Anger in St Petersburg as the ‘Big Eight’ arrive

G8 Summit:

Anger in St Petersburg as the ‘Big Eight’ arrive

MORE THAN $10 billion is being spent on the ‘Big Eight’ in St
Petersburg, including a massive security operation. Guests of Vladimir Putin, president of what is being dubbed the ‘energy superpower’ of
the world, spent two days agreeing policies that won’t change one iota
the fate of the majority of the world’s population who live in poverty
and fear.

Elizabeth Clarke, St Petersburg, Russia

But no expense has been spared for the these top people. Just one
example, 60 new cars have been bought – electrically driven ones,
presumably for driving around the spacious grounds of the palace.

In the region of the Konstantinovsky Palace where the G8 summit was
held, groups of police and soldiers stood on the pavements every hundred
metres.

Hundreds of activists trying to get to the city for a counter-summit
have been blocked – visited in their homes by the police, taken off
trains, some arrested and held, some beaten up, some released.

Organisers of the Russian Social Forum being held in the citiy’s Kirov Stadium say 800 people have managed to get to the event. As the
forum opened, a group of Putin supporters calling themselves the

‘General League of Other-globalists’ turned up. They started trying to
shout their reactionary slogans like, "Russia we’re with you!".

The Socialist Resistance (SR) comrades were quick off the mark to get
them put back outside the gates. "’State patriots’ we call them",
explained SR member Sergei, from Moscow. "Some call them fascists. What
they mean by ‘other globalisation’, no-one can work out, but they have
no place here. It’s a provocation!".

Soon after this, another Putinite rolled up in a limousine – the
governor of the city, Valentina Matvienko – followed by journalists and
TV crews. She made her way into the stadium, and straight to the table
of Socialist Resistance (the first and only stall to be set up for a day
before the Forum got fully under way)!

Repression

Here she faced a barrage of hostile questions. With stunning
hypocrisy, she welcomed the holding of the forum, speaking about how
democratic her administration was. The outright repression taking place
wasn’t her responsibility… Rallies were not being banned in the city,
only marches etc.

In fact one of the main events was due to be precisely a march of
protest against the G8 finishing at the embankment where the famous
battleship, Aurora is moored.

At the Forum, there are many young people and trade unionists,
including workers from the biggest car factory in the country at
Togliatti. There is of course also the usual layer of anti-globalisationists
– from Russia and abroad – for whom the main problem is not global
capitalism itself but its ‘unfair’ and ‘inhumane’ way of operating.

But the main chant to be heard at the opening ceremony was ‘Down
with capitalism!’ and various socialist groups are present. In the
seminars and plenums, there is little dealing with the world situation
and important political issues but some very important exchange of
experiences on issues like housing and education.

More than 20 members of Socialist Resistance will finally have made
it to the stadium to be involved in a lively intervention. A special
leaflet has been widely distributed and already great interest has been
shown in the stall, and the paper, Left Vanguard, has been selling fast.
So too has a new pamphlet called Why Socialism. A meeting under the same
title heard from the author, Ivan Ovsiannikov, and other members of the
CWI – from Poland, Ireland and Britain.