Blockupy Frankfurt: taking the struggle to the next level

Blockupy Frankfurt: taking the struggle to the next level

Tens of thousands descend upon the continent’s financial capital for one of the most anticipated pan-European demonstrations since the G8 in Genoa.

There is something different about Blockupy Frankfurt, the pan-European days of action on May 16-19. Not only will Blockupy be the largest transnational street demonstration of the Occupy movement so far; it is also expected to introduce innovative new tactics into the movement that could see an escalation of direct non-violent confrontation with the corporatist state and the global financial institutions responsible for causing the current capitalist crisis.

Over the past year, Europe has been rocked by a wave of anti-austerity protests, but the most numerous and most spectacular actions so far have taken place in the periphery: in Greece and Spain, in particular. While the Occupy movement did spread to the eurozone’s wealthy core, these occupations remained largely local or national in nature. Insofar as international coordination was involved, it was for global days of action like October 15 and May 12.

But this week, a coalition of action groups from around the continent will be raising the stakes. In one of the most anticipated international demonstrations since the heydays of the alter-globalization movement, tens of thousands of activists from all across Europe are expected to descend upon Frankfurt — the continent’s financial capital and seat of the European Central Bank and some of the continent’s largest financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank.

Blockupy Frankfurt is a direct response to the deepening eurozone debt crisis, and in particular to the way unelected technocrats and powerful bankers are responding to it by imposing ever-harsher austerity upon the peoples of Europe. At rock bottom, Blockupy is an attempt to reclaim European democracy from the seemingly unstoppable forces of finance capital.

As organizers put it in an official statement:

We place our actions and protests in the context of the progressing struggles for self-determination, freedom and dignity all over the world — such as the uprisings and revolutions of the Arab Spring, the social struggles and general strikes in Greece, the indignados movement in Spain and the worldwide protests of the Occupy movement. We are not alone and our voices can be heard all over the world.

Starting tomorrow, on May 17, thousands will occupy the squares and parks of the city, pitching their tents, engaging in workshops and debates, and organizing for the big events of the next two days. On May 18, organizers have vowed to block the ECB and financial district for a day. Not just as a symbolic action, but as a direct attempt to physically stop financial activities in the city and thereby block the endless flow of capital that sustains European ‘zombie capitalism‘.....

http://roarmag.org/2012/05/blockupy-frankfurt-taking-the-struggle-to-the...