Convergence Space - Come Together!

From May 21st to June 16th, Kreuzberg, famous disctrict in the centre of Berlin, will be transformed into an open space for public protest against the G8.

- a space without walls and borders, that is open especially for people not yet politically active

- a space that is easily accesible for people not yet participating

- a space that is based upon interactivity, coming together, visibility in the streets and public debate.

Coming together in protest against the G8 - Berlin-Kreuzberg will be part of it!

Because...

... when on Sunday a man called Sunday leaves the coast of Senegal in a wooden boat, supercharged with twenty other desperates - direction Spain...
... when on Monday jobless Monika is being harrassed by the 'Job Center' authorities, just like the 950 other former employees of Schering...
... when on Wednesday noon GMT the one millionth child in this week dies from malnutrition...
... when on Thursday pharmacy employee Diana is brought to hospital with an overdose of the liquor 'Klosterfrau Melissengeist', after having suffered the threehundredth loop of 'Schlecker-TV'
... when finally on Friday Felicité in Mutare (Simbabwe) dies from pneumonia as a result of her being an HIV-infected person, although she could have survived if she had had the existing medication...

... this has a lot to do with G8 policies!

At the G8 summit this June in the seaport city of Heiligendamm, the heads of the governments of the eight most powerful states in the world will meet. They will gather in a luxury hotel called 'Kempinski' to discuss in more or less informal meetings new strategies for the enforcement of lobby interests. To effectively exclude all of those, who are effected by their policies, a fence 12 kilometres long has been built around Heiligendamm. To create new jobs, it has been beautified with barbed wire and surveillance cameras. In order not to have him stolen, it will be guarded by thousands of police equipped with military armament.

But tens of thousands of excluded are pissed off by it. They detest walls and fences, and they will not let this show of politicians that see themselves as the power elite, take place without having their voice heard and having their action noticed. Various forms of protest will take place, many of those will focus on the space directly around Heiligendamm. Generally, the protests should disperse around the planet - that would be an adequate answer to their global policies.

We want to start this dispersion of protest in Berlin. We want to do it with many guests and with everyone, who cannot or does not want to go to Heiligendamm. We will oppose the sealed-off space of those in power with our concept of an open space. As a part of the broad resistance against the G8 summit, we will transform as many public places as possible - parks, squares, streets, clubs and cafés - in a solidary and resistant space of convergence.

Many militants from south and east europe as well as from southern Germany will stop in Berlin on their way to Hamburg, Rostock or Heiligendamm. They will have the opportunity to get to know each other, to come together, to get the latest news, to exchange experiences and confidences, to coordinate, to organize. They will have the possibility to take part in workshops and trainings. This is inevitable in order to resist the G8 summit - where and whenever people want to do it.

There will be a broad variety of actions, from exchanging information to the direct preparation of protest events. There will be an open air general assembly every day, that will be open not only for activists, but for neighboors and everyone interested as well. This is crucial, since the idea of a converging space will only work when as many people as possbile participate, people that are living and struggling in Kreuzberg and Berlin - when they take the offer and become part of the Convergence Space.

We are calling for participation with projects, ideas and actions. Everything is possible - if we want it!
Make the contradictions you have to struggle with visible. Make your concernes heard on the street, present counter visions! Put banners out of your windows and posters in your shops. Call for a general district strike, give away food and meet the folks who came here from all over the world. Support them! Play games on Oranienstrasse and sing songs of rebellion on the Heinrichplatz... Show the colourful and anticapitalist face of Krrrreuzberg to the whole world!

CSB (Convergence Space Berlin), April 2007.