Make the G8 History Blog

London police harrass Edinburgh-bound activists

Heading to Edinburgh tomorrow to protest against the G8? Then you might want to check in first with your local police station before travelling to save a bit of taxpayers money. From around 9am this morning, three riot vans were parked outside the squatted Institute for Autonomy space in Gower Street, Central London, and police stopped and searched people entering and leaving the building under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which gives the police the power to stop and search for "stolen and prohibited articles" under "reasonable suspicion". People were also harrassed outside the squatted Ramparts space in east London. Red Pepper understands that police have for the last week and a half been attempting to place the Institute for Autonomy under covert surveillance. See Indymedia

Live 'anti-G8' announced

SH. For music lovers who do want to 'mention the war' and believe that politics is about more than kissing Gordon Brown's hairy arse, then there's good news. While Bob, Bono and a load of other musical has-beens rattle out the same old crap on their corporate-sponsored zimmer-frames, real musicians with radical politics will be staging the biggest anti-G8 musical extravaganza Stirling has ever seen in the Live Music Marquee at the Hori-zone eco-village convergence camp near Forth Bank Stadium (just off the A91). Just like Live 8, PEACE NOT G8! is free. Unlike Live 8, O2 won't be making millions of pounds in text messages and all acts are free to slag off George Bush as much as they want. See Indymedia UK for the full details.

Monbiot to march against Live 8 and MPH

Stuart Hodkinson. Last night's 'Make the G8 History' rally in London sponsored by War on Want and Red Pepper certainly had its moments. Journalist Victoria Brittain reminded over 300 people in the packed LSE venue "how many times we've been here before" and that the G8 plans for Africa were just the same old "colonialism". Author and '68 veteran, Tariq Ali, said we should all be worried by a recent picture in the Financial Times showing a smiling Gordon Brown and Bob Geldof with "love in their eyes". But it was journalist George Monbiot who took the plaudits when he declared:

I will be going up to Edinburgh not to march in favour of the G8, but to protest against it. And to protest against Geldof and Bono as well.

Jubilee South: ‘debt’ cancellation as neoliberal bribery

Jubilee South (Africa), a network of debt campaigns from across the continent, has issued a statement condemning the use of debt by G7 finance ministers as a weapon to secure free market reforms. It points out that "in order to qualify for debt cancellation eligible countries would have had to have gone through what is known as the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative’s completion point, which involves the implementation of stringent free market reforms such as budget cuts, financial and trade liberalisation, privatisation and other reforms." Read the full statement here

Cosa Nostra

by Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Dream

United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia. These are the countries of the G8. All of them have been colonial powers. All of them are responsible for massive crimes against humanity, from torture to war crimes to genocide. Their history (our history) has been written with the blood of their victims (our victims), slaughtered on the altar of imperialism. All of them have used complacent writers, historians and intellectuals to justify their unspeakable crimes and hide them behind the carpet of ‘civilisation’.

Edinburgh accommodation update

The Dissent! Edinburgh Accommodation Group has just released this urgent and important statement about the accommodation situation for protesters coming to Edinburgh. In short, it details how due to a variety of factors, the only legal mass accommodation secured is in assocation with the council on Hunter’s Hall Park, surrounding the Jack Kane Centre in the Niddrie estate. The group has reluctantly decided to endorse this but has reservations about a number of issues and wants to alert activists to them as well as encourage people to help create a Dissent! space within the accommodation.

SpinWalk in Edinburgh announced

SpinWatch and Corporate Watch have just announced they will be putting on a guided tour of corporate Scotland in Edinburgh on Friday 1 July from 11am to 3.30pm to explore the relationship between the G8, Scotland PLC and corporate globalisation. 'SpinWalk' will visit those oil companies, banks and businesses profiteering from privatisation and PPP in Global South countries, as well as the key lobbying consultancies and PR outfits who help boost corporate power and wealth. Starting at the Usher Hall, the walk will end at the Scottish Parliament "around which the corporate lobbyists swarm to ensure that Jack McConnell and his cronies are kept sweet". Contact info@spinwatch.org to reserve a place.

Red Pepper and the Sunday Telegraph - an unholy alliance?

Stuart Hodkinson. Here's one for you. Last week, as Red Pepper's heroic volunteer press officer Alex went through the monthly motions of pestering the grandees of Britain's media to read our latest collection of brilliant articles, something rather strange happened: the press started to ring him! And not just any old newspaper hacks, oh no - we were courted and then chased by none other than the scourge of the radical left itself, the Sunday Torygraph.

Indymedia under attack again

Police have tonight shut down Bristol Indymedia by seizing the local IMC's server. An IMC volunteer has also been detained and his personal computer confiscated. Red Pepper cannot link to the site because it currently doesn't exist. 

Murky world of Make Poverty History uncovered

Make Poverty History is being trumpeted in the British media as an unprecedented success story for development campaigners. On paper it certainly looks impressive with over 460 trade unions, charities, NGOs and a stellar-cast of celebrities. However, Red Pepper can now exclusively reveal that as the G8 summit approaches, leading members are briefing against each other to the press while many African and other Southern social movements are angered at the silencing of their voices and political demands by Oxfam, Richard Curtis, Geldof and co. SH

Read the full story here:

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/global/x-jul05-hodkinson.htm