INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-EUROPE:
A SUMMER OF RESISTANCE:
After protest against the upcoming NATO summit, what then ?
Here's a call for a "summer of resistance". The following comes from the English language section of the Polish anarchist news site
Centrum Informacji Anarchistycznej. the following has been slightly edited for English grammar and spelling.
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Collapse the security architectures!
Against NATO, G20, G8, Frontex and the “Stockholm Programme”!
Since the end of the last millennium a modification of the “security architecture” within the EU has taken place, which has been accelerated by the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States. Visible phenomena are, for example, the entanglement of internal and external security, a “pooling” of prosecution authorities and intelligence services and a simplified data exchange. At the technical level we are confronted with new digital surveillance cameras, satellite surveillance, biometrics, drones, software for intelligent search in databases and new broadband networks to manage this huge flood of digital data.New institutions and authorities have been created, including the “European Police Office Europol, the police academy CEPOL, the border agency Frontex and the” Committee for the Management of Operational Cooperation " of all police agencies of the EU within its intelligence operation assessment center.
At the initiative of former French Defense Minister (and current Interior Minister) Michèle Alliot-Marie the "European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) was founded and has been established in 2004. The EGF shall ensure the “public order”, combat insurgency, obtain intelligence information and protect property in conflict areas.
The security industry is likely one of the few branches that profits massive from the current crisis of capitalism and the resulting battles.
Europe’s police forces are preparing themselves for protest and resistance against the impact of the crisis. Even the chairman of the International Monetary Fund IMF admits that in future more riots are expected.
The institutions of the “leading economic nations” are forced to re-organize themselves. The “summits” of NATO, G8 and G20 are of central importance for this reorganization. Topics such as climate, migration and agriculture are considered as threats to the security of a “western lifestyle”. Within the European Union, domestic political changes are taking place, whose effects are currently difficult to predict.
Every five years, the interior and justice ministers of the new EU adopt new directives for a common domestic policy. The “Tampere Program”, terminated in 1999 under the Finnish Presidency, was primarily a “management of migration flows”: In addition to the appreciation of the police authority Europol was established a “Task Force of EU Police Chiefs’” which deals with “international terrorism” and “violent political activism”.
With the “Hague Program” in 2004, it has been agreed upon for the creation of an “area of freedom, security and justice”. Again it was decided on intensification of migration policy, including the construction of the Border Agency “Frontex” and the interception of refugees already in their home countries. “The Hague Program” puts the “defense of terrorism” in the center. At the level of information exchange and cooperation we can now count on the “principle of availability”.
The guidelines of 2004 are already implemented by many EU member states:
Standardization of the “terrorism” legislation, data retention, expansion of existing databases and shared access, cross-border police cooperation , for example at sporting events or political mass protests, “Border Management”, fingerprints when applying for an EU visa,; from 2009 new biometric identifiers in identity documents, the development of security research, cooperation in criminal matters, police abroad etc.
"The Hague Program" is running out and a new program should be decided on in the autumn of 2009, in Stockholm under the Swedish EU Presidency. During the 2007 German EU Presidency , the German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble created with the, then. European Commissioner for Internal Affairs ( “Justice and Home Affairs”), Franco Frattini, the “Future Group”. This “Future Group” describes itself as “informal body” of European interior ministers, which drafted guidelines for European home affairs.
To adopt the new “Stockholm program”, the “Future Group” submitted a wish-list for "police cooperation, the fight against terrorism, management of missions in third countries, migration, asylum and border management, civil protection, new technologies and information networks ". Priorities are the maintenance of the “European model”, “coping with the growing interdependence between internal and external security” and ensuring of an Europe-wide best possible data network”.
The measures which shall be decided in Stockholm will be noticeable by the member states within its ratification in a few years. There are profound changes in the game:
Development and standardization of police databases, a central population register, "cross-border online search", more control of the Internet, better satellite tracking, risk analysis “software, ”e-borders" and “e-justice”, common deportation planes and flights, new refugee camps in “third countries”, the use of the military defense of migration, more police interventions outside the EU, the expansion of a paramilitary “European Gendarmerie Force”, more cooperation between domestic and foreign secret services, etc.
The aim is a kind of domestic NATO, with the creation of an “Euro-Atlantic cooperation in the area of freedom, security and justice” by 2014.
Also NATO attaches value to the central role of European domestic politics.
On one hand, more and more police missions in “third countries” were launched, which perform there military tasks , strike down local uprisings and train local police units.
On the other hand, NATO-strategists play the ball back to the European interior ministers and refer to the importance of European “Homeland Security” without which a “strong defense” against the outside wouldn’t be possible. NATO sees itself within member countries as the guarantor of security of “critical infrastructure” (like energy, transportation, communication).
The strategy document “Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World” authored by five ex-generals, who are anchored in the defense industry, calls for the expansion of “civil-military cooperation”. Considered as a “civilian elements” are for example police, intelligence, research, academies, civil protection but also the private security industry. NATO wants to intensify the fall back on the “European Gendarmerie Force”.
With the “civil-military cooperation” the militarization of social conflicts is increasing, underpinned by domestic political rearmament and new" anti-terror "laws.
The former EU Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, Franco Frattini, has changed in Berlusconi’s Cabinet after the elections in Italy 2008. As the new foreign minister, he is now responsible for the G8 on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena. Frattini sees “security” as the central profile of the new G8 structures: “Europe can, rather than be just a consumer, be a producer of safety. But EU and NATO need to integrate, rather to interfere with each others. We back up these thoughts in the context of the G8”.
Italy adopted a “security package” in May 2008 with far-reaching tightenings for migrants. After the EU already equipped Libya with financial help for refugee defense, Italy also signed a new cooperation agreement.
The Italian arms corporate group “Finmeccanica” delivers speedboats and the Interior Ministry is pleased that migration would now be diminished to "zero".
Frattini traveled early 2009 to Angola, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Nigeria to negotiate over “readmission agreements” for migrants, to equip the countries with refugee camps, and to introduce tamper-proof passports. It’s again all about the securing of raw material and police enforcement: In return Frattini acknowledges an audience with the G8 summit for the countries, to “promote the dialogue between oil producing and - consuming countries”.
In the delegation travelling with Frattini, was the Italian police chief who immediately implemented new contracts for police training and cooperation procedure.
As the consequence of the collapse of global capitalism around the world, more uprisings are expected. With the recent riots in Greece, Iceland, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, France, Guadeloupe and Lampedusa, the EU became the venue of intense contradictions and militant struggles with, in the numerous directives, bilateral agreements and treaties, of the past few years concerted measures for “Europe as an area of freedom, security and justice”, are
being brought into position against resistance and radical projects, and movements are covered with investigations and prosecutions for "terrorism". “Joint investigation teams” research - supported by Europol - international networks. Manuals and databases on “Troublemakers” will aim at bringing protests at major international events under control.
Resistance against the increase in surveillance and control, against repression and anti-riot is still stuck too much often on a national level. Therefore we call to push for the development of a transnational struggle against the “security architecture”, in 2009 at several cross-border mobilizations, whether they are promoted by NATO, the G8 or the EU.
We see the action day at the NATO summit as the kick off of the campaign for a “Summer of Resistance 2009” against the global “security regime”:
¡No Pasarán! France Gipfelsoli Dissent! France NoLager Bremen Resistance des deux rives / Widerstand der zwei Ufer transact six hills Berlin kein mensch ist illegal Hanau
Collapse the security architectures!
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