Donate against the G8!

. | 23.05.2005 12:14 | G8 2005 | London | World

Donations can now be made via the Dissent! webpage!
or visit www.tenpounds.org

This July, the G8 is coming to Gleneagles, Scotland. The Dissent! Network is mobilising to ensure that the Summit does not pass by uncontested. Preparations are well underway and we have found a Convergence Centre. However, we urgently need funds to pay for the massive ammount of resources needed to accommodate the 10's of thousands of protesters expected. We estimate that we need to raise a further £30,000!!

Please make a generous donation to the Dissent! Network through our webpage

http://www.dissent.org.uk/donate.html, or by direct deposit into our bank account:
Account Name: Dissent
Bank Name: The Cooperative Bank
Sort Code: 08-92-99
Account Number 6515 5518

For international bank transfers you will also need the following codes:
IBAN: GB85 CPBK 0892 9965 1555 18
SWIFT: CPBKGB22

Cheques can also be made out to "The Dissent Network" and mailed to: "Dissent Funding, Box 8, 245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham, NG7 6HX".

Other payment methods are available on our webpage.

How You Can Help:

* Forward this email, and get in touch with people or organisations you know who might have available funds or be able to help raise funds.

* Help with our Ten Pounds Appeal at

http://www.tenpounds.org

* Host events in your local area to both raise funds and awareness.

* ask websites to link to our donate button at

http://www.dissent.org.uk/donate.html

Additional fundraising ideas can be found at:
www.dissent.org.uk/content/view/90/66/

For more information on the Dissent! Network, visit
www.dissent.org.uk

To contact us with questions, or to get help with fundraising, email: dissent-funding (at)
lists.riseup.net

Comments

Hide the following 34 comments

Surprise surprise !

23.05.2005 13:24

Well there's a shock, the Dissent organisation has started the "we need money" requests. So not only can we be involved in your nice little safe, government approved, low fat demo we can pay you for organising it as well. - I don't fucking think so !!!!

Actions against the G8 are going to be most effective when they are from small autonomous, unconnected groups. Standing around with a bunch of SWP wankers in a Police controlled cordon moaning how you are miles from the meeting is just a waste of time.

If we act is small groups we can rome free through the area, visiting say local hotels where those organising the event are staying. Or perhaps locking on across ALL the roads in the area.

Is Dissent the new Greenpeace - one long publicity stunt designed to raise money ?

Independent Demonstrator

All you really want to do is fight!

23.05.2005 13:33

Come on all you anti-capitalist/anti-globalists really want to do is fight and cause trouble! Anti-capitalism my arse, you have about as much chance in destroying capitalism as landing on hte moon. Why don't you grow up and stop causing trouble?

Sees through the anti-capitalist mask

How much ?

23.05.2005 14:08

£30,000 ??????????????????????????????

Are you having a laugh or what. Somebody is doing well out this.

£SD

Fluffy

23.05.2005 15:02

£30,000 does seem like a lot of money. When did this all get so corporate ? When did we all stop sleeping on floors or in tents ? All this reminds me of Rock concerts where an idea gets picked up by those with an eye to some profit. What's next sponsership by Nat West ? Logos on the t-shirts ?

Let's get back to the real message of this, our opposition to the G8 and all it stands for. This is not supposed to be a weekend away.

Indie protestor is fuckin right

23.05.2005 15:05

Hey.u who are through the mask....kiss my ass u fuckin cunt. Who told you that anticapitalists are only to cause trouble you cunty fuck ? Havent you seen everything else they do ? How would you? Is your office small with no window at the police you cunt?

crass

Come on you miracle workers - outside now!

23.05.2005 17:54

Those of you bitching about the money appeal will be the first to run home to mummy and daddy when your holiday with balaclava doesn't go according to plan: "There wasn't anything set up - it was wet and there wasn't even any food! ...blub blub blub...I'm a capitalist now for sure and getting a job with Morgan and Stanley instead of protesting"

.

If you think we can be successful in any of our actions then stop thinking it gets done without organising. If you think things can be rustled up for free then I'm sure people are ready to be amazed by your jesus-like miracles as well. Maybe you can conjure up some skilled people to build some computers from the raw materials in the rocks in africa. Or you drill a magic oil well or something to run the cars on. Or magically transform the paper that comes from trees from the treees themselves...all at once! Wow!

I for one would like to see proper toilet facilities and electricity at the convergence spaces and don't want to rely on you magicians and middle class peeps who turn up for the convergence and add nothing to the collective efforts to sort shit out. If you want to have shit and piss flowing past your tent door then go and pitch up at the local sewers instead.

And the joke about Dissent being the SWP : that is not even worthy of comment. Don't give up your day job yet.

Krop

It's a lot of money - it's a massive protest

23.05.2005 18:19

£30,000 is a lot of money - but there are going to be a lot of people there. There could well be 10-15 thousand (not including those who only want to go on the Make Poverty Hisory demo), and it's not ridiculous to think we might need to spend two or three pounds per person to sort out space and infrastructure. This isn't about things getting corporate, the convergence spaces aren't going to be luxurious: this is about renting land and buildings, so that we _can_ sleep on the floor and in tents.

As for Dissent being a "government approved, low fat demo," tell that to the Dissent volunteers getting regular hassle from the cops. And, if you want to lock-on across all the roads in the area, aren't you doing to need to co-ordinate that in some way, perhaps through, I don't know, a network of resistance?

Voluntary Slave

No money

23.05.2005 19:36

I'm fucked if Im giving Dissent any money. Nobody needs £30,000 for events like this. What the fuck do you think you are organising - Glastonbury ?

Staying alone

late arrivals....

23.05.2005 20:01

some of us from an independently minded and independently functioning confusion of autonomous groupings happened to attend the dissent gathering this past weekend.
for a long time we have deliberately isolated ourselves from the dissent network.
however, as opportunists and finding ourselves in need of an imediate injection of cash in order that we can prepare to fulfil those roles that we have set ourselves, we took the oppurtunity to blag some money.
not having been connected with the network it took us by suprise that the money was so readily forthcoming. this is not to say that we got all we asked for. the cash that came into our hands amounted to 50% of it, with a promise to try and fund the rest later.
i aint talking a few quid here, i'm talking substantial cashflow injection.
this money will allow us to be diverse and multi-directional in our tactics and events as well as to be creative of mind.
quite frankly, you fuqqers who posted earlier, aint got a clue what you're on about, and knowing as i do what this money is intended for i would urge all those who can to support this appeal.
there are times when it is best that we function in small affinity grouping, that is for certain. but, and it is a very big BUT......there are times, particularly if we wish to see a certain revolutionary groundswell when WE MUST stand shoulder to shoulder.
it is when this occurs that we will see for ourselves just how many we truly are. and it is my belief that when this happens we will know that the future is ours.
oh, by the way, if you expect my 75 year old granny (who lives with absolutely no income), my pregnant sister and my wheelchair bound friends to sleep on floors or in tents, then you are a bigger dickhead than i first thought.
one last thing, two of us from the above mentioned confusion attended the small group that allocated funding. a secondary suprise was the input we offered that was readily accepted towards the allocating of several 10's of £1,000's. it's very transparent, you just have to get connected to be connected, innit.
two last thing, can ye no imagine all them hotels. like how many coppers will be protecting them.
get real in your action if not in your head!!!!!!!!!!!!

no body in particular

Do the maths

23.05.2005 20:14

Glastonbury has 100,000 people there, each paying £125. That's £12.5 million, before you include any advertising, selling the media rights, etc. That's a hell of a lot more than the £30,000 Dissent need (and, BTW, people providing infrastructure for previous large summit protests have had, and needed, more money than that). Just because you don't know how much it costs to provide housing, food, transport and so on for 10,000 people, don't start criticising the people who are doing the research and the work to find out how to put this massive operation together, to help everyone who want to come and take part in a massive protest.

Voluntary Slave

Value for money

23.05.2005 20:49

£30,000 to feed, house and transport 10,000 people seems like pretty good value for money to me. Squatting is illegal in Scotland, so floor space and camping space must be paid for. What about medical and legal support? That takes money too.

You may be lucky enough to have already sorted somewhere to stay in Scotland. You may be able to afford to eat out every day or whatever - but lots of people aren't that lucky.

Dissident

Sad but true...we live under capitalism, so stop bitching and fight!

23.05.2005 22:37

Voluntary Slave, Dissident, Nobody in particular and Krop are absolutely right.
Yes this is a lot of fuckin money, and yeah it sucks that we live under capitalism, but its a fact at the moment and we've got to deal with that (and the best way is this resistance...!)

When I first saw the £30,000 request, I too thought WTF!
But actually it really isnt that much considering what needs to be done. Like someone said above, I dont really want piss and crap all around my tent. I would also like to eat that week. And a bail fund is pretty re-assuring too. Squatting is illegal in Scotland, and yeah maybe if enough people get together we could pull it off, but loads of protesters would then have to spend the entire week defending it instead of shutting down the G8. Or are you suggesting we repeat Dublin, leaving people charged with squating in the nick, and the rest of us without anywhere to sleep?!

If 10,000 of us show up in July, thats £3 per person. Are you trying to claim that land, toilets, catering, legal support and medical support for 10,000 people for a week should cost less than £3 per person? If so, Id love to know where the fuck you do yer shopping!!! :)

This is less money than previous mobilisations, and faced with a fair few difficulties - not least the current small, and fractured movements. As Nobody in particular said very well, if you actually come to meetings you find that the money is kept right down to minimum, everything is about as transparent as humanly possible and people are real upfront about whats going on - which is to say, a hell of a lot of hard work from somepeople (cos others are too busy on here bitchin - oh, sorry "being autonomous"...) to get a safe, self-organised space for 10,000 people to fuck up the G8's party.

And to the person trying to claim Dissent are in with the law and the SWP - Go fuck yourself, it aint my fault if your too lazy to get off your arse and help, if you had done youd know your comments were bullshit.

Anyone who doesnt think convergence spaces grow on trees but wants to help, and whos based nr Reading, please come along to a benefit punk gig at RISC on 4th June (training workshops, discussions etc from 12-6, gig from 7-11 ish). See ya in the pit...

...and on the streets! Rage.

Rage
mail e-mail: reading-anti-g8(at)cyber-rights.net
Homepage: http://www.readingantig8.co.nr

How many

24.05.2005 05:46

Where has this figure of 10,000 people come from ? Ive attended some of the meetings and never heard any figure close to that. Also many people have already made their own arrangements for room, food etc. Im not sure where Dissent get this idea that 10,000 people are going to travel to Scotland and then suddenly open their eyes and say,
"Shit, I need somewhere to sleep and something to eat"

You can justify it all you like but £30,000 is a rip off and this has more to do with general fund raising than it does looking after those attending. And if you wondering why people are making the link to the SWP ots because thats exactly what they do !

Dave

For pitys sake

24.05.2005 07:53

Some of the comments on this thread really do reveal exactly why the anarchist left never seems to get anywhere in this country. Some people get together to sort shit out and actually do some outreach and planning so that it doesn't all go totally tits up at the G8, and so that more people (perhaps who are not completely self-sufficient like all the keyboard warriors on this thread) can get involved and what do people say - they're embezzling money!

For pitys sake. The people who are throwing around conspiracy theories on this thread are exactly the people who will turn up with one day to go near Glenagles and then moan that there is no infrastructure. NO wonder we bloody lose all the time, you lot seem much more interested in attacking your own side (not even the SWP, but fellow anti-authoritarian activists) than Blair et al. Anyone who has been the least bit involved in Dissent! might have a number of complaints - but I don't think that nicking money or being 'government sponsored' would be among them. Idiots.

Matt

Matt S

Budget concerns

24.05.2005 08:13

Anyone who's concerned about how much money is spent or where the money is going can always just turn up at a Dissent gathering, go to a funding meeting and ask. The process is totally open and accountable. Any working group, action group or local group who needs money - convergence group, kitchen collectives, medics group etc - go to the meeting and put in a proposal for how much money they need and what they need it for, then the funding meeting (which anyone who is interested can get involved in) allocates money. Yes, it really is that simple! The minutes from the funding meeting held at the Nottingham gathering will be appearing on the Dissent website as soon as possible.

At the moment, Dissent needs more money than it has. As well as renting land etc, things like medical supplies or industrial size kitchen equipment doesn't magically fall from the skies.

Ralf

Dave...

24.05.2005 10:57

The '10,000' number I mentioned is simply based on the piece of land rented for convergence, it can hold 10,000. This was based on previous mobilisations and experience etc etc. If you think its likely to be much less and want to complain about it all now, why exactly wernt you in the convergence working group blocking the decision to rent land for 10,000?

'General fundraising'...? What does that mean? Yes, this is 'general fundraising' for the dissent network G8 mobilisation, most of which is allocated for land, the next largest piece for catering, toilets etc and then more for legal/medical/communications etc etc - who said it was anything else? Sorry pal, but I dont understand your point.

And yeah, sorry, your right. Having non-hierarchic meetings of groups and indivduals totally free to do what they want and trying to have everyone included in the decision making process (if they want to be) where YOU COULD HAVE BLOCKED THE DECISION IF YOU WANTED TO is just like the swp aint it?!!! Not...

Yes there are some problems in Dissent I feel, but again, I ask you people complaining:

Do the maths! Please, here on Indy show how you would have got it all sorted cheaper. Im serious I really want to see you do it cheaper!! Less than 10,000? Ok work from that, how many you reckon? So go on, land for that number comes to what in £'s? Now food....toilets...legal support? Come on.... Cant do it cos you dont have the research? Maybe you should have got off your arse and helped then!!! Please enlighten me where Dissent has gone wrong....Do the sums!

Rage.
Homepage: http://www.readingantig8.co.nr

Money matters

24.05.2005 11:18

Let's put this into perspective....

30,000 pounds is nothing for something of this scale, i've been involved in much much smaller one day actions that have involved spended several thousand. I've been involved in gatherings for just 300 people that required the spending 3,000.

scotland is a logistical nightmare and when you consider just the cost of the trains for example, or the cost of rent fields and buildings on short notice against the pressures of the cops, you are talking big money. then you want to get kitchens up to scotland? thats hundreds of pounds in real expences just to drive the kit up there, let alone purchasing food, gas, renting or buying aditional equipement to cope with the numbers, and what about structures to put the stuff in? There will be huge marquees to hire and vehicles to run stuff and people around, there will be power needed and expenses to cover for those alt-tech people who volunteer to supply the power. There will be water to get delivered, chemical toilets (because no way are enough people going to commit to digger enough compost toilets in advance).

On top of all this infrastructure, plus phones, printing etc. there are numerous affinity groups/working groups doing more interesting things which have been allocated some money.

Those people that say 30,000 is way too much have clearly never been involved in organising shit. And to call it corporate - ha - 30,000 wouldn't even cover the fucking marketing budget for a corporate festival (for example) let along the infrastructure.

HOWEVER... I DO HAVE A QUESTION FOR DISSENT!

It shows incrediably bad planning and lack of foresight to be seeking to raise this kind of money at this stage - expecially when Dissent was given quite a tidy little nest egg over a year ago which exceeded that sum. I also know that a large chunk of that money went as 'start up' funds to 'social centres' that didn't yet exist - and perhaps still don't. I'm not speaking of the much smaller sums given to existing social centres - some of which have been invaluable for providing venues for meetings and benefits for the anti-G8 mobilisations - I am talking of the groups given 10,000 each towards renting spaces as social centres. That money would have gone a long way towards setting up infrastructure around the G8 and I doubt it's proved great value for money in terms of setting up any sustainable new social centres.

Of course it's not just Dissent looking for or spending money around the G8. Indymedia for example has budgetted for 1,000 and has already exceeded that amount. This summit has logistical problems beyond those seen before. We are operating in one of the most expensive countries in Europe, the most expenisive travel, multi city sites with the actual site being 20 miles away from any city, and a place in which squatting is illegal and tresspass a criminal offence. This ones not going to be easy or cheap - get used to it.

ship-o-fools

LETS OCCUPY SOME PUBLIC SPACE

24.05.2005 12:21

Guliani's bones are trembling, you lovers of organisation. How did the thing happened in Salonica ? We can just occupy a place. What does "squatting is illegal" mean ? With struggle we can make it legal.

Dah

Dah

24.05.2005 14:18

The problem with squaating in Scotland (unlike in England) is that the police are able simply to evict everyone and arrest people for trespass - as happened last year in Dublin before Mayday. We don't want to risk having people arrested and there then being no accomodation space, so we need to rent secure, legal space.

...

squatting et al........

24.05.2005 14:40

in order to force the issue onto the agenda, peeps are already plotting squatting land etc.. wonder what you peeps have done to prepare for this??????
oh, and by the way.......some of those who have posted accuse dissent of being in cahoots with the swp etc........which of course if either true or not, dependant on how you look at it. but how do we know that you who accuse are not fascists or agent provateurs or indeed state agents, merely intending to disrupt preparations for action.
quite frankly, we don't know, quite frankly you may well be so........

no body in particular

something i forgot to mention....

24.05.2005 14:50

i may be wrong, but it is my understanding that the donor of the substainal funding that was circulated for the social centres had asked that this be earmarked for this purpose. the idea being that they exist well into the future, long beyond the g8.
some are gonna be opening iminently, others are having difficulties securing suitable premises, or don't feel able to build for both mass mobilistaion and "manage" a social centre at the same time and will probably appear later in the summer.
anyway, that money was allocated many months ago and therefore doesn't actually exist (at least not within the dissent network).
i hope this clarifies the position for those who might be concerned.
now fuck off and find something more useful to do instead.....

no body in particular

more on swp rubbish

24.05.2005 15:49

I get the impression that the right wing trolls and cops, etc, are getting rather rattled about whats going on in relation to the G8. That can be the only explanation for such ridiculous claims as saying Dissent is the SWP. The fact that the SWP has been effectivley marginalised - even though it is trying to hide behind the facade of G8 Alternatives - because of its atrocious behaviour before, during, and after the ESF means that it is largely concentrated in Scotland, and has little support outside some leftist political parties.

If the whole thing falls apart then I suppose it will be you detractors turn to have a go in about 8 years time. Or will you be too busy sacking your employees for being a bit late to work by then?

Krop

Who ?

25.05.2005 11:59

Who died and put Dissent in charge ?

This is just crap and lots of posts by Dissent workers pretending that its all OK will not make me think otherwise. Sure we need organisation but we don't need to spend this amount of money.

Don't be ripped off. Make you own way there and make your own arrangements.

Me and three mates making our own rules

indeedy

25.05.2005 14:59

Yeh don't get ripped off. Pay £50 or so on the Dissent or GR Trains. Or pay about £20 on the megabus. Or about £80 or so if you get a normal train. Or you could fly there - but thats hardly very environmentally friendly. Or free if you want to hitch or cycle, but make sure you've got time off work or whatever you do.

The 30 grand isn't going on transport silly.

Krop

"Don't be ripped off"!

25.05.2005 15:09

Yep, that dreadful Dissent network, ripping people off by trying to organise accommodation, food, legal support for free/donation.

No-one's trying to say Dissent! are in charge of anything. If you want to make your own arrangements individually, great, no-one's going to criticise you for that. But if you want to make your own arrangements collectively with other anti-authoritarians, Dissent is as good a forum as any through which to do that.

Voluntary Slave

anti-thought

25.05.2005 18:40

This discussion has got me thinking rather negatively. If large sections of the movement have an intrinsic problem with any organisational effort that goes beyond a close group of friends then I don't think we're in a particularly healthy state.

Or is it just a couple of rather vocal detractors who feel that a bit of graffiti and the occasional direct action is enough involvement and fuck any larger organisational effort? If that is indeed the case then J18, Seattle and all the rest of the well known events wouldn't even have happened: cos' nobody would have bothered getting involved. PGA wouldn't exist. Many of the historical events of anarchism wouldn't have taken place either - after all, they were coordinated in large internationals and group gatherings with some luminaries who would today be decried as coopters of the movement.... The Zapatista rebels wouldn't have bothered coordinating because it was....er....taking over the movement with a name and communiques that didn't involve every single person involved in the movement. Shit - nothing would have happened at all.

So maybe it really is just the more vocal anti-organisational types being vocal....any of you heard of the tyranny of structurlessness?

Krop

In answer

25.05.2005 19:34

Perhas Krop because some of us are suspicious of an organisation like the Dissent group which seems to spring up, well funded and organised with bank accounts and people 'organising' things just before events of this type.

Krop dusting

Check your facts

25.05.2005 20:52

Or perhaps, Krop dusting, you're trolling. If you had looked before you criticised you'd see that Dissent has been around (yes, and fund-raising) for the best part of two years. You'd also discover that the decision to open a bank account was taken in the autumn in an open meeting and that the funding process is open and accountable to the gatherings (which are open to all who are prepared to work within the hallmarks)

Feather Dusting

Usual response

26.05.2005 10:30

The standard Indymedia poster answer I see to any posts which are disagreed with,- "Troll".

Has it occured to you that not all of us are so easily convinced, some of us question who the people are we protest with. Your idea of social change may well be through organisations like Dissent which are a little too close to the State for me. When a few thousand people are herded into a police controlled compound and held htere while the events of G8 take place will you wonder why and how that occured ?

Krop Dusting

GDSFGD

26.05.2005 10:51

YES

DFGDSFG

See you there dissent !

26.05.2005 11:16

john

too close to what?

26.05.2005 13:46

Dissent is too close to the state? Really? Seeing as it could be argued that Dissent is seen by some as being too DISTANT from parts of the state - in that it has not been prepared to negotiate a space with local authorities as happened at the VAAG village, in Genoa, in Prague, in Lausanne ( - clearly disregarding the different political contexts of Scotland and those other countries), then I really don't know what you're on about.

Which organisations, may I ask, are *not* TOO CLOSE to the state for you? Obviously not G8 Alternatives, not Make Poverty History. Clearly not ANY political party, and certainly not ANY NGO such as Corporate Watch, Amnesty, etc. Do you avoid having ANYTHING to do with those because they are far more 'compromised' (in your terms) by being 'close' to the state. Do you buy your food from a farm that is more distant from the state than Dissent as well? Wow! Please fill me in on how to get involved.

Seeing as we all live IN A STATE, and in a state that uses CAPITALISM as an economic system, it's a bit difficult to see how we can completely avoid using anything connected with these systems. And unless you're talking about being as distant from the state as some (aka terrorist) groups such as the ALF, ELF, Red-Army Faction, IRA, Al Queda (if it exists) etc etc - who likewise often use weapons manufactured BY THE STATE - then I think your arguments are about as convincing as those of the Daily Mail's.

Do you know what 'being close to the state' means? Want to give an example of HOW Dissent is TOO close to the state? I look forward to meeting all of these non-compromised people and groups up in Scotland - if they exist. :)

Kropo

Our Friends

26.05.2005 14:39

what are we gonna do with those ?

friendly

Cut Costs - Cut Involvement

26.05.2005 15:36

For anyone who favours a more individual approach to protest as the G8 our group is happy to welcome others. We act as small collectives, independent of the bigger organised semi-official groups.

We have identified a number of spaces within the area that can be used as crash spaces, build workshops and media interaction. We charge no money and as a point of principle refuse donations. All we ask is a positive mental attitude, a collective view approach to problem solving and that any individual adopts a veggie diet while with us.

Call 07770 135875 for details.

Carl - Real Democracy Now