What is terrorism?

Photo: epha

International Competition: What Exactly is Terrorism?

The Federal Prosecution is after it. The Red-Green Coalition is trying to redefine it. The Federal Court has to evaluate it and our friends are to be charged because of it.

The Phantom Called "Terrorism"

The German criminal legislation paragraph 129a enables the prosecution of terrorist activity or membership in a terrorist organisation, but even the highest judges of Germany are not quite sure what terrorism actually is. The Federal Minister for Justice doesn't think that 9/11 was terrorism, but everyone's scared of it. German criminal legislation, the UN and also the EU have no clear definition of the term "terrorism". We're now asking: What exactly is terrorism? Who is a terrorist? And what's a terrorist act?

The Coalition for the Immediate End to the 129a Proceedings is searching for definitions of terrorism: legal, humorous or political. Entries to the competition can be in the form of texts, photos, videos, podcasts, postcards, posters; they can be artistic, intellectual or journalistic. They can be submitted by individuals, collectives or by anonymous contributors. The deadline is February 15, 2008.

Submission can be sent by email to einstellung[at]so36.net, uploaded to the website directly or sent by regular mail (address below).

An international panel will consider the entries and select the best ones for awards. In spring of 2008 the best contributions will be publicly exhibited and celebrated with an award ceremony.

The panel:

Klaus Wolfram
Ben Hayes, Statewatch
Heiner Busch, Cilip

Prizes for the best contributions include:

Guided tour on the topic of gentrification through Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg with Andrej Holm and other latently terrorist urban researchers
Tour to FREIe HEIDe, planned bombing range near Wittstock, location of antimilitarist protests for many years
An innocuous meeting (place, time and agenda of the meeting will be arranged personally) for a reading with the authors of the book "Autonome in Bewegung" ("Autonomists in Movement"), who are also suspected of terrorism.
One year's subscription of ak - analyse & kritik - zeitung für linke debatte und praxis
3 copies of Volker Eick, Jens Sambale, Eric Töpfer (Ed.) Kontrollierte Urbanität. Zur Neoliberalisierung städtischer Sicherheitspolitik, 402 Pages, Bielefeld: Transcript, Urban Studies
Helicopter trip to Karlsruhe (Only criminally relevant contributions will be considered. No legal action permitted)
Brochure "ANARCHISMUS"
One year's subscription Prokla. Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft

Please donate more prizes!

Some ideas might be critical academic books (self-authored), wellness vouchers for victims of repression, a weekend in Barcelona....

Coalition for the Immediate End to the §129(a) Proceedings
c/o Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte e.V.
Greifswalder Straße 4
D-10405 Berlin
Germany
Telephone: +49 30/20165521
einstellung [at] so36.net
http://einstellung.so36.net/en/what-is-terror

"In der Literatur werden "Terror" und "Terrorismus" (T.) häufig synonym verwendet. Es erscheint jedoch zweckmäßig, den Begriff Terror der vom Staat ausgehenden, willkürlich und systematisch zur Einschüchterung der Bürger ausgeübten Gewalt vorzubehalten. Dementsprechend ist T. spiegelbildlich als eine Gewaltstrategie zu definieren, die primär durch die Verbreitung von Furcht und Schrecken [...] das bestehende Herrschaftssystem auszuhöhlen und eine mehr oder weniger grundlegende politisch-gesellschaftl. Umwälzung herbeizuführen sucht." (politikwissen.de)

"Unter Terrorismus (von lateinisch terror: „Furcht, Schrecken“) sind Gewalt bzw. Gewaltaktionen (wie z. B.: Entführungen, Attentate, Sprengstoffanschläge etc.) gegen eine politische Ordnung zu verstehen, um einen politischen Wandel herbeizuführen. Der Terror dient als Druckmittel und soll vor allem Unsicherheit und Schrecken verbreiten, daneben aber auch Sympathie und Unterstützungsbereitschaft erzeugen." (de.wikipedia.org)

"Die Kultur der Terrors zielt darauf ab, die Hoffnungen der Mehrheit auf Alternativen zu den Vorstellungen der Herrschenden zu zähmen." (Noam Chomsky)