MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY and G20 Protests
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Wow! What a weekend. The big MAKEPOVERTYHISTROY concert on Friday night was pretty rocking, and the festival on Saturday was even better. I am severely sleep deprived right now so I’ll post more about all that later. Below are just some thoughts on the G20 protests.
Lots of people have been bagging the riots/protests that have been taking place in the city over G20. Firstly, yes I don’t like violence, yes smashing windows and throwing urine is a bad thing. However, I would like to point out that while everyone bags a few hundred people for causing lots of damage to the city, the people responsible for unfair trade rules that keep millions (if not billions) of people in abject poverty and who refuse to fix problems that cause one child to die every three seconds, seem to have no one to answer too. If you ask me, I think the action of the G20 governments should be getting front page condemnation ahead of the G20 protestors. Fore example, in the first four pages of the paper I read today the only result from G20 mentioned was a possible reduction in petrol prices for Australians - the rest was polemics against protest. Now if this is the best thing G20 that could b e written about G20 then there is no wonder people are getting a bit crazy.
An interesting side note is that one commentator compared the riots in the city to the “protest” of the MAKEPOVERTYHISTROY concert on Friday. One point I’d make of the concert is that all the speakers were a bit too quick to congratulate the people who came along. From my experience a sizable portion of the people there were just there for the music, mates and weed floating round. It was a great night, and I’m sure some people were motivated to action, but to think that mere attendance should be considered as a protest against poverty, is a bit much. Sure 14,000 youth attended - but I would say more to enjoy themselves then to make their voice heard. I think politicians are smart enough to understand that what events like this mean. The street protests, in contrast, are a very visible display of our extreme dissatisfaction (even if they did get very out of hand).
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5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Crowlie
Hiya James,
I was in town today with the Christian Collective at their “Third World and Environment Embassy” and it was great. Other than the few idiots who were apparently here from Europe for the purposes of making trouble, people were definitely out with a desire to show their commitment toward constructive change for the better in the world.
It seemed to me to be a wonderful event, and like you I found it very inspiring that rather than much of a protest, there seemed instead to be a real creative response going on.
Nov 19th, 2006
devonwhittle
Hey Crowlie,
That’s great to hear. If only the media did a proper job of reporting the day and didn’t focus on the negative. In the paper I read there was only mention of the bad stuff!
(oh, also I’m Devon James5 is just the name of the blog :))
Nov 20th, 2006
Stephen Said
Hey Devon. Did I get that right? Am I talking to James? Or to Devon? Not sure. Anyway, saw your comments on advoc8 (which I am one of the moderator type people of) and then followed your comment back to this site. I read your comments on the concert. This has been something that I have been marinating over for a long while now. I am frustrated that people think that by getting to a concert that they are doing something to make poverty history. The corporate co-option of the process is also quite an aggravating frustration for me also. I am brewing over how to contend with the commodification of activism. What are your thoughts…?
Nov 20th, 2006
devonwhittle
hey stephen,
yeah it’s Devon, sorry for the confusion. James5 is the name of the blog - taken from the Biblical passage James 5 which sort of motivates me to do more all the time.
Corporate sponsorship is such a ‘natural’ part of our lives now, I think that activist groups really need to pushing the boundaries of what people think is possible. We don’t always need to go to the big guys to get something done. We need to imagine a world beyond corporate money.
This is especially true when large sums of money are coming from corporations with questionable records and really aren’t behind the message. Even though this means less to work with, it provides the campaign with a more authentic message. It’s a bit hypocritical to thank sponsors that we privately are totally against.
I think people ‘in the know’ are catching on to this, at least at the grassroots level I have experienced. For example, Hooked, the student group I work with, doesn’t take money from people that don’t agree with our values. My friend Andy, who isn’t a ‘campaigner’ but takes part in ‘consumer activism’ in only buying fair trade etc, mentioned how disappointed he was with the lacklustre speeches at the concert. I think the bigger groups out there need to realise that people are ready and willing to be challenged, as long as they are given more then just the negative spiel but things that they can actually do about it.
I think that protest is changing. I’m seeing three sort of paths out there: 1) old-school street marches (can be peaceful sit ins or violent riots, etc); 2) Corporatised avenues for protest like the big MPH concert and 3) That whole big arena of Activism2.0 (great name for a blog:) ), education, shareholder activism, fair trade consumption, etc. I’ve got a post in the works on this, but my general thinking is new forms of activism/protest need to be more creative, challenging, personal, credible, flexible and viable. I think option 2 is going to play a major role - as Live8 and the MPH concert have shown (they do attract a lot of positive attention!) - but in terms of actual results I’d be betting that option 3 is where it is at.
bit of a long comment there, that’s just my first impressions so it’s probably missing a bit and is a bit sketchy. one more thing though, if we contrast the concert with the festival. The festival provided opportunity for real challenges and real education, and I thought could of been/was a great piece of MPH activism - I thought it was much better then the big concert.
Nov 20th, 2006
Crowlie
Hi Devon, sorry about that.
I agree, new forms of activism need to be more creative. People know what all the problems are. We are in danger of becoming desensitised to all the quoting of horrible statistics. What people need is a culture and community that embodies real, worthwhile alternatives…
Isn’t that what the early church was originally all about? Something like ‘chant down Babylon’?
Nov 20th, 2006
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