Heiligendamm: its English name could be rendered ‘All Saints Causeway'. But Damm can also be used figuratively to mean a barrier. For the 2007 G8 summit, the Damm in this German seaside resort took new shape with a fence: twelve kilometres of barbed wire, a security zone and 16,000 police officers with riot shields. To the anti-G8 protesters, the fence stood for divisions, exclusions and fears, for the shrinking boundaries of democracy.
Here, the powerful few were corralled inside, the many shut out. Nevertheless, thousands of people came and took opportunities to talk about alternatives beyond the summit confines. A fortress can become a prison, whose inmates play out the same old routines, formulaic conversations and ritual infighting - and are kept in the dark. EU leader José Manuel Barroso told German television: "we have no idea what's happening outside".
The G8 Summit was originally called the World Economic Summit until, according to Vandana Shiva, "they were shamed into naming how few they actually were."
I could play around all day with the metaphor and that's part of the problem. The fence is all we see. So much of the world's reporting is about it - and about the conflict and increasing inequality it maintains. Reports rarely tell of those who boldly go beyond. That's because the fence is something we carry with us when we travel. And overwhelmingly, it is by, of, and about, men - with very few exceptions. As Vandana Shiva - who led the social movement in India that defeated the World Bank's plans to privatise water - said at the close of the alternative summit: "The borders are inside us and in our everyday lives. We have to deny the G8 in our heads. They are a mere façade of democracy. Who gave them the power to make decisions for the rest of the world?"
The final report
Predictably, nothing new came out of Heiligendamm in the stack of bland documents full of empty promises - with one exception: a pledge to provide $60 billion to tackle HIV/Aids. It isn't the money that's important, because we have yet to see how and when that will materialise. But in the twenty-two-page declaration on Africa there are a few paragraphs which are truly newsworthy. For the first time in the G8 forum, a specific link has been acknowledged between HIV/Aids, violence against women, sexual and reproductive health rights, education and holistic community-based responses to the pandemic. This is a real tribute to worldwide women's campaigning on these issues.
It is also a personal success for the woman who championed them over the last six months in Germany: Bundesministerin Heidemarie Wiezcorek-Zeul. Four weeks ago, I highlighted the importance of her role as regards both Africa and gender equality so it is no surprise to me to see HWZ being reported as the only politician to have come through Germany's G8 presidency with her reputation enhanced. She has shown that a woman can make a difference from the inside.
Meanwhile in Rostock there were uplifting messages, particularly from Latin American women. Education minister Yoama Paredes talked about the participatory process used in developing Venezuela's new education system, promoting individual dignity, unity and diversity. Mexican academic Ana Esther Ceceña reminded us that "the struggle is not just against the G8, it's for our own emancipation". She recommended creating "new communities without borders, across the internet, so that we can develop a shared history - and a common future". We aimed to do this with the women's openSummit, which was in itself an act of transcendence: we didn't know if it would work, we only knew it had to - and complete strangers did come and sit under the baobab tree of our blog to share their aims and concerns.
The blockade is beautiful
Here in Heiligendamm, I've seen how the organisers of the anti-G8 action have built on the World Social Forum's work in Nairobi - as they stated, to tap into civil society's intellectual and social power, which is now recognised even by mainstream political scientists. I've seen the tactician's touch needed to mobilise large numbers of people effectively in peaceful demonstration.
In the run-up to the G8 summit, I met Mona Bricke, German coordinator of the G8 NGO Platform - the broad church of organisations opposing globalization, who were to take part in a number of rallies in Rostock. The first event turned into a "day of horrors" when a small group of violent protesters in black came out of nowhere to attack police and set fire to residents' cars. Despite this inauspicious start and the security escalation, the final twenty-four hours of civil disobedience blocking several access routes to Heiligendamm went according to plan - and protesters defied the fence by clowning, juggling, blowing bubbles, meditating, even using it as a washing line for water-cannoned wet clothing. When I called Mona on Thursday evening she was still at the fence, too tired and happy after this superwoman achievement to say anything but: "the blockade is beautiful".
Though mass internet campaigning may well become more successful than massing at physical gateways, whatever strategy is used, I don't think you can actually draw up an action plan for inspiration or for hope. It may seem paradoxical to blockade a fence in order to protest against the road blocks of the mind. But, being earthbound, we can only free ourselves by how we behave in the world. Aggression is self-defeating. Analytical balancing acts will never change the future. It's a leap of faith that's needed to clear the fence.
