[Actiwisdom] who-is-who barbara

[barbara at derknut.org]

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.