Reports of G8 Protest Activities so far
On Tuesday, 28th of June, the Red Pepper magazine publishes "Inside the Murky World of Make Poverty History". An in depth summarising analysis about Climate Change has also been published.
The Greek Union report their solidarity and participation of a delegation at the G8 protests in Scotland, whileas the School Students also call for participation in G8 protests [Subvert].
The accomodation situation is Edinburgh is less than satisfying for protesters due to the Edinburgh Council policy, and the Dissent! Edinburgh Accomodation group has put out a statement, describing their difficulties in finding a self-run collective convergence centre and an accomodation meeting is called for Thursday, 30th of June, 6pm at Teviot Student’s Union, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square, to discuss the issue.
On Monday, 27th of June, the Theatre of Dissent hit the Streets of Edinburgh and the Headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland was occupied for about half an hour in an anti-poverty action.
Reports with pictures about the fenced off Jack Kane Centre [ 1 | 2] and the fence around Gleneagles sparked off discussion about possible state repression.
A summary of all activities and events so far reported on Indymedia Scotland features, newswire and on the Indymedia UK G8 subsection in relation to the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland is listed below.
Tenants occupation in Glasgow
Yesterday, Tuesday the 21st of june, tenants from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee occupied the offices of 'Communities Scotland' to protest the run-down of basic services and the erasure of publicly-funded housing in Scotland. They sent out a message that they are organised and willing to resist New Labour's privatisation agenda for housing in Scotland.
Glasgow Convergence Space Opens
The Convergence Centre in Glasgow has opened from Tuesday, 21st of June onwards, to facilitate meeting space, accomodation and projects in Dissent! to the forthcoming G8 summit.
It is situated in 30 Dora Street, Dalmarnock, Glasgow, G40 4DP, Scotland. The telephone number for this place is (0044)/ (0)141-551-0401 .
Dissent! G8 infoshop opens in Edinburgh
The G8 public Infoshop opened today to satisfy local curiousity and welcome autonomous groups and individual anti-G8 protesters.
The Infoshop is located 10 Albert Place, Leith Walk, in Edinburgh, EH7 5HN. It is about 10 minutes away from the bus and train station.
From now on, the access point will be opened 24 hours a day, the infoshop is also contactable under telephone number (0044)/(0)131-5611356 .
Collective meetings are held at 6 pm daily to update newcomers and to facilitate the running of the Infoshop.
[ Dissent! | Recent update about Practicalities | Protest Activities Overview | Mobilisation Links ]
Glasgow Cre8 Summit - Reclaiming Community
Over the weekend of the 11th and 12th of June the Cre8 Summit community initiative started taking back an area of land in Glasgow left derelict by the planners, transforming it into a community garden space. Set up in opposition to the M74 motorway extension (the site lies on the proposed route) and the G8, a week of community gardening and workshops culminated on Saturday 18th June with a celebration event. A follow up Family Festival day is also planned. During the first weekend as permaculture activists were planning the graden with local residents, it was announced that the M74 would be delayed by at least a year. One of the people working on Cre8 Summit said - We are doing this because we believe that many of the problems of the world are caused by a lack of solidarity amongst communities - coming together to create and maintain a space that is of benefit to all strengthens us all - we're also actively demonstrating what we are for, creating another possible world now, instead of just talking about it. Cre8 Garden Pictures | Audio Interview (mp3) | Film: Cre8 Summit Day 1 (.mov 3mins): Direct Download | Press Coverage
Also see: Jam74.org | Corporate Watch on M74 | Road Block | Road Alert
G8 Summit Update: 6th June
With less than one month to go before the G8 Summit, final preparations are underway. Last week planning by the authorities were thrown into disarray by celebrity Bob Geldof's call for one million people to converge in Edinburgh on the first day of the actual Summit. While the media frenzy over the Live8 concerts has overshadowed many of the existing mobilisations around the G8 Summit, at least some of the main issues, if not the politics behind them, are now firmly in the mind of the public. With scores of events planned throughout June it's clear momentum is growing for what will be one of the largest and most concentrated periods of protest in recent history, with a full week of demonstrations and events planned in July when the G8 Summit leaders meet behind their security fences in Scotland. Evolving Protest Plans
As well as the planned Blockades of the G8 Summit on Wed 6th July, there are now more demonstrations being announced and negotiated. G8Alternatives continues with its plans for a mass demonstration meeting at Gleneagles train station to march past Gleneagles Hotel on the first day of the Summit, despite the initial announcement of security cordons and road closures ruling this route out. Authorities have proposed a rally in Auchterarder village as an alternative but have said this would be limited to 3,500 people - more announcements are expected following a meeting on June 9th. The "Long Walk To Justice", announced at the start of June by Bob Geldof [2 | 3] will potentially see hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Edinburgh for events billed as "part rally, part party" and with a pop concert scheduled for Murrayfield stadium. Meanwhile the Stop the War Coalition has applied and now gained support for two protests in Edinburgh on Sun 3rd and Mon 4th July, despite both Scottish media and the police initialy briefing against the proposed demonstrations.
Accomodation Crisis
Over the past months various groups have been trying to secure mass accomodation for the tens of thousands of people who are expected to participate in the protests. With the lastest moves from Bob Geldof encouraging hundreds of thousands more people to converge on Edinburgh for the start of the Summit, what was already an accommodation crisis has now become a full blown emergency planning issue. Some groups have been trying to find a site to set up a Convergence campsite eco-village to house people, and despite initial set backs are confident a site will be found. Other groups have been in discussions with authorities for larger sites, and while no agreement has yet been reached an announcement is expected soon. Whatever the outcomes it's clear people will come anyway, with many groups encouraging people to bring tents.
See also:
AUDIO: "Voices from Africa" Conference - G8 - Migrants - Aid, Trade, Debt - HIV
In the wake of the Governments much hyped "Commission for Africa" came a reply - a conference not so much "for" Africa, as from Africans. 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.
Paul's travel reports from and about the Middle East
"The media today in fact is reporting that it’s a success and they’ve called off the operation and killed I think 125 insurgents and detained however many more but the reality is what I’ve learned from the ground from NGOs operating and from making phone calls into that area the whole thing is like a mini Fallujah – they didn’t let people leave the city, there’s probably hundreds of civilians casualties and many, many homes destroyed and many displaced people and of course none of this is being reported in the mainstream media. It typifies the whole situation in Iraq.”
Paul O'Hanlon travels around the Middle East, and sends regular political updates to Indymedia.
After participating in the Cairo conference [1 | 2 ] from March 24th to March 27th 2005 in which the relationship of Israel and Palestine was discussed, he moved on to the Egypt/Israeli border at Taba/Eilat before passing along further to Jordan.
From there his next report was filed from Amman, where he primarily researched the human rights and political situation. Reporting about a local demonstration in front of the US embassy and meeting Robert Fisk in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 days later, he travelled along to Istanbul, where he was denied a visa to Syria. Then he accounted his time spent at the border imigration and after a long wait, search and questioning actually in the West Bank and Israel. His latest update from Amman, Jordan, features an interview with the independent journalist Dahr Jamail, who spent a lot of time as an unembedded journalist in Iraq and reports about a "Mini Fallujah" situation of "Operation Matador (near the Syrian border)".
G8 Alternative Media Convergence and Summit Appeal
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 ]
4000km of New Roads Planned as Controversial M74 Approved for Glasgow
New Department for Transport predictions reveal that the Government are planning over 4000 kilometres of new roads by 2025. The alliance against road building, Road Block, says this is proof that the Government is not serious about tackling traffic growth and climate change (as it claims in the run up to the G8 summit in July). Campaigners say it's clear the government has abandoned previous pledges to implement an integrated transport policy and protect the environment. Currently there are over 200 planned and approved road schemes. Only last week, the Government gave the go-ahead to an additional 12 major road schemes totalling £1.4 billion. Meanwhile the Scottish Executive has given the green light to the controversial £500 million M74 in east Glasgow. This is particularly significant becasue the M74 approval goes directly against the findings of a Public Inquiry Report published in March 2004. The 188-page report of the public inquiry savaged the scheme, criticising both the plan and much of the transport policy that lay behind it. The report was written by Richard Hickman CBE - one of the Executive’s own most senior and respected planners. The motorway he concluded should not be built as it would have potentially devastating effects on the local and wider economy, the local community, and would be of little actual benefit.
The announcement of the approval going against the public enquiry has drawn a storm of protest - with groups looking at legal challenges and activists gearing up for a massive campaign of direct action to oppose the motorway. Joint Action against the M74 (JAM74) a campaign network opposed to the M74 motorway has launched a beat the bulldozers pledge. Will Jess, Chair of JAM74 said “The Executive and the City Council have condemned Glaswegians to a legacy of air pollution and chromium contamination."
Comparisons are already being drawn with the M77 campaign, which saw thousands of protesters occupying trees in Pollok in 1994 and 1995. The M74 will be a six-lane motorway on concrete stilts cutting into the Glasgow - so not many trees this time, however campaigners point to the M11 protests in London as a model for how house occupations can be used to obstruct road building.
The next JAM74 meetings are 5 + 19 April, 7:30pm, Govanhill Community Centre, Daisy St, Glasgow.
Also see Road Alert Website | Road Rage Links | SchNEWS on New Roads
Martial Law Declared in Nepal
Nepal: All communication links were cut after the King Gyanendra's announcement of suspending parliament and fundamental rights, on Tuesday, 1st of february.
Airlinks have been closed, roads blocked, other transport links delayed. Armed security forces in riot gear are deployed. Leaders of major political parties, trade unions and student organisations are under house arrest or detained. Army is stationed in the editorial offices of all national dailies in order to censor. Outside of Kathmandu, the Maoist strike is apparently observed.
A student demonstration at Prithvi Narayan Campus in Pokhara was fired on by a military helicopter gunship leaving several protestors badly injured if not dead; all FM radio broadcasts outside of Kathmandu are blocked and those broadcasting in Kathmandu play only entertainment-oriented programmes; the BBC FM station recently established in Kathmandu is forbidden from broadcasting the news in Nepali; news stands outside of the Valley have been closed; and a 72-hour blockade on long-distance public bus travel in and out of Kathmandu is in place.
[ full report] [ Zmag Coverage 1 | 2 ]
Painting with the Zapatista in Scotland
“The art world belongs to everybody. It is not just for the illuminated that have access to the so-called temples of art. It’s like the history made by the people and now it is up to us to make worlds where many worlds fit, to paint them, to sing them, to write poems to the free men and women and to sing and sing. Let the words and the music and the poems and the colours announce that art belongs to everybody and is for everybody, like this world, like these dreams, like freedom!”. Gustavo C. P.
[Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group | Glasgow Zapatista Solidarity Group | Indy UK Zapatista section | IMC Chiapas | Indy Scotland ]
UK taking over G8 presidency
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'dBig Blether 4 unites muddy grassroots activists
The 4th Big Blether took place from 1st- 3rd October 2004 in an embryonic permaculture community in North Perthshire, named Culdees.
About 70 activists from Scotland and far beyond joined the gathering to exchange skills, enjoy themselves and forge links with old and new friends of a diverse range of groups engaged in the struggle for social justice.
[pictures | programm | feedback]
International solidarity with the people in Venezuela
On the 15th of august, the International Day of Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela, protesters took to the streets and meadows of Edinburgh to inform the public about the importance of the co-inciding referendum on the president in Venezuela in the struggle against neoliberalism, privatisation, exploitation and globalised trade competition.
In the distributed leaflet, the activists state, that they will support a Global Day of Action on October 12th, 2004. [reports and pictures: 1 | 2 | call | video]
Other international solidarity events happened in London during the week before the referendum [report] in the RampArt social centre, [video], protests took place in support of the Bolivarian Revolution in front of the embassy in The Hague, Stockholm, London [report | pics | video], Amsterdam [1|2], Mexico, Dominican Republic.
Take back the Streets of Edinburgh
Around seventy protesters "took back the streets" in an action in Edinburgh on Saturday 31st of July, 2004. Several sit-down protests were held, and Princes Street was seized before moving on to Tollcross, where two people were arrested.
[ full report with pictures | call for street party | Reclaim the Streets]
Native Americans protest at Scottish Power annual shareholder meeting for river restoration
A broad umbrella group of 26 people from various environmental, academic and economical organisations and members from four Native American tribes, travelled to Scotland from Southern Oregon and Northern California to lobby, protest at and negotiate with Scottish Power, the parent company of PacifiCorp, which is responsible for the negative impacts of several dams on the Klamath River, its water quality, salmon population, surrounding environment and neighbouring communities.
Previous reports:
[ pictures of protest at Scottish Power's annual shareholders meeting | call to write protest letters | reply to consumer boycott | Klamath river support delegation in Scotland | U.S. Court Rules in Favor Of Hoopa Valley, Yurok Tribes! | Native Americans, Enviros, and Fishermen Battle Scottish Power | Myth and facts about the Klamath River dams ]
Audio reports:
[ interview with scientist | interview with Klamath Tribe | interview with sociologist | Interview with commercial fisherman | interview with Yurok tribe | Environmental Racism Conference 1 | Environmental Racism Conference, Eugene, January 2004 ]
Zapatista child brutally attacked
The zapatista "Committee of Good Government" for the Morelia zone has denounced a brutal attack on a zapatista child in the municipality of Chilon, Chiapas, Mexico.Gleneagles Confirmed as G8 2005 Venue
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
Brutal murder of a leading Zapatista in Zona Norte, Chiapas
On Monday, 7th of june 2004, the Zapatist Eduardo Vázquez Álvaro was murdered in bright daylight in the middle of the city centre of Chilón. 
http://germany.indymedia.org/2004/06/85327.shtml http://www.chiapas.ch
