“The sleep of Men is more sacred than life for the plagued; You should not stop the good people from sleeping. It would require bad taste, and good taste is to not insist, it’s something everyone knows. The bad taste remained in my mouth and I did not cease to insist, thus to think about it”
Albert Camus, The Plague
On July 7, 2017, the G20 was launched, another international summit, as many are taking place during the year when a handful of world masters meets to sit at a table, please each other sipping expensive wines, discussing about how to split the plunder of the dying planet where we all live. So it might be that in these occasions the european neo-liberal Macron shakes hands with the genocidal dicator Erdogan into a well-furnished living room while agreeing on the suppression and violent repression of migratory transit routes passing in Turkey directed to western Europe, it happens that the conservative Merkel smiles at the jokes of the racist rapist Trump as he decides on how to devastate the ecosystem and poison the atmosphere beyond the point of no return, we could see the authoritarian nationalist oligarch Putin gets a pat on the back from the puppet Gentiloni while giving some more metric cubes of methan gas in exchange for silence on the upcoming Crimea or next homophobic and homicidal law. All this happens all year round throughout the year.
The Plague is spreading, while the good people sleep.
Since the revolts of Genoa, Seattle, Heiligendamm many years have passed, there is nothing to fear. That protest movement is dead, they say. The notorious ‘globalization’, which in those years was scornful of an uncertain future, is today the present, so present in our lives it’s almost impossible to imagine to live without it All we use, what we eat, what we drive or dress is produced in slavery elsewhere, by others that we do not perceive and recognize as people whose destinies are not cared for and that they can not take hold of our sleeping consciences. This time however, the world’s masters choose to meet in the center of Hamburg almost as a challenge. A city whose history is full of struggles for social justice, celebrating the autonomy of some neighborhoods with protests and riots periodically. And it is in one of those neighborhoods, the Schanzenviertel, that the powerful will meet to celebrate their farce.
The challenge is welcomed and since months before the Summit an international mobilization is launched that suggests a willingness to oppose the event with determination, a wide participation is expected. In the days before the Summit, comrades from all over Europe meet in the German city, while the police immediately put into practice a policy of zero tolerance: houses are being searched, the preventive arrests of the ‘usual known’ begins, the camping hosting people from outside the city is brutally evicted. The repressive strategy that the police intends to put in place becomes even clearer during the ‘Welcome to Hell’ march of July 6th , where riot police attack the demo before it even begins, forcing people to flee tear gas in the are of the harbour.. The efficiency of the repressive apparatus seems invincible, and everything suggests that the three days will continue without the silence being disturbed, while tyrants and dictators enjoy the excellent program planned between a gala dinner and an drink with a view.
On Friday, July 7, however, something seems to change from the early morning when luxury cars and diplomatic vehicles burn in different parts of the city, creating dense columns of black smoke. Spontaneous actions of autonomous groups follow during the day, several unauthorized demos cross the streets and symbols of the capital are attacked. The police can not react on time, reinforcements from neighboring cities are demanded, and coppers arrive in Hamburg with long car columns on motorways or by helicopter. But that’s not enough. Affinity groups begin to converge towards the Schanzenviertel, exactly the neighborhood where the Summit is taking place within the Messe (Fair). Barricades are built, people fight the police and force it out of the neighborhood for hours. Banks and supermarketsSummit of resistance – Summit of repression – Solidarity is our weapon
The G20 is over, but the work is not and there is no let up.
More than 100,000 people from all different backgrounds took part and made their way to Hamburg to protest against the G20 summit. Throughout the preparation against the G20 we faced constant repression; Camps were prohibited, demonstrations banned, houses and flats raided. It came to the point that people were approached and given verbal warnings, taken into custody or even received travel restrictions. Not only before but throughout the days of protest there were unprecedented levels of repression, uncountable numbers of protesters injured by the cops, hundreds taken into custody or arrested. 36 from which are still imprisoned, most of whom travelled from other countries to take part in the protests.
Those imprisoned comrades who took to the streets with us to fight against the G20 and it’s ridiculous and inhuman policies are now in need of our support. We’re not just thinking about here and now we still await repression in the coming weeks and months and those who might be affected. Our solidarity and resistance must be diverse. We will of course need a substantial amount of money not only for the lawsuits, but also for the campaigns publicity. The support from individuals is encouraged but it’s is also important that we fight against the repression collectively! Our goal is a international far-reaching campaign in which many people can contribute.
Despite all the attempts from the media and security forces before, during and after the summit they didn’t manage to split us, we still stand together and will continue to do so together with our imprisoned comrades! The summit is over but our fight for a better world without war, exploitation, oppression and prisons goes on!
United we Stand!
What can be done:
- Collecting money and donations for people in prison. Also for the lawyer fees, the upcoming trials and to support the campaign…
- Info events with the theme of anti-repression after the G20
- Soli-concerts and parties
- Publicity work ( poster, flyers, t-shirts etc…)
- Organising Demonstrations and manifestations
- Organising support for the relatives and friends of those imprisoned
- Writing letters to those imprisoned
Donations:
For the lawsuits:
Rote Hilfe e.V.
Keyword; „G20“
IBAN: DE25 2605 0001 0056 0362 39
BIC: NOLADE21GOE
Sparkasse Göttingen
To support the campaign:
Rote Hilfe e.V.
Ortsgruppe Hamburg
Keyword; „United we stand“
IBAN: DE06 2001 0020 0084 6102 03
BIC: PBNKDEFFXXX are assaulted, roads are occupied. “He seemed to be in Aleppo,” said the day after a concerned citizen who probably has never visited the Syrian city. The same Aleppo martyred by the bombs of Putin, Erdogan and Trump, who just a few meters away from that worried citizen decided about the future of Syria and who knows which other future wars.
The peace was disturbed.
During the revolt against the G 20 in Hamburg, one of our comrades, Riccardo, was arrested and is currently detained in Billwerder Prison, in Hamburg. To him as well as to 35 other demonstrators, of which 5 other Italians, the pre-trial detention was confirmed. We dont care about knowing details, we are not interested in defining how. We know when, we know why. Because the German police apparatus humiliated by the burning streets tried with special teams and rifles at the hand to recover their status, arresting massively those in the street who had remained and intended to fight with determination. In the face of uncontrollable anger, Power reveals its true face and expresses itself in all its brutality.
The historical moment in which we find ourselves has dramatically increased the responsibilities and consequences of the capitalist system on our lives. In the face of the progressive misery of everyday life (now made of alienation, exhausting and badly paid work, fake human relations filtered by omnipresent technology gadgets) that goes hand in hand with the irreversible destruction of the planet hosting us, we believe action and resistance are not only defensible but urgently needed. Solidarity with Riccardo and all the prisoners / arrestees at the G20 in Hamburg becomes an element of continuity with those days of struggle, to be daily sand in the gears of the murderous capitalist machine, to strenghten and widen the will to oppose those who allow the hierarchical and capitalist system to exist and profit from it.
We support prisoners that oppose to the logic of dissociation. We believe that the point of strength expressed in this experience of struggle realizes itself into the choice of the defendants to express continuity with their political motive to take part in the days against the G20. In this case, the absence of differentiation between “good and bad” is achieved by overcoming the italian past experience (note for foreign readers: after the g8 of Genoa a big part of the organizers decided to distance themselves from protesters who engaged in direct action and the black block, this led to major fracture that still to some extent exists nowadays within the italian movement). Cohesion among the defendants becomes a strong point both in becoming resilient to repression and for the relaunch and continuity of the struggle itself.
A solidarity demo will take place in front of the Billwerder prison in Hamburg Sunday the 6th of August, at the same time in Genoa we will gather in Piazza San Lorenzo, in the city center, to demonstrate our complicity and support to those arrested.
A hug of solidarity to Riccardo and all the prisoners of Hamburg!
Solidarity and strength to the rebels against the g20!