Not neccesarily through the mass media, but we need more of an effort to engage with non activists - particuarly on the issue of violence and property destruction - call it outreach, PR, propaganda, whatever, but it needs to be done. How the hell are we supposed to make an impact on the rest of the country if we don't combat this perception of us as some sort of lunatic fringe group. In Stirling we had the good wishes of the locals, until the burger king and shit got smashed - from that point on they were scared (local small businesses boarding up their windows) and furious (my friends got things thrown at them in town and called terrorists, a van driver tried to run me over outside the station).

We need to let the public know - 1. there is a huge diversity of methods used by activists, and though we try to maintain repect for these methods, you can't blame the actions of a minority on an entire movement, or even on a bloc within that movement. Solidarity is obviously important, but these actions were commited by individuals, exercising their individual freedom as they saw fit.

2. Property destruction is not intended as an attack on these people's communities, but against the corporate and state apparatus that have hijacked the idea of community. (Insert your own rationalisation for violence/property destruction here).

3. Most violence at the summit was provoked by heavy handed and brutal policing.

4. Masks are worn not out of cowardice, but in solidarity with eachother, particularly those who are willing to risk imprisonment for their freedom - and also cos being seen and photographed at a demo or action can result in undeserved harrassment.

5. In the case of public actions, there needs to be some room for substantial discourse on the issues we're protesting, rather than sloganeering.

These are some of the main issues as i see them - i dunno if others will agree, but its the responsibility of everyone to explain their own actions. Otherwise how the hell are we supposed to achieve anything if we don't have popular support? Thats what i reckon anyway.

As one who lives and works in Stirling I apologise for some people's behaviour to you and your friends during your stay here.

Rest assured the people of Stirling I've spoken to at work and at home couldn't really give a toss about Burger King, KFC etc. being vandalised or wrecked. They also couldn't give a toss about the motorway being blocked. It was blocked for a time but was back to normal an hour or two later.

People can believe what they want to but some peoples homes WERE vandalised during that morning's proceedings.

I am in the process of getting some photographs together to put up on this website to show that there was in fact innocent bystanders who had their property vandalised and spraypainted that morning.

Hopefully the people at Indymedia.org will let me post the photos and they will be allowed to stay up without being "censored".

The people of Stirling were with you and indeed I know many who went down to the eco village and spent many a time there and thoroughly enjoyed their time and the company of the people there.

With the peoples homes being vandalised though. Perhaps things were taken a little too far and this is perhaps why your friends had things thrown at them and called "terrorists".

We've had a few emails to the rampart regarding the debrief on friday with suggestions for discussion points and offers of films or facilitation.

So, here is a rough outline for a possible agenda.

6pm preparing food, help appreciated
7pm start to eat food
8pm Music video 'Fuck the G8 - Riot'
two 5min videos of CIRCA in action
more video (screening contributions please or they'll be poor quality downloads)
.. carnival for full enjoyment
.. stirling blac block
.. breaching of fences
.. boogie on the bridge
8.30 introduction and go-round
pre-g8 communication and planning
transport and logistics
accomodation and infrastructure
communication during the week
saturday and the MPH march
carnival for full enjoyment
'blac bloc' actions
the clowns
blockades on wednesday
g8 alternatives march (inc Edingbugh protest)
march fence breaches
other breaches of the perimeter
outreach and 'our' media
mainstream media and PR spin doctors
police tactics
prisoner support and legal work
conclusions and moving forward

The aim for each agenda item will be to answer the questions "what worked?", "what didn't work?", "why did it work?" , or if it didn't "why not and how could it have been made to work?"

However, if we gave just ten minutes to each item it would take three hours so we'll never get through it all in one group so depending on the numbers that attend we'll probably have to break up into smaller discussion groups around the building. Volunteers for facilitation and ideas on how to do it would be greatly appreciated.

It might be that we would be best simply scratching at the surface this time in order to keep memories fresh and use the occasion to prepare either a future day long event which allows a more indepth analysis or smaller meetings looking at specific issues.

There is also the suggestion to organise post-G8 workshops at the big green gathering.

A final issue... should we, and if so, how, document and propogate the output of the debrief to other people so that they may also benefit from the discussions?

It could simply be that notes are taken, written up and published. Or it could be that there are audio recordings made and either transcribed or published as audio. Perhaps a video could be produced but it is unlikely that all attending would be happy with that.
Another possibility would be to have a live audio stream made via rampart radio and people listening could feed comments into the discussion via IRC.


Please make your comments and suggestions here...