Global resistance and summit protest

Seattle 1999, Washington and Prague 2000, Gothenburg and Genoa 2001, Quito 2002, Thessaloniki, Evian and Cancún 2003, Gleneagles, Mar del Plata and Hong Kong 2005 - these are just some of the sites of mass protest against global summits in recent years. The next stop is the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June 2007. Is this irrepressible
movement going to 'shut them down'?

On Sunday 18 March, the Transnational Institute, XminY, and
Dissent-NL will organise an activist symposium to reflect on 10 years of summit protest and evaluate the broader dynamics of the transnational movements that have unfolded beyond these global days of action. What effects have these summit protests had on the international institutions and their policies, and on the dynamic of global movements? How do global protest events in the North relate to the daily struggles in the Global South? What are the lessons for the future? And what are the
possibilities for new types of intervention in global power relations and for new way of practising solidarity? Two interconnected panels of activist researchers will open a space for analysis and reflection on these broader questions.

Programme (Sunday 18 April)

Location: Crea Theater, Turfdraagsterpad 17, Amsterdam

12.00-13.00 Arrival, short movies about previous summit protests, book fair

13.00-14.30 1st Panel: Historical Trajectories of global resistance

Speakers:

Peter Waterman, author of “Globalisation, social movements and the new internationalisms”
Gemma Galdón, Transnational Institute

This panel will highlight some important historical developments and trajectories of the resistance against neoliberal globalisation during the last 10 years. How has the global South inspired new practices of resistance in Northern countries? What was the meaning of events like
Seattle compared to a prior context of single-issue campaigning? Why did summits of international institutions become a focus of protest and resistance? How did the new alliances form between various actors, such as NGOs, trade unions, socialist groups and grassroots networks? What are the successes and failures of the 'politics of networking'?

14.30-15.00 Lunch break and short films about upcoming protests against G8 in Germany

15.00-16.30 2nd Panel: Envisioning strategies for global struggles and networking

Speakers:

Amory Starr, Colorado State University
Ben Trott, editor of “Shut them down!”

The second panel provides a space for thinking about present and future possibilities and directions of global movements. Facing the challenges that have been highlighted in the first panel, we would like to touch
upon the following questions: How do we avoid ending up with the old problem of single-issue politics, both ideologically and practically? What practices and types of intervention could produce concrete results? On what ground should we base the construction of shifting alliances? Do we need an alternative to the practice of networking? And what is the relationship between resisting neoliberal policies and creating alternative worlds?

Afterwards Drinks in Crea