sorry for crossings.

/ jonas
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Jonas R Bylund, PhD
Dept. of Human Geography
Stockholm University

[log in to unmask]

http://people.su.se/~jbylu/



Begin forwarded message:

From: Michael Edwards <[log in to unmask]>
Date: den 10 augusti 2007 22.42.17 MET
To: [log in to unmask], Planners UK Network <[log in to unmask]>,  
[log in to unmask]
Subject: help needed to defend German urban researchers - in prison for  
studying gentrification

Dear Friends

This is a call for urgent help to support academic and political  
freedoms among our friends in germany.  I am circulating, at their  
request, a call for help from people in Berln and it is a call for us  
all to take action now to help.

Please note that I am forwarding it from UCL.  Ruth Glass was a  
Berliner who became a refugee from an earlier period of intolerance,  
arrive in London, and while working here at UCL (she was my first  
sociology teacher) discovered and named the process "gentrification".   
It is for research on these processes of class conflict that our German  
friends are now being persecuted.  

Begin forwarded message:

> Cc: "v." <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask], Margit  
> Mayer <[log in to unmask]>, Roger Keil <[log in to unmask]>, Peter  
> Marcuse <[log in to unmask]>, Britta Grell <[log in to unmask]>,  
> Sarah Blandy <[log in to unmask]>, Claire Colomb  
> <[log in to unmask]>      snip
>
> After a lot of hard work, our colleagues from INURA Berlin have put  
> together
> various materials in order to raise international attention and support
> regarding the case of the 7 persons accused (out of which 4 were  
> jailed) last
> week in Berlin for alleged suspected 'memberships of a terrorist  
> association'.
> 3 of these are fellow urban researchers, one of whom, who is currently
> in jail, has agreed to be named: Andrej Holm, urban sociologist and  
> established
> researcher on gentrification in Berlin.
>
> Please find below a statement in English, which we are trying to
> circulate in academic and related circles in order to build  
> international support. Do you
> think you could circulate to INURA London mailing list, to the PNUK  
> mailing
> list, and to any other contacts from the London urban networks (former  
> London
> social forum or whatever you deem appropriate)?
>
> Colleagues are mobilizing in the US around the ASA conference.  
> Colleagues in
> Australia are also mobilizing via the gentrification research  
> community. In the
> UK a Leeds colleague is circulating to human rights lawyers. I am  
> going to try
> and see what networks to inform in France.
>
> For the INURA London people, you can let them know that Volker Eick is
> the main point of contact at INURA Berlin who is organising the  
> solidarity, although
> many other members are involved! However for all other groups, there  
> is a
> general coordination e-mail address which should be used for any query  
> (see
> below).
>
> ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
> /////////////////////
>
> On 31st July 2007 seven persons were charged by the Attorney of the  
> German
> Federal Supreme Court for alleged suspected 'memberships of a terrorist
> association'. Four of these have since been in pre-trial confinement  
> in a
> Berlin jail. Three of the seven accused individuals are fellow urban
> researchers, one of whom, who is currently in jail, has agreed to be  
> named:
> Andrej Holm, urban sociologist and established researcher on  
> gentrification in
> Berlin.
>
> An OPEN LETTER is attached, summarising the background of the case, the
> arguments used by the Attorney of the German Federal Supreme Court and  
> the
> demand made by the solidarity movement.
>
> Individuals or organisations are invited to demonstrate support by  
> sending
> protest letters, petitions and declarations to the Attorney of the  
> German
> Federal Supreme Court, i.e.:
>
> Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof
> c/o Ermittlungsrichter Hebenstreit
> Herrenstraße 45
> D-76133 Karlsruhe
> Germany
>
> and
>
> Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof
> Brauerstraße 30
> D-76137 Karlsruhe
> Germany
> Fax + 49 7 21 819 14 92
> eMail: [log in to unmask]
>
> An e-mail address has been set up by the Berlin colleagues who are
> coordinating
> action around Andrej Holm and the other accused: it would be helpful if
> individuals and organisations could send a message to this address to  
> inform
> the Berlin colleagues about the support action they are taking  
> (solidarity
> addresses, declarations that are to be published) and address any
> question they
> may have: [log in to unmask]
>
> For information, the German lawyer and press contact for the accused,
> including
> Andrej Holm, is:
> Wolfgang Kaleck
> Immanuelkirchstrasse3-4
> D-10405 Berlin
> Germany
> Phone: +49-(0)30-4467-9218
> Fax: +49-(0)30-4467-9220
>
> In short, the main demands of the solidarity movement are:
> - Release of the prisoners
> - Stop the proceedings under § 129a of German penal law
> - End the § 129, 129a, and 129b laws
> - Stop criminalizing progressive research and action
>
> ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
> /////Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof
>
  c/o Ermittlungsrichter Hebenstreit
  Herrenstraße 45
  D-76133 Karlsruhe
  Germany
 
Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof
Brauerstraße 30
D-76137 Karlsruhe
Germany
 
 

Open letter against the criminalization of critical academic research  
and political engagement

 

 

On 31st July 2007 the flats and workplaces of Dr. Andrej Holm and Dr.  
Matthias B., as well as of two other persons, were searched by the  
police. Dr. Andrej Holm was arrested, flown by helicopter to the German  
Federal Court in Karlsruhe and brought before the custodial judge.  
Since then he has been held in pretrial confinement in a Berlin jail.  
All four people have been charged with “membership in a terrorist  
association according to § 129a StGB” (German Penal Code, section 7 on  
‘Crimes against Public Order’). They are alleged to be members of a  
so-called ‘militante gruppe’ (mg). The text of the search warrant  
revealed that preliminary proceedings against these four people have  
been going on since September 2006 and that the four had since been  
under constant surveillance.

A few hours before the house searches, Florian L., Oliver R. und Axel  
H. were arrested in the Brandenburg region and accused of attempted  
arson on four vehicles of the German Federal Army. Andrej Holm is  
alleged to have met one of these three persons on two occasions in the  
first half of 2007 in supposedly “conspiratorial circumstances”.

The Federal Prosecutor (Bundesanwaltschaft) therefore assumes that the  
four above mentioned persons as well as the three individuals arrested  
in Brandenburg are members of a “militant group,” and is thus  
investigating all seven on account of suspected “membership in a  
terrorist association” according to §129a StGB.

According to the arrest warrant against Andrej Holm, the charge made  
against the above mentioned four individuals is presently justified on  
the following grounds, in the order that the federal prosecutor has  
listed them:

- Dr. Matthias B. is alleged to have used, in his academic  
publications, “phrases and key words” which are also used by the  
‘militante gruppe’;

-       As political scientist holding a PhD, Matthias B. is seen to be  
intellectually capable to “author the sophisticated texts of the  
‘militante gruppe’ (mg)”. Additionally, “as employee in a research  
institute he has access to libraries which he can use inconspicuously  
in order to do the research necessary to the drafting of texts of the  
‘militante gruppe’”;

-       Another accused individual is said to have met with suspects in  
a conspiratorial manner: “meetings were regularly arranged without,  
however, mentioning place, time and content of the meetings”;  
furthermore, he is said to have been active in the “extreme left-wing  
scene”;

-       In the case of a third accused individual, an address book was  
found which included the names and addresses of the other three  
accused;

-       Dr. Andrej H., who works as urban sociologist, is claimed to  
have close contacts with all three individuals who have been charged  
but still remain free;

-       Dr. Andrej H. is alleged to have been active in the “resistance  
mounted by the extreme left-wing scene against the World Economic  
Summit of 2007 in Heiligendamm”;

-       The fact that he – allegedly intentionally -- did not take his  
mobile phone with him to a meeting is considered as “conspiratorial  
behavior”.

 

Andrej H., as well as Florian L., Oliver R. und Axel H., are detained  
since 1st August 2007 in Berlin-Moabit under very strict conditions:  
they are locked in solitary confinement 23 hours a day and are allowed  
only one hour of courtyard walk. Visits are limited to a total of half  
an hour every two weeks. Contacts, including contacts with lawyers, are  
allowed only through separation panes. The mail of the defense is  
checked.

 

The charges described in the arrest warrants reveal a construct based  
on very dubious reasoning by analogy. The reasoning involves four basic  
hypotheses, none of which the Federal High Court could substantiate  
with any concrete evidence, but through their combination they are to  
leave the impression of a “terrorist association”. The social  
scientists, because of their academic research activity, their  
intellectual capacities and their access to libraries, are said to be  
the brains of the alleged “terrorist organization”. For, according to  
the Federal prosecutor, an association called “militante gruppe” is  
said to use the same concepts as the accused social scientists. As  
evidence for this reasoning, the concept of “gentrification” is named -  
one of the key research themes of Andrej Holm und Matthias B. in past  
years, about which they have published internationally. They have not  
limited their research findings to an ivory tower, but have made their  
expertise available to citizens’ initiatives and tenants’  
organizations. This is how critical social scientists are constructed  
as intellectual gang leaders.

Since Andrej Holm has friends, relatives and colleagues, they now also  
are suspect to be “terrorists”, because they know Andrej. Another  
accused individual was blamed for having the names of Andrej Holm and  
of two others charged (but not jailed) in his address book. Since the  
latter are also deemed to be “terrorists” – this is how “guilt by  
association” is established.

Paragraph § 129a, introduced in Germany in 1976, makes it possible for  
our colleagues to be criminalized as “terrorists”. This is how, through  
§ 129a, the existence of a “terrorist group” is claimed.

Through these constructs, every academic research activity and  
political work is presented as potentially criminal – in particular  
when politically engaged colleagues who intervene in social struggles  
are concerned. This is how critical research, in particular research  
linked with political engagement, is turned into ideological ring  
leadership and “terrorism”.

We demand that the Federal Prosecutor (Bundesanwaltschaft) immediately  
suspend the § 129a-proceedings against all parties concerned and  
release Andrej Holm and the other imprisoned from jail at once. We  
strongly reject the outrageous accusation that the academic research  
activities and the political engagement of Andrej Holm are to be viewed  
as complicity in an alleged “terrorist association”. No arrest warrant  
can be deduced from the academic research and political work of Andrej  
Holm. The Federal Prosecutor, through applying Article § 129, is  
threatening the freedom of research and teaching as well as  
social-political engagement.


Signature(s)

Date

*********************end********************
Michael Edwards, The Bartlett School, UCL     programme director in  
European Planning and Property Development
22 Gordon Street
London WC1H 0QB