The week of action against the G8 begins tomorrow with the opening of a convergence centre in Central London with facilities to sleep and feed up to 1000 people. The space will hold a variety of workshops and activities throughout the week. An infopoint for the week of action will also be open daily from 11am between 8-15th June at Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street. The action begins on the streets on Tuesday June 11th with the long awaited Carnival Against Capitalism in London’s West End. Two meeting points have been announced, get to Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus – from noon. A map has also been produced showing a suggested list of targets for the protest. A street party at an undisclosed location will end the day at 5.30pm. For the latest updates join (and share) the facebook page, follow @stoptheg8uk on twitter or visit the website which contains listings of all the week’s events: https://network23.org/stopg8/ Tweet using hashtag #j11 Then on Wednesday 12th June an anti-militarist action will take place, also in the West End with protesters meeting at 2pm – for more info visit: http://www.dsei.org/call-for-an-anti-militarist-action-against-the-g8-on-june-12th On Thursday a solidarity action is planned in support of prisoners both within the criminal justice system and migrants in detention centres – full details are yet to be announced, keep an eye on the website. The week rounds off with a day of creative direct action at Canary Wharf on Friday 14th June where UK Uncut, Occupy and more will be teaming up in the heart of the docklands financial district. Meet at Jubilee Plaza outside the west exit of Canary Wharf tube station for 12.30pm sharp. Join the facebook page for the latest details or check the website at: http://theyoweus.org.uk/ And to get everyone in the mood here’s a video of the Carnival Against Capitalism held on June 18th, 1999... http://youtu.be/tqluDGxTDDk
Source - Reuters, 11 June 2013 British riot police clashed with anti-capitalist protesters in running confrontations through the streets of central London on Tuesday, arresting at least 32 people as activists targeted some of the world's biggest companies before next week's G8 summit. About 100 protesters gathered outside oil company BP Plc's headquarters, while others chanted "war criminals" at the office of U.S. defence company Lockheed Martin Corp. and booed outside the offices of U.S.-based bank Citi. In a roof-top drama caught on camera, one protester lunged towards officers on the top of a four-storey building where activists had been holed up and was wrestled to the ground by police wearing abseiling ropes just inches from the roof's unprotected edge. Police used chainsaws to break into the block in the Soho district where the StopG8 protest group had been staying before a "Carnival Against Capitalism" to coincide with the June 17-18 G8 meeting at a golf resort in Northern Ireland. Several hundred protesters - who had threatened to target major hedge funds, banks and natural resources companies - played cat and mouse with riot police sowing hours of traffic chaos in some of London's most fashionable streets. Around 100 protesters gathered outside a central London police station this evening shaking fists and shouting "let them go" and "fuck the police", referring to activists detained earlier, blaring loud and angry hip hop music. "The G8 is just a front for the corporatocracy, for the kleptocrats. It is about making them more money and dividing up the world so they can all get richer," said a protester at Piccadilly Circus who gave his name only as Silver Fox. "The G8 should be about ending all the wars - why don't they give peace a chance for once?" Police chased groups of shouting protesters down Oxford Street and Regent Street, one of London's main shopping areas, to the visible shock of tourists before heading past the U.S. embassy in Mayfair, one of the capital's most exclusive areas. Nearly 1,200 police were mobilised to deal with the protests. Police said they had arrested 32 people for offences including criminal damage, assault on police and possession of an offensive weapon. Activists, some with their faces covered, waved black, green and red flags as they marched down Oxford Street. They carried banners saying "No borders, no prisons, no capitalism" and "One Common Struggle". Isolated scuffles broke out when police moved in to arrest individuals as a group of activists banged on drums and blew whistles beside snarled traffic. "We are retaking the streets. We want to make a statement that capitalism is screwing the majority of people," said protester Emma Goldman. "If we were in (Turkey's) Taksim Square people would say we were anti-government protesters. Here they probably call us a mob." British Prime Minister David Cameron has set boosting trade, ensuring tax compliance and greater corporate transparency in developing countries as his priorities for the G8 summit. But protesters on the streets said they felt the summit, where Cameron will welcome leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and Russia's Vladimir Putin, was about dividing up wealth and had become a hostage to corporate interests. StopG8 last month issued a map of 100 potential targets for people to "show their anger", identifying offices of financial organisations such as banks, hedge funds, defence manufacturer BAE Systems and mining and energy companies including ArcelorMittal and BP. The list includes hedge funds Man Group and Paulson, private equity firm Blackstone, banks such as Citi and Barclays and embassies including those of Saudi Arabia and the United States. The group, which describes itself as an anti-capitalist network "made up of autonomous groups and individuals", had refused to cooperate with police. One banker working for an international firm with offices in central London said the staff had received an email indicating around 500 people would attend the protest. One hedge fund, which asked not to be identified, said it had advised its staff to be especially alert to the protests.
There was a major security presence for an anti-G8 protest in Belfast today. The rally was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ahead of next week's G8 summit in County Fermanagh. The ICTU said one billion people were living in "extreme poverty" around the world, due to Western capitalism and the policies of the G8 leaders. The rally passed off peacefully and no arrests were made. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said protesters started to disperse at 14:00 BST. The anti-capitalist demonstration was staged ahead of the two-day global summit, which will see the leaders of some of the world's most powerful countries gather at the Lough Erne resort for talks. Organisers blamed the rain for the less than expected number of protesters. It fell far short of the 5,000 to 10,000 that had originally been estimated. At some parts of the route, the marchers were outnumbered by police. Officers from various UK police forces lined High Street and Royal Avenue as the march made its way to Belfast City Hall. As the speeches began a small crowd of loyalist protesters jeered those on the platform, but the rally continued and the crowd dispersed peacefully. Hundreds of police officers and scores of PSNI vehicles lined the route of the march to Belfast City Hall, and police helicopters circled overhead. A weekly loyalist protest against a restriction on flying the union flag at Belfast City Hall also took place. Some loyalist flag protesters jeered as anti-G8 rally speeches got under way. Addressing protesters at the Belfast City Hall rally, ICTU chairperson Pamela Dooley said: "There is an obligation on the trade union movement and civil society to stand together to demand a different and better way." Ms Dooley said the G8 leaders did not have consent "to force their damaging policies on the rest of us". She added that unemployment had risen to "unprecedented levels" on the island of Ireland. She told the crowd that in the Irish Republic "prosperity for working people is over" while in Northern Ireland "almost one third of the population is classed as economically inactive". "We know that we are facing the consequences of a corrupt capitalist system bereft of moral standards", Ms Dooley said. "It is a system which puts profit before people and always will. It is a system for the few and not for the many." She added that the ICTU had "credible alternative proposals which can create a fair and just world". James Orr of Friends of the Earth said it was "time to put the long term future of the planet first - and develop a clean energy future we can all afford". He added: "G8 nations should be taking the lead in tackling climate change, instead of driving forward policies that keep their economies hooked on dirty, damaging and increasingly costly fossil fuels. "People across the UK, including Northern Ireland, are rightly concerned about the threat fracking poses to their communities, local environment and the global climate." Meanwhile, Amnesty International said the G8 leaders were "undermining their credentials as global leaders due to human rights violations in their own countries". It called on the US government to close its military prison at Guantanamo Bay and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release jailed members of rock band, Pussy Riot. In addition to the march, a number of concerts have taken place in Belfast and County Fermanagh. Lough Erne resort The Lough Erne resort is cordoned off for the G8 summit A concert in Belfast's Botanic Gardens was staged to send a message to world leaders about ending world hunger. The Big IF concert was organised by a number of charities including Oxfam, Trocaire and Christian Aid and featured high-profile speakers and video messages from celebrities. The artists included Two Door Cinema Club, Duke Special, Bronagh Gallagher, Prodijig, Flash Harry, and the Ulster Orchestra. Event director Dan Schofield described it as a "fantastic, fun, family event, albeit one that has a very serious underlying message". "People want the opportunity to make their voices heard in a positive and dignified way so that the leaders attending the G8 summit will be in no doubt that justice for the world's poor has to be top of the agenda in Fermanagh," he said. Tim Magowan from the IF Coalition said: "Imagine if Northern Ireland became known as a place of agreement; a place where decisions were made which began the process of ending world hunger." Meanwhile, in Enniskillen free classical music concerts were organised in advance of the G8 summit. International opera singer Ruby Philogene led the line-up for the Songs for Saturday celebration in the afternoon. Ruby devised a special G8 song recital of eight songs, one song from each of the eight countries involved in the summit at St Macartin's Cathedral. Fermanagh District Council also organised a family fun day in each electoral ward as compensation for the G8 disruption. SOURCE - BBC NEWS, 15 June 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-22909025
