StopG8 week of resistance
June 10-14th Events programme
Ideas vs. Capitalism
Calling all talkers, thinkers, writers, readers, fighters, teachers, learners, artists, rebels, performers, rappers, poets, musicians … and anyone with any skills, ideas or dreams to share …
The StopG8 week of resistance is taking place in London on 10-14th June, in the week running up to the G8 World Bosses’ summit. As well as action in the streets, the week will include an events programme of talks, meet-ups, films, games, concerts, and more, all over London and beyond.
Please get in touch with stopg8events [at] riseup.net if you would like to run or take part in an event, if you can help with organising or venues or publicity, or if you just have an idea for something you’d like to see happen. We want this to be big, so we’re starting to plan the week right now.
The ‘ideas’ bit of the events programme is going to be built around five main themes. Four of these are the main political issues we particularly want to think about during the week. But there is also an open slot if you have any ideas that don’t fit into these. Events could include workshops, talks, plays, performances, films, comedy, art shows, games, skillshares, practical training sessions, and talks about anti-capitalist struggles … or anything else you can think of.
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1) Understanding capitalism.
Politicians and the mass media try to divert our anger away from the real causes of poverty, inequality, and everyday bullshit. They give us scapegoats: migrants, foreigners, “scroungers”, or a few corrupt “bad apple” cops or bankers. When really it’s the whole system that’s rotten, top to bottom. But just what is capitalism? How does it work? How does it shape our lives, and even try to control our desires? Who’s profiting from the system, and who’s keeping it going?
2) Resistance: how to fight, how to win.
Every resistance movement that shakes the world has to start small. We can win real victories on our streets, in workplaces and neighbourhoods, in our daily lives, and so we grow. What lessons can we learn from movements in history, and across the world? And we need practical skills. How to be safe and look after each other on the streets. Legal rights: how to support each other against stop and search, police and immigration controls. Direct action: how to fight the powerful, and get away with it.
How to organise, publicise, feed an army, heal the wounded, … and much more. Enough hype, enough bullshit: let’s share ideas and skills that will actually work. We especially want to facilitate the sharing of ideas between a diverse range of campaigns and empower people to embark on new struggles.
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3) Creating new worlds.
We can’t wait until “after the revolution” to create alternatives to
capitalism. We need to start now, in our communities, in our daily lives.
Put simply, the economics of mass production, mass consumerism, and
endless growth is killing our planet. We need new ways of living and
working together. And we need to create new cultures, new values, where our lives are more than just things to be bought and sold.
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4) Anarchism.
Anarchism is the philosophy that says we don’t need governments and
bosses, we can make communities based on mutual aid and solidarity.
Anarchism means rejecting all forms of domination, oppression, and
exploitation, and living as free as we can, right here right now.
Anarchism is the most beautiful idea we know. Not everyone in the StopG8 network is an anarchist, but many of us are. We think we need to get the positive message out about what anarchism really means. What can we learn from more than 200 years of anarchist history? What can anarchism mean in the 21st century?
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5) Open slot.
Anything else that fits our principles but doesn’t fit under the first four headings. Bring it on!