News on Repression
Jun 4, 2009
http://www.vgt.at/index_en.php

The 10th June as International Day of Protest is still on. Please do join in and hand in a petition to the Austrian embassador to your country asking for Austria to drop the case against her animal activists. Visit http://www.vgt.at/index_en.php  to find out more.

At the moment there is an exhibition in castle landeck in the tyrol by an artist, who was one of the 10 activist remand prisoners last year. His arts exhibition deals with repression and with his time in prison.

Below is an update on what has been happening in the past week:

On 30th May, a theatre group played street theatre in the city of linz on the topic of repression.

On Sunday 31st May, the minister of justice (on sunday!) Phoned Greenpeace to ask them for an appointment together with other ngos, which are not accused, to talk about the threat for them of §278a. The minister wants to know why Greenpeace and others feel threatened.

On Tuesday 2nd June, the prime political weekly published another very positive article on the case, saying that the minister is softening up and that there is the possibility that the case may be dropped.

Tuesday 2nd June also saw a flashmob action on a major highstreet in Vienna. About 30 people put tape on their mouths with "§278a" written on it and walked up and down the highstreet in silence.

Also on that day, a meeting with a very prominent Austrian TV talkmaster took place, where she agreed to go public in support of the activists. The statement ist being prepared.

Wednesday 3rd June there was another flashmob in the museumaquarters in Vienna during the opening of an exhibition, where also a minister was present. Again 30 activists put tapes on their mouths and stopped dead in their tracks while others held up placards and one person explained the action using a megaphone.

Wednesday evening, there was a panel debate at one of the universities of Vienna. Martin Balluch spoke on the final police reports and Sabine Koch spoke on her experience in prison and a spokesperson of the initiative against section 278 mentioned the wider picture of this case.