Comité pour l'abolition des dettes illégitimes

Open Letter and Call for European networks and movements to discuss :
Let’s use the Anti-G20 G20 Le G20 est une structure informelle créée par le G7 (Allemagne, Canada, États-Unis, France, Italie, Japon, Royaume-Uni) à la fin des années 1990 et réactivée par lui en 2008 en pleine crise financière dans le Nord. Les membres du G20 sont : Afrique du Sud, Allemagne, Arabie saoudite, Argentine, Australie, Brésil, Canada, Chine, Corée du Sud, États-Unis, France, Inde, Indonésie, Italie, Japon, Mexique, Royaume-Uni, Russie, Turquie, Union européenne (représentée par le pays assurant la présidence de l’UE et la Banque Centrale européenne ; la Commission européenne assiste également aux réunions). L’Espagne est devenue invitée permanente. Des institutions internationales sont également invitées aux réunions : le Fonds monétaire international, la Banque mondiale. Le Conseil de stabilité financière, la BRI et l’OCDE assistent aussi aux réunions. mobilization as stage and step of our struggles for a Europe from below.

Dear friends and comrades from European networks and movements,
Dear friends from these last years of struggle for a Europe from below,

We are living in turbulent times. The “old world” we have known and fought against is crumbling. However, “the new” that is currently emerging does not come about with any signs of positive change. Rather, this is a “time of monsters” appearing all too clear and in frightening speed ! In this mess, political responses of global capitalism vary from the „business as usual“ of the neoliberal élites up to old and new populist right- wings, that offer nationalist and protectionist proposals with a return to reactionary, authoritarian and deeply asocial modes of ruling. In their competition for political power, they presuppose and feed into each other. It truly is the time of monsters ! A time of systematic denial and restriction of fundamental social and civil rights to all, a time of intense social and political precarity, a time of “the survival of the fittest”.

This situation of instability and unpredictability is different from the one we faced in 2015, the height of our “European struggles”. It is full of contradictions, challenges but also opportunities. For example, the results of the referendum on constitutional reforms in Italy indicate a broad refusal of neo-liberal strengthening of executive power, and a large demand for democratic participation. At the same time, several upcoming national elections are dominated by conservative to racist far-right parties and discourses. In particular the presidential elections in France and the federal election in Germany next year will be crucial moments with long-term effects for Europe.

There is still the possibility that the development of intense conflictual social dynamics pushes forward radical social and political transformation towards freedom, equality and democracy. Let ́s look at the many impressive practices and struggles taking place already to defend the commons, social and civil rights – whether it is the struggle for women’s self-determination in Poland or the struggle for “rebel cities”, whether it is the fight against the neoliberal labour reforms such as the Loi Travail, the manifold (anti-racist) rights4all campaigns or the struggles against the capitalist management of the crisis and austerity policies in Europe that we were engaged in ourselves. However, we believe that we also need points of coming together of all these experiences, to find points of convergences in order to push together for a “Europe of struggles” in 2017. We refuse to return to the narrow dimension of National States and to their „old reac- tionary values“ to restore. We think instead that, to struggle against the „monsters of our times“, the transnational level is the possible and necessary one to affirm and to fight for an alternative, both to the maintaining of „status quo“ and to the nationalist and authoritarian populism.

The G20 protest in Hamburg in summer 2017 as a common stage

It is quite clear that the next major opportunity for converging, as forces involved in Blockupy International and for the full European constellation of “anti-austerity” and “anti-neoliberal” forces, could and should be the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7 and 8 July2017. So far the mobilization will take place in a “compact week” – with a counter-summit on July 5 and 6 (before the official summit), with a broad mass demonstration on July 8 (second day of the official summit) and of course with civil disobedience actions during the entire summit (but primarily around July 7). A concrete “NoG20” process is already on its way in Germany, yet, it apparently lacks the politically necessary „trans-nationalization“ in content, character and mobilization.

Therefore, we call upon all European networks and movements to think of the G20 protest as a process to convene and to transform it into our common “stage” that is not simply reproducing political discourses, forms of organisation and struggle coming from the “anti-globalization movement” of fifteen years ago. The current „organized chaos“ of global financial capitalism, devoid of one imperial power leading a unique global command, but yet so capable of producing wealth and prosperity for a very few, exploitation, misery and death for many, requires new responses.

The G20 could be an occasion to “translate” our transnational discourses and practices in a more global language, to “de-colonize and de-provincialize Europe” from below. And, it could be the opportunity to address and counter the “parade of monsters”, which will take place in Hamburg’s “red zone”, not simply targeting the single leaders (Trump and Erdogan, Modi and Putin, Temer and whoever will be elected on its way), but fighting the neoliberal and authoritarian political options that they are representing and embodying.

It could be a place to offer a positive and strong vision of our Europe − a Europe of solidarity, for all and without borders − as a credible alternative to all globalization critiques coming from the right. We will continue to fight for the universality of social rights, born out of a Europe of struggles. We urge you to think of this process as a common convergence platform, capable to concentrate in Hamburg the social counter-power of rupture and disobedience, to build connections and alternatives. Thereby, we under- stand the G20 mobilization rather as a “stage” than a goal in itself : a possible point of converging “on the streets” which European movements could and should use as a step in a longer process, highlighting that our struggles will continue after the G20 summit and that we will gather after the G20 mobilization in order to evaluate where we are at then.

At the end of November, on the occasion of the AlterSummit meeting in Brussels, we met to consult on the possible role of Blockupy International within the mobilization against the G20. We met as people coming from different networks and movements across Europe, including Solidaires, Sud PTT and Attac France, EuroNomade, European Alternatives and DiEM25, Transform, AlterSummit, Act ! and DIE LINKE as well as Plan C, Occupy Frankfurt, Social Centres from Emilia-Romagna and the interventionist Left. We shared the opinion that the dynamic and stage opening up around the G20 could be a chance for our transnational struggle and process. Moreover, we discussed the possibility of Blockupy International (without any pre- sumption of “branding” or foolish ambitions of subsuming everything that moves in Europe) supporting as political infrastructure, promoting and bridging the G20 process on a European level and above all to encourage the integration and active participation of other international forces within the existing anti-G20 preparatory process.

Towards Hamburg : Possible Milestones in the Process

There are already possible intermediate milestones of this path to follow : the 18th of March a mobilisation around the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Baden-Baden and the same day in which the City Plaza Hotel (from Athens -Greece) called for an international action day against austerity, freedom of circulation and social rights. Another date is the 25th of March when the upcoming protests against the EU Chiefs of gov- ernment summit for the 70th anniversary of EC Treaties in Rome take place. Another point could be the G7 G7 Groupe informel réunissant : Allemagne, Canada, États-Unis, France, Grande-Bretagne, Italie, Japon. Leurs chefs d’État se réunissent chaque année généralement fin juin, début juillet. Le G7 s’est réuni la première fois en 1975 à l’initiative du président français, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. meeting on climate and environmental issues planed in Italy for June. And of course, there are more – es- pecially in the process of several national frightening election campaigns and (truly neoliberal) steps to- wards the Brexit.

Nevertheless, as a focus, we propose as Blockupy International to all networks potentially interested in this renewed transnational process to discuss within your networks and movements the upcoming G20 mobilization as a cornerstone for this and to join us for further consultation. We propose an international “NoG20” meeting (preferably the day before the next action conference) in Hamburg next spring to or- ganize ourselves and become active in the NoG20 process.

Please let us know what your networks and organization think. Get in touch with us throughout December and January (contact us via international chez blockupy-frankfurt.org or sign up to our Email list : internation- al chez blockupy-frankfurt.info). We will send all further information as soon as possible – and might call up on you for a consultation beforehand through Email or phone.

Hope to see you in spring for the proposed meeting and in July for the NoG20 protest !

Blockupy International, December 2016

Download : Open Letter and Call for European networks and movements

https://blockupy.org/6828/lets-use-the-anti-g20-mobilization-as-stage-and-step-of-our-struggles-for-a-europe-from-below/

No G20 International Coordinating group ; www.g20-protest.info

Press release of the International No G20 coordinating group 17.05.2017

“Do not be afraid, because we come as friends”, says Patrick Bond, economist and activist from South Africa, when he talks about coming to Hamburg to protest against the G20 summit. “We want to take away the fears of us, which are fueled by politics”. In the letter co-written by him to Hamburg’s civil society it says : “The true invaders and destroyers of our cities are the G20 and we must protect ourselves together. If they want a democracy-free zone in Hamburg, we want a G20-free Hamburg.”

Already for months people from countries like Argentina, France and Ireland plan their journey to Hamburg. The International No G20 coordinating groups clarifies that they want to protest in July in solidarity with the people living in Hamburg : with respect for their neighborhoods and the inspiring activities within them, that emanates solidarity and freedom. Bettina Müller from Attac Argentina says : “I am looking forward to Hamburg and its people and hope that one gets to know each other during the protests”.

The International No G20 group is part of the global preparation of protests against the G20 summit in Hamburg and is composed of different groups from Europe and the world. This includes for example Attac Argentina, the network “BRICS from below”, social centers from Italy, left groups from Eastern Europe and human rights groups. The protest plans include a congress, blockades, actions Action
Actions Valeur mobilière émise par une société par actions. Ce titre représente une fraction du capital social. Il donne au titulaire (l’actionnaire) le droit notamment de recevoir une part des bénéfices distribués (le dividende) et de participer aux assemblées générales. of mass civil disobedience and a big demonstration.

international chez g20-2017.org

HAMBURG, PLANET EARTH, MAY 2017

FROM ACROSS THE WORLD TOGETHER AGAINST THE G20 !
g20-protest.info/open-letter-to-the-people-of-hamburg/

Open letter to the people of Hamburg

Dear people of Hamburg, you might wonder who is writing to you.

We are women and men from all over Europe and the world, citizens or activists in many different networks, and from all walks of life. We have very different ages and political persuasions.

We’re the people who aim to join you in Hamburg, your city, to support the protests this July when the leaders of the world’s 20 most powerful countries will meet in the very heart of the city.

You have mostly heard about us from politicians and media who want to make you afraid of us, describing us as “troublemakers” or “vandals”... However, with this letter to you we want to join hands with you since we are all subjected to the same global policies created at these summits, where the few think they can decide for all of our lives.

You are subjected to red, yellow and blue zones. You’ve seen control stations, police forces and machinery in your city before, as at the OSCE summit, and you will see even more soon. We can imagine how you feel, when your freedom of living, movement and assembly and those of your friends, neighbours and colleagues are suspended – even if only temporarily.

We also know this from our own worlds. In recent months, we’ve been hitting the roads of the US, raising up a million voices and marching in the growing resistance to Trump, asserting racial, social and gender justice against the racist, sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, xenophobic, climate-denialist, corporate-controlled United States he is building. We know that many of you are also fighting the Right, against the AfD or autocratic rulers such as Erdogan, and that many of you share our opposition to the constant warfare exported around the world.

Often our rights to assemble – like yours – are violated in these struggles. We have fought for years to defend our planet from the threats posed by climate change and ecological crisis, from the expropriation and devastation, from the multinationals’ resource extraction and exploitation of the lands where we live. Some of us were in North Dakota to put our bodies in front of the Access Pipeline. Some of us have opposed the long- lasting violence against the Amazon rainforest – as you have fought Moorburg or against useless, expensive mega-projects like the Olympics or fought to re-communalize water and energy.

Others of us have protested against undemocratic, corrupt regimes in Brazil (35 million on general strike against Temer’s austerity this April), Russia (100 cities staged anti-corruption protests against Prime Minister Medvedev’s corruption), India (180 million workers fought Modi’s neoliberalism one day last September), China (with more than 100,000 protests each year), and South Africa (regular mass and micro protests against Zuma’s neoliberal plutocracy) – showing from below that BRICS elites are no better than the other G20 rulers.

Last year many of us met on the streets in Paris, against the elites who threaten our very lives by continuously reinforcing precarious labour and living conditions. The Loi Travail was a dramatic turning point for this process in Europe, but we also know how it feels to work at so-called mini-jobs, as millions of young people do in Germany – and we experienced how these struggles feel – for young and old – in times of a “state of emergency”. But we know this is a struggle for survival and solidarity. And you – like people everywhere – showed this by welcoming fellow citizens of the earth fleeing war, hunger and devastation, when you opened your homes and city for those in need. It is obvious ; Merkel’s dirty EU-Turkey deal against refugees represents neither you nor us.

However, we often meet bitter opposition to our rights to struggle, to assemble, to protest – from the police or the State. The governments of Hamburg, Germany and other powerful G20 states would like to silence and remove us from the public scene, so that they don’t have to hear that we are many and that we are loud, and that they don’t represent us – neither in Africa, Europe, the Americas or elsewhere in the world.

The choices that the “powerful Twenty” will discuss and propose in Hamburg in July are the same policies turning our cities into playgrounds for high-profit real estate and financial speculation ; making rents unaffordable and raising the cost of living ; pushing ordinary people out of urban centres ; making our neighbourhoods uninhabitable ; privatizing public services and common goods ; and other policies making life increasingly difficult for the great majority.

They are the real invaders and destroyers of our cities. We must defend and protect ourselves from them together !

So we ask you to open your city to us, not to be scared but to welcome us when we come to raise our collective voice for social equality, freedom and democracy. They want capitalism without democracy : we want democracy without capitalism. This is what we already demanded in Frankfurt, at the European Central Bank opening. We learned there that where the “powerful Twenty” are, and where capitalism and violence are, there can be no democracy.

When Trump, Erdogan, Putin, Temer, Modi, Zuma, Macri, Xi, May, Peña Nieto, King Salman, Merkel and the other crooks and tyrants meet, planning their next moves to exploit our lives and our territories, we must stand up to block them.

If they want a democracy-free zone in Hamburg, we want a G20-free Hamburg instead.

In solidarity with you, people of Hamburg, we will come together in July to show that there is another world, an alternative one to theirs. We will carefully respect the city and its activities, because we are really happy to come to Hamburg and visit your neighbourhoods with such lively, diverse cultures, with such a strong sense of freedom and solidarity, with such an important history of struggles for social, environmental, economic and civil rights for everyone. And we hope that we will join and come to know each other in the streets !

We are many, we are loud and we will be in Hamburg with all of you – to show the entire world and become the alternatives to today’s misery.

international chez g20-2017.org

HAMBURG, PLANET EARTH, MAY 2017