G8-Blogo-Sphere Extracts

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:27

Helping Africa is a hot topic these days. Pop stars, politicians and other prominent figures in Europe and across the pond compete in calls for debt relief and more aid to help African economies grow. The same people are usually dismissive about those who would prefer to see certain conditions aimed towards achieving better governance and reducing corruption attached to the entire package.

[....]

The conclusions are obvious. The issues like ‘agricultural subsidies’ and ‘colonial legacy’ are simply ‘red herrings’ diverting the discussion from the real culprits of African misery: corruption and incompetence. Whether this distraction is deliberate or not is irrelevant.

http://www.freedominst.org/2005/06/africa-aid-corruption-and-growth.html

http://www.freedominst.org

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:38

The main purpose of the space is to be a welcoming point not only for international protesters arriving in Edinburgh needing practical information, but also for the local public to get in touch and get information about activities.
[....]
The Infoshop will also provide practical informations for new arrivals, such as faciliting the "ADOPT ON ACTIVIST" campaign, where locals ar asked to provide accomodation for international anti-globalisation protesters, as there is an accomodation shortage in Edinburgh, due to Council policy.

http://scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1730/index.php

G8 infoshop opens in Edinburgh

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:42

...as I wait for the anarcho-syndicalist re-enactment of that scene from Lord of the Rings where they light the beacons (closely followed I suspect by a slightly fractious re-enacment of the Battle of Minas Tirith). The Indymedia list is split into two parts: in a move that is sure to hasten a final written warning from my bosses, the Indymedia people have neglected to include me among "the enemy".

http://paulmason.typepad.com/newsnig8t/2005/06/a_whole_slew_of.html

http://paulmason.typepad.com

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:46

Let’s turn to the NGO’s who are, in many cases, increasingly engaged in updated versions of workhouse arrangements. Recent scandals over sweatshop-produced headbands for Live 8 are only scandalous if one imagines that NGOs and UN ‘aid’ agencies are in the habit of operating other than as adjuncts to exploitation.

link to photo at website....
http://archive.blogsome.com/2005/06/26/g8-management/

this photograph of preparations for the upcoming G8.

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:53

To summarise recent posts, and some future ones, I would again really like to encourage you all to come up to Scotland. Even if it’s just for the Make Poverty History demo on July 2nd in Edinburgh.

[....]

Finally, to quote a fellow activist:

“be a prayer warrior wherever you are and try putting aside half an hour every day for the next 2 weeks to pray specifically for the G8 and activists - this fortnight is critical and God can do far more than we ask BUT we have to ask! Take all your frustration at the lack of progress, all your desires for a fairer world and all your concerns with how the world is run by the rich to God and let’s see what he can do. Besides, you’re going to end up reading and talking about it every day just because of the news, so you might as well take it a step further and talk to God about it as well!”

All the best, and I hope to see most of you up in Scotland.

http://lordrich.com/archives/2005/06/25/come-to-scotland-2/

http://lordrich.com

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:54

Plans were circulated to make human-chain blockades more effective with the use of "lock-on tubes" made from metal, plastic and cardboard. Activists first push their arms down the tubes and then lock their hands together using clips (karabiners) used by climbers. The police then find it difficult to move protestors individually as they have in the past. Tube workshops have been set up in Edinburgh and Glasgow to prepare for the events ahead.

Many discussions also centred on the so-called "convergence space" which will become the anarchist group's strike base within easy reach of Gleneagles. A site, being called an "eco-village" and housing up to 5,000 protestors, was approved by Stirling Council on Friday. It is from the solar-powered camp that protest leaders will initiate and co-ordinate direct actions.

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:58

D'you know why I am riding to Scotland?

Our 8 most hated dicta-leaders will meet there to discuss how to maintain their economic system. This is the G8.

I ride against them.
I ride because I am sick of their system, their economy, their wars.
I ride against all forms of oppression, I ride against exploitation.
I ride against capitalism and the consumerist culture. Capitalism kills everything and changes it into dead profit. Cars are one of the most typical examples.
So I ride against the killer-car culture, I ride our bikes to show a realistic, clean and safe means of transportation-The best one.

I ride up to the g8 to express our distrust of these 8 tyrants. We know that their agenda is opposed to ours, whatever they may pretend. We know that whatever its face, capitalism is opposed to freedom.

I ride for freedom.
I ride for love.
I ride for peace.
I ride for the earth
I ride for justice.
I ride for life.
I ride for fun.

In short, I ride for revolution.

http://g8bikeride.blogspot.com/2005/06/rant-dyou-know-why-i-am-riding.html

G8 Bike Ride Blog
http://g8bikeride.blogspot.com

by redjade Mon Jun 27, 2005 00:07

A blog just on his Mail Art adventures...

http://latuff.blogspot.com/

LaTuff's own art archived at
http://latuff2.deviantart.com/

by redjade Mon Jun 27, 2005 00:51

ya know, you just can't make sh*t like this up....

-- --

Fireworks Likely When NASA Blows Up Comet
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050626/D8AVHLEO0.html

Not all dazzling fireworks displays will be on Earth this Independence Day. NASA hopes to shoot off its own celestial sparks in an audacious mission that will blast a stadium-sized hole in a comet half the size of Manhattan. It would give astronomers their first peek at the inside of one of these heavenly bodies.

If all goes as planned, the Deep Impact spacecraft will release a wine barrel-sized probe on a suicide journey, hurtling toward the comet Tempel 1 - about 80 million miles away from Earth at the time of impact.

[....]

The collision is expected to occur around 1:52 a.m. EDT when the comet, traveling through space at 6 miles per second, runs over the impactor, which will be shooting some of the most close-up pictures of Tempel 1 up until its death.

Grammier has likened it to standing in the middle of the road and being hit by a semi-truck going 23,000 mph - "you know, just bam!"

by redjade Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:22

'Thy are particularly concerned that the EU seems to be putting pressure on the UK not to go soft on EPAs. The debate here is many times more sopghisticated and focused on realpolitik than most sympathisers of MPH realise. "We've got the US with Agora, the EU with EPAs: nobody puts the iterests of the Africans at heart - everything is decided above our heads." says one speaker. Posted via mobile.'

http://paulmason.typepad.com/newsnig8t/2005/06/trade_is_the_is.html

by redjade Mon Jun 27, 2005 15:19

When White Band Spells White Feather
- How Glo-Bono-Phonies and Trojan Horse NGOs Sabotage the Struggle Against Neoliberalism
June 17, 2005
By PATRICK BOND, DENNIS BRUTUS and VIRGINIA SETSHEDI

After all, the danger of NGO-lubricated ideological alignment with the neoliberal forces is serious. At a time men like Jeffrey Sachs are celebrated as saviours of the world's poor ­ for example, in a Bono song dedication at last month's big New York City concert - a deeper critique of markets and the NGOs which legitimate them is desperately needed.

Bono in particular has been obsequious. At the last New Labour party convention, Bono labeled Blair/Brown the 'Lennon and McCartney of poverty reduction'. According to Quarmby, 'some groups involved in Make Poverty History were horrified. John Hilary, director of campaigns and policy at War on Want, was in the audience. "When Bono said that, many NGO leaders who were there put their heads in their hands and groaned It's a killer blow for us. To see the smiles on the faces of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair! This is exactly what they want - they want people to believe that this is their crusade, without actually changing their policy."'

[....]

Bauble, or Noose?

What, then, should be done in coming weeks, especially on July 2 in Edinburgh? As Naomi Klein suggested at a University of KwaZulu-Natal anti-corporate conference on June 10, 'A million people are going to Edinburgh and joining hands, wearing white, in a circle around the entire city, and it's going to be one big, giant bracelet. Everyone will wear bracelets, and then they'll be a bracelet. Are you excited about this? I always had concerns that some of these big corporate NGOs were less interested in contesting power than acting as accessories to power. But being a giant bracelet for the G8 takes this a little too far.'

Instead, suggested Klein, 'Encircle the G8! But instead of declaring themselves a piece of jewelry, they should say, we are a noose, we are putting pressure and we are squeezing these neoliberal policies that are taking lives around the world. Just like the noose that killed Ken Saro-Wiwa ten years ago this November.'

That is indeed the choice: to be a bauble for ­ or a noose against ­ neoliberalism. By joining those active across the Third World in concrete struggles Northerners can offer real, lasting solidarity.

read the whole thing at
http://www.counterpunch.com/bond06172005.html

by redjade Mon Jun 27, 2005 15:31

''Anyone else as fascinated as I am with this strange environment, with its Famous Five codenames, bizarre flame wars, the strange groupuscules which seem to exist nowhere else, the full flowering of unhinged paranoia and an all-embracing indulgence towards some pet causes of the modern fringe....''

Read more w/ comments
http://www.freedominst.org/2005/06/indymedia-ate-my-hamster.html

by piscesinphoenix Tue Jun 28, 2005 17:01

Are they nuts? They don't have any idea what may occur after they blow it up. Like big chunks shooting off all over the place randomly hitting other solid bodies - like Earth! They've all got their piddly calculators humming figuring trajectories and such but there's always room for error. These brainiacs are playing games with something they don't understand. I hope they can't launch. Pray.

by redjade Tue Jun 28, 2005 17:26

Urgent call out - July 2nd Edinburgh:
“Make Poverty Worse”.
http://www.beyondtv.org/nato/make_poverty_worse.htm

CRAP (Capitalism Represents Acceptable Policy), the World's fastest growing pro-capitalist organisation, cordially invite you to help “Make Poverty Worse”, in Edinburgh on July 2nd in what will be our largest and most powerful mobilisation to date. We, the silent majority, will march in opposition to, and defiance of, all those green do-goody left-wingers, bicycle-loving beatniks, and past-it 'never-were that-good even in their heyday' aging rockers, on the same day that they march in their vague and pathetic attempt to make the world a bit fairer.

We will march in celebration of globalised economic capitalism, in support of increasing the poorest countries' debt, in support of privatising absolutely everything and more unbalanced trade rules, and to encourage the invading of other resource-rich countries to strengthen our economy and bolster our shares. We must tell our heroic leaders: “ignore them...they are badly-dressed and smell.... listen to us: you have been doing exactly the right thing all along...we just need more of it!”.

CRAP (Capitalism Represents Acceptable Policy)

by redjade Tue Jun 28, 2005 23:21

Josh Brown, spokesman for protest group G8 Alternatives, said: "No matter what happens, there will be thousands of people who go to Gleneagles. We want to take responsibility for having organised events on the day. If John Vine invites us to march past the gates, we would definitely welcome that. We will continue to apply pressure on the authorities to be able to march past Gleneagles.

"If there is not an organised march then people will end up going there in an unorganised fashion. What we are saying is, it's in the interests of the police as well as the global peace movement that the march is organised. We want the day to go smoothly. We want people to look back and say that was the day people in Scotland took a historic step towards alleviating poverty."

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=449&id=661132005

http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk

by Paul Mason Sat Jul 02, 2005 14:55

"I am at the press conference on the Meadow in Edinburgh. 9am. The first two speakers, Kumi Naidoo and Walden Bello, have both ripped into the G8, and in particular Tony Blair, over the Iraq war. Clearly if there is a script to be nice to Tony Blair, nobody is sticking to it. There are about 60 hacks here. It look like, for now it is the "pink bloc" of journalists that has turned out: the "fluffies" who actually know what the activists are on about. No sign yet of the teeth and hairspray that signals the presence of American TV news networks. In the portaloos there are posters educating you about faeces-borne diseases in Africa. But no loo paper or soap, or water. Its not a bad way of focusing minds! A big flurry now. Baaba Maal has turned up. More later.


"

by Stubbs from Wire Sat Jul 02, 2005 15:31

"Apart from the reams of has-beens and rock icons turned cabaret acts, there are the present-day brigade such as Coldplay and Dido, whose hugely popular yet unthreatening music signifies rock's decline into corporate functionalism. These people will not solve the problem. They are the problem. "

by James R Sat Jul 02, 2005 15:45

"Today, leaving the riotous sounds of the Infernal Noise Brigade amid the leftist speeches and liberal catcalls of the initial Make Poverty History meet-up at the Meadows, the black bloc of the larger anti-capitalist bloc that had earlier left Edinburgh Student's Union began a spontaneous march from the Meadows.
Leaving the park from a Northern gate, the bloc, numbering something in the region of 300 began to march towards the University campus. Blocked off by police, and, failing to push through police lines, the bloc retreated down a side alley and began to advance up a parallel road.
This was to be repeated a number of times, with panicked police retreating up roads only to be reinforced by a few vanloads of police and secure the road. Throughout all this the protestors maintained an incredible cohesion as a bloc, moving steadily (perhaps at times too steadily) and with great solidarity.
However, the cops finally outmaneavered us. As we advanced down an alley, the police baton charged around the corner, and drove us back into a more passive line forming behind us. Now trapped, a number began to seek routes of escape, and a few - perhaps, by now, many - legged it up an alley and out onto the main road.

Reports are now coming in that the bloc has moved to Home Park Square.

--Updates as the action progresses."

The above is from UK Indymedia.

Reports have come from some of the Irish Medics on the bloc that pepper spray was used.

by redjade Sat Jul 02, 2005 16:35

from Project Steev:

....I was reading a BBC article about Live 8, and thinking back to Live Aid (I was 15 at the time - just think, a lot of young activists and music fans today weren't even born yet), and I was also thinking of the first album of one of my favorite bands, Chumbawamba. The album came out in 1986 , shortly after Live Aid, and was called Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records. It was a concept album criticising Live Aid, Bob Geldof's first global guilt gala that featured dozens of pop stars from around the global north singing "We are the world" and was the predecessor of Live 8. (Of course back then I was nowhere near "aware" enough to offer an analysis of culture and geopolitics like that of Chumbawamba - I had still 5 years or so to go in 1986 before I even found out about them. At the time I did have contempt for most of the bands playing at Live Aid, but only on aesthetic grounds, though I cheered for Peter Gabriel and wept as I watched him on TV sing his song about murdered, black, South African activist Stephen Biko. Admitedly I still have great artistic and political respect for Gabriel, but that doesn't change the point that I'm trying to make here.)

Because it's still so true and so relevant today, I've uploaded an mp3 of the first song on that Chumbawamba album, "How To Get Your Band On Television". Some of the excellent lyrics:

David Bowie - The Price Is Right!
A suitful of compassion and a gobful of shite
Still the voices of those who doubt
Coca-Cola for the peasants to end this drought

Jagger and Richards - Game For A Laugh!
Dancing us down the garden path
To a place where money grows on trees
Where cocaine habits are financed by hunger & disease

(Ask the puppet-masters who pull the strings
"Who makes the money when the puppets sing?"
Ask the corporations "Where does the money go?"
Ask the empty bellied children "What are we singing for?")

Read more, click the links to Chumba .mp3 and more at
http://detritus.net/steev/mt/archives/000403.html

-- - --- ---

• Image from:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/igorclark/22582635/

more by Igor Clark at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/igorclark/

'taped to a bus stop on Shoreditch High Street, just up from Bishopsgate which is bang in the centre of the City of London.'

by redjade Sat Jul 02, 2005 17:21

There have been a thousand frustrating moments and a million irritations, but right now I’m just enjoying the satisfaction of seeing this all come together. There’s a hundred times I’ve asked myself, “Why do I put up with this?’ The answer is the sheer beauty of seeing how this work happens when it happens well: everyone working together for the sheer joy of it, everyone looking for what contribution they can make, what job they can do. For every job, however grueling or hard—carrying heavy boards or staffing the gate at 3 AM, there’s a willing volunteer. There are people who hold more information and help figure out what to do—Elanor takes on the job of coordinating jobs, for example. If we need workers for something, we tell her. If someone wants to help out, they ask her. But there is no one issuing orders or telling people what to do, no coercion, no bosses. And so, where only a week ago we finally got permission to use the site, today we have a small city in progress that seems to spring magically into being.

above text from
http://www.starhawk.org

by redjade Sat Jul 02, 2005 19:41

the brighton to edinburgh G8 critical mass ride enters Edinburgh late last night...

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315490.html

by redjade Sat Jul 02, 2005 19:45

go to....
http://scotland.indymedia.org
(not .org.uk, eh?)

by redjade Sat Jul 02, 2005 21:17

When I logged onto Flickr, I discovered the thousands of images already tagged as Live 8 on Flickr. This is an amazing event to watch. You can see the stages on live television and watch the static images, blog posts, and cross-talk percolating across Technorati. The overall impact--millions of people who care about stopping needless deaths in Africa--has to resonate to leaders meeting in the G8 summit. Closer to home, people like Brian Lenihan should be put on notice that the Irish people will have none of his slipping agendas. Let's put Irish tax money that the people committed towards relief for lesser countries. Slipping the commitment is not tolerable.

http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2005/07/live_8_moment.html

•Flickr's live8 tag photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/live8/

by redjade Sat Jul 02, 2005 21:29

“We’re not looking for charity, we are looking for Justice” – Bono

from
http://redmum.blogspot.com/2005/07/make-poverty-history-live8.html

by G8MPHLIVE8 Sat Jul 02, 2005 22:54

Look, I know it's not the solution. I don't know WHAT the solution is.
But I just turned on VH1 15 minutes ago and I've been sobbing ever since. With joy AND sorrow.
Madonna is doing her thing right now. I don't care what you think of these artists on a day-to-day basis, or IF you think of them at all. I don't, usually.
But, GOD, I'm just so overcome right now -- look at all those people. They watched that video of the starving, dying children. Even if they only came because it's an EVENT, because they could see U2 and Madonna and all the rest of them -- CHRIST, they SAW that video. They SAW that beautiful girl, and the picture of what she looked like 20 years ago.
I am moved beyond expression.


Diaries :: Maryscott OConnor's diary :: ::

Coldplay... all of them -- yeah, it's publicity. But these people care -- just like you and I do.

by G8MPHLIVE8 Sat Jul 02, 2005 23:30

.

by redjade Sat Jul 02, 2005 23:48

Saturn's vast and majestic ring system has its own atmosphere - separate from that of the planet itself, according to data from the Cassini spacecraft.

And Saturn is rotating seven minutes more slowly than when probes measured its spin in the 70s and 80s - an observation experts cannot yet explain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4640641.stm

Saturn rotating slower?

by interpreter of blogs too. - very valuable. blog the madra Sun Jul 03, 2005 00:46

G8: (AGI) - Rome, Italy, Jun. 14 - Francesco Caruso, leader of the so called Disobedient a no-global group, speaking about the next G8 summit in Scotland said that only a few militants would leave from Italy to join protesters. He said that they would be a few dozens and would organize by themselves. Caruso replied to the alert that came from the UK where newspapers spoke of thousands arrests scheduled for the demonstrations linked to the G8 summit. Caruso said that it was a disquieting remake of Genoa G8. "We feared German Black-bloc and British journalists speak with fear of Italian demonstrators" he said. He said that his movement, on July 5 and 6 would be in Strasburg for a hearing at the EU Parliament about the criminalization of civil disobedience movements with Nunzio D'Erme and Guido Lutrario. Protest demonstrations against the G8 summit are many. The first one is scheduled on July 2 in Edinburgh with the great march of the counter-summit. Heidi Giuliani, the mother of Carlo the young man killed in Genoa during the clashes linked to the G8, should take part into it. On July 4 there will be the block of a nuclear plant and on June 5 the visit to a receipt centre for immigrates. On July, 6 the day the summit begins, there will be road blocks to stop the logistic system in Gleneagles from food to interpreters.
***************
Amnesty international have joined the voices for a complete investigation into the Italian Judicial actions during the G8 in Genoa.
***************
This week will see NASA attempt to make the second solar system orbital body close contact since ESA did Saturn and we got the tsunami, when they "land on" a comet and blast it with the death ray to see what happèns.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
***************
No children died from communicable diseases such as typhoid, cholera or measles in the aftermath of the tsunami, perhaps due to the unusually high global interest in their suffering.
***************
Canada has pledged 560million dollars in aid to africa over the next five, ahead of the G8, a canadian dollar is about 67€cents. Africa "needs" 25billion american dollars (about 30bil canadian) a year.
***************
The second day of the G8 conference shall see the justice representatives of the 8 member states, Japan, Italy, France, Russia, Germany, Canada, USA, UK chat with the EU over judgering.
***************
Gleneagles® Hotel does not pose a problem for disabled guests, and 5 of its 269 luxuriously decorated bedrooms are wheelchair friendly. So if the guiding mutant ancient one does turn up to offer his hind quarters for a kiss...

by G8MPHLIVE8 Sun Jul 03, 2005 15:31

Am I the only one that feels that the politics of G8 got somewhat lost yesterday? When even Gordon Brown said he wanted to join the Make Poverty History Demo then does it have any meaning? To some extent its like saying we all need love - yes but where does this take us? The Live 8 music overshadowed the months of work for the Edinburgh Demo and this will occur again on Wednesday. Today in Edinburgh is the Alternative Summit and lets hope that some real politics ans issues are debated and discussed.

by G8MPHLIVE8 Sun Jul 03, 2005 15:44

Yet there was drama, of an epic sort. To squeeze 200,000 through the stone streets of Edinburgh you have to basically swamp it. Edinburgh was inundated by the mass base of the centre-left. I am not talking about 25-year-old policy wonks in ill-fitting suits, but the progressive salariat of the UK. They came on planes, trains and automobiles and they are incredibly knowledgeable and engaged in the issues at stake.

To generalise, I would say what divides the crowd from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is this: a) Iraq – they still hate the war b) Conditionality – they can see that only a few poor countries are getting debt relief, and then only on IMF conditions c) Trade: they all believe that whatever is given this week in aid and debt relief will be deftly removed in December, at the WTO.

This, in summary, is what I call “the NGO agenda” and I have heard it from the mouths of young Scottish lads with a beer can in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. It is not hard to grasp and it is deeply held. Now it is also true that Blair is the closest to the NGO agenda within the G8.

So that reduces the rest of the week to three bullet points:

* Can Blair deliver a sufficient amount of aid and debt money to satisfy the NGOs?
* Can he deliver a philosophical statement distancing the G8 from the structural adjustment years and aggressive trade liberalisation, which then unleashes a reform process at the IMF/World Bank?
* If not, can Blair be so publicly critical of the USA and German governments that he comes out looking like a hero?

Text From: Paul Mason Blog
http://paulmason.typepad.com/newsnig8t/2005/07/2_julywhat_it_m.html#more

Image From: Inside The Capitalist Pen
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315740.html

by redjade Sun Jul 03, 2005 15:47

2 July...what it means, maybe

An extended first take on today in Edinburgh. Apologies for any typos and fuzzy logic. It is 1am and I am flying solo…

At 220,000 it was double the size of any demonstration that has ever taken place in Scotland. And yes, thanks to globalisation there were African farmers, Spanish anarchists and even English people on it… but the top-line figure is significant. Where I was standing at the end, at the front of the stage around 6.30pm, with Billy Bragg on stage and a Lothian sirocco whipping up discarded leaflets, it was obvious that the demo was heavily Scots. The sheer prevalence of Tennants cans among those gently swaying to the reggae-and-revolt music told you there were very many young Scottish people on the march...

There were people doing dance styles I never knew existed. Indeed I think they did not know the styles existed until a few moments before they started dancing. It was a crowd of bare midriffs, tattoos, nose studs, lager cans, middle aged public servants, ambiguous sexuality: in other words it was as stereotypically working class and British as the day shift at the Govan shipyard 40 years ago.

by redjade Sun Jul 03, 2005 16:45

Saturday, June 11, 2005
Sheffield G8 Events :: Pictures so far.

These are a sample of my 'stills', taken at events on the Saturday 11th June that I'm contributing to the Sheffield G8 Film.

Sheffield 'Stop the War' March [anti-G8] :: The Pictures
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/313288.html
Sheffield Peace in the Park [anti-G8] :: The Pictures
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/313309.html

find more at
http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/

by gnner Sun Jul 03, 2005 18:05

In the ‘80s, it seemed to me that there was a certain sense of innocence to the concerts. The fans were children of the late sixties, and probably more than a few had parents who were active in protests, and civil rights issues. Those memories were still quite alive in their minds. This was their generation, and they needed something to fight for.
The concerts themselves recieved media attention like nothing else, besides maybe Woodstock. All of these musicians taking time out from their busy schedules to donate their talents to such a worthy cause? Commendable.
Today, that image is tarnished. We know what a sham the music business is, and 90% of the trash that big music tosses onto the shelves isn’t even worth wiping your ass with. Big concerts are just that. Big concerts. There’s no mystery anymore to 100,000 people getting together to see a show. It happens just about every other week. The press coverage this time around has been so far, non existant.
And the people that are there; taking pictures with their cellphones made in sweatshops in Taiwan, their designer clothes (made to look worn out) purchased from companies that continue to promote outsourcing to low wage countries, and their knowledge of human rights issues probably limited to “Free Mumia”, if not completely absent.
When these gigs end, the bands will go on their merry way, and the fans will go back to shopping at the GAP, gossiping on who Lindsay Lohan is dating, and more or less becoming part of the great western marketing machine that is the root cause of some of the poverty in this world.

by eeekkk Sun Jul 03, 2005 19:17

Here: http://www.raisedvoices.net/
Found Via: http://www.commonbits.org

by eeekkkk Sun Jul 03, 2005 23:32

Extract:

He told the audience of around 400 activists: “We must be militant, not mellow. We need to lay bodies on the line to stop this monster. The World Trade Organisation is like a vampire – its gets back up again and again, until you finally drive a stake through its heart."

Turning his fire on the British government, he warned the crowd: "Never underestimate the Blair administration’s ability to put a spin on things.”

Professor Bello called the agreement on debt relief at the G7 finance ministers’ meeting in London last month “a real putsch” for not mentioning the terms of conditionality attached, for not mentioning it only applied to 18 of the world’s poorest nations, and for not mentioning trade justice at all.

by eeekkkk Sun Jul 03, 2005 23:39

Extract:

gorgeous_george: "It's no accident that Blair has chosen Africa, where there is no ideological opposition," he says. "He is not talking about poverty in the Muslim world, not talking about Latin America because people are rising in revolution. The people of Bolivia have given their answer to the G8."

Extracts From Comments on Galloway thread:

In terms of information theory it is very difficult, almost impossible to describe how hyperreality shapes our perception. That's why it has been so bloody successfull and it will remain successfull for the foreseeable future and, importantly , despite it's failures on the ground. This because it has, and needs, no connection to physical reality. Indeed to the extent physical reality intrudes into the datasphere it simply muddies things up, revealing inconvient "facts" that must be refuted via mathematical constructions, like epicycles in a ptolemaic solar system.
Manufactured consent is the way dynamically we are lead to believe untruths but that must be applied to some ongoing question, Where power, or will comes in, is having the ability to set the terms of conversation. The datasphere rewards those who can do so. It's like viral marketing, if you can find the catalytic concept, the system itself will do the rest of the work,
As the old show biz joke joke goes "Enough talk about me, what do *you* think of my latest?"

We feel let down by the media coverage of the Edinburgh march. The Obsever in Scotland relegated the biggest demonstration in Scottish history to page 7 (after an analysis of how good the bands were in Hyde Park). Maybe they were misled about the importance of yesterday by their own absurd figure of 125,000 marchers. With over a quarter of a million marchers in Edinburgh, the Make Poverty History march was the largest action in Britain yesterday against global poverty. The biased coverage of Live 8 left many people appalled at the media bias towards celebrity. And it wasn't just the Observer who are the guilty ones. We feel let down by speakers yesterday (including Nelson Mandela) who made vague statements about humans being able to end poverty whilst failing to highlight that the very methods by which aid is distributed and the concentrated power of the G8 are part of the problem. And how can Bob Geldof be a champion of Africa when he endorses a plan to drop the debt which is riddled with conditions concerning trade liberalisation and privatisation? George Monbiot summed this up by a plea to activists to distinguish ourselves from the likes of the Daily Mail and Development Secretary Hilary Benn by not only highlighting the things which we are for, but by making known the power structures which we are against!

By the way your holiness Diva Bob, the reason live aid had a measure of success was because it was, ultimately, a charity gig. What was this? What was the message? How was awareness raised? I am no more aware than I was before the concert... I don't know exactly what you were trying to say? You DILUTED the message.. contributed to desensitisation and there were elements of the gig that were positively decadent. By banning any righteous anger all you did was engage in the "pornography of poverty" as you put it yourself... "oh look at the poor people.. how terrible... now let's ROCK!!!"

The whole point of protest, Steve, is confronting power, not licking its balls.

by redjade Mon Jul 04, 2005 15:16

July 04, 2005
I feel this may go on a little while now. The black bloc have formed a line between the dancers and the police.Some are unmsking and doing a surly hanseatic jig. It is all bit like a scene from Breughel. >>Filed from my P910i

http://paulmason.typepad.com/newsnig8t/2005/07/tense_standoff_.html

by redjade Mon Jul 04, 2005 16:45

http://live8.technorati.com/

by redjade Mon Jul 04, 2005 16:52

June 28, 2005
Live Aid? Please!

Rosy pictures of children in Darfur gratefully accepting food from their benevolent benefactors sends little ecstatic shivers up and down suited forms. The thought of influencing millions of lives using their stardom leaves the constituents of the Hollywood constellation giddy with glee.

Personally I find it laughable watching a knighted man with a good dinner in his belly and the remnants of the said dinner at his elbow addressing the press from a plush, six star hotel in his passionate and very genuine belief that he can strike the blow that will end world poverty.

I find it even more ludicrous to see grinning Prime Ministers, treating us to displays of constellations of 76 assorted incisors, canines, molars, premolars and post molars, shaking hands before flashing bulbs while bemoaning the proliferation of small and large arms in Africa after just coming from superintending loading of consignments of machine pistols, rifles and land mines to Somalia, Sudan and Congo (via DHL of course).

more at
http://thinkersroom.blogspot.com/2005/06/live-aid-please.html

- - - - - -

more...

Roundup: Africans on Live 8
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/?p=263

by redjade Mon Jul 04, 2005 17:13

I listened in on a conference call about Live 8 for bloggers and I've been reading about the attempts to make it a blog cause. But something bothered me about this, too: Bloggers were offered a chance to cover the concerts but there were conditions: They had to sign the pledge and advertise the concert. But will they require The Washington Post to sign the pledge and promote the concerts before being allowed in to cover them? If not, why should bloggers be treated differently from other media? Doesn't this just guarantee that blog coverage will be sympathetic? Is it sufficient that the bloggers' views on this will be as transparent as the Live 8 badges on their sites? Or is the promise of backstage access an attempt to influence their views?

I'm not trying to dismiss Live 8 or the blogging efforts and certainly applaud the motives. But it's good to see that the strategy is open for questioning.

by h Mon Jul 04, 2005 17:24

Yet before such techniques become habitual, it might be possible to note that the ‘protest permit’ is, at core, the threat by the police to use violence against that - whatever ‘that’ might be at any given moment - which is not ‘permitted’. It is not a threat of arrest for conduct defined in any other law. One is not permitted to do this, at this place, today. It does not have the usual temporal demeanour of law, as the deployment of punitive measures after the act. It is future-oriented. One can walk along this street today, but not tomorrow. It is an a priori, mobile threat of violence against potentiality. Which is to also to say, but with no guarantees, that potentiality is that which exceeds.


lots of quotes on sky news and bcc from police saying

they did not discuss events with us

no permission sought...

as reason for heavy crackdown

by h Mon Jul 04, 2005 17:51

from getty

by Me Mon Jul 04, 2005 18:10

There's one copper there in several pictures who looks like he's taken more than the recommended dose of pro-plus.

by redjade Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:01

http://tinyurl.com/dbjna

by redjade Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:23

Make pathetic aging pop stars history
http://amsam.org/2005/07/make-pathetic-aging-pop-stars-history.html
This was one weekend I was damned glad I'm no longer living in Philadelphia. The Fourth of July weekend is normally pretty bad there anyway, what with the usual summer swelter and the extra crush of tourists come to see the Liberty Bell. Add in the Live 8 concert and you've got a recipe for sheer hell.

Mocking the pretensions of Live 8 is like shooting fish in a barrel. The empty bombast is perfectly summed up by Madonna's query to the assembled throng in London: "Are you fuckers ready to start a revolution?" Yes, Madge, we are. And when we do, we'll burn down your little castle and stick your bullshit-spouting head on a pike.

by redjade Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:50

Mainstream coverage has been poor to say the least. Apparently, "the" Black Bloc (capital letters) is "an anarchist group based in Germany and Scandinavia." Huh? Can any journalist take ten minutes to research the topic he or she is supposed to be writing about anymore? Jesus fucking christ. I read an article in The Scotsman which was just amazingly horrible, and which I refuse to offer a link to.

by eeekkkk Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:51

Listen to what happened when anarchist protesters attempted to challenge capitalism using drums and cymbals; the police challenged them right back with sirens and helicopters. The resulting soundtrack begs to be remixed as ambient trance.

by Frontliner Tue Jul 05, 2005 16:12

A protest to coincide with the G8 summit is taking place outside Scotland's immigration removal centre.

Several hundred people are at the Dungavel Centre in South Lanarkshire which they say should be closed.

The Home Office has emptied the centre of detainees for the duration of the G8 summit. Police said they had a "robust" plan to deal with the protest.

Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie was charged by police after refusing to allow police to search her handbag.

Elsewhere, Friends of the Earth (FoE) will protest at BP's Grangemouth refinery over climate change.

In Edinburgh, three campaigners from the World Development Movement have chained themselves to the top of a 150ft crane above Waverley Station.

The trio from Brighton said the protest was to highlight the "hypocrisy" of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's stance towards the Third World.

Paul Hutchings, speaking from the top of the crane by mobile phone, he said: "We have hung out a huge banner stating 'no more Brownwash'."

The Dungavel protest, called Voices Across Barriers, is effectively playing to an empty house as the Home Office has evacuated the site of its staff and 38 detainees for the duration of the G8 summit in Scotland. They are not set to return until next week.

G8 Alternatives is specifically calling for the government to close Dungavel permanently.

Spokesman Mark Brown, who also works for the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, said: "In terms of the G8 we have made it quite clear that if it was a body which stood for people around the world then it would bring an end to borders and allow the free movement of people.

"Instead, it only allows the free movement of capital around the globe which has only one aim - to make money.

Policing plan

"We feel the G8 should stop policing borders and tear them down and bring about the closure of places like Dungavel and every other detention centre for good.

"We do not see how the British Government can justify the detention of asylum seekers."

Pam Currie, 29, from Glasgow, said: "I have been involved in the other G8 protests but I particularly wanted to come here today because I think Dungavel is a blight on the Scottish landscape.

"It is a disgrace that in the 21st century people are locked up without having committed any crime or having had a trial."

She said it took her three-and-a-half hours to reach Dungavel from Glasgow because of police roadblocks and road closures.

"They did not seem to be for any other reason than to put people off travelling to Dungavel. I have been on protests here in the past and it has always been peaceful.

"I think the police presence is deliberately putting people off and saying it is not safe to come here and bring your children."

'Solidarity with detainees'

Ann Kobayashi, 64, from Essex, said: "I came here to express solidarity with detainees everywhere not just in Scotland. People who are fleeing persecution in their countries of origin do not need to be locked up when they arrive in a country which they see as a refuge."

Superintendent Tom Porter, of Strathclyde Police, said the force had "robust and appropriate" staffing plans in place for the protest.

"We have been in close contact with the organisers, our partner agencies, including the local authority and communities in the surrounding areas," he said.

"During our discussions with organisers they have reassured us it will be peaceful and we are confident that people will behave themselves and make their lawful protest.

"I want to reassure local people that our number one priority is the safety of our communities, the demonstrators and my officers."

Ms Leckie, SSP MSP for Central Scotland, said: "Yet again we see totally over the top and heavy-handed policing.

"Quite what they expected to find in the way of weapons in my handbag I don't know.

"I regard it as an infringement of my civil liberties and of all those who the police searched without a shred of evidence that we were anything other than entirely peaceful demonstrators."

by redjade Tue Jul 05, 2005 17:16

The music played at the Live 8 concerts was, to a large degree, a distraction.

At the same as Dido, Travis, et al were playing in London, people were marching on the streets of Edinburgh. This is certainly preferable to standing in a field listening to the alpha males of popular culture, it has become such a common protest technique as to be almost pedestrian. The largest protest ever seen in the history of the United Kingdom was the march on London against the Iraq war. It made no difference at all to policy.

I wish I could offer an alternative but I can't. All I know is that it involves utilising the power of small world, peer to peer networks in society. The top-down approach of having a politician or a rock star pontificate to the masses no longer works. We need a many to many, rather than a one to many, relationship.

http://adactio.com/journal/display.php/20050703130705.xml
. . .

That was Live 8

I'm afraid the whole day has left me feeling quite depressed and cynical about popular music. I'm trying not to let that cynicism bleed into my thoughts on the political agenda of Live 8. It's tough though: I know the concerts were supposed to raise awareness of very important issues, which is admirable. But my awareness of the political situation was already in place before going to Hyde Park. Now it's coupled with an awareness of just how crap most popular music is these days.

Ah, well. I'm sure it came across a lot better on telly.

I've put together a Flickr photoset ( http://flickr.com/photos/adactio/sets/532885/ ) which captures my impressions of the day in the park.

http://adactio.com/journal/display.php/20050703010940.xml

by S.A.S(Special Arse Service) Wed Jul 06, 2005 10:48

US troops stormed into Iraq to forcibly liberate some shoeless camel herders from their oil.....

now they're storming into Scotterland, to show bolshi Scottish babarians (who'eve been oppressing the English ruling class elite for centuries) just who's king of the castle.
US helicopter gunships are being deployed in Scotterland, after intelligence chiefs consultated with President Bush, during which Mr Bush was shown a secret screening of the horror epic 'Braveheart', which depicts mass insurrection by marauding scottish savages who cruelly challenge their English superiors at every opportunity.
That and the fact that Mr Bush has an intense hatred of Clowns and people enjoying themselves.

Mr Blair agreed to the US invasion of Scotterland, after defence chiefs and UN weapons inspectors produced a secret dossier alleging the Clown army had developed weapons of mass enjoyment ( such as enormous tickle sticks, extra large custard pies and big buckets of slime) .

Intelligence agencies who are paid thousands out of tax payers purse, have uncovered a plot by the Clown army, (detailed in their website) to herd/coral 8 of the most dangerous people on this planet, and confine them behind 8ft high barbed/razor wire fences, where they would be subjected to continuous ridicule and slapstick assault, but luckily for the Clown army Tony Blair has saved the Clown army this trouble, and confined himself and 7 of the other most dangerous people on earth, behind barbed/razor wire fences in Gleneagles.

by redjade Wed Jul 06, 2005 15:29

Make looting history
Firoze Manji

Some 110 years ago, in 1894-95,, European governments met in Berlin to 'negotiate' the carving up of Africa - a meeting that in essence was very little different to this week's G8 meeting in Gleneagles. Had Bob Geldof and Comic Relief been around at the time, would they have held pop concerts in Paris, London, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon etc. calling on their rulers to be nice about carving up the continent, to ensure that a few more crumbs fell off the table into the mouths of the poor while they carried out their project of occupation, colonisation, military subjugation, looting and genocidal slaughter? The very idea sounds absurd because we have the benefit of hindsight.

But why are things any different today?

read more
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=28865

by redjade Wed Jul 06, 2005 18:34

Public Poster Production

"Imprimatur," a multi-user software for poster-making, is the latest online tool for collaboration from artist Andy Deck. The software brings the design process to life, allowing multiple designers to team to democratically tweak the layout and statements of a single canvas. Anyone with a smidgeon of graphics experience will find the interface easy to use, and the product is a PDF that can be disseminated widely via email and print. In his background to the work, Deck refers to the proliferation of homemade posters in the aftermath of 9/11 and at the invasion of Iraq. He envisages "a wave of colorful, independent, and low-budget posters in public places" and sees "Imprimatur" as a means to channel energy into thoughtful public dialogue.

Save This Link!!
http://turbulence.org/Works/imprimatur/

by redjade Wed Jul 06, 2005 18:58

photos from

http://paulmason.typepad.com/

http://paulmason.typepad.com/newsnig8t/2005/07/4pm__the_march_.html
http://paulmason.typepad.com/newsnig8t/2005/07/whats_h_in_russ.html

by redjade Thu Jul 07, 2005 14:48

There was a lot of discussion between organizers and the police, because the police tried to tell us that we couldn't go to Stirling (where people were camped) or to Gleneagles for our safety. Stirling was apparently raided starting last night and from what the cops said, it was also awful this morning. The cops told us that the march had been cancelled, to which we replied, bullshit! We were determined to leave. The cops tried to stop a bus from leaving, but it got out. Our bus turned on its engine and the people from the sidewalk streamed into the street for an angry confrontation with the cops. The police backed down and we were able to go, but it did not look like any other buses were going to be able to leave. Apparently a violent confrontation ensued and some people were beaten and shot at with something.

full report at
http://mahtin.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_mahtin_archive.html#112068523827727181

by redjade Fri Jul 08, 2005 15:30

July 07, 2005
The world changes...

In view of the events in London, the blog is temporarily suspended. I will try to do a summary of current G8 material, and yesterday, once the situation is clearer. Instinct says carry on and do justice to the G8 story: Blair says he is planning to fly back to Gleneagles. But I may get deployed elsewhere. Apologies for all the typos yesterday - hard to txt in a riot.
Regards to all. >>Filed from my P910i
http://paulmason.typepad.com/newsnig8t/2005/07/the_world_chang.html

7/7 Bombing Blogging continues...
http://paulmason.typepad.com

by redjade Fri Jul 15, 2005 16:05

By artists...
Mark Millar
http://www.millarworld.net

Sean Phillips
http://www.seanphillips.co.uk

part one
http://www.seanphillips.co.uk/p1.jpg
part two
http://www.seanphillips.co.uk/p2.jpg