Hit and Run Kino

Last Wednesday me and Sylvia (a fellow tour guide) went to hit and run kino (cinema). It was super cool. We met at Janowitzbrücke Sbahn station with about 60 other people, walked about 10 minutes to an abandoned factory and "broke in" (climbed in through a window). There were too cinemas set up, literally sheets hanging from the ceiling, plastic chairs, speakers and a video projector. Everyone got a beer or wine and a cup of peanuts, and we settled down to watch Warriors (old school movie about gangs in New York), surrounded by graffiti and rubble. Nice.

Was a cool experience, and there are some photos up on my photo album.

G8

Tomorrow (morning at 3am) we leave to go and protest against the policies of the G8. In the run up to the conference the German government has, amongst other things:

• taken away accreditation from critical journalists,
• begun controlling european citizens crossing the border into germany, in contradiction of the schengen convention. people have been turned away at the border,
• built a 12km long steel wall around the hotel where the conference will be held,
• given police the power to ban identified people from being in a specific radius from a specific place without any judicial proceedings,
• held raids on ngo's and private homes in berlin without any specific reason other than the people involved in the raids may have fallen under article 129a (new terrorism laws recently enacted in germany). computers, seminar lists (from professors) and other information was confiscated,
• enacted a new law banning any demonstration from taking place within 6kms of the security fence,
• built a temporary prison for 14 000 people at Heiligendamm,
• declared a "security area of 50km around Heiligendamm.

I'm going to Heiligendamm not only to protest against the policies of the G8. There is a choice between living in a world with these measures, and with this level of state violence, and a better world, were people feel empowered, and feel they have the opportunity to make their voices and opinions heard. I'm going to Heiligendamm to exercise my right to protest peacefully.