In 2004 one header of the Scientific Revue was „Nuclear energy – yes, please!“. Reports on new power plants etc. followed. After a first irritation we tried to estimate the development. It became clear: The talk about the “renaissance of nuclear energy” is an international phenomenon. And: We have to talk, with people who are able to judge the situation elsewhere. Which actors are there in energy politics? How do they seize upon resources? What are the social consequences? Is there resistance? Can we learn from it? Those kind of questions we would like to ask on the BUKO 29.

We were not sure whether others are attaching similar relevance to them. But with the conflict on gas imports, the pictures of New Orleans and the imminent war in Iran the energy sector came back into sight for the left. And it is very dynamic. Relations are set in motion. In Nigeria: The military regime is increasingly loosing their control on the oil production (ÖLFÖRDERUNG) to local warlords. In Latin America: While Western companies are getting a hold of the mains and power plants in Central America, in parts of South America an energy policy is developing competing with the access of the USA.

We will start with these examples which are alarming the global North. Country reports will illustrate the energy situation in Latin America, the imperial access on resources and the resistance against it. We will analyse the oil exploitation in Nigeria. We will add workshops on the energy policy of China, whose “hunger for energy” again and again is used to explain the rising costs for energy. Another subject is waterpower which unfolds similar consequences on the developing world like nuclear power plants. Herewith colonially formed power relations are playing a substantial role. Friday evening we would like to join with all speakers and put together the lines of discussions of the whole forum in order to further the debate. On Saturday we will provide time for theoretical approaches. We will compare the energy systems of the “triad” USA-Japan-Europe, whose similarities are stronger than some European ecological forefinger feels convenient with. Then a short excursion into the radical left allotment: Is it possible to develop emancipative utopias for the future energy supply in Germany?

One line of subjects is dedicated to ecologically extended Marxism which is explaining the global energy system as nuclear-fossil. The energy system is driven to its limits through the capitalistic accumulation. Symptoms of crisis are et. al. the lasting exclusion of a third of the world’s population from the access to modern forms of energy, the finiteness of fuels, the climate change, and the constant danger of a massive release of radio-active substances. You see, there is huge need of clarification in this forum. We hope, that the preparation will not only b e reflected in the number of subjects, but also in the gain of knowledge.

Crash Cours: Energy Systems
With: Jörn (AntiAtomForumBerlin)
Possibilities to analyse societies from an energetic perspective. An introducing discussion of the notion of energy system to be used as a basis for an historical-materialistic analysis as well as for a criticism of societies and their relation to nature. Change of perspective – practically oriented!

Crash Cours: Test Climbing for Activists
With: People from the movement
Up the trees, down the trees – it does no harm to also know how to do this, does it?

Introduction

• http://www.oekosozialismus.net/

Marxism and Energy
With: Anton Schweiger
An – ecologically extended – Marxism is able to closely define the industrial-capitalistic energy systems as well as the resulting societal development crises. It is also a practical instruction to act for the creation of societal developments taking the direction on a solar revolution.

The Energy Politics of China
Maximillian Mayer
What exactly does „hunger for energy” mean? How does the energy supply change in China? Where are the differences in the international appearance of China and of Western industrial states? And what about local resistance in this country? One workshop is dealing with China’s activities on international energy “markets”, another one is focusing on changes in China itself.

When the Talking Stops: Oil exploitation, rentier economies and the limits of emancipatory defiance. On the transformation of social movements into warlord militias in the Niger Delta (Nigeria).
Ruben Eberlein
Targeted murders, car bomb assaults and attacks of heavily armed groups at local and international corporations as well as institutions of the central state all are daily occurrences in the Niger Delta. A substantial part of the social movements of the 1990s (which successfully mobilised against social marginalisation, political ostracism and ecological depletion) today subscribes to a separatist project aiming to break up the Nigerian state. Political entrepreneurs from the region use the separatists in order to strengthen their positions. Opposition against their own predatory rule is ruthlessly suppressed.
At the workshop, Michael Watts' work on the 'oil complex' in Nigeria will be introduced. Moreover, we will discuss the limits of emancipatory defiance and the social disintegration into armed groups in the Niger Delta.

Criminal Energy – The Transformation of the Energy System in Central America
With: Ulf Baumgärtner
Which transformations are there in the energy sector of the periphery? We will start an inventory using the example of Nicaragua and El Salvador. Who is taking a hold of the access on which resources and how does the resistance against it looks like? We will show the film “Land unter Strom” (“Country in Power”) extending the view on Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

Guidance by the exhibition: Atomic Permanent Waste Disposal Morsleben [in the morning]
Falk Beyer

New Scope South America – How much Independence is in the Oil of South America?
With: Raul Zelik
We will analyse present developments in Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. The newly defined position of Venezuela is visible in supplying socially disadvantaged families in the USA with cheap oil. But how can we judge the new self-determination of Venezuela? What is the role of the state? Which scope do left governments have und which scope do emancipatory social movements have?

Large-scale Energy Projects on the Example of Brazil
With: Tina Kleiber (ASW), Regine Richter (Urgewald e.V.)
We will confront the nonsense and the negative consequences of water and nuclear power plants in Brazil with the potentials for renewable energies. Furthermore, we will show efforts of a region menaced by devastation to recover from the consequences of the large-scale projects.

When the Talking Stops
With: Ruben Eberlein
Transformation of social movements in warlord-miliz in the Nigerdelta (Nigeria).

Synopsis of the Forum Energy (Plenum)

Collectivisation of the Energy Supply during the Spanish Revolution 1936 [10:00 - 11:30 h]
The Spanish revolution has left many examples to show that market and state could be replaced by the formation of self-governed structures. This workshop is focusing on processes of collectivisation, self-governed structures and production not only in the field of energy.

History of the Anti-Nuclear Movement in Germany [10:00 - 12:30 h]
With: People form the movement
Sit-down blockades, water canons, barricades, petitions, camping culture, foundation of parties, militancy, homeland security and anarchy – everything is in it in the alleged one-point-movement with long tradition.

Energy politics and Energy Systems of the Powers of the Triad [10:00 - 12:30 h]
With: Anton Schweiger
The energy systems of the powers of the triad USA, EU and Japan will be analysed according to mode of function and conflicts of interests. Concerning global use of energy and climate, is the EU able to contribute to a multilateral world order and to new world political alliances in the direction of a solar revolution?

Nuclear Energy: Everything under Control? [10:00 - 12:30 h]
With: Xanthe Hall, IPPNW
Safeguard control and IAEO Control Regime: without these two terms the discussion on Iran is not understandable. What does the IAEO control and who is controlling the IAEO?