The first meeting for the Summit Against Everything is happening tomorrow, during the Anarchist Bookfair: Room 325 at 1pm.
But what is this Summit? Quite simply, a gathering of anarchists and anti-authoritarians, to take place in 2008 in London . The "where", "when" and "what it will all be about" questions are to be answered tomorrow and at the preparation meetings that will hopefully follow!
But what is this Summit? Quite simply, a gathering of anarchists and anti-authoritarians, to take place in 2008 in London . The "where", "when" and "what it will all be about" questions are to be answered tomorrow and at the preparation meetings that will hopefully follow!
FOR A SUMMIT AGAINST EVERYTHING
(...touching ground)
It has been floating around everyone's mind for quite some time. In fact - it has been argued from the very beginning of this wonderful adventure, the Manifestations against summits of the sovereign. The question has always been there: Sure we need to meet - and our counter-summits are an excellent opportunity for doing so. But why follow them around in their summits, why give them the tactical advantage of selecting where and when our battles are to take place?
We are not an anarchist travelling circus, nor should we be focusing exclusively on the meetings of the sovereign to express our anger. Their meetings merely represent and reflect a fraction of capital's barbarism, inhumanity and exploitation. We know that and yet, for quite some years now, so much of our energy is spent in co-forming predefined spectacles with them; we are first role actors but the script is not ours.
For all its positive outcomes (and there were many), the counter-summit of Rostock reminded us something we should have never forgotten. Win in their game playing by their rules and you've lost. For a moment, we cried “victory” in the fields and roads of Rostock. What had been set as our counter-summit's main goal was achieved: All roads leading to Heiligendamm, the venue of the G8 summit, were blocked off - and yet those trapped at that very moment were us, not the state leaders.
Are we trapped? What direction do we go now, having achieved the aim of our counter-summit, only to find ourselves back at point zero? This is not an easy question and we surely do not intend to answer it alone. We have booked a room at this year's Anarchist Bookfair in London, to allow for some preliminary discussion*. We hope this will be the beginning of an organising process leading to the first counter-summit against much more than yet another summit of the sovereign. Rather than waiting for them to decide where and when to meet, no longer running behind them, we'll jump on the driver's seat and decide this for ourselves. For once, the where and when questions should be answered by us.
Where? We say London. If there is one place that can aptly symbolise all of global capital's barbarism, inhumanity and exploitation, this must be our city. However, both this and the when question are to be answered in the bookfair meeting and the ones that will hopefully follow them. We do not pretend to have any pre-set answers to these questions, only lust and energy to co-form the answers with all interested comrades. What we do know is that it's finally time to move on from organising against single-issued summits of power; it is time to attack capital in its totality, in the everyday, in the spaces in which it rules. It is time for a Summit Against Everything!
(...touching ground)
It has been floating around everyone's mind for quite some time. In fact - it has been argued from the very beginning of this wonderful adventure, the Manifestations against summits of the sovereign. The question has always been there: Sure we need to meet - and our counter-summits are an excellent opportunity for doing so. But why follow them around in their summits, why give them the tactical advantage of selecting where and when our battles are to take place?
We are not an anarchist travelling circus, nor should we be focusing exclusively on the meetings of the sovereign to express our anger. Their meetings merely represent and reflect a fraction of capital's barbarism, inhumanity and exploitation. We know that and yet, for quite some years now, so much of our energy is spent in co-forming predefined spectacles with them; we are first role actors but the script is not ours.
For all its positive outcomes (and there were many), the counter-summit of Rostock reminded us something we should have never forgotten. Win in their game playing by their rules and you've lost. For a moment, we cried “victory” in the fields and roads of Rostock. What had been set as our counter-summit's main goal was achieved: All roads leading to Heiligendamm, the venue of the G8 summit, were blocked off - and yet those trapped at that very moment were us, not the state leaders.
Are we trapped? What direction do we go now, having achieved the aim of our counter-summit, only to find ourselves back at point zero? This is not an easy question and we surely do not intend to answer it alone. We have booked a room at this year's Anarchist Bookfair in London, to allow for some preliminary discussion*. We hope this will be the beginning of an organising process leading to the first counter-summit against much more than yet another summit of the sovereign. Rather than waiting for them to decide where and when to meet, no longer running behind them, we'll jump on the driver's seat and decide this for ourselves. For once, the where and when questions should be answered by us.
Where? We say London. If there is one place that can aptly symbolise all of global capital's barbarism, inhumanity and exploitation, this must be our city. However, both this and the when question are to be answered in the bookfair meeting and the ones that will hopefully follow them. We do not pretend to have any pre-set answers to these questions, only lust and energy to co-form the answers with all interested comrades. What we do know is that it's finally time to move on from organising against single-issued summits of power; it is time to attack capital in its totality, in the everyday, in the spaces in which it rules. It is time for a Summit Against Everything!
e-mail:
Homepage:
Comments
Display the following 2 comments