[g8-sheffield] Publicity text: First draft

[Helen and Nick]

Hello everyone.

As tasked at the last meeting I have had a first stab
at pulling some text together for publicity. I am
aware that I have written alot, but if can agree what
is suitable and what is not, the text in general can
be cut and pasted in different ways to big flyers or
smaller ones. Or some things like the timeline of
events might be useful for the website.

If in the next few days you can send me (Helene)
suggested amendments then Nick can do some mock up of
flyers and posters to bring along to this Wednesdays
meeting.

I recognise that there is some posters already on the
wikki - some really good design ideas, but they still
need making up into posters with basic info on etc.
Some will be great as they are though for agit prop
postering in the build up.

I am not yet able to to confirm film nights in the
timeline as we can not get hold of a projector from
our usual suspects. If anyone can help, please get in
touch

Anyway let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Helene

RESIST THE G8 IN SHEFFIELD

>From the 15th - 17th June the Justice and Interior
Ministers from the eight most powerful countries in
the world  - the G8 - will meet in Sheffield. Groups
of local people are coming together to show them how
unwelcome they and their painful policies are. But
also to create space where we can share experiences,
learn from each other, and explore alternatives
through which we can prioritise the needs, dignity and
joy of people and protect our environment. While the
G8 Ministers are in Sheffield discussing policies and
tactics of increasing repression, we will make clear
our rejection of them and work towards true freedom,
peace and democracy.

If you make people frightened enough they will agree
to anything......

It has been argued by many that if you get people to
be scared enough they will easily give up hard won
civil liberties and turn on others to protect
themselves. Is this what is happening to us - a
constant bombardment of images and sound bites from
the media, politicians and other people who we are
told "know best", whipping up a disproportionate fear
of crime, fear of foreigners, fear of migrant workers
and asylum seekers, probably even fear of our own
neighbours. Where will this end and where will it
leave us and our communities? What will our lives be
like when we have traded in all our civil liberties to
protect ourselves from these exaggerated demons? No
rights to be angry with our government? No right to
protest and demand change? Unlimited detention? Trial
without jury? Not knowing what we are on trial for?
House Arrest? No scope for anonymity and personal
freedom - ID cards, CCTV, databases, DNA samples,
retina scans? No right to asylum and freedom from
persecution and the wars perpetuated by others? No
right to work here and contribute to the economic and
social well being of our communities? How long will it
be until we have no rights at all and all that was
hard won for us by past generations is lost? 

No Justice No Peace.......

The Justice and Interior Ministers are meeting in
Sheffield to discuss these very issues - how people
can be controlled and monitored, how much further
civil rights can be dismantled to aid the continuing
so called "War on Terror", how to keep out asylum
seekers and other migrants without considering how the
warmongering, perpetuation of conflicts and economic
exploitation of people in other countries contributes
to migration and how our own countries have grown
prosperous from the contribution of migrant workers.
Nowhere in this dialogue is there to be any meaningful
use of the word "Justice".  

So who are the G8 and why do some people in Sheffield
(and around the world) see them as bad guys.....? 

The G8 countries are the UK, USA,  France, Germany,
Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia. They are the group at
the heart of corporate globalisation and the key
exponents of a neoliberal economic agenda. This is an
agenda which essentially promotes and protects free
trade in all its forms. All aspects of life, from the
production and exchange of essential goods and
services, through to our health care and education,
are to be determined by the forces of the "free
market", maximising profit for the few at any human or
environmental cost. Profit clearly comes before people
and the joy and dignity in life that we should all be
entitled to. We see this most clearly in our everyday
lives through the privatisation of public services and
the increasing hardness of our working lives. In
essence, at a global level, the G8 are responsible for
co-ordinating this assault on our livelihoods, public
services, jobs, wages and environment. 

In an ever increasing climate of harsh criticism and
suspicion over their agenda, the G8 have made promises
on seeking solutions to the world's problems, but in
reality have failed to deliver in making any
progressive changes. It is clearly evident that
through them nothing will ever change. People and the
environment continue to suffer, and increasingly so.

The UK holds the presidency of the G8 throughout 2005
and will host a summit for the leaders of the G8 in
Gleneagles in Perthshire, Scotland on 6-8th of July.
In the run up to this summit the Ministers of these
countries will be meeting around the country to
discuss a range of issues from security, trade,
relations with developing countries, energy and the
environment. 

People in the UK and around the world are mobilising
for a global day of action against the G8 Wednesday
6th July 2005 - the opening day of the G8 Summit. We
in Sheffield would also like to play our part in this
global groundswell and demonstrate our rejection of
the G8 during the Sheffield Ministerial meeting on
15-17th June. Why not join us?  

"The realistic course of action today is to demand
what is seemingly impossible, that is, something new"

Don't believe what you read in the papers........

We shouldn't be too surprised that people in power
like the general population to passively accept what
they want and so implement strategies and laws to
ensure this. One strategy is to use the media to run
scare stories about how bad people are who challenge
those in power, while repressive policing tactics are
hidden from view. The people who take to the streets
are just like you - mothers, fathers, someone's
children, friends, neighbours - just ordinary people
who have had enough of injustice and hardship. Just
like generations before them who struggled for decent
living and working conditions, women's right to vote,
jobs and civil liberties, we are just people who
strive for better lives for us all. Please don't
believe everything you read in the media - learn from
others instead, or read about what people are working
towards in your community through grassroots news
websites such as www.indymedia.org.uk

So how can I join in?...... 

A whole host of events are planned in Sheffield and
are listed on the back of this flyer, and there are
many ways you can get involved - protesting, creative
actions against the G8, clowning around with the
Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, banner making,
counter-conference, workshops, benefit nights of bands
and sound systems, film nights, Peace in the Park
festival - we hope you will be able to join us in a
week long festival of resistance and change in
Sheffield.  

For more information contact
g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org Join the email list via
our website at www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk  For
people wanting to come from out of town convergence
places for people to stay have been organised. Stay
tuned to our website for details!

“If you go to one demonstration and then go home,
that’s something, but people in power can live with
that. What they can’t live with is sustained pressure
that keeps building, organisations that keep doing
things, people that learn from the last time and do
better next time.”

A little bit of history the politicians and the media
prefer to keep quiet!

In 1990, the G7 held its meeting in London. It passed
by quietly. There were no protests and there were no
'red zones'. The world's most powerful leaders were
left to shape the world we live according to their own
agenda, an agenda under which people saw their
themselves and the environment increasingly exploited
for the benefit of a small global elite.

But then there was a shout of "enough is enough",
which resonated around the world and became louder.
Eight years later, 400 social movements from around
the world - under the banner of Peoples' Global Action
- co-ordinated local resistance to global problems. In
the UK 50,000 people came together to resist the G8
meeting in Birmingham. People realised that politely
asking governments, institutions and corporations for
change was not enough, change had to be demanded and
action taken. Resistance to the hardness of our lives
and to those who exploit us need grow from the people
themselves.

Since 1998, many summits and conferences have been
resisted in every country in which they have attempted
to meet. This resistance has successfully
delegitimised these institutions and strengthened the
movements that attack them. Global anti-summit
mobilisations have linked diverse struggles tackling
common issues. These mobilisations have, over time,
created a global 'movement of movements', in many
respects historically unprecedented.

The People's Global Action was founded in February
1998 by hundreds of people from social movements as
diverse as the Brazilian landless peasants movement
(MST), Reclaim the Streets in the UK, the Zapatistas
in Mexico, radical ecologists from the Ukraine, Maori
from New Zealand and squatters from across Europe, all
of whom had gathered in Geneva for the founding
conference. The PGA Network was created as a tool for
co-ordination and communication between groups,
movements and individuals wanting to organise global
anti-capitalist resistance, particularly to
international organisations such as the World Trade
Organisation (WTO), and to draw attention to the
possibility of alternative forms of social
organisation. The PGA, and the movements involved
within it, were instrumental in initiating and
co-ordinating the global days of action against the
last G8 meeting in the UK in Birmingham 1998, the day
of action in financial centres around the world on
June 18th 1999, and the events in Seattle and around
the globe which coincided with the WTO Ministerial in
November 1999. 


Timeline of Events

For further details of all these events keep checking
www.sheffield.dissemt.org.uk or
www.sheffield.indymedia.org.uk

Meeting of Sheffield Against the G8 organising group -
every Wednesday at 7.30pm upstairs in the Rutland Arms

Saturday 30th April Mayday Soundclash  - punkbands vs
soundsystems vs samba - raising money to assist
anti-g8 actions in Sheffield. Freeparty line
07792006925

May  - Banner making workshops to be held - check
www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk for upcoming details

Saturday 7th May Punk anti-g8 benefit gig  - The
Grapes, Trippet Lane, 8pm

Sunday 8th May "More than Music" a night of punk
documentaries and other counterculture odds and sods -
 Cricketer's Arms, Bramwell Lane, 7pm. With food from
Sheffield Food Collective. Raising money for anti-G8
actions. For more info contact
info at slendermeans.org.uk 

Sunday 15th May Afternoon of organising and workshops
for the G8 meeting in Sheffield followed by an evening
with the Schnews collective and Trapeze for an
entertaining and educational perspective on the G8

Sunday 29th May - an evening of agit prop films,
humour and food with Sheffield Indymedia and Sheffield
Food collective: details to be confirmed. For more
info contact info at slendermeans.org.uk

Friday 10th & Saturday 11th June - The Clandestine
Insurgent Rebel Clown Army is in town for 2 days of
clown activist training and evening entertainments -
details to be confirmed. For more info see
http://labofii.net/tour05

Saturday 11 June - the third annual Peace in the Park
festival, with an anti-G8 flavour, in Cemetery Lane
park. For more info see www.peaceinthepark.org.uk

Saturday 11 June - Demonstration against the G8
Justice and Interior Ministers in advance of them
coming to town. The demonstration will assemble at
10.30am on the Saturday and will march into the 'Peace
in the Park' Festival in Cemetery Park. This march was
called for by the Stop the War Coalition. For more
info see www.sheffieldagainstwar.org.uk

Sunday 12 June Punk G8 Dissent Benefit gig and info
sharing day for mobilisations in Sheffield and
Gleneagles - more details to be confirmed. Contact
info at slendermeans.org.uk

Wednesday June 15 - June 17 - opening of convergence
spaces in Sheffield for people to eat, sleep, plan,
create, share and learn 

Wednesday 15 June - G8 Ministers arrive in town. Call
out for mass protest and actions. G8 Ministers will be
dining that day at the Winter Gardens.

Thursday 16 June - Ongoing Ministerial meetings in
Sheffield. Ministers will be dining at the Cutlers
Hall.

Thursday 16 June - Friday 17 June -  local people
against the G8 host a counterconference in the
convergence space with workshops, films, music and
lots more. More details soon at
www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk

Friday 17 June - possible party to celebrate our own
humanity against the inhumanity of the G8.

Saturday 25 June Bike caravan from Sheffield to G8 (to
arrive in edinbourgh on 2nd July). For more details
contact???

Wednesday 6 July - Friday 8 July G8 Leaders Summit in
Gleneagles, Perthshire, Scotland. For details on
convergence sites in Scotland, actions, travelling to
the summit and how you can get involved see
www.dissent.org.uk

Wednesday 6 July - Call out by People's Global Action
for Day of Action against the G8. PGA are an
international network of over 400 grassroots social
movements who have been instrumental in co-ordinating
global anti-capitalist resistance to institutions such
as the WTO, IMF World Bank and the G8, linking local
struggles for justice to global issues. See ww.agp.org

 








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