G8 - A PSNI Smokescreen

TPQ carries a press release from the G8 Not Welcome to Ireland group. It initially featured on the group's website:
G8 Not Welcome Demo: March from Enniskillen Library to G8 venue …  Monday 17th June 2013 at 18:30

Statements

G8 summit used by PSNI as a smokescreen says G8 not welcome group

“The G8 summit is being used by the PSNI as a smokescreen for cracking down on civil liberties,” a spokesman for opponents of the meeting of world leaders in Fermanagh has said. “And the main political parties are going along with it”.

The protest group, which draws members from Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh and Derry, met in Dungannon last Thursday night.

Our meeting was at least double the size of previous planning meetings,” said the spokesman:


The feedback shows increasing interest from local communities angry at the waste of public money. There is resentment at the pretence that what is good for a few well- heeled business people and politicians is good for everybody.

The meeting also expressed the anger in communities at the way the PSNI and politicians are talking up the possibility of disruption in order to persuade people that their extraordinary clampdown on dissent is justified.

Anybody who thinks that the security measures being put in place for the GB will simply be lifted when the G8 goes away is naive. All precedent suggests otherwise. This is a serious invasion of the right to protest, which should be resisted.

A ‘ring of steel’ is being erected around a wide area. The perimeter is to be patrolled not only by the PSNI but also by 3,500 police brought in from across the water. They are to be backed up by units of the British Army on standby. Helicopters will fly overhead. The PSNI has acquired drones, so as to increase its ability to spy on people exercising their democratic right to show opposition to the austerity, war mongering, and disrespect for the environment represented by the G8   - as well as internment without trial at Guantanamo.

On top of all this, US security personnel are to patrol the area. This is outrageous.

The fact that all this has been allowed to happen without any debate whatsoever at Stormont emphasises how vulnerable our civil liberties are and the need for ordinary people to get together to take a stand for civil rights and to oppose what amounts to the imposition of a virtual state of emergency.

The spokesman said that buses will be travelling to a march in Enniskillen on Monday, June 17th from Belfast, Dublin, Derry and Galway, as well as smaller towns. Further local meetings are planned for Cookstown, Dungannon, Armagh, Newry and Omagh over next three weeks.

The Dungannon meeting organised sessions for making banners and workshops to discuss the detail of the Enniskillen demonstration.

A website, http://opposefermanaghg8.wordpress.com, has been set up as an “information board”. It will publish regular updates on organisation and carry information on available transport.

Members of the group based in Fermanagh intend providing a town map with key points marked – assembly point / route of march / access to toilets / disability parking / speaking point / political discussion / activities area, etc. This will also be uploaded on the website.



Opponents of  G8 have promised a “massive show of opposition”


Opponents of the G8 summit have promised a “massive show of opposition” when world leaders meet next month in Fermanagh.

A group of political activists has been convened to organise support for a demonstration in Enniskillen on Monday June 17th, when the G8 will be in talks nearby at the Lough Erne Resort. The anti-G8 group is made up of people from across the north of Ireland.

The G8 gathering will see the main advocates of austerity come together to coordinate policies for making ordinary people pay for the crisis created by the banks and big business. The summit is being used to stifle objections to the economic priorities of a global elite. The threat of fracking, not just in Fermanagh but also in Sligo, Leitrim, Tyrone and more widely, will loom larger after the G8 and their entourages have gone away.

Without exception, the G8 leaders support drone strikes which have killed hundreds of innocent people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere. Yet it is those who campaign against this slaughter who are being denounced in advance of the G8 meeting as posing a threat of violence.

At present, a hundred men interned without charge or trial at Guantanamo Bay, are on hunger strike. The anti-G8 group is calling on all those who opposed internment or supported the hunger strike here in 1981 to take a stand against the same abuses now.

The summit is being used as cover for a major attack on civil liberties. Around 3,000 police are being drafted in from Britain. Roads are being closed and local people denied freedom of movement. A new law has been rushed through Stormont to allow courts to sit at night and on Sunday. Latest word is that emergency legislation has been passed to permit the authorities close down mobile phone networks in order to prevent a peaceful protest being organised.

The PSNI has acquired its own drones to intimidate and spy on peaceful protestors. All this has happened without a hint of protest from a single member of the Policing Board or any of the parties represented on the Board. This shows the extent to which the G8 summit is being used to facilitate a crackdown on civil rights.

If this were happening in any other context, there would be howls of anger so loud that many might fear for the future of the Stormont institutions. But because this is the G8, there isn’t a word of protest from certain quarters.

The anti-G8 group says that it is in touch with others also opposed to the G8 summit. There will be moves to coordinate all activities over the coming days.

It has been suggested that where possible protesters should travel to Enniskillen, ideally a day or two in advance of the march, prepare for camping outside, and expect traffic delays due to security checks.

6 comments:

  1. Not a lot of information on the organisation behind this.

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  2. Who are this group? The G8 is more of a political smoke screen than a policing one. The curtailment of individual and collective freedoms stems from the decision to host the event in the north as further evidence of normalcy. Cameron is keen to show off the progress made via the GFA.

    Fifteen years ago the security situation would not have inspired confidence in the political class to hold such an important meeting in the north of Ireland. Today, they feel comfortable about bringing the general mangers of global capitalism to the beautiful loughs of Fermanagh. The "dissident" republican threat is containable, if existent at all, and the Irish left is a toothless tiger.

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  3. has anyone clicked on the link at the top of this page, "OPPOSE.FERMANAGH.G8" ,? , I clicked on it and got no were. RNU are supporting it as wellas Eammon Mc Cann is leading it on day one.

    if you hover over the link and then look at the bottom right of your screen , there is no http or www nor .com , .org , or anything.

    they are on Facebook.
    G8 Facebook

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  4. http://www.wsm.ie/c/press-release-anarchists-condemn-g8-scaremongering


    Anarchists Condemn G8 Scaremongering

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  5. This piece has been updated due to a number of small errors in the original.

    Itsjustmacker, the link is working at this end. Try it again.

    ReplyDelete