> an evaluation of the pga wintermeeting in hamburg > > we publish this evaluation as pga- infopoint-hamburg, who was involved > in the logistical preperation of that meeting and who tried to catch > some impressions of participating people after it. > > The pga infopunkt hamburg was aiming with that meeting not only to > provide a space and food, but also to get local people interested in > the pga network. This goal was not working, eventhough our > wintermeeting was presented as open for interested on meetings of > local networks befor. Also the practical workshops should give > especialy local people a view on what the network is about. There were > just few people from hamburg participating and some went on saturday, > because they said it sounds all internal and not clear how “new > people” could get into that. The sunday was easier to access for them > but there were still fewer people than we expected. > > On the other side there was nobody we met who was not feeling a > very good athmosphere between people, even if they had not much sleep > and discussions went exhausting long at some points. I found it very > nice that the moderation was not classical autonomous-styled boring > plena but a variety of methods were used. It seems like nobody realy > felt excluded on a level which is often a problem in the rote flora at > other meetings or congresses. On this meeting interaction was very > massive present, people used the space for personal and political > exchange. (one guy from sweden anounced several times that he don´t > feel/think that the plenaries had a democraticly character what is a point we have to think about if we want to take our opinion of basic democraty serious.) > > This was also the critical impression of somebody else local involved, > that the network it is more or less a circle of people liking and > working together but the aims and goals of the network are not moving > forward and have not much practical results. There seems to be a > interest to meet each other and to continue the network but not that > much dynamics as in the time when pga started. The presentation of the > practical tools gave some ideas for new people f.e. the quite big new > group from berlin. But there was nothing really new, like the > newsletter project existed allready and the need for practical > campaign exchange was also mentioned years befor. > > For us it seems it is not that much about that there are no ideas, > but there are not that much capacities for projects and the visibility > and use of the pga as a tool are missing. The people active in the pga > (in europe) are a circle of people who has often no local connection > to social movements where they could use pga as a tool for. We tried > with the anti g8 mobilisation, but there was few interest to use pga > as a longer term platform to continue after the summit. Maybe this > will change in a few month, but a lot of people are not clear what is > going on with the pga. > > And local social movements are not seeing the reason to use pga, so > there is a parallel discussion often existing. In hamburg two examples > are the dissent network and the euromayday preperation. Both networks > have similair aims to the pga and both are working on a european (and > wider) level and even the discussions are quite similair to the ones > of the pga. But instead of gathering and exchanging, all are doing the > infrastructural work and seek for longer term networks and getting out > of the activists ghetto and several more similarities. The difference > to pga is the limited and practical campaign character, like for the > dissentnetwork the g8 summit in germany. > > To get back to the wintermeeting, on saturday were evaluation of dijon > conference and presentation of infopoints, other tools of pga and > perspectives the topics. > The evaluation was happening in small groups mixed up of people > present in dijon and people who where not there. All in all it seemed > for me to be as dijon conference was similair to the wintermeeting in > hamburg, as the general athmosphere was fitting but some people were > not satisfied with the role of the pga network. There are different > needs existing as some people and collectives were ok to use pga just > as a tool to exchange and meet. The activities should develop through > people meeting there and nothing more practical to expect from the > meetings. Another opinion is that the network will not attract new > groups and collectives to join in for “just that”. The visibility is > missing and it is frustrating if nothing more is getting out as > results. There should be campaigns and positions on practical work > developed and other networks on specific issues are functioning better. > > At the discussion about perspectives in the evening there were two > topics quite present, on the one side the global pga perspective and > missing links from the european network to that. Also the > selfdefinition was discussed as some collectives in european pga are > clear anarchist ones but others argued that the global focus is only > possible if it is a network more open than that ideology. On the other > side the convenor question, the g8 and pga and infopoints were > discussed. It was clear that the discussion could take all night but > at a point people were too exhausted to discuss. > > On sunday i missed the first part, but the workshops and small groups > were including different people. In the squat solidarity workshop we > discussed about situation in different regions and how to get closer > connected to each others struggle. The anti G8 workshop was raising > questions rather than answering. Internationals from variouse > countries participated, from italy, spain, greece, swiss, new zealand > and uk. But the wintermeeting in general was not focussing on g8 which > was also not our interest befor. > > The meeting was in general a nice experience and some discussion went > in a inspiring direction. Selforganisation was practiced in all parts. > But some general problems of the process are visible again and again. > The convenor is not found yet - like often befor it is not easy to > find that structure existing anywhere to work on such a lot of > infrastructural tasks. Also the visibility is unclear and how to get > all the nice ideas of campaigns and tools started and working. > > We as the pga infopunkt in hamburg invited all people and collectives > interested in the pga process to continue discussion about convenors > especialy at the 10th of june in hamburg, as the convergence center is > still open then and the g8 protest can be reflected plus people can > just meet after. It is not clear how the infrastructure for that > meeting will be prepared, do not have that much expectations, but at > least there will be space for discussion and sleeping places. If > someone is interested to work more on that meeting specially, come to > the convergence center in hamburg befor the summit and find us or > contact us via mail.

schwarzmarkt-pga[at]riseup.net