A southeast regional Anti-G8 assembly is to be held in London on Saturday 22nd January, 2pm at University of London Union, Room 3D, Malet St, WC1
se_g8_assembly
This is a callout for groups and individuals in the South-East, interested in actively resisting the UK presidency of the G8, and the summit of G8 leaders this year at Gleneagles in Scotland.
The G8 (8 of the world’s most powerful economies: USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada & Russia) was established to re-align national social structures in accordance with the growth & dominance of global capital. The G8 symbolises the unified face of global capital and the enforcement of state power.
In a world increasingly mediated by the commodification of images and by the omnipresence of hierarchies, leaders and celebrities, the G8 summit becomes the re-enforcement of the powers that be, which dictate and order our lives, it becomes no more than a media circus, a convenient photo shoot dominating our view and reproducing our powerlessness.
This initiative is part of an ongoing social struggle for all of us to take our lives back into our own hands. A struggle that is characterised by its self organization in the face of state repression, from occupied social centres to direct actions against war and corporate power, to mass mobilizations in opposition to international summits.
We hope that this initial meeting against the G8 summit forms a diverse and dynamic network of groups and individuals who oppose the G8.
We invite groups and individuals to shape and develop this resistance.
2pm - 6pm Saturday Jan 22nd, 2005
ROOM 3D
University of London Union
Malet Street
London
Hosted by ULU ANTI-AUTHORITARIANS
For more information about the G8 & resistance to it see: www.dissent.org.uk
The G8 (8 of the world’s most powerful economies: USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada & Russia) was established to re-align national social structures in accordance with the growth & dominance of global capital. The G8 symbolises the unified face of global capital and the enforcement of state power.
In a world increasingly mediated by the commodification of images and by the omnipresence of hierarchies, leaders and celebrities, the G8 summit becomes the re-enforcement of the powers that be, which dictate and order our lives, it becomes no more than a media circus, a convenient photo shoot dominating our view and reproducing our powerlessness.
This initiative is part of an ongoing social struggle for all of us to take our lives back into our own hands. A struggle that is characterised by its self organization in the face of state repression, from occupied social centres to direct actions against war and corporate power, to mass mobilizations in opposition to international summits.
We hope that this initial meeting against the G8 summit forms a diverse and dynamic network of groups and individuals who oppose the G8.
We invite groups and individuals to shape and develop this resistance.
2pm - 6pm Saturday Jan 22nd, 2005
ROOM 3D
University of London Union
Malet Street
London
Hosted by ULU ANTI-AUTHORITARIANS
For more information about the G8 & resistance to it see: www.dissent.org.uk
Homepage:
Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
will dissent the demo called by "MPH"?
09.01.2005 13:47
i ask this because there seems to be lots of differing groups doing different sort of action.
redletter
networks
09.01.2005 19:32
All pretty obvious stuff really.
Krop
Homepage:
http://www.dissent.org.uk
weigh up the balance of forces
10.01.2005 13:19
why do people seems to dismiss or down play the importance of the big protests and demo's.
if we go back in time, in 1998, when 50,000 anti-debt protested (jubliee 2000) outside the the birmingham G8 summit, anyone reading the above comments would draw the conclusion that it did f~~k all and did not put any pressure on the governments. this protest did make a difference, fast forward to 2005, you can see it did make a difference. why do you think tony blair and gordan brown have put Africa and the debt question on top of the agenda? it is preciously because of the struggles of the last 7 years.
of course the blairites will not make much of a difference for the poor , but they are on the defencesive because they are scared of our movement. they are being pressured in dropping further debts and supplying the poor with cheap medication. we in the movement have exposed the question of the debt and the profitering drug companies.
the anti-debt movement has grown since 1998 and will continue to grow. millions of ordinary people are angry about the burden of debts and our number one task is to mobilise as many people to the demonstartion. i am afraid to say that if dissent does not help with this mobilisation then it is acting in a secterian manner.
dont get me wrong, i have sympathy for the aims of dissent and their direct action but how many people do you hope to be involved in direct action, how much influence do you think you have??
in conclusion, i afraid to say your anayalisis is wrong, the big demonstations did make a difference by highlighting the burden of debt. dissent has to admit this or it would be quite rightly be accussed of lying.
red letter
another reply
11.01.2005 21:49
.
listen
14.01.2005 13:57
and learn
A to B Marches or Direct Action...
16.01.2005 19:40
I agree that marches DO have an impact.
But so does direct action and I would say that direct action is MORE powerful than a march.
I think it would be counterproductive to tell people that it would be better to stay at home and watch tv than to go on the march.
But to persuade people to do direct action instead of the less militant A to B march - that's a perfectly reasonable position, I reckon.
I think it's authoritarian to be telling Dissent that they "should" or "have to" join in with the Make Poverty History march. If Dissent want to do their own thing then that's absolutely fine. As long as they're going to be there it doesn't matter that they're going to be doing their own (arguably more effective) action than joining in with the mainstream one.
Personally I'll be going on all the different actions I can find out about - I'll take the whole week off and head up to Scotland. (Disclaimer - obviously I wouldn't even dream of doing anything illegal).
I do reckon it would be nice if people who are in Dissent argued the case to eachother that they should go and join in and support the Make Poverty History march - solidarity between different parts of the movement is something it would be nice to aim for. But I imagine there's a lot of people in Dissent who have been on scores of A to B marches and have frankly had enough of them, in which case who has the right to tell them that they should jolly well be there.
Well that's what I reckon anyway.
I *don't* think Make Poverty History is pointless. It's a positive thing that this coalition has come about. It's not in my opinion radical enough to "save the world" but it's not realistic to expect everyone to suddenly become a political extremist. I think it's really encouraging that stuff like Christian Aid had a Punch and Judy show at a recentish Trade Justice rally in which the main characters were (if I remember correctly) Tony Blair, George W Bush and "Mr Multinational Corporation" (who was a crocodile!), and which finished with a song all about the evils of "neo-liberalism". To me that looks like the less radical parts of the movement are becoming more radical! Which is great!
The Make Poverty History march will be the biggest event there. It's great that all those thousands of people will be there, keen to get involved in demanding justice. It's a shame they're not all revolutionaries but then ordinary people usually aren't. It would be great if 2 million people had all used direct action back in February 2002 - that would have maybe even stopped the war. But that's not reality. The reality is that most people *aren't* that radical, so the fact that they're mobilising at all is a positive step :-)
The Dude