STOP THE G8 IN EVIAN
Progressive groups, individuals and communities across Europe and around the globe are gearing up for the latest showdown with the old-order. The Cowboys, Bullies, Gangsters and Fraudsters who use the people and resources of the world as pawns in their own self-fulfilling plans for global domination are meeting under the auspices of the G8. This is their chance to get our the red-carpet, drink champagne, and congratulate each other on another successful year of exploiting the people of the world, so that they can get rich and stay powerful.
But the people of the world say no to this charade! Much to the dislike of these virtual dictators, their little ritual show of solidarity is likely to be ruined again. After the cries of victory by the capitalists after the Twin Tower attack in 2001 and subsequent illegal attack on two poor countries - Afghanistan and Iraq -, the anti-capitalist or social justice movement is not only alive and kicking but ready to show these bastards who's on the up. Stopping the G8 meeting is to confront the root causes of the worlds ills - the outrageous economic system we're forced to live under (capitalism), and the undemocratic and antagonistic political system imposed to protect capitalism - the state.
This last year has seen capitalism fight its military wars abroad ('imperialism') against other states which stand in the way of greater wealth for the Mafia Gang of Eight. Now its our turn to fight back: When the G8 meets in southern France, they are to be greeted by hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people fighting for social and economic justice. Make sure are there - Stop the GHate!
On this Page
Days of Action Against the G8 in France and Switzerland
Anti-Authoritarian Anti-Capitalist Village Convergence Space
Specific Information on Days of Action, Convergence Spaces, Laws, etc.
Days of Resistance to the Gang of 8 (alias 'G8'), Evian, 1-3 June 2003
Oye! Oye! It is now certain that an
international Gang of Terrorists, known as the 'G8', plan to meet in the town
of Evian. Some of the leaders of this Gang are already responsible for crimes
against humanity defying the imagination - including the assassination of several
thousand people every year in Columbia, the deaths of hundreds of thousands
of children in Irak, indiscriminate bombing and nuclear pollution in Afghanistan
and an ongoing genocide in Tchetchenia. The real agenda of their meeting will
of course be secret, but it will certainly include the threat of the new massacres
and violences necessary to maintain their control over criminal trafics in arms,
oil, drugs, etc. not to mention the extortion and 'protection' rackets by which
they levy huge profits on all kinds of legitimate activities worldwide. We therefor
call on all the inhabitants of the region to be attentive to any activity of
suspicious foreigners who could be accomplices of the Gang, and to immediately
inform the Anti-Gang Coordination of their activities and whereabouts, so that
they can be immobilised. Given the size of the Gang, we are appealing for help
to concerned citizens of all Europe. Attention! Exercise caution! The Gang is
armed and ruthless!
Since Seattle, every summit, worldover, has been resisted, blocked and harassed
by ever larger masses of people. This worldwide outbreak of civil disobedience
has obliged our rulers to meet in improvised fortresses, or exile themselves
to feudal dictatorships of the Middle East and isolated mountain villages. Thus,
summits intended as ritual shows of their supremacy now reveal the universal
unpopularity of the regime and its fundamental basis: force and violence. Of
course this symbolic revolution will not suffice, but it is the essential achievement
of the movement and has given new hope and determination to millions worldover.
For our rulers, the major political issue of the next G8 meeting is to demonstrate
that they can return to hold meetings in the heart of Europe relatively unhindered.
For the movement, it is vital to maintain and enlarge
a determined resistance without being divided and criminalised. The french government
has a double strategy with respect to the opposition. On the one hand they have
announced their willness to 'organise' an innocuous demonstration. On the other
hand the political police (Renseignements Gnraux) are already fomenting a scare
and criminalisation campaign. It is highly probable that they will organise
the kind of police provocations and violence we saw in Goteborg, Genoa - and
most lately Davos if they get the chance. Evian was chosen because it is small
and difficult of access, squeezed between the southern shore of Lac Lman and
the Alps, with only one road leading to it on each side. An 'exclusion zone'
of several kilometers has already been announced around Evian. Thus, it will
clearly be impossible to even approach the town.
The weak spot in the Gang's plan is that the summit
- with the various vassal governments, counselors, technical staff, journalists,
minstrels, etc., necessary for such an event - will involve about 10,000 people.
And all these people will be lodged in a radius of 30 kilometers around Evian,
principally in Geneva and Lausanne. (The authorities have already announced
that they will reserve one lane of the Lausanne Geneva turnpike for transport
from the Geneva airport and hotels. All navigation on the lake will be outlawed
with the exception of ferries for delegates.) So we won?t get to Evian, but
we can make it very difficult for they themselves to get there! The geography
of the situation calls clearly for a blockade like in Seattle, but on the much
larger scale that the movement can now afford. We think that the political situation
also calls for a defensive posture. Given the violent intentions of the police,
it would be a mistake to try to force their lines as in Genoa. But we can declare
our own much larger 'exclusion zone', on the scale of our huge movement the
exclusion of those who themselves foment exclusion, misery, servitude and death,
year round and world over!
A small international coordination has met twice to start planning, and now invites you for a large international meeting in Geneva (we expect several hundred delegates) on the weekend of March 1-2 to decide on the general plan of action. The french and swiss organisations of the Leman region were mandated to draw up a practical proposal for this meeting. There is a consensus in the region on the following scenario:
The 'Days of
resistance'
would cover roughly a week: from the demos 'welcoming' the arrival of the G8
teams on Wednesday the 27th of May, to the end of the summit, Tuesday, the 2nd
of June. We imagine a week of festive, good-humored but determined insubordination
which might start for example by a gigantic game of hide and seek to localise
the G8 teams in their hotels (and maybe even serenade them with a cazerolazo
rather late at night).
At least one (probably several) anti-capitalist 'villages'
(on the model of the Strasbourg 'No Border' camp), would also start operating
well before the summit a concrete experience of alternative forms of social
organisation, a place for debates on the larger perspectives of the movement,
for example, the link between such mobilisations against 'global governance'
and local organising for example. In the region, we wish precisely to use this
occasion to strengthen the dialogue between the movement and local issues such
as processes of exclusion in our area, starting the debate well before the week
of resistance. We hope that as many people will take the time to really meet,
and not just "summit hop"! This process and the villages will also
help the organisation of affinity groups for the days of action. A network of
french developmental NGOs is planning a counter-forum with delegates from the
South.
Saturday night (the eve of the summit), 'the lake
will burn' ('il y a le feu au lac' means that something's urgent in french)
as people of the various localities light huge bonfires all around the shores
of the lake and gather to discuss the situation of the world, feast and dance,
their drums signifying to the G8 that the natives are restless... Such fires
are also an old tradition of peasant revolts in this part of the world. Sunday,
June 1st, opening day of the summit, tens of thousands must gather to block
the accesses to Evian: blocking the single road from St. Gingolphe on the east,
the ferries from Lausanne and - on the west of Evian - the delegates trying
to come from Geneva by the south of the lake. (For a map of the area go to <
http://www.swissgeo.ch>
and type in Morges as the localit. Then zoom away as far as possible on the
map ( > > > -). Sorry! we'll have our own map up soon!)
The western blockade could be placed in the town of Thonon, just outside the exclusion zone (in fact, as a matter of principle we shall even continue to demand the right to demonstrate in Evian itself but with no illusions!). However, transporting tens of thousands of people to this small town poses real logistical problems and would put us at the mercy of a last minute breach of faith on the part of the police. The best way to block the western access seems to be to form a human wall from the lakeside in Geneva to the mountain behind it. The distance is 6 kilometers, so 60 000 people would already make an impressive blockade: 10 people thick every meter of the way. The idea would be that one demo leave from the center of Geneva and another from the turnpike at the foot of the Mount Salve - to meet at the french-swiss border. Thus we would symbolically open a frontier while closing the access of Evian to the gang of international terrorists who seek to meet there. This human wall would run through a residential section of Geneva, thus neither in a dangerously secluded 'tte tte' with the police in the countryside, nor in a downtown area inviting confusion with other kinds of activity'
The goal of this demo, which would hopefully include every possible stripe of person opposing the G8, would be solely to block - or at least seriously perturb - the opening of the summit. (Of course the gang leaders will be transported by helicopter and they will probably be able to stage their meeting more or less. But if they have to do it with a kind of military airlift operation, our political point will have been made.) Monday and Tuesday, the resistance, surprise blockades and perturbations will continue with all those who can prolong their stay on the bonny, bonny banks of Lake Leman. Local groups can provide information and some logistics. The rest will depend on you! Given the terrain and the unpredictable behavior of the authorities (and - we hope the activists) decentralisation and mobility will be the watchwords of the week ofresistance. We therefor urge you to come as mobile as possible: buses, cars or even better bicycles rather than trains. A 'cavalry' of 10 000 bicyclists would give a deliciously ecolo look to the mobilisation and would be VERY useful!
This scenario is possible, necessary and a proposal in which the diverse strands of the movement can all find their place. (It will also be fun!) However, concerning the main demonstration, there was also a proposal to simply organise a traditional sort of march somewhere, on Saturday, the day before the G8 arrive. The arguments in favor were that it would make it easier for people coming from far to be back in time for work on Monday, and the possibility that the european unions might in that case join the demo. The arguments against were that: Since Seattle, the specific force of our movement has been that people are motivated enough to confront summits when they really happen, including weekdays (we were more than a hundred thousand on Friday in Genoa) so a demo Sunday is no problem, especially as the bulk of the demonstrators at summits usually come from relatively close by. The growing force of our movement has gradually drawn more reformist organisations towards us. If the unions are ready to demonstrate with us now, great! If they decide to make there own march on another day, as they have so far, so be it. It's up to them to decide when and how to insert their action in the days of resistance. But it would be a disaster for us to abandon our political ground (directly confronting 'global governance') just in order to march with the unions. It is obvious that politically, symbolically the opening day of the summit is decisive. The international media will not seriously cover anything else (except perhaps a riot). On the regional level, several unions have already agreed to join the blockade on Sunday. For all these reasons, the regional organisations have agreed to go for the blockade on Sunday, and we imagine that people who take the trouble to cross half of Europe won't want to miss the crucial appointment with the G8! But it is IMPORTANT that you come to the meeting the 1st of March, or at least let us know your opinion, since this scenario could only be justified with respect to groups coming from afar.
The international coordination meeting is IN LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. Please inform us as soon as possible if you can come! Looking forward to seeing you 1-2 March - and many, many more of you in the end of May!
Olivier, for the APCM (APCM is a local Genevan group working with the PGA network internationally and the Forum Social Lmanique for the G8)
For
a V.A.A.A.G anti G8 Alternative, Anticapitalistic and Anti-Wars Village
Looking for direct democracy, self-
organized alternative during the Evian G8, breaking up with institutional ways
of social changes.
For a V.A.A.A.G anti G8 Alternative, Anticapitalistic and Anti-Wars Village During the G8 summit, which will be held at Evian end May begin of June, we want to realize an anticapitalistic, alternative, anti- wars and antimilitarist village.
In this village we want to ally meetings, political debates and cultural experiences (theater, music, videos…) : "Yes to the fight but yes to the party also". We want this village to be the expression of those without voice, in rupture with the institutional movements in order to invent other possible ways by practicing a free and self-administered World. The V.A.A.A.G village will reflect a multiplicity of initiatives demonstrating by their action what animates those for whom "Resisting is creating".
On the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of June it will be held at Evian the summit of the eight powers that govern the world (G8). After the strengthening of the demonstrations against the capitalistic globalization and after the murder of Carlo Giulani at Genoa in July 2001, the eight biggest predators have decided to organize their festivities in isolated and protected by police brigades and any kind of militaries, corners of the world. This year it is France that is hosting the G8 in the city of Evian situated by the Lac Leman lace hidden behind the mountains of Haute Savoie. The dominating classes, through the G8 and other various international institutions such as the IMF and the World Banc, take the right to govern the world in the name of the holly sacred Capital. From the North to the South, from the East to the West, the discourse is the same : extension of the economy market in every aspect of our lives.
The consequences are always the same for us : misery, repression and war.
Since several years now the mobilizations against the lords of this world have amplified. For us, fighting the G8, is not about begging a "human" management of capitalism or its regulation / taxation by the different States but about the promoting of another kind of society where the human relations will not be based on a logic of profit and domination.
All over the world the human and ecological damages keep increasing. War is becoming the unique solution to the economical and social problems that the system cannot respond to anymore. External war, also known as war against terrorism and internal war against the poor. In the South, as well as in the North, this poverty is the result of the flexibility of all the living and working conditions, of the privatization of all the social services (healthcare, education, water, transport), of the logics of "all profit" and easy money, of the "exodus" - from the countries of the South to the North once the "job" is done- of the logics of commercialization (GMO among others) and of the control of the rural populations by the agro-alimentary trusts... In order to maintain the civil "peace", named by euphemism national coherence, the States and the empires develop military and security arsenals in a way never seen before. In the "new language" we don't say any more that we minimize the freedoms and the human rights but : We secure. We don't say anymore : We don't let the poor to use public transportation, but : We fight for better conditions for the clients ! We don't say "out the poor foreigners", but we humanly handle the arrivals in relation with the needs of working hands, etc. The maintained fear is provoking the irresponsibility of individuals and the breaking of solidarity as well it makes that everyone is searching the answer to the questions posed by the capitalistic globalization within a strong power.
But the resistances are multiplying and organizing. Since it is by the fight, the direct action and new solidarities that the exploited and the dominated will inverse the present power relations. It is by the globalization of the fights that the multinationals and the States will not be able any more to make the Other, the Foreigner the scapegoat for the situations that they create by their economic and social politics. Since the dislocation, the flags of convenience, the exploitation of the tropical forests, the exportation of polluting factories to the countries of the South, the human exploitation etc are not the act of luck but of the logic of profit the only existing reason of capitalism and liberalism, as we may see with the commercialization of life, education and culture.
No justice, no peace ! Many economic and politic directors are dreaming that the class war is just a memory, that those that obey the law of the dominant classes must continue to bend their backs and accept as sufficient the Charity business in order not to die… The control by the exploited oftheir own luck, their capacity to define other ways of those of an infinite, destroying nature development, of an hierarchical and based on multiple dominations work - between the peoples, between men and women, on nature, on children etc., the updating of the self-direction and the appropriation of the means of production for the satisfaction of the greater number of people and not of a minority, are going to be the only ways to face the bellicose powers, the fanaticisms, the national-populists or liberal-security that are developing in the world.
Since many years, resistance is not only a contestation of the established order- or disorder- but also the search of alternatives of different proposed models, even by some mouvements of anti-globalization. There is a will to create other possible spaces against all forms of domination (patriarchic, economic, social, cultural, national, military, authoritative…), and it is for that it seems interesting to us to propose the creating of a village that would be at the same time :
1) A space of autonomy where thinking and acting will permit the politic expression and, mostly, the affirmation of our alternative propositions. The action is going to be expressed by acts of disobedience and/or resistance and concrete alternatives, by anti-authoritative practices, by direct democracy and self-direction. We want this village, beyond the necessary visibility, to be a place of social and political experimentation in rupture with capitalism, the political forms of classical and/or institutional representation.
2) A space of autonomy that is going to become a true place where the resistances to capitalistic globalization will come together, that will give the possibility to different axes or strategies of fight to be represented and expressed (opportunity to tighten the relations between different individuals, groups, networks and associations).
For more information see http://www.aarrg.org/hub_g8.html
The G8 meets from Sunday 1st of June till Tuesday
June 3 in Evian, France, on the shore of Lake Leman opposite Switzerland.
This small city and 10 kilometers around it will be a militarized ?exclusion
zone? (entry only with badges), however most of the some 10,000 people involved
(advisors, support, journalists, technicians,translators, etc., plus the ministers
of 20 vassal countries will have to be lodged in a radius of 40 kilometers (Geneva,
Lausanne and the French mountain resorts of Haute Savoie south of Evian. There
is thus the possibility of perturbing the summit by blocking entries and /or
exits to the zone. Most participants will normally enter and exit via ferries
between Evian and Lausanne, where two smaller exclusion zones will protect the
landing zone of the ferries and two of the larger hotels in the center of Lausanne.
Two thousand five star hotel rooms have been reserved
in Geneva. These people will normally also cross the lake to Lausanne and continue
to Geneva by the Swiss turnpike on the north side of the lake. (The hotels and
airport are all on the north side of Geneva - ie the right bank of the river.)
However, if the ferry is blocked, they would also have the option of going west
along the south side of the lake from Evian to Geneva, or if necessary going
east from Evian to the other border with Switzerland at St. Gingolphe and from
there going all around the lake with the turnpike.(see maps www.swissgeo.ch)
Support people will be arriving in the hotels by thursday the 29th. Bush plans
to land (but may be wrong!) at Geneva airport at 16H June 1st,where the Swiss
president will kiss his feet, then on (by helicopter) to open the G8 in Evian
at around 19H. Particpants will probably be trying to return to their hotels
from about 21H.
- Four anti-G8 coordinations (Lausanne, Geneva,
Haute Savoie and Paris) are jointly providing a political umbrella for various
events of particular organisaions and groupings.
- Alternative villages (each for a few thousand
people), all more or less on the Strasbourg No Border camp model (self-organisation,
debates, horizontality), are being set up in Lausanne, and Geneva, plus two
at Annemasse (a French suburb of Geneva) one anti-authoritarian (www.vaaag.org)
and one of diverse groups and individuals <www.g8-illegal.org> . The villages
open the 28th.
- Thursday, May 29:
demos: Lausanne around the hotels to say ?Not Welcome!? to the G8 participants
in a colorful, musical way. Chamonix, France: demo at the Mont Blanc tunnel
for liberty of movement and against truck transport.
Annemasse: a festive, out-reaching demo to thank the inhabitants hosting the ?villagers? and reclaim public space. Note: The general tone of G8 demos will be determined but humorous, musical and open. The local organizers want the G8 to be the occasion to widen the movement and comprehension of the issues not be seen as a ?foreign invasion?!
- Friday May 30:
an instructive tour of Geneva?s international institutions: against ?free? trade
and for free movement of humans.
- Friday and Saturday: Various countersummit events of NGOs, ATTAC, CADTM, etc. Debates are planned in several villages and at the Univ. of Geneva concerning ?commons? as an alternative to private and state control of education, land, culture, etc? Arrival of late-coming thousands, organization of affinity groups, etc., for the grand opening of the morrow?
Saturday night: ?Fires on the lake? About
50 huge fires will be lit in localities all around the lake encircling the G8.
An occasion to mix with the locals who may or may not fancy demonstrating the
next day. (Groups invited by local communities to a particular fire might well
have less problems at the frontier. Contact www.evlan.org
).
- SUNDAY June 1st Mass demo: (100 thousand? Two? More?) between Annemasse and Geneva (about 6 kilometers), starting at 9 or 10H. Part of the demo will start from the French side (the French ?villages? and campsite, the station in Annemasse and the turnpike junction) and march towards Geneva along the Route de Chêne. Others will leave the lakeside in Geneva to meet them along the same route. After the junction, marchers will return to their starting points via the Route de Malagnou parallel to it. For maps, see <www.swissgeo.ch>. This demo and a simultaneous one in Lausanne will be in effect blocades as they will paralyse all trafic in the area (Geneva population = 300,000!) Blocades: Demos will be completed by blocades and encerclements around the exclusion zones of Lausanne and roads leading to Geneva hotels.
Joker: The Swiss president announced that he wants to greet Bush at the Geneva airport at 16H. The Geneva government is publically opposed to this gross provocation, but if it is maintained it will obviously change a lot of things...
KEY APPOINTMENT: As early as possible Sunday
morning at the Lausanne village and by the lake in Geneva (Parc de la Grange).
- Monday and Tuesday: More civil disobedience, fun and games
Practical infos Frontiers, control and repression: Gas masks and helmets are considered arms and an excuse for immediate expulsion. Frontier controls will be reestablished all around France, plus controls on accesses to the region (railway stations such as Lyon or Valence, turnpike booths, etc?) The Swiss government admits to having ?black lists? of people present in previous demos. Frontier controls with Italy will be shifted south of the alpine tunnels (eg Domodossola) to permit mass exclusions?
France:
Convergence: Annemasse airport: Info-point, campings,
etc. Two villages (also beside Annemasse airport): the Village
Alternatif Anticapitaliste Antiguerre and the Village
InterGalactique. The two villages are open to all. See websites for objectives,
principles and organisation. Access: vehicles can park at the airport except
for June 1st. There will be an info-point at the Annemasse railway station (about
2 kils. away)
Genèva:
Convergence: l?Usine, Place des Volontaires
Info-points: Info-Bus opposite the railway station; l?Usine; University, UNI-Bastions, Rue de Candolle; Maison des Associations, Rue des Savoises
Village: ZAAGE:
Stade du Bout du Monde, Carouge.
Campings: Stade du Bout du Monde, Carouge - Parc
de La Grange - Parc des Bastions, UNI-Bastions
Lausanne:
Convergence: Village CVILLAGE (www.squat.net/contre-attaque).
Campings: Parc de Vidy Info-points: Maison du Peuple, Place Chaudron;Tir Groupé, Place du Chateau
In general: Be prepared to be as autonomous and mobile as possible: camping and cooking material, including some food imagine shopping on Ascension weekend in a besieged provincial city?; as many bicycles, rollers, etc., as possible; bring a small radio, special broadcasts are planned.
CONSULT http://squat.net/contre-attaque/
AND OTHER SITES FOR DETAILS, MAPS AND HIGHLY PROBABLE LAST MINUTE CHANGES!!