LETTER TO G8
collective | 16.03.2005 01:21 | G8 2005 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation | Social Struggles | Sheffield
These are the souls of the broken factories
The subject slaves of the broken crown
The dead accounting of old guilty promises
These are the souls of the broken town (Sting).
Dear G8,
It's very difficult to write this letter...But we'll take the plunge, because your business is no longer merely your business: once again, mankind is your business. Let's talk, then, not only about what you're doing to other people, but about what you're doing to yourselves.
You're gutting our Constitutions. Already your home can be entered without your knowledge or permission, you can be snatched away and incarcerated without cause, your mail can be spied on, your private records searched. Why isn't this a recipe for widespread business theft, political intimidation, and fraud? We are told all this is for our own safety and protection, but we don't want to be slaves.
You want to possess our souls as well as our bodies, in a totalitarian state unknown of in any democracy, parallel only to the so-called (by yourselves) dictatorships you are intent on fighting for the sake of "freedom". Indeed. Your terror bills and new legislation are aimed at reducing even more our discrimination powers: what was food and circus for the Romans is consumerism and soap for us. But even if we agree to be subjects to a crown, we don't agree and will never agree to be your slaves.
You may have thought you were right in choosing to hold your summit in a nation where another high percentage of population did agree to go to war; you thought –but you were wrong—that such a nation would not wake up and rebel and dissent against further surveillance in the new imperialist-fascist state, because we wouldn't see the need. But you were wrong: We don't want your wars, neither in the past, the present or the future. We reject your program of infinite progress for a few and unsustainable poverty for most. As we believe that a better world can, should and will be possible if only we will let it.
We reject your policies of insanity-driven arrogance, of greed before people's needs, and profit before Nature's survival. In fact, we want to live in peace and freedom, but neither in your freedom that means slavery, nor in your peace that means fear inside and endlessly waging war on other peoples.
We don't want this or the other G8 countries to be coordinating spaces for your military actions and airports for your military aircraft --as we believe that a better world can, should and will be possible if only we will let it.
And so people in this country are calling on you, G8, to disband, we are calling for you to stop your deadly itinerary throughout Great Britain, to not come to Sheffield nor to Gleneagles: to leave and get out.
And please... never to come back.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to:
Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, Umberto Eco, Jacques Lacan, Liberty UK, Greenpeace, No2ID, DefyID, Make Poverty History, Save Local Works, Dissent, Peace in the Park, UK Social Fora, European Social Forum, Word Social Forum, the SWP, Stop the War Coalition, the Green Party, People & Planet, the people of Venezuela, the people of Fallujah, Trapese, Circa, the Infernal Noise Brigade, the Samba Band, Rhythms for resistance, Seeds for change, the Creative Network, International Women Social Forum, the NATO (Northern Artist Tactics organization), No a la Guerra, Indymedia, the British Communisty Party,
______________________________
If you wish to find out more, see
http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/g8-sheffield
for info.
____________________________________
(PGA).
The Hallmarks are as follows:
1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all trade agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive globalisation.
2. We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human beings.
3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic organisations, in which transnational capital is the only real policy-maker.
4. A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social movements' struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximise respect for life and oppressed peoples' rights, as well as the construction of local alternatives to global capitalism
5. An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy.
__________________
collective
Comments
Hide the following 9 comments
Sent it?
16.03.2005 09:37
steve
the collective stupidity of simplicity regarding the mobilisation against the G8
16.03.2005 11:58
Could you actually DO something admirable with a practical value instead of writing useless self celebrating articles on Indymedia?
And signing it with Indymedias name is just disgusting.
Put your time actually in something worthy and attractive!
ooops
Writing to Walls
16.03.2005 12:28
karen
Karen
not such a stupid plea
17.03.2005 18:27
Its just a piece in a wider strategy.
oneofthemauthors
And it's aim?
17.03.2005 20:57
fgg\reger
putting the G8 on the defensive...
18.03.2005 04:42
My feeling about the anti-G8 protests, and many others, is that they have
played into the hands of the powerful interests that are being opposed. I
don't want to draw the (weak) analogy too far, but the issue has something
of the feel of just about every colonial war. It was rather striking, in
the Vietnam case, to see that US countersurgency manuals and the NLF
depicted the war in the same terms: the US was politically weak and
militarily strong, the NLF, the converse. Accordingly, each contestant
tried to shift the conflict to the arena where it was strong. That pattern
holds very often, and when those who are politically strong fail to
understand it, they suffer constant disaster, playing into the hands of the
oppressor and conqueror who typically has a near-monopoly of the resources
of violence: the Palestinian struggle has been a notorious example for
years, to the great dismay of people committed to the Palestinian cause who
have constantly warned against the strategies undertaken by the leadership
(Eqbal Ahmed and Edward Said, to mention two; both old and close friends,
with whom I completely agreed about this, and have often written and spoken
about it, until today).
Something similar holds in this case. The opponents of G8 should, as you
say, put it on the defensive. Sometimes demonstrations can be an
appropriate means of focusing attention, but after, and only after, they
opponents have made use of their political strength, so that the
demonstrations are understood by the public, and do not play into the hands
of those who can call out the security forces and make it seem as though
they are defending order against violent disrupters who can only shout
slogans. I think those principles should be borne in mind in working out
detailed tactics, which depend so much on particular circumstances that
only those on the scene can make sensible judgments.
Noam Chomsky
run with it!
18.03.2005 05:59
I'd say to e-mail it to all of the papers in the
UK. Of course, you stand a better chance of publishing it if you first
individually phone the papers and make personal contacts there. Let me know
how you get on with this.
That said, I do think it is urgent that the topics covered in your letter
get out there, so let me know how you get on with it. Dissent seems like a
real "Do-It-Yourself" network! When you say "they" about Dissent, there is
no real "they," it is more like "we" and that means me and you. When you say
it "might get published", I think it is clear that it will only get done if
you do it.
So, keep me informed of your progress, and I hope to see you in Glasgow!
Jason
re:Writing to walls
18.03.2005 12:06
I thought it was a nice idea, if it's part of a 'wider strategy' then what's the problem?
Chipping away at the 'powers that be'and trying to shut down the G8 - that's what we're all trying to do, mais oui?.
So let's work together instead of slagging each other off, OK!
The Purple People & Planet Pixie
Another Brick in the Wall?
24.03.2005 09:24
I think you'll find 'chipping' away at the powers that be is very similar to banging your head against a brick wall! You need a different tool to bring the wall down, otherwise you just hurt your head.
>>So let's work together instead of slagging each other off, OK!
Yes STOP all critical thought! CEASE all debate. ONLY have positive opinions!
none of your business