G8 reports

50,000 march at G8

By Stuart Jordan

As the forces of the anti-capitalist movement began to mobilise for for
the anti-G8 demonstrations on Saturday 2 June, Vladimir Putin set the tone
for the week by threatening to visit nuclear genocide on the people of
Europe. Putin’s threat is obviously a bit of hard diplomacy before the
talks begin, but the fact that these men find it acceptable to use the
lives of
millions of innocent civilians as a bargaining chip in the power plays of
global capitalism merely reveals the utter lunacy of our political
overlords and the system of exploitation that they represent.

The violence surrounding this year’s G8 started back in early May when 40
social centres and homes were raided by “security officials”. Activists
were charged under anti- terrorist leglislation and were accused of
forming a terror cell. In a lower key, the No Sweat delegation to Rostock
was accused, held and questioned for about an hour at Dover under Section
7 of the Terrorism Act. Further clampdowns at Germany’s borders were
reported.

These “preemptive strikes” did not, however, stop Saturday’s demonstration
of more than 50,000 activists who came from all corners of the broad
anti-capitalist movement. As has been well reported in the bourgeois
press, street fighting began towards the end of the demonstration between
heavily armoured riot cops and Black Bloc anarchists, who had turned out
in their thousands. Initially the police seemed to have been taken by
surprise
but reenforcements poured into the city and brutal repression followed
with indiscriminate use of batons, water cannons and tear gas. Over a
hundred were arrested and many were injured on both sides.

It is no surprise that this is the story that makes it into the mainstream
press, with much liberal outrage. However, this very same press
systematically ignores all the politics of the anti-capitalist movement in
its attempt to keep the hope of “another world” out of the popular
imagination.

The Morning Star too bemoaned the violence “marring” the demonstration,
failing to see the cause of this violence in the very existence of G8. In
its write up of events this supposedly left-wing paper whined on about how
some officers had to be treated for “eye irritation from tear gas” whilst
others suffered the terrible affliction of “smoke inhalation”.

In fact, although socialists have major tactical disagreements with them,
the actions of the young men and women of the Black Bloc displayed great
courage and commitment in the struggle for global justice, and we must
defend them against police violence and media slander. If the political
message does not get through the filter of the mainstream media, then at
least the violence of the system is there for all to see.

However, the tactical disagreement is a major one: what good does fighting
the police at events like these (rather than, say, to defend a picket
line) actually do? Even the goal of “shutting down” a particular summit
does little to weaken the stranglehold of global capital. Indeed the
apparent decline of the anti-capitalist movement in recent years is surely
due to growing disillusionment among activists with summit-hopping
pure-and-
simple. There is a reassessment about strategy and tactics throughout the
movement, with more and more people coming to see the G8 is little more
than an excuse for a few presidential banquets and a photo opportunity.

To build a real alternative to capitalism we need to direct our energies
elsewhere and look to the real agents of social change.

On this basis it was a disappointment that the organised labour movement
was noticeably absent on Saturday’s march. Instead of getting our
revolutionary heads smashed in by riot cops, activist time would be far
better spent in doing the hard graft of consistent trade union activity to
build a militant working class movement capable of shaking the foundations
of society.

Not even nuclear bombs, a 12 km security fence and the technological
expertise of the German military would be capable of stopping such a
movement from posing a real threat to the machinations of global
capitalism.