Draft 17M-D
On 16th-17th June, 2005, the G8 justice and home office ministers will meet in Sheffield. They will be discussing how to enforce Bush's 'War on Terror'. They represent the justice of indefinite detention without judicial review, the type of justice that takes you abroad if the local laws won't allow torture, that at Guantanamo Bay treats American citizens one way and everyone else (including British citizens) in another and that believes that presumption of innocence is a dangerous luxury.
They are the people who think that inspiring a lively sense of terror in their subjects makes ID cards for kids ok, and that driving out asylum seekers who were not quite oppressed enough is more important than social justice for their own people. And this will be one in a round of our on-going resistance to the G8 in the UK , as we believe that a better world can, should and will be possible if only they will let it.
Coming as this does only three weeks before the main G8 meeting in Gleneagles in July, we invite the movement to look at the G8 justice ministers meeting in Sheffield as part of the road to Gleneagles, the second round in an increasing salvo of protest in the name of civil liberties.
And so the people of Sheffield are calling on the movement for action to be taken and alternatives to be presented to these people. We are willing to offer our support for any groups coming to Sheffield (eg convergence centre for accommodation, communication and legal support), suggesting that the movement should run a week of counter conference events leading up to the summit, and offering the Sheffield Social Forum as a coordinating space for action.
Contact: g8-sheffield@lists.aktivix.org (Any more contacts?)