[Media G8way | Gipfelsoli Infogroup]

Press Release July 12th 2008

• “G8 are the problem, not the solution”
• Solidarity with the prisoners

On Saturday July 12th, there will be global action day “J12” in solidarity with the anti-G8-resistance in Japan. Rallies are planned at Japanese embassies worldwide to strengthen the dissent against neoliberal politics.

Groups and individuals in Japan held conferences, camps, action days and demonstrations to express their dissent against neoliberal globalization which creates war, discrimination, poverty, surveillance and control. “Faced with heavy obstacles we came to Japan to protest against the G8”, says Mary Brookes, one of the international activists. “The G8 are the problem, not the solution”. Demonstrations were held in many other countries worldwide in support of protests in northern Japan.

[Media G8way]

Press Release July 9th 2008

• Hundreds join Ainu march
• International Activists Call for Support for Japanese Prisoners

Today, in the concluding event of ten days of G8 protests, hundreds of activists from three protest camps marched in a demonstration organized by the Ainu, a disenfranchised indigenous population of Hokkaido, the island where the G8 summit is being held. The march was surrounded by several rows of police the entire time. Protesters were holding signs in English and Japanese saying “No G8”, and “Japan is a police state”.

[Toyoura Camp Press Group]

Press Release July 8th 2008

• The event concludes ten days of actions worldwide

Today (Thursday) at 10am, hundreds of activists from the three protest camps will join an Anti-G8 demonstration organized by the Ainu, a marginalized indigenous population of Hokkaido, where the G8 summit is being held.

The demonstration will start tomorrow at 10am at Shimokubonai, in front of the bus stop. It is organized by Ainu Moshiri Renraku-Kai. According to Ainu activists “The Ainu are the most oppressed indigenous community in Japantoday. The Japanese government acknowledged the Ainu for the first time just one month ago, obviously to avoid criticism during the summit – since the Ainu are the ‘traditional land owners’ of Hokkaido for thousands of years. The way the Japanese government treats them is a symbol of the way the G8 treats the world”.

[Toyoura Camp Press Group]

• More actions tomorrow at camps

Hundreds of Japanese and international activists walked today from Toyora Protest Camp towards the G8 summit at Lake Toya, before being stopped by the police. The march, which proceeded peacefully for 20 kilometers, was surrounded by police throughout the duration and stopped 4 kilometers away from the hotel where the Summit is held. Demonstrators are calling for an end to the G8 meetings, charging that the leaders of the eight richest countries make decisions that affect the whole world, yet are fundamentally unaccountable to the poor of the world. The march occurred simultaneously with another march that left from the other two Protest Camps surrounding the summit.

[Gipfelsoli Infogroup | Media G8way]

Press Release July 7th 2008

• Japan: Summit protests are relocating
• Japanese army is supporting the police

This weekend the anti-G8 summit protests relocated from Sapporo to the vicinity of Lake Toya where the G8 summit is taking place. Around 1 000 activists are spread over the protest camps Toyoura, Soubetsu and Da-te. A number of official demonstrations have been registered against the official G8 summit. The goal is to get as close as possible to the conference hotel.

[Toyoura Camp Press Group]

Press release July 7th 2008

• Tuesday 8am – Action at Toyoura camp

Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8 am, a march will start at Toyoura camp, heading to the direction of the G8 summit. Further details will be given at 7.45am at Toyoura camp gate.

Today at noon, a group of 50 Japanese and international activists walked out of the Toyoura camp to the train station to protest the G8 Summit and express solidarity for three anti-G8 activists who were arrested on July 5th. One kilometer away from the camp, they were stopped by over a hundred police. Police told demonstrators that the walk was an unregistered protest. The activists verbally asserted their rights to walk to the train station, but they were eventually forced to turn back.

From the No! G8 Legal Team July 6, 2008

• Arrestees are still in jail and face years in prison
• Local organizers may face arrests
• Arrestees and organizers friends and families are facing harassment and possible house raids by police

Activists and organizers are asking local groups and individuals to call, e-mail, visit and protest at Japanese embassies over the unjust arrests, detentions, deportations, and repression occurring around counter-G8 mobilization in Japan.

Japanese police continue to escalate repression against protesters of the Group of 8 Summit. This is part of a growing trend of the suppression of human rights in Japan. Yesterday’s demonstration of approximately five thousand was lined with, and sometimes boxed in by, several thousand police in full riot gear. At least four people – including a Reuters reporter – were arrested.

[Media G8way]

Press release July 5th

• 3 anti-g8 protesters, Reuters journalist arrested today in Japan

On the eve of the 2008 G8 Summit, thousands took to the streets of Sapporo, Japan, today to call for an end to the undemocratic policy-making and wars of G8 member states. The protest, which was a coalition effort of NGOs, trade unions, leftist organizations, anti-authoritarian organizers, and independent activists, culminated in the arrest of three protesters and a Reuters photographer.

“The rally today illustrated both the powerful global justice movement underway in Japan and worldwide, and the police repression that grassroots activists face,” said David Solnit, a US activist. “People are realizing that the G8 claims to be a force against hunger, poverty, and climate change, yet with each meeting, they only institute policies that perpetuate these things – “aid” packages that trap poor countries into debt, fossil fuel-based energy systems that create climate change, and war.”

[Media G8way]

Press Release July 5th 2008

Thousands Expected in Japan on 5th of July

Today at 13:00, people from Japan and around the world will be taking to the streets of Sapporo, Japan, to challenge the G8 and call for peace. Organizers expect the event to draw 10,000 people and to be the biggest demonstration during the Japan 2008 G8 Summit. The anti-war action has been organized by a coalition of Japanese and International NGOs, trade unions, leftist organizations, anti-authoritarian groups, and independent activists.

“Japanese police may see some things they are not used to in the demonstration today”, a Japanese activist who wished to remain anonymous said.

[Gipfelsoli Infogroup | Media G8way]

Press Release July 3rd 2008

• G8 Japan: Protests in Europe begin tomorrow
• Thematic days of action in Japan
• Daily demonstrations in Sapporo

[Berlin | London | Sapporo] This coming Monday 7 July is the opening day of this year’s G8 Summit, which will be held at Lake Toya on the Japanese Peninsula of Hokkaido. Following last week’s demonstrations in Japan, there will be protests against the G8 in Europe and other countries world-wide.

Japanese groups have called for a Global Day of Action on July 5th. Countries in Europe that will hold demonstrations and rallies include Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. In London anti-G8 activists will gather at the Uk Border Agency for a “Plan C”: “It is time to join forces, for freedom of movement, the freedom to protest and equal rights for all!”. Resistance against the G8 summit is also expected in other Asian countries.