Fermanagh G8 Fail - From bog death of summit protests to the art of the possible

“Widespread hunger is the result of predatory social systems, a fact that Bono's depoliticising language of humanitarianism serves to conceal.”

This interesting article from the WSM was sparked by the recent protest against the G8 in June in Fermanagh but makes a broad analysis of the anti-globalisation / anti-captialism movement of the past 15 years from Seattle where Indymedia was born up to the present day and an analysis of the Arab Spring and the protest in places like Spain, Greece and Turkey.

Here are some key quotes from the report:

The Capitalist system is a shape shifter. It constantly morphs in front of our eyes so as to remain in a position of strength and control. Summit protests are just one more thing that they’ve managed to surmount, along with the implosions of the financial markets.

The Capitalist system is a shape shifter. It constantly morphs in front of our eyes so as to remain in a position of strength and control. Summit protests are just one more thing that they’ve managed to surmount, along with the implosions of the financial markets.

......
By 2001 and after Genoa the summits moved to inaccessible locations, such as Davos in Switzerland. But more importantly the tactic of blockading and bringing about a revelation of the cosy links between world leaders, corporations and the financial institutions which support these structures had been exposed. To continue with this tactic had lead us to the farcical scenes played out in Fermanagh. Alas this is an all too familiar script which this pantomime plays.

And then in moves on to the present day and in some sense public opinion has latched on that the democracy thing has been a farce all along:

By 2001 and after Genoa the summits moved to inaccessible locations, such as Davos in Switzerland. But more importantly the tactic of blockading and bringing about a revelation of the cosy links between world leaders, corporations and the financial institutions which support these structures had been exposed. To continue with this tactic had lead us to the farcical scenes played out in Fermanagh. Alas this is an all too familiar script which this pantomime plays.

....
Representationalism, or the meaninglessness of democracy as it is experienced in the west is being seen as a sham and people are actively working on how this can be challenged.

In Gezi Park in Istanbul is it about the Trees? Yes its all about the Trees and it has nothing to do with them. It is about saying no. You do not do this in our name. Many things you’ve done in our name and we disagreed with you about it. This is not going to be another one. And many people in Turkey see this as a chance to challenge the authorities and call them to account for what has gone before. Communities are talking to each other and saying well they’ve been stopped about this, perhaps we can stop them on other things or have decisions reversed.


And then it moves onto what the author perceives as a new awareness or recognition within the public about the political system and the response then to that.

.............Occupations appear to be a new tactic because we have all figured out that the state media will ignore most voices of dissent or shows of opposition. But if enough of you congregate it becomes a joke if you ignore 200,000 people battling in the streets for change. Again we are seeing protests evolve which has a purpose to it. We pull back the curtain to reveal the levers are only being pulled by a few people/corporations and nothing is working in our interests. But if you can defeat them on something, then a space is created where all the ideas for the way society should function is created, and it acts like a magnet pulling in various strands of the disaffected, the powerless, the minorities, and there is a visible manifestation of the numbers. This is the moment when it cracks open for people. The art of the possible is what emerges from these spaces and the dialogue opens up between various groups within the movement.

What we are seeing is not only revolts against the political parties of government and opposition, but also the mainstream trade unions and other bodies that historically, were supposed to represent the working class.


Full text can be read at the link below