Invited Presenters among other:

Ulrike Donat, lawyer and Mediator (BM und BAFM)
Member of the IFPA e.V. and in the enlarged executive board of the „Republikanischer Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein (RAV e.V.)“, longlasting experience with the “legal teams” (judicial emergency service) of the RAV at political manifestations, received an award of the Holtfort Foundation in 2003.
Latest publication: „Feindbild Demonstrant“ (Ed: RAV/Legal Team), published by „assoziation a“, 2007

Adresse
Holstenstr. 194c, 22765 Hamburg Tel: 040 - 3910 6180 Fax: 040 - 3910 6183 Email: donat@hamburg.de ,
www.ulrike-donat.de

Contribution

workshop 1 1/2 hour

Concepts of the enemy in political conflicts
In political protests with large scale police operations, both sides work with stereotype concepts of the enemy ( “violent criminals“,“copper“). The effect can be experienced with pictures from Heiligendamm 2007 and own perception exercises.

In political protest with large scale police operations, self-constructed concepts of the enemy and those of the media are of major importance. Pictures of street battles, thrashing police men, colourful (grasroot???) people in grain fields in front of the security fence und highly-armed police men, etc. cause controversial emotions in the observer. Those will be dealt with in role identification / role plays or a following short constellation. Both sides showed contradictions in their actual behaviour compared with their self-defined goals. Protest was excluded by the state instead of being taken seriously. Disinformation by state authorities, role conflicts and hierarchical organisational structures led to massive violations of civil rights while the original job was to maintain law and order.
The intention of the protesters was at first superseded by images of violence. Their actors stood for the suppressed injustice in the so-called „third world“(???). The open organisational structure of the whole of protesters, without excluding violent protesters, retained a certain closeness by means of grassroot democracy and through the acceptance of differences. Despite their heterogeneity, protesters have managed to keep a certain peaceful orderliness in the chaos and have thereby shown a high degree of non-hierarchical ability to organise themselves. The principle of an open group identity with spontaneous arrangements while always complying with ethical rules that permanently redefines itself seems to be superior to a hierarchical structure when organizing complex tasks. In addition, it seems to lead to less violence.

back