The G8 summit protests in Gleneagles 2005

Abstract

The G8 summit is an annual meeting of the Group of Eight most industrialized nations (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, the UK, the United States and, since 1998, Russia). It is designed to help form a consensus around issues of mutual political and economic importance. The 2005 G8 summit in Scotland, however, was met by protest networks active within the global justice movement who had organized a number of activities to draw attention to the responsibility of the G8 for continued poverty, exploitation, and environmental destruction across the globe. Relations between the multiplicity of actors associated with the global justice movement have never been straightforward, given the diversity of their tactics, strategies, and aims. At past protest events there had been at least some sense of unity against the effects of neoliberal globalization and the institutions associated with it. In Scotland, however, three different component forces of the movement organized separately from, and in many ways in opposition to, one another. Importantly, efforts ranged from a pro-G8 stance intent on lobbying the G8, to a complete rejection of the G8 and the capitalist system its stands for. Additionally, the massive Live 8 concerts, organized by philanthropic pop stars such as Bob Geldof and Bono, were a new feature of the summit events. Further to this, the UK government, as host to the ...