Yesterday began the Group of Twenty (G20) summit, which brings together the main economic powers of the world, whose central subjects to discuss are those related to the crisis of global capitalism. In the city of Hamburg, where the summit takes place, various civil society organizations come to express the rejection of neoliberal policies, and to draw up another path that presents alternatives to solve the different global problems.
Despite the siege of the city of Hamburg (20,000 troops deployed), police reinforcements were requested from other parts of Germany as security forces already had about 100,000 people for the demonstrations on Friday. Police confirmed a total of 70 detainees since the start of the protests.
Early in the morning we started the “Block G20”, an action to obstruct the normal development of the conversations between the leaders attending the summit, organized in blocks formed by hundreds of people distributed through different colors and themes with which we obstructed the main intersections of the city. Several blockades were successful and some official events scheduled for Friday had to be canceled because police could not guarantee the security of the 30 delegations participating in the summit.
Among the criticisms and the contempt by the G20 leaders on the protests, the topics covered were treated at the summit with the only exception that the conflict in the Korean peninsula was succinctly included, without reaching any new conclusions. Central to the discussion was the facilitation of global trade. In the talks, the leaders’ mistrust of Trump’s positions on climate change continued to be present, as well as the “protectionist” rhetoric followed by the American leader. Another subject to address was the issue of climate as a priority, although according to a recent report prepared by different environmental organizations (Friends of the Earth – US, WWF…), the countries that make up the G20, finance up to four times more fossil fuels than renewable energy. There were also various meetings of the leaders parallel to the summit. One of the most anticipated, presidents Putin and Trump meet for the first time vis a vis, in order to address important issues, like two of the open conflicts in which the two powers have presence. They opened a process of dialogue on the conflict in Ukraine and confirmed a ceasefire in south-western Syria that will begin July 9 at noon.
After concluding the students’ demonstration, and other demonstrations that took place throughout the morning, we got together again to participate in a new blockade being escorted at all times by a great police device, which ended again with police charges. Throughout the afternoon, mainly in the city center, and the docks (where the heads of state were scheduled to have dinner, in the area of Hafencity), different actions that claim different issues (LGBTIQ+ rights, Critical Mass, Anti-Capitalism, Environment…), and that prevented the normal development of the agenda marked for those who formed the G20.
At 8 pm we met in the Reeperbahn to develop a large demonstration which, under the title “Board the G20-sink Capitalism”, was intended to denounce the policies applied by the G20 and to show that this is nothing more than the sewer of capitalism. After a huge police device to prevent the development of the demonstration, and after heavy police charges, there were strong clashes that continued throughout the city during the night. Today, from the morning, we will participate in new mobilizations that we have planned, where we hope to have, in addition, an increase of people that will come to Hamburg from different parts of Germany and beyond. On this second day of G20 conferences, we will continue to reject in an upright fashion an illegitimate summit characterized by an undemocratic operation in which only the economic elites have a voice, and where an attempt is made to draw a global construction in which only transnational corporations and economic benefits have room.
More information:
http://solidarity-summit.org/en/ (inglés)
http://www.blockg20.org/en/ (inglés)
https://shutdown-hamburg.org/?lang=en (Inglés)
http://g20-demo.de/es/start-es/ (castelán)
Become interested: G20: HAMBURG AT THE GATES OF HELL
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