UK G8 2005 Feature Archive
AUDIO: "Voices from Africa" Conference - G8 - Migrants - Aid, Trade, Debt - HIV
31-05-2005 16:28
There were excellent presentations and speeches by the usual suspects - Patrick Harvie, Tommy Sheridan, Aamer Anwar, representatives from Oxfam and G8 alternatives - but the most succesful aspect to the conference, what made it really striking, was the African speakers.
The conference was held at Caledonian University - Glasgow - 23rd April 2005.
Sheffield Prepares to Welcome the G8
30-05-2005 18:35
The Justice and Home Affairs ministers from the G8 countries are meeting in Sheffield from Wednesday 15th until Friday 17 June. The issues to be discussed at the Sheffield ministerial meeting include counter-terrorism, migration, law enforcement, the expanded use of DNA and legal affairs. People in Sheffield have co-ordinated a number of actions and events against the G8. Full details of these events and a timeline can be found on the Sheffield Against G8 website.
Sheffield Indymedia G8 coverage | Sheffield Against the G8 | Peace in the Park | Sheffield Stop The War Coalition
World Leaders Run Out of Control in Oxford
16-05-2005 16:02
Leaders of the powerful G8 countries ran wild in Oxford on Saturday, shaking hands, waving and dancing to samba rhythms.
The performance drew cheerful crowds and called for more power to be given to multinational corporations. Oxford residents were warmly invited to join the leaders at their next summit in July near Edinburgh. Vladimir Putin and George Bush cried out for people's support in practical terms, particularly by continuing to "work your boring jobs and do what you're told".
The oligarchal octet and its samba entourage also took in the army recruitment event in Gloucester Green, where the G8 leaders gave thanks for the help of the armed forces in controlling the world and opening new markets for corporate ownership. War was also praised as a great way to keep down the population of poor people, thus helping to reduce world poverty. Omitted were the ways in which military spending contribute to the global economy and create opportunities for governments to invest heavily in technical research while leaving the corporations in control of the final products.
Don't forget to come to the G8 action meeting at OARC (Oxford Action Resource Centre) on Wednesday 18 May, 6pm!
Report and Pictures | Corporate-Governmental Global Relationships and the G8 | New Corporate Watch Report on the G8 | Dissent Network | Oxford Action Resource Centre | Breach of the Peace Radical Samba Band
G8 Alternative Media Convergence and Summit Appeal
09-05-2005 13:33
Indymedia, together with other grass roots and alternative media groups are preparing for the G8 2005 Summit in Scotland in July. Several physical IMC centres are being planned to facilitate DIY reporting of the events around the G8.
Want to get involved? Have equipment you can lend or donate? Get in touch and find out more on the info page for the G8 Independent Media Convergence event. The convergence was held at the Institute for Autonomy social centre in London 14-15th May.
Money is also needed to help secure venues, vehicles for mobile media facilities and equipment - please consider donating money to Indymedia.
[ Convergence Call and Registration | Convergence Video Invite ]
Pedal Powered Revolutionaries
29-04-2005 10:25
To celebrate 10 years of critical mass, over 800 cyclists took to the streets in London last year with a bike samba band, live guitar from a rickshaw, multiple sound systems, mad bikes the like of which have to be seen to be believed. It was massive, and it happened again on Friday April 29. At least 500 cyclists, rollerbladers and skateboards joined the 11th Annivesary in London [photos 1, 2, 3, report]. There will also critical masses in Glasgow, Liverpool and Nottingham [photos] - and probably other cities around the country as well.
On Saturday 30th April there was a successful mass "against climate change, pollution and the G8" in Worthing, Sussex. Meanwhile, in Sheffield on June 11th and the 15th there are more rides to coincide with an anti-war demo and the G8 meeting of Justice and Interior Ministers in Sheffield taking place 15th/17th.
Whatever the Weather
26-04-2005 19:23
Update 28/04/05: BP tree sit enters third day. Support requested throughout the day, and a noise demo has been called for today at 4pm
According to the UN, climate change kills 150,000 people every year. Tony Blair has described the threat as the gravest we face, but does nothing to address the issue. In an attempt to put climate change and energy policy on the public agenda, tuesday saw not one but two actions.
Four women and four men scaled the Deputy Prime Minsiter house in Hull at dawn, erecting solar panels. A banner read, 'Hi, 2 Jags! Hit targets not voters'. Their statement said that John Prescott's is putting Britain's climate change targets at risk by failing to make UK homes more energy efficient.
"The Deputy PM's got a reputation for straight-talking, but since the election kicked off we've heard barely a squeak about climate change from big hitters like him... Whoever wins on May 5th needs to get serious about energy efficiency.", said one of the protesters from the roof.
Meanwhile in London, protesters from London Rising Tide climbed two huge trees opposite the head office of British Petroleum in St James Square. They unfurled a huge banner reading 'BP fuels climate chaos' while others leafleted passers-by, BP workers and member of the press. Earlier this month, the BP AGM was targetted by the 'Greenwash Guerrillas'.
Tuesdays actions coincided with BP announcing record profits (£1.3m per hour this quarter) as they reap the rewards of surging oil prices since the invasion of Iraq. Some of the protesters stayed up the trees overnight and greeted workers as they arrived in the morning.
- BP action : press release, leaflet, photo story, more photos. detailed account
Note: There will be a day of action against climate change on the 8th July as part of the mobilisations against the G8 summit.
Police, Lies, and Video Tape
14-04-2005 11:18
Over 90% of the people arrested have since be found to have commited no crime. Police video 'evidence' presented in court by the prosecution was proved to have been doctored in at least one case. You can read the transcripts of the Democracy Now! interviews about this story that aired last week or check out the whole show as audio or video.
While the availability of cheap video technology has led to an increase in the amount of video being presented as powerful evidence in court. Police in this country are clearly targetting 'unsympathetic journalists' in an attempt to both stifle any publicity given to protests and avoid public scrutiny of their own actions. In a recent example, a freelance journalist was arrested just minutes after filming an arrest that occured during a protest outside a meeting of G8 environment ministers taking place in London. It was reported afterwards that the police kept the footage and the camera but typically, the charges have since been dropped.
G8: Genoa: Police on Trial for Brutal Diaz Raid
06-04-2005 20:18
In the raid on the Diaz school over 90 people were arrested. At least 62 people suffered injuries after police savagely beat people, some still in their sleeping bags - 31 people were taken to hospital, three of them in a critical state. Some are still receiving medical treatment.
Almost four years after the raid various high ranking police officers stand accused of fabricating evidence (eg planting molotov cocktails) and trying to cover up the responsibility for the attack. Many of the police who took part in the raid are still not identified since they wore masks and no identification numbers.
The trial is expected to resume later towards the end of the summer.Meanwhile the trial of officres accussed of torture at Bolzaneto detneion centre, were those arrested were taken, continues.
With the latest G8 Summit due in July this year in Scotland, civil liberties groups will be watching the behaviour of the authorities very closely indeed.
Reports: Diaz Victims Group Statement
Amnesty International Statement Re Genoa Police Trials
Genoa G8 Trials: Laptop Seizure And Punishment | (2)
Inhuman And Degrading Treatment" Of Bolzaneto G8 Detainees
Links: Genoa Supporto Legale (en) | Italy Indymedia Genoa Pages | Genoa Justice Campaign | The Committee for Truth and Justice for Genoa
Indymedia 2001 Coverage:
Indymedia Genoa Newsblast - IMC Compilation Reports: one | two
IMC UK Genoa 2001 Timeline | Genoa Features
See also: PGA reports page | PGA pictures page | Collected Reports (various sources) | Horrific Raid at GSF / IMC Account
Mainstream Press: Guardian: Now, the reckoning | Guardian (AP): G8 Protesters Were Abused
See also: UK G8: Cases dropped against G8 arrestees
G8 Clampdown in Derby
20-03-2005 22:29
The biggest police operation [ 1 | 2 ] since the 1984-85 miners' strike was mounted in Derby to protect a G8 Environment Ministers Meeting between 15 and 19 March 2005. This involved orders under Section 13 of the Public Order Act to ban the holding of "public processions through the City of Derby" (funerals were exempted) for five days and then under Section 14 a protest was allowed on the 17 March which involved a "designated protest site of Derby Market Place", a time limit and a maximum number of 3,000 protestors.
Events on M17 started with a Critical Mass bicycle protest in the morning with around 40 people taking part, police arrested twelve cyclists, who were released on bail that night, however their bicycles have been kept "as evidence".
Around 100 protestors then gathered in the only place they were alowed to — the Market Place — and spent the afternoon hanging around, listening to some samba, eating snacks from Veggies and watching Bush and Blair get pied. The point of the protest was explained by a representative of Friends of the Earth, "We're trying to take this opportunity with the G8 Environment and Development Ministers meeting just outside Derby to send a direct message to those ministers, particularly about the rhetoric that's being used in terms of climate change, and actually trying to encourage them to take action rather than just talk about the issue — and also to stop pumping our tax-payers' money into new oil developments and actually look at real solutions to climate change."
The G8 Justice and Home Affairs ministers are due in Sheffield between 15 to 17 June 2005 and Sheffield Dissent has a g8-sheffield email list to discuss what protests might be organised — now we have an idea of what to expect...
Protests At G8 Ministerial Meetings
10-03-2005 00:01
Derby G8 Protests Go Ahead Amidst Massive Policing Operation
March 17th: Despite extraordinary measures approved by the Home Secretary to Ban all Marches in Derby [see pics of orders] and set up exclusion zones, the Derby G8 protests went ahead. A Critical Mass bicycle protest took place in the morning with around 40 people taking part - police arrested 12 cyclists [see pics], who were released on bail that night, however their bicycles have been kept 'as evidence'. Later amidst a militarised Derby with riot police [pics] stationed across the city, and several police surveillance units filming protestors, around 100 people gathered in the Town Square to protest against the G8.
See: Breaking News Reports from Derby M17 Protests
Pics: Bush + Blair Pied + General Photos
Pics: G8: Derby M17 Picture Collection
Pics: Derby Photo Report PtII
Friends of the Earth Interview at Derby M17
In the run up to the this summer's July G8 Summit in Gleneagles (Scotland), ministers from the eight more powerul economies have been holding 'mini-summits' around the country.
14-15th March: Coinciding with the International Energy and Environment Ministers' Roundtable meeting in London (see DEFRA link) a Climate Change Noise Protest was held on Tuesday 15th. Amidst heavy police security there were two arrests - including one person who was filming and whose film was seized. See Reports 1 | 2 | 3 and Pictures.
11th March: While the Employment Ministers of the G8 nations were meeting in London, activists staged a protest outside the Department of Trade and Industry and other locations [see report and pics 1 | 2 | 3]. Also see www.nodeal.org.uk for background and press release.
On Monday an Alternative Summit for Climate Justice called Moving Beyond the Greenwash was also held in London.
Other planned G8 Ministerial meetings include the G8 Finance Ministers in London (June 10-11th), the G8 Justice & Interior Ministers in Sheffield (June 16-17th), and the G8 Pre-Summit Foreign Ministers meeting in London (23rd June). For more protests and events follow the 'read more' link...
G8 Comes to Derbyshire and Sheffield
25-02-2005 22:55
One legacy that the former home secretary has left the city is a meeting of the G8 Justice and Home Affairs ministers on the 15th to 17th June 2005, to be held somewhere in Sheffield. There is also a G8 Environment and Development Ministers Meeting in Derbyshire on 17-18th March, see M17 Derby - Protest the G8 for details of the critical mass and street party that is planned.
The G8 are the group at the heart of the corporate Globalization and the key exponents of a neoliberal economic agenda. This is an agenda which essentially promotes and protects free trade in all its forms. All aspects of life, from the production and exchange of essential goods and services, through to our health care and education, are to be determined by the forces of the "free market", maximising profit at any human or environmental cost. The G8 are responsible for co-coordinating a neo-liberal assault on our livelihoods, public services, jobs, wages and environment. In addition, the powerful influence of the G8 over international institutions such as the World Trade Orgainsation and the International Monetary Fund ensures that their interests dominate.
In an ever increasing climate of harsh criticism and suspicion over their agenda, the G8 have made promises on seeking solutions to the world's problems, but in reality have failed to deliver in making any progressive changes. Examples of this are their inability to cancel debts owed by the world's most poorest nations, or implement the Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse omissions that are killing our planet.
Over 2005, the UK holds the Presidency of the G8, and over this year will be hosting a series of ministerial meetings around the UK, culminating in the heads of state summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, on 6-8th July Ministers from the G8 countries will gather to discuss a range of issues from security, trade, relations with developing countries, energy and the environment. Even domestic issues, such as employment will be discussed. The meeting to be held in Derbyshire in March is on the enviroment and development, where as the one in Sheffield will be on justice and home affairs issues, including including counter-terrorism, migration, law enforcement, legal affairs and hi-tech crime.
Sheffield City Council appear to be welcoming the summit to Sheffield. Council Leader Jan Wilson has said that "Hosting the G8 JHA summit will put Sheffield firmly on the map..." and The Star has reported that "A huge armed police operation is expected to seal Sheffield city centre for the meeting to prevent a terror attack".
Over the past several years G8 Summits have been a focus for protests and counter summits. Following the Peoples Global Action call for a united global day of action in 1998, the Summit protests have, however, grown and strengthened, forcing the G8 Summits to more inaccesible locations with ever increasing security costs. The venue for the Ministerial meetings in Sheffield and the security implications that will follow are not yet known.
Sheffield Dissent | Resist the G8 - Global Call Out | Dissent Network | G8 Alternatives | Make Poverty History | Faslane G8 Action | G8 Feminist Action | Queer G8 | Jubilee G8 Bike rides | G8 Cycle Caravan | Resist G8 | Reshape G8 | French mobilisation | German mobilisation | IMC Scotland | UK IMC G8 Topic | Sheffield G8 Topic
G7 Finance Leaders Get Noisy Welcome as Thousands Protest
05-02-2005 19:36
The day before on Feb 3rd, tens of thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square to demand the elimination of world poverty. Nelson Mandela delivered the keynote speech where he called for millions of people to carry the message of ending poverty to the G8 Summit in Scotland in July, saying: "Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom. Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.". See report, pics, speech in full and comments. [MP3 Audio: hear speech in fullPart 1, Part 2] [Oxfam video]
Just days before, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, at the World Social Forum 2005, the Call from the Assembly of the Social Movements pledged to take to the streets in mass mobilisations against the G8 Summit, while the Caracol Intergalaktika, the WSF International Youth Camp, called for mass resistance against the G8 and other summits taking place this year, including the IMF / World bank, FTAA and WTO.
See also: G7 Report - the G7 has no intention of cancelling the debt
SchNEWS on the G7 Finance Ministers' Meeting
Report on Church launch of Make Poverty History (Jan 29)
UK taking over G8 presidency
02-01-2005 03:31
As 2005 begins, the UK has taken over the Presidency of the G8 in a flurry of media coverage about Aid, Trade, Debt and Climate Change, in advance of the G8 Summit scheduled for July 6th-8th 2005 in Scotland. Jan 1st was also the official launch of the celebrity backed Make Poverty History coalition campaign, which is part of a wider campaign - the Global Call to Action against Poverty (see also the UN listed initiatives around the Millennium Development Goals).
The UK Government has recently launched it's official G8 website complete with the much criticised 'thistle' logo and a special message from Prime Minister Tony Blair (see alternative message from the PM).
As the various mobilisations against the G8 Summit gear up for 2005 it's clear there's going to be a massive security operation in Scotland - so far estimates put the security cost alone at £150M. Hundreds of local residents will have to register with police for photographic ID cards in order to remain in their homes and to pass through checkpoints and roadblocks.
The Assembly of the Social Movements at the European Social Forum in London Oct 04 stated in their declaration: "We oppose the G8’s self-assumed task of global government and neo-liberal policies, and therefore we pledge to mobilise massively on the occasion of the G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005".
Groups involved in both the Dissent! Network and the G8 Alternatives Network have pledged to disrupt the Summit as well as promoting practical alternatives in a series of awareness raising events, counter conferences and local community projects. Yet more mobilisations include anti-war activists, anti-nuclear campaigners and environmentalists who are planning on blockading Faslane nuclear submarine base on Monday 4th July as well as taking action to highlight climate change. Protests are planned in several cities, with Edinburgh expected to play host to some of the larger demonstrations with well over 100,000 people expected.
Other links: International Dissent!/Anti-G8 Meeting in Feb 2005 | Media War Against G8 Protestors Begins (secret anarchist training camps) | Alternative Versions of Band Aid 20 - Do they know it's christmas | Bono praises Brown - Clinton praises Blair - global poverty love in! | Anti-Capitalist Symbols 'Hijacked' for G8 2005 (J18 and Ya Basta!) |
See Also: IMC Scotland | Imcuk G8 Reports Section | Perth & Kinross Council G8 website | University of Toronto G8 Information Centre
Cont'dProtests at Band Aid Whitewashing Poverty Issues
18-11-2004 09:37
On the 14th November outside the recording studios in Hampstead where "Do They Know It's Christmas" - Band AID 20 (named after the 20-year anniversary of the original) was being re-recorded, demonstrations took place by protesters arguing that Band Aid is little more than a screen "whitewashing the real issues behind world poverty". Shouts of 'real aid, not band aid', 'don't whitewash Africa' and boo's were audiable over the screams of fans and onlookers. One protester was arrested for handing out leaflets explaining the reasons for the protest - [read full report].
Protesters from the Dissent! Network, organising against the G8 Summit, argue that the song is obnoxious, patronising and out of date with the real situation in Africa
"This isn't about creating a record to support people in Africa- this is a kodak moment for Bono, Midge Ure and for Blair to manipulate public opinion and push through a destructive economic agenda to serve Western economic interests."
As Britain gears up for the G8 summit next July, Blair's government together with Bono and Geldof are doing everything they can to convince the public into believing that real action is being taken on issues such as Climate change and poverty in Africa.
The original Band AID single produced in 1984 raised £9.5 million. The 2003 G8 summit in Evian cost £400 million. The security budget for the 2005 summit in Scotland is set at £150 million. The war in Iraq has so far cost the UK taxpayer £80 billion pounds and rising. The continuing loss of life due to poverty and war is unquantifyable.
International development campaigners - the World Development Movement (WDM) - also condemned the lyrics as promoting a "negative and inaccurate picture of Africa and its problems." The organisation, which has been campaigning on issues effecting Africa for over 30 years and was one of the founders of both the fair trade movement and Jubilee 2000, drew attention to several lines in the song which it described as "patronising, false and out of date".
Director of WDM, Mark Curtis said on Tuesday 14th: "The song perpetuates the myth that Africa’s problems can somehow be blamed on lack of rainfall and failed harvests. It conjures up an image of a continent inhabited entirely by starving children with flies on their faces sitting in the sunbaked bed of a dried up stream."
"African poverty is not an unfortunate accident of geography and climate. It is largely the result of damaging policies such as free trade forced on Africa by rich countries."
Several initiatives are now underway to re-write the lyrics - upload your own, or send lyrics or recorded audio files to doyouknowitscapitalism@yahoo.co.uk
Global South Debt and the G8
26-10-2004 14:05
For over two decades many of the world's poorest countries have experienced a debt crisis which is having a crippling impact on their livelihoods, hobbling economic growth, and draining and diverting scarce resources from health, education and other vital services, which particularly effects women and children. But how did this state of affars come about? What's happening now? And what can we do about it?
A (Very) Brief History
The latest debt crisis in the global south began in the 1970s after the Bretton Woods monetary regime was scraped and financial markets were 'liberated'. The global south found that the resulting instability in the north's economic activity (fluctuating interest rates, recessions and the rising US dollar) made it increasingly dificult to repay money that had been lent to them from northern banks. This problem first came to world attention with the Mexican default on its loan in 1982, which was followed by other Latin and South American countries. African debt was also exacerbated by official "aid" programmes that were often tied to importing from the donor nation, thus creating a new kind of colonialism and imperialism.
Dissent! meeting in Bradford, July 3/4
27-06-2004 10:17
Dissent!, a network of resistance against the G8, held a gathering at the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, on the 3rd and 4th of July 2004.
'Dissent! A Network of Resistance Against the G8' was formed at the end of November 2003. Local groups and working groups are now forming to build a response to the G8 which it is hoped will exist well beyond the summer of 2005. Work has already started on producing publicity and information materials and putting together roadshows to mobilise people for action. Networking with social movements in Europe and further afield has begun, and across the UK solidarity actions were taken with those resisting the 2004 G8 Summit in the US.
The 'Dissent!' network is committed to taking a confrontational stance, calling for direct action. It is a Network without leaders or an official membership list. It is open to anyone who agrees to work under the hallmarks laid down by Peoples' Global Action (PGA) - to read them, click "read more".
See Dissent! website: www.dissent.org.ukGleneagles Confirmed as G8 2005 Venue
11-06-2004 01:26
Following months of speculation over the location of the 2005 G8 Summit in the UK, and reports that all police leave in Edinburgh and Scotland will be cancelled next summer, the Gleneagles hotel [official website] in Perthshire, Scotland has finaly been confirmed as the venue (G8 dates: 6th-8th July 2005).
The last time the G8 met in the UK was in Birmingham in May 1998. Then up to 70,000 people encircled the centre of Birmingham, forming a human chain and demanding an end to third world debt [pics]. On the same day up to 7,000 people took control of the centre of Birmingham for the second Global Reclaim the Streets Party [pics 1 | 2 | 3][video] - with actions and protests happening against the G8 in around 40 cities across the world, with over 400 social movements taking co-ordinated action under the banner of Peoples' Global Action (PGA).
Six years and many huge mobilisations later, people in the UK have been organising around the G8 for several months. A growing new network of local groups has been created called the Dissent! Network, with nodes across the country. Dissent! is planning a series of awareness raising events through the year and has been calling for both local and international participation. Many people and groups are now focussing on planning protests and direct action campaigns against the G8.
Recently many NGO organisations are also co-ordinating on a level unseen since the Jubliee 2000 drop the debt campaigns, and are set to try and take advantage of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's aim to pitch the UK presidency of the G8 as a positive step towards reducing third world debt and around issues of development and trade [see guardian article] - 2005 is also the 20th anniversary of the Live Aid concert. Several groups are expected to use the European Social Forum in London in October later this year as a platform from which to launch campaigns. Recently several Trade Union leaders, politicians and Globalise Resistance have also issued their first call for protests.
See also:
Recent UK Savannah G8 Solidarity Actions
The People's Golfing Association (PGA) [statement][pics]
"Anarchist Group's Gleneagles Website Exclusive!"*
Corporate Media Coverage of Gleneagles G8
For more on G8 - see the Indymedia G8 Reports Section
G8 Repression : June Court Cases
10-06-2004 11:27
At the same time in Switzerland the court case against four people from the Aubonne Bridge action at the 2003 G8 Summit in Evian will begin. UK climber and activist Martin Shaw was cut from the climbing rope he was dangling from by police, falling over 20m onto a riverbed and sustaining very serious injuries [see pics 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | video | collected reports]. While the policeman who cut the ropes remains on duty, ironically, the four protesters, including Martin and the other climber, have all been charged with blocking the traffic and endangering human life! Alongside a European anti-repression meeting will take place on 26-27th June, to promote wider awareness as to the many different cases of repression that have happened recently and to discuss proposals and strategies for creating a stronger and more effective anti-repression network in Europe.
For more see: www.aubonnebridge.net | Indymedia Switzerland
G8 Resistance at Sea Island (US)
09-06-2004 08:55
For ongoing coverage see: Atlanta Indymedia
Also San Francisco IMC | IndyBay IMC
Streaming Radio: Enemy Combatant Radio-In San Francisco | IMC-Atlanta Webradio
Also see Dissent! UK Solidarity Actions:
Nottingham: 8th June : Critical Mass | 9th June: Blockade of Oil terminal report | 12th June: Carnival Against Capitalism
Worthing: 23TOPIA - New anti-G8 social centre / Festival of Resistance (more)
Cambridge: A week of anti-G8 discussion and action | Street Theater report
Norwich and Ipswich: anti-war/anti-g8 protests / free shop / Anti-g8 rebel football
Cardiff Anti-G8 Jam
Also see reports of Reclaim The Commons protests at the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual convention in San Francisco (more reports)
Who are the G8? -- A week of action and discussion in Cambridge
06-06-2004 12:23
The eight most powerful men in the world are on the run. Rocked by the scandals of third world debt, growing global inequality and violence in the service of neoliberalism, the G8 have been chased around the world since 1998, when 70,000 confronted them in Birmingham (the last time they met in the UK). Nowhere is safe for these eight global superpowers, so they find themselves forced to retreat into brutally enforced 'red zones' (as in Genoa, 2001) or inaccessible mountains (as in Canada, 2002, or Switzerland, 2003). This year, the eight prime ministers and presidents were protected from protesters by the sea, on a small island of the coast of the US. Even so, in case the sound of the sea failed to drown out the sound of dissent, a state of emergency was declared in the state of Georgia, allowing police to halt any demonstrations. And next year, the eight most powerful men in the world will be coming to the UK.
[G8 2004 in Georgia: News (official) | Maps]
[Cambridge pre-event publicity: flier 1 | flier 2 | Forum | Peoples' Golfing Association | East Anglia]
[Cambridge event reports: Anarchist golf photos | street theatre | forum | G8 explanation-leaflet | Corporate media on anarchist golf]
[Background: Debt and the G8 (WDM) | Arms Trade and the g8 (Amnesty) | Unfair Trade Rules (Oxfam) | Iraq War and the G8 | Health (MSF) | Global Policy Forum Analysis | Toronto University Background | `Better World' G8 links]
