Dissent, the media and the G8

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

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

by Joe 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.

by Dissent Head 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

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.

by Joe 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.

by non-Dissent head 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.

by Joe 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.

by non-Dissent head 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.