so ich habe hier mal was über mich geschrieben. Ich fände es gut, wenn bei der Übersendung betont wird, dass es sich hier um persönliche Details handelt, die auch als solche behandelt werden sollten und dass wir selbstverständlich ihre Beschreibungen auch an niemanden weitergeben werden, dass sie nur da sind um sich gegenseitig kennenzulernen und einschätzen zu können. Nicht dass dann persönliche Beschreibungen an Anträge angeheftet werden oder so.

Name: Barbara Macholdt Age: 29

Personal background: I am born in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt. I lived in Heidelberg for my studies at university there 2002-2008. I was travelling for more than a year from one political action to next and finally moved to Berlin in 2010 where I am still living.

Political experiences background: I was involved in the student protests against the study fees 2007-2009 and for structural changes at university. In the state where I went to university a students parliament is forbidden by law since 1971 and there were quite a lot of struggel to get that back. Last year they finally changed the law. After the g8 meeting 2007 and the big protests agains it I started giving trainigs for civil obedience and knowledge for actions. I learned climbing for actions and did several blockades or actions using climbing skills. I also lived a few months in a squat of a forest, trying to prevent a company from cutting the trees for an extension of the airport in Frankfurt (we failed but it got quite expensive for the government and the company. I became part of the "clandestine insurgent rebel clown army" and later also gave trainings for that. We use the clowns as an instrument to distract police and to act as deescalation or a leading factor during demonstrations. But we also do actions as political clowns on our own without demonstrations. Parallel to all that I was and still am active in the more autonomous spectra, that means selforganized structures like gardens, cafés, autonomous social centers, autonoumous polical groups. I dont belong to any organization and at least the police says that I am anarchist :o)

Why I am part of this project: Well, the reason that I know about this project is that I am part of the network skills for action that was first asked by kengonet to come to Nairobi for an action training camp before the election. But my personal reason is that I think if you want to change things it will in most cases only work when you have enough pressure on the streets. For me it is important, that the protest on the streets is nothing static but always changing its faces. Only by this it is possible to stay unpredictable and surprise the public/police/governement. In order to do that we all need to exchange experiences so that we can learn different strategies and improve or change our own actions. So I hope to get an inspiring exchange how things are done in Kenya and how they are done in Germany and have discussions to figure out the points which we can learn from each other and to reflect our own actions.