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fromthewhiteoverallsu34
Printed: tisdag 23 juli 2002 20.59.34

Page 1 of 2 Printed For: Louise

IMAGE imgs/fromthewhiteoverallsu3401.gif 34
Fra: Louise Pettersson<louise.pettersson@delta.telenordia.se>
Dato: Lør d. 16. Jun 2001 11:12am
Emne: För kännedom: From the White Overalls, J16

------ Forwarded Message
> From: <Finlandia@e...>
> Reply-To: Gbg2001-diskussion@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 03:30:06 +0200
> To: massaction-gbg2001@yahoogroups.com, gbg2001-diskussion@yahoogroups.com, > gbg2001@yahoogroups.com, tutebianche2001@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Gbg2001-diskussion] From the White Overalls, J16 >
>
> To Civil Society
> To Media
>
> THE WHITE OVERALLS ARE NOT GIVING UP.
>
> We, the white overalls, are going to participate the GBG 2001 demonstration on > saturday 16th June.
>
> We came to Gothenburg to discuss borders, that are built up against > immigrants,
> the poor, minorities and all other suppressed groups. We came to make those > borders visible and to defy them. We wanted to open up the EU Summit for all > those groups of people, who now don't have a say to decisions made about their > lives.
>
> We were going to do active civil disobedience in a non-violent confrontative > action. Our aim was to open the police lines using only our protected bodies > and shields - we didn't have any weapons. Our plans were openly announced. >
> On Thursday 14th of June the police sieged and intruded our temporary home > (Hvitfeldtska school) at the moment Bush arrived to Gothenburg. They didn't > give any explanation and refused to negotiate. The police came with full riot > gear, dogs, horses, helicopters and huge containers. Later we, together with > other sieged groups, tried to leave the area. After 8 attempts to break > through, the police attacked us in a openly brutal way with horses in the > front. Even the spontaneous support demonstration was attacked in a similar > way. More than 200 people were arrested. There was no violence toward police > and no provocations before the police attacked. During the attack we were > forced to stop our action, while other groups had no alternative but to defend > themselves by throwing stones.
>
> From that moment on, the city of Gothenburg has been militarized and turned > into a war zone. There has been illegitimate arrests, beatings, throwing > stones
> and shooting towards people. These actions can not be considered as "keeping > the public order". This is the oppressive reality of neoliberal regime. >
> The police said that there were bombs and weapons in our homes and that a > police car was attacked there. These claims are not true and the police have > not been able to show any evidence.
>
> Thus we accuse the police of rioting, acts of terrorism and violations of > basic
> human rights such as the freedoms of expression and assembly. The police must > be made accountable for these crimes.
>
> The police attacked because Power is afraid of us, the rebel communities - > people who won't submit to the neoliberal command.
>
> However, we are not giving up. Saturday 16th June we will participate in the