socialiststevewallis@yahoo.co.uk
If important: revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk
Websites: www.revolutionaryplatformofthessp.org and www.g8summitworldwidegeneralstrike.org
Discussion forums at: http://groups.yahoo.com: revolutionary-platform-of-the-ssp, revolutionary-platform-of-democratic-socialist-alliance, g8-summit-worldwide-general-strike, g8-summit-worldwide-school-students-strike, g8-summit-worldwide-college-students-strike and g8-summit-worldwide-university-students-strike
Leaflet produced by Steve Wallis: www.socialiststeve.me.uk, 07739 904924
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socialiststevewallis@yahoo.co.uk If important: revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk |
I, Steve Wallis, am distributing double-sided A4 leaflets (in colour on recycled paper) containing the text and photographs shown on this page.
Launch a worldwide general strike at the time of the G8 summit (July 2005)!
Many anti-capitalist demonstrations have taken place in recent years. These are often called “anti-globalisation” protests by the media, but it is big business and the governments and institutions which support global capitalism that we oppose, and globalisation of culture should be welcomed. I took these photos in Genoa in 2001.
On the first day demonstrating in Genoa, there were rumours that two demonstrators had been killed by the police. We later heard that they had killed just one demonstrator: 17-year old Carlo Giuliani. However, a magazine of the British anti-capitalist organisation Globalise Resistance later showed a picture of a dead body with Carlo’s name under it – a boy of about five had also been murdered by the police! Obviously there was a massive cover-up by the Italian state. It was also revealed that 50 fascists had infiltrated the Black Bloc who had clashed with the police.
The G8 is composed of the world’s eight most powerful countries. In the past, important capitalist meetings took place in major cities, but due to our strength, they now occur in small places that are difficult (if not impossible) to get to. The next G8 meeting is at Gleneagles, near Edinburgh, between Wednesday the 6th and Friday the 8th of July.
Many events have already been planned for the run-up to or during the G8 summit. On the previous Saturday, the 2nd of July, there will be a “Make poverty history” mass demonstration in Edinburgh. On the Sunday, there will be an “alternative summit”, also in Edinburgh, with speakers including Carlo’s mother Haidi and Scottish Socialist Party member of the Scottish parliament Tommy Sheridan (who was the Scottish leader of the anti-poll tax movement). Phone 0131-228 1155 for advance tickets, or visit www.g8alternatives.org.uk for more information about the alternative summit, Saturday demonstration or other events.
The police have announced that Gleneagles railway station will be open on the Wednesday (6th of July) and there will be a demonstration assembling there at 12 noon. However, it is likely that many more people will want to protest on that day than will be able to travel to Gleneagles, due to lack of space on trains, the police erecting roadblocks and the difficulty and cost of travelling there. I am therefore proposing that demonstrations are also arranged in cities and towns across Scotland, the UK and even elsewhere in the world – and that workers go on strike and students leave their schools, colleges and universities in order to attend.
A general strike and school, college and university students strike at the time of the G8 summit would inspire working class people around the world to fight back, and give the impoverished masses in the so-called third world hope that there is a way out of the nightmare of famines, deaths from preventable diseases and civil wars.
If it is only a symbolic strike on the 6 th of July that would be great, but if this call for a worldwide general strike gets taken up in a big way then the whole capitalist system could be under threat. If workers go on strike earlier in the week, particularly key workers like air traffic controllers, then it may be possible to prevent some of the world leaders from travelling to Gleneagles. If it continues, strikes could become indefinite general strikes in some countries, with the working class taking over production and distribution of goods leading to socialist revolutions.
The original Band Aid song “Do they know it’s Christmas?” was released in 1984, but little has changed since and tens of millions of people are predicted to die in Africa in the next few decades, as pointed out by Oxfam (if world capitalism continues).
Blair claims to be trying to “make poverty history”, but debt reduction measures put forward by capitalist governments would be full of strings, such as privatisation. The stock markets force the prices of raw commodities down while Western products are expensive. Fair trade is impossible under capitalism – world socialism is essential!
In the second live TV debate with Senator John Kerry, George W Bush said that he didn’t sign the Kyoto treaty on climate change because it would have cost 1.3 million jobs in the US. Compared to the population size, that is tiny, and Kerry revealed that Bush gave tax incentives for companies to invest overseas causing mass unemployment!
Kyoto was forced on governments through pressure from ordinary people and would only slow down global warming, not stop it. Because the Green Party limits itself to demands for reforms under capitalism, it underestimates the effects of climate change, saying that it will take decades for a one or two percent increase in global warming, making it a very middle class organisation. Repeated huge storms in the Caribbean and Florida (completely different from before, when they had not returned to the same Caribbean country) and the tsunami indicate that serious climate change is a reality now. I believe that those events, coupled with the fact that a single village in Cornwall (Boscatle) had a huge amount of flooding, at a time last year when nowhere else had any at all, indicates that big business controlled the weather! I believe that the tsunami and more recent earthquake near Aceh in Indonesia, were to create moods of national unity cutting across movements for independence in Aceh and by Tamils in Sri Lanka – the two countries hit most by the tsunami were Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Rainforest destruction has been mainly for hardwoods (boycott mahogany!), for grazing land and now soya for beef to be sold to the West, and to produce paper. [But it is more economical for big business to grow trees neatly in rows and plant new ones when others have been chopped down – nevertheless, I use recycled paper if convenient; it is scandalous that is more expensive and hard to get hold of, and that a lot of paper is put in landfill sites.]
In the general election on the 5th of May, New Labour only received 36% of the vote with a mere 22% of the electorate voting for them. Many of those voted Labour to get Gordon Brown in power, yet Blair is under no obligation to step aside in favour of Brown in the near future. Furthermore, Brown would be no better in power and could even be worse – his Thatcherite economic policies underlie New Labour and keep big business happy, and he made it clear that he fully supported Blair on the issue of Iraq. Many more people believed the New Labour lie that 10% of voters not voting for them would let the Tories in – that was roughly the fall in their vote and they still have a 66 seat majority! They got fewer votes than the Tories in England, but won over 50% of the seats there!
I have set up the Campaign for Democracy in the UK, arguing for proportional representation by single transferable vote among other things. Voters must have the ability to indicate preferences on their ballot papers, so that there is no longer any need for tactical voting. It is also vital that enough MPs are elected per constituency to allow smaller parties to get representation – the Liberal “Democrats” are in favour of the same system but want small constituencies to benefit themselves at the expense of socialists. For more information about the Campaign, visit www.democracycampaign.org.uk or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/campaign-for-democracy-in-the-uk.
I am a member of Glasgow Shettleston branch of the Scottish Socialist Party (Rosie Kane MSP’s branch). However, since I have been a political activist in Manchester since 1989 (joining the 18 million strong mass non-payment campaign that defeated the poll tax and got rid of Margaret Thatcher) and revolutionary socialist in Militant (which led that campaign) since 1990, I will also continue living in Manchester. Note that I prefer non-violent methods. I am helping organise a launch meeting in Manchester of the Democratic Socialist Alliance on the 11th of June.
I am fighting for a democratic socialist world run for people not profit – free from poverty, unemployment, homelessness, discrimination, famines, deaths from preventable diseases, war and environmental destruction. A “revolutionary” believes sudden and complete change is needed, important though fighting for reforms is.
The SSP is already led by revolutionaries, in the International Socialist Movement platform (formerly Scottish Militant Labour), but to unite the left further and undermine big business infiltrators, we should unite in a single platform. This would also make the SSP and DSA more attractive to new people and non-violent anarchists.