one month before the planned protests preparations have got a clear shape and we want to inform you about circumstances under which preparations have been worked out, about what activities are planned in connection with the summit and what will be going on in salzburg. we hope to hand out to you a bundle of solid informatins to help with your individual preparations and mobilizing for salzburg.you can look for latest infos regularly in newsletter of the antiwef-mailinglist which can be found on various homepages.
see you in salzburg! wipe out wef!
to begin with we want to point out facts we have to face in connection withpreparing protests against the european summit of wef. this seems important to us and will help in finding out about the strength and power we can have as well as our week points.
- up to now neither did the public recognize that every summer the mighty in this world (or at least europe) come together in salzburg, nor did austria's left concentrate their work on this item. since the protests against imf/wb in prague and wef in davos a protest movement to wef summits have formed. starting rather late and having no experience or network of left wing groups all this is a new field of experience and learning.
- basic radical protest does not exist in austria so far. this country has for years practised a strong kensianistic way of calming down social conflicts and has got used to a politic of social-partnership compromising, strike being a foreign word and fundamental critic a way of policy you are not supposed to think of. the almost absolute predominance of reactionary political plans can rely on a broad basic racial, sexistic, reactive consense of the majority only within recent years with protests against the ruling government polar positions have formed, still a critical civil society is far out of sight.
- the present conservative-reactionary governmental coalition in austria tries to reduce to silence not only critical citizen but also nips in the bud any progressive protest by repression through enforced state police activities. in austria public protests are welcome only when they support the politic of the leading parties ( such as blocking the borders as protest against atomic power station temelin by which old anti czec resentments are brought up again.)
- the bourgeois newspaper "Kronenzeitung" (50% readers) in front with the new government have started a wide spread campaign of criminalizing the resistance movement against the government and in approaches of protests in salzburg sees every person protesting as a person ready for violence. even speaking out personal interests and opinions in public is defined as violence by some media and there is no wide spread left winged daily or weekly press to make up with.
- as mentioned before this is the first attempt to organize a powerful, well to be heared variety of protest against the wef summit in salzburg. in lack of structure and resources preparing and organizing have taken more room and time than discussing meanings and consequences. still we want to point out the restrictive harmonizing of refugee-asylum and migrationpolitics in europe which will be discussed with the wef summit and in connection with the opening to the east fearfully will bring worse conditions for a lot of people on a large scale. the NOborder NOnation-VolksTheaterKarawane that tours this summer to various events wants to spot out the open discurse about being free to move and abolishing borders and will also support anti-wef protests in salzburg.
- for us it is important to mention, that the right wing government in austria sees the posibility to improve its international image within the meeting of famous and important persons of economics and politics at the wef-summit in salzburg. after a short shock about the new built government in february last year and after the following only symbolical sanctions against austria by the eu they think it's time to pour oil on troubled waters. for us the protests in salzburg also mean a scream against the rehabilitation of right wing extremism. no peace with austria!
many different political groups are mobilizing to the protests against the wef-summit - reaching from the anti-wef-coordination (net of autonomous groups), the network of global resistance (socialist youth, linkswende,...), communist organisations to reformistic groups like attac and labor unions.
information and contact:
hompages:
http://www.antiwef.org
www.no-racism.net/global/
http://www.catbull.com/grauzone/antwef/antiwef.html
e-mail-address:
mobilisation
antiwef.org
mailinglist:
antiwef-salzburgyahoogroups.com
dates, actions, infratsructure:
starting on wednesday 27th of june: infopoint
the first place for all who want to come earlier with all the information about actions, legal-help, citymap,... this infopoint is open till sunday 1st of july from 10a.m. to 10p.m.
where: elisabethstraße 11 (near the main trainstation, you have to go out of the station, turn left go straight ahead untill f.-porsche-straße, turn right there and follow till elisabethstraße (on the left) after a few hundreds meters you'll find the infopoint on the right side)
friday 29th of june: streetparty and creative actions in public space with the NOborder-NOnation-caravan, street theater, sound system, information desks,...
information about the caravan: www.no-racism.net/nobordertour
saturday 30th of june: attac "counter"-summit
with the main theme "globalisation from under" in the brunnauerzentrum/salzburg. the problem we see about attac is not only their reformistic strategy but also their position to other political groups. even before the bourgeois press started with criminalizing all protests against the wef-summit attac dissociated from from the "violent" demonstrations - they didn't mean the police! Attac doesn't even want a symbolic protest, they made clear, that they don't think of disturbing the wef-summit
sunday 1st of july: demonstration
the route of the demonstration is not fixed till now, the one we wanted was not allowed. at this time there are negotiations with the police. we have to wait for the fixed route till this day of action. It could be possible that police won't allow a rout which passes the wef-summit in congress-center nearly. nevertheless the diferent groups are mobilizing for sunday 4p.m. to the main train station.
mediacenter:
for independent journalists equiped with computers, internet-connection, communicationrooms,... this will be prepared and attended by local groups of the free media and culture scene. just like the free radio "radiowerkstatt" or "subnet". till the start of the protests indymedia austria will be prepared and will serve as independent information platform for independend journalists.
convergencecenter:
till now our main problem. it ain't clear yet if it is possible to find a place for this (but we're working hard on it) alternatives could be the building up of tents. anyway there will be a place for the public citchen, for workshops, first aid station,... vegan food will be prepared!
first aid:
to protect the activists during the actions against the summit there is build up a structure of first aid. in the next weeks workshops on first aid will take place all over austria like on saturday the 30th of june. we appeal to you all to prepare yourself and build up affinity groups with at least one person who nows about first aid. to get enough medica stuff we're collecting things and we need your help: what's needed: gauze bandage, swabs (10cm x 10cm), oneway-gloves, plaster (with different sizes), adhesive tapes, oneway-tweezers, compression bandage,... NO MEDICAMENTES!! all the stuff gets collected in vienna, infoladen10 (EKH:wielandgasse 2-4, 1100 wien), or you collect it local (please inform us about bigger quantities) and take it to the first-aid-station in salzburg.
infos you will find at www.demosanitaeter.de and at
www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/sanis/hilfe; at this page you'll find the basics.
any questions: write to demosanihotmail.com
legal aid:
during the days of action in salzburg the legal aid-group will work all the time; the telephone-numbers will be presented one week before the beginning of the resistance-actions. this numbers will be spread all around by flyers in different languages, they will also contain informations about arrests and dealing with the police. be informed about your rights, the legal situation at demonstrations and about possible negative effects of the expression of your opinion.
the legal-aid-manual you can find in the web under
www.betazine.org/t_rechtshilfe.html
some legal stuff:
- if you become an eyewitness of an arrest: get the name, the adress, date of birth of the person an call the number of the legal-aid-group
- if it's you who gets arrested: don't panic! tell other people your name, your date of birth and your adress (scream, if you need to!). remember the course of your arrest and write a protocoll afterwards.
- you don't have to tell the police anything except your name, date of birth, adress (minors have to tell also the name and adress of their legal guardian(s).); you have the right to do 2 successful telephone calls ("i want to call a reliable person!"); you have the right to "refusal to testify"! ("I will not make a statement" or "I make use of my right to refuse my testify") you don't have to give detail about: names of parents (exept for minors) school, job, income, employers, it couuld even complicate your situation. don't start to argue or a conversation with them, because EVERYTHING you say will be used against you. statements about the "case" can still be made later - if there will be proceedings. don't say anything! don't sign anything! insist on your rights!
- call the legal-team: say who and where you are, if there are others being arrested (names) and if anybody should be notified.
- if you are released tell the legal-team
- in austria being disguised is not generally prohibited
- police can keep you: 24 hours max. if you're arrested on suspicion of administration violaton (f.e. noise nuisance); 48 hours max. on suspicion of criminally prosecuted actions (f.e. damage to property). so usualy you have to be released o brought to an examining magistrate who decides if you will stay arrested (don't make a statement!)
we are working on a leaflet for people who come from other countries. informations about passports, visa and bilateral agreements can be found on the homepage of the ministry for external affairs. notice that it is not allowed to import animal products because of the foot- and mouth-decease.
for passports, IDs, visa:
www.bmaa.gv.at/botschaften/konsularfragen/foreigne.html.de
social security:
www.bmaa.gv.at/botschaften/konsularfragen/ivsozl.html.de
legal observer:
during the actiondays in salzburg there should also exist a legal observerteam, a group of people who will observe and document the proceedure of the authority of the state. some of these observers will be equipped with video - or photo cameras. for that there will take place a special workshop on saturday afternoon.
journey there:
we recommend to come to salzburg a few days before the 1st of july, not only to support the actions but to be sure to arrive secure. probably it will be much more difficult to come through at the 1st of july. 5000 cops or more are announced, among them the riot police from vienna and graz with whom many of us have already made painful acquaintance. the police plans three close offs around the congress centre ( the police of salzburg learned from the experience of the swiss authority) to go by train to salzburg is possible from several direccions, from the north over nürnberg-regensburg-passau-wels, from the east over vienna-st.poelten-linz-wels, from the south over klagenfurt-villach, from the west either over munic-rosenheim or innsbruck-zell am see. all trains arrive at the main station where the protest will start. Links about public transportation and the borders will be found on our homepage. to consider the beginning of the summer holidays in parts of austria andg germany the journey to salzburg by car or bus can be delayed because of traffic jams (via the westautobahn _ A1, in germany it is the A8; or via the tauernautobahn A10). both highways meet each other at knoten salzburg. not to be recommended will be the exit salzburg west / wals and the exit flughafen on sunday. these ways to the centre will be used by some global leaders and the police) there will also be a "border-telephone" in case to help with problems at the borders and to coordinate actions if the authorities refuse the entry. (the schengen _contract will cease to be in force during the weekend of protests).
individual preparation:
enough food and water should be taken with in case of delays. supermarkets close in austria at 5pm on saturdays and are generally closed on sundays. there will be only few places to sleep, a list of campgrounds can be found on www.antiwef.org