VILLAGE OF ALTERNATIVE AND ANTI-CAPITALIST VISIONS [G8]
Between June 1st and June 3rd, the G8 – the assembly of the eight most powerful nations on earth – will meet in Evian, France. After the murder of Carlo Guliani in Genoa on July 2001, the G8 took the conscious decision to hold all future summits in the most isolated and inaccessible areas, with every conceivable security measure taken to assure that all democratic protest will be kept at bay.
This year the G8 will meet in Evian, France, a mountainous region in the Haute-Savoie. The G8 leaders and the leading figures of the international financial institutions (IMF, World Bank etc..) arrogantly assume the right to rule our lives according to the logic, needs and desires of Capitalism. Not one corner of the earth will be left untouched ; the market economy rule over every aspect of our lives. And the consequences for us are as predictable as ever – rising poverty, war and repression.
No Pasaran will participate in the mass protests against the G8 as one of the many anti-globalistation groups. For us it is important that the mobilisations go further than demonstrating our number in the streets : we must also open up a space in which we can hold free and open gatherings where we elaborate our ideas and alternatives. We are aware of the increasingly repressive nature of the police and military apparatus which imposes increasing difficulties on how we assemble for each counter-summit. This is why we would like to propose that we – individuals, groups and organisations from the anti-capitalist movement – seek to establish the creation of an alternative, anti-capitalist village during the G8 summit. We think it would be interesting to create a space where :
1) the autonomy afforded by such a space will allow free political expression and reflection, and, above all, the affirmation of our alternative, political propositions, where our actions result in the establishment of concrete alternatives drawn from direct and accountable democracy, self-management and acts of resistance and/or disobedience. We consider it important that this alternative space, being of the most democratic and transparent nature, becomes a place for social and political alternatives in every respect, and thus representing a space which demonstrates a break with capitalism.
2) through its autonomy, this place can become a real point of convergence for the various forms of resistance to capitalist globalisation, where there exists the possibility of expression for the different strategies and axes of resistance (and an opportunity for various individuals, groups and organisations to link together) We would like to elaborate our reflections upon two of these axes. First, the questions of social apartheid (civil liberties, social and economic insecurity). Second, the questions of international solidarity (the individual’s right to unhindered movement across the globe, North-South relations, imperialism). Other themes such as the questions of economic development, war and nationalism can also be developed, to name but a few. The discussions must be taken as an opportunity for construction and meeting point between the different elements of the anti-capitalist movement. We shall seek to have fair and equal discussions in a debate which will not be monopolised by specialists. We call on all individuals, groups and organisations to mobilise and organise themselves to participate in the mobilisation against the G8 summit, and in the realisation of this autonomous forum of free and open, alternative political expression. We propose a meeting in Lyon for January 11th 2003 which will aim to gather together all networks, trade-unions, groups, associations, organisations, etc… to discuss the propositions outlined above.
