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The Global Carnival against Capital took place on Friday, June 18, 1999. It was an international day of protest timed to coincide with the 25th G8 Summit in Köln, Germany. The carnival was inspired by the 1980s Stop the City protests and the Global Street Party, which was happened at the same time as the 24th G8 Summit in Birmingham, United Kingdom in 1998. The rallying slogan was Our Resistance is as Transnational as Capital. The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. ...
Swabian-Alemannic carnival clowns in Wolfach, Germany A carnival is a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus and public street party, generally during the Carnival Season. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. ...
Before the day
Organisation Preparations took many months. The day became known as simply J18. In London, the open organising group met every month. The day was also discussed in the open weekly meetings of London Reclaim the Streets. There were between 10 and 100 people at these discussions. An international email discussion list was set up. Fund-raising was carried out by collecting anonymous donations and running a series of benefit gigs.
There is only so much that can be learned from how J18 was organised. J18 and the many other successful and inspiring anti-capitalist events in recent history were produced by a free flowing convergence of events and political currents combined with sheer luck. [1]
Publicity In London, a concerted publicity campaign was carried out, using colourful stickers and 10,000 posters. Workers were encouraged to phone in sick. An eighteen minute promotional video was made and distributed globally. Squaring up to the Square Mile was a 32 page pamphlet produced by Reclaim the Streets and Corporate Watch which gave details of financial institutions. An A3 map of the City of London showed where they were located. 4,000 copies were produced. Image File history File linksMetadata FlyerJ18. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata FlyerJ18. ...
Reclaim the Streets (RTS) is a group of people with a collective ideal of community ownership of public spaces. ...
Corporate Watch is a small, independent, not-for-profit research and publishing group which undertakes research on the social and environmental impact of large corporations, particularly multinationals. ...
Evading Standards A spoof version of the Evening Standard, daily London-based newspaper was produced. 30,000 copies were printed and distributed on June 17 and 18 to City workers. The cover resembled the layout of the actual newspaper and the inner pages contained agitprop and humour. The newspaper was handed out for free. The headline read Global Market Meltdown, followed by a spoof report of the collapse of the world's financial markets. Headlines of the Evening Standard on the day of London bombing on July 7, 2005, in Waterloo Station The Evening Standard is an English tabloid newspaper published and sold in London and surrounding areas. ...
Agitprop poster by Vladimir Mayakovsky. ...
The mainstream media On January 29, 1999, The Daily Mirror ran a full page article entitled "Police spy bid to smash the anti-car protesters." Closer to the day, scare stories abounded in the media about possible violence. Alternate newspaper: The Daily Mirror (Australia) The Daily Mirror is a British left-leaning tabloid daily newspaper. ...
Reaction of the City But it was clear that the City was taking things very seriously. All leave was cancelled for City of London police officers on the day. The Corporation of London sent letters out to the Managing Director of every firm in the square mile (and many outside it) with instructions to circulate the warning of "major disruption" and the need for extra security measures to be taken on June 18th to all staff.[2]
June 18 itself
London In London, there was a large march planned for midday and autonomous actions in the morning. Among other actions, a Critical Mass bicycle ride brought the City of London traffic to a standstill in rush hour. The Campaign Against Arms Trade closed down a Lloyds bank with a 'die-in'. San Francisco Critical Mass, April 29, 2005 Critical Mass is a bike ride typically held on the last Friday of every month in cities around the world where bicyclists and, less frequently, skateboarders, roller bladers, roller skaters and other self-propelled commuters take to the streets en masse. ...
Coat of arms The City of London is a small area in Greater London. ...
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is a UK-based organisation which campaigns for an end to the international arms trade. ...
Lloyds TSB Group plc is a group of financial services companies, based in the United Kingdom, with the registered office in Edinburgh, Scotland. ...
The March At twelve, the protesters met at Liverpool Street train station. Food Not Bombs gave out free food and a samba band played. Carnival masks were distributed in four different colours and five processions set off in different directions (there were four marches planned and another occurred spontaneously). The spontaneous procession erupted in anger at London Wall when a woman was hit by a reversing police van and had her leg broken. Liverpool Street station Liverpool Street station, also called London Liverpool Street, is a mainline railway station in the north eastern corner of the City of London, in the heart of the financial district, with entrances on Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street itself. ...
Logo Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, serving free vegan and vegetarian food to others. ...
London Wall was the defensive wall built by the Romans around Londinium, their strategically important port town on the river Thames in England. ...
Between two and three o'clock, the marches came together and an estimated 5,000 people converged on the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE). A fire hydrant was set off, symbolising the freeing of the Walbrook river, and the lower entrance to the LIFFE was bricked up. Banners were hung, reading Global Ecology Not Global Economy, and The Earth Is A Common Treasury For All, the latter a quote from Gerrard Winstanley of the seventeenth century Diggers movement. Graffiti messages were sprayed and CCTV cameras were disabled. Then sound systems set up and punk bands played. After the peaceful afternoon, protesters broke into the building and when the police intervened, a riot began. Monitors from the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group attempted to keep track of who the police were arresting and why. The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, known as LIFFE (pronounced life as in human life, and never liff-eee) is a financial futures market based in London. ...
The Walbrook river played a key role in the Roman settlement of Londinium, the city now known as London. ...
Gerrard Winstanley (1609 - September 10, 1676) was an English Protestant religious reformer and political activist during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. ...
Woodcut from a Diggers document by William Everard The Diggers were a group, begun by Gerrard Winstanley as True Levellers in 1649, who became known as Diggers due to their activities. ...
We’d failed in our under-ambition. Unprepared, we never imagined we could get so close to occupying a trading floor in one of the City’s major exchanges. We’d planned the wall, and built it. We’d planned to free the Walbrook, and done it. But we’d stopped short of planning a full-scale occupation. (Wat Tyler, 2003).
The rest of the afternoon became a battle as police using horses and personal incapacitant spray containing CS gas pushed the protesters down Lower Thames Street and out of the City of London. In the aftermath, protesters gathered peacefully in Trafalgar Square. CS or 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (chemical formula: C10H5ClN2) is a substance that is used as a riot control agent and is usually claimed to be non-lethal by the forces who use it. ...
Coat of arms The City of London is a small area in Greater London. ...
Trafalgar Square viewed from the northeast corner. ...
Internet coverage Using techniques which at the time were new and would soon form the basis of the Indymedia network, the day's events were transmitted live over the internet until the servers were blocked up by the sheer volume of traffic. The Independent Media Center, also called Indymedia or the IMC, is a loose network of amateur or alternative media organizations and journalists who organize into decentralized collectives, normally around geographic locations. ...
The electronic civil disobedience group called for a virtual sit-in of the Mexican embassy in London and brought the embassy website to a standstill. Electronic civil disobedience, also known as ECD or cyber civil disobedience, can refer to any type of civil disobedience in which the participants use information technology to carry out their actions. ...
A form of electronic civil disobedience deriving its name from the sit-ins popular during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, a virtual sit-in attempts to re-create that same action digitally using a DDoS. During a virtual sit-in, hundreds of activists attempt to access a target...
Global In Nigeria, 10,000 people took to the streets of Port Harcourt. A street was renamed in honour of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his younger brother Owens addressed the crowd. Location of Port Harcourt in Nigeria Port Harcourt is a city located in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. ...
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (October 10, 1941 - November 10, 1995) was a Nigerian author, television producer and environmental activist. ...
The June 18 events were as diverse as the groups taking part. In Barcelona "street reclaimers" invoked the slogan of the rebellious Paris students of 1968, "Sous les paves, la plage" ("Under the sidewalk, the beach") and, dressed in swimming costumes, put out towels and sun-bathed on the road, handed out french fries to commuters in their cars, and later took part in a 700-strong street party. Music and dancing also hit the streets of San Francisco with "art attackers" who, armed with giant puppets and candy, lobbied those working for multinationals that exploit sweatshop workers to take the day off work and "join the revolution." In Melbourne, Australia, Kim Beazely, leader of the opposition, received a custard pie in the face for speaking at a global trade conference sponsored by Shell, while thousands of party goers in Sydney held up traffic as a massive street festival got underway. [3]
In total there were protests in 40 countries, these included Tel Aviv, Minsk, Madrid, Valencia, Prague, Hamburg, Koln, Milan, Rome, Siena, Florence, Ancona, Amsterdam, Madrid, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Zurich, Geneva, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Boston, and Eugene.[4]
After the day
Arrests In the United Kingdom, James Borek pled guilty in January 2004 to Section 20 Unlawful Wounding (GBH) and two violent disorder charges, plus an additional charge of skipping bail in 2000. He received a four and a half year sentence. A total of sixteen people were arrested on the day. The Metropolitan Police made a website listing 138 photographs of those wanted for further questioning. Using CCTV footage extensively, they had arrested a further 50 people one year on. Mark Brown, a descendant of Derek Vestey was charged, and later acquitted, of public order offences. Metropolitan Police redirects here. ...
Derek Vestey is alive today in England and is titled Sir Derek Vestey [presumably not the one that founded the Vestey Group in 1897]. The third and current Lord Vestey is Samuel Armstrong Vestey of Stowell Park near Northleach. ...
In Eugene, Oregon Rob Thaxton was sentenced to 88 months in jail after throwing a rock at a police officer, breaking the officer's collarbone, whilst trying to avoid arrest. Eugene is a common first name that comes from a Greek word meaning well-born. It is from this same meaning that the term Eugenics derives its meaning. ...
Official language(s) None Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area Ranked 9th - Total 98,466 sq mi (255,026 km²) - Width 260 miles (420 km) - Length 360 miles (580 km) - % water 2. ...
Robert Los Ricos Thaxton in 2001 Robert Thaxton (born December 31, 1959) is an anarchist theorist and activist sentenced to seven years in prison for assaulting a police officer at a Reclaim the Streets protest in Eugene, Oregon on June 18, 1999. ...
Later events J18 was the first in the line of huge anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation protests. Since then there have been many protests, the largest being the following: Anti-capitalism is any and all opposition to capitalism. ...
Anti-globalization (anti-globalisation) is a political stance of opposition to the perceived negative aspects of globalization. ...
For other uses of the initials WTO, see WTO (disambiguation). ...
On November 30, 1999, the World Trade Organization convened in Seattle, Washington, USA, for what was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations. ...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by observing exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering financial and technical assistance when requested. ...
Logo of the World Bank The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, in Romance languages: BIRD), better known as the World Bank, is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by WWII. Now, its mission has expanded to fight poverty by means...
Anti-capitalist Protests in Prague during the IMF and World Bank summit in September 2000 in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. ...
Official family picture The 27th G8 summit took place in Genoa, Italy, in July 2001. ...
Official G8 2005 Portrait. ...
Gleneagles Hotel and grounds. ...
Perthshire (Siorrachd Pheairt in Gaelic) is a traditional county in central Scotland, which extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south. ...
Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots2 Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen of the UK Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification - by...
See also Reclaim the Streets (RTS) is a group of people with a collective ideal of community ownership of public spaces. ...
Monkey wrench and stone hammer, group symbol Earth First! is a radical environmentalist movement, pioneered in the early 1980s by Arizona desert activists Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and others. ...
Peoples Global Action demonstrators in Prague in September 2000. ...
Tactical Frivolity is a form of public protest. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
On November 30, 1999, the World Trade Organization convened in Seattle, Washington, USA, for what was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations. ...
G8 Alternatives was a coalition of activist groups set up to co-ordinate actions around the 31st G8 summit held at Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland. ...
The Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, also known as the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference of the WTO and abbreviated as MC6, was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai, Hong Kong from 13th to 18th December 2005. ...
References - Notes
- Anonymous, J18 1999 Our resistance is as transnational as capital, Days of Dissent, 2004.
- Katherine Ainger, Global Carnival Against Capital, Z Magazine, September 1999.
- Anonymous, Friday June 18th 1999, Confronting Capital And Smashing The State!, article in Do or Die 8.
- Wat Tyler(2003), Dancing at the Edge of Chaos: a Spanner in the Works of Global Capitalism, in, Notes From Nowhere (Eds.) We Are Everywhere: the Irresistable Rise of Global Anticapitalism188-195. Verso, London/New York 2003 ISBN 1-85984-447-2
- Complete list of actions worldwide
- J18 Timeline London
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