Counter-G8 Strategy for May: "Global People's Summits"

Cumbre de los Pueblos, May 2010, Madrid

[Note: While noodling the other day on the topic of Strategies, I started playing with various Counter-G8 notions and came up with this one which I posted over at the Occupy National Strategy discussion group. The "People's Summit" idea, of course, has been around for a long time, indeed, it's been done in connection with previous G8, G20, WTO and other such con-fabs of Power in the past, if my memory serves. Of course, previously, there wasn't an Occupy Movement to coordinate something like a Global GA (OMG) to hammer out what should be done in the People's Interests rather than what will be done as a consequence of the Camp David G8 Summit. From what I can determine, a People's Summit was being planned for Chicago, and perhaps it is still in the process of development. My idea is a little different in that it would involve all the local Occupys -- and others, why not? -- that want to participate; it would be for the entire month of May, not simply a weekend, and its deliberations would be made available in real time and archived through web-video livestreaming.]



As we know, the Leaders of the World have decided to move their annual
meeting from Chicago to Camp David, a location so private and
inaccessible that said Leaders will have to be helicoptered in and
out, thus bypassing the People who might otherwise display their
displeasure at their Leaders. This tendency to hide their
deliberations and decisions behind layers of secrecy and to conduct
their business in ever more remote and inaccessible locations has
reached an absurd level in this move from Chicago to Camp David. Why
are they hiding, and what are they so afraid of?

A big part of the overall strategy for the Occupy Movement has
involved the delegitimization of established centers of power. There
is hardly a more "established" center of power than the G8. The fact
that these Leaders have turned their backs on the People and will be
hiding away in the mountains of Maryland while they plot how to
implement their next rounds of austerity and other cruelties on the
increasingly restive masses is as clear a demonstration as anyone
should need that We, the People and our interests do not figure at all
in their vision of the future.

As a contrast the secrecy and inaccessibility of the G8 Leaders, the
various Occupys around the country -- indeed around the world -- might
want to consider conducting a series of open, public, relatively
informal "Peoples' Summits" through the month of May, perhaps
arranging to interconnect these discussions and demonstrations through
web-video links -- particularly during the period the G8 will be
meeting at Camp David (weekend of May 19).

The Peoples' interests are not simply being neglected by our corporate
and political leaders, they are being actively thwarted, dismissed and
suppressed. By coming together through local Occupys and establishing
-- and maintaining enduring connections with our comrades all over the
world -- we can demonstrate an alternative to the secrecy and
inaccessibility of the Leaders who have turned their backs on the
People.

By demonstrating an open, public alternative to the secrecy and
inaccessibility of the G8 Leaders, it is possible to further their
delegitimization.