Feedback from the Festival of Dissent 6-10th April

The Festival of Dissent took place to plan resistance to the G8 summit, to further educate themselves, and to build and discuss better ways of living and working together with their local communities.

For those who don't yet know what Dissent is...... The Dissent! Network formed to provide a networking tool to co-ordinate radical resistance to the G8 Summit at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland on 6-8th July 2005. The network was formed in the autumn of 2003 by a group of people who have previously been involved in radical ecological direct action, Peoples' Global Action, the anti-war movement and the global anti-capitalist movement which has emerged around meetings of those that rule over us. The Network has no central office, no spokespeople, no membership list and no paid staff. It's a mechanism for communication and co-ordination between local groups and working groups involved in building resistance to the G8, and capitalism in general.

Some feedback on some of the workshops attended:

Convergence spaces was a discussion that took centre stage. The organisation of these spaces is a big job and needs people, particularly before the start of the summit - to get involved email  dissentconvergence@yahoo.co.uk . A wish list for tat was drawn up and no doubt will be on the dissent website soon. If people in Sheffield can provide stuff there may be scope for co-ordinating taking it up to Scotland when the time comes.

Publicity - Dissent posters were available at the festival calling for action at the Gleneagles summit. If you think you can put some up somewhere (other than your bedroom wall!!!) contact  sheffieldg8posters@yahoo.co.uk and some can be posted out to you. Stickers coming soon! Hopefully people doing publicity for the Sheffield anti-g8 events could put the national ones up at the same time and draw attention to both convergences. People wanting to do general anti-G8 awareness raising can find lots of useful resources on the dissent website for info stalls etc.

Action medics - street medics for the days of action are needed. Workshops at the festival provided some basics, but further training days have were announced for those wanting to get involved as street medics. See www.actionmedics.org.uk for more details. Training events nearest to Sheffield are May 27-29 in Manchester and June 10-12 in Nottingham. Information on basic first aid training for demos is up on their site at www.actionmedics.org.uk/BasicFirstAid.html

Scottish Law workshop - Scottish law differs to English law in some fundament respects. The key message was that people who have some familiarity with English law should be very wary about how they apply it to Scotland. Full legal briefing for people going to Scotland this summer is on www.g8legalsupport.info. There is also a need for more legal observers. If you feel you can get involved and help out email  g8legalsupport@riseup.net

Activist Trauma working group was set-up aiming to offer advice and help for traumatised activists and their support, especially for the G8, preparing info material about psychological consequences of political violence (PTSD etc.), offering workshops about trauma, organising training for supporters. If you are interested email  activist_trauma@riseup.net . There is likely to be some training days held in May/June time

Beacons of Dissent - this idea has gathered pace since the gathering. The idea is that on Mayday beacons will be lit in Scotland signalling a call for assistance in resisting the G8. It is hoped that cities will respond to this call for help by lighting beacons in their home towns before the Solstice. More info at www.dissent.org.uk/content/view/169/2/

CIRCA - The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army provided training for new recruits. Hopefully CIRCA will be coming to Sheffield over 10-12 June for training. Check out  http://labofii.net/tour05.

The next Dissent Network gathering will take place in Nottingham in May - watch out on the dissent website for details.