The Dutch police are organising an international
conference about the methods used to combat
activism at neoliberal summits. It will take place
from 3 to 5 October 2001 in The Hague…The
organisers claim that the goal of the conference
is to prevent ‘unnecessary damage’ to both sides,
but it’s clear that they will be discussing a wide
variety of methods of combatting resistance,
actions and demonstrations.
The Dutch police are organising an international
conference about the methods used to combat
activism at neoliberal summits. It will take place
from 3 to 5 October 2001 in The Hague.
The official program can be found on the
website:
http://www.burojansen.nl/orde/engels/ineng.htm
(it’s an activist website, as usual
we are more public than the state…)
The organisers claim that the goal of the
conference is to prevent ‘unnecessary damage’ to
both sides, but it’s clear that they will be
discussing a wide variety of methods of combatting
resistance, actions and demonstrations.
As the official program reads: "It will be a
closed forum. Senior police officers from the
capitals and other major cities of most European
countries, North America, Australia and New
Zealand are being invited to attend. There will be
presentations on the events in Seattle, Melbourne,
Prague and The Hague."
Among the stated goals for the conference the
official program reads:
1. To acquire greater insight into the phenomenon
of "global civil society".
2. To share information and successful tactics for
maintaining order during summit conferences.
3. To build up an international network of police
experts.
4. To set up a permanent interchange of expertise
and to intensify international cooperation in this
area.
The program continues:
" The ultimate goal is to achieve a situation
in which it remains possible to carry on holding
summits without this leading to serious public
order disturbances and riots, and in which at the
same time the democratic right to demonstrate can
be exercised as a legitimate means of influencing
international political and financial
decision-making.(…) ".
Activist groups in the Netherlands are keeping a
close watch on this conference, and discussing
different options for dealing with it. At the
moment various ideas for debate, awareness-raising
and action are being developed.
One of the things we have agreed on is that we
would like to use this as an opportunity for
activists to gather information about the means
and methods that police (and other repressive
forces and intelligence services) have been using
against internationalist demonstrators/activists.
We are therefore keen to receive information on
this topic as well as related experiences
concerning so-called anti- globalisation
activities from ‘Seattle’ onwards. We are
especially interested in analyses of the tactics
employed by police and other state forces at
different events and summits.
We also welcome any comprehensive reviews of these
and similar events containing details of numbers
of arrests (and ultimate prosecutions) and
wounded, ‘illegal’ police methods, actions, etc.
We also plan to organise a modest debate for
activists about various forms of repression,
present and future. More information on this event
will be distributed later.
For the longer term, we would also like to discuss
ways of establishing more structured form of
information-sharing around this issue. You can
contact us by email at: kh@xminy.nl If you
want us to keep you informed, let us know.
We will be posting new information on the website
of the Dutch ‘Copwatch’-group Buro Jansen en
Janssen:
http://www.burojansen.nl/
Author:
News Service: Buro Jansen & Janssen
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