Summer in the Baltic - 2007

Der Speigel has a slew of articles about the upcoming G8 Summit to be held on the German coast.

Big Trouble in Little Heiligendamm

By Marcel Rosenbach, Gunther Latsch and Markus Deggerich

Heiligendamm is normally a sleepy seaside resort on the Baltic. But with the G-8 coming in June, the town has been transformed into a well-fortified stronghold. And the German authorities aren't the only ones who have been preparing for confrontation.

The coastal idyll on Germany's north shore this spring ends abruptly on country road number 12, right after the little village of Hinter Bollhagen. At the outskirts of town, just at the edge of the picturesque, stunningly yellow field of rapeseed is The Fence. Intimidating. Martial. And a bit surreal. That, at least, is how the locals and curious day trippers see it. Those responsible prefer to speak of a "technical barrier."Since January, workers have been busy building an enormous enclosure around the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm -- and they are being very thorough. The fence that ploughs through the landscape for some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) is 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) tall, affixed at the base by 4,800 concrete slabs and crowned by four rows of barbed wire. Thick rolls of sharp razor-wire are wrapped around the barbed wire, gleaming silver in the spring sun.

The protective fence is the most visible part of a unique security strategy devised for the three-day G-8 summit -- bringing together the leaders of eight of the world's most important economies -- scheduled to be held in the luxurious resort in early June. In addition, the largest police operation in the history of the German Federal Republic will transform the fenced in enclosure around Heiligendamm into the equivalent of a maximum-security prison.

But this one is designed to keep people out. The authorities and protesters alike have been gearing up for the showdown for two years already. As many as 100,000 demonstrators will arrive from all over the world and take to the streets, protest organizers hope. Sixteen thousand policemen are preparing to defend the site of the summit.

According to Der Speigel, Germany has spent about $136 million in preparation so far and the protestors are estimating one demonstration alone, in Rostock, "is using up about €200,000 ($271,133), according to an internal budget plan; the camp sites for an estimated 20,000 protesters will cost about €260,000 ($352,417)." But they're hoping that it is money well spent and will bolster the cause of left wing resistance.

Speigel reports that the left's organizers may be a "dreaming" when they talk about putting 100,000 angry protestors into the streets. But just as the authorities are preparing, so are the anti-authoritarians. Exercises in seige tactics such as fence scaling and blockade training have been conducted around the country in preparation. The idea is to have at least one demonstrator make it over the fence while other groups block roads to shut down and isolate the Summit site.

In another article, noting that that there will be around 2,000 participants from government delegations, 4,000 journalists, 16,000 police officers and around "100,000 angry protesters, " Speigel takes a closer look at the politics, the players and the question of violence:

Cue the Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets

By Reinhard Mohr in Berlin

Were Protesters "Criminalized"?

The vast majority of G-8 critics, whatever their political leanings, don't support the use of violence. The limit for physical resistance is usually met when demonstrators have a sit-in or set up a blockade and tussle with police as they're carted away.

But it would be naïve to assume there were no radical leftist or militant anarchist groups that would use this opportunity to make an explosive point. That's part of the ritual, too: They know they can't stop the G-8 summit, but it might be enough to create a few images for TV showing "revolutionary" resistance to the "imperialistic world domination" by US President George Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and their cohorts.

The chairman of Germany's police union, Konrad Freiberg, is certainly warning of an increased likelihood of attacks this year. In fact he talks about a "whole new dimension" of leftist extremism. The left-wing scene, naturally, sees things otherwise. After the "anti-RAF campaign" of the last few months -- during the 30th anniversary year of some of the Red Army Faction's bloodiest deeds in West Germany -- comes a string of nationwide raids against anti-G-8 leftists last Wednesday. German left-wingers are convinced that legitimate democratic opposition to the destructive machinations of the global capitalist system is being equated -- once again, just like in the '70s and '80s -- with breaking the law.

The storm of protest against the G-8 summit in Germany next month amounts to a scripted ritual. Leftists need to ask themselves whether violence is a legitimate form of resistance, and if so, how much is acceptable.

The left is chafing under the intense scrutiny of the German authorities who have reverted to form and stereotype as they surveil and harass the leftists in the run-up to the Summit. There have been accusations of heavy-handed Police State tactics and according to Duetshe Welle , last week 900 police participated in raids, made arrests made this week netted explosives as well as fake identity cards. And in the midst of all this, we still have this:

"We shouldn't underestimate the immense dangers posed by Islamic terrorists," said Konrad Freiberg, head of the police union, in an article for the Bild am Sonntag paper. "It was while the G8 summit was taking place in Gleneagles in Scotland in 2005 that bombs planted by Islamic terrorists exploded in the London subway."

Freiberg also warned that police forces would be overstretched during the security operation for the G8. Freiberg called the G8 summit a "Herculean task" and said it would constitute the "biggest police operation of all times."

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Watching preparations for the far left violence at upcoming G8 Summit provides some momentary distraction and relief from the grinding US politics and the murder and mayhem in Iraq. Bono this week criticized the G8 for not honoring their pledges to Africa. Bush is blamed for watering down a G8 policy statement on Climate Change.

It is almost comical to read that the radical left chafes at being compared to Islamic terrorists. "After all," they protest, "it's only violence against things and not people." Okay, so technically, it's Second Degree Terrorism. Book'em, Dano.