G20 Days of Action Hamburg

Submitted by Spikymike on July 9, 2017

This was issued in advance of the ongoing Days of Action against the G20 Summit in Hamburg relating particularly to the planned attempt to shut down the functioning of the Harbour. It seemed ambitious then and despite putting the political state and police under pressure doesn't appear to have succeeded to any substantial degree, but then I'm not sure what resonance it might have had amongst port and other logistics workers involved in other ongoing more day to day issues. Can't help but be sympathetic to the political sentiment of the call out here though have always been sceptical of the politics and tactics of the so-called black block and friends also involved in the current street battles as well as many of the other aspiring political 'vanguards' seeking to lead the otherwise unresponsive masses into action.
See here: https://beyondeurope.net/643/nog20/
What do others think?

Spikymike

6 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on July 13, 2017

Here is a positive answer to my otherwise slightly sceptical questioning above:
http://libcom.org/blog/what-made-large-scale-resistance-possible-g20-hamburg-12072017
At one level it seems the combined efforts of the mass protests and the police were successful in at least temporarily shutting down much of the commercial activity of Hamburg, assisted perhaps by Hamburg's 'citizenry' being more annoyed by the political choice to host the G20 summit in this city in the first place which made many more favourable to the protesters than the authorities. A question still remains however as to what active participants understand as the longer term strategic/political benefits of these repeated 'anti-global' protests, beyond that is the understandable psychological 'high' of 'getting one over' on the authorities public relations exercise - faced as we have been with the rolling back of previous social gains since the onset of the global economic crisis?

Spikymike

6 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on August 25, 2017

Despite some differences of perspective on it's political conclusions this text perhaps has a more realist assessment of the events:
https://libcom.org/blog/g20-summit-beyond-broken-glass-protest-24082017