I agree that both the protest and the summit itself were failures. I believe the summit was always going to be a failure for the vast majority of the people in the world, that's why most people were protesting. I believe the protest was a failure because the summit was allowed to continue to it's unholy end and of course a protester was shot in the face and then run over twice by the 'serve and protect' mob.

However, the implications that the violence of the protesters caused the police to act violently and the plea to the G8 not to allow that violence to hinder their action in helping the 3rd world seem very naive.

If the condemnation of the violence is because of the property destruction caused I think Oxfam should save their resources to condemn the destruction caused by global capitalism, of which I'm sure they're painfully aware.

If the condemnation is because of the supposed retaliation of the police on peaceful protesters, I must ask if you believe the police violence would not have happened anyway. Anyone who witnessed their brutality in dealing with ANY protesters would have seen what the polices intention was from the start.

Asking the G8 not to allow this to stop them in their work seems ludicrous. It is them who are holding the people and planet by the testicles and beating them with a big stick, grabbing any loose change that falls out of their pockets while they go.

To say that violent protest hijacked the political space also seems bizarre. For a start, the "minority of extremists" were fighting for largely the same thing as the peaceful protesters, just using different tactics. Also, one would hope that Tory Blair and his cohorts would get their information from a more reliably source than The Sun and would therefore know that there were 300,000 peaceful protesters on the streets. Unfortunately I also believe that he will ignore their voices in the same way he'll ignore those of everyone else who's not bank rolling his next election campaign.

I think we need a reality check. Forgetting about all the other effects of global capitalism for a second, debt kills a child every 4 minutes (or whatever is it). Do we think that a group of people who have that much blood on their hands could care less about 300,000 people on the streets, or about a few smashed up banks for that matter.

The claim that peaceful protests at previous meetings had a positive effect comes with little evidence to back it up. Some examples would be gratefully received.

In an attempt to end on a positive note, the demonstration was massive and the resistance is growing. What we have to ask though is 'what next?'.

I agree that both the protest and the summit itself were failures. I believe the summit was always going to be a failure for the vast majority of the people in the world, that's why most people were protesting. I believe the protest was a failure because the summit was allowed to continue to it's unholy end and of course a protester was shot in the face and then run over twice by the 'serve and protect' mob.

However, the implications that the violence of the protesters caused the police to act violently and the plea to the G8 not to allow that violence to hinder their action in helping the 3rd world seem very naive.

If the condemnation of the violence is because of the property destruction caused I think Oxfam should save their resources to condemn the destruction caused by global capitalism, of which I'm sure they're painfully aware.

If the condemnation is because of the supposed retaliation of the police on peaceful protesters, I must ask if you believe the police violence would not have happened anyway. Anyone who witnessed their brutality in dealing with ANY protesters would have seen what the polices intention was from the start.

Asking the G8 not to allow this to stop them in their work seems ludicrous. It is them who are holding the people and planet by the testicles and beating them with a big stick, grabbing any loose change that falls out of their pockets while they go.

To say that violent protest hijacked the political space also seems bizarre. For a start, the "minority of extremists" were fighting for largely the same thing as the peaceful protesters, just using different tactics. Also, one would hope that Tory Blair and his cohorts would get their information from a more reliably source than The Sun and would therefore know that there were 300,000 peaceful protesters on the streets. Unfortunately I also believe that he will ignore their voices in the same way he'll ignore those of everyone else who's not bank rolling his next election campaign.

I think we need a reality check. Forgetting about all the other effects of global capitalism for a second, debt kills a child every 4 minutes (or whatever is it). Do we think that a group of people who have that much blood on their hands could care less about 300,000 people on the streets, or about a few smashed up banks for that matter.

The claim that peaceful protests at previous meetings had a positive effect comes with little evidence to back it up. Some examples would be gratefully received.

In an attempt to end on a positive note, the demonstration was massive and the resistance is growing. What we have to ask though is 'what next?'.