[mobglob-discuss] G8 Actions at Kananaskis & Local

[Garth Mullins]

Resistance at Kananaskis and Local Solidarity Actions

As the G8 approaches, there is some uncertainty as to where the movement
will put our emphasis. Many have become rightly critical of the tactic
of “summit hopping” and are organizing local events. However, there must
be a strong presence at Kananaskis. Email is not the most secure form of
communication, but a discussion of what people envision at the gates of
the G8 is overdue. This is a discussion that must go on across the
country and the world, and between spokescouncils. There are clearly
logistical obstacles to overcome. Much of this discussion will be had in
the days before the summit, as people arrive in Calgary. I think it
would be helpful to draw out some overall strategies, to get more people
involved, and to help them prepare. Activists planning on going to
Alberta are interested in making more than travel plans, in knowning
what to expect and how to get involved..

Local ant-G8 actions are important if the anti-corporate globalisation
movement is to gain a wider audience. “Summit hopping” is not an
effective mass strategy. However, given federal “anti-terrorism”
legislation, our movement’s presence at Kananiskis is necessary to
expose the state repression inherent in this legislation, and to show
that it only breeds further resistance.

Under the pretext of preventing terrorism, our government, like those of
other G8 countries, is cracking down on political opposition and eroding
civil liberties. If Bill C 55 (amended C42) is put into action as a
means of quashing summit protest, we must be prepared to bring it to the
public’s attention, and perhaps even to defy the “military exclusion
zone” and assert our right to assemble, express ourselves and to
dissent.

There are a number of regional events being organized in opposition to
the G8. The People’s Summit in Calgary http://www.g6bpeoplessummit.org/,
“Take the Capital!” in Ottawa http://www.takethecapital.net/ and many
others. Unfortunatly, the Solidarity Village will not happen. A meeting
to address the G8 and Vancouver solidarity actions will take place
Sunday, June 2, 1-5pm at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, 800 East
Broadway.  Locla events allow for wider participation and analysis.

“Summit hopping,” requires money, time and risk. Spending a week
protesting in Kananaskis is just not possible for most people. However,
our movement needs to have a strong, defiant presence there, outside of
the summit.

All eight of the member states have similar packages of “anti-terrorism”
legislation. This legislation seriously impedes civil liberties. Its
record in the UK over the last decade is poor. In Canada, an unknown
number of people (mostly of Middle-Eastern descent) are being held
without charge or access to council under bill C36. Bill C55 gives the
government the right to declare any area a “military exclusion zone”
under the pretext of protecting military personnel or hardware.  More
accurately, it should be called a “Charter Free Zone,” as many of the
rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution are suspended within.
The army will have 5000 soldiers at the summit as part of a massive,
multi-agency, multi-national security operation. The summit’s agenda
will also be dominated by concerns relating to terrorism.

The anti-globalisation movement has used various international trade
summits as a concrete moment in the development of global capitalism, to
put a face on monolithic organizations and abstract processes; as a
visual, physical symbol of a massive system.  Certainly the hosts of
summits do not want protest. They are retreating out of easy protest
distance. Last November the WTO met in Quitar.

To delay or prevent such a summit from taking place is not an effective
attack on the system itself, but rather it is an attempt to communicate
to the rest of the society, to relay critical messages, and to
de-legitimise the organization or policy and to reframe the context and
set of ideas surrounding the meeting itself. Actions at summits must
connect to the local, to people’s real lives. People must be then able
to get involved, to participate and become agents in the struggle for
their own liberation, not merely receivers of counter-hegemonic messages
broadcast from summits by well-meaning activists with lots of air miles.


In Seattle, the tactical victory was the cancellation of the opening
ceremonies. Delegates were slowed or prevented from attending due to
massive acts of civil disobedience. The strategic victory was the
failure of the Millennium Round. The political victory was the emergence
of many of the movement’s issues from the margins to become a part of
the mainstream political discourse.

It follows that the movement’s physical presence at international
summits is a question of tactics, rather than one of principle. In this
case, regional events will be able to address all manner of issues
related to the G8, trade and globalisation.  However, our presence at
the G8 summit itself will help focus attention on to the real character
of the  “anti-terrorist” legislation of G8 states, especially Canada.

Summit hopping has become the movement’s M.O. and has rightly attracted
some criticism. This argument is developed in detail by Yutaka Dirks
(tak at tao.ca) in "Doing things Differently This Time: Kananaskis G8
Meeting and Movement Building" see
(http://G8activist.ca/calltoaction/local.html)

We need to move beyond summit hopping, but given the new legislation, it
becomes tactically necessary to make Kananiskis one of the many sites of
resistance across the country.

Besides, Bono will be there. He was in Genoa G8 last year, and even had
a meeting with Chretien. I guess he “..still hasn’t found what he’s
looking for.” I would advise him not to hold his breath this time. He
may well reflect on this second round with the G8 in the words of one of
his blonder, younger contemporaries: “Oops! I Did it Again.”