[ssf] !7th Feb meet report

Mon Feb 21 11:19:05 GMT 2005

OK, having had what was a very good meeting last Thursday, I guess that 
its important that we keep the momentum going on the G8 issue, seeing as 
this seemed to generate the most enthusiasm. There was a decision agreed 
by the G8 huddle that we could set up a G8 planning meeting for the 2nd 
March, which is a Wednesday. Does someone want to see about booking a 
room for that somewhere?

Also, to get the ball rolling I'm going to throw out a suggested draft 
for the call out to the G8 in June, pending anything Josh has worked on. 
(Is he on this list / does anyone know his email?):

"On 16th-17th June, 2005, the G8 justice ministers will meet in 
Sheffield. They will be discussing how to prosecute Bush's 'War on 
Terror'. They are the justice of indefinite detention without judicial 
review, the type of justice that takes you abroad if the local laws 
won't allow torture, that at Guantanamo Bay treats American citizens one 
way and everyone else (including British citizens) in another.

They are the people who think that inspiring a lively sense of terror in 
their subjects makes ID cards ok, and that keeping out asylum seekers 
who are not quite oppressed enough is more important than social justice 
for their own people. And this will be the first round of our 
protestation to the G8 that another, better world can, should and will 
be possible if only they will let it.

And so the people of Sheffield are calling on the movement for action to 
be taken and alternatives to be presented to these people. We are 
offering our support for any groups coming to Sheffield, suggesting the 
Sheffield Peace in the Park festival on 11th June as the start of a week 
  of counter conference events, and offering the Sheffield Social Forum 
as a coordinating space for action."

Any thoughts welcome, don't worry about hurting my feelings, just know 
that if you stand against me now my retribution will be swift and 
merciless. Ahem, I think Dan's megalomania is rubbing off. Seriously, 
please kick this around and start some discussion on what we want this 
statement to say, lets have a view to releasing it by this time next week.

Chris

Dan wrote:
> Hia!
> 
> Here's my initial thoughts, along with a link to the WIKI page where 
> I've put the G8 notes -
> 
> http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2005/02/305597.html
> 
> http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/SheffieldG7
> 
> On the announcements list - we should pass a new one by this list, then 
> get it sent out.
> 
> Amp - wanna meet to get this done, or are you happy to draft one for the 
> list, for the collective's approval?
> 
> Good work, everyone!  The top nutters are coming to Sheffield in June: 
> the ones who use this kind of logic:
> 
> "Sovereignty entails obligations.  One is not to massacre your own 
> people. Another is not to support terrorism in any way. If a government 
> fails to meet these obligations, then it forfeits some of the normal 
> advantages of sovereignty, including the right to be left alone inside 
> your own territory. Other governments, including the US, gain the right 
> to intervene. In the case of terrorism this can even lead to a right of 
> preventive, or peremptory, self-defence."
> 
> (And, of course, if we broaden our definition of terrorism, we get to 
> impose our imperialism, which is defined thus  - )
> 
> "What is needed then is a new kind of imperialism, one acceptable to a 
> world of human rights and cosmopolitan values. We can already discern 
> its outline: an imperialism which, like all imperialism, aims to bring 
> order and organisation but which rests today on the voluntary principle." )
> 
> [New Labour's Robert Cooper - Tony Blair's 'policy guru' and senior 
> diplomat.]
> 
> (i.e. 'yes! yes! colonise us! We're poor and we're stupid and we need 
> the first world to tell us what to do, coz you're so clever and brave 
> and true and free!')
> 
> I'm curious about that one: "Sovereignty entails obligations.  One is 
> not to massacre your own people."
> 
> That's from Richard Haass - was Powell's director of policy in 2002.  
> What about taking all the money from most of your poor people to 
> subsidise the rich and pay for a war, and then get all those poor people 
> to get drafted?  Yeah, I'm sure that's fine.
> 
> How - no, really, *how*, do these f*ckers get away with this?  I concur 
> once again with CM - "Bunch of sticking capitalist twattymuffins. Lets 
> blow shit up."
> 
> Ah ha!  That should *surely* be enough for both of us to get put under 
> house arrest, no?  I'm sure it's more evidence than most others have 
> attached to them!
> 
> peace - no, really! - peace. Peace, but anger.
> 
> Dan
> ----
> 
> @mparo wrote:
> 
>> Thanks to you, Alice, and particularly to the ones that did the washing
>> up after the meeting and all the cooking.
>> Fan-tas-tically cool, yes. What were the opinions, if already known,
>> about "too structured or too chaotic"?
>>
>> R&A
>>
>>
>>
>> Alice Collins wrote:
>>
>>> Hi everyone, Loads of thanks to everyone who came; talked; listened;
>>> organised themselves; cooked food; ate it ; shifted tables; washed
>>> up; drank beer afterwards. I think the Big Open Meeting was
>>> exciting. Love alice.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan" <dan at aktivix.org> To:
>>> <Ssf at lists.aktivix.org> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 12:09 PM 
>>> Subject: [Ssf] Ideas for 2005...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> So, yup, to follow on from the last e-mail, here's some ideas:
>>>>
>>>> * A social: music, spoken word, film, art, light and people setting
>>>> fire to sticks dipped in paraffin and spinning them round their
>>>> heads.  Not been enough of this in recent times, for God's sake.
>>>>
>>>> Issues: Indymedia want to raise money for the server appeal (can we
>>>> help?) Peace in the Park - what's happening there? Are they doing a
>>>> social fundraiser?
>>>>
>>>> *SSF2005:  Yeah, maybe... but another thought - have a smaller
>>>> event during the G8 Sheffield stuff, but speak to Peace in the Park
>>>> people about possibly doing workshops / having a 'leftfield'
>>>> tent(s) at peace in the park, in place of in indoor event.
>>>>
>>>> * Organise a specific event on regeneration.  I keep on going on
>>>> about this one and not doing anything about it... but it ties in to
>>>> so many things: G8, food sovereignty, local vs global, local
>>>> democratic control, giving the powers that be a chance to state
>>>> their case, giving us leftie rock-throwers a chance to find out if
>>>> they're human...
>>>>
>>>> * Hungry for Justice and the launch of the Green Food Map - there's
>>>> a post-conference plan for a Hungry for Justice website that'll
>>>> have the transcripts from the conference (some of the stuff is
>>>> FANTASTIC!  I should stick the doc on the WIKI...) along with
>>>> resources on how to campaign, why it's such a political issue, how
>>>> it ties local to global, etc... SSF could help mediate all this
>>>> into a really good event, inviting Healthy Sheffield etc.
>>>>
>>>> * City Fair Trade status - a chance to get SSF, P&P, WDM, Christian
>>>> Aid etc together to talk about this one campaign.
>>>>
>>>> * Seeds for Change - offering them help to organise here.  Has
>>>> someone else already done this?
>>>>
>>>> * A 'speak truth to power' workshop event: how to get what you want
>>>> from the powers that be: what their limitations and uses are.
>>>>
>>>> * Day trips!  Let's go to Manchester, see Merci, go to the new
>>>> Dissent cafe / bookshop / space - which is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!
>>>> They also have an 'urban art exhibition'  - someone's gone around
>>>> and got photos of all the fantastic graffiti, most of it beautiful
>>>> and anti-corporate, and put it all on the wall.  But you can also
>>>> tour around the place with a handy guide!
>>>>
>>>> Or to Hebden Bridge, or up to Leeds to meet the Leeds ARC folk, go
>>>> to Maelstrom, whatever...
>>>>
>>>> Er... that'll do for now.
>>>>
>>>> Peace!
>>>>
>>>> Dan
>>>>
>>>> -- 07968 997861 0114 2412723
>>>>
>>>> The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you
>>>> do not expect to sit.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________ Ssf mailing list 
>>>> Ssf at lists.aktivix.org http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssf
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________ ssf mailing list 
>>> ssf at lists.aktivix.org http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssf
>>>
>>
> 
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