The people need the G8 like a fish needs a bicycle
A pedestrian's eye view of the Carnival & Kritical Mass Tour of the G8 Climate Criminals, 15.10.04. By Noisy Joe
As one of the many grassroots events sprouting up around the European Social Forum, and to flag up the climate change-related resistance to the G8 that is building in the run-up to its visit to Scotland in 2005, London Rising Tide called a 'Carnival & Kritical Mass Tour of the G8 Climate Criminals'.
Publicised in part by a 'postcard from 2050' depicting Big Ben and other landmarks under many metres of water as well as the question 'Wish you were here?', this action planned to select from a shortlist one 'climate criminal' from each of the G8 countries, and visit it in order to proclaim its true activities and announce that it is now on a 'Wanted' list. While things didn't go entirely to plan, there was just about enough going on to make it worth bunking off from workshop-land for the afternoon...
Having said that, there was a bit of a screw-up in the way there was a G8-related action programmed at the same time as an afternoon of discussion about G8-related action at the Beyond ESF event atMiddlesex University
Some snapshots from the day:
Mermaids, masks, snorkels & a perfect pissed off penguin gather amongst the bikes, cafe-goers, film crews and second-hand books of the South Bank, heavily outnumbered by cops on bikes, cops with cameras, cops in vans and cops on foot...
Scrappy organisation and sporadic rain dampen the mostly continental samba band's spirits until we reach the cyclists at the first of the G8 climate criminals: ExxonMobil, which is warned it's on the people's Wanted list, with an A3 placard duly delivered (via a cop), then we're off again...
Increasingly hemmed in by police as we wander towardsTrafalgar Square
A damp squib of a Canada House seems unattended, unless all its occupants are cowering silently behind its huge metal doors, but spirits are buoyed by free Hari Krishna dinners...
People are generally enthusiastic when they see the leaflet (2000 or so given out through the afternoon; memo to us: make sure we have a banner or similar announcing roughly who the hell we are in future!)...
We proceed in gorgeous traffic-blocking chaos following the Peace Not War/European Creative Forum no-battle bus (which recently drove all the way toBaghdad Regent Street Russia
Time is short - we have to cut the tour in half, missingJapan , Italy , France , Germany
So...downside: low numbers, wobbly organisation, too many cops, lack of collective hard-hitting/theatrical/satirical activity at each target. Upside: much-liked 'postcard from 2050'; great costumes; much-needed action focus to stand alongside (Beyond) ESF stuff; raising flag of (climate-focussed) G8 resistance; mainstream media coverage in Guardian and (apparently) Sunday Telegraph; loads learnt for next time...
Love from Noisy Joe
Pix & more info:
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/299115.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/298593.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/299083.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/299299.html
www.risingtide.org.uk/pages/news/london_esf2.htm
As one of the many grassroots events sprouting up around the European Social Forum, and to flag up the climate change-related resistance to the G8 that is building in the run-up to its visit to Scotland in 2005, London Rising Tide called a 'Carnival & Kritical Mass Tour of the G8 Climate Criminals'.
Publicised in part by a 'postcard from 2050' depicting Big Ben and other landmarks under many metres of water as well as the question 'Wish you were here?', this action planned to select from a shortlist one 'climate criminal' from each of the G8 countries, and visit it in order to proclaim its true activities and announce that it is now on a 'Wanted' list. While things didn't go entirely to plan, there was just about enough going on to make it worth bunking off from workshop-land for the afternoon...
Having said that, there was a bit of a screw-up in the way there was a G8-related action programmed at the same time as an afternoon of discussion about G8-related action at the Beyond ESF event at
Some snapshots from the day:
Mermaids, masks, snorkels & a perfect pissed off penguin gather amongst the bikes, cafe-goers, film crews and second-hand books of the South Bank, heavily outnumbered by cops on bikes, cops with cameras, cops in vans and cops on foot...
Scrappy organisation and sporadic rain dampen the mostly continental samba band's spirits until we reach the cyclists at the first of the G8 climate criminals: ExxonMobil, which is warned it's on the people's Wanted list, with an A3 placard duly delivered (via a cop), then we're off again...
Increasingly hemmed in by police as we wander towards
A damp squib of a Canada House seems unattended, unless all its occupants are cowering silently behind its huge metal doors, but spirits are buoyed by free Hari Krishna dinners...
People are generally enthusiastic when they see the leaflet (2000 or so given out through the afternoon; memo to us: make sure we have a banner or similar announcing roughly who the hell we are in future!)...
We proceed in gorgeous traffic-blocking chaos following the Peace Not War/European Creative Forum no-battle bus (which recently drove all the way to
Time is short - we have to cut the tour in half, missing
So...downside: low numbers, wobbly organisation, too many cops, lack of collective hard-hitting/theatrical/satirical activity at each target. Upside: much-liked 'postcard from 2050'; great costumes; much-needed action focus to stand alongside (Beyond) ESF stuff; raising flag of (climate-focussed) G8 resistance; mainstream media coverage in Guardian and (apparently) Sunday Telegraph; loads learnt for next time...
Love from Noisy Joe
Pix & more info:
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/299115.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/298593.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/299083.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/299299.html
www.risingtide.org.uk/pages/news/london_esf2.htm
posted by Red Pepper at 1:18 AM
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