In 1990, the G7 held its meeting in London. It passed by quietly. There were no protests and there were no 'red zones'.
see: The G7 Protests in London 1991
Eight years later, 400 social movements from around the world - under the banner of Peoples' Global Action - co-ordinated local resistance to global problems. In the UK 50,000 people came together to resist the G8 meeting in Birmingham.
In 2005, the G8 returns to the UK.
Since 1998, many summits and conferences have been resisted in every country in which they have attempted to meet. This resistance has successfully delegitimised these institutions and strengthened the movements that attack them.
Global anti-summit mobilisations have linked diverse struggles tackling common issues. These mobilisations have, over time, created a global 'movement of movements', in many respects historically unprecedented.
The Peoples' Global Action Conference in Europe, is calling for a global day of action on Wednesday 6th July 2005 - the opening day of the G8 Summit (to be held at Gleneagles in Perthshire, Scotland). This is a call for people to converge in Scotland to disrupt the conference, and for action to be taken simultaneously in villages, towns and cities world-wide.
Alongside co-ordinated actions this is also a call for groups and movements everywhere to learn from our history and our successes; a call to assess our current strengths; a call to debate and strategise; a call to formulate a global resistance to the heads of the world's most powerful states meeting in Europe next year.
Gleneagles Hotel