* Counter-G8 International Forum opens in Hokkaido
* "The G8 is part of the problem, not the solution"
* Demonstrators continue to prepare protests and demonstrations, despite
police scaremongering
Yesterday, the Counter-G8 International Forum opened in Hokkaido and
will conclude this evening. Anti-G8 activists from Japan and across the
world have come together to strategise on how to effectively resist the
G8’s global nightmare and construct alternatives to a system in which
financial crises, food crises and ecological destruction are inherent.
Conference participants will discuss how ordinary people world-wide can
continue to build resistance and make other possible worlds a reality.
Discussion topics include precarity and labour, the commons and public
goods, autonomous media, anti-capitalism, anti-militarism and the future
of planetary organisation. Amongst the speakers are feminist political
economist Mariko Adachi, John Holloway, author of "Change the World
Without Taking Power", Michael Hardt, co-author of "Empire" and Japanese
scholars Satoshi Ukai and Minoru Iwasaki.
“The G8 exists to further the interests of capital and its rulers: the
G8 are the managers of a global machinery of violence. We only have to
look to the harrowing effects of war, detention camps for migrants and
privatisation for evidence. The G8 see poverty and global ecological
catastrophe as welcome business opportunities that make the rich even
richer. Such a logic only creates more poverty, insecurity and
ecological disaster.” Sunia Highland, a migrant rights activist from the
United States said.
"The G8 is part of the problem, not the solution", Anti-G8 protester
Mary Brookes explained.
With seven days to go before the official G8 summit begins, this week
has already seen three days of protest against the G8, starting in Kyoto
with two days of resistance to the G8 Foreign ministers’ meeting and
culminating yesterday with the Tokyo Day of Action against the G8 in
which around 700 demonstrators took part in an overly policed march
through the Shinjuku neighbourhood of central Tokyo.
Despite police scaremongering, activists continue to prepare protests
and demonstrations against the summit. A daily six hour march is planned
from the Toyoura camp to the town, and a major demonstration estimated
at 10,000 people will take place on July 5 in Sapporo.
Entry into Japan for foreigner visitors continues to be difficult.
WATCH, a lawyers network, issued a public statement condemning the
excessive harassment of people on arrival in Japan.
*Background Information*
* Counter G8-International Forum [http://www.counterg8forum.org/]
* No G8 Action Japan [http://media.sanpal.co.jp/no-g8/]
* Network of Lawyers Observing Human Rights Around the G8 Hokkaido
Summit 2008
[http://watch08summit.blogspot.com/2008/06/we-strongly-protest-against-detention.html]
* Independent media collective in Hong Kong (Chinese)
[http://www.inmediahk.net/node/1000363]
* G8 Media Network [http://g8medianetwork.org]
*Contact*
Mary Brookes +81 80-3206-5959 (in Japan)
marybrookesG8 AT gmail.com
G8 Media Network Japan, PR Unit: +81 3-3296-2720
press AT g8medianetwork.org
WATCH lawyers network, Ko Watari: +81 +427 830934
|
