Libcom G8 Blog
Jul 1 2005 17:14
Jul 7 2005 23:19
#2
Ghost of the Revolution wrote:
the police stood no chance of working out what we were doing, because we didn't know
Hey! that was our plan...but did you end up doing anything on the 6th? I passed a veeeery organised group who had completely blocked the way with trees, banners and quite a few people. From what I saw however, they'd taken a little bridge which didn't really go anywhere and we drove right round them. 
But maybe it was really important?!!
Jul 8 2005 12:38
#3
The radio said blockades had caused 'severe chaos' around gleneagles. So I guess it did all work out fine. At 2am on wednesday morning three of us went to see if we could find a route down to the A9 from our camp in the hills, and we found a route that went all the way to the road under cover of trees. and into a makeshift police base at the bottom of the hill. Much running away from police later we went back to our camp to tell them it would be better to head east before attempting to get to the main road. We eventually found a good spot for a blockade but given the lack of interest from police or motorists we probably weren't blocking a very important road. Another group from our neighbourhood got the official gleneagles record with a barricade which lasted 6 hours despite crazed drivers attempting to ram them.
Jul 8 2005 17:05
#4
Ghost_of_the_revolution wrote:
Another group from our neighbourhood got the official gleneagles record with a barricade which lasted 6 hours despite crazed drivers attempting to ram them.
These crazed drivers, were they G8 delegates? 
Jul 8 2005 18:16
#5
This is pretty wierd:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/317513.html
Quote:
False Alarm or Hoax? Suspect Package Outside Edinburgh IMC
Jul 9 2005 17:47
#6
dont know if this is the right place to post this but i could say a few words about the whole G8 thing being there from saturday till wednesday evening. I didn't go to the camp though, so i wasn't in the eye of the storm.
I took part to the reformists poverty march on saturday, stop the war on sunday, "carneval" on monday, migrant demo at dungavel on tuesday and then some stuff on wednesday.
Using most of my time in animal and earth issues i am used to small group of people getting loads done while G8 demos were the opposite: loads of people around getting fuck all done. This is not to discredit organisers at all though - actually quite the opposite. Had people taken this "affinity group" style of organising more seriously we would have been able to do much more. For instance the level of information passed to people of Edinburgh was really low and we could have done much more on that front.
I went to the demos with the idea that these big summit spectacles are not great and returned feeling the same. They are great in showing cracks in the surface, destroying the atmosphere of universal concent and showing opposition. But with 300+ arrests, i don't know if it is worth it. The people who got arrested of course will make their own judgements.
I'm an old school guy believing that the primary organising form should be in our workplaces, communities and interest groups - but there is nothing inherently exclusive about that and these two, summit hopping and local organising, do not exclude eachother.
What i would have loved to see is more red and black flags, more proud anarchist/syndicalist/libertarian communist precence. There were thousands of people with a heart in the right place looking for outlet, SWP etc were there to pick them up while anarchists were too busy dressing up as clowns or masking up (again, not having a go at people who did this, more having a go at myself and bunch of anarchists i spent the time with, we could have alone done a lot in terms of getting proper anarchist propaganda out there).
Missed the workshops, some looked very interesting and can see that they could have been useful, but instead i chose to sample local foods and go to the gym - not dedicated enough 
So i return with mixed feelings: negatives i have explained above, but it warms my heart to see people giving shit about issues in the times of extreme self obsessed culture.
First and foremost it did motivate me to get more active in anarchist politics (though of course in everyday life i bring out anarchist politics anyway, but mean outspokenly anarchist stuff), because i don't want to be one of those arses who just whine about the state of the anarchist movement without doing anything about it themselves.
peace,
JDMF in da house again
Jul 10 2005 16:28
#7
Quote:
Ghost of the Revolution wrote:the police stood no chance of working out what we were doing, because we didn't know
Ace 
Jul 10 2005 17:48
#8
My G8 experience was a bit toned down compared to a lot of you. I was going to Scotland with my brother who lives there, but I ran out of money to get up there so I setltled for a bit of the old local Bristle action.
There was a demo on wednesday so me and my best mate Karl strolled down to the centre and about 300 people turned out, so not a bad little amount. I met a few of my mates from SWP and wandered around drinking lemonade in my classwar shirt and Palastinian scarf looking very cool. My dear friend has just got into anarchism and had a black 'ANARCHY' hoody on which was a bit embarrassing but God bless his soul all the same.
Apparently there's a new law(section 26?) that forbids concealing your face and these coppers threatened Karl with arrest for wearing a scarf. To be honest I think they centred on him because he's 6ft 6 and was wearing a big 'ANARCHY' hoody. we kept our scarves on(cause we're fucking G's)and they started chasing us with police horses hahaha! we ran away and got lost in the crowd but they finally caught us and we convinced them we were deaf so that's why we didn't stop hohohohohohoho stupid people.
Hanyways. The march started at about 5:45 and we all trotted about the centre acompaned by about a bujjillion police as per usual. The atmosphere was pretty good and everyone seemed in a good mood. There was a bit of a skuffle at the start but it simmered down and we continued marching around having a good chant "WE HATE G8!" yeah good shit. I met a few really nice dudes from Classwar(I didn't even know there were CW dudes in bristol) who liked my t-shirt, I felt so cool and proper anarchy. We also bumped into these guys from South West Anarchists and I had no idea they even existed, they kept themselves rather quiet up untill now I must say but they were cool.
Then sadly I met these two stupid people. I was chatting to Karl about the difference between Afed and CW and this stupid woman goes "haha you don't know!". Well excuse me for having something in my mouth and not answering straight away. And this dumbarse man next to her started blahblahing about CW being syndaclists or some such crap but unfornaturly at this time the police started getting a bit aggressive and I didnt get to tell these people what fuckwits they were.
The march was building up though and we stopped traffic coming out of the centre which was pretty ace and a lot of people in cars seemed pretty supportive. but unfornaturly I had to leave pretty early at about 7:30 but apparently things got a bit more heated once me and homeslice went. I left the march feeling pretty good but defaintly wished they'd been a few more people.
Jul 11 2005 11:06
#9
JDMF wrote:
So i return with mixed feelings: negatives i have explained above, but it warms my heart to see people giving shit about issues in the times of extreme self obsessed culture.
My G8 experience mirrored yours in a lot of ways. I was at the Stirling camp site which was great and all, but some of the meetings were just too much. People did not have a clear idea about when consensus is just not nessecary and you need to break off into working groups. The structure for this was in place but ill-explained, and the meetings did get better as the week went on.
Best moment in a meeting for me was when this one guy was slagging the gate security and legal people off for not negotiating with MPs (!?!) though they had been talking to the cops who had formed a blockade round the site - he thought it should have gone higher up the chain! Aside from the fact that his politics were shit, he was being a complete bastard about it - being loudly agressive towards folk who had been up all night and who were in great need of more numbers. He was also ignoring meeting structures demanding his little rant in a massive meeting of a couple hundred of people. Anyway, the good bit came when the meeting got pissed off enough with him to shut him up collectively when he wouldn't stop ignoring the facilitator and the wishes of the meeting:
him: "I just want to..."
crowd in unison: "No"
him: "but..."
crowd in unison: "NO!"
That shut him up
I agree with most of what you said, JDMF, especially about the need for more affinity group work. Though I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the extent to which we did manage to disrupt the G8. Another good aspect was the raising of the profile of the idea of anarchism amoungst those on the site - I've never heard the words "anarchism" and "anarchist" spoken so often in one week before (and in mostly a positive light too). Also, there was a surprising about of support from locals (even towards the black bloc by all accounts), which was no doubt helped by local hatred of the cops - expecially English police. There was a decent amount of locals who saw past the media lies came to vist the site where they were made welcome. So there was connections made with the local community, which may well lead to something in the future.
Funny moments of the week included: Scottish nationalists trying to burn a union jack during the Gleneagle field invasion, but failing because it was plastic coated (pics soon maybe). Also: the ISM group I went with had come up with a "Make Occupation History" flyer and banner for the week. On the "make capitalism nicer" demo we gave out flyers and held up the banner in a prominant place and some students came up to us to ask us what it was about, which we explained. To this he replied "Oh. I read it as 'make occupations history' as in doctor, dentist etc. 'Lentil eating hippies' I thought." !?! 
That did give me a good laugh.
Also, I learnt a lot, made a lot of useful contacts and had a lot of fun.
Jul 11 2005 11:28
#10
wheresmyshoes wrote:
Then sadly I met these two stupid people. I was chatting to Karl about the difference between Afed and CW and this stupid woman goes "haha you don't know!". Well excuse me for having something in my mouth and not answering straight away. And this dumbarse man next to her started blahblahing about CW being syndaclists or some such crap but unfornaturly at this time the police started getting a bit aggressive and I didnt get to tell these people what fuckwits they were.
This ones for Ed. Me an a mate were at a brighton autonomists (Aufheben) meeting once, the discussion got on to Tony Negri, at which point my mate asked who's Negri (i didn't have a clue either), at which point a few of them laughed at him. Made me an my pal feel all warm inside. Although one of them did apologise at the pub after. Intellectuals don't you just luv em...
Jul 11 2005 11:52
#11
Brighton Bomber wrote:
This ones for Ed. Me an a mate were at a brighton autonomists (Aufheben) meeting once, the discussion got on to Tony Negri, at which point my mate asked who's Negri (i didn't have a clue either), at which point a few of them laughed at him. Made me an my pal feel all warm inside. Although one of them did apologise at the pub after. Intellectuals don't you just luv em...
One word for that. And since Aufheben are so keen on German, he was a goalie, and that word is
Quote:
Kuntz
Jul 11 2005 12:25
#12
I had a chat on Friday with one of my best mates who had just got back from Gleneagles. I hadn't seen him much lately but knew he was hanging about with Dissent activist and stuff. He was buzzing from the "mad shit" that went down over there. I'm no activist by any means but I thought I'd npot be a cunt so i said "yeah? cool, hope it was good".
I've met many of the people from here who were going to Gleneagles especially through involvement in 2003 anti-war stuff and the Warzone Collective/Belfast Youth & Community Group. Anyway I was chatting to my mate and he kept going on about the mad shit the black bloc were doing etc. And without trying to jump down his throat cos he is a really good guy I was just asking "well what was the point of whatever they were doing and what did they acheive?" I didn't really get an answer that was useful. From what he was saying it sounded like they didn't acheive much.
Then he was telling me about how the clown and jugglers were getting up to loads of "mad shit" and the cops didn't know how to deal with them. I asked what this mad shit was but again didn't really get convinced that they'd acheived anything significant other than looking daft.
He also told me how he "almost got through police lines" - I asked what he was going to do had he got through police line (other than get arrested probably) and there just didn't appear to be much of substance.
Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble but in short, what I got from my discussion with him was that in his experience it was at most a good laugh and he got to meet people, nothing more really.
Jul 11 2005 12:35
#13
Brighton Bomber wrote:
This ones for Ed. Me an a mate were at a brighton autonomists (Aufheben) meeting once, the discussion got on to Tony Negri, at which point my mate asked who's Negri (i didn't have a clue either), at which point a few of them laughed at him. Made me an my pal feel all warm inside. Although one of them did apologise at the pub after. Intellectuals don't you just luv em...
People on the left are so snotty, you wouldn't hear a nazi say "Hoho you don't know who Combat18 are?"oh no. those guys sound like twats, whose Tony Negri?
Jul 11 2005 12:40
#14
wheresmyshoes wrote:
whose Tony Negri?
He's an ex-autonomist, italian and an intellectual. I've never read anything by him, an i saw him getting interviewed on a t.v. program last year, an that's all i know. I bet Revol knows!
Jul 11 2005 12:45
#15
He used to be a good autonomist Marxist, wrote some really good stuff (Marx beyond Marx is sweet).
Then he became a post-modernist cunt, who can't write a paragrpah without trying to prove how smart he is with enlightenment allusions.
He's uber trendy in academia.
Jul 11 2005 12:47
#16
Jack wrote:
Then he became a post-modernist cunt, who can't write a paragrpah without trying to prove how smart he is with enlightenment allusions.
Jul 11 2005 13:00
#17
Brighton Bomber wrote:
This ones for Ed. Me an a mate were at a brighton autonomists (Aufheben) meeting once, the discussion got on to Tony Negri, at which point my mate asked who's Negri (i didn't have a clue either), at which point a few of them laughed at him. Made me an my pal feel all warm inside. Although one of them did apologise at the pub after. Intellectuals don't you just luv em...
Yeah, but on the other hand, Aufheben is the best political publication in Britain (possibly the world). As far as I'm concerned, they can dress me up as a girl and call me Sue if they want to....
Jul 11 2005 13:02
#18
ahhh now I can feel snotty to other people
Jul 11 2005 14:07
#19
wheresmyshoes wrote:
I met a few of my mates from SWP and wandered around drinking lemonade in my classwar shirt and Palastinian scarf looking very cool.
In the middle of Summer? You're crazy!
I wouldn't wear a kheffiyeh in this weather and am [part] Palestinian!
Jul 11 2005 14:25
#20
Ed wrote:
Brighton Bomber wrote:
This ones for Ed. Me an a mate were at a brighton autonomists (Aufheben) meeting once, the discussion got on to Tony Negri, at which point my mate asked who's Negri (i didn't have a clue either), at which point a few of them laughed at him. Made me an my pal feel all warm inside. Although one of them did apologise at the pub after. Intellectuals don't you just luv em...Yeah, but on the other hand, Aufheben is the best political publication in Britain (possibly the world). As far as I'm concerned, they can dress me up as a girl and call me Sue if they want to.... :wink:
You can fawn over them at the b-fair, if you ever come to b'ton again, i'll arrange a meet for you. sausage 
Jul 11 2005 15:30
#21
Got this link off another board
http://media.beyondtv.org/g8/clownarmy_copsrunoff_edit_d.mpg
what is the point of this clown army thing? Is it just to take the piss out of the cops? If so that's fair enough but do they claim to be acheiving anything more than that? Looks daft if you ask me. On the other board it being presented as some sort of victory because the cops decided they couldn't be arsed looking at a bunch of ballroots in face-paint.
Jul 11 2005 15:52
#22
xConorx wrote:
what is the point of this clown army thing?
Serves the twin purpose of 1. further discrediting anarchists and 2. gettings arts council grants.
Jul 11 2005 15:55
#23
Refused wrote:
wheresmyshoes wrote:
I met a few of my mates from SWP and wandered around drinking lemonade in my classwar shirt and Palastinian scarf looking very cool.In the middle of Summer? You're crazy!
I wouldn't wear a kheffiyeh in this weather and am [part] Palestinian!
Not a kheffiyeh you silly boy a scarf, scarf.
Jul 11 2005 16:34
#24
You confuse me, 'Shoes. But I will still have your babies.
Jul 11 2005 17:11
#25
Quote:
what is the point of this clown army thing?
Sometime (Surprise , Surprise) it's just nice to have a bit of Fun and not take yourself to Seriously, anyway it got a good reponse from the public and help show that we aren't just the "Black Block," hell bent on cracking skulls.
Jul 11 2005 17:31
#26
Big Brother wrote:
Quote:
what is the point of this clown army thing?Sometime (Surprise , Surprise) it's just nice to have a bit of Fun and not take yourself to Seriously
I dunno, I can have fun without dressing up like a dirty-looking muppet prancing about like a twat and calling the cops on Bristol Indymedia posters.
Jul 11 2005 17:32
#27
John. wrote:
I dunno, I can have fun without dressing up like a dirty-looking muppet prancing about like a twat and calling the cops on Bristol Indymedia posters.
Wasn't that just the cunt who films them?
Jul 12 2005 16:08
#28
Somebody asked what happen at Sterling (I can't remember who) but I've managed to find an a personal account. "Colourful" see below.
Jul 13 2005 12:17
#29
humour can be subversive though and its funny watching the cops trying to work out how to react to the clowns. pity its so damn embarrassing...
ah well the clowns were nice to me when i was getting extremely angry with the police pushing me around at menwith hill so i've a usually extremely well hidden softspot for them.
Jul 13 2005 16:02
#30
Big Brother wrote:
Quote:
what is the point of this clown army thing?Sometime (Surprise , Surprise) it's just nice to have a bit of Fun and not take yourself to Seriously
Surely the main problem with CIRCA is that they do take themselves seriously?
As usual, the papers' account of things seems vastly different to what actually happened. For example, the scottish tabloids described a 'ring of steel' around the stirling convergence space (or 'g-hate camp') this morning. As the camp was surrounded on three sides by the river Forth, the police blockade actually only amounted to a few dozen cops on the roundabout next to the camp. I cunningly passed this fearsome roadblock by, err, walking past it. Anyone attempting to take weapons etc out of the camp would have only had to give them to a passing girl, as there were no female officers present at the site and so no section 60 searches on females would have been permitted.
At the same time, the activists on the site were also given to hyperbole. I was woken at 3am this morning by a guy running around screaming to everyone to get up and man the gates, as 30 riot vans were on the way. Half dressed, half awake, devoid of glasses and armed with a bit of wood, I reached the gate to find the gate people telling me to go back to sleep, as the police were only here to block us all in. Not great, I thougt, but better than an all-out war with suited and booted riot cops.
The big meeting tent on the site should, I feel, have been named the Monty Python tent. The number of people ignoring the representative structure of meetings and going to stick their own personal oar in led to some ridiculously long and unproductive sessions. People are getting the hang of this system though, and meetings have been organised more sensibly, with adjournments where representatives are able to put proposals to their respective neighbourhoods before returning to hammer things out.
Tuesday was taken up almost entirely by planning meetings, and still no discrete plan had been decided on by 6pm, at which point around a dozen of us decided to head up to the ochil hills to camp for the night and seek a suitable blockading site in the morning. We found a camp of around 100 people, and only 10 tents. Life being life, it rained on us for several hours and our scouting party nearly drowned. One useful factor in the relatively chaotic nature of the blockades was that the police stood no chance of working out what we were doing, because we didn't know.
Kudos above all to the orgainsers of the Stirling site, in all the time that I was there everyone I came across was safe, happy and well fed. Credit also to the black bloc for not attacking the nearby Morrison's, without which the entire site would have been left with no access to tobacco, and then I suspect we would have seen some real violence.