Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Why we are protesting the G8: Make Poverty History march

Voluntary Slave | 03.07.2005 22:27 | G8 2005 | Analysis | World

On the Make Poverty History march I asked: "What do you hope to achieve? And why is marching the way to achieve it?" Here is what I heard.

Fundamentally, what structured the organisation of the Make Poverty History march were the demands of visual spectacle. The plan was to create a giant white band around Edinburgh city centre, visible only to aerial photographs, not to any individual protester on the ground. This in turn dictated the march route, the timing at which people were allowed to set off; and, of course, the clothes (white) worn by most of the marchers.

Those of the marchers I spoke to would, I suspect, have no problem with this. For them, the purpose of protesting the G8 was, first and foremost, to communicate. As one woman put it, protest is a means to an end, and the end is to make people in general, and political leaders in particular, aware of people's strength of feeling.

But I wonder if it is quite as simple as that: is it just that protestors on Saturday chose to march because that is the most effective way of achieving their ends, or does the choice of tactic reveal an implicit understanding of how politics ought to function. I spoke to a young man who had taken more direct steps to end poverty and suffering by working with the charity Water Aid. He criticised attempts to shut down the G8, saying, "There's nothing wrong with the world's leaders getting together, but they need to listen to us." An older woman with a devastatingly detailed critique of the way global trade rules allow the West to rule over the Third World finished by praising peaceful protest "because it does not hugely antagonise those in power, but makes them think."

What was implicit in these two statements was made very explicit by a campaigner with a group who had come to protest against the ongoing genocide in Darfur. "The G8 are the powerful countries. If they want to stop the genocide, they can," he said. The contrast that underlied the Make Poverty History march: they are powerful, we are powerless. Far from being a great show of people power, then, the march was a kind of abasement, in which marchers affirmed their weakness and begged those with power for recognition.

But perhaps that isn't it, either. The march was a communication, yes, said someone else I spoke to, but "it shows the numbers and voice of the movement, and so can't be ignored." We all have different focuses, but we have certain things in common and "this creates an idea of solidarity around these issues. Solidarity is part of the method and the goal of our protests." This was echoed by a woman I met who was marching with a Christian anti-poverty group. "A march is part of a movement," she said, "and helps the movement because people feel uplifted and hopeful at the scale of the protests."

So, what is this? Maybe a movement unaware of its own strength, focussing on the power of remote 'world leaders', rather than the creative possibilities of its own solidarity. The great power on display in the creation of a collective cry to the 'powerful' goes unnoticed. Perhaps.

Voluntary Slave

Comments

Hide the following comment

Cheers

04.07.2005 01:01

This is possibly the best comment on MPH I've heard (of hundreds). Thanks!

Martin


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech