days of dissent:
reflections on summit mobilisations

dissent! network// march 2005
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over the last decade a global movement has emerged which has called itself ‘anti-capitalist’. this emergence has been a process of diverse movements making real links with one another: discussing, learning, reflecting and acting together. the zapatista encuentros, the emergence of the peoples’ global action (p.g.a.) network, the globally co-ordinated days of action, the summit mobilisations and the Indymedia network have contributed to the creation of a worldwide network of groups, organisations and individuals, mostly autonomous from the ‘old left’ institutions, parties and unions. it has sought to identify the needs and desires of its movements’ constituents and to create a new world which makes these dreams a reality. a world in which we can all start living.

however, this ‘movement of movements’ consists of far more than these spectacular gatherings and uprisings - important as they are - identified, theorised and documented by the academics and ‘radical’ journalists presented as the movements’ spokespeople. the movements are firmly rooted in the local: in collectivised farms in chiapas, occupied social centres in towns and cities across europe, self-managed factories in argentina, seed sharing projects, small action collectives, prisoner support initiatives and independent publishing projects across the globe. each of them trying, in their different ways, to dismantle the structures of power which permeate every aspect of our lives and to return a sense of humanity to our existence.

in the early summer of 2005 the g8 (group of eight, most industrialised nations) summit is coming to britain. This meeting of the global elite offers an almost unique opportunity to involve people in a confrontation with one of the most powerful symbols of capitalism’s most recent form: the neo-liberal world order. no doubt the big non-governmental organisations, the trade unions and the political parties of the left (the greens, the new respect coalition etc…) will jump at the opportunity to swell their membership by mobilising against this, most obscene, manifestation of power. and no doubt, due to the nature of previous demonstrations against the g8 in evian in 2003 and genoa in 2001, the media will be all too keen to promote (perhaps unwillingly) any mobilisation by recounting stories of street violence and window smashing.

the question facing those of us considering mobilising against the g8 is twofold. firstly, would a concerted mobilisation against the g8 summit in 2005 bring us closer to the kind of world in which we would like to live? and secondly, if so, how do we need to go about mobilising?

those of us who have been involved in putting together this publication are already actively involved in the dissent! network (for information see page 44). we have already decided upon our answer to the first question. we realise, however, that there are many criticisms which could be made against such a mobilisation: the tendency to fetishise meetings of the elite rather than focus upon our own immediate, perhaps more local, needs; the danger of concentrating our energies on creating large, perhaps set-piece, confrontations which create the illusion of a movement; the levels of repression likely to be brought down upon individuals and movement infrastructure. the list could go on. despite being aware of these criticisms, we believe that there is real potential for strengthening and broadening the radical movement in the u.k. and the building of more concrete links internationally, through a mobilisation against the summit. however, whether this potential can be realised or not depends, largely though not exclusively, upon the answer to our second question. how should we go about mobilising?

it is in attempting to answer this second question for ourselves that we embarked upon this project. this publication contains a series of reports and reflections about mobilisations against summits, from the 1988 i.m.f. (international monetary fund) and world bank meeting in west berlin, to the recent mobilisation against the world trade organisation (w.t.o.) ministerial in cancun, mexico in autumn 2003. most of the articles published here have been commissioned by the four editors of this pamphlet from people who we, or friends of ours, have met travelling to summit mobilisations. each article is written by people who were active within social movements in a given location when it was announced that a summit would take place. the authors explain, for the most part, why it was that movements decided to mobilise against the summit, how this was done, what proved effective and what not, and, most importantly of all, what the lasting impact upon the social movements involved was. an attempt has been made to evaluate what the positive and negative impacts were of each mobilisation, the events which unfolded and, more often than not, the repression which followed.

our hope is that those who, like us, decide to involve themselves in the mobilisation against the 2005 g8 summit will attempt to reflect upon the events which have taken place elsewhere, seek not to repeat the mistakes of others, and prepare themselves for problems and challenges likely to unfold: the question of levels of interaction with established organisations, unions and parties; the relationship that will be had with the media; the way in which the (potentially) large influx of people into the movement will be dealt with; what our response will be to repression - police violence, raids, the imprisonment of activists; how we will articulate our criticisms of the structures and global social relations which have created the g8; how we will go about creating structures for the dissemination of information which allow for maximum participation in decision making.

of course, you won’t find solutions or answers to all the problems and questions here. what we’ve attempted to do is make a contribution to the process of formulating a way (or set of ways) of organising and acting which is based on learning lessons from the past. It should go without saying that all these texts should be read critically. what was organised and what can be learned from an event in one location will be very different to how this knowledge can be applied in other locations. west berlin in 1988, prague in 2000 and cancun in 2003 are very different places and contexts than the u.k. in 2005. additionally, each of these articles was written by an individual or very small collective. as such, they are highly subjective. others, equally involved in the same mobilisations would certainly disagree with the conclusions drawn, and perhaps even with the technical facts as they are presented. the articles are more personal reflections than absolute truths. we hope you find them useful.

daysofdissent.org.uk >>

other reflections papers:

reflections on j18 (reclaim the streets 1999) >>