So, we now have capacity to include some of the home videos we've been making along the way. Please have a look at some of our earlier blogs and you'll find we've added more photos and videos.
Apologies to our German friends for this one...we couldn't resist the play on words!
Billy tries salty licorice candy in Denmark:
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Libbilly and the Critters: International Karaoke Debut
Imagine yourself on the top floor of a crazy ferry-nightclub, with Finnish and Swedish 80's-esque electronic beats and pop lyrics again and again taking all the attention. what about family values? What about good old American music, like the tunes of the Saint Vincent Children's choir? As diplomats from our nation, we had to act...
Fun in Finland...
Finnish: one of Europe's most difficult languages!
Having experienced one night in the true land of the midnight sun in Narvik, we jumped back on the train, which by now has become our second home, and headed the 7 hours back down to Boden, Sweden, where we walked to the bus station that would take us 1.5 hours to the border with Finland (for some reason that we couldn't figure out, and no one could explain sufficiently, to get from Sweden to Finland, one must bus from Boden to a border town called Haparanda, walk 1 km across the border into Tornio, Finland, and catch another bus or a cab from there to a town 25 km away called Kemi, where there's a train station connecting with the line down to Helsinki.) As we were asking for more specific information about the transitions from bus, foot, cab, etc, the bus we needed to get to make the last night train down to Helsinki pulled out of the station. Blast. At first we were a little frustrated and unsure what our next step would be. We kept our stay in Narvik short so that we could catch that bus and the night train, and now it seemed unlikely we'd make our connection to Helsinki. After brief deliberation, we decided to throw ourselves in to adventure and hop on the next bus. Neither of us wanted to go back to Stockholm without a taste of Finland, and we thought there was a narrow, narrow chance of catching the train (turns out we were wrong because of the time change, but our bus went so slow it became irrelevant to consider catching the train). If we couldn't get the night train, we'd try hitching to the Kemi train station and find a place to stay, perhaps in a field with sleeping bags.The trajectory
Upon arrival to Haparanda, we followed the signs to the border of Suomi (Finland in Finnish), and casually strolled across, grinning broadly as we stuck our thumbs out at any cars that passed. We got smiles and honks but no takers. More walking, we decided. At one point we strayed from the highway that would take us to Kemi, and realized after a trucker stopped offering to pick us up that we were 1 km down the wrong road. "ok" we thought, "we'll ask this woman walking with her dog to be sure of where we need to go." Stumbelina was a short woman with dyed red hair and a huge dog that looked like a long-haired greyhound relative, and at first she appeared to speak no english. She babbled Finnish at us with one eye squinted shut and gave a huge, slightly offputting grin after every statement, waiting for a response from us. Every question from her was met by us giggling about the language barrier and indicating we didn't understand. I joked to Billy that she had said "I'd like to kis s your cute friend", and "is that vodka in your waterbottle?" She kept indicating for us to follow her, and since we were going to walk that way in any case, we decided to tag along at her slow drunk pace with the dog and tried to interact with her the best we could. eventually she was able to summon a few english words and explained to us "i not bad girl; i good girl. my boyfriend loves me. loves dog." we think she also invited us to come sleep at her house and have some coffee, and perhaps we'd have said yes to a less sketchy arrangement, but we gestured that we had to go to get to Helsinki on time and said our goodbyes.
Only 5 minutes later, we scored a ride from a young trucker named Tommy (roughly). He said he could give us a lift to Kemi, and as we chatted more he eventually offered to take us as far as Oulu, where he lives, and where there's also a train station. We gladly agreed to tag along, and the sun set and rose again in the window between midnight and 2 am that we rode along in his truck. He seemed basically to enjoy trucking, (although it meant being away from his 4 year old son alot) and gave us a little insight into the friction between Finland and Russia. There are a number of Russian truckers who'll come into Scandinavia, but next to no Scandinavian truckers willing to sit in the 40 km long border crossing line to get back and forth into Russia, unable to sleep for several days and having to eek forward only a few meters at a time. He also said it's fairly common for Russian truckers to rob Scandinavian ones, and talked about making sure he picks well-lit truckstops to try to avoid getting robber himself, but he said he could understand why - Russian truckers make a fraction of the wage in Scandinavia.
(Billy in front of the 25 meter-long truck at 2 am - this is bigger than most European trucks, but Tommy say he wants to go to Australia, where they drive trucks up to 54 m long)Tommy wasn't overly expressive, but was curious enough to ask questions about our travels and our lives and seemed to enjoy trying to answer our questions about Finland. His view of the European Union was that it was a fine arrangement that didn't really seem to impact his life so directly, except that there were a lot of stupid silly regulations, like how much light the cab of a truck could give off. (He showed us a ticket he'd gotten for this in Sweden, but shrugged it off as "the company's problem; it's their truck"). By the time we reached Oulu, he offered us a place to stay at his apartment, only 3 blocks from the train station. Both Billy and I trusted him and were excited to not have to sleep outside, so we accepted and konked out on the living room floor around 3, just as the sun was starting to come in through the windows.
Friday we awoke and caught the train to Helsinki. I became a groggy zombie for the entire 7 hour ride after ingesting an anti-nausea pill, so I didn't see much of the countryside, but Finland is known for having thousands and thousands of lakes. The bulk of these, rumouredly the most beautiful terrain, is in the east of the country, and we were in the western half near the sea.
Upon arrival in Helsinki, we met up with our delightful couchsurfing host, Renato. An Italian who moved to Finland "for a girl-- there are 2 reasons Italian men come here: to chase a girl, or to work for Nokia." Renato studies Finnish, among many other languages, is vegan, and doesn't drink, so he offered a humorous, if cynical, take on the heavy alcohol consumption of the Finns. Sure enough, when the 3 of us went out to a bar to check out the scene, the first thing we saw when we hopped off the bus was a guy peeing straight in our direction, and while at the bar, we saw someone get beer thrown in his face, as well as a beer bottle get thrown against the wall. When the management came to investigate, those at the table held up their beers as evidence that he or she were inculpable. The odd bottle out had to leave. Also of note: the Finnish are super into black metal music, and the bar was dominated by black attire, long hair, and dog collar jewelry. As an "outsider" himself to Finnish culture, I think it was really valuable to hear Renato's observations about living in Finland. He joked about how it's common in Finland for a woman to ask a man on a date or to take him home, and how this would "never ever ever" happen in Italy and took some getting used to. As an extra bonus, he also works at the only vegan restaurant in town and brings home leftovers which he freezes and keeps for later, so we had some delicious cuisine at his flat. Before we left the next day, he showed us around a little more and let us print out some readings for our Africa trip at the university library (where printing is free!) We took some fun photos (below) and said our goodbyes. Hopefully we will meet again.
Traditional Finnish dress observed in the market aquare
(Billy's into leg lifts, can you tell?)
Hmmm....
Billy and Bear reflect...
The ferry pretty much embodied the spirit of capital - every "opportunity" was a chance to splurge, and if you're money sticklers like us, good luck! We didn't spend a dime, and even walked away with a huge box of expensive chocolates (each) for participating in a survey about chocolate box styles. Billy commented that maybe the over-the-topness of the boat was an attempt to compensate for the absolute horror of ship passage in the past. We and the critters enjoyed a beautiful sunset, though we're still far enough north that it never got dark, only lingered for hours and hours and grew light again. We each had a bunk in gendered 4-person cabins in the very bottom of the boat, free with our Eurail passes!
Atlantis Nightclub & Casino
free chocolate!
The "White Church" in Helsinki
(Billy's into leg lifts, can you tell?)
Hmmm....
Billy and Bear reflect...
Then, it was off to the Silja Serenade, a huge 12 story ferry with casino, nightclub, fancy restaurants, tax-free shopping, andddddddddddddd... Karaoke! (Yep, see our video blog above of Libbilly and the Critters!) In some ways the ferry was repulsive and in other ways, fun. We both agreed that we liked Helsinki better looking at it from the ferry as we pulled away, rather than being surrounded by stumbling, fighting drunks.
The ferry pretty much embodied the spirit of capital - every "opportunity" was a chance to splurge, and if you're money sticklers like us, good luck! We didn't spend a dime, and even walked away with a huge box of expensive chocolates (each) for participating in a survey about chocolate box styles. Billy commented that maybe the over-the-topness of the boat was an attempt to compensate for the absolute horror of ship passage in the past. We and the critters enjoyed a beautiful sunset, though we're still far enough north that it never got dark, only lingered for hours and hours and grew light again. We each had a bunk in gendered 4-person cabins in the very bottom of the boat, free with our Eurail passes!Atlantis Nightclub & Casino
free chocolate!
(Wingman and Bear enjoy a good sunset smooch)
When we awoke as we arrived back to Stockholm, it was a rainy dreary day, and the 3 hour train ride from Stockholm to Karlstad so we could hop on a bus north to KulturStationen felt truncated and short -- we're so used to 7 hour (minimum) chunks of train time that we felt we'd barely settled into the ride when we arrived. Now we're snuggled down at Kulturstationen and it feels good to be outside the train/bus/boat windows and in nature, stationary for a while.
Into the Arctic!
Billy says:
Ok, I admit it, I'm obsessed with trains, and I'm obsessed with deals. There's things I want to do only because they're covered by the rail pass, and the more places we go, the better deal the passes become. The initial idea behind the trip to Narvik, Norway was based on this. It's simply the furthest north place you can go by train. We left Lund at 11.30am Tues. and arrived in Narvik at 7.15pm on Weds. Aside from a few hours in Stockholm eating dinner and buying groceries, the rest of the time we were on the train. That's about 1900km covered by train. When we met people on the train who asked us where we were going and why, we could only say "it's the furthest north that the train goes." Honestly, I'd pictured the train being virtually empty most of the way and ending in a tiny town with a few hundred inhabitants, but it turns out there's a university town (Tromsö) with wbout 80,000 inhabitants 240 km north of Narvik. I guess my vision of the world is pretty skewed by "civilization." But along the way, we learned a number of reasons to go to Narvik, after all.
The last seven hours of the train ride are breathtaking, and the scenery alone almost makes the whole trip worth it. I learned that as you move north, past the arctic circle, trees are permanently dwarfed by the constant cold. These dwarf forests are kind of eerily beautiful. (The trees only started having leaves one week before we arrived, and summer ends in August!) Then we passed dozens of small lakes, and one huge one that was so still and clear that it reflected the sky and mountains surrounding it as perfectly as a mirror. It literally looked like you could dive into the sky. Libby loved the scores of waterfalls from the melting snow everywhere. The train winds for the last hour along a cliff, looking down an amazing fjörd, and another mountain across the way. This is such a thrilling and dramatic way to reach a city.
When we arrived in Narvik, we immediately saw that it was a much bigger city than we'd expected and then we saw an almost perfect (double) rainbow! Quite a good omen.
Some noteworthy things to know about Narvik (mostly learned at the Narvik War Museum, and also through conversation):
¤ Narvik is a port town, and principally used for shipping Iron Ore, which is extracted from the earth at Kiruna, Sweden (The city of Kiruna, incidentally, needs to be entirely relocated because mining has made the earth surrounding into a very swampy terrain). The rail line we rode connects the mines with the sea ports at Narvik and Luleå, Sweden.
¤ Due to its importance in iron transport in particular, and the rail connection to Sweden generally, the Germans and British fought bitterly for control of Narvik during WWII. (Striking how we thought we were going so far away from "civilization" and smacked into more history of WWII and the Cold War. What a huge thing WWII was, with ripples everywhere and for generations). The British eventually lost the battles for Narvik, and Norway surrendered to the Nazis who, with the help of the Norse National Socialist Party, controlled the country from 1940-45.
¤ The Germans had a propaganda campaign to convince the Norweigans that they needed to occupy the country because the british wanted to bring war to their "neutral" nation, so the Germans represented "peace" through military occupation.
¤ When the British took control of Narvik, the British bombed the town severely, to try and leave nothing for the Germans to make use of. 90% of the city was destroyed.
¤ A British Naval officer, facing Court Martial for disobeying his superiors, commandeered a few large vessels and successfully evacuated half the city's population.
¤ The Nazis held thousands of Soviet prisoners in the area surrounding Narvik (and throughout Norway). The Museum had dozens of items that the Soviet prisoners made in order to barter for food from the Norwegians, since their rations were so so little, like this chess set.
A great many prisoners died from starvation, overwork and straight brutality, as apparently both Hitler and Stalin agreed that Soviet prisoners of war did not deserve human rights. In one instance, a few thousand Serbian prisoners were made to - unwittingly - dig their own mass graves before being wholesale slaughtered.
¤ During the battle for Narvik, women of the town took their children outside and held them high to show the war planes that they were not targets to be bombed.
Far from the rest of the world?
Here are our 11 pm shadows:
Playing in the city at 1 am while the sun glints off this oblisque:
p.s. if you take your own trip to Narvik, we learned that some beautiful places on the way and nearby are: Abisko National Park in Sweden and the Lofoten islands off the coast of Narvik, which one Norweigan woman said was the most beautiful place she'd ever been. We regret not having time to make it to those places...
Ok, I admit it, I'm obsessed with trains, and I'm obsessed with deals. There's things I want to do only because they're covered by the rail pass, and the more places we go, the better deal the passes become. The initial idea behind the trip to Narvik, Norway was based on this. It's simply the furthest north place you can go by train. We left Lund at 11.30am Tues. and arrived in Narvik at 7.15pm on Weds. Aside from a few hours in Stockholm eating dinner and buying groceries, the rest of the time we were on the train. That's about 1900km covered by train. When we met people on the train who asked us where we were going and why, we could only say "it's the furthest north that the train goes." Honestly, I'd pictured the train being virtually empty most of the way and ending in a tiny town with a few hundred inhabitants, but it turns out there's a university town (Tromsö) with wbout 80,000 inhabitants 240 km north of Narvik. I guess my vision of the world is pretty skewed by "civilization." But along the way, we learned a number of reasons to go to Narvik, after all.
The last seven hours of the train ride are breathtaking, and the scenery alone almost makes the whole trip worth it. I learned that as you move north, past the arctic circle, trees are permanently dwarfed by the constant cold. These dwarf forests are kind of eerily beautiful. (The trees only started having leaves one week before we arrived, and summer ends in August!) Then we passed dozens of small lakes, and one huge one that was so still and clear that it reflected the sky and mountains surrounding it as perfectly as a mirror. It literally looked like you could dive into the sky. Libby loved the scores of waterfalls from the melting snow everywhere. The train winds for the last hour along a cliff, looking down an amazing fjörd, and another mountain across the way. This is such a thrilling and dramatic way to reach a city.
When we arrived in Narvik, we immediately saw that it was a much bigger city than we'd expected and then we saw an almost perfect (double) rainbow! Quite a good omen.
Some noteworthy things to know about Narvik (mostly learned at the Narvik War Museum, and also through conversation):
¤ Narvik is a port town, and principally used for shipping Iron Ore, which is extracted from the earth at Kiruna, Sweden (The city of Kiruna, incidentally, needs to be entirely relocated because mining has made the earth surrounding into a very swampy terrain). The rail line we rode connects the mines with the sea ports at Narvik and Luleå, Sweden.
¤ Due to its importance in iron transport in particular, and the rail connection to Sweden generally, the Germans and British fought bitterly for control of Narvik during WWII. (Striking how we thought we were going so far away from "civilization" and smacked into more history of WWII and the Cold War. What a huge thing WWII was, with ripples everywhere and for generations). The British eventually lost the battles for Narvik, and Norway surrendered to the Nazis who, with the help of the Norse National Socialist Party, controlled the country from 1940-45.
¤ The Germans had a propaganda campaign to convince the Norweigans that they needed to occupy the country because the british wanted to bring war to their "neutral" nation, so the Germans represented "peace" through military occupation.
¤ When the British took control of Narvik, the British bombed the town severely, to try and leave nothing for the Germans to make use of. 90% of the city was destroyed.
¤ A British Naval officer, facing Court Martial for disobeying his superiors, commandeered a few large vessels and successfully evacuated half the city's population.
¤ The Nazis held thousands of Soviet prisoners in the area surrounding Narvik (and throughout Norway). The Museum had dozens of items that the Soviet prisoners made in order to barter for food from the Norwegians, since their rations were so so little, like this chess set.
A great many prisoners died from starvation, overwork and straight brutality, as apparently both Hitler and Stalin agreed that Soviet prisoners of war did not deserve human rights. In one instance, a few thousand Serbian prisoners were made to - unwittingly - dig their own mass graves before being wholesale slaughtered.¤ During the battle for Narvik, women of the town took their children outside and held them high to show the war planes that they were not targets to be bombed.
Far from the rest of the world?
Here are our 11 pm shadows:
Playing in the city at 1 am while the sun glints off this oblisque:
p.s. if you take your own trip to Narvik, we learned that some beautiful places on the way and nearby are: Abisko National Park in Sweden and the Lofoten islands off the coast of Narvik, which one Norweigan woman said was the most beautiful place she'd ever been. We regret not having time to make it to those places...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Live, from Stockholm, Sweden!
Says Libby:
So! We're at the Central Station in Stockholm, Sweden and will be leaving tonight (in half an hour!) on a night train to Boden which arrives at noon tomorrow. From there, it's just one more 7 hour train to Narvik, Norway ; the northernmost point served by the European rail system, and situated at 68 degrees north, even further north than Iceland! We'll arrive in Narvik at 7 pm on Wednesday, but from what we can tell, it will never get dark that night! Then the next day we have our fingers crossed that there's a bus down at the border between Sweden and Finland, because no one at the train station has been confident enough to confirm this in definitive language - they all say they "think so"... from the north border of Sweden and Finland we'll train down to Helsinki, the capital, where we're hoping to "couchsurf" with some gracious host before taking a long-ass ferry across the water back to Stockholm and eventually making it inland to Kulturstationen, our woofing spot. [click here for a general map of our itinerary]
To fill folks in on our last 36 hours....
After we left Bente and Soren's delightful place in Fano, we hopped on the "train" - another bus, due to the travel-prohibitive expansion of the rails from the heat, and bussed-trained through Kopenhagen across the islands to Sweden, where we were delighted to be hosted in Lund by a dear friend of mine from the International House days at UCSD, Nik. Nik met us at the station and treated us to a tasty dinner at an Italian place. The three of us talked about the political system and the positive and negative aspects of the European Union. European farmers, for example, receive 1/3 of the money of the EU to subsidize their crops, and continually overproduce. The surplus is dumped onto the African market so that prices stay higher for the farmers in Europe (the US is culpable of the same), the value of the African goods is greatly reduced, and this is one more reason why African agriculture can't compete on the world market (not even considering access to technology, disparate growing conditions, or hundreds of years of colonial exploitation, etc.) Despite some of its flaws, Nik was keen to point out that the greatest benefit of the EU is the solidarity bred among the citizens of the continent and the assurance that Europe won't again see a continental war like befell them with WWI and II. As we strolled back in the cool summer twilight to Nik's place in the student dormitories, we mused about effective tactics for social change. Many folks had moved out of the dorms for the summer so we had our own luxurious dorm room! It was great to see Nik and we're hoping to reunite with him next month when our trajectories collide in Montpelier, France.
As we left Lund this morning, there were a bunch of drunk Swedish high school graduates in special sailor hats (apparently a Swedish graduation tradition), blowing whistles, singing, and trumpeting through the streets this morning to celebrate their graduation. Slightly obnoxious, slightly entertaining.
Once we arrived to Stockholm, we stuck our heavier bag in a locker and explored Stockholm for the afternoon. The buildings here are tremendously well-kept, the facades intact and most of them having really interesting architectural design with fancy domed black roofs, turrets, balconies, etc. There seemed to be an abundance of trees and parks mixed in with the busy city, and it has a very international and multicultural feel having recently left the sheltered island of Fano (Thai food for lunch, hurrah!).
We've got tons of photos to upload, but unfortunately this netcafe won't allow us to connect the camera, so they'll have to wait until next time, probably this weekend. Sorry for the lag in postings, and we look forward to being able to relay the experience of life in the land of the midnight sun and other Scandinavian adventures!
Much love from Libby and Billy
Learning about Denmark on Fanö island
Billy says:We spent a weekend in roughly idyllic conditions, visiting libby's cousins bente and soren on the island of fanö, off the west coast of denmark. We were housed in our own little cottage, given bikes to travel about, and fed scrumpuous meals everyday. Bente had asked us to bring some warm weather, and we brought unusually warm days indeed, with 30 degrees celsius full sun till 11pm. Still, we enjoyed running around the yard with their dog sisse - playing "tug of war" with her rope - walking, (and, for libby, running) along the beach, (where the yearly two week long kite festival with dozens and dozens of kites, was underway) and biking the 10km length of the island down to the small town of sonderhö for a few scoops of ice cream.
Despite Soren being shy with his english, Bente kept lively conversation going the whole time (and translated for Soren as well). She is a very attentive listener, fully and genuinely engaged, curious, and delighted to share. We had silly times, like when we made casual bets on the "speedway" motorbike races on TV, trying to solve Danish kids' word puzzles, and trying out incredibly hard to pronounce and giggle-producing Danish phrases. But we also had many important, serious talks.
Bente was very interested in us learning about the Danish political and social system, and she's a good teacher. Bente was raised by a social-democratic family and is still proud to be participating in a society that intends to care for the health and happiness of its members. She sees it as important that workers join unions and play an active role, thinks anyone that wants a bed to sleep in ought to have one, and is compassionate enough to realize that working doesn't make everyone happy. Personally, since both her and soren have slight disabilities, they are eligible for the "flexi" work program in Denmark. As such, they both work roughly 20 hrs per week, and, with funding from the state, are paid a full week's wages. She is quite grateful for this program because, in her 40s, she doesn't feel ready to retire and feels quite useful in her job at county hall. This is only one of many excellent provisions and rights within the Danish system, such as: all students in university receive a monthly living stipend, childcare is subsidized 75% or more, children 9 and older are heard in court regarding their parents' divorce (and at 12 their opinion is given full weight), and - as if it's cliche to say so - every aspect of health care - from the midwife to the nursing home, is totally free.
Bente doesn't feel that these values are being eroded in Denmark, but she wasn't too proud to note the down sides, such the recent election of a neo-liberal president and Denmark's role in West Indies slave-trading during colonial days. In short, her version of socialism is quiet, simple, genuine, and open to modification.
***
from left to right: libby, sisse, bente, soren and mette, soren's daughter, in front of their house:
some extra photos:
the train across the german-danish border was only one car long, sort of like a bus. it had to honk and slow down at lots of little farm intersections!
soon there will be photos and stories about: G8 Blockades! here
says Libby:
Hello! We don't have time to write/post all of our stories at once, so this is a teaser. Soon there will be stories and photos here about more of our experience in Rostock at the G8 summit, creating a blockade of the roads 10,000 strong to disrupt the smoothness of the summit. Some of the things you can look forward to reading about are: staying the night at the Indy Media Center, couchsurfing with a delightful German woman named Charlene, and marching through fields by the thousands to avoid police barricades en route to the creation of our grand human blockade. Also, ideological factions amongst protesters, police intimidation tactics, and, lest we get discouraged, humans helping each other meet their basic needs. I promise I'll do some work on this on the 50 hours of training (as in, trainRIDE-ing) we'll do this week so that it's a snap to post when we get back from the North Pole. Humor us by coming back to read this later, eh mateys?
cheers!
Hello! We don't have time to write/post all of our stories at once, so this is a teaser. Soon there will be stories and photos here about more of our experience in Rostock at the G8 summit, creating a blockade of the roads 10,000 strong to disrupt the smoothness of the summit. Some of the things you can look forward to reading about are: staying the night at the Indy Media Center, couchsurfing with a delightful German woman named Charlene, and marching through fields by the thousands to avoid police barricades en route to the creation of our grand human blockade. Also, ideological factions amongst protesters, police intimidation tactics, and, lest we get discouraged, humans helping each other meet their basic needs. I promise I'll do some work on this on the 50 hours of training (as in, trainRIDE-ing) we'll do this week so that it's a snap to post when we get back from the North Pole. Humor us by coming back to read this later, eh mateys?
cheers!
Tourists of sorts in Berlin
Says Billy:
Berlin was a joy to visit. Aside from everyone speaking German all the time, Libby and I were ready to move in. The "Futurist" in me (i don´t know what this means, but Libby likes to call me one) loves the highly organized, efficient and easy to use train and subway system (and though we bought a day pass on our first day in town, we used the subway dozens of times and never saw any need to have a ticket).
The anti-G8 organizers decided to disperse the international visitors throughout the squats and radical collectives centralized in the Kreuzberg neighborhood. Enjoyably to us, the cold war division of Berlin into four quadrants means that there´s no real "downtown," but rather lots of distinct neighborhoods with their own cultural and commercial districts. Kreuzberg is a pleasant mix of Turkish and African immigrants and young vegetarian and leftist leaning Germans. As activist "ghettoes" go, Kreuzberg felt much more "integrated" with the "locals" than other cities, and the organizers tried to strengthen this connection by printing 5,000 anti-G8 newspapers and distributing them door-to-door throughout the neighborhood and having Volkes Kuche (People's Kitchen) in Gorlitzer park.
Gorlitzer park is a likably run-down place, about 12 blocks long and 2 wide, with a nice stone path running through the whole length and then across the river and further on into the old East Germany (right across the river we stumbled upon an artsy/anarchisty squat neighborhood of vagens, with a couple dozen campers and a huge social/theatre space, all tucked underneath the bridge and running along the river). The whole park feels (to be dainty) "under manicured" and across from the people's kitchen is a huge fountain that apparently was built with the wrong kind of stone and so it froze and cracked horribly. As a result, it looks like bombed out ruins. This adds to the general worn down look of the park. But all the same, the park was full of people, no matter what time of day we went, and there seemed to be a relatively contented mix of muslim women chatting together, young hipsters having picnics and groups of punks drinking beer. It was a good place to have a free meal and have a meeting about protesting the G8.
We got set up with an awesome place to stay. An apartment with 7 anarchists living together, right by the health food store and U-Bahn. We had our own room with Loft bed and were welcomed to leave our things and go off to Rostock for days. All the housemates we met were kind, hospitable and thoughtful radicals. Really, we talked about moving in!
On our last night in Berlin, we made a huge meal and sat and talked with three of the housemates. One was raised in a small town in East Germany and one was raised in East Berlin. Both were teenagers when the wall fell. So, we asked them to tell us about the "good side"* of life in East Germany. I know that I'm at such a disadvantage in trying to really understand communism or the cold war. I think the so-called "iron curtain" was so thick and full of thorns that it'll be incredibly difficult to tear it down now. So, I'm really grateful for the stories and descriptions our friends from Berlin gave.
In short, they told of a profound contradiction, or paradox. In East Germany, they had, "no political freedom," "everything was totally ordered - our whole lives were planned out," and, basically, "it was totally boring." "We lived in identical grey concrete boxes and just worked. Everyone who didn't want to work was punished for 'anti-social behavior'... then, suddenly, at 65, you didn't have to work and you were free to travel." At the same time, "food was really cheap," "rent was cheap," "books were cheap," "the cinema was cheap" "everyone was guaranteed housing and healthcare was free," and to top it off, "our schools were better than those in the West; we were all highly educated, with a high emphasis on literature, culture." In other words, meeting all of people´s basic needs is not enough. People crave - maybe need - autonomy, joy, play, even unpredictability.
Our friend from the small town in East Germany seemed stubbornly devoted to doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. One housemate said that he sometimes goes weeks by himself and then suddenly rejoins the community. This seems a natural reaction to a highly organized existence. Still, he says he wants "No Government, but when a hospital needs built, I want someone to build it."
It's simple-minded and self-serving to say that communism is all bad and claim a victory for capitalism, but this is what has happened since the wall fell. There was some small discussion about "taking the best of both Germanys" but this was way less popular than simply scolding the communists and flaunting all the new commodities. Seems so much better to just face it, talk it out, analyse it, try and understand what communism really meant for people living "under" it. There's a lot to reject, even hate, and certainly laugh at, but it's so pitiful and horrible to deny, to pretend, to lie.
* We had gone on a "free" (because they don´t pay their staff anything, so they survive off of tips) bike tour earlier in the day, which had some highlights, but was disturbingly full of pro-capitalist propaganda - the same kind of nonsense my parents were fed when they were forced to hide under their desks because the Russians were about to bomb them to bits and somehow the desk would save them. We were told that millions of East Germans flocked to the West because the west had "Levi's and Coke" and in the east they only had "polyester pants and lemonade," and other such gems of wisdom. There were repeated references to how ugly the communist architecture was and how it was poorly built because the communists didn't have all the great wealth and technology that the west has.
Still, as tours go, it was mostly interesting, with lots of info. about the Berlin Wall and Nazism. Maybe my favorite thing was the "memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe," which was an intentionally vague field/grid of some 2700 grey concrete slabs of various heights (but same dimensions otherwise) right in the middle of the busiest area of Berlin.
I also really loved the memorial to the 20,000 books the Nazis burned in 1933. It was a whole bunch of empty shelves, enough to hold 20,000 books, and it was underground, so you looked at through glass on the ground in a plaza. There was also a plaque there with the quote, "if you start by burning books, you'll end by burning bodies."
In all, Berlin is really intense. So much of the tour took me to places where horrible atrocities had happened, or really ugly attempts at war or totalitarianism. It was hard to know how to take it all seriously enough on this brief tour through the city with a bunch of ignorant and arrogant Americans.
Berlin was a joy to visit. Aside from everyone speaking German all the time, Libby and I were ready to move in. The "Futurist" in me (i don´t know what this means, but Libby likes to call me one) loves the highly organized, efficient and easy to use train and subway system (and though we bought a day pass on our first day in town, we used the subway dozens of times and never saw any need to have a ticket).
The anti-G8 organizers decided to disperse the international visitors throughout the squats and radical collectives centralized in the Kreuzberg neighborhood. Enjoyably to us, the cold war division of Berlin into four quadrants means that there´s no real "downtown," but rather lots of distinct neighborhoods with their own cultural and commercial districts. Kreuzberg is a pleasant mix of Turkish and African immigrants and young vegetarian and leftist leaning Germans. As activist "ghettoes" go, Kreuzberg felt much more "integrated" with the "locals" than other cities, and the organizers tried to strengthen this connection by printing 5,000 anti-G8 newspapers and distributing them door-to-door throughout the neighborhood and having Volkes Kuche (People's Kitchen) in Gorlitzer park.
Gorlitzer park is a likably run-down place, about 12 blocks long and 2 wide, with a nice stone path running through the whole length and then across the river and further on into the old East Germany (right across the river we stumbled upon an artsy/anarchisty squat neighborhood of vagens, with a couple dozen campers and a huge social/theatre space, all tucked underneath the bridge and running along the river). The whole park feels (to be dainty) "under manicured" and across from the people's kitchen is a huge fountain that apparently was built with the wrong kind of stone and so it froze and cracked horribly. As a result, it looks like bombed out ruins. This adds to the general worn down look of the park. But all the same, the park was full of people, no matter what time of day we went, and there seemed to be a relatively contented mix of muslim women chatting together, young hipsters having picnics and groups of punks drinking beer. It was a good place to have a free meal and have a meeting about protesting the G8.
We got set up with an awesome place to stay. An apartment with 7 anarchists living together, right by the health food store and U-Bahn. We had our own room with Loft bed and were welcomed to leave our things and go off to Rostock for days. All the housemates we met were kind, hospitable and thoughtful radicals. Really, we talked about moving in!
On our last night in Berlin, we made a huge meal and sat and talked with three of the housemates. One was raised in a small town in East Germany and one was raised in East Berlin. Both were teenagers when the wall fell. So, we asked them to tell us about the "good side"* of life in East Germany. I know that I'm at such a disadvantage in trying to really understand communism or the cold war. I think the so-called "iron curtain" was so thick and full of thorns that it'll be incredibly difficult to tear it down now. So, I'm really grateful for the stories and descriptions our friends from Berlin gave.
In short, they told of a profound contradiction, or paradox. In East Germany, they had, "no political freedom," "everything was totally ordered - our whole lives were planned out," and, basically, "it was totally boring." "We lived in identical grey concrete boxes and just worked. Everyone who didn't want to work was punished for 'anti-social behavior'... then, suddenly, at 65, you didn't have to work and you were free to travel." At the same time, "food was really cheap," "rent was cheap," "books were cheap," "the cinema was cheap" "everyone was guaranteed housing and healthcare was free," and to top it off, "our schools were better than those in the West; we were all highly educated, with a high emphasis on literature, culture." In other words, meeting all of people´s basic needs is not enough. People crave - maybe need - autonomy, joy, play, even unpredictability.
Our friend from the small town in East Germany seemed stubbornly devoted to doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. One housemate said that he sometimes goes weeks by himself and then suddenly rejoins the community. This seems a natural reaction to a highly organized existence. Still, he says he wants "No Government, but when a hospital needs built, I want someone to build it."
It's simple-minded and self-serving to say that communism is all bad and claim a victory for capitalism, but this is what has happened since the wall fell. There was some small discussion about "taking the best of both Germanys" but this was way less popular than simply scolding the communists and flaunting all the new commodities. Seems so much better to just face it, talk it out, analyse it, try and understand what communism really meant for people living "under" it. There's a lot to reject, even hate, and certainly laugh at, but it's so pitiful and horrible to deny, to pretend, to lie.
* We had gone on a "free" (because they don´t pay their staff anything, so they survive off of tips) bike tour earlier in the day, which had some highlights, but was disturbingly full of pro-capitalist propaganda - the same kind of nonsense my parents were fed when they were forced to hide under their desks because the Russians were about to bomb them to bits and somehow the desk would save them. We were told that millions of East Germans flocked to the West because the west had "Levi's and Coke" and in the east they only had "polyester pants and lemonade," and other such gems of wisdom. There were repeated references to how ugly the communist architecture was and how it was poorly built because the communists didn't have all the great wealth and technology that the west has.
Still, as tours go, it was mostly interesting, with lots of info. about the Berlin Wall and Nazism. Maybe my favorite thing was the "memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe," which was an intentionally vague field/grid of some 2700 grey concrete slabs of various heights (but same dimensions otherwise) right in the middle of the busiest area of Berlin.
I also really loved the memorial to the 20,000 books the Nazis burned in 1933. It was a whole bunch of empty shelves, enough to hold 20,000 books, and it was underground, so you looked at through glass on the ground in a plaza. There was also a plaque there with the quote, "if you start by burning books, you'll end by burning bodies."
In all, Berlin is really intense. So much of the tour took me to places where horrible atrocities had happened, or really ugly attempts at war or totalitarianism. It was hard to know how to take it all seriously enough on this brief tour through the city with a bunch of ignorant and arrogant Americans.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Freedom of movement
Says Libby:
Today we attended a demonstration for freedom of movement, against the anti-immigration policies of the EU. We made some German friends quickly simply by asking where the demo was going to be when we got off the train station this morning - we'd decided to commute up for the day, but brought our sleeping bags in case something drew us to stay the night. We tagged along with our new friends through the streets of Rostock toward the meeting center for the demo. Every street was lined with police vans. Honestly there must have been hundreds. As the German Darth Vader storm troopers in full riot gear tromped behind us toward the same point, there was a little bit of an ominous feeling... until - what's this? Bells, whistles, and cacophony? We turned around to see a colorful clown brigade tooting their whistles, blowing bubbles, and marching behind the troops of polizei to the tune of "Left, right, left! Love and respect!" The 2 Storm Troopers at the end of the line marched backwards, half tripping in the awkwardness of facing the wrong way, but making sure the dangerous clowns didn't use their bubble guns on any of the cops. (Actually, later, I watched a sad clown get the water dumped out of her toy water gun).
[below, clowns hold off the (unnecessary) riot police]
Ironically, though we were demonstrating in support of freedom of movement, we weren't allowed to go anywhere for the first 2+ hours; the polizei surrounded the initial bulk of demonstrators and made folks choose whether to be in or out of the circle, which was comprised not only of the riot police, but also of the giant water gun tanks, pre-emptively pointed inward at the crowd (which was notedly made up more of the dread-locked flower children sorts than the autonome). Apparently this circling is also called "kettling" (sounds and feels a lot like "cattle-ing") - a common tactic of British cops, now adopted by this crew.
We remained at the periphery for those 2 hours, unsure if the situation would escalate and wanting to avoid being trapped in the center of the circle or having to have our documents checked. I guess the police were saying there were too many demonstrators or something... we heard many stories about why the procession wasn't going anywhere. Just imagine lots of waiting and standing around while the bright yellow vested folks of the Legal Team negotiated with the captains of the police forces. Finally, we were allowed to proceed, and we bumbled forward for a while, until again, the march was stopped. The news over the speakers was that the police were refusing to allow the march to proceed through the city center, and that a press conference was being held at the front of the line. Meanwhile, many took up dancing in the streets to the music being pumped from the trucks in the march, or playing games on the rail tracks beside the road. It had been grey and dark all day; finally, a little rain broke loose, and as Billy and I both needed a restroom and water, we decided to break away from the demo for a while to meet some of our needs.
Turns out we weren't the only ones. It seemed that the demo was dissolving from the tiredness of being repeatedly held up, and people were walking down the streets like us. We decided we'd go catch the local rail back to the train station to return to Berlin for the night. But alas, after some time waiting at the station, an announcement was made that no trains were running between the area of the demonstration and the main Hauptbahnof station, where we needed to catch the train to Berlin in about 15 minutes. Feeling a little defeated by the long walk that awaited us, we walked back to the street we'd come from, only to find the the march had somehow gone on. All the folks who'd intended to catch a train returned to the street with a little renewed vigor as the music blasted and the die-hards who'd stuck it out carried on. We joined in of curiousity, thinking perhaps we'd gain a little ground to get closer to the station, and the crowd picked up more and more energy and it became apparent that several sects of folks who'd broken off were reuniting as independent smaller marches back into one large one, coming in from other streets, to the cheers of all. Rave music pumped everyone up as we half marched, half danced our way back toward the harbor, with old folks and little kids looking out their windows. It seemed like perhaps there were even more demonstrators than when we first began the march! By the time we passed by the independent media center, Billy and I were exhausted and still hadn't found a toilet, so we dropped out of the brigade and came here, where we've had computer access and also some warm food from the völksküche - "Peoples' Kitchen".
And what of it all? All of this is so up and down, push and pull. It's hard in the face of the militarized forces to feel like we're even making a dent. When one police team gets tired, they get sent back to their vans to rest, eat, and have a smoke. If they're thirsty, water is brought to them. We have no place to go but stand, encircled, in the misty drizzle. And yet, there is an unmistakeable energy to all these folks coming together. One of the oft-spoken themes of the demonstration, "another world is possible", while totally cheesy, provides some of us with the reminder to imagine what we want and further, to take steps toward creating it. How to do so in the face of such a monstruous, seemingly unstoppable, well-oiled, well-funded, and well-armed machine? I don't know. At the School for Designing a Society we defined a system as " a collection of components such that any change of state in one of the components alters the state of the whole". It's useful in rhetoric to label the "system" as something I am not a part of, so that I can more wholly reject those aspects of it I find horriying, enraging, saddening, detach myself from any responsibility for the atrocities we propogate knowing-and-unknowingly. But it also seems useful to view myself as one of the components of the system, such that a change in my energy alters the momentum of the whole. Maybe that's overly optimistic and naive. I'll still decide to believe it as long as I can. Both Billy and I felt it important for people of European descent to be a loud presence in solidarity with those non-europeans who are denied equal rights under immigration laws, and though we are quite tired from the waiting around and walking all over the city, I don't think either of us regret coming. There is a certain welling up of ecstatic joy to be dancing erraticly in the streets in defiance of the devaluation of human life and happiness. And that glimpse of something beautiful is enough to keep me going, at least until tomorrow.
Today we attended a demonstration for freedom of movement, against the anti-immigration policies of the EU. We made some German friends quickly simply by asking where the demo was going to be when we got off the train station this morning - we'd decided to commute up for the day, but brought our sleeping bags in case something drew us to stay the night. We tagged along with our new friends through the streets of Rostock toward the meeting center for the demo. Every street was lined with police vans. Honestly there must have been hundreds. As the German Darth Vader storm troopers in full riot gear tromped behind us toward the same point, there was a little bit of an ominous feeling... until - what's this? Bells, whistles, and cacophony? We turned around to see a colorful clown brigade tooting their whistles, blowing bubbles, and marching behind the troops of polizei to the tune of "Left, right, left! Love and respect!" The 2 Storm Troopers at the end of the line marched backwards, half tripping in the awkwardness of facing the wrong way, but making sure the dangerous clowns didn't use their bubble guns on any of the cops. (Actually, later, I watched a sad clown get the water dumped out of her toy water gun).
[below, clowns hold off the (unnecessary) riot police]
Ironically, though we were demonstrating in support of freedom of movement, we weren't allowed to go anywhere for the first 2+ hours; the polizei surrounded the initial bulk of demonstrators and made folks choose whether to be in or out of the circle, which was comprised not only of the riot police, but also of the giant water gun tanks, pre-emptively pointed inward at the crowd (which was notedly made up more of the dread-locked flower children sorts than the autonome). Apparently this circling is also called "kettling" (sounds and feels a lot like "cattle-ing") - a common tactic of British cops, now adopted by this crew.
We remained at the periphery for those 2 hours, unsure if the situation would escalate and wanting to avoid being trapped in the center of the circle or having to have our documents checked. I guess the police were saying there were too many demonstrators or something... we heard many stories about why the procession wasn't going anywhere. Just imagine lots of waiting and standing around while the bright yellow vested folks of the Legal Team negotiated with the captains of the police forces. Finally, we were allowed to proceed, and we bumbled forward for a while, until again, the march was stopped. The news over the speakers was that the police were refusing to allow the march to proceed through the city center, and that a press conference was being held at the front of the line. Meanwhile, many took up dancing in the streets to the music being pumped from the trucks in the march, or playing games on the rail tracks beside the road. It had been grey and dark all day; finally, a little rain broke loose, and as Billy and I both needed a restroom and water, we decided to break away from the demo for a while to meet some of our needs.
Turns out we weren't the only ones. It seemed that the demo was dissolving from the tiredness of being repeatedly held up, and people were walking down the streets like us. We decided we'd go catch the local rail back to the train station to return to Berlin for the night. But alas, after some time waiting at the station, an announcement was made that no trains were running between the area of the demonstration and the main Hauptbahnof station, where we needed to catch the train to Berlin in about 15 minutes. Feeling a little defeated by the long walk that awaited us, we walked back to the street we'd come from, only to find the the march had somehow gone on. All the folks who'd intended to catch a train returned to the street with a little renewed vigor as the music blasted and the die-hards who'd stuck it out carried on. We joined in of curiousity, thinking perhaps we'd gain a little ground to get closer to the station, and the crowd picked up more and more energy and it became apparent that several sects of folks who'd broken off were reuniting as independent smaller marches back into one large one, coming in from other streets, to the cheers of all. Rave music pumped everyone up as we half marched, half danced our way back toward the harbor, with old folks and little kids looking out their windows. It seemed like perhaps there were even more demonstrators than when we first began the march! By the time we passed by the independent media center, Billy and I were exhausted and still hadn't found a toilet, so we dropped out of the brigade and came here, where we've had computer access and also some warm food from the völksküche - "Peoples' Kitchen".
And what of it all? All of this is so up and down, push and pull. It's hard in the face of the militarized forces to feel like we're even making a dent. When one police team gets tired, they get sent back to their vans to rest, eat, and have a smoke. If they're thirsty, water is brought to them. We have no place to go but stand, encircled, in the misty drizzle. And yet, there is an unmistakeable energy to all these folks coming together. One of the oft-spoken themes of the demonstration, "another world is possible", while totally cheesy, provides some of us with the reminder to imagine what we want and further, to take steps toward creating it. How to do so in the face of such a monstruous, seemingly unstoppable, well-oiled, well-funded, and well-armed machine? I don't know. At the School for Designing a Society we defined a system as " a collection of components such that any change of state in one of the components alters the state of the whole". It's useful in rhetoric to label the "system" as something I am not a part of, so that I can more wholly reject those aspects of it I find horriying, enraging, saddening, detach myself from any responsibility for the atrocities we propogate knowing-and-unknowingly. But it also seems useful to view myself as one of the components of the system, such that a change in my energy alters the momentum of the whole. Maybe that's overly optimistic and naive. I'll still decide to believe it as long as I can. Both Billy and I felt it important for people of European descent to be a loud presence in solidarity with those non-europeans who are denied equal rights under immigration laws, and though we are quite tired from the waiting around and walking all over the city, I don't think either of us regret coming. There is a certain welling up of ecstatic joy to be dancing erraticly in the streets in defiance of the devaluation of human life and happiness. And that glimpse of something beautiful is enough to keep me going, at least until tomorrow.
ONLINE UPDATES
Two spots to check up on the G8 action:
G8-TV
Indymedia ticker
We are safe and enjoying ourselves, though tired of standing in lines against cops and for food.
oonz, hee, internazionale solidarite!
G8-TV
Indymedia ticker
We are safe and enjoying ourselves, though tired of standing in lines against cops and for food.
oonz, hee, internazionale solidarite!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Autonomes and Other Disturbances
Says Billy:
Yesterday we went to Rostock for the large, anti-G8 demonstration there. This was the first of the week of any large numbers, and clearly planned to be a huge "everybody left of center" type ordeal, complete with trucks blasting political rhetoric and music, vendors and porta-potties galore, and hours and hours of speeches and music planned for the end. It was a huge array of mostly far-left folks, but a good sprinkling of unionists, peaceniks and environmentalists, anti-poverty reformers, etc. We walked some 3 or 4 kilometers before reaching the harbour area.
Spread out for hundreds of metres along the sea, some 50,000+ folks were supposed to stand in long lines for food, drink and toilet and listen to "uplifting" chatter about our bold stances in response to the G8. Meanwhile, the polizei had an occasion to exercise their elaborate "security concept" that has been underway for many months. They stationed some 50 vanloads of police throughout the town, and another half dozen huge attack vehicles - tanks, armored trucks and a huge water cannon truck. Meanwhile, one of the largest groups of Black Blocs i´ve ever seen (police and BBC estimate some 2,000 black-clad militants, marching row after row) have a chance to push the limits of allowable activity. In germany, these folks are known as the "autonome," or autonomous protestors. They have a reputation for "simply destroying," which is perhaps not so different from the anarchist reputation in the US, except likely worse. They are always upsetting liberals.
After a couple of hours of rather tedious, and sporadic, back and forths between the police and protestors (police charging through the crowd in a huge display of nastiness, being pushed back by stones and sticks and occasional fire and then back again to the same starting point), things turn decidedly more violent. At a certain point, the police "retreated," in order to shoot the first dose of tear gas into the crowd. In the power vacuum that followed, the autonome set fire to a couple of cars, sending black smoke hundreds of feet into the air and visible throughout town. Police responded with a series of punishing attacks, sending wave after wave of riot police (dressed in various colors and with various gear) into the crowd, making great fascistic gestures like thrusting their batons in the air in unison, shooting cloud after cloud of tear gas, and eventually dowsing the entire crowd in huge bursts of water from their water cannon truck and pushing everyone back with their tanks and armored cars.
In general, the upset liberals will carry the day´s discourse. The media reports that the "security concept" is correct, because the autonome are so violent. Ludicrous numbers of injured police are broadcast publicly, and likewise the list of damaged property is pumped with steroids. The violence of the anarchists will "legitimize" future repression of this weeks´ scheduled protests.
Ok, so they will say what they like.
Let me attempt to draw a few strategic conclusions/lessons from the day.
First, let´s remember a few things about the "legitimacy" of violence and repression. Both sides can "legitimize" their actions in any way that they like, at any point. The police can and do come up with all sorts of reasons to prove themselves as necessary, but essentially everything the police do is based on the basic idea that the state has the right to a monopoly on violence, which is not to be questioned. And the water cannons that attacked protestors were in place long before any violence "legitimized" their presence (and weren´t used to put out the fire, let´s remember!). On the other hand, the autonome can "legitimize" violence based on the death of Carlo Guiliani or even Fred Hampton, for as far as actions taken are "legitimized" by anything at all.
Second, it´s important to note that no protest with such a mixed set of goals is likely to go well. If some organizers and some thousands of participants wanted a festival by the sea with music and vendors and such and some 2,000 more wanted confrontation, both sides were likely to be frustrated. Furthermore, if the autonome really wanted destruction, they might have done better moving away from the harbor and towards places (even outside rostock) where hundreds and hundreds of riot police were not concentrated.
Lastly, it is clear that anyone attending a demonstration at this point needs to be both informed in advance about what they are getting involved in and thoughtful constantly in the moment. All protests move extremely quickly from one dynamic to the next, and it is certainly the peace-loving white woman in her 40s with a split head that is the saddest sight for all involved.
Yesterday we went to Rostock for the large, anti-G8 demonstration there. This was the first of the week of any large numbers, and clearly planned to be a huge "everybody left of center" type ordeal, complete with trucks blasting political rhetoric and music, vendors and porta-potties galore, and hours and hours of speeches and music planned for the end. It was a huge array of mostly far-left folks, but a good sprinkling of unionists, peaceniks and environmentalists, anti-poverty reformers, etc. We walked some 3 or 4 kilometers before reaching the harbour area.
Spread out for hundreds of metres along the sea, some 50,000+ folks were supposed to stand in long lines for food, drink and toilet and listen to "uplifting" chatter about our bold stances in response to the G8. Meanwhile, the polizei had an occasion to exercise their elaborate "security concept" that has been underway for many months. They stationed some 50 vanloads of police throughout the town, and another half dozen huge attack vehicles - tanks, armored trucks and a huge water cannon truck. Meanwhile, one of the largest groups of Black Blocs i´ve ever seen (police and BBC estimate some 2,000 black-clad militants, marching row after row) have a chance to push the limits of allowable activity. In germany, these folks are known as the "autonome," or autonomous protestors. They have a reputation for "simply destroying," which is perhaps not so different from the anarchist reputation in the US, except likely worse. They are always upsetting liberals.
After a couple of hours of rather tedious, and sporadic, back and forths between the police and protestors (police charging through the crowd in a huge display of nastiness, being pushed back by stones and sticks and occasional fire and then back again to the same starting point), things turn decidedly more violent. At a certain point, the police "retreated," in order to shoot the first dose of tear gas into the crowd. In the power vacuum that followed, the autonome set fire to a couple of cars, sending black smoke hundreds of feet into the air and visible throughout town. Police responded with a series of punishing attacks, sending wave after wave of riot police (dressed in various colors and with various gear) into the crowd, making great fascistic gestures like thrusting their batons in the air in unison, shooting cloud after cloud of tear gas, and eventually dowsing the entire crowd in huge bursts of water from their water cannon truck and pushing everyone back with their tanks and armored cars.
In general, the upset liberals will carry the day´s discourse. The media reports that the "security concept" is correct, because the autonome are so violent. Ludicrous numbers of injured police are broadcast publicly, and likewise the list of damaged property is pumped with steroids. The violence of the anarchists will "legitimize" future repression of this weeks´ scheduled protests.
Ok, so they will say what they like.
Let me attempt to draw a few strategic conclusions/lessons from the day.
First, let´s remember a few things about the "legitimacy" of violence and repression. Both sides can "legitimize" their actions in any way that they like, at any point. The police can and do come up with all sorts of reasons to prove themselves as necessary, but essentially everything the police do is based on the basic idea that the state has the right to a monopoly on violence, which is not to be questioned. And the water cannons that attacked protestors were in place long before any violence "legitimized" their presence (and weren´t used to put out the fire, let´s remember!). On the other hand, the autonome can "legitimize" violence based on the death of Carlo Guiliani or even Fred Hampton, for as far as actions taken are "legitimized" by anything at all.
Second, it´s important to note that no protest with such a mixed set of goals is likely to go well. If some organizers and some thousands of participants wanted a festival by the sea with music and vendors and such and some 2,000 more wanted confrontation, both sides were likely to be frustrated. Furthermore, if the autonome really wanted destruction, they might have done better moving away from the harbor and towards places (even outside rostock) where hundreds and hundreds of riot police were not concentrated.
Lastly, it is clear that anyone attending a demonstration at this point needs to be both informed in advance about what they are getting involved in and thoughtful constantly in the moment. All protests move extremely quickly from one dynamic to the next, and it is certainly the peace-loving white woman in her 40s with a split head that is the saddest sight for all involved.
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