In the Wake… After the G20

Dave Antagonism

So what happened at the G20 in Melbourne? On one hand it was business as usual. The G20 met and seemed to function as planned with both agreement and disagreement within the continual entrenchment of the capitalist global order. Predictably, despite the boosterism of groups like Make Poverty History, the G20 did nothing to ameliorate even the most horrific consequences of capitalism. Yet something happened outside: a relatively small group of protesters produced a political event, a moment on rupture that is full of possibilities and dangers. What we do now after that event, how we trace the lines of struggle that it opened up is crucial. There are both opportunities and pitfalls ahead and the telling of the tale, the reflection on our experiences and the sharing of stories is crucial. Because there is not just one version of what happened: indeed part of the power and joy experiencing something like the mobilization is being part of collective moment that has many points of origins and many experiences. In the normally daily life of capitalism we have only two views: that of the machinery of public opinion, and that of the isolated individual. In moments of upsurge something else happens. Let's find a richness and continues to enrich this.

But there are forces that work to close down the possibilities that have been opened by such an event. In this case, they are police repression, the implemented of a simulation of the events by the media, and division and recrimination amongst those that took part. It is understandable that those that have gone beyond the law want to protect themselves, it is also understandable that the power of the media is so great that even those who took part in the actions can feel disorientated by the way there own participation is reflected back on them, and in a movement that is both small and diverse, that lacks a common language of communication differences can often become divisions – especially when so much is on the line. This does not take away from how important it is to resist these things, to keep the space open, that these struggles opened and try to connect it with others and other struggles.

On The Barricades In May 1968

Karen Moller

From Swans

France was a champagne bottle ready to
explode. The student riots and the subsequent barricading of
the Latin Quarter started the necessary upheaval that shook
that country into the present.

May 1968 started like any other month but after the first
week, it was obvious that dramatic changes were in the air.
I had just finished presenting my new London fashion show to
the wholesale industry and rather than go to bed, I turned
on the radio and heard the first news of the student riots
taking place in Paris.

According to Le Monde, the trouble had begun earlier at
Nanterre, a suburban university. Since worldwide student
unrest was endemic I naturally expected the French students
to be more politicized. Instead, much of their anger
centered on their personal frustrations with university
deficiencies. When their demands were ignored by the
authorities, the students took over the Sorbonne in the
Latin Quarter (the heart of the student area) and raised
barricades. The universities in France, even more so than in
England or the United States, were sacred institutions,
almost like churches. Technically, the police had a right to
enter them, but if they did, they did so with great
discretion. Roche, the dean of the Sorbonne, had panicked
and called on the chief of police, Grimau, to clear out the
students. Grimau was careful; he knew he was not dealing
with Algerians or the poor and unemployed, where he could
get away with murder. Careful or not, the police forcing
their way into the Sorbonne had angered not only the
students, but everyone.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I telephoned Adrienne who
lived in Paris. "Shit!" she said as soon as she heard my
voice. "Right in the middle of Paris they think they can get
away with beating kids and herding them into the paddy
wagons." She urged me to come over. No need to be asked
twice! I arrived in time for the protest march held on the
tenth anniversary of de Gaulle as President. It should have
been a day of celebration for him. Instead, the city took to
the streets with factory workers, students, and ordinary
people in outrage against his government and the
heavy-handed action of the police.

Biggest victory yet over WTO and "free" trade. Celebrate it!

Olivier de Marcellus

People have been saying for some time that what the movement needs are
some real victories. But - it's a strange but frequent phenomenon - when
movements finally win them, they often go unnoticed. Partly, because
many people have already become discouraged or have moved on to new
struggles; partly because the media and dominant ideology avoid
recognising popular victories as such and partly because, within the
movement itself, a mistaken sort of pseudo-Marxism always immediately
revises history to try and show that whatever happened HAD to happen for
material, economic reasons and is somehow or another always in the
interests of capital ! For example, when we arrived in Seattle in 1999,
no one imagined that the negotiations could fail. Two weeks after, the
US Socialist Workers Party (who had totally missed the rendezvous) and
others published all kinds of subtle analyses to show that Clinton
actually wanted the WTO to fail...

Already this spring, Walden Bello pointed out a similar
paradox: for the first time since 1999, there was no mass demo in
Washington for the annual assembly of the IMF/World Bank -- precisely
when these two institutions are not only totally de-legitimised, but are
also now themselves in financial crisis! Why? Because all the oil
producing nations immediately took advantage of the rise in oil prices
to pay off their debts in advance, with the result that the IMF revenues
have already dropped by half and WB isn't doing much better (isn't
history difficult to predict!). Also, other governments have now learned
to avoid these institutions as much as possible. Chavez is even trying
to organise an alternative financial institution. And why did they do
these things? At least partly, because they have been "educated" or even
constrained by twenty years of popular struggles worldwide, to avoid the
ghastly consequences of IMF/WB neo-colonial impositions.

And now WTO too!!!

At the end of July, Pascal Lamy, director of WTO, was forced to announce
that the Doha round of negotiations was dead. A new round of
negotiations can probably not be envisaged for two years. Suddenly,
mainstream neoliberal economic experts were talking of a possible demise
of WTO in the media! For those of us who have been shouting "WTO kills,
kill WTO !" with Peoples' Global Action against WTO and "Free" Trade
since 1998 it was an amazing moment. Who would have thought that we
would make such huge progress in just eight years?