G8 2006 St. Petersburg
Network Against G8 (Russia / ex-USSR) | 29.12.2005 09:58 | World
Winter Palace St. Petersburg
In July 2006 G8 will hold its summit in St.Petersburg, Russia.
G7 was created in 1975, for informal discussions on economic and political questions between heads of most powerful capitalist states. Russia joined in 1998 - it was accepted thanks to its nuclear arsenal and vast natural resources (in 2004, Russia was only 16th largest economy of the world; e.g. China was not invited to the club). G8 has no juridical status whatsoever, so it exists outside any democratic framework. But it still has become an important spectacle and platform, where top leaders of the world may look for consensus among each other, before imposing their policies on their populations.
We have no illusions about parliamentarian democracy, we are against any governments. Current state of the world proves all too well, that with a submissive mainstream media spreading anti-terrorist hysteria, powers are yet able to submit their citizens to policy of war and destruction. Russia has been one of the forerunners of these developments, with an endless war in Northern Caucasus and suppression of independent media.
We are anticapitalists, and we do not have any illusions about national capital as an alternative to global one. Small diplomatic skirmishes between major powers in regards to North Caucasian and Iraq wars were quickly settled, and essentially all G8 states give at least passive support to policies of each other. Solidarity between elites passes any borders, so our solidarity must do this as well.
Whatever labels media put on us, we are not "antiglobalists". We are for a free flow of people, ideas and struggles - across any borders. When G8 leaders claim to fight for freedom, they are fighting for a freedom of capital accumulation - according to which nuclear waste must have freedom to cross borders into Russia, but people must not have this right. G8 leaders also claim to fight against poverty, but in reality it is their policies that cause poverty in the first place. Moscow has more billionaries than any other city of the world, while vast majority of Russian population has profited nothing from the politics, declared to be aimed at "economic growth", which in any case will last just as long as there are natural resources to be looted. In contrary, it is the very poorest who have been targeted with the neoliberal reforms, such as revoking free social benefits and rising prices of communal payments, which is connected to the plan of Russia joining the WTO.
We call for protests all around the world during G8 summit in St. Petersburg. We also call for a global convergence to St. Petersburg in time of the summit - attention of the whole world will be directed to spectacle of the G8, and we must show that they will be met with protest anywhere they will go! We are everywhere!
Network Against G8 (Russia / ex-USSR)
G7 was created in 1975, for informal discussions on economic and political questions between heads of most powerful capitalist states. Russia joined in 1998 - it was accepted thanks to its nuclear arsenal and vast natural resources (in 2004, Russia was only 16th largest economy of the world; e.g. China was not invited to the club). G8 has no juridical status whatsoever, so it exists outside any democratic framework. But it still has become an important spectacle and platform, where top leaders of the world may look for consensus among each other, before imposing their policies on their populations.
We have no illusions about parliamentarian democracy, we are against any governments. Current state of the world proves all too well, that with a submissive mainstream media spreading anti-terrorist hysteria, powers are yet able to submit their citizens to policy of war and destruction. Russia has been one of the forerunners of these developments, with an endless war in Northern Caucasus and suppression of independent media.
We are anticapitalists, and we do not have any illusions about national capital as an alternative to global one. Small diplomatic skirmishes between major powers in regards to North Caucasian and Iraq wars were quickly settled, and essentially all G8 states give at least passive support to policies of each other. Solidarity between elites passes any borders, so our solidarity must do this as well.
Whatever labels media put on us, we are not "antiglobalists". We are for a free flow of people, ideas and struggles - across any borders. When G8 leaders claim to fight for freedom, they are fighting for a freedom of capital accumulation - according to which nuclear waste must have freedom to cross borders into Russia, but people must not have this right. G8 leaders also claim to fight against poverty, but in reality it is their policies that cause poverty in the first place. Moscow has more billionaries than any other city of the world, while vast majority of Russian population has profited nothing from the politics, declared to be aimed at "economic growth", which in any case will last just as long as there are natural resources to be looted. In contrary, it is the very poorest who have been targeted with the neoliberal reforms, such as revoking free social benefits and rising prices of communal payments, which is connected to the plan of Russia joining the WTO.
We call for protests all around the world during G8 summit in St. Petersburg. We also call for a global convergence to St. Petersburg in time of the summit - attention of the whole world will be directed to spectacle of the G8, and we must show that they will be met with protest anywhere they will go! We are everywhere!
Network Against G8 (Russia / ex-USSR)
Network Against G8 (Russia / ex-USSR)
Homepage:
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/g82006/
Comments
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racist attacks
29.12.2005 14:53
St Petersburg ( where the g8 is being held ) seems to be crawling with neo-nazi skinheads ( several thousand ) at the moment. here's SOME of what they've been up to:-
February 2004
Gang of teenage skinheads stab to death a nine-year-old Tajik girl in St Petersburg
February 2004
A 24-year-old medical student from Guinea- Bissau is stabbed to death by skinheads in Voronezh
June 2004
Nikolai Girenko, one of Russia’s leading anti-skinhead experts, is shot dead through the door of his flat
September 2004
Murder of a 6-year-old girl in an attack on a Gypsy camp south of the city, of St. Petersburg f which also seriously injured a 5-year-old girl and 18-month-old baby
October 2004
A 20-year-old Vietnamese student is stabbed to death by skinheads in St Petersburg
September 2005
Peruvian student beaten to death by skinheads in Voronezh
October 2005
A Congolese student is stabbed to death by skinheads in St Petersburg
November 2005
Timur Kacharava, an anti-fascist philosophy student and musician, is stabbed to death by skinheads in St Petersburg
December 2005
A Cameroonian student is stabbed to death by skinheads in St Petersburg.
There have been MANY other attacks and murders so take care ( when beating a nazi to make sure that they don't get up again.... ; )
gosh it's cold
russia
29.12.2005 16:12
People going there to protest should be aware of the extent to which the Russian police are racist, brutal, corrupt and free to act as they please.
If you're not white they will view you as a criminal whatever you're doing there.
That the G8 is being held there is a PR coup for Putin, who has presided over the continuing genocide in Chechnya, the criminalisation of non Russian communities in the Russian Federation, the aggressive extention of his vertical power structures and the near eradication of the free press/ media.
He is positioning himself re: the 2008 election. That is when according to the constitution, he cannot stand again. The mainstream political opposition has had little effect. He built his "popularity" on race hatred (of southeners- "Chechens" guilty of any crime going...), fear and bribery.
Nonetheless, and in the face of severe reprisals there are groups all across Russia working to protect free speech, the environment, civil society... there are groups working to end conscription, to end the war in Chechnya (and Dagestan and and and...), and to create pockets of liberty in a country that has for centuries struggled against ruthless autocratic rule.
It is important to show that we will not continue to turn a blind eye to genocide, because we have a good deal on gas.
But folk going should be aware of how seriously the authorities will take what they deem "threats". Putin is a KGBman, they aren't like the army (poorly trained, poorly paid and poorly motivated) - they are professionals with a history that goes back to the Bolsheviks and beyond...
Good luck to those going, and lets have some solidarity actions here.....
ex- pert