"o, the noble duke of york,
he had ten thousand men;
he marched them up to the top of the hill,
and he marched them down again..."

my point is (in case you havent grasped it,) that there is absolutely NO point in assembling large numbers of people just for the very sake of it, no matter how meaningful or insistent, vague or divergent their wishes are. if gathering about 1 million to oppose the war in iraq achieved nothing (believe me, it didnt !) then i think you may have to face up the hard truth , that the whole business of protest, which was revived in the late 1990s , has fallen flat to be used for the purposes of the labour party, ie in their "non" blairite guise. in other words, the protest scene is controlled by people who rather like things the way they are, but are vaguely troubled by the criminal actions of the labour cabal in downing st. unfortunately, they vaguely choose to ignore the fact that the two are profoundly LINKED. those of us who lived through the 1970s will know that the story of labour working hand in glove with global capitalism is nothing new, and far from "surrendering" to the IMF then, (as apologists and, oddly, the tories would claim) labour willingly co-operated with the monetarist policy in accordance with their pro- USA "atlantic" outlook. it is hardly a simplification to say that new labour is merely a continuation of all that, minus the pretence of socialism.
if you wanted to stop the wars which are raging away at regular intervals now, and indeed halt the G8, IMF, WTO, etc, then instead of listening to his majesty geldof's populist prattlings, then organise a MASS STRIKE. ALL OUT NOW, WHATEVER YOUR GRIEVANCE ! anything less will achieve nothing

Whatever the goals of Sir Bob (who's event is advertised by the G8 website) or Make Poverty History (some of whos financial backers seem to be the very companies that have done and will continue to do rather nicely out of African poverty).... the goal of most people mobilising around the G8 under the banner or network of Dissent appears to be that of SHUTTING DOWN THE G8.

Now this might be an improbable outcome, but we have achieved such grand goals in the past and we can again. It is not a mater of number (although they often help) but a mater of resolve and imagination.

Mass lobbying, as you rightly point out, is in the hand of those with power to either ignore or co-opt. Those who seek to see one million people peacefully rasing their voice might as well organise a letter writting campaign or a petition.

"All out strike"? You mean general strike labour, movement ignoramous. Well that would certainly put a stop to the planned mass protest (seems so many will be travelling on Virgin trains, and getting their supplies from ASDA, and wanting to fuel their jalopies) which is what you are advocating.

Just don't get your gibber, sons? You on planet cop? Because like them you haven't got a clue.

Seems the confused and the disinformation professionals are on overtime, and doing a piss-pour job for the millions upon millions that have been spent so far to stop these protests and days of dissent and action going ahead. The supertanker is getting up to full steam now - it just can't be stopped. Don't even think about it.

If a million are having an illuminating street party ain E'Burgh and elsewhere, drinking the love (and real ale with miniminal frothy head)and raging against the obscene machinations at Gleneagles then that's one hellava focus and kick-start to a week of fun, and games shaming the self-appointed masters of the world, and may turn out to be the biggest display yet, of Global Dissent.

Stay away from Scotland and rot in your in your Bullshit propaganda, bubble along with Bush, Blair and Burlosconi and their psychotic sychophantic acolytes. If what youse write is the level of the oppositions propaganda - it's already game.

The general strike is the coup de grace - kept well up the sleeve.


Cheers, guys. What would we do without you - nothing different. That's what.

Onwards! Full-steam ahead!

There three absolutely unnecessary gammatically tortuous commas in my comment above. Spot them and you and a friend win a free trip to Edinburg and free access to Harry's Bar at the convergence centre and camp outside Edinburg for the duration. And a free recycled cardboard tanker will be yours too (normal price £10)!

Beers and cider will be free too!! For everyone!!! Yes, free beer!!!!!!!

Just reply with you name bank account umber and sort code for security reasons to my email address.

Have a super protest.

Rage angainst at the Roman Empire

Love

Harry and Mary

Please stop making jokes about this - it is a serious matter and these forums should be for people who don't have an individual point to make against each other's egos - just get a grip or I'll kick the living daylights out of the two of you - we don't really want paople like you coming to Scotland - only serious minded people that arwn't shy to speak their minds regarding world poverty and the greed of the western world -

oh, and by the way - if your thinking about travelling in a car to Edinburgh, remember where you bought your petrol - personally right now I don't give a shit how you get here, - as the song goes - just get here if you can!

Lets do a Moses and set the Blairy-Bush on fire,

Rab, (Edinburgh resident and owner of The Wee Web)

HI guys i would just like to say why the hell are you going on about the G8 being so crap??? because if you think that you can do a better job please feel free to give it a go because i could really do with a laugh at the mo!!!!!

yall need to fuck some shit up at the g8 meeting.
dont listen to the boring ass liberal bitches who hide behind "peace" when the world is getting fucked.

bring it the fuck down!!!!!

Erm " Markparffitt@hotmail.com", I know you are trolling, but how might these people "give a go" and "being" the G8? I am pretty certain that no-one who has posted anything here is one of the 8 richest industrialised nations. I doubt even more that any of these people is all 8 (the G8). If you wish to turn me into a rich industrialisation or a G8, then I will leave my home address next time for you to advise. If not, do be less silly please.

Responding to the opening troll or comment....'protesting against war and G8 wont work, we should have a general strike instead'. Ever heared the expression you need to learn how to walk before you can run?

General strike? Wow, genius, good idea.

One day, may be. (And the sooner the better).

BUT in case you haven't noticed, the workers movement here took a severe blow 20 years ago with the defeat of the miners strike.

And we have still not yet recovered.

And when the workers movement does emerge again as a force to be reckoned with, it will have to be on a global rather than a national scale.

I support mass street protests against war and mass action around the G8 summit because they give us a chance of rebuilding class consciousnes and class organisation in a new way, on a new scale.

And these things CAN shake our rulers (even if they can't on their own end capitalism).

To dismiss the protests because they are not strikes can only demoralise and demobilise the opponents of capital (perhaps your intention?).

It is like kicking down an infant who is trying to walk, or even crawl - and screaming at them that they should be sprinting the 4 minute mile.

It is the sort of pointless shit that is posted here all too oftern.

I FOR ONE AM OFF TO GLENEAGLES!!!

I was seated in my attic about to start a letter to my Spanish "friend" Maria, relating a most unexpected turn of events that took place in my local watering hole, The Balls and Gooseberry on Sunday, which may give a clue as to the whereabouts of the legendary day-time TV chat show host Richard Madley, when I spotted the flyer on my desk regarding the villages mobilisation for the G8. I should have posted details of this on this tinternet news real yesterday. So I put down my pen and surfed to this site pronto otherwise I will incur the fearsome wrath of Nora, who leads both the village keep-fit and weight-watchers classes. She is thin as a stick I might add, and a tad manic.

Before I tell the protest community about our humble plans, can I say that some of the comments made above are somewhat Jazzmatic as Athur, the 50's hipsters and lead trombonist in the village small swing band, would say.

Sometimes Yankees can use the foulest language, which would bring about immediate ejection from The Goose. Even when on ladies darts night when the girls have been known to utter a few ungrateful phases loaded with expletives when the Goose manager lilly ( real name Peter who really has a pickled-liver) brings out the gratis player’s buffet meal: cheese sandwiches. But nobody in their right mind would challenge Gloria, the darts captain, 22 stones of liberated woman who “takes no shit from noon”, as she frequently reminds everyone.

This yanks have plenty of spunk though, and if there are enough like the gentleman above, we’ll have Mr. Blair, Mr Bush, and Snr. Burlosconi “shiteing bricks”, to use another of Gloria’s quips.

Barry Kade: many congratulations, at last some sense, logical analysis and truth. This is the truth that Rosa luxembourg, Albert Einstein, Issaac Newton (before he went completely bonkers), marin luther King, and a few other dudes sought. Bravo Barry, what would the world be without people like you, a mess of relative liber bollocks, I am sure

Back to why I came on this news real - Our G8 action. The villages pop-dance keep fit club, weight-watches club, Morris dancer’s team and the small swing band all got together to produce some musical street theatre which pushes the envelope of avant-garde protest; it’s called: “Incredibly Scary Dancing!” We are going to jam coppers empty heads and bombard their senses with this …mmm … extraordinary weapon. Nora is leading the show. Herself, the manic-stick-insect recons it’s sure to put a few pigs in on the psychiatric wards.

So, job done; the action is now in the public domain, so we’ll probably have a visit from the local constabulary – another lesson in half-wittedness, no doubt.

Anyway, must return to writing that letter to Maria.

Your in truth

Harold.