A-Infos (en) Germany, Prelude to the G8: Tearing it up in Hamburg By the Anti-G8 Action Faction

On their way to block the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, anti-capitalists from all 
over Germany and the world stop in Hamburg to confront the Asian-European 
Meeting (ASEM). --- Finally, something was happening. --- We were on the move 
again. It's been a while and we're a bit out of shape, but it's all coming back 
now. After linking arms in flanks for five hours straight in a huge, permitted 
march, we were getting antsy. As the first major demonstration in the lead up 
to the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, everyone wanted to start it off right. The 
city of Hamburg needed to send a message to the world that they have the 
"violent demonstrators" under total control. The cops must maintain discipline 
and it will all go smoothly. The protestors wanted to tear the city apart, to 
show the G8 leaders that they are not welcome here, and anyone who tries to 
host them will have to pay. With a thousand black clad anarchists in the front 
and thousands of others behind, the tension was thick. Screaming "fight the 
system, fight the state, fight capitalism, fight G8," the demonstrators were 
not willing to comprise either their vision or momentum. But who would provoke 
who first? Would the cops use the water canons? Would the anarchists break 
through the lines and go off the script?

Will the G8 2007 be the opening salvo of a new cycle of struggle against 
capital, perhaps the final one given the scope of the current ecological 
crisis? For two years the German autonomous movement in general and the Dissent 
Network in particular has organized across the world, from the USA to Turkey, 
for this coming week of action. The stakes have never been higher: until now 
the "War on Terror" has cast a pall over the movement, yet in Germany we 
anarchists and autonomists could again re-seize the stage of history by scoring 
a decisive victory against capital.

      Move swiftly. Stop. Fight a bit. Grab
      something.  Then Run. Turn around.
      Watch out for the Snatch Squad. Which
      ones are they? Wearing all black with
      red diamonds on their back. Shit, there
      they are. They're gonna try and grab us.
      Move! But who are those ones? Don't
      worry, it's just the green team. Green
      team? Yeah, green uniforms, they're
      like the national guard. They won't arrest
      you, they'll just tussle a bit. And them?
      Who? The darker green and dark blue.
      Oh them, well, they're here to stop you.
      Be careful.

The modern incarnation of the autonomous movement is distinctly anarchist, 
mostly young, and quite, quite punk. Even though the movement had been ebbing 
over the last few years, it appears the arrival of the G8 in Germany, combined 
with the police raids in early May on anti-G8 centers of activity, have united 
the often divided and self-critical Autonomen. To the chagrin of the police, 
the raids also backfired in the popular press, and now it appears that most of 
the media, and even much of the public, are on the side of the dissidents. 
Furthermore, in "Red Hamburg," the home of insurrections, pirates, and a famous 
anti-fascist football league, it is often hard to tell the locals from the 
Black Bloc while in the streets.

      Shhhhhhh. What? Be quiet, they're looking
      for us. OK, hold it . . . hold it . . . NOW!

The police are nervous, very nervous. And rightfully so! For months, the cars 
of the officials have been burned, and now internationals are streaming into 
the well-run convergence center in Hamburg, the former theatre "Rote Flora" 
that has been squatted for nearly two decades. The dynamic of the police is 
Freudian to say the least: the police would like nothing better than to release 
their inner fascist and ruthlessly clear the streets of all protesters. Due to 
such factors as public opinion and their brutality backfiring on them in the 
courts, they simply cannot just beat the protesters without pretext. So, 
instead, the officers express their frustration with an anal-retentive 
attention to detail about the smallest of the rules regarding banner size, 
demonstrators masking-up, and so on; they often stop demonstrations for up to 
thirty minutes or more for the most minor of infraction of the "rules."

      The bridge was a trap and everyone knew it. That's
      exactly where they wanted us to end up and there
      we were. Yeah some fireworks were shot off, rocks
      thrown, and a couple arrests, but come on, it was
      their turf. We had no chance.  They've surrounded
      the Rote Flora. What? The convergence center,
      you know, that huge squat. Are they going in? Not
      likely, I think they'll get a beating if they try.
      Barricades are going up, let's get behind them.
      The water canons are coming out. Well, move.
      Down this alley way! Ok. Wait, are we all together?

This leads almost any march or demonstration to be an exercise in frustration, 
a chess game where both sides try to bend, but not break, the rules through a 
strict process of negotiation. Or at least until breaking the rules is 
advantageous. While marching, German anarchists more or less engage with the 
police in careful negotiations until the permitted demonstration gets as close 
to the desired location as possible (such as a financial district, a fascist 
demonstration, or in this case the EU-ASEM Summit meeting in the town hall), 
and then, all bets are off. The demonstration will then generally be aggressive 
towards police lines, attempting to wreck havoc by escaping off the official 
route as a bloc, or break into small affinity groups to build barricades and 
attack police cars. There is also an apparent tradition of regrouping the night 
of the action for even more fun in the streets.

      I think I'm trapped. Don't panic.  Look around.
      They're gonna do a mass arrest. Ok, black-clad
      cops over there. Try this. Nope, green cops.
      Damn, turn around. Fuck, the blue ones. Ok.
      Surrounded. Where's my group? Doesn't matter,
      I need to find a way out.  Option 1: join the bloc
      and fight your way out. How many of us are there?
      Not enough. Option 2: act stupid and sneak by.
      Let's see if that works.

Police tactics in Germany seem to be a combination of psychological warfare and 
shows of overwhelming force, with the emphasis on "show," for they seem unable 
to act unless provoked and do not generally mass arrest protesters, but just 
surround the march on all sides to maintain "order." Police can be divided into 
distinct groups. First, there are the local and federal police, who wear blue 
and green. Within this group there are inexperienced "barrack-based" police who 
can be identified by an "A" on their helmets. However, the real reason to be 
worried is the intensive surveillance done by the police (although unlike the 
UK, there are few CCTVs anywhere), who send undercovers to demonstrations to 
identify those who have broken laws, and have uniformed cameramen directly 
outside to tape protestors and identify them (using rather clever techniques 
like identifying Black Bloc members by their shoes). There is also a special 
police snatch-squad unit, dressed all in black like stormtroopers, who will 
quickly and brutally move in and make arrests like sharks. However bad this 
sounds, it is important to note that the procedure German police use in crowd 
control is actually quite predictable, and as long as one stays in tight 
groups, one is unlikely to be snatched. The German police are far from 
invincible despite their pretensions, and a victory over them should be possible.

      Close, too close. I know. We were gonna go
      back and get you. What? That's insane, they
      would've grabbed you too. Hey look, they're
      sending in more. Did they declare a state of
      emergency? I heard that too. Shit, there's
      waves and waves of them. Back to the Flora?
      No, its' not safe. Ok, then, disappear.

A massive thousand person Black Bloc at ASEM, cop cars destroyed, a skirmish in 
front of the convergence center - not bad for a day´s work. Now, there are many 
debates over what exactly to do over the next few days. The demonstrations are 
so decentralized and yet actively planned, that it is hard for even the German 
anarchists to predict where the sites of intense struggle will be: there are 
convergences in three cities, an anti-fascist counter-protest against a 
thousand fascists in the streets AND a huge rally in Rostock against the G8 on 
the same day, decentralized blockades of roads and airport blockades, as well 
as countless marches and demonstrations near Heiligdamm and in Rostock. 
Regardless of the particulars, the energy amongst anarchists in Europe has been 
built to a frenzied height, and if one thing can be assured over the next week- 
there will be a reckoning.

      Thousands of us in the march. Hundreds
      rampaging in the streets. About eighty-five
      arrested. Not bad for a start.  Nope, not
      bad at all.
http://hatetheg8.blogspot.com/
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