responsibility for politically motivated sabotage on the subway infrastructure in Berlin. The site was also used to release information about fascists and Neo-Nazis. In 2016, an article on linksunten presented the complete data of every participant at the convention of the far-right nationalist party Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD), a total of 3000 names. This further attracted hostile attention from far-right advocates of state repression.

Before the 2017 G20 summit took place in Hamburg, the corporate media was already focusing on linksunten, declaring it to be the coordination page of militant anti-G20 protestors. The AfD started a campaign against the platform, pushing inquiries about Indymedia in Federal parliament and trying to force local governments to ban the platform and other forms of radical infrastructure.

All this built up to the current situation in which the Minister of Internal Affairs Thomas de Maizière banned the site on August 25, immediately before the election. The state raided three places, including a social center, in Freiburg, making the whole city into a police state for this day. During the raids, they allegedly found some slingshots and sticks, which they are now using as further justification for their propaganda about terrorism.

In fact, Thomas de Maizière is carrying out the agenda of the German far right and fascists, as well as the repressive goals of AfD.

Of course, those who maintain the website have not themselves written anything that could offer legal grounds for this attack. Even corporate media platforms offer space for people to speak anonymously—for example, when members of the State Department speak to the press on the condition of anonymity. The excuse that the state is using to justify this attack is to declare that those who maintain linksunten comprise an official organization aimed at destroying the German Constitution. This is a legal trick. If it succeeds, it could easily be used against other platforms, magazines, and projects, so that everyone spreading radical literature and ideas and documenting activism and social movements will become targets for this kind of repression and state violence. That is the message they want to send, in order to bully the entire population into accepting that the current political order in Germany will persist until the end of time.

This heavy-handed approach shows how afraid the authorities are that radical ideas are spreading and becoming contagious following the successful demonstrations against the G20 summit in July. Thomas de Maizière made it clear enough in his press conference that this assault on Indymedia is a form of revenge for the embarrassment the state suffered during the summit. This also shows how dishonest far-right and statist rhetoric is about free speech—in fact, these hypocrites only use that discourse to position themselves to suppress others’ speech. The solution to fascist organizing is not to empower the state to control speech, but to mobilize the general population both against fascists and against the state infrastructure that the far right intends to take over.

In Germany and all around the world, we need radical theory and practice; we need spaces where people can communicate anonymously, so as not to be intimidated by the twin threats of state repression and grassroots fascist violence. In order to understand social movements and struggles, so our sense of history is not swept away in a torrent of ephemera, we need databases that preserve accounts and communiqués. As an author once put it, the struggle of humanity against authoritarian power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. To fight back against this authoritarian crackdown, it is now more important than ever to spread revolutionary material and ideas everywhere and to brainstorm alternative ways to communicate with each other and the general public in times of intensifying state censorship and control. The more that each of us takes on a personal role in this task, the more decentralized and resilient our networks will be.

The post German Government Shuts Down Indymedia- What It Means and What to Do appeared first on Void Network.

This shows that, even with the very latest technologies, no amount of police violence can control a population that is determined to refuse to be dominated. This is good news for partisans of freedom everywhere around the world.

As we compose these lines, the police are storming Schanze with the utmost of brute force, recklessly pointing machine guns at reporters and everyone else, seeking to avenge themselves on those who remain on the streets after most participants have gone home to rest. The special forces units of Hamburg and five other cities are deployed on the streets, as well as Austrian special forces. But no amount of violence and oppression can conceal the fact that they lost control—and more importantly, that they never deserved control in the first place.

Conspiracy theory nuts will allege that the G20 was intentionally placed in Hamburg to provoke the population in order to justify further crackdowns on civil liberties. This is half true: in putting the G20 immediately beside one of the most radical neighborhoods in Germany, the authorities were testing the population to see how much people will put up with. Hamburg is being treated as an experimental laboratory of repression, with police officers brought in from several other nations in the European Union to study repressive techniques.

But if we can make it impossible for the police to control us despite more than one out of every twelve officers in all of Germany being concentrated in a single city, then surely we can defend our freedom from the state as a whole. The point here is that we cannot be cowardly, clinging to the illusion that the state will permit us our freedoms if only we are submissive enough. No people has ever achieved or retained freedom that way.

Things have reached a point of no return: the future will be revolutionary liberation, or it will be a police state. The supposed middle ground, in which limited freedoms are watched over by a state restrained by the will of the people, has always been a myth, an illusion that is harder and harder to maintain.

Let’s look closer at the breakdown of police control. In 1987, the German police began to shift to their current model for crowd control, in order to correct for the ways that crowds had outmaneuvered and defeated them—especially on May Day of that year. The subsequent model of German policing, in which long lines of riot police are supplemented with highly mobile snatch squads that maintain close contact with the crowd, has more or less served to control urban unrest until now. (For a more thorough overview of the recent history of German police tactics, consult this helpful article.)

In 2017, exactly thirty years after the origins of this model, the crowds of Hamburg succeeded in once more outmaneuvering and defeating the police. This time, they did so by spreading the action over a vast area of the city, moving swiftly and focusing on decentralized actions. Whenever the police established a control line, people gathered on the other side of it—not only demonstrators, but also supportive spectators. Small, highly organized and mobile groups of demonstrators were able to identify exit routes and carry out swift attacks, while larger crowds stretched the police one direction, then another. The more territory the police had to control, the more they antagonized the population, and the more demonstrators they had to deal with as their lines became more and more thinly stretched. Finally, they lost control of the most unruly regions and were forced to retreat entirely.

In addition to tactical concerns, however, the most important blow to the police has been that, by going to far in seeking to control the population by brute force, they lost legitimacy in the public eye. Their absurd and unprovoked attack on yesterday’s Welcome to Hell demonstration turned the entire city against them. No wonder they have lost control.

They will surely regain it, probably at the cost of a great deal of suffering inflicted at random on those who remain on the streets. But we should be heartened by the fact that they were beaten, that they could not control the population—and we should be inspired by the tremendous courage that people have shown in Hamburg, standing up to such a powerful adversary and refusing to back down.

Schanze district has been liberated for several hours, with protesters actively defending it at barricades. Within the area are many looted shops, barricades on fire, and people ready to fight. As we write, special police forces are preparing to enter the rebellious zone in huge numbers, armed with water cannons and heavy equipment. As the cops try to remove the barricades, the people of Schanze are fighting back.

Special forces are carrying automatic weapons as they stand on the rooftops across the districts of Schanze. Cops have aimed guns at the press, as well. Weapons with live ammunition are confirmed.

As the night descends on Hamburg, we can see the full moon through the smoke. People are playing volleyball in the street, celebrating their victory over the forces of the G20 and attempted police occupations of their streets. There are even bigger reasons to celebrate as we anticipate a long and rebellious night ahead.

Despite numerous attempts by the police, the state, and mainstream media to divide protesters by framing them as either “violent” or “non-violent,” Hamburg’s message remains clear: solidarity without compromise. When police attack demonstrations with brutal force, without provocation, the people turn against them. The police, working hand in hand with the media, attempted to spread fear by describing hordes of wild, autonomous radicals streaming into Hamburg from across the world, bringing pandemonium. Yet at the end of the day, Hamburg’s own people defended it from police aggression, refusing to give in or give up any of their comrades in black fighting fiercely alongside them for their streets.

As we see how intense and widespread the clashes have been in Hamburg over the last 48 hours, as we witness people’s determination to regather every time the police push them back, and particularly the joy with which they resist when told to stay away, it is clear that this struggle in Hamburg is more than just a struggle against G20.

The post THE POLICE LOST IN HAMBURG: WHY THEY COULDN’T KEEP CONTROL – Πώς το Αμβούργο νίκησε την αστυνομία appeared first on Void Network.

THIS IS HELL – HAMBURG 6-9 JULY 2017 against G20

The residents of Hamburg woke up this morning to the news that a large number of Porsches had been burned in the outskirts last night, giving an indication of the ungovernable energy with which Hamburg would resist this intrusion. Despite the police controlling busses and trains full of activists at the border, they simply could not stop the crowds that gathered in the city center for the Welcome to Hell demonstration. The crowds they had to fear were not a few radical activists listed in the files of the secret police, but the population of Hamburg itself, which came together in opposition to the militarized policing that the G20 forced on the city.

The German police had brought together approximately 20,000 officers, including troops from other EU countries, with the intention of utterly quashing resistance. They brutally raided the camp that activists set up to accommodate protesters, then attacked people who gathered to enjoy themselves in the streets on July 4 and 5. They did everything they could to spread fear, in hopes of intimidating people out of showing up to the demonstrations to express their feelings about capitalism and the state.

It didn’t work. The Welcome to Hell demonstration attracted multigenerational crowds prepared to participate in blocs, black and otherwise. Thousands of people came together with joy, courage, and determination. In response, the police attacked a permitted demonstration without any justification—creating panic, severely injuring many people, and making more than 50 arrests in the first wave of repressive violence.
Yet this only served to foment more outrage against the authorities, which spread all around the city in the form of burning cars, barricades, and multiple simultaneous clashes and demonstrations of thousands. The strategy of terrorizing and kettling people with tremendous numbers of officers using brand-new militarized police equipment and brutal force simply failed. There were too many people on the streets and the police lost control. They report that 76 officers were injuredin Hamburg tonight.

There was a lot at stake today. The German state and the world leaders wanted to show that they are in control, that their reign is popular—or, failing that, that they can successfully dominate the population. They wanted the world to see that they can freely harass, intimidate, and oppress people without consequences. They wanted to flaunt their power by bringing the G20 to a center of resistance. Instead, they demonstrated their weakness.

Tonight, with the help of courageous people from around the world, Hamburg stood up and said Enough. We are humbled and inspired. We will continue tomorrow.

for more info about the riots against G20 in Hamburg:
https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/welcome-to-hell-g20-hamburg/
https://crimethinc.com/2017/07/05/announcing-continuous-live-coverage-of-the-g20-in-hamburg-with-an-update-from-the-clashes-of-july-4

see also: The Police Lost in Hamburg: Why They Couldn’t keep control 

ΚΑΛΩΣ ΗΡΘΑΤΕ ΣΤΗΝ ΚΟΛΑΣΗ Αμβούργο 6-9 Ιουλίου 2017  Eνάντια στους G20

Οι κάτοικοι του Αμβούργου ξύπνησαν σήμερα το πρωί ακούγοντας στις ειδήσεις ότι ένας μεγάλος αριθμός Porsche είχε καεί στα περίχωρα της πόλης τους χθες το βράδυ, δίνοντας μια ένδειξη για την ανεξέλεγκτη ενέργεια με την οποία το Αμβούργο θα αντισταθεί στην εισβολή των G20. Παρά την απόφαση της αστυνομίας να ελέγχει λεωφορεία και τρένα γεμάτα ακτιβιστές στα σύνορα, απλά δεν μπορούσαν να σταματήσουν τα πλήθη που συγκεντρώθηκαν στο κέντρο της πόλης για την διαδήλωση «Καλώς Ήρθατε στην Κόλαση. Τα πλήθη που φοβόντουσαν δεν ήταν απλά μερικοί ριζοσπάστες ακτιβιστές που απαριθμούνται στους φακέλους της μυστικής αστυνομίας, αλλά ο πληθυσμός του ίδιου του Αμβούργου, ο οποίος συναντήθηκε σε αντιπαράθεση με την στρατιωτική βία της αστυνομίας που εξαπέλυσαν οι G20 στην πόλη.

Η γερμανική αστυνομία είχε συγκεντρώσει περίπου 20.000 αξιωματικούς, συμπεριλαμβανομένων μονάδων από άλλες χώρες της ΕΕ, με σκοπό την πλήρη εξάλειψη της αντίστασης. Εκκένωσαν βίαια τον καταυλισμό που οι ακτιβιστές έστησαν για να φιλοξενήσουν διαδηλωτές και έπειτα επιτέθηκαν σε ανθρώπους που συγκεντρώθηκαν για να απολαύσουν τους δρόμους στις 4 και 5 Ιουλίου. Έκαναν ό, τι μπορούσαν για να εξαπλώσουν τον τρόμο, ελπίζοντας να εκφοβίσουν τους ανθρώπους ώστε να μην εμφανιστούν στους δρόμους και να μην συμμετάσχουν στις διαδηλώσεις. Τις διαδηλώσεις που οργανώθηκαν για να εκφράσουμε όλοι μας τα συναισθήματά μας ενάντια στον καπιταλισμό και το κράτος.

Ο εκφοβισμός δεν λειτούργησε. Η διαδήλωση «Καλώς Ήρθατε  στην Κόλαση» προσέλκυσε μεγάλα πλήθη πολλών διαφορετικών γενεών προετοιμασμένα να συμμετάσχουν σε μπλοκ, μαύρα ή και αλλιώς. Χιλιάδες άνθρωποι συναντήθηκαν με χαρά, θάρρος και αποφασιστικότητα. Απαντώντας, η αστυνομία επιτέθηκε σε μια αδειοδοτημένη διαδήλωση χωρίς δικαιολογίες για να δημιουργήσει πανικό, τραυματίζοντας σοβαρά πολλούς ανθρώπους και κάνοντας πάνω από 50 συλλήψεις στο πρώτο κύμα καταπιεστικής βίας.

Ωστόσο, το γεγονός αυτό απλώς προκάλεσε περισσότερη οργή εναντίον των αρχών. Οι ταραχές εξαπλώθηκαν σε όλη την πόλη με τη μορφή καύσης αυτοκινήτων, ξηλώματος οδοστρωμάτων και πολλαπλών ταυτόχρονων συγκρούσεων και διαδηλώσεων χιλιάδων ανθρώπων. Η στρατηγική της τρομοκράτησης των ανθρώπων από την αστυνοία με στην χρήση τεράστιου αριθμού αξιωματικών που χρησιμοποιούν ολοκαίνουργιο στρατιωτικό εξοπλισμό και η βίαιη επίθεση της αστυνομίας απλά απέτυχε. Υπήρχαν πάρα πολλοί άνθρωποι στους δρόμους και η αστυνομία έχασε τον έλεγχο. Αναφέρουν ότι 76 αστυνομικοί τραυματίστηκαν στο Αμβούργο απόψε.

Υπήρξαν πολλά που διακυβεύονται σήμερα. Το γερμανικό κράτος και οι ηγέτες του κόσμου ήθελαν να δείξουν ότι έχουν τον έλεγχο, ότι η βασιλεία τους είναι δημοφιλής – ή, αν όχι, ότι μπορούν να κυριαρχήσουν με επιτυχία στον πληθυσμό. Ήθελαν να δείξουν στον κόσμο ότι μπορούν ελεύθερα να παρενοχλούν, να εκφοβίζουν και να καταπιέζουν τους ανθρώπους χωρίς συνέπειες. Ήθελαν να καμαρώνουν την εξουσία τους φέρνοντας το G20 σε κέντρο μιας πόλης αντίστασης. Αντ ‘αυτού, απέδειξαν την αδυναμία τους.

Απόψε, με τη βοήθεια θαρραλέων ανθρώπων από όλο τον κόσμο, το Αμβούργο ξεσηκώθηκε και είπε ΑΡΚΕΤΑ. Είμαστε ταπεινοί και εμπνευσμένοι. Θα συνεχίσουμε ξανά από αύριο.

περισσότερες πληροφορίες για τις συγκρούσεις ενάντια στους G20 στο Αμβούργο:
https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/welcome-to-hell-g20-hamburg/
https://crimethinc.com/2017/07/05/announcing-continuous-live-coverage-of-the-g20-in-hamburg-with-an-update-from-the-clashes-of-july-4

δείτε επίσης: ΠΩΣ ΤΟ ΑΜΒΟΥΡΓΟ ΝΙΚΗΣΕ ΤΗΝ ΑΣΤΥΝΟΜΙΑ https://voidnetwork.gr/2017/07/10

The post WELCOME TO HELL – G20 in Hamburg 2017 – video archives of a social revolt appeared first on Void Network.

This article was written shortly after the occurrences in Hamburg. We cannot bring in all of the impressions this day has left us with and maybe others will draw different analytical consequences, which we look forward to reading and discussing. Our main aim is to try to explain the events from our antinational, anticapitalist perspective here in Germany, especially for our international comrades, who asked about information and who cannot follow everything due to language barriers.

A report from the working group “International Affairs” from Antifa AK Cologne
Greek version (ελληνική μετάφραση)

On Saturday, the police attacked and stopped a big autonomous demonstration called in defence of the social centre ”Rote Flora”  in Hamburg. The heaviest riots we have seen in years lasted the whole day and night, hundreds were injured or taken into custody. The organisers speak of a “political scandal”; the media discuss violence, the meaning of the constitutional right to assemble and violations against it by the police; for the radical movement, this further criminalisation of vital social struggles (coming after Blockupy 2012 for example) show that the front lines against state and capital might be hardening.

Who was calling for what?

Several organizations and initiatives called for demonstrations on Saturday which were all politically connected. The initiative for the asylum right of refugees, the “Lampedusa-Group“, called – as they have done frequently in the last few weeks – for an antiracist demonstration. This initiative has to be seen in the context of the refugees struggle, which has been taking place in Germany for a few years now. In Hamburg, it has created a large and vibrant political dynamic and drawn the supportive attention of various section of society, from the autonomous milieu to students and liberals.
A “right to the city”-initiative also called to gather and to protest, in particular against the eviction of the so called “Esso-Houses“, an old housing complex in Hamburg-St.Pauli with a few over 100 housing units, stores, clubs etc. This housing unit was sold to investors in 2009 who directly said that they wanted to bulldoze these buildings and create new, more profitable estates. The houses were evicted only six days before the demonstration, last Sunday (15th December)! The slogan of the protests that day was “Right to city does not know any borders”, this made clear the link to the antiracist struggle.
The biggest demonstration was expected by the initiative for saving the Rote Flora, the legendary autonomous centre in the gentrified district “Schanzenviertel” in Hamburg. The Flora has been threatened by eviction for some years now. Occasionally the owner clarifies how hardline he is and that there is now a discussion about the need for eviction. The situation of the Flora – one of the autonomous centres which refused to negotiate with the city administration and chose a strategy of resistance – is one of the most important symbols of the “right to the city” initiative not only in Hamburg, but in Germany. Furthermore, refugees around the Lampedusa-Group are in intense exchange with the alternative-autonomous scene around the Flora. All the issues for the day can be seen as being crystallised in the Flora demonstration (racism, exclusion from city development). The other demonstrations and assemblies wanted to join the Flora-Demonstration, which was set for the Saturday afternoon. Important to mention is also a strong support from the mobilization by antifascist groups.

The days before

The mobilisation had massive effects. Not only because of the traditionally large representation of the autonomous movement in Germany that comes together at the Flora-demonstrations, but because of the links between the topics described above, which are at the moment most relevant to the radical left in Hamburg. But the mobilization did not stay German wide. Many people from Europe, mostly from the autonomous scene, travelled to Hamburg. An aggressive demonstration was expected.
Politicians, local press and the police built the ideological groundwork for its total-escalation strategy in the days before the demo by playing on people’s fears in the media; Hamburg should be “worried about the city, which is in danger of being burnt down completely“, local press said.. The large crowds of christmas shoppers had to be protected. The police expected 6000 demonstrators, amongst them 3000 “ready for violence”. The eviction of the Esso-Houses in the days before heightened the tension. The police mobilized aggressively, including bringing in specialist riot police units from all over Germany.
On Friday, the police declared the zone of the inner city (St Pauli is not strictly in the inner city, so it was not included directly) as a “danger zone”. You can understand it as a temporary “state of exception”: anybody can be stopped, controlled and taken into custody with little reason needed. This “danger-zone” method is unusual in Germany and its last large use was during the Blockupy-protests in 2012 in Frankfurt. Last time this provoked huge amounts of popular outrage. With tensions rising, the organizers of the antiracist demonstration feared violent dynamics, especially provocated by the cops and replaced their demonstration with a rally instead.
Also on Friday, after an FC St.Pauli football match, a group of about 300 persons organised a spontaneous demonstration to the Reeperbahn (in the “Red-Light-District” close to Flora) and smashed the police station there with stones and paint bombs. The building and several police cars were damaged

Saturday: Warzone Hamburg

This added even more wood to the fire. Hours before the Flora demonstration started, the police had a massive presence in the area. Helicopters, riot police everywhere, 12 water cannons and a lot of tanks against barricades. People were stopped and taken into custody even before they could demonstrate. In the public many have said that this was necessary, especially because of the attack on the police station the night before. Most of the local media did not see these arrests as being a problem.
At about 2:30 pm the first speeches began, but the demo did not move yet. The police say 6000, press about 8000 and the organizers 10000 came together in the end. The demonstration only walked some meters (most people did not even start moving) before the front rows were stopped by the police brutally and without any warning. First there was some skirmish, and then the police fired the water cannon directly into the front rows. After that, stones, bottles, and fireworks were thrown at the police. All in all, after 30 minutes the police said the demonstration was now over.
The “official reason” varies between two versions. The first being that the demonstration started violently and too early. This is as ridiculous as it sounds, so another version popped up: just at the beginning some people threw stones from a bridge at the police. This is more realistic. Or is it?

Take above video, which documents how the demonstration was stopped. First it shows that there was no attack from the demo till the cops stopped it. In this image from the bridge, where the stones were supposed to be thrown, it becomes clear, that the train traffic is still rolling and with the exception of some photographers and spectators no people (I.E. possible stonethrowers) are to be found on this bridge.
The official reason for stopping this demo is extremely poor and it hints to the fact, that this early stopping was pre-planned. As well as attacking the front of the demonstration another riot police unit stormed the back of the demo, where the creative Right to the City bloc was situated. The police co-ordinated attacks on both sides.
The demo was over even before it started properly. Heavy rioting began, barricades were built. The Police used batons, pepper spray and a lot of water from those cannons, which were said to have been filled with chemicals. Even if not, the cold water, combined with the freezing weather and the high pressure with which it is shot make them extremely uncomfortable and dangerous. The cops kettled some thousand people in a big area close to the Flora.)
Even people living in the houses nearby who were not part of the demonstration could not get in and out of their homes. After two hours the police opened the kettle and people were free to go. The big group dispersed, a lot of smaller groups were trying to reach the Esso-Houses, which were seen as one destination to go to. Spontaneous demonstrations of many groups and further fights occurred on many
spots. The inner city was not reachable, but many areas, including the large Reeperbahn avenue were completely blocked by the police.

During the day, about 500 demonstrators were injured, some badly. Probably 300 were taken into custody, 19 charged. The police reported 117 injuries to their officers. We know about how these numbers are produced and expanded but this image of an uncosciousness cop show about the high levels of violence from the day. Furthermore, the press report large levels of damage to property, including party bureaus of the governing Social-Democrats, banks and luxury hotels.
The big, legal and authorised demo never happened due to police escalation. They do not even put this into question, just claiming that it was unavoidable because of the violence. Local and regional
press have hardly criticised the strategy of the police, mostly they believe the fairytale about the attacks on the police before the demonstration from the bridge or the front rows and therefore the necessity to never let this rally happen.

Political consequences

What does this event mean politically? How should we understand it? One mainstream argument, mainly pushed by the (left-)liberal press about the meaning of constitutional rights is a popular argument; This is the third time (after Blockupy 2012 and 2013) that large, nationwide protests from the left and radical left have been declared illegal and dispersed. Despite the fact that about 90% of all Nazi-demos are made possible by brutality against antifascists because it is “the constitutional right of the Nazis” to demonstrate. It seems some have more of a constitutional right than others. Nonetheless, this debate is accompanied by discussion about violence at demonstrations, which in many cases prevents widespread solidarity from German civil society towards anticapitalists who are being successfully criminalised.
This liberal outrage about the right to assemble can be taken as a discursive push against authority. The radical movement, though, should not reduce its arguments to the constitutional level and the book of law. Bourgeoise democracy always has been compatible with massive repression and exceptional actions which are seen to be needed occasionally to guarantee it. In Europe, most recently Spain and Hungary, the rising tendency of exceptional actions (against abortion, migration etc.) are put into “democratically legitimate” forms by passing them as law.
Still, this day could harden the front lines. Every time the German police state shows itself, many already politicized people are confirmed in their (very justified, as the day shows) belief of the impossibility of making peace with the state and become more radicalized. The ideological, German interpretation of “democracy” became obvious that same evening: as the official 8pm-news celebrated the freedom of Russian opposition activists, who fit neatly into their understandings of “Freedom” (of market and surplus production) and “Wealth” (for those who can be used for state and capital and therefore “earn” it), the demonstration in Hamburg was attacked brutally and was not even reported about.

Not out of the blue

But it would be naïve to believe that this development is a total surprise. It is rather the result of the ongoing criminalization and political defamation process against social struggles in Germany. Two central topics of the (radical) Left at the moment – which also were central in Hamburg on that weekend – are refugee and antiracist struggles and those surrounding housing . On these issues, the Left – despite the mistakes one can assert – could receive relatively more acceptance from civil society than usual. The central slogans are “No Borders”, “the City belongs to everyone” and “International Solidarity”.
Take the interventions against racist crisis discourse. By the slogan “We are here because you destroy our countries” the refugee-activists make clear, that the crisis is not to be personalized and projected on them, but should be seen as a crisis of the international capitalist system, its world market and its accumulation dynamics. The same can be said about the housing struggles. For years now, especially in Berlin and Hamburg, but increasingly spreading, initiatives get active and build up a good public standing without necessarily hiding a radical (i.e. revolutionary, anticapitalist) critique. They make clear that current city planning is not for those people who live in that city and need a roof above their heads, but for capital interests and against any imagination of a reasonable society. Living space is not treated as a need for everyone, but as a commodity which is commercialized at every cost.
These struggles and their message question and negate the strong national hegemony of austerity as current crisis management. In a time where Europe is building its fortress even higher to prevent migration with dramatic results and in a place where people are kicked out of their apartments because they cannot afford it and face the risk of homelessness and death, these are topics, where the radical Left in Germany (and beyond) with its radical critique can reach more people than usual.

flashback to blockupy 2013

These two struggles show, that the crisis is also in Germany and was never out of it. No state is immune to the everyday crisis of capitalism. The message is clear: the whole country – as depicted in the ideological national narrative – is not the “winner of the crisis”, but only some classes and groups and only by exploiting more heavily the others – within or outside national borders. Activists from all over Germany and beyond came together to express this critique in Hamburg and they were harshly criminalized and attacked, maybe on a new level we have not seen before. There was even hardly the well-known distinction between “violent” and “non-violent” protestors in Hamburg. This police action was a decision by the local, social-democratic government in Hamburg. But this policing method is not unique to Germany and not to be distinguished by local governments – be it conservative (as in Frankfurt against Blockupy), green and/or social-democratic.

In Europe and beyond

Seen in a European context the ruthless attack on the demonstration is no singularity. Repression, criminalization and political defamation are problems that radicals all over Europe and beyond have to face. Counterinsurgency, not only as a practical method on the street but also as a political act, is not just a national affair; secret services and police forces across Europe are in intense exchange. The German police are well known for their tactics but we are also seeing more authoritarian police responses in the UK, Greece and beyond. So the tactics we faced in Hamburg do not only concern us, but are common problems for social movements in other countries as well.
Links and Media
Photos on flickr: pm_cheung, boeseraltemann, presseservice_rathenow

source: 
http://beyondeurope.net/144/heavy-clashes-in-hamburg/

The post “Merry crisis and happy new fear – Heavy clashes in Hamburg” by Antifa AK Cologne appeared first on Void Network.

These are photos from German Media about the demonstration that happened in Hamburg on the 28th of May 2007 against the globalization of capitalism on the same date of the ASEM Summit where European Union met with the elit of Asian suppresive governments and corporations.

Void Network participated with the banner TOTAL FREEDOM.

The post Mass Media News Photos from Anti G8 demonstration in Hamburg TALKING ABOUT TOTAL FREEDOM appeared first on Void Network.

27 May 2007

Void Network
(Theory,Utopia,Empathy,Ephemeral Arts)
Crimethinc Ex Workers Collective
Global Eye

presents

A day of workshops, films and talking circles
in the Convergence Center
of Anti-G8 international mobilizations
Rote Flora/Hamburg

from 6 o clock until 12.00 a.m.

1.
Activist documentaries
2.
Insurrectionism through Collectivity by Crimethinc
a lecture and open talk
3.
Fragments
from the arising of a Cosmo-Political Consciousness
a multi media poetical lecture by Void Network
and Global Eye
4.
Film Show:
Lucky People Center by Lucky People Center International

The post Talking About Total Freedom world tour- Rote Flora Hamburg – WORKSHOPS ,FILMS and DIALOGUES appeared first on Void Network.

26 May 2007
Talking About Total Freedom>>situation 3>>
participation in the demonstration of the students of Hamburg against the obligatory student fees and the comercialization of public education in Europe!

It was like a parade of all the powers of German police during a demo of about
500 people!
The antifascists came in the front of the demo carying a banner that was sending a clear message:
“Education is not for sale!Smash Capitalism!”
Artcore Collective organized with us a sound system for this demo….A second sound system was also organized by the students…Our sound system burned out half way but people continued dancing in the sounds of drum n”bass and speaches of the students…A memeber of Void network spoke for the sake of international students mentioning that this fight of the students in Germany is one and same with the fights of all students in Europe…in Greece, in Italy, in France, in Spain…a fight for Free Open Public Education for All…He mentioned also that a fight for free education is a fight against capitalism…a fight against G8…and when he shouted “Fight Against Capitalism! The only Solution is Revolution!!”
all the people shouted back together “Revolution!”
The AntiFascists opened the way and sustained the powers of the demonstrators until the end…It was a humilliation of any “representative democracy” system…The police tryed to stop the demo using many excuses…that the use of a banner bigger than 1.5m is not allowed …that it is not allowed to jump…that it is not allowed to come in the center of the city…all these reasons…reasons to brake the people, keep them standing for hours surrounded by full-armed riot policemen and make them dissapointed and depressed…
The Necropolis is the city of the future…
Try to stay alive in the Necropolis!
The totalitarianism of European states
reaches a level of visible dictatorship…
Can you See????

The post The Fight for Free Education is a Fight against Capitalism appeared first on Void Network.

The post Against Dictatorship / Against G8 appeared first on Void Network.

Talking About Total Freedom>>situation 2 >>Knallhart_Hamburg University
24 May 2007

It was a very difficult night….
Everything started great…In the afternoon there was a party organized by students of the campaign against the payment of university fees. Police entered university many times and they succeed to stop the party of the university students…For many hours our stage was a chillout area of the students party, a camping area of students (fighting for open public free education for all) and a place offering great food for 1.50 euro…
When the police stopped the other party then we offered to everybody a revolutionary multi media show and full-on psychedelic trance…More than 200 people appeared in this night…But the police came again…and we had to stop the music, and then we had to bring the speakers inside the Knallhart students center…and then the police came again…and we had to speak again with them and close the music, and then we planed to play less loud cause anyway was difficult to sustain any kind of celebration in conditions of Total Dictatorship…But there was people that stayed and resisted this psychological war from the police and they celebrated the ecstasy of life even under this circumstances…
So when we was all covered with sweat and the police came for last time we said to each other:
“Talking About Total Freedom…or…Talking About Total Dictatorship?
Talking About Tyranny!! Fight the Tyranny!!

The post Hamburg University Campus- electro acid psychedelic trance rave for open free public education appeared first on Void Network.

situation 2> Thursday 24 May> Knallhart electro acid psychedelic trance rave festival against the capitalistic stupidity and the state violence featuring international djs and visual artists from Europe/U.S.A. >>participation in the fight of the university students for a free public education for all people

Cafe Knallhart > University Campus Hamburg > for free >>open air+indoor event

The post Hamburg- Talking About Total Freedom world tour – Rave Culture Against G8 appeared first on Void Network.