2007-06-13 

G8 2007 Heiligendamm - What's hot and not

• Wandergesellen An itinerant crafts people with a tradition dating back to the 12th century. Not only do they sport shapely, arse-hugging, double zipper cords and sexy Han Solo waistcoats they also created the most incredible camp at Reddelich. We were all feeling the spacious showers, the capacious bar and the bodacious children’s playground.
  As a cultural phenomena they have gone from geek to chic in an astonishingly short space of time

• Widening the cracks* The resistance metaphor du jour and an ‘an endless source of smirks, giggles and wise-cracks’. ho ho! . From the five fingers* widening the cracks of the G8 summit itself to the Anarchist Teapot Sound System for widening the cracks of activist music dogma.
  -cracks were widened everywhere.

• The unsung heroes of the resistance
  It was not all about front-line glory – from the guy who spent every afternoon picking up the litter, Carlos Camper who fielded the world’s media at the camp gates to the people that held the front-line of porta-loo hygiene. None of it would have been possible without them.

• Tandems – the new buddies

• The Concierge – Welcome tents are so last year

• Centralised washing up systems
  A massive leap forward in camp hygiene and a possible explanation for this year’s lack of Dissent!ry

• Pink and black international brigades t-shirts
  This season’s must have commodification of our resistance

• Out of Action barrio
  Providing medical help, chill out, support spaces and great coffee!

• Mobile Kitchens at the blockades for feeding the front lines

• The Hedonist International
  For squatting extra land at Rostock, for the old skool hay bale rave and for mobilising the musical cavalry to the demos and blockades

• Working with the local communities
  Never goes out of fashion. There was not enough but what there was, was hot

• Dry nights before actions
  BLOCK FIRST – DRINK LATER
  Slightly undermined by all the other bars everywhere but a great idea.

• Forest, poppies and relentless sunshine

• The blockades
  Both mass and autonomous- huge, diverse, sexy, inspiring- Que scorchio!!!!!
  You could not see the five fingers in action without it stirring your loins so many tales of caring, sharing, solidarity, dignity and grace under pressure. Having a plan made a big difference and we hope to be seeing more of this in seasons to come.

• And last but by no means least
  A marked improvement from 2005- The main event was stopping the G8 from happening rather than welcoming them to do more—- Hot!

*What’s not *

• Lack of queer male wandegesellen
  Don’t worry boys! The what’s hot team have it on good authority that there is one joining in six months time

• Insurectionary ManArchists
  Aggressive,unreasonable, and a constant source of movement strife. Can you please go and insurrect someone where else and come back after you have had some gender awareness workshops!

• “Confusing tactics with political principals -In reference to those who would rather fight than win”

• Gender balance in Turbulence- otherwise it would have been on the Hot list.

• Shitting by the sides of the blockades- Companer@s please!!!!!!

• Peter Wahl from Attac
  Could you take any more distance ? Actually yes, please take more distance.

• Chemical toilets and the absence of compost toilets

• Silo guarders
  A big thank you to all the people that put there time and energy into protecting the strategically important grain silos. Not only were our beautiful Mexican companer@s not allowed up there but the Queer barrio took action against the silo guarders due to reports that they had their binoculars trained on the showers during women’s showering hours…
  so not hot

• Queer Identitarianism- kind of defeats the whole point, no?

• Camera Paranoia
  There are helicopters flying overhead with technology beyond our imagination, cops on every demo with a plethora of cameras and everyone has a mobile with a camera on it anyway. So why go intimidating and in some cases attacking movement-based independent journalists?

• The Suicide Block
  For going 100m away from the camp to the small village of Reddelich, taking down some garden fences, dismantling a rockery garden, throwing some mollies around then going back home to bed. Oh and bringing the riot cops home with you. A lot of posturing for, well, nothing really.

• The Counter summit for taking place on the same day as the blockades. Whose bright idea was that?

Footnotes

• the word crack has several meanings, in this case it is provoking giggling as it is a slang word for the part between your buttocks.

• the five fingers tactic was the technique used to break through the police lines and worked incredibly effectively. Upon reaching a police line the mass of people would divide into five fingers- becoming an ungovernable mass.

Past what’s hot and not

World Social forum 2007

hot

• Southeast Asian peasant hats (you have to see it to believe it)*
• China is the new imperialist, boo! (Fahamu rules)
• Slums and slum dwellers’ associations* (Korogocho and Kibera chic)
• Pakistani food vendors* (Anticapitalist curry was very hot)
• Biofuels*
• Repudiation (of debt)*
• Dag Hammerskjöld ‘What Next?’ series
• Getting your hands on a programme
• The Weather
• Disability rights
• LGBTI activism in Africa (the Q-Spot was the ultimate f@#k you to the Catholic CARITAS tent across the road)*
• Spontaneous freedom singing (except from the CARITAS tent)*
• Western Sahara (the new Palestine)*
• Dedan Kimathi and the Mau Mau*
• African Hip-Hop sung by disadvantaged yoof from the slums, innit*
• Direct action at the WSF itself (who’d have thunk it?)*
• Desmond Tutu* (token Nobel Laureate is still in this year)
• Tusker Beer (medium bodied with a nose of honeysuckle and melon and a candied apple finish).

not

• Sunburned Dutchies flaunting Palestinian accessories ( ie ‘we are all Palestinians!’ badges… yeah, whatever mate!)*
• Jambo! (touristy bastardization of Kiswahili greeting)*
• Wangari Mathaai* (proof that single issue campaigning is a bad idea)
• Che Guevara gear (I mean really, still!?)*
• The CARITAS tent (made songs of praise look like the Rocky Horror Picture Show)*
• One Plank bridge over the river Smeg
• Oxfam driving around in their SUVs
• Chômage (French unemployment is sooo last year)
• ‘Out of Africa’ film screening (“What? It’s got
  Africa in it….”)
• Spontaneous freedom drumming
• LGBTI activist being heckled at the WSF closing ceremony (that’s just not cool)
• Climate change (it may be hot but not at the WSF)
• WSF Organisers* (wouldn’t want to be one just now).
• Chanting ‘Who let the war out? Bush, Bush and Blair!’
  to the tune of ’Who let the dogs out? (thanks loser
  Stop the War person from London, you know who you are!)
• North American Indymedia activists from the West
  Coast (How many hugs do you need?!)*
• Celtel – ‘Making life more irritating!’

Whats not at the 2004 ESF and Automous Spaces.
Find out what’s been sizzling hot, and what’s strictly sub-zero at this year’s forum.

HOT

• Make capitalism History
• Venezuela
• Green Pepper (all new, all sexy)
• Squatting
• Chunky Necklaces
• Daughters of Famous Revolutionary Leaders
• Dissent! (trapese)
• Climate Change (making a surprise comeback)
• Old Skool Trakky bottoms
• Precarity (que scorchio!)
• Horizontal
• Both feet out
• Hula hoops and hooping
• Permanent War
• Organisation of Womens Freedom in Iraq
• Clowning (Circa, Crap)
• Peoples Golfing Action
• We are all over the place!
• Political Poetry
• Queer Arabs
• Flash Mobs
• Bumping into everyone you ever slept with (at the ESF)

NOT

• Make Poverty History
• Bolivia
• Red Pepper (we were there first!)
• The Millenium Dome
• German anarchist trousers
• GLA (SO OUT!)
• “G8 Alternatives” (Globalise Resistance, we know you are!)
• Casualisation of Labour
• Spanish Squat Mullets
• Diagonals/vertical
• Both feet in
• Fairy Wings
• War in Iraq
• Samba
• Beyond Peoples Global Action
• We are everywhere!
• Political Ranting
• Campesina Dykes (dropping down from last year)
• Mass Mobs
• Arguing with all your ex lovers in public during the ESF
  reclaim the streetcred

what’s hot and what’s not in the ESF 2003

hot

• GLAD
• Argentinian squatted factory scarfs
• Italian indymedia sunglasses and hairstyles
• Bolivia – the new Argentina
• migrant activism
• Mediterranean Free Trade Zone (pronounced mefftezz)
• Monbiot bashing reaching an all new high
• Tall scandinavian blondes flaunting palestinian accesories
• Re-evaluating Empire
• Campesina dykes
• Public transport campaigns, especially fare dodging
• Mass Parisian metro subvertising by Intermittents du spectacle
• Precarious workers
• Attac(k) Germany
• Wildcat strikes (miyaow)
• bride swapping between free spaces
• DISCO anarchism
• the berbers – oppressed ethnic group of the moment
• calf length black boots
• Asturias
• rural riotin
• meeting hand signals’ evolution
• activist/sex industry crossover

not

• Italian indymedia activists
• Argentina
• no border camps
• PGA European process (painful, but watch this space)
• Barcelona
• Linux and any other good techie idea that doesn’t work
• pompous punctuation
• Anarcho primitivists
• Ska punk
• Samba activism
• Greek riots
• large squat incest
• Palestinian scarfs (except on hot scandinavians)
• EF! Brighton
• formal consensus

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