The night of the New Year’s Eve has seen again a lot of different type of protests taking place in Germany against prisons and all forms of detention, as well as against some of those who daily enforce their existence.
The traditional demonstrations at local prisons saw an increase in their numbers, and more cities decided that this was a good way to salute the upcoming year.
In Berlin, the month of December hosted several events under the motto “Behind different windows… but the chains remain the same ones! New year’s eve to the prisons – question, demount and destroy the machine of prison!”, events ranged from discussion about ongoing trials against comrades, the building of a new detention centre at the new Berlin’s airport, to a demonstration against the local detention centre for immigrants.
On the new year’s eve, the idea of hosting a rally in the early afternoon in front of the detention centre was reconfirmed and about 150 people found their way there, bringing some noise and chants of solidarity for those imprisoned.
However, the communication with the prisoners was rendered impossible by the action of the screws, who moved the people there where they would not be able to hear anything coming from the outside.
Solidarity keeps being a scary enough thing for our enemies.
At night, over 750 comrades took the streets surrounding Germany’s largest judiciary prison, Moabit, exploding fireworks along the route and making themselves heard from bystanders and inhabitants of the district. The front banner read “So that our passion for freedom makes the walls crumble down”, a further banner “Solidarity with Sonja and Christian. Yesterday like today – Thousands of reasons to revolt”, thematising the imprisonment and repression against these two comrades extradited from France because of their participation in some actions of the German guerilla group Revolutionary Cells (Revolutionäre Zellen, abbreviated RZ). Another banner commemorated the killing of Dennis J., murdered by police on the New Year’s Eve of 2008 in the outskirts of Berlin.
Arriving at midnight at the prison, the prisoners who were at their windows showed again their support for this type of action by waving with their hands at those who were there in solidarity.
For half an hour a large firework show has been ongoing in front of the prison to salute the new year with the prisoners. The demonstration was more or less left in peace by the police, only at the end there has been some little scuffles since some people threw paint at them close to the end of the demonstration, so they tried to make some arrests.
Surely the fact that this time there hasn’t be an amplification for the demonstration (which failed shortly before out of technical reasons and got substituted with a bullhorn) diminished the impact of the event in terms of communication with the prisoners.
Meanwhile several attacks against the police took place elsewhere in Berlin.
A group named ‘All Cops Are Bastards – Team Kreuzberg 36′ took responsibility for an attack undertaken against the cops at the bridge connecting Friedrichshain to Kreuzberg, where they attacked a van and two police cars with stones and fireworks in remembrance of those killed by the police, especially Dennis J.
“New-Years-Eve is not are reason to celebrate. 3 years ago Reinhard Rother murdered in the name of the police of Berlin Dennis J., who was searched by warrant. Cops will be reminded of this murder when they get confronted with our hostility on New-Years-Eve. On the first of January 2012 shortly after midnight we attacked a van and 2 patrol cars of the cops on Oberbaumbrücke in Kreuzberg/Friedrichshain. The patrol cars couldnt be used anymore after wards. The people that were celebrating on the bridge appreciated our action by applauding.
AlleBullensindSchweine (All cops are pigs) – Team Kreuzberg 36”
Another police car has been attacked in the district of Friedrichshain shortly afterwards, with stones and paint, a further one has been smashed a little later together with one belonging to the plainclothes police, both in front of a former squatted house which was hosting a party, which was stormed afterwards by the riot-police who aimed to make some arrests, but also met some resistance by those in there.
To end the night, in the district of Treptow another police car has been attacked by unknown ones with stones.
In Dresden, 20 people in solidarity went to pay a loud visit to the local prison, exploding fireworks, in Bremen over 100 comrades held a rally in front of the prison with fireworks and firecrackers, a samba-noise band was also present.
In Freiburg, about 60 comrades took the streets for an unregistered demonstration against prisons, held speeches and exploded fireworks, finally throwing some pink paint at the prison main gate, while in Cologne 150 people in solidarity gathered in front of the prison, held speeches in several languages,made noise and a pyrotechnic show.
In Stuttgart, 350 comrades demonstrated at first in the inner city under the motto “No justice – no peace! Fight class justice! For a revolutionary 2012″. Later on about 150 of them gathered in front of the well-known jail of Stammheim, where also some Kurdish comrades are imprisoned at the moment.
There has been a good communication with the prisoners because the comrades have been quite loud, they held some banners and flags and again exploded the beloved fireworks. Flyers have been also distributed in the postboxes of the houses located in the district where the prison is built, in order to inform the inhabitants about the action and its reasons.
In Hamburg some comrades decided to host a non-registered protest at the local judiciary prison on the 30th, since they were fed up with the increased repression undertaken by the cops during the last new year’s eve at the prison: that is why they walked as a spontaneous demonstration there, carrying a banner reading “freedom for all – against all walls”, exploded fireworks, screamed slogans and threw paint against the prison entrance and of of its surveillance towers.
They dispersed as soon as the police came.
In Frankfurt, some people decided to begin the new year under the banner of direct action and attacked two banks with stones, set fire to some trashbins in order to enflame some of the bank’s publicity signs and attacked the police cars which came on the spot to end the action. In the claim which they published they called for an “insurrectionary 2012, let us bring the insurrection in the heart of the beast”.
In Dortmund, the ‘Office for Order’ has been attacked with paint and the windows smashed with stones, to protest against the growing social control in some city areas.
We are empowered by the growth of these moments of attack and solidarity against any logic of detention, control and its enforcement by State authorities, in Germany as elsewhere in the world, as it has been the case this year through a wide range of actions in front and against prisons.
We salute all the rebels in any prison of the world, those on the run and all those who decided to stand in solidarity with them, struggling day by day for a world which does not need prisons and detention centres.
For the spread of social revolt.
ABC Berlin
A multilingual call for international solidarity with Sonja Suder (79) and Christian Gauger (70), in German – English – Dutch – Spanish – Italian, here. Also, a Greek translation here, Polish here and Portuguese here.
More translations will follow the next days —please spread the information.
Info about the case of Sonja and Christian (in German):
sonja-suder, christian-gauger, noprisonnostate, soli.pdf