Make the G8 History Blog

Ideas of a movement

JJ. I've been told that Madonna began her set with the hit song 'Music' whose main refrain goes "Music unites the rebel with the bourgeoisie". I can think of hardly any other song that sums up Live8 better than this. But if the ideas of the gig goers and TV viewers must have been mixed, what of those who actually came to the protests in Edinburgh? Having spent the weekend diligently vox popping and discussing the mood there are some clear pictures emerging, of who is here and why.

Decaffinated protest

Click. Click. Click. The marketing people must've been smiling last night as the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh passed off with incident. In fact, it felt like the protest equivalent of decaffinated coffee. A crowd, a march route and some slogans - but nothing to keep the G8 leaders awake at night.

London Met police threaten revenge on the Wombles

London Metropolitan police appear to have been handed a special role during these protests - to harrass and threaten the anti-capitalist group the Wombles (White Overall Movement Building Liberation through Effective Struggles) at every turn. Yesterday afternoon, as the police blocked the 'black T-shirt anti-capitalist bloc' from joining the Make Poverty History demonstration, members of the Met's so called Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) - those with a penchant for filming and photographing activists - were overheard warning a 'Womble' that the police were 'going to get you lot this time'. Such threats have been accompanied by a very obvious harrassment exercise in which notorious Wombles are being followed and filmed as they move around Scotland's capital attending meetings.

Andrew Gilligan evicted from protest planning meeting

Anti-G8 protesters today threw out infamous journalist Andrew Gilligan from a meeting discussing tactics around the counter-G8 actions at the Dissent! convergence space at the Teviot student union. The former BBC Radio 4 Today correspondent now working for the London Evening Standard, who was at the centre of the war of words over the so called Iraq 'dodgy dossier' between the BBC and the UK government that led to the death of the scientist Dr David Kelly, failed to depart the packed 'Anti-Authoritarian Assembly' when journalists were asked to leave.

Police stop black bloc joining MPH march

SH. Red Pepper warned you that Make Poverty History organisers wanted only white T-shirts on their march around Edinburgh's city centre and they were true to their word. Around 400 protesters, deliberately wearing black in opposition to the Make Poverty History whitewash on the G8's destructive global agenda, were prevented from joining the main 'welcome walk for the G8' by a huge battalion of police. The protesters were detained for around three hours and stopped and searched under Section 60. Several tried to break through police lines only to be beaten back. As protesters finally allowed those detained to disperse, they began following members of the Wombles.

Final preparations underway for historic Faslane G8 Blockade

Organisers can now confirm that they are expecting thousands of G8 activists from around the world to shut down one of Britain's most important military bases on Monday 4th July to highlight the links between poverty and war, militarism and destructive globalisation.

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

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.

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.

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