Libertarian Forum Moscow
8-12 of July
Libertarian Forum in Moscow
There will be a libertarian forum in Moscow 8-12 of July as a build up event for protests in St. Petersburg. Main theme of the forum will be energy issues, and plans of G8 for nuclear power renaissance. For G8, "energy security" means guaranteeing access of the leading industrial countries to natural resources, and diversification of exploitation of limited resources - thus nuclear energy is now an important topic for them. Problems such as lack of any long-term solutions with nuclear waste are ignored.
Libertarian forum will consist of discussion, trainings and seminars. We invite anybody to propose themes for discussions, until 25th of May (for sure content of the forum may be amended later on, perhaps even on the spot, but we want to have some preliminary program). We would be especially happy for speakers on topic of energy. Actions, press-conference, concert and movie screenings are also planned. Food Not Bombs has promised to provide food to forum.
Current topics for discussions and workshops are
1. Oil, energy resources and power: Capitalism and State.
2. Nuclear energy in Eastern Europe. About the plans to build new nuclear reactors, and about media complicity in changing attitudes about nuclear safety. (i.e., recent press stories claiming that Chernobyl was not too bad!)
3. Russian-Polish Energy Politics 4. Anarchists and the energy - various examples of anarchist approaches towards problem of the control over the energy resources and it distribution
5. Energy problem from point of view of Greenpeace Russia
6. Lessons from protest camps of Rainbow Keepers
7. Perspectives of ecological movement in Russia
8. Precarization, globalization and rights of workers
9. Globalization and reform of education in Russia
10. How to get the best out of Indymedia?
11. How to work with mainstream media?
12. Social forums as the sunset of the anti-globalist movement, and alternatives to them
13. Work against homophobia in Eastern Europe
14. Solidarity with anarchist prisoners
15. Reproduction of authoritarian power-relations
in "anti-authoritarian" groups
16. Self-defense
17. FrontAIDS and movement for access to medicine in Russia
18. Animal rights movement in Russia
19. Information technologies and activism
20. History of anarchist movement in Russia
21. Formation of coordinatonary councils on wave of struggle against monetization of social benefits in Russia - lessons and conclusions.
22. What to do if you got arrested in Russia?
Write to moscow_protiv_g8 ATT riseup.net if you want to propose a workshop, and for any questions on libertarian forum.
source: Info Bulletin #1
A G8 summit has been planned to take place from 15-17 July in St Petersburg, Russia. Several sources have reported that a systematic police crackdown on people participating in alternative meetings (a Libertarian Forum and the Russian Social Forum) and critical of the official meeting has begun almost a week prior to the summit. Estimates range from dozens to one or two hundred arrests and detentions.

For the past several years, especially since the 27th G8 summit in 2001 in Genoa, the G8 summits of the leaders of seven of the world's richest industrialised countries and of Russia have been regularly met by popular protests by critics who assert that members of G8 are responsible for global issues such as global warming due to carbon dioxide emission, poverty in Africa and developing countries due to debt crisis and unfair trade policy, exacerbating the AIDS crisis by medicine patent policy and other problems that are related to globalization. These protests have been met by massive numbers of arrests and police violence, on some occasions.

In contrast to previous G8 meetings, this time arrests have been taking place a week before the official meeting itself has started. At least 23-25 human rights activists and political activists, including two German citizens, have been detained by police in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities in Russia since 7 July. Many of them have been sentenced to ten days' imprisonment, enough to prevent them from participation in political protests until the end of the official summit.

Some sources claim that the true detention rate may be much higher, such as an unconfirmed report attributed to the Siberian Confederation of Labour (Сибирской Конфедерации Труда) claiming 200 arrests. The activists' legal team claims that more than 100 arrests and detainments have occurred.

Discussions on global energy issues and other themes have started at the Libertarian Forum despite the arrests, and the Russian Social Forum is expected to start on schedule on 13 July, followed by the official G8 meeting on 15-17 July. Permission to carry out a street demonstration by the Russian Social Forum has been refused by the authorities.

Russian authorities say that demonstrations are permitted, but only in the location set aside for them - a sports stadium about 25 km (16 miles) from the Constantine Palace, which will house the summit. The Russian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin said that allegations of harassment were "from the realms of supposition". 

"The police's actions are commensurate with the situation at hand. The situation demands particular measures, sometimes intensified. Sometimes it demands that we visit a family in their apartment," He said.