An international day of protest, action and carnival aimed at the heart of the global economy: financial and banking districts.
Seventy two places across all continents burst into action whilst theG8 leaders met under armed guard in Köln, Germany. (www.j18.org)
The proposal for a worldwide day of action
in the financial centres around the world was translated into 7 languages and distributed to over 2000 groups worldwide by post and email:
"...Wherever there is Oppression there is Resistance... A proposal has been made by various groups and movements of activistsfrom England to hold an international day of action aimed at the heart of the global economy: the financial centres, banking districtsand multinational corporation power bases. The suggested date is the18th June 1999... This proposal is made in the spirit ofstrengthening our international networks and follows from the successof co-ordinated global action during May 16-20th 1998. Theseevents coincided with the G8 meeting in Birmingham, Great Britain,and the second ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation inGeneva, Switzerland... Next year between the 18th - 20th June the G8will meet in Koln, Germany... Each event would be organisedautonomously and co-ordinated in each city or financial district by avariety of movements and groups. It is hoped that a whole range ofgroups will take part including workers, peasants, indigenous people,women, students, the landless, environmentalists, unemployed andothers... everyone who recognises that the global capitalist system,based on the exploitation of people and the planet for the profit ofa few, is at the root of our social and ecological troubles... OUR RESISTANCE WILL BE AS TRANSNATIONAL AS CAPITAL!"
As the proposal weaved its way through the world's communication systems, enthusiasm for the day began to gain momentum. Inspired by the possibilities which lay within the simultaneous occupation of theworld's primary financial districts, and ever conscious of the newconnections and understandings we were beginning to make, the dayfinally arrived...
London Actions:
30,000 copies of a spoof newspaper 'Evading Standards' were handed out to explain the J18 events, analyse capitalism and provide visions of a brighter future. At 00.01 on J18 the action began when the London Metal Exchange was paint-bombed. Then in the early hoursof the morning Tower Bridge was closed by absailing climbers hanginga 'Life before Profit' banner. From 7.45am through to midday a 600cyclist strong Critical Mass toured The City blocking traffic. 50people barricaded London Bridge with cars, chains and a 'Stop TheCity' banner. Mid-morning saw an Animal Rights march wind through TheCity visiting animal exploiters, and CAAT the Campaign Against theArms Trade, occupy Lloyds Bank and Friends Provident for their rolesin arms exporting. The Association of Autonomous Astronauts picketedcompanies involved with the 'militarisation of space'. LondonGreenpeace picketed various McDonalds and their subsidiary Aromaduring the day. The International Solidarity with Workers in Russiagroup targeted clothing company GAP for their slave labour practices in Russia.
Carnival against Capital: London, - a personal account...
The Carnival kicks off in Liverpool St station and the drums are loud and thrilling on the marble type floor of the huge concourse. Wesnake out with the drums to a dead plaza with a McDonalds and a brazen office block of the Thatcher era. The drum beat is thrilling, mountaineers climb up the office block to do a cheekydance on the parapet, wild cheering of the Naked Protest while theofficers of the office stand looking out of the window, they the passive spectators of what is normally their undisputed territory.
I'm reading the greatspoof of the Evening Standard paper called Evading Standards that arebeing given out. One of many sharp headlines reads "The FinalAct of Enclosure". The drummers keep up the momentum. Someonegives us Green masks, this is the Gift Economy, the selfless and anonymous work that is making all this happen. The mask has apractical suggestion inside- "On the signal follow yourcolour...Let the Carnival Begin. In the station there are also Red,Black and Gold Masks. Inside the mask too is printed a web site address and a keen understanding of the mask:
"Thesein authority fear the mask for their power partly resides in identifying, stamping and cataloguing: in knowing who YOU are... Thewearing of a mask symbolises the rejection of the cult of personalityso crucial to consumer capitalism...While the elite gangs of state and capital become evermore faceless their fear of the faces of everyday resistance grows."
We are with the Greens and at the word set off away from the main crowd, a thousand of us. No leaders butmessages are passed and there is a mood of trust, the very productionof the mask and the paper speaking of the intelligence and nous ofthose who have worked to make this happen. This is a Magical Mystery Tour to be enjoyed. With whistles and drums, inviting those in theoffices to come out on the street we cross Bishopsgate and downMiddlesex Street. The cops are hardly anywhere to be seen. Somein the masks are dressed in suits. Meanwhile those in the offices andbanks have been told to dress down. More identity confusion. The suits that are in suits look strangely sheepish.
The move it transpires is for Aldgate East Station. The few cops there let us stream through. The word is for aWestbound District Line train. Not the first train. We wait for thesecond. Full of blank faced passengers it does not stop, nor the oneafter. For a moment the trust is shaky. Feels like a trap down in the tube but the word is to make it out of the other exit. Back out onthe street we start back westwards back into the heart of the City.Complete take-over of the street, traffic halted. London sightseeingbuses full of tourists who wave. Some angry guy wants to smash ourfaces in but 'there are too many of you' - precisely.. Security guys stood in Bank doorways. So many faces at the windows.
Then that great feeling, we are all re-united, masks of all colours, right in the belly of the beast by the LondonInternational Financial Futures Exchange or LIFFE building wherebillions of dollars are sent whizzing round the globe from computerscreens on a 24 hour basis. More anonymous geniuses have been at work. In the cobbled street running down to the Thames by the side ofthe building a whole area has been blocked off by our side and bestof all in the heat a hydrant let off and turned into a forty footwaterfall as the drums beat out in these alien buildings. It'sfucking mental. Dancing and singing in the rain. Which is also coverfor the bricking up of some LIFFE entrances and the smashing ofothers. We blocked up the drains of Dowgate Hill to flood it and tooka rest with some other joyous faces down on a tiny bit of beach on the Thames.
The LIFFE building is part of a multi-storied bridge across Cannon Street. Right along is strung up ahuge banner: THE EARTH IS A COMMON TREASURY FOR ALL. This is PreciseProtest, where it matters. Other geniuses the musicians, have used anunderground car park as a base to ferry in speakers, decks, computers even. Down Cannon Street beat the drums. More banners are raised upusing the CCTV cameras to tie their ropes to. The musicians have taken a bit of precinct further back.
We have a break a couple of streets away to get a drink and returned to find a new mood. News of a young woman being run over bya police van and some of the fearless youth who had stormed into theLIFFE building itself. Now the cops showed themselves, they were hot, they had been given the run-around, had never dealt with the fast-moving fearlessness of the generation who are the children of usmiddle-aged 'anti-capitalists', as the media had begun to say, thatis a kind of victory in itself. They had the new telescope batons,the shields, the all-in-one helmets and they were on the charge.Young guys in suits brought out flare canisters out of suitcases tojoin the bottles flying in the face of the police charge. Adrenalinewas up and running. A luxury Mercedes showroom was trashed, another bank attacked as the police charge was held off.
After many clashes the crowd seemed to be split in two large groups with many heading towards another'autonomous action' in central London while others were forced acrossthe river away from 'The City'. Plumes of smoke could be seen risingfrom the financial centre and the sound of a police helicopter filled the air. The 'J18 Carnival' was over but for sure, a new mood of resistance is rising.
"My Lords, is there evidence that there is a potent folk memory in certain political circles of the success of an extremist group intaking over a demonstration and assaulting and bringing down the Winter Palace? It launched a most momentous revolution with terrible consequences."
- Lord Simon of Glaisdale, House of Lords Discussion of the attemptedoccupation of LIFFE building during London's J18 carnival.A "Suggesting people partying will take it indoors 'storming the Winter Palace' style is also pretty unlikely, given the passivity of street parties."
Green Anarchist magazine, no.56 spring '99"We are conscious of the devastating capability of transnationalcapital but we are also conscious of the creative capacity of imagination and freedom.
That's why we will protest in force on J18 but we will also celebratewith joy, the joy of making possible human contact, warmth, art and life."
Club de los Intelectuales Podridos (Decaying Intellectuals' Club) from Bogota, Colombia.
Nigeria: Carnival of the Oppressed: a personal account...
People from across Nigeria and the Niger Delta ethnic nationsjoined the rest of the freedom-loving world to observe the J18International Day of Action. The Nigeria event tagged "carnival ofthe oppressed" kicked off about 9.00 a.m. when thousands of peoplefrom all walks of life gathered at the Port Harcourt InternationalAirport to wait for Dr. Owens Wiwa, younger brother of the slainOgoni Ken Saro-Wiwa. Owens was four years ago forced into exile in North America by the late dictator General Abacha.
By 10.30 a.m. the plane conveying Owens from Lagos landed in Port Harcourt. He wasaccompanied by Sam Olukoya, a journalist and Doifie Ola, journalist,environmentalist and member of the Co-ordinating Council of theChikoko Movement. A brief speech by Owens expressed optimism that the peoples of the Niger Delta would overcome in their struggle againstthe alliance between the Nigerian state and Western multinational oilcompanies like Shell, Agip, Mobil, Chevron, Elf and others who havefor over four decades destroyed the basis of livelihood of the NigerDelta peoples. The crowd then moved in a convoy to Agip junction inPort Harcourt where a street named after General Abacha wasunofficially re-named after Ken Saro-Wiwa and the old signpost pulledout. The Agip offices in Port Harcourt were stormed where two mockcoffins where deposited in its front in protest against the humanrights atrocities of the company, the most recent being the carnageat Ikebiri, Southern Ijaw local government of Bayelsa State wheresoldiers on the orders of Agip shot eight villagers, including a two-year old baby last April.
The demonstratorsalso blockaded the gates leading to the offices of Shell in PortHarcourt. The blockade lasted for about two hours and solidaritymessages were presented by representatives of virtually all the ethnic nationalities in Niger Delta and groups like the NationalAssociation of Nigerian Students. There was dancing and singing inthe streets, bringing Port Harcourt, Nigeria's petroleum capital, to a standstill.
The June 18 event in Nigeria was co-ordinated by the ChikokoMovement. Several ethnic nationality organisations, social movements and NGOs participated in the event, including:
Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth, Nigeria), MOSOP, Ogoni Solidarity Movement, Ijaw Youth Council, National Association of Nigerian Students, Peoples Democratic Liberation Party and Womenin Nigeria-Rivers State. Other groups are Pan African Youth Movement,Niger Delta Women for Justice, Society for Awareness and Growth inEtche, Civil Liberties Organisation-Rivers/Bayelsa,Watch the NigerDelta, Oodua Peoples Congress, Isoko National Youth Movement, Egi Forum, Oron National Forum and the Supreme Egbesu Assembly.
World Wide Web: The Electronic Disturbance Theatre launched an international internet blockade of the Mexican Embassy in solidarity with the Zapatista communities - 18,000 people from 49 countries participated, clogging the embassy website.
Video footage and detailed reports of many of the actions were on the J18 website within 20 minutes of them taking place. The server was full to capacity with people logging on all day. And within 3 days a video documentary of the London J18 events had been produced.
June 18th: Just another day, or an unprecedented global movement in action? An all too sketchy look at the reality of the international links, the internet hype surrounding the event, the focus on finance and the language of 'globalisation'...
The revolution will not be emailed
"The internet is an elite organisation; most of the world hasn't even made a phone call." Most British media reports and commentaries on the events of J18 repeatedly declared that the actionhad been organised on the internet. While the internet was indeeduseful, the mainstream media's devotion to exploring its use by radical groups reflects more the current technological restructuringof the global economy then the reality of peoples' knowledge of and participation in the event.
Those involved in J18 organising in London for instance, though prone to forgetfulness, were well aware of the elitist connotations of the technology. In addition to website and email use organisers sent out over a thousand action proposal letters in several languages through libertarian and anarchist address lists, printed up a succession of leaflets in runs of 30,000 or more, held and attended regularmeetings, conferences and the like, all of which are, contrary tomedia- imposed impression, still crucial to any successful mobilisation or movement.
The media may have ignored this old-fashioned organising but any movement serious about confronting inequalities of power and creating free and ecological communities can ill-afford to do so. Internet access and use is controlled anddominated by 'the north', and the rich in the north at that. Like various lifestyle choices, internet access tends to coincide with howmuch cash there is in your pocket and with a particular background.We will not 'connect' with the peoples' of 'the south' throughinternet-working; regardless of the Zapatistas mythical laptopcommuniqués from the Mexican jungle. Nor will we connect with the needs and desires of many people in our own regions through anynumber of email discussion lists. Why? Because the internationalisedmarket system will increasingly polarise the inequalities of internetaccess along class lines and tolerate radical use only to the extent that it doesn't hinder the technology's commercial development.
Even if organising mainly through the internet were possible it wouldn't be desirable. Given the present social system, the internet is to communication what the motor car is to transport: useful for getting you, or your message, from A to B butultimately an atomiser of social space and a commodified substitute for human association.
We should of course continue to use the internet for information sharing and for initial contact with like-minded groups but with awareness of its market-led trajectory, its limitations and always alongside more involving and humanising activities. For a radical grassrootsmovement will require the real warmth of human togetherness and the raw 'shout on the street' to make a true social and ecological communications revolution; and it probably won't be emailed.
From "WTO under fire... from left and right..."
"The discourse on globalization fits so well into right-wing racist rhetoric because it blames an international capital not tied to a geographical location, for the economic and social difficulties. The simplistic analysis overlooks the role of local capital in the process of accumulation and exploitation and thus allows the demand to protect the latter against the international financial capital...
The Globalisation discourse also easily fits in with conspiracy theories. It is not any longer the processes of production and of capital accumulation thatare at the centre of the attention, but clubs of influential men (and some women) who negotiate among themselves the future of the world behind closed doors...
A substantial part of even the leftist variants of the discourse on "globalisation" work through emotionalising, calling upon fears about the threat on one's livelihood represented by "multinationalcorporations". This is very pronounced in the struggles against Monsanto and other gene technological corporations, for instance.
In parts of the ecological left the perceived threat on their livelihoods is not seen so much as a power relation between social groups, but as the destruction of "Mother Earth" by a "modern world"gone astray. Traditionally leftist ideas of self-management and autonomy get mixed with discourses on regionalism which tend towardsracism, and leftist criticism of technology receives support from essentialist and fascistic discourses.
The close look at local consequences of global processes, the analysis well rooted in the material, and especially the connection made with a criticalassessment of "public space" including the mechanisms ofits racist regulation, are hard to integrate into a right-wing discourse...
More J18 reflections: www.infoshop.org/octo/j18_reflections.html
Nearly real: the virtual reality of PGA
Of all the millions that allegedly participated in actions over the 16-20 May '98 and the global day of action on June 18th '99, how manyhad actually heard of the G8 or the WTO? How many knew of protests happening in other places? How many had heard of Peoples' GlobalAction? And so on. Partly PGA may inspire people because it offers anew internationalist way to look at existing social movements. Butsooner or later we will have to work out real ways to encourage thereal convergence of these movements. From this point of view the value or contribution of PGA can hardly be measured by simply addingup protests that we might somehow imagine are connected. Nor bysimply listing the groups or individuals that have variously beenconnected to us, whether as convenors, conference participants orwhatever.
The way to assess the value or contribution of PGA is in the extent to which we are able to transform the quality ofrelations between movements, to increase our knowledge about each other, our ability to take action in solidarity, and to offer eachother mutual support. The value of PGA lies not in the abstractsummation of different movements but in the real existingcommunication between movements and between individuals in touch with the movements. From this point of view then, PGA hardly exists.
Rather than fantasise about being a unified global voice of all these movements we need to work on thickening the density of the real interconnections at the base, whether we are talking of individual friendships, resource sharing, joint actions, mutual aid, 'movementtwinning', whatever. People live and struggle locally. The global ishow we imagine the rest of the world from where we are. There is nocentre anywhere that could hope to organise and oversee all this mutual thickening of ties. It would be like trying to instruct aforest how to grow.
In building a global movement of resistance we can assert our will to struggle as peoples against all form of oppression. But we do not only fight the wrongs imposed on us (and our planet). We are also committed to building a new world. We come together as human beingsand communities, our unity deeply rooted in diversity.
J18 worldwide actions >> >>
AUSTRALIA:
>> Melbourne opposition leader Kim Beazeley custard pied... moving demo visited stock exchange and Westpacbank... Nike store paint bombed.
>> Sydney anti-business lunchand 'scumbags tour' of financial district... evening critical massbike ride toured the city.
>> Perth: demo against WesternMining's desecration in the Philippines and action against localengineering company - Clough - who are backing plans to build aninternational nuclear waste dump in Western Australia.
>>Adelaide the Wildcat Collective 'stuck coins around in strategicplaces' including the stock exchange... Everyone for a Nuclear-FreeFuture did a banner walk near the main branch of Westpac bankinvesting in the Jabiluka uranium mine.
>> >> ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires multi-religious assembly against debt and globalcapitalism in general staged in front of the I.M.F and Central Bankbuilding... march through streets of financial district.
>>>> BANGLADESH: Dhaka hundreds of domestic workers demonstratedin the centre of the city against the IMF, World Bank, Capitalism,TNCs, and exploitation both local and international.
>>>> BELARUS: Minsk two groups organised a picket at McDonald's.Handing out pamphlets about multinational corporations, and toiletpaper to people entering McDonalds... A "NoCorporations"-open air festival was staged without permissionfrom the state.
>> >> BRAZIL: Desterro the 12 meters highclock in the centre of the city, erected by media giant "GloboNetwork" to celebrate 500 years since the 'discovery' of Brazil,was stained with red paint symbolising the blood of indigenous peopleshed by the European conquerors then spray painted with the question:"celebrating what?"
>> >> CANADA: Calgary localactivists converged on the headquarters of Shell Canada, insolidarity with the peoples of the Niger Delta.
>> Ottawa amoving demo of around a 100 people visited, the bank of Nova Scotia,the US and Mexican embassies, Monsanto and arms manufacturerRaytheon, closing down a Shell station along the way.
>>Toronto streets reclaimed with over 2000 cyclists, dancers,pedestrians
>> Vancouver about 100 people"quarantined" the Stock Exchange and the local HQ's oftimber giant Macmillan Bloedell.
>> >> CZECHREPUBLIC: huge street parties in Brno and Prague in the weeks leadingup to J18, while on the day itself info shops were organised in anumber of cities and in Prague a crowd of 400 caused trouble atvarious bank branches and corporate HQ's.
>> >> FRANCE: Bordeaux a 50 strong group visited and occupied around 20 differentbanks.
>> >> GREECE: Athens 300 people took over citycentre streets, burning pallets, setting up barricades, and makinglots of noise.
>> >> ITALY: Bologna autonomous zones werecreated for the night, blocking traffic and involving interactiveperformances. Similar actions happened in Milano, Roma, Siena,Firenze and Ancona.
>> ISRAEL: Tel Aviv a 'goodbye to the mall'street party was held in the financial district.
>> >>MALTA: Movimenti Graffitti staged a rock concert under the banner 'Malta not for sale'.
>> >> NEPAL: Activist groupscomposed a memorandum and gave it to the Nepalese representatives ofthe IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
>> >>NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam 50 activists blockaded the stock exchange, hanging banners.
>> >> PAKISTAN: Gujarat A march againstnukes broke through police cordons to tour parts of the city. Laterpolice charged and teargased protesters arresting scores of peopleand holding union leaders on charges equivalent to high treason.
>> >> PORTUGAL: Lisbon a street protest informed aboutthe environmental destruction and social inequality of capitalism...they also simulated the demolition of a bank.
>> >>SENEGAL: 600 people assembled for performances and speeches inprotest against child exploitation.
>> >> SOUTH KOREA: Seoul hundreds of people gathered for a rally with speeches andperformances by farmers groups and unions.
>> >> SPAIN: Barcelona at 8am, 25 people blocked two main roads transforming one into a beach, bike demos closing a motorway... 100's of peoplereclaiming a piece of land where an evicted squat had been demolishedto make a vegetable garden. At 7pm groups converged for a massivestreet party
>> Madrid: A j18 street party ended 7 days ofaction for social rights that included an invasion of the Madrid stock exchange
>> Ovideo, Avilles, Gijon (Asturias): in all 3cities banks, developers and McDonalds were picketed and info stalls set up - later people gathered for music, dancing and the painting ofa mural.
>> Valencia a carnival of 400 people danced throughthe streets before occupying the financial district.
>>>> SWITZERLAND: Geneva actions on city banks and in the eveninga mobile carnival blocked roads and served blackcurrant syrup to drivers.
>> Zurich 300 people occupied a developmentconstruction site, holding a party which, to the authorities dismay, continued all night.
>> >> UK: Aberdeen crowd leafletedthe city centre.
>> Ashton Court Activists from the Ashton Court Quarry Campaign visited the offices of Pioneer Aggregates, responsible for expanding the quarry and destroying meadow. hanging banners and disrupting the directors board meeting.
>>Edinburgh Reed employment agency was paint-bombed and flyposted.
>> Glasgow 500 joined a moving carnival parade touring the citystreets stopping at the Council Chambers, Army Careers office, Bank of Scotland and police station.
>> Lancaster the J18 collectiveoccupied the offices of City law firm Freshfields unfurling a banner "capitalism is killing the planet". large critical Mass gathered in the town centre.
>> Lincoln an action against TheGAP's sweatshop practices was followed by street theatre, info stalls and critical mass bike demo.
>> Newbury demo held outside theoffice of Vodaphone, mobile phone company, against their plans to trash greenfield sites.
>> >> URAGUAY: Montevideo the central square was turned into a 'trade fair' then later a 'recycled parade' through the city occupied the Montevideo bank and the stock exchange.
>> >> USA: Asheville 100 people held a streetparty, "although small we are in solidarity with 1000's across The world".
>> Boston: over 100 activists held street theatre performances outside Bank Boston in the heart of the financial district.
>> Eugene: bank and shop windows smashed and teargassing of demonstrators - 20 arrests and 8 police officers injured.
>> Los Angeles a first RTS party took place complete withsoundsystem, trashed car and an instant skatepark. There were 17 arrests. bomb squad was sent in to check the trashed car!
>>New York 500 reclaimed the streets in the financial district rallying outside the stock exchange.
>> Olympia street party held a fewdays before in solidarity with J18 events.
>> Washington DC 600demonstrators formed a chain around the US treasury dept.
>>>> ZIMBABWE: Harare 5 people took to the streets spreadinginformation about global issues...