Some press coverage of the week long Festival Of Dissent Anti-G8 Gathering being held 6-10th April in Lanarkshire.
Full info on that including impressive line up of workshops and discussions at
http://www.dissent.org.uk
Previous article was:
Call to crack down on G8 demo camps
Sun 20 Mar 2005 TOBY MCDONALD
The Scotsman
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/resistg8/media/0320crack_down_camps.htm
Full info on that including impressive line up of workshops and discussions at
http://www.dissent.org.uk Previous article was:
Call to crack down on G8 demo camps
Sun 20 Mar 2005 TOBY MCDONALD
The Scotsman
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/resistg8/media/0320crack_down_camps.htm http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15359009&method=full&siteid=89488&headline=anarchists-mass-for--boot-camp--battle-planning-name_page.html ANARCHISTS MASS FOR 'BOOT CAMP' BATTLE PLANNING
Apr 2 2005
By Allan Caldwell
ANARCHISTS are gathering in Scotland for a secret 'boot camp' to prepare for a G8 battle. The Daily Record can reveal that five days of training have been organised next week by a group known as the Dissent Network of Resistance.
Hundreds of extremists will flock to the camp in the west of Scotland.
Among the tactics being taught will be: #How to plan and erect blockade # Dealing with trauma and violent situations.
# Role-play arrests to prepare protesters who have not fallen foul of the law before # Scottish law and legal training.
Up to 50,000 protesters from around the world are expected to try to disrupt the G8 conference at Gleneagles in July and cause mayhem at nearby towns and cities.
Conspire The Dissent organisers state that the camp will provide ' a chance to form networks of resistance ... a chance to plot, conspire and dream about resistance to the G8 - to meet people, learn skills, share information, practise direct action and party.'
They add: 'The G8 is the annual meeting of the leaders of the worlds most powerful countries. It is a major symbol of capitalism - a summit where rich governments plan how to stay rich.
'Since 1998, these summits have been resisted wherever they have attempted to meet.
Disgust 'Protests have erupted on every continent, fuelled by disgust at the extremes of wealth and poverty, military repression and environmental breakdown. In July 2005, the G8 comes to the UK.
'Dissent! is a network of individuals and groups planning to use creative direct action and civil disobedience to resist the presence of the G8.
'Dissent! has no leaders, no paid staff and no membership list. Focuses for action so far include targeting the oil and war industries ... and the sustained disruption of the summit itself.
'Dissent! is acting as a focal point for coordination of resistance to the G8 and for continued radical action against capitalism into the future. The Festival of Dissent! will be the best chance before the summit arrives to get together, learn skills, share info, plan, and get inspired about protests at the summit.'
Previous G8 meetings have been marked with violent protests.
Four years ago in Genoa, Italy, hundreds of demonstrators were injured and one killed following horrific scenes of rioting.
Two years ago, 50,000 protesters fought running battles with riot police in the summit town of Evian, France.
The Dissent Network of Resistance branch in the UK includes both peaceful and violent factions.
Information available to people who have registered to attend next week's camp makes it clear they are expecting serious clashes, despite claiming to be staging 'non-violent' demonstrations.
Trauma The group states: 'We will be sharing experiences of and preparing for dealing with trauma/suffering violent situations.'
The July summit will see PM Tony Blair, president George Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin - along with leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan and their entourages - gather at Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire.
Thousands of police officers including armed response units and the SAS have been allocated to protect them.
All police leave at Scots forces has been cancelled for the first two weeks of July.
Court schedules have been cleared in anticipation for an influx of criminal cases relating to the summit.
And there have been discussions at Tayside Police about the possibility of closing down the main A9 road if protesters target it for blockades.
The Dissent network have revealed they are planning to keep their campaign going going after Gleneagles, adding: 'After the G8 summit is over we need to be left with a strong movement rooted in the local neighbourhoods.
'Our aim is to take actions that will inspire ongoing solidarity and subversion wherever we work and live.'
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COMMENT:
NOT EVERYONE INVOLVED IN DISSENT! IS AN ANARCHSIT!!
THE FESTIVAL IS NOT SECRET!!!!!!!
I mean how may more clearly advertised meetings can be called secret - well it's just beyond me.
"Boot Camp Battle Training" : well the papers are going to love this festival gathering, because for once they can call this a 'training camp' - previously it's been meetings in universities and community halls that have been called "camps" (secret / anarchist or otherwise) - but now people really will be in tents. And as the PUBLIC information says there will be training on non violent direct action training and so on - but you can be sure there will be no training sessions on "how to riot" - the only people doing full on riot training are the police.
It's also quite ludicrous that the journalist tries to infer that because people are organising to cope with traumatic situations they are planning violent demonstrations! Maybe the journo should tell that to all the people attacked in Genoa or others similarly injured in Evian / Geneva through violent police repression. It's not even as if facts around such events are disputed, what with all those police on trial in Italy at the moment and the Diaz trial of police due to start next week.
I note that this side of things is not mentioned when refering to previous protests like genoa or geneva.
Interesting that the article printed so much of the festival of dissent! text though.
The line about "there have been discussions at Tayside Police about the possibility of closing down the main A9 road if protesters target it for blockades" sounds a bit like an invite to try and blockade it - how ludicrous! Police doing the job of the protestors?
The police have in fact been at pains to keep insisting that they have no plans to close the A9.
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