Press Statements

G8 Not Welcome Demo: March from Enniskillen Library to G8 venue …  Monday 17th June 2013 at 18:30

Successful meeting in Monaghan

Gareth Mackle

Independent Workers Union organiser, Gareth Mackle addressed a meeting of  the ‘G8 not welcome in Fermanagh’  in Teach na Daoine in Monaghan on Wednesday night. Gareth outline the various reasons for opposing the visit of the Group of Eight, highlighting the role played by these people in appropriating the vast bulk of the world’s wealth for a tiney percentage of the world’s population and the cruel wars being waged by their armies across the globe.

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Message of solidarity with Anti-G8 protestors from Left wing MEPs!

We the undersigned, left-wing Members of the European Parliament (members of GUE/NGL) would like to extend our solidarity to those campaigning and protesting against the G8 in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, including the events organised by the trade union movement and the ‘G8 Not Welcome’ campaign.

The G8 leaders represent the interest of the super-rich and are made up of right wing governments which are attacking the living standards of ordinary people. They are determined to make ordinary people pay for a crisis which they did not create in order to fund the bail-out of the bankers and speculators. Their austerity agenda is killing the economy and has created mass unemployment across the globe, especially amongst young people. While the super-rich continue to get richer, billions of people on our planet subsist on less than $2 a day.

These protests continue a long history of protest and resistance against the G8’s capitalist agenda. Not since its 2001 meeting in Genoa, which saw 200,000 protesters take to the streets and the police’s killing of Carlo Giuliani has the G8 dared to meet in an area accessible to protesters. Nevertheless, however remote a location they choose, they are still met by protesters opposed to austerity, war and environmental destruction.

The visit of the G8 to local communities across the world has provided no long term economic benefit to those communities and has turned these local areas into militarised zones in the run up to these summits, causing huge disruption to the lives of ordinary people. Their visit to Fermanagh seems to be no different, with thousands of police officers and army being brought into the area. Water cannons are on stand-by, together with make shift prisons for protesters and the purchasing of drone spy-planes, which has been authorised by the local Policing Board.

We oppose the conscious attempt by the police, right wing politicians and the media to intimidate people from exercising their right to protest against the G8 and to smear the campaign by labelling those who oppose the G8 as violent thugs. Those involved in violence will be inside the G8 summit!

We hope the protests both in Belfast and Fermanagh are a success and play a role in strengthening the fight against austerity and war both in Ireland and across the world.

Yours in Solidarity,
Paul Murphy MEP, Ireland
Nikolaos Chountis MEP, Greece
Cornelia Ernst MEP, Germany
Mikael Gustafsson MEP, Sweden
Sabine Lösing MEP, Germany
Marisa Matias MEP, Portugal
Willy Meyer MEP, Spain
Helmut Scholz MEP, Germany
Søren Søndergaard MEP, Denmark
Alda Sousa MEP, Portugal
Sabine Wils MEP, Germany
Inês Zuber MEP, Portugal

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G8 summit used by PSNI as a smokescreen says G8 not welcome group

“The G8 summit is being used by the PSNI as a smokescreen for cracking down on civil liberties,” a spokesman for opponents of the meeting of world leaders in Fermanagh has said. “And the main political parties are going along with it”.

The protest group, which draws members from Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh and Derry, met in Dungannon last Thursday night.

Our meeting was at least double the size of previous planning meetings, said the spokesman:
The feedback shows increasing interest from local communities angry at the waste of public money. There is resentment at the pretence that what is good for a few well- heeled business people and politicians is good for everybody. The meeting also expressed the anger in communities at the way the PSNI and politicians are talking up the possibility of disruption in order to persuade people that their extraordinary clampdown on dissent is justified.

Anybody who thinks that the security measures being put in place for the GB will simply be lifted when the G8 goes away is naive. All precedent suggests otherwise. This is a serious invasion of the right to protest, which should be resisted.

A ‘ring of steel’ is being erected around a wide area. The perimeter is to be patrolled not only by the PSNI but also by 3,500 police brought in from across the water. They are to be backed up by units of the British Army on standby. Helicopters will fly overhead. The PSNI has acquired drones, so as to increase its ability to spy on people exercising their democratic right to show opposition to the austerity, war mongering, and disrespect for the environment represented by the G8   – as well as internment without trial at Guantanamo.
On top of all this, US security personnel are to patrol the area. This is outrageous.

The fact that all this has been allowed to happen without any debate whatsoever at Stormont emphasises how vulnerable our civil liberties are and the need for ordinary people to get together to take a stand for civil rights and to oppose what amounts to the imposition of a virtual state of emergency.

The spokesman said that buses will be travelling to a march in Enniskillen on Monday, June 17th from Belfast, Dublin, Derry and Galway, as well as smaller towns. Further local meetings are planned for Cookstown, Dungannon, Armagh, Newry and Omagh over next three weeks.

The Dungannon meeting organised sessions for making banners and workshops to discuss the detail of the Enniskillen demonstration.

A website;  https://opposefermanaghg8.wordpress.com  has been set up as an “information board”. It will publish regular updates on organisation and carry information on available transport.

Members of the group based in Fermanagh intend providing a town map with key points marked – assembly point / route of march / access to toilets / disability parking / speaking point / political discussion / activities area, etc. This will also be uploaded on the website.

 

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Opponents of  G8 have promised a

“massive show of opposition”

Opponents of the G8 summit have promised a “massive show of opposition” when world leaders meet next month in Fermanagh.

A group of political activists has been convened to organise support for a demonstration in Enniskillen on Monday June 17^th, when the G8 will be in talks nearby at the Lough Erne Resort. The anti-G8 group is made up of people from across the north of Ireland.

The G8 gathering will see the main advocates of austerity come together to coordinate policies for making ordinary people pay for the crisis created by the banks and big business. The summit is being used to stifle objections to the economic priorities of a global elite. The threat of fracking, not just in Fermanagh but also in Sligo, Leitrim, Tyrone and more widely, will loom larger after the G8 and their entourages have gone away.

Without exception, the G8 leaders support drone strikes which have killed hundreds of innocent people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere. Yet it is those who campaign against this slaughter who are being denounced in advance of the G8 meeting as posing a threat of violence.

At present, a hundred men interned without charge or trial at Guantanamo Bay, are on hunger strike. The anti-G8 group is calling on all those who opposed internment or supported the hunger strike here in 1981 to take a stand against the same abuses now.

The summit is being used as cover for a major attack on civil liberties. Around 3,000 police are being drafted in from Britain. Roads are being closed and local people denied freedom of movement. A new law has been rushed through Stormont to allow courts to sit at night and on Sunday. Latest word is that emergency legislation has been passed to permit the authorities close down mobile phone networks in order to prevent a peaceful protest being organised.

The PSNI has acquired its own drones to intimidate and spy on peaceful protestors. All this has happened without a hint of protest from a single member of the Policing Board or any of the parties represented on the Board. This shows the extent to which the G8 summit is being used to facilitate a crackdown on civil rights.

If this were happening in any other context, there would be howls of anger so loud that many might fear for the future of the Stormont institutions. But because this is the G8, there isn’t a word of protest from certain quarters.

The anti-G8 group says that it is in touch with others also opposed to the G8 summit. There will be moves to coordinate all activities over the coming days.

It has been suggested that where possible protesters should travel to Enniskillen, ideally a day or two in advance of the march, prepare for camping outside, and expect traffic delays due to security checks.