Why I boycotted the G8 protests

Janet Kilburn

It is almost hard to know where to start with this - there are so many reasons! But here goes with the main ones...
Reinforcing power: I suppose the first is just that part of me feels as though those eight white men in suits are not worthy of my attention. Fuck them and their destructive, selfish, warmongering behaviour. Going to the meeting and effectively "moaning" outside, just reinforces belief in their power. Better to ignore them and get on with making changes in our own communities. Which brings me to the next point... Energy: So much energy has gone into organising protest events related to the G8 summit. I know people who have been on their knees for weeks with exhaustion and who will probably find it hard to find the energy to re-engage with their usual campaigns for a while. Surely this huge amount of energy could be better deployed in actually effecting small-scale changes in how we live and work on a daily basis (thus having some of the positive global impacts desired). It could also be used to make more friends and win over some enemies. Fifty people going into a Scottish council estate with DIY tools and materials and helping fix up some community facilities might have had a more tangible output than 1,000 sat outside a military base for a single day. If it had been the next day, and the next day... etc, it may have moved from the entirely symbolic into a serious and practical obstruction of the war machine. Money: Wow! So much money was spent, tens and tens - if not into the hundreds - of thousands of pounds. From every individual's transportation costs to all the support structures and organisational costs, this week of actions has to represent one of the biggest expenditures by the British protest movement ever. I would question whether this was the best use of the paltry resources we have, though I do not put forward specific alternatives because much of it was personal money, and every group or organisation has to think about how to use their money. I would just pose the question as to whether it was the best use for it. Outcomes: What have been the tangible outcomes? For me it was kind of predictable that few if any should be expected. Yes, bits of the G8 summit were briefly disrupted, but seemingly most effectively by a handful of long-term affinity groups who do their stuff all the time. The extra thousand or so milling around, did not seem to contribute very much apart from the motorway blockades. The clowns clowned around - a nice deconstruction of authority through the generation of a spectacle, the handful of so-called black bloc chucked rocks at the police (grow up and learn how to fight a serious armed struggle if you really believe violence works as a tactic for political change!), the left organised a march and then moaned when anarchists turned up. What was the point of it all? Well, there we go. I saved some money, I saved some energy, I ignored the idiots in suits and baclavas, and I spent my week working with PN, hearing tales from G8 actions (like some distant exotic land!) and taking some rare time for musical projects.
    After seeing it all unfold do I regret my decision not to go?
    No chance. After all, I would have missed the creation of the greatest spectacle of the year - being bombed by Al-Qaeda!
    And as for the evil Live8... don't get me started...