[1]Die Arbeitsgruppe (AG) Internationale Krisenproteste wurde gegründet, da FelS Aktivist_innen in den letzten Jahren immer wieder in Krisenproteste aktiv gewesen waren und sich maßgeblich an den Blockupy Protesten im Mai 2012 in Frankfurt (Main) gegen die autoritäre und undemokratische Politik der Troika aus EU-Kommission, Europäische Zentralbank (EZB) und Internationalen Währungsfonds (IWF) beteiligt hatten. Diese Erfahrungen und das transnationale Vernetzungstreffen der Agora99 in Madrid im November 2012 haben uns veranlasst eine neue, eigenständige AG bei FelS zu gründen.
Denn im derzeitigen Europa erweist sich die Aufrechterhaltung der nationalstaatlichen Spaltung als funktional für ein transnationales kapitalistisches Ausbeutungs- und Herrschaftsprojekt. Der Austeritätspolitik geht es nicht nur um Kürzungen, sondern um gesellschaftliche Umstrukturierungen, um Inwertsetzung von Bevölkerungen für die kapitalistische Akkumulation, die Aufrechterhaltung einer geostrategischen Vormachtstellung der EU in der Welt, den Abbau errungener sozialer Rechte und Enteignung des Gemeinsamen. Die Krisenpolitik stützt sich auf das gewaltsame und rassistische Grenzregime und die Bewegungspolitik der EU innerhalb ihrer Grenzen und nach außen: die Austerität in Europa birgt Folgen für Menschen weltweit.
Diese Politik wird im „Mehr-Ebenen-System“ der EU autoritär über transnationale Governance-Strukturen durchgesetzt, in denen die BRD eine Schlüsselrolle spielt. Sie ist Vertreterin der Interessen deutscher Kapitalfraktionen und Teil eines transnationalen neoliberalen Blocks, der europäische Politik im Sinne der Vermögensbesitzenden gestaltet. Zentral für die Durchsetzung dieser autoritären Krisenpolitik ist ein zunehmender Abbau bürgerlich-demokratischer Rechte – sowohl auf transnationaler Ebene durch das Schaffen von undemokratischen Entscheidungsstrukturen wie der Troika aus EU-Kommission, EZB und IWF, wie auch auf lokaler Ebene bspw. durch die Beschneidung des Grundrechts auf Versammlungsfreiheit in Spanien. Die europaweit autoritär durchgesetzte Politik entspricht dabei der Logik der Agenda 2010 und der in der BRD bereits vor Jahren durchgesetzten Umstrukturierungen, die zur Ausweitung von prekären Beschäftigungs- und Lebensverhältnissen geführt hat und die alltägliche Krise für Viele von uns als Zunahme von Stress und Druck erlebbar macht.
Gleichzeitig aber gilt die BRD als Krisengewinnerin, die dramatischen sozialen Folgen (Massenerwerbslosigkeit, Wohnungsnot, sozialer Absturz) der kapitalistischen Krise sind hier ausgeblieben. Dennoch wollen wir uns in der AG im weiteren mit der Thematik Krisenpolitik und Europa auseinandersetzen. Wir beziehen uns dabei auf Europa als Raum der politischen Auseinandersetzung, als ein Rahmen in dem wir unsere Praxis verorten und entwickeln wollen. Europa von Unten zu denken, begreifen wir hierbei als notwendige Antwort auf die undemokratische, kapitalistische Neuformierung des Europas von Oben, der Herrschenden und Vermögenden. Wir meinen kein EU-institutionelles und kein identitäres Europa, sondern einen offenen potsnationalen Raum sozialer Auseinandersetzungen, als einen transnationalen Aufbau von Solidarstrukturen, als einen gemeinsamen »konstituierenden Prozess«. Dabei wollen wir an die Erfahrungen des Euro-MayDay-Prozesses anknüpfen und verstärkt an internationalen Prozessen von Austausch und Verständigung teilnehmen. Um zum einen eine gemeinsame Gegenmacht auf europäischer Ebene aufzubauen, zum anderen um von den Praktiken, Formen und Diskursen von Kämpfen in anderen Ländern zu lernen und für die eigene Praxis zu reflektieren.
Die AG beteiligt sich 2013 an der Vorbereitung der Blockupy Aktionstage in Frankfurt a.M. (31.5./1.6.) und möchte den Blockupy Prozess darüber hinaus fortsetzen und weiterentwickeln. Vor Ort beteiligen wir uns an der offenen Berliner Blockupy Plattform, die die Mobilisierung nach Frankfurt mit einer Unterstützung lokaler sozialer Kämpfe verbinden will. Beides betrachten wir als Beitrag zum transnationalen Widerstand gegen die autoritäre Krisenpolitik und als Teil des Aufbaues einer europäischen Vernetzung von Aktivist_innen.
Wenn ihr Interesse an unserer Arbeit habt, schreibt uns eine Email [2] oder sprecht uns beim offenen FelS-Stammtisch [2] an.
working-group: international crisis protests
With the 2012 mobilizations of M31 [1] in March and Blockupy in May, an attempt was taken up to set Frankfurt as a place from which a clear signal can be sent against the authoritarian crisis policy of the troika of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB). The troika has dictated and continues to dictate austerity programs in southern European countries that have been implemented in an authoritarian and undemocratic manner. The impact of these policies in many regions in Europe include rapidly-growing poverty, homelessness and lack of affordable housing, unemployment and strengthening of neofascist forces, such as the development of the Greek Chrysi Avgi ("Golden Dawn") [2] illustrates.
The protests in Frankfurt last year clearly targeted those actors: the ECB as part of the troika and other financial institutions that form an integral part of the cycle of capitalist surplus value production in Germany, Europe and beyond. Mass actions of civil disobedience allow for an expression of collective outrage while simultaneously intervening directly in the everyday madness of capitalism. The daily business operations of the ECB and other institutions invested in the politics of crisis are hindered by blockades and thus made impossible for one day. This is what we have achieved in a center of European capitalist production.
As with blockades in Heiligendamm in 2007 [3], those preventing the Nazi marches in Dresden [4] or the anti-nuclear transport actions Castor Schottern, Blockupy should enable collective forms of action and include as many people as possible. And not within national borders. The protests of M31 and Blockupy have been significant as a new beginning to advance international networking.
The year 2013 has us continuing to work in the Blockupy process, as well as towards the following aims:
(1) Advance transnational networking: A first international encounter within the Blockupy protests arose before the demonstration in 2012. Activists came together from Italy, Greece, France, Spain, Slovenia, Tunisia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Germany. The first appointment emerging from Blockupy was the Agora99 in Madrid, which took place in November 2012. Since then, continuous exchanges take place, we continue to deepen and broaden this network. In the foreground is for us that we want to work on a common political project in the European space.
(2) Europe as a reference point: Europe is the place and space of the current conflicts, crisis protests and struggles in which we take part. In Europe we want to create transnational links between specific projects on a common practice. We are concerned with practical and active cooperation, including outside the borders of Europe. We reject the existing EU institutions as well as the nation-state of Germany. We want a common, post-national project for another society.
(3) Constituent process: In Spain this is being discussed in two directions. Firstly, that there is a need for a destituent process which requires events that delegitimize the existing institutions and utter a resounding "no" to the current policy. Blockupy stands a clear move for us in this direction, as this resounding "No!" against the authoritarian policies of the troika of the EU institutions and the financial order, which drives the capitalist mode of production and places economic interests before social rights. On the other hand, in addition to these destituent moments and events, something positive must take form, which prevents the movement from stopping with rejection and criticism and instead paves the way for something new. This is understood as the process of constitution, the constituent process. We wish to develop Blockupy in this direction, as a space to show alternatives and to broaden the idea of a democratic european society from below.
(4) Anti-capitalist intervention: The goal is to create a space that criticism of the capitalist mode of production. Various forms of critique should have their place here. Blockupy represents an attempt different forms of organization and movement. Blockupy is an attempt to bring various generations together: Traditional forms such as political parties and trade unions, newer forms such as (post-) autonomous and anti-globalization networks, and even newer forms such as the Occupy and 15M movements.
We see in this project the possibility of a clear anti-capitalist signal - a shift in the discourse of crisis politics, democracy and capitalism. We see an opportunity to open or enlarge a space in which authoritarian political crisis, the austerity mandates, competition and growth can be questioned and system alternatives can be considered. Our ultimate goal with Blockupy is to develop within and from the process a continuous, anti-capitalist practice.
(5) Local crisis protests: Although the event character of Blockupy is important and we believe it is necessary to convene, Frankfurt remains one of many nodes in the the politics of European crisis management. The crisis strikes us all very concretely at the local level and in everyday life: in the rising rents in the deportations and unsustainable refugee camps, the precariousness of our working and living world. For a continuous practice Blockupy must be regionalised and must be integrated into the cities, it must spread in the neighborhoods and become a part of everyday life. In Berlin we were the driving force behind the local Blockupy Platform, a space in which persons from various struggles come together to network, to support each other in the projects and to discuss how to fight against capitalist daily life and the madness of crisis.
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[1] M31: On 31 March 2012 there was a demonstration in Frankfurt (Main) instead, which significantly was organized from anarcho-syndicalist groups and the nationwide alliance "... ums Ganze!".
[2] Chrysi Avgi ("Golden Dawn"): Is a neo-Nazi, right-wing party in Greece that won 21 seats in parliament in the elections in May 2012. Members of the party have committed acts of violence against political oponents and refugees. In the last year offices were established in some other countries. To Germany there have been contacts with the NPD and the banned "Blood & Honour" network for several years. In January 2013 an office was opened in the German city Nuremberg.
[3] Heiligendamm in 2007: the summit of the "big" industrial countries held in Heiligendamm - near Rostock. With the concept of "Block G8", FelS and the Interventionist Left (iL) were involved in attempting to block the access roads of the delegates action with a clear concept and consensus. The summit was to be delegitimized in a clear and unambiguous form.
[4] Nazi march in Dresden: on the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden on 13 February 1945, the largest neonazi march had for many years been organized in Dresden. Since 1999 the radical right-wing had systematically begun using the event for their historical revisionism. Because the Dresden city authorities never made a clear move to distance the city from the anti-semitic and racist NPD, the neonazis were able to create a space in which they could glorify Nazism year by year. In 2009, a larger nationwide anti-fascist alliance called "No Pasaran" ("No Pasaran!") managed to bring nearly 4,000 people to Dresden for a demonstration on this day. In 2010 the Alliance "Dresden Nazi frei!" ("Dresden free of nazis!") was able for the first time to contain the neonazis at the Neustadt railway station and block their march. A year later, about 20,000 anti-fascist demonstrators came together for one of the largest anti-fascist protests in Dresden. With different ways effective blockades of the neonazi marches were created, so that in 2012 the neonazis no longer held their second demonstration for the first time in years. While neo-Nazis still demonstrate on 13 February in Dresden, in recent years fewer and fewer neonazis show up for the event, so it is expected that they will at some point give up this date completely.