[g8-sheffield] Minutes

[Chris Malins]

These are somewhat incomplete, minute taking definitely not my forte, sorry!

Meeting of Thursday 30th March

Apologies: Dan, Alison

Facilitator: Anne

Present: Moses, Julie, Chris, Josh of Worker's Power, Gavin, Mark, Fabian

Derby, report from: Attendance at Derby was not that impressive, ~150 
people or so. Critical Mass demonstration subjected to strong police 
tactics, 12 people arrested. Having said which, noted that it had been 
going for some time by this point. Section 14 was invoked to criminalise 
any protest taking place outside of a metal pen in Derby centre. Seems 
likely that this will be used for Sheffield also. Many protesters likely 
to be adverse to being penned in by police. Police presence in Derby was 
impressivelt OTT, however this may have been the result of an 
overreaction by local constabulary rather than general policy. Suspect 
that Sheffield policing would not be so extreme.

Will contact Gillian from the Green Party to ask for information about 
the police effort for the Sheffield event.


Leeds: notification of the Festival of Dissent, 6th-8th April in 
Lannarkshire, all invited to attend. Want to get some sort of specific 
call to action with a description of the type of events we have planned 
ready for the festival of dissent. Use it as opportunity to publicise 
the convergence centre etc.

Moses has a Make Capitalism History website based on the MAke Poverty 
History idea which could be launched if desired. Trapese have offered 
their services giving training at some point during the end of May. Will 
contact New Roots to find a date and a space for this event.


Convergence Centre: Various options, maybe Broomspring centre? Could 
talk to Danny at the Corporation about using it during the day. New 
Roots or Pittsmore church also liekly to be amenable.

Dan arrives! Sleepy bastard.

New Roots and the Plaza have signalled that they would be happy to host 
the convergence centre, and should be able to give us all the facilities 
we need. Will be contacted about Trapese and Circa events in run up to 
summit.

Public Meeting:

Try to get gillian creasy from the Green's to come and speak. Should 
attempt to engage Islamic groups, as many measures of The War against 
Terror (TWAT) disproportionately target Muslims. Contact MAB, Liberty, 
NOrthern Refugee Centre.

Suggested format, 3 or 4 speakers in half hour opening session, then 
move people into various specific workshops. Josh would like to include 
a full group discussion between these two phases. some concern that full 
group discussions of large groups can be boring and unproductive.

Try to use event to bring people to Trapese, Circa, PitP and the G* 
summit days themselves.

Meeting can be held in three weeks, at 7.30pm, hopefully using space at 
  Adrenaline studios. Need leaflet, posters and to confirm speakers.

Moses isn't on alcohol, or any other intoxicating products. Huzzah. 
Guarantees to do leaflets, a design for which has indeed been sent out 
this morning!

Julie to follow up with Schnews about holding a Have I Got Schnews for 
You? event. If Schews are unable to come through, no particular reason 
why we could not do such a thing ourselves anyway.

During the summit:

Would like to hold a Street Party on the day of the meeting, format 
still not entirely clear. 15th June.

Suggested that we could do a protest in advance, in case the police do 
invoke section 14. Should arrange a central meeting point for protesters 
to come to. Seems likely that police may allocate a Derby style box 
regardless of what we ask for.

We should ensure that our actions are always positive, and that we are 
constantly talking about alternatives. Stage a counter-conference, run 
talks, do lectures.

Make the demo big and colourful. Work with the aim of getting media 
cooverage for what we do, to spread message as widely as possible, but 
don't make any assumptions about how positive the media are likely to be.

a moment's refllection is better than a moment's anger

Moses is concerned about future use of city zoning, interprets this 
operation as a way to allow police to practise crowd control manouvres. 
Also worried that Street Theatre etc canm be a turn off to working class 
people. Need to have an emphasis on publicity about what the G8 is about.

We could run press conferences about specific issues on the day itself, 
to counter any output on issues from the conference. Exploit the 
capitalist pig-dog media. Monitoring Group North have a press room on 
the Wicker which might be available.

More constructive might be to try to build a relationship with local 
journalists by inviting them to everything we do. Write letters to 
papers, invite press to our public meeting. Maybe get a featured article 
in the Sheffield Telegraph.

Should get posters up with information about what the g8 actually is, 
why they are coming to Sheffield in particular.

We need to start desiging flyers, posters. May consider producing T-shirts.

Should any arrests occur, we could try to use them as a media 
opportunity, make sure that the legal support teams have journalistic 
contacts to give the other side fo the story to.

Next meetings will be Weds 6th, downstairs in Rutland, 7.30pm, Weds 
13th, upstairs in Rutland, 7.30pm.

Chris apologises for next two meetings.

Thankyou and goodnight.