De jongste update, terwijl inmiddels, met de herverboden streetrave tegen de troika de acties echt begonnen zijn. Hieronder weer in het Engels:
Check de komende dagen ook indymedia.nl en http://www.globalinfo.nl/tag/frankfurt/ voor updates.
Frankfurt: Court of appeal decides: even more protests banned
After the local judge in Frankfurt approved most of the bans that local authorities had declared for the protests against the ECB in Frankfurt, the court of appeal in Kassel now gave its verdict. It approved all the bans, and even declared one more protest forbidden: the ‘rave against the Troika’ of Wednesday evening. Apart from the demonstration from Saturday, this was the only event that the previous judge had allowed (under conditions). http://de.indymedia.org/2012/05/330095.shtml
The rave went on happily tonight (picture: https://twitter.com/#!/henninghenke/status/202822151143821312/photo/1) Loads of police surrounding the demonstrators and demanding banners to be taken down. One of the banners read: “Our Solidarity Against Your Crisis” First subwaystations have been closed of by the transport company, as anounced
There is still one other demonstration in Thursday that is not prohibited: the demonstration against the repressive measures called for by the Komitee fur Grundrechte und Demokratie (starting at 12:00 at Paulsplatz).
Blockupy calls for a demonstration to start in front of Central Station to join the Grundrechte-demonstration. http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/406
The Occupy-camp near the European Central Bank has been evicted in the morning of Wednesday. Some 200 persons ‘resisted peacefully’ and were dragged away. Some riotcops got a nice load of paint over them. After the eviction police started to erect fences around the park and the ECB-building.
Film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv2s6O3mJVc&feature=youtu.be
pictures http://www.fr-online.de/blockupy-frankfurt,15402798,15421232.html
Pictures of surroundings of ECB today
https://picasaweb.google.com/107194122403576087216/May16201203#
Video streams: http://bambuser.com/v/2651370
Blockupy Call & Newsletter urges “everybody to come to Frankfurt”
http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/402
OWS declares solidarity with blockupy
http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/2012/05/16/ows-announces-solidarity-with-blockupy/
Towers of Mordor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SxEHmSFrL4&feature=youtu.be
Police claims to expect 30.000 demonstrators, of which between 2000 and 3000 could be ‘militants’. 5000 policemen and women to be deployed.
The car outside of the house of the German head of the EU task force for Greece Horst Reichenbach has been blown up in Potsdam, the action was claimed by ‘friends of Loukanikos’
http://de.indymedia.org/2012/05/330101.shtml
(Below in English) Belangrijkste nieuws: de ‘persoonlijke betredingsverboden’ zijn ingetrokken omdat ze bij een rechtszaak niet geldig zouden worden verklaard en de politie dan op z’n donder zou krijgen. Overigens zijn de paar toegestane activiteiten uitdrukkelijk onder de waarschuwing dat het verboden is in de binnenstad op te duiken met zaken als opblaasboten en -palmen. Benieuwd hoe ze dat gaan handhaven.
Frankfurt Update, Wed May 16
Blockupy-actions are starting now. Police have announced to want to evict (‘temporarily’, but if the occupiers do not collaborate it might be for good) the occupy camp in front of the ECB that has been there since October 15 last year. Occupiers have declared that they will ‘resist peacefully’ and Blockupy called for solidarity. On Tuesday police started to surround the camp with fences: http://www.fnp.de/fnp/region/lokales/frankfurt/hochsicherheitstrakt-frankfurt_rmn01.c.9843013.de.html
Also the surroundings of the neighbouring ECB has been fenced off with barbed wire.
Latest newsletter with handy info (in German): http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/394
There is also (more) good news: police decided to withdraw the ‘personal bans’ that more than 400 people got sent home, forbidding them to be in the Frankfurt area from May 16-20. The reason to withdraw the ban is the fear that the bans might not hold in court. https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/60626
Meanwhile many meanstream media report that the blockades are already functioning. The ECB is organising police escort for some of their personnel, and changing venues for some of their activities (Reuters: – The European Central Bank plans to hold its mid-month policy meeting early, move staff out of its headquarters and shift a farewell event for one of its board members out of town, all to avoid clashes with anti-capitalist ‘Blockupy’ protesters. (…) The ECB has also shifted a farewell event for outgoing board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, due to be attended by policymakers from around the world. It was originally to be held at one of Frankfurt’s plushest hotels, just a stone’s throw from the ECB’s headquarters. Instead it will now be held out of town with guests to be told the exact location only hours beforehand. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/15/uk-ecb-blockupy-idUKBRE84E0OZ20120515)
Other banks decided to close down completely http://www.visavis.de/modules.php?name=djnews&djn_id=264423–
The Commerz Bank is closing it offices from Thursday on http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/05/15/commerzbank-to-close-central-frankfurt-offices-during-protest/ Others are boarding up, or removing signs from their buildings, in the hope that demonstrators don’t recognize them. Some smaller businesses have declared to be on the side of the demonstrators and to have made good business with demonstrators. One of the occupy-activists appears to be a trader himself: http://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2012-01/Occupy-Frankfurt-Banker Then there is this hilarious report that bankers have been instructed to ‘dress casually’ and not come to work in their usual dress (= suit and tie for men, women can be a bit more frivolous) but wear ragged jeans instead. http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article106318318/Banker-verkleiden-sich-aus-Angst-vor-Protestlern.html
In an interview with two activists from an antifascist organisation we can also read about the propaganda from the side of the authorities. One of the arguments for all the repressive measures, is the fact that an anti capitalist demonstration on March 31 turned violent. One police officer was hospitalised, as media don’t stop repeating, claiming that he was ‘severely wounded’. He was, but it turned out that it was mainly pepper spray he got, and he could leave the hospital the next day after they examined him and had that outcome. Police sprays pepper spray on demonstrators as a habit almost, and in large quantities, but not one of the victims got any media attention. http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/antifa-frankfurt-blockupy–wir-lassen-uns-den-widerstand-nicht-verbieten-,1472798,15241564.html
John Holloway in the Guardian: Blockupy Frankfurt is a glimmer of hope in times of austerity (Popular protests such as Blockupy offer an alternative to capitalism for those facing a life hunting through garbage cans) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/14/blockupy-frankfurt-austerity-protest
As the famous folksinger B.Dylan once wrote: You don’t need to be in Frankfurt to block a bank
More information: http://www.blockupy-frankfurt.org http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/ http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/ http://de.indymedia.org/ https://linksunten.indymedia.org/ http://www.ea-frankfurt.org/
More information: http://www.blockupy-frankfurt.org
http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/
http://twitter.com/#!/Blockupy