Police and the Fence

So the summit is almost over now, and we've started to see what has been effective at disruption and what has not. As always, a strategy of a diversity of tactics has been rather successful. While the police have been focusing on militant actions to crack down on (and have been rather successful), the pacifist strategies have been able to go and successfully blockade a lot of the gates in the fence. As a result of the police being too spread out, the pacifists have also been able to get to the actual fence and tear some of it down, which is wonderful news. The police have figured out that camp redelich, the camp where me and my cluster are staying, houses most of the militants of the summit, and have attempted to raid the camp twice now. However, due to watch towers and perimeter security as well as the well built barricades and alarm system, they have been unsuccessful.

It's really unnerving to be woken up at 4 in the morning to screams of 'Polizei, Polizei!', and having less than a couple of minutes to get all of your gear together and get to the front barricades. However, like i said before, people have always been able to mobilize fast enough to get to the entrances, that police have chosen to back off. While i think that the pacifist movements in the united states are for the most part awful and really create no change, the pacifists in the European movements seem to be much more confrontational and effective, and their theory seems well grounded. Most of the arguments are tactical ones rather than moral ones, which is an important distinction. The latest news that Nazi's have tried to raid the convergence center was scary to hear at first, as one of my friends Marla is living there and running a lot of the infrastructure. The police ended up surrounding the nazi's before they attacked, but still the thought of preparing defenses to fend off a bunch of fascists is something i'd rather not think about. Doing militant actions in the middle of fields and forests doesnt seem to work out too well, as there are not places to hide or escape when helicopters are trailing overhead. Some of the more militant folks in the camps seem to be frustrated as there havent been any big successful actions since saturday's confrontation, we'll see if anything gets mustered up for the last day of the g8.

Me and some friends from my cluster are all planning on going to Copenhagen after all of this is over to just relax and have fun for a few days before heading to berlin where i'll pick up my bike and start my trip. It will be fun to live in the squatters district there and meet up with a lot of people from the summit. I havent been taking really any photos of the demonstrations for a lot of reasons, mostly legal ones, so i'm looking forword to be able to pull out my camera as Europe is such a beautiful place.