Frankfurt on lock-down as over 5.000 police are deployed in an unprecedented operation to keep protesters out of the city and away from the banks.

The atmosphere here in Frankfurt is tense. The police is omnipresent. The sound of sirens permeates the city streets.

As I write this, some thousands of protesters are huddled together at the university, pitching tents or simply squatting a place on the ground to try and catch some sleep before tomorrow’s big actions. But as the activists here prepare to physically block the headquarters of the European Central Bank, the police already seems to have done the job for them.

The entire city is on lock-down. Roadblocks sever the main traffic arteries going into the city center. Everywhere, small squads of riot police patrol the streets looking for anyone who looks “suspicious” (i.e., like a potential Leftist). Shops and banks downtown have barricaded their windows with wooden planks, and at almost any random corner you will find a line of police vans, sometimes as many as 50 or 60 parked in a row. It feels like Frankfurt is preparing for civil war.

A few times today, small groups of people tried to make their voices heard by protesting or camping in one of the city’s squares. At some point, over 1,000 gathered in the central square, while later a small tent camp was set up elsewhere. Yet on every single occasion, the protesters were met with thousands of policemen who quickly cordoned off the squares, forced those present to identify themselves, and then continued by dragging them away one by one.

While German media report at least 150 arrests so far, the actual numbers are likely to be much higher. We have seen dozens of people arrested for “offenses” as simple as being in the wrong place at the wrong time; or carrying around a sleeping bag into the city center. The Italian newspaper Repubblica reports that 100 Italians alone have been arrested; leaving aside the Germans, Greeks, French, and countless other nationalities who have descended upon the city.

The Blockupy actions, scheduled to culminate in a large demonstration on Saturday, have already been banned by authorities (a ban that was, bizarrely enough, upheld by the country’s highest constitutional court). In an attempt to enforce this absurd ban, over 5.000 police have been drawn in from across the country. So far, it seems that there are at least 2.5 policemen to every protester in the city. The overreaction of the authorities is truly staggering.

This morning, as we walked towards the central station with four friends, we were stopped by a group of eight riot police who took our IDs, searched our bags and bodies and, after not finding anything suspicious, threatened us with immediate arrest if they found us in the city center again. In other words, not only does the state rudely violate the constitutional right to assembly; it also denies average citizens and independent journalists access to public spaces.

A caravan of three buses coming from Berlin was stopped before even arriving in Frankfurt, and directed straight back to Berlin under police escort. A kettling operation at the train station this morning ensured that those arriving by train could not join others gathering in the city center. Anywhere we tried to go, we literally had to keep an eye out not to run into more riot police and risk being arrested simply for walking in the street. It truly looks like a police state here.

Indeed, in Frankfurt, the financial capital of continental Europe, it feels like democracy has temporarily been put on halt. In the process, the state once again reveals its true nature. In an attempt to protect the city’s powerful banks, millions of euros are expended and basic constitutional rights suspended just to maintain a degree of control over the situation. Yet the intensity of the repression is only likely to further stir frustration among the protesters here.

In the most bizarre twist of all, the German and international media do not appear to be reporting on this extreme situation at all. When hundreds of peaceful protesters are arrested in Russia, our leaders and newspapers are quick to denounce Putin for being a dictator. Yet when it happens in a civilized society and advanced economy like Germany, the peaceful protesters are suddenly denounced as violent criminals — or simply not spoken about at all.

Tomorrow we will not only take the struggle to the ECB; we will also fight for our right to protest peacefully, publicly and passionately. We will not be intimidated. We will not be crushed. And most certainly, we will not back down. And even if they crack down on us again — which they will — let it be known that our aims have already been achieved: the financial epicenter of eurocapitalism is completely blocked. And the authorities were kind enough to do it for us.

Tens of thousands descend upon the continent’s financial capital for one of the most anticipated pan-European demonstrations since the G8 in Genoa.

There is something different about Blockupy Frankfurt, the pan-European days of action on May 16-19. Not only will Blockupy be the largest transnational street demonstration of the Occupy movement so far; it is also expected to introduce innovative new tactics into the movement that could see an escalation of direct non-violent confrontation with the corporatist state and the global financial institutions responsible for causing the current capitalist crisis.

Over the past year, Europe has been rocked by a wave of anti-austerity protests, but the most numerous and most spectacular actions so far have taken place in the periphery: in Greece and Spain, in particular. While the Occupy movement did spread to the eurozone’s wealthy core, these occupations remained largely local or national in nature. Insofar as international coordination was involved, it was for global days of action like October 15 and May 12.

But this week, a coalition of action groups from around the continent will be raising the stakes. In one of the most anticipated international demonstrations since the heydays of the alter-globalization movement, tens of thousands of activists from all across Europe are expected to descend upon Frankfurt — the continent’s financial capital and seat of the European Central Bank and some of the continent’s largest financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank.

Blockupy Frankfurt is a direct response to the deepening eurozone debt crisis, and in particular to the way unelected technocrats and powerful bankers are responding to it by imposing ever-harsher austerity upon the peoples of Europe. At rock bottom, Blockupy is an attempt to reclaim European democracy from the seemingly unstoppable forces of finance capital.

As organizers put it in an official statement:

We place our actions and protests in the context of the progressing struggles for self-determination, freedom and dignity all over the world — such as the uprisings and revolutions of the Arab Spring, the social struggles and general strikes in Greece, the indignados movement in Spain and the worldwide protests of the Occupy movement. We are not alone and our voices can be heard all over the world.

Starting tomorrow, on May 17, thousands will occupy the squares and parks of the city, pitching their tents, engaging in workshops and debates, and organizing for the big events of the next two days. On May 18, organizers have vowed to block the ECB and financial district for a day. Not just as a symbolic action, but as a direct attempt to physically stop financial activities in the city and thereby block the endless flow of capital that sustains European ‘zombie capitalism‘.

Clearly, it the ‘blocking’ aspect that is the most innovative and most radical contribution of Blockupy to the movement. Organizers correctly recognized that merely occupying a square and building alternative institutions of direct democracy — while absolutely necessary — is not enough. In order to truly challenge the status quo, we will have to go directly after those responsible for causing the crisis, disrupting the functioning of the financial system as such.

All of this, the organizers firmly believe, can be done in a peaceful and non-violent way. Radical protest does not equal violent protest. The emphasis of Blockupy is not on physical aggression but on direct action and civil disobedience. The purpose is not to harm people — but to halt a system that harms people. The goal is not to throw stones and smash windows, as some fear, but to overthrow bankocracy and smash the cultural hegemony of neoliberalism. While Blockupy itself won’t do that, it is an important next step.

Of course those in power, having completely morphed into the system, will consider such a pacific approach inherently violent. After all, a non-violent ‘blockupation’ challenges the very privileges they derive from their control over this system. When the people suddenly rise up in the tens of thousands to take control over their own lives and the public spaces that belong to them, this directly undermines both the symbolic and physical power of the ruling elite.

It is no surprise, therefore, that German authorities immediately banned the protests. After the organizers took legal action, a judge granted permission for the rave of May 16 and the general demonstration of May 19, but upheld the ban on the occupations of the 17th and the blocking actions of the 18th. This means that anyone participating in the actions, regardless of the legality and/or morality of their actions, will a priori be considered a criminal.

But such threats will not stop the movement. After all, as Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in a famous letter from Birmingham Jail, we know that “an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

And so the protesters assembling in Frankfurt decided to push on with their plans anyway. The city center is currently on a complete police lock-down with barricades put up everywhere. This morning, police already moved in to evict the camp in front of the ECB headquarters. So wherever you are, make sure to keep an eye on Frankfurt these days, for the confrontations we are likely to see there will have an enormous impact both on the direction of our movement and the future of the austerity politics currently being shoved down our throats by the political and financial elites.

As John Holloway, known as the ‘philosopher of the Zapatistas’, wrote in an excellent op-ed in the Guardian the other day, “Blockupy Frankfurt offers a glimmer of hope in times of austerity.” Perhaps the ‘blockupy’ strategy is the way forward for our movement, as we radicalize our resistance from OccupyMordor in Barcelona to Occupy NATO in Chicago? By next week, we should know the answer. For now, feel free to speculate below.