Reporting back from the G8 protests
SCIMC | 11.06.2007 18:42 | South Coast
FIRST hand reports of the anti-G8 protests were presented at a meeting at Brighton's Cowley Club on Wednesday night, June 13.
A similar session will also be the theme of the next Worthing Alliance meeting at The Rest, Bath Place, Worthing on Thursday June 28.
The feeling from those who had been in Germany was that the protests were a big success and an empowering experience.
Although there had been some question marks over the attitude of certain "organising" groups, the determination and unity of grassroots activists from various backgrounds had overcome this.
While police had acted in a violent and repressive way, particularly away from the TV cameras, the way that protesters had refused to bow to this had been inspiring.
It seemed to also be generally felt that although the protests were inevitably symbolic, they were one of the few concrete ways of being seen to mobilise against capitalism as a whole, rather than one specific aspect of it.
With next year's G8 being held in Japan (and, it was revealed after the meeting, the 2009 summit retreating to a tiny island off Sardinia), talk turned to how the momentum of anti-G8 protest would be maintained in future.
Action focused on financial centres was a possibility. Should this be devolved to national centres in 2008 or should European activists aim to come together in one place in mass solidarity with the opposition to the Japanese gathering of the capitalist elite? The debate has only just begun.
Below is the text of a leaflet distributed to the public by Worthing Anarchists immediately after the G8:
Massive Victory for Army of Protesters
Opponents block summit, media blocks truth
AN AMAZING victory was this week notched up by opponents of the G8 summit of world leaders meeting at Heiligendamm in Germany.
Despite a massive police deployment, 10,000 demonstrators invaded the security no-go zone around the venue and for two days completely blocked land access to the site.
The politicians and their staff had to be airlifted into the Baltic resort town and others, including the international press pack, had to be brought in by boat from further down the coast.
The well-organised protesters had bypassed police roadblocks by streaming through woods and across fields to reach the perimeter fence put up to protect Bush, Blair and the rest.
Many camped out overnight on the front line in a festival atmosphere and defied heavy-handed police attempts to re-open the roads using water cannons - which left several protesters with serious eye injuries.
Meanwhile the German police brutally rammed a Greenpeace dinghy protesting at sea, injuring crew, and a Greenpeace hot air balloon was forced down by a police helicopter.
The German media (now available in Worthing, thanks to the magic of the internet) provided detailed reporting of what is being described as the most spectacular protest in the whole history of the country. “G8 opponents block summit,” declared the front page of the Saechsische Zeitung. “G8 successfully blocked - 10,000 demonstrators block all ways into the summit,” said the Tageszeitung.
But you won’t have heard so much in our own media, which gave little indication of the scale of the protests or the astonishing success that they achieved. While the odd photo or ten-second news report slipped through the net, they were clearly much happier focusing on Emily Parr being thrown out of Big Brother.
This is because:
* They don’t want to give us ideas. They always like to portray the police as all-powerful and protesters as thin on the ground and powerless. In fact, determined people power involving thousands of motivated people is almost impossible for them to overcome - and this scares the establishment to death.
* They don’t want people thinking too much about the issues. Why were all those people protesting? Could it be somehow connected with the mess that our rulers are making of the world? This sort of idea is not considered suitable for the British public.
But luckily the TV and papers no longer have the monopoly on information they used to enjoy and you can find out more about what happened in Germany and the wider issues on the web.
Some useful sites are:
Why the G8 would love to shut down Worthing Hospital
* What is the G8? It is a group of eight of the richest industrialised nations of the world, whose leaders meet up each year in a different country.
* What do they do? They pretend to be working on plans to “end poverty” or “combat climate change”. But in reality it’s all about promoting their own interests and making the world a safe place for big corporations to do business in.
* What do you mean? Well, underlying all the G8 policies is the creed of neo-liberalism, sometimes called capitalism. This wants to see private companies running, and profiting from, everything in the world. In the countries already under neo-liberal control this means “reforms” like the privatisation of water, electricity or the health service. Other poorer countries are pressured to go the same way by the smallprint in loan agreements through the IMF which insist they should “open up” their public sector to foreign firms. If they don’t go along with all this, they may find themselves being invaded and occupied by the USA or their stooges.
* So what has that got to do with Worthing Hospital? We all know the effects of privatisation. The tax payer ends up making certain wealthy individuals even wealthier, while the service gets worse as costs are cut. The current plans for the NHS, which could well see the loss of Worthing Hospital, are part of a long-term plan do away with free health care and introduce the American system, in which you have to sign up to private health schemes to get treatment.
SCIMC