Dissent, the media and the G8

international | anti-capitalism | news report

Thursday May 19, 2005 14:30

by DissentHead

Last Mayday in Ireland we experience press hysteria in the run up to the EU summit protests. Some of these were really nuts - We were even told 'Anarchists plan to gas 10,000 Dubliners' (front page of the Sun). None of these predictions came true and amazingly our lap dog media never felt any need to publish any retractions after the event or even analysis as to how they were taking in. Now its happening in Scotland.

As every indymedia.ie reader knows there are going to be massive protests against the G8 in Scotland in early July. And the British media are trying to whip up the same frenzy over there.

Lots of people from Ireland including dozens of indymedia.ie readers will be heading over for the protests with several organistions mobilising people, including Dissent whom I'm going with. So we should have a strong interest in this hysteria.

I'm predicting that from now to July it will become constant enough that we can blog new articles as comments here without this article every dropping off the 'latest comments' newswire. This will also be very useful for all of us heading over and from time to time should give us a good laugh. So it start off the blog here are some opening enteries

Aircraft carrier will guard Bush at G8
Not that mad but does predict hundreds of US marines on standby on a massive aircraft carrier off the Scottish coast.
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=545682005

Geldof gaffe in G8 call to pupils
Sir Bob who we remember posing with Belisconi and Putin as the cops murdered Carlo in Genoa calls for school walks out when the schools are on holidays.
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=449&id=538152005&20050519131535

Police intelligence plays down fear of large-scale G8 violence
Damn the scotsman isn't playing the game - what's all this "Detectives have been monitoring extremist groups for months and discovered no evidence of plans to organise riots or other large-scale disorder" stuff. They need to talk to Deirdre about 'spicing up' their work.
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=449&id=525192005

Anarchists plot anti-G8 action as police prepare for 'extreme measures'
Ahh this is a bit more like it - I wonder if Scotland on Sunday is any relation to IoS. Sounds like they use the same headline manual at least.
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=167082005

Look who's coming to the G8... anarchists start school for havoc
Oh yeah - this is the stuff "Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the first anti-capitalist training session will be held at a secret location in Glasgow in February to create an elite corps of ‘experienced activists’"
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1420182004

Inside the secret world of anarchists preparing for G8 summit
In a remarkable wankfest "The Times penetrated a group of militants who are intent on organised chaos when world leaders come to Scotland". "This was a “war summit”, where about 300 anarchists — some dressed in urban guerrilla garb in freezing temperatures — had gathered to draw up plans to paralyse Scotland "
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1571447,00.html

So there we go boys and girls - who can top these stirring reports of the anarchist hordes preparing to descend on Scotland. Will you be there with them - get on the bus at http://www.dissenteire.tk/

save preference

Comments (9 of 9)

Last years scare stories - what a gas

by Notforgetting

Thu May 19, 2005 15:14

Here are links to a few of the scare stories as reported on this site last year:

'We'll Gas Bertie' The Sun - Front Page
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64558

Media Mayday Mayhem Continues
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64571

Anarchist defuses potentially violent journalist
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64736

Executive-funded ‘protest’ magazine criticised

by Joe

Fri May 20, 2005 13:46

"The publication, which features an image of a bomb with its fuse fizzing on its cover, has been sent to about 250,000 Is distribution comes less than two months before the G8 summit of world leaders at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire. Previous gatherings have been marred by violent demonstrations in recent years. "

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/39393.html

Latest crop

Mon May 23, 2005 17:04

Police 'interceptor squads' to swoop on G8 militants
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=555462005
POLICE hit squads will be posted alongside major roads and at railway stations across Scotland to intercept anarchists planning to cause havoc during the G8 summit

G8 protesters face police stun-guns
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=550602005
POLICE dealing with civil unrest during the G8 summit in Scotland will have in their armoury controversial weapons that have been blamed for the deaths of 104 civilians in the United States and Canada.

Protecting G8 leaders soars to £12m a head
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1619931,00.html
THE cost of hosting this summer’s G8 summit in Scotland is spiralling towards £100 million — five times the amount pledged by the Government — making it by far the biggest such operation on British soil.

Revealed: G8 chaos plans of anarchists

Mon May 30, 2005 12:33

ANARCHISTS are plotting to sabotage the G8 summit of world leaders at Gleneagles with burning lorries and “human shields” hung from railway and road bridges

any truth in it?

by non-Dissent head

Mon May 30, 2005 15:19

Read the full article on the Times website. Was any of the stuff mentioned in the article discussed at the Nottingham meeting or is it all completely fabricated?

The 'human shields' thing doesnt seem too far-fetched, I suppose thats a pigeon-hole way of describing the Aubonne Bridge action. Is the stuff about setting a truck on fire at the bridge true?

Just that the article seems fairly believable, short of the usual hyperbole and excessive scare media language.

Sunday Times

Mon May 30, 2005 15:23

No imagine and I'm sure exact plans won't be published in advance but the Sunday Times has a long, long record of both insane exaggeration and straight forward invention. They even turned Ecotopia into an 'anarchist training camp'. And I think they were the ones who claimed anarchists planned to bring Samuari swords!?!?! to the London MayDay RTS in 2000.

So I wouldn't believe a word of what they publish.

OK but...

Mon May 30, 2005 15:34

Yeah I know this, but I was just hoping for a response from someone who was there to actually confirm none of this was said, rather than speculation the other way, if you get me.

20 questions

Mon May 30, 2005 15:54

As there are a very limited number of ways of blocading Gleneagles I don't think it would be that smart to play a media inspired game of 20 questions on a public forum like this. So even if I was in Nottingham I wouldn't play.

Another trick the Sunday Times has pulled in the past is going along to a public meeting and then writing it up as 'our heroic journalist infilitrates the anarchists' along with putting the words of some nut at the back forward as the 'plan revealed in the meeting'.

I'd also suggest part of the purpose of this sort of story is to sow divisions by getting one section of the protesters to start making demands on the others. The Irish media managed to panic the SWP last year into issuing a very divisive 'Open Letter' just ahead of the summit. See http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64625 for the negative impact that had.

It's worth being away that in Britian M15 cultivates journalists and uses them to release 'black propaganda' to the public through the media (the journos concerned normally get a knighthood when they retire so its no secret this happens 'in the past'). The Sunday Times (because it is a broadsheet) is a normal conduct for the release of such stories.

ho-hum

Mon May 30, 2005 16:29

Hmm, it was hardly 20 questions, just 2, which were asking more or less the same thing. I'm sure other people will be asking much harder questions in the future.

If people were talking about setting a truck on fire (which I dont really have a problem with) then sometimes its good to hear the reasons why they're doing it, rather than the old refrain of "corporate media propaganda" or "I'm not playing that game" - which to outsiders looking in must mean that anarchists ARE up to "violent extremism" or whatever the ST labelled it.

The refusal to explain or acknowledge that some people will be up for doing some hardcore shit or property damage means that any genuine reasons behind it never get aired.

I get your point about the media pressure on Dissent. I fully expect a statement any day now from MPH, G8A, etc distancing themselves from anarchists, same way the SWP did with DGN last year, except for a much bigger scale this time.

I think calls for "unity" and "non-condemnation of other groups" are a bit dumb at this stage. How many times has it happened where one group comes out against another, either before or after a summit. I cant ever envisage a situation where charity groups promoting wristbands as a way of fighting the G8 wont condemn smashing of banks or torching police vans.

Number of comments per page

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

The Saker

Public Inquiry

Human Rights in Ireland

Lockdown Skeptics

Dissent, the media and the G8

Comments (9 of 9)