Dissent! A network of resistance, against the G8 Dissent is a new network, created to build a mobilisation against the G8. The network is based on the PGA Hallmarks, rooted in local and autonomous organising and action, and aims to go beyond the G8. Listen up. The G8 circus is coming But we’re not going to. summit in Evian, which borders Lake to Britain in 2005. Too right we’re not. Across the world, Geneva and is surrounded by thick Ooooh, I love a circus; loads of people are sending a clear message to forest. But... clowns, acrobats, trapeze artists... the governments and the global Don’t tell me. Protesters did it again. Hang on a minute. There’ll be plenty of corporations which feed the hand of Besieged staff and delegates by clowns, but the G8 isn’t the kind of capitalism: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. circus you take the kids to. Officially blockading all routes to Evian and it’s where the heads of state and So what are people doing? delaying the start of the summit. It was government of Canada, France, Getting together in their millions a hoot! To which the Swiss state Germany, Italy, Japan, the United throughout the world to oppose political responded with massive repression, Kingdom, the United States and the and economic injustice and replace it cutting the rope of an activist, who was Russian Federation meet informally ‘to with systems that put human beings blockading a bridge, causing him to fall discuss issues relating to globalisation before profits. An important date is 30 metres. And, of course, don’t forget and to devise responses January 1 1994 when the Zapatista all the other mass actions that have commensurate with the responsibilities uprising kicked off in Mexico and happened: Seattle where the WTO that flow from their place in the world kicked out a corrupt and exploitative meeting had to be abandoned; Prague; economy.’ government from southern Mexico. J18...the anti-capitalist movement is getting stronger and stronger. Cutting the bullshit, what really And protests against the G8? And now the G8 cowboys are coming happens? Getting bigger and stronger by the Well, these summits are about making to a town somewhere near you in 2005. year. There was the Global Street Any idea where the summit will be sure that the richest nations carry on Party in Birmingham in 1998 and getting richer at the expense of held? massive demonstrations in Cologne a We won’t know officially until the end everyone else. year later. In 2000 the summit was That’s capitalism for you. of the 2004 summit in the US in June, held in Japan on Okinawa Island, but there are already rumours – And it’s fucking us up. The wealth of which is a military base. There were no Gleneagles in Scotland has been the world is disappearing into the riots, but 27,000 people formed an 11 mentioned along with Newcastle. coffers of huge multi-nationals that mile human chain around the base. Wherever the government say it’ll be don’t give a stuff about anything but And then, of course, came 2001 in held, we’ll be there and this time we’re their profits and using those profits to Genoa. determined to shut the thing down. You make even bigger piles of cash. And all Hundreds of thousands were on the with us? done with the help of the G8 streets in spite of some of the ugliest Certainly am. governments. police repression seen in decades. So these summits are where Carlo Giuliani was killed by a police Then contact the DISSENT network politicians and business leaders get bullet and hundreds were beaten up. and get involved in whatever way you together and decide how to carve up can. We need as many people as the world’s resources? But people came back for more. possible. And if we work together, we All behind closed doors – the G8 isn’t 2002 was quiet because the Canadian CAN kill the monster. an elected body so it’s completely government decided that the only way Cardiff Anarchist Network unaccountable. G8 leaders are literally to avoid trouble was to hold the summit getting away with murder, by in Kananaskis, a place so remote that Dissent Gathering supporting illegal wars, the destruction special agents had to be trained to of the environment and the deal with grizzly bears rather than impoverishment of millions of people protesters. However major The next Dissent gathering will take who are powerless to resist. demonstrations still happened in cities place over the weekend of the 24th Powerless to resist, eh? across Canada. and 25th of April, at Manchester Enviromental Resource Centre. For Capitalism is this ever-growing monster Sounds like the G8 boys are starting more information contact that, one day, risks wiping out the to get scared. [email protected] entire planet – if we let it. They are. Last year, France held the To get in touch with the Dissent Network, contact the group nearest to you, subscribe to [email protected] or visit www.dissent.org.uk Whats this rumour the G8 is going G8, broadly based on the PGA state. We are inviting people from all to be held at Gleneagles? I thought Hallmarks, rooted in the local, that over Europe, and the world, to join us that was a golf course…? involves autonomous mobilisations and in Dublin on Mayday to show our Yeah, well we know the G8 is certainly goes beyond the G8. leaders that their agenda for EU coming to the UK in 2005 - the This means we want: integration, driven by the wealthy and powerful, will face resistance. We will hosts rotate on cyclical basis - but =To network across different groups nobody knows where. It seems though interested in radical social change. also be using the days of action to highlight local issues and campaigns that Blair and his goons down in MI6 =To form links with social movements have already been looking … in other countries. which are linked to the broader problems of corporate globalisation and We know their criteria. They’ll want to =To recognise that resisting the G8 is host it somewhere plush, Tony not just about a one-off protest but also the EU. wants to impress his mates he does. building a movement that will be active The government has announced that But he knows its not as simple as beyond the G8 summit. Mayday is going to be Irelands big day out as EU president. This is the date that. His priority is finding somewhere =To positively contribute to ideas of safe, tucked away out as far away how we can resist capitalism. when the EU will formally expand to incorporate 10 new states, mostly from from the large centres of population as =To recognise that we will be part of a possible. So rumour has it that larger resistance against the G8. Our Eastern Europe. The government plan MI6 and others have already sounded part will be the most inspiring. to hold street parties and other ‘celebrations’ for the population, while out a number of places: top of their The Network is open to any people/ list, according to rumour, is the the 25 heads of state of the enlarged groups that subscribe to the PGA union are wined and dined in the plush Gleneagles hotel in Scotland. And hallmarks. It has open access points yeah, this place is based around a surroundings of Farmleigh House. for people to get involved (please see However, the government’s famous golf course. below) and its workings are Genoa, Seattle, Prague... celebrations to ‘welcome’ the transparent. Groups within the accession countries are a fraud. Auchtertarder?!? Network are autonomous but linked Well, if you’re looking at a map, We anticipate that an unprecedented together through communication police operation will be put in place to Gleneagles is basically halfway structures and mutual support. between Glasgow and Dundee, or ensure that the public are kept far more accurately, halfway between So if you want to get involved get in away from the decision makers. Also, Stirling and Perth, just by a town touch with your local group. If you don’t while the leaders of these countries called Auchtertarder. have a local group set one up. You can might be welcome in the EU (along Already, the local MSP, Roseanna get in touch with us at with their farms and sweatshops), Cunningham of the SNP has struck up [email protected] to find most of the current EU countries will a fuss. Her constituents don’t want to out if there is anyone in your local area remain closed to the people of the hassle of hosting these ‘world who is also interested in setting up a accession states for the next 6 years. leaders’ she says. local group. Worse still, at the same time as the We hope local groups can at least be EU leaders talk about international co- Another problem for Tony and his a contact point where people can get operation and openness, they are chums though, is that Gleneagles only information and more involved. If actually implementing a ‘fortress has 270 rooms. Never enough for possible this could be linked to a Europe,’ a closed EU from which the them, their entourage, and the press. space for example social centre, inhabitants of the third world, the So it looks like these guys will have to bookshop etc and they should have majority of the world’s population, will be bussed in from Perth, maybe non-computor based points of contact be ruthlessly excluded. It is instructive Dundee and even further out. (e.g. meetings, postal address, social that the first ‘achievement’ of the Irish Not a lot of roads between Perth and space etc.) Local groups are presidency was the establishment of a Auchtertarder: if one of those was to autonomous to do what they want. The ‘repatriation fund,’ to allow the wealthy get blocked it could be an awful network can support in exploring what countries to share the costs of hassle... that might be! All are welcome to get deporting people to poor countries. Dissent Edinburgh involved in the network working groups. In opposition to the current EU of the Please see the list of working groups rich and powerful, we propose a and contact details below. grassroots Europe. A Europe united So what are we going to do through empowered communities about it? Call for Mayday 2004: come taking decision making power back Dissent is a new network that was to Dublin, Ireland! into their own hands. A Europe without born out of the interest of various borders, internal or external. A Europe individuals and groups, including Activists from the Dublin Grassroots where wealth is equally shared and environmental, anti-war and anti- network are calling for a European day everybody has the same opportunities. authoritian groups, to discuss of action in Dublin on Saturday, May A Europe where our resources are opposition to the G8. The ‘Dissent!’ 1st, as the highlight of a weekend of spent on education, health and network is committed to taking a action from Friday April 30th, to sustainable development rather than confrontational stance and calling for Monday May 3rd. These days of action war and capitalist profiteering. This direct action against the G8 and what will focus on symbols of all that is Europe cannot be formed from above, it represents. Nobody owns the wrong with the EU as it currently but needs people to stand up for network and it has no leaders. We stands: militarism, neo-liberalism, themselves and say ‘no’ to our corrupt want to build a mobilisation against the fortress Europe and the EU police and greedy leaders. The time to start is always now. As the clocked chimed midnight on 1st bulldozed to sanitize the city, and more info www.geocities.com/ Jan 1994, inigenous Zapatista rebels dissentors filled the jails. In 1997 eufortress www.indymedia.ie emerged for the first time from the another Zapatista-inspired Encounter London Mobilisation Meeting: Sat 28th mists of the Lacandon rainforest. The led to the creation in 1998 of People’s Feb 12pm @ Occupied Social Centre: new year ushered in corporate rule in Global Action, a network of grassroots 93 Fortress Road Kentish Town the guise of the North Atlantic Free social movements who swore to resist www.wombles.org.uk Trade agreement, a treaty that captialism with direct action, whilst in Ireland Grassroots Gathering Meeting threatened Zapatistas’ land rights. 1998 unrest and wave upon wave of Fri 5th-Sun 7th March @ Cork city And so a courageous band of women strikes and ‘people power’ uprisings in details and men launched a unique resistance the wake of the financial crisis broke www.grassrootsgathering.freeserve.com movement that was to reinvent the across South East Asia. The accommodation available. radical political imagination for the networks strengthened further as world. internationally co-ordinated days of Dublin Grassroots Network Activists from around the world action targetted the WTO in may 1998 A Breif History of the declared their solidarity with the and the G8 on June 18th 1999 with a AntiCapitalist Movement. Zapatista autonomous zones, and global Carnival against Capital. Depending on who you ask, the asked: “What do you want us to do?” But the anticapitalist movement only resistance began 510 years ago when The Zapatistas, taken aback by so became visible to the Northern media the indigenous of the Americas fought much attention, replied that for them, during the spectacular moments of Columbus, or 700 years ago when solidarity would be for people to make confrontation at global economic Robin Hood rode through the forests of their own revolutions in ways that summits in the rich world. The first to England to protect the rights of the would be relevant to their own lives. make it onto their radar screen was on commoners, or a little over 100 years History, like resistance, began to 30 Nov 1999 when the WTO meeting ago when slavery was abolished accelerate. In 1996 the Zapatistas was rudely interupted in Seattle. throughout the Americas, or 150 years called a diverse band of London urban ago when working people became an street reclaimers, Brazilian land The city ground to a halt when a new international revolutionary movement, squatters, Indian farmers, Seattle generation of activists, using radically or 50 years ago when populations anarchists, Africans rioting against the decentralised, creative tatics, outwitted across Africa, Asia and Latin America IMF, white-overalled Italian dissidents, the police and successfully prevented started rioting over the price of bread vagabonds, sweatshop workers, the WTO from launching a fresh round as the International Monetary Fund indigenous peoples, illegal immigrants, of trade negotiations. Locked down, began restructuring their economies. squatters, intellectuals, factory tear-gassed, and beaten with Or perhaps it was in 1988 when the workers, tree-sitters and peasants to truncheons, they blocked the WTO IMF and World Bank were almost run an ‘International Encuentro Against delegate’s way to the conference out of Berlin by 75,000 protestors, or in Neoliberalism and for Humanity’ in the centre, argued with them about patents 1999 when the same number disrupted rainforests of Chiapas; this was the on life, the global forest logging the World Trade Organisation meeting historic moment when these rebels agreement, and enforced privatisation. in Seattle. For those who like their recognised each other and their They insisted their world was not for history neat, 1994 emerges as a common enemy. sale. Business leaders looked on stunned. None of them could tell if landmark year as resistance to Also in 1996, arguably the first tear capitalism snowballed. Resitnce to Seattle was a carnival or a riot, where gas wreathed summit of the it had come from or who these people IMF policies in the global South globalisation era was held in Manila in increased dramatically that year; were. It was an epic confrontation to the Phillipines, when 10,000 protestors decide who would go forth into the next around the world there were more against the Asia Pacific Econominc general strikes than at any previous century ascendant - people or Community meeting faced 30,000 corporations. time in the 20th century; radical police and solidiers, the slums were ecological movements were re- introducing creative direct action tactics to popular protest in the US and the UK The PGA Hallmarks - and as the Mexican economy crashed The PGA or Peoples’ Global Action is a network for spreading information and coordinating actions between grassroots movements around the world. It is a and burned, the Zapatista uprising took worldwide coordination of resistances to the global market and a global alliance the world by storm. For simplicity’s of struggle and mutual support, based on these five hallmarks sake, let us start the story there. 1) A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all trade agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive We Need Cash! globalisation. 2) We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, To print this newsletter we need funds. but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We would like to print this newsletter We embrace the full dignity of all human beings. as often as possible and rely on your 3) A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic organisations, in which goodwill for that. transnational capital is the only real policy-maker; To make a donation send cheques or 4) A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social movements’ postal orders payable to Dissent struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximise respect for life and Newsletter to Box 8, The Sumac oppressed peoples’ rights, as well as the construction of local alternatives to Centre, Forest Fields, Nottingham, global capitalism. NG7 6HX 5) An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy. This helped to catalise a new wave of area into a military stronghold to dystopia on offer from the G8. It is a summit protests, from the IMF meeting maintain that isolation. To the people, call to reclaim our communities, our in Prague, the EU summits in their message is clear: “Keep out; this landscapes, our dreams and our lives Gothenburg and Thessaloniki, to the is none of your concern.” from the totalitarian-capitalist vision G8 summits in Geneo and Evian, It IS of our concern — a concern of all promoted by the G8 and their everwhere the world leaders tried to peoples, and we must not fail to corporate cronies. meet they were met with increased confront the powerful, no matter how We shall craft our resistance in the resistance. they fortify themselves. loving vision of the world in which we Yet, this is not a call to follow the wish to live. Allow them their isolated Whilst all the time the day to day bosses to their next summit. For too ivory towers- we’ll make their holy sites struggle continued...... long, the resistance movement has our play grounds. Taken from ‘We are Everywhere’ allowed these bandit kings to choose Call for articles for the the terrain upon which we meet. We newsletter Geography is not an have allowed their goons time to We want to publish this newsletter as Obstacle, but an Opportuntiy! prepare for our arrival. We have been often as we can - at least quarterly Global Days of Action against Empire corralled, beaten, arrested and shot at - and we can only do that if we have June 8-10, 2004 in the locations of their choosing. material to publish so we’re relying It is not only at these summits where on you to provide it. Remember In the summer of 2004, the reigning our enemies can be found, but every DISSENT! is a network of autonomous politicians and bosses of the world’s day in our home towns and cities. direct action groups currently focussed most powerful industrial nation-states Their monotonous chain stores, banks, on opposing the G8 - so we’re looking will gather on the southeast Atlantic and high-rises dominate our for news of what’s happening where coast of the land occupied by the landscapes and horizons. Their neo- you are, as well as your thoughts and United States government. With their liberal capitalist ideology invades every ideas on what kind of welcome we army of their bureaucrats and spin aspect of our lives, and transforms our might want to give to Blair and his doctors, they seek to polish the image most personal relations into chums in 2005 -stuff of course that we of their agenda of corporate commodities. colonization, global warfare for empire, can print...plus any other info you think In response to the G8 Summit, being and ecological devastation under the would be relevant. held in Sea Island, USA, we call for euphemisms of “economic Make it short and snappy so we get as days of decentralized and autonomous globalization,” “free trade,” and many views as possible. direct action against capitalism, “counter-terrorism.” We’ll be including dates of network exploitation, empire, and ecocide Their meetings will take place on a meetings plus contact details for across the globe to coincide with the direct action groups involved, so if you secluded and exclusive island, quite meetings, June 8-10. appropriate for a Group of 8 so isolated want to publicise meetings etc This a call to build the future—a future from the working people they claim to going on in your patch, then e-mail us marked by freedom, joy, and shared represent. The State will spend at [email protected] well-being—a future altogether brighter millions turning this rich residential and we’ll do our best to include the than, and different from, the cruel details.....Cheers Contact Details Dissent: www.dissent.org.uk Local Contacts Cardiff Anarchist Network: www.geocities.com/bozavine/can To subscribe to the email list contact Tel: 07952774525 Meets: Model Inn, Quay Street, Cardiff - [email protected] every Monday, 9:00 PM, upstairs. Discussion at http://enrager.net/web/current/g8/index.php Derby Earth First: Po Box 6628, Derby, DE1 9EA, 01332 835 426 Meets Bernard’s Watch Cafe, The Courtyard Pub, Working Groups Friargate, Derby, on the first Tuesday of the month Education/Roadshow: To subscribe, contact Edinburgh: [email protected], or subscribe [email protected] http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/dissentedinburgh Gathering: [email protected] LARC: 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES : 020 7377 9088 International Networking: [email protected] [email protected], www.londonarc.org Lessons from past Mobalisations: Leeds: Leeds ARC, 145-147 Cardigan Road, Leeds LS6 1LJ [email protected] www.leedsarc.org.uk or email [email protected] Medical Support: To subscribe, contact Liverpool: liverpool [email protected] [email protected] Manchester: Dosummat, [email protected], Newsletter: [email protected] www.dosummat.org.uk Dissent Newsletter, Box 8, 245 Gladstone Street, Newcastle: Why Don't You?, PO Box 1TA, Newcastle-upon- Nottingham, NG7 6HX Tyne NE99 1TA, or email [email protected] Process: [email protected] Nottingham: Box 8, The Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone St, Publicity: To subscribe, contact NG7 6HX www.veggies.org.uk/sumac, [email protected] [email protected] Oxford: Oxford Dissent, 16b Cherwell St, Oxford OX4 1BG [email protected] Skill Sharing/Translating: www.skillsharing.org or Sheffield: [email protected] subscribe Wombles: [email protected], www.wombles.org.uk [email protected] Worthing eco-action: PO Box 4144, Worthing, West Website: [email protected], or subscribe Sussex BN14 7NZ or email: [email protected], or visit http://www.email-lists.org/mailman/listinfo/dissent-tech www.freewebs.com/shuttheg8