About us
'Manchester Mobilising Against the G8' is a direct action group who
believe that voting and lobbying are not enough. The problem with lobbying
is that essentially it accepts the legitimacy of the body being appealed
to. Lobbying is not opposing.
However laudable the demands of the Make Poverty History campaign,
it does not oppose the G8 and the economic system they promote - it
merely wants them to modify their policies. We are against everything
the G8 meetings stand for and would rather take direct action to stop
or disrupt the summit.
 Direct
Action means taking direct responsibility for the state of the world,
and physical action to stop the things you oppose.
WHY COME TO THE G8 WITH US
well to have fun...to tell the G8 leaders to stop fucking people and
the planet over..to take part in amazing actions..to meet activists
from around the world...there are loads fo reasons to come with us..but
to help you make a decision we thought it would be good to say why we
dont like the G8 and why we are going...
WHAT IS THE G8?
The Group of Six (G6) (it became the G8 with the entry of Canada and
Russia) first met in the mid 1970's. At the time, capitalism was in
crisis. In the global south, anti-colonial struggles such as those in
Vietnam were challenging the world order, while in their own heartlands,
class struggle was forcing western states to restructure. Coupled with
the 1974 oil price rises this was a time of profound crises for the
world's most wealthy nations and the first G6 summit was organised as
part of the effort to avert this. The G8 summits are a continuation
of this history, a space where the leaders of eight of the world's leading
industrialised nations: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom,
the United States, Canada and Russia, plus the European Union, can meet,
plan and organise ways of controlling the world market. These economic
and political summit are important for creating unity amongst these
powerful countries. Such unity is important if not essential to the
facilitation of global capitalism.
WHY SHOULD WE TRY TO STOP THEM?
There are two key reasons for wanting to stop the G8. First, because
they perpetuate a world dominated by the few over the many, a world
driven by money and its endless expansion. At core, the capitalism promoted
by the G8 is an eternal circulation of emptiness and the solutions they
peddle maintain the status quo of ecological and human exploitation.
Second, in the global south, the so-called developing world, there is
a growing struggle against the economic and political agenda of the
G8 nations. In countless places people are fighting the polices our
leaders are imposing. The peoples of the low-lying islands soon to be
flooded out of existence have no vote on climate change. The people
of Iraq have no vote on the war on terror and the people of Africa have
no vote on the imposition of the global market. But we know that voting
makes little difference. What we do all have, in both the global south
and here on these islands is the potential to resist, to invent and
spread our own globalisation.(or What we do all have in both the global
south and here on these islands is the potential to resist, to invent
and globalise our own solutions). The protests at Gleneagles can be
part of that: a message and act of solidarity.
THE G8S POSITIVE AGENDA?
Many of the important issues to be discussed at this year's G8 meeting,
including climate change, Africa and third world poverty are on the
agenda in response to global movements of resistance and calls for justice.
But this capitalist club is utterly incompatible with any kind of ecological
future. When states and corporations are faced with resistance they
attempt to crush it, and if that doesn't work they try to seduce it
and neutralise it with honeyed words and empty promises. The G8 agenda
is a kind of super greenwash in its attempt to pursuade us that those
things that are destroying the planet can save the planet.
The G8 are responsible for around 47 percent of all global carbon dioxide
emissions. These countries are failing to even meet the reduction commitment
of the Kyoto protocol and have got nowhere near the 60-80 per cent reductions
necessary to limit greenhouse gases at sustainable levels. On one hand,
the UK government talks about ecological crisis and the need for action.
But what exactly does it do? It supports a massive expansion in air
travel, accelerates new road building and does nothing to reduce reliance
on cars. It prosecutes a war in Iraq largely to secure oil deposits,
it gives paltry support to the renewables industry, virtually no support
to energy reduction schemes and continues to pump vast financial resources
into the oil industry. Growth in carbon dioxide emissions and the growth
of the economy have occurred virtually in parallel since the industrial
revolution. The industrial states cannot act on climate because their
main purpose is to promote economic expansion. It's time for us to stop
asking and start doing.
to see our plans for what to do once we get to scotland click here
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