Make a date with the G8

Lucy Michaels

The G8 (Group of Eight most industrialised nations) Summit is coming to Britain in the Summer of 2005 and preparations are starting early to build for, and beyond, this event.
On a hot day in May 1998, in the city of Birmingham, I first stepped off the pavement and onto the streets. The place was buzzing as people - church groups, trade unions, environmental activists and many more - were joining up the issues and talking about globalisation. Seventy thousand people held hands around the conference centre calling on world leaders to drop the debt (‘Third World’ debt hadn’t even been on the agenda three months earlier), and when the polite but impassioned plea of the debt relief human chainers had subsided, an altogether wilder and less conciliatory note was heard from the sound systems that appeared by New Street Station as the crowd reclaimed the Bull Ring roundabout.

The G8 leaders were conveniently out on the golf course at Weston Park, Staffordshire that day but they couldn’t really have missed us. Nor the news of actions and demonstrations in over 40 countries, from Brasilia to Hyderabad. This was the first time since its founding in 1975, that the G8 Summit (an informal meeting at which the leaders of the eight most industrialised nations get together to hang out, play golf, and discuss how to maintain and extend their global dominance through neoliberalism, economic globalisation and war) had been exposed to the light by such a large and dramatic global protest. There had been smaller protests in Lyon 1996 and Paris in 1989. Cologne, Okinawa, Genoa, Kananaskis , Evian...it’s been a long journey. Over the last six years, G8 summits have become the focus of global protests which aim to highlight the unaccountable and secretive way in which decisions about the future of our world are being made by this self-appointed club. This year the exclusive and secluded Sea Island on the Southeast Atlantic seaboard of the USA will be the venue for meeting. Whilst some have called for a mobilisation in the nearest town, Savannah, Georgia, http://freesavannah.com/g8/page2.htm, others see the wisdom of two decentralised days of action against Empire on 8-10th June www.g8resistance.org/call1.html

In the Summer of 2005, the G8 bandwagon rolls back to the UK. In response, various activist groups from around the country have formed the Dissent! Network with the aim of strengthening local activism and networking to build resistance for and beyond the G8. The Network is open to any people/groups that subscribe to the People’s Global Action hallmarks (see below). The next Dissent! gathering will take place at the Cowley Club in Brighton on 7- 8th February. If you want to attend, please email g8gathering@yahoo.co.uk to let them know you are coming and if you require accommodation. There will be many other opportunities to get involved. See www.dissent.org.uk for more details. As yet, it is unclear where the actual Summit location will be, with rumours including Newcastle/Gateshead and Gleneagles, in rural Perthshire. 2005 should be an interesting year as it will see the UK hosting the EU presidency, the DSEi arms fair and...a general election. For more info on the G8 see: University of Toronto G8 Information Centre www.g8.utoronto.ca/

Hallmarks of Peoples’ Global Action

1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all trade agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive globalisation.
2. We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human beings.
3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic organisations, in which transnational capital is the only real policy-maker.
4. A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social movements’ struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximise respect for life and oppressed peoples’ rights, as well as the construction of local alternatives to global capitalism.
5. An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy.