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Liverpool Against G8 / What's it all about

nfn | 02.07.2005 19:10 | G8 2005 | Liverpool

This article is a round-up of G8 info:
- Liverpool Against the G8
- Events in Scotland this week
- Resources & info for protesting & direct action, including G8 Legal Support info


While Radio 1 burbles on about how a bunch of corporate rock acts playing some concerts is a 'historic' event, hundreds of thousands of people who know that this week is about SO much more than a vague good intention to 'help poor people in Africa', are making their way to Scotland.

They're going to protest against a system in which a handful of people get rich on the backs of everybody else, that has killed millions through war, poverty and starvation, and that is destroying the environment. They know that corporate greed preys on us right here in Britain as well as out there in Africa and elsewhere. They're protesting the presence of war-criminal George Bush. But they are also going to plan & live out an alternative, fairer, more peaceful world.

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LIVERPOOL AGAINST G8

- several groups from Liverpool travelled to Edinburgh to take part in the Make Poverty History March today 2nd July
- others have joined the Dissent rural convergence camp for the week to protest at Edinburgh, Faslane, Dungavel and Gleneagles.

“The Hori-zone is an autonomous, convergence space at Borrowmeadow Farm, FK7 7SQ ,Stirling open from 1st - 9th July. It is a zone of self-organisation, horizontal decision making,ecology and autonomy in action. It is a radical campsite in resistance to the G8. It is space where people can organize in an open and participatory way, inviting all to take hold of their own lives and take a part in the creation of their own futures. ”
More info:
 http://www.dissent.org.uk/content/view/250/104/

- Globalise Resistance activists have organized a coach to Gleneagles on Wednesday 6th July: Coach leaves the Philharmonic Hall on Hope Street at 5.45am, returning on the same day. Tickets priced at £20 (please contact us to negotiate concessions) To book tickets, please contact Tom on 07876 798 344 or Nik on 07932 829 917. Tickets are available from News from Nowhere Bookshop on Bold Street.

The latest issue of Nerve magazine has several features about the impact of corporate globalisation right here at home:

New Kensington No Post Office - Globalisation acting locally in Liverpool.
Interview with George Monbiot
Regeneration - the name of the game? - Liverpool a 'clone town'?
Poverty Of Ideas - How inequality has increased under New Labour
Between Promises and Reality - Migrant Workers

 http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve_latest_index.htm

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WHAT'S ON IN SCOTLAND THIS WEEK:

**All Week** - Days of Dissent/Edinburgh Convergence 2005/Turning Ideas Into Action
“Running from the 30th of June the Teviot Space will be a hub of vital interaction during the week of resistance to the G8 summit. Daily plenaries to talk about actions and events, meetings, seminars, workshops, films and exhibitions to explore and highlight the diversity and strength of the movements of movements converging in Scotland. The Teviot is a free, open and autonmous space for urgently needed public debates addressing the real issues behind topics such as climate change and poverty. A space where thousands of people will converge to create, debate and question thereby celebrating that another world is not only possible - it is already living. ”
More info:  http://www.dissent.org.uk/content/view/251/102/

**Sunday 3rd July **

Edinburgh - G8 Alternatives Summit
 http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk/admin/test/g8Mambo/content/view/128/151/

Edinburgh - Counter Conference
 http://www.corporateg8.org/

Glasgow – Make Borders History Tour
 http://makebordershistory.plentyfact.net/index.php/GlasgowJuly3rd

**Monday 4th July**

Blockade Faslane nuclear base - “put a spanner in
the works of global militarism - We won't just be saying a resounding 'NO' to militarism and oppression, or to wars
fought on the pretext of stopping others getting WMDs. We won't just be saying no to politicians who demand others obey International Law whilst flouting it themselves. We won't only be pointing out the criminal behaviour of spending so much money on weapons while half the world starves. We won't just be highlighting the hypocrisy of talking about poverty without mentioning war.
We will be doing all these things, but we're not just going to be talking – we're also going to be taking direct , practical, non-violent action to do something about it . We're going to shut down the largest military base in Scotland for the day.

More info:
 http://www.faslaneg8.com/

**Tuesday 5th July**

Protest at Dungavel Asylum Detention Centre – show support for the asylum seekers who are locked up there. People seeking asylum (who've often been through persecution and horrific ordeals in their home country) are being locked up in detention centres like Dungavel. Detention is being used regardless of the way it is supposed to be used - i.e. people (incl children) being locked up even if they have shown they are willing to report back to the authorities when required, when they are no danger
to anyone and so on.

For the demo - the walls/fences are very high, so it's a good idea to
use kites & balloons to carry messages (in multiple languages if
possible) of support & solidarity that the detainees will be able to
see. Also: bring stuff to make a noise/music that they will be able
to hear.

Close Dungavel : Voices Across Barriers
11:00am July 5th Dungavel Detention Center
 http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk/admin/test/g8Mambo/content/blogsection/17/146/

 http://www.closedungavelnow.com/

Detention of people who have sought
asylum - Amnesty article June 2005:
 http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR450152005

** Wednesday 6th July – Friday 8th July **

Demonstrate Against the G8 Summit at Gleneagles

 http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk/admin/test/g8Mambo/content/blogsection/13/147/

www.g8blockades.org.uk

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PROTESTING PEACEFULLY & SAFELY:

Tips for De-escalating Conflict
 http://www.liverpoolsocialforum.org.uk/resources/de-escalatingconflict.php

Manchester Earth First 'Guide to Public Order Situations
 http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/manchester/porder.htm


G8 LEGAL INFO
From:
 http://www.g8legalsupport.info/

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS - READ BOTH OF THESE:
*Activist's Guide to Scots Law*
 http://g8legalsupport.info/2005/03/08/an-activists-guide-to-scots-law/

*Bust Card*
 http://g8legalsupport.info/2005/06/29/what-to-do-when-you-are-arrested/

(n.b. the pdf version of the bust card does not include the
solicitor's phone numbers - the numbers are on the webpage and
included below)

Contact numbers:

WRITE THESE NUMBERS ON YOUR HAND OR ARM

G8 LEGAL SUPPORT GROUP: Contact us if you are detained, arrested or
witness an arrest (and to let us know when you are released).

Tel: 0845 223 5258 OR 07704 265 843

Email:  g8legalsupport@riseup.net

SOLICITORS ON CALL 24 HOURS A DAY:
- Beltrami Berlow: 0131 554 0999 / 0141 554 0999
- Clare Ryan: 0141 558 0234 / 07977 000 312

DON'T PANIC-DON'T TALK-YOU'LL SOON BE OUT

The Tayside Police website has summit updates:
 http://www.tayside.police.uk/g8/index.php

Other points

- The police are setting up mass detention centres near Gleneagles -
i.e. handy places to put people they arrest.

- in the event of police assault (if you witness or are victim of it):
try & get their badge numbers, get contact details for independent
witnesses, get photo/video evidence, take immediate pictures of any injuries, write a contemporaneous account of what happened (i.e. in
your own words, as soon as you can after it happens - carries more
weight than something you write down sometime after the incident.

GREEN DIRECT ACTION

i.e. avoiding doing damage to the environment in the course of protesting.

- don't buy your supplies for the trip from Tescos/Asda and other
corporate multi-nationals (defeats the object totally) - use
locally-owned shops & businesses. e.g. Mattas International Food
store on Bold St, World Shop likewise on Bold Street, Windmill
Wholefoods on Smithdown Road.

- get yourself a big water container for water for the campsite (they
come collapsible)

- also take a medium-sized plastic bottle that
you can carry your water in (& re-use during the week!) for the
various days out.

- take your rubbish home

- leave the countryside as you find it - if a gate was open leave it
open, if a gate was closed, close it behind you, don't go tramping
over crops.

- Going to the loo - (gents, do not spray arbitrarily around the
countryside!) - dig a hole to do your business (of either variety) in
and bury it afterwards. (Take a garden trowel? you can get
plastic ones, if you're worried about a metal one being mistaken for a weapon).

- transport - going for more than a day, and / or sharing transport /
using public transport, will minimize the pollution you'll be causing.
Protest locally.

nfn

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Capitalism won't perish, unfortunately!!!

03.07.2005 20:23

Capitalism won't perish, because unfortunately it is the lesser of many other evils! Capitalism will perish when people cease to be selfish and greedy! And, in this present world system where the odds are always stacked against the poor, and in favour of the well-off, high-class and etc, there isn't a chance of it happening.

It is middle class in the extreme, to yearn for something politically which will never happen! Perhaps if all these middle class idealists where to give 20-30% of their inflated incomes to charity, homeless, the poor etc, we wouldn't need to go on and on talking about revolutions in Britain that we all know will NEVER happen! The problem isn't that there aren't enough resources to go around, the problem is simply a distortion of wealth distribution. Simply put, one group is paid far too much, and likely already has an abundance of various resources anyway, and another group is paid far too little! Can anyone get their head around this simple reality? It seems not! Or, perhaps the earnest 'Make Poverty History' campaigners don't want to face reality? Who can say?

Why do middle class people decry the very injustice that sees them benefit unfairly at the expense of the poor, the working class and the underclass? You benefit from the injustice, so why the hollow outcry? If anyone really IS genuine about tackling poverty, the demo marchers, campaigners, Green party etc, they will DEMAND a fair minimum wage for all British citizens, a fair state pension for ALL British citizens, a fairer redistribution of wealth through fairer tax systems, and a lowering of prices on utilities, goods and consumer items, the likes of which our cousins in America and continental Europe already have. THIS is reality, a fair redistribution of wealth, NOT middle class pie-in-the-sky designer winebar rhetoric, that is as empty today as it ever was!


Curious


Curiously boring

03.07.2005 22:06

"Curious' your argument is boring - its the same old boring defetist poor working class bulshit. Firstly you are of course talkign from a English perspective. People across the globe are fighting like fuck against captalism against exploitation - against much grater odds than we have. They are fighting against guns and tanks.

There is a quote from J.P. Morgan the guy who owned the american railways at the tunr of the century - he said 'The working class? they are no problem - i'll pay one half to kill the other half' and that has been th defeat of working class resistence. Hugh sections of the WC let the miners down, the printers, etc etc - and the Liverpool Dockers. We didn't need the middle clas to screw us - we swallowed the shit, we followed the shit and many people dug their own graves - and when we face up to that truth - maybe we can begin to rebuild something decent. When we stop whinging about how bad it all is and get on with trying to challange what is going on - then maybe we can begin to organise for change.
we must focus on building the confidence of working class people.


Daz


Fighting for economic justice!

06.07.2005 21:15

I thought fighting for a minimum wage, a fair state pension for ALL citizens, fighting for renationalised industries and public transport and fighting for economic justice for working class people in Britain was not boring! That's the problem, people find fighting poverty boring in general, if it actually changes or really challenges anything that is!

I talk about these things because a change in the social structures in Britain, more taxes for the rich etc, would directly benefit people like me and the class I come from, i.e. the working class! Should we not talk about ALL poverty, not just African and third world poverty, or should we all just be shouted down???? Sorry I opened my mouth!

Curious


PS!

06.07.2005 21:38

Hi Daz, what you are saying to a certain extent is right, and I admire your passion, even if you are on another tangent to me! It IS true that in poorer countries people ARE fighting against capitalism and being attacked by guns and tanks, but this is the thin end of the wedge! Most people in Britain, Europe and the US are not in this position, they merely want a better slice of the pie! Don't we all? This is reality. I am unemployed myself and struggle to find even a half decent job. WE are not being attacked by murderous thugs in the UK as yet. I am not at all negative, I am supremely positive, but also honest and realistic. It seems that if anyone criticises the anti-capitalists et al, they are negative and etc. This is unfair! Opinion is opinion, whether it is by the clued-up, or merely by the casual observer!

I believe implicitly in fairness and economic justice, not just for the third world, but also for the rest of the world! When I am writing, I am writing primarily for myself and for other working class people too. I pray for the day when there is more economic justice in Britain and more economic parity between the well-off and poor.

What is boring about fair wages, proper state pensions, lower prices and better jobs?! Don't we all want that? At the moment, quality of life does not belong to most working class people in Britain. That is a reality. Anyway, peace!

Curious