bicycle caravan challenges russian g8

international | anti-capitalism | press release Friday July 07, 2006 13:39 by G8press - G8pressgroupberlin spb8media at riseup dot net 0049 162 –3508948

Today the international Anti-G8 Bike Caravan will
arrive in St.-Petersburg.

On the 7th of July 2006 the international Anti-G8 Bike Caravan will
arrive in St.-Petersburg.

PRESS CONTACT: LINK, spb8media@riseup.net

The NoG8 bicycle caravan started just over a month ago on June 2 from
Brandenburger Tor in Berlin. The original plans for this bike caravan
were quite ambitious - biking more than 2000km through Eastern Europe
for five weeks as a non-hierarchical group, traveling with an info-tour
that would reach across borders to connect local and international
struggles, promoting clean energy transport, spreading information and
initiating discussions about the exploitative role of the G8, networking
with other anarchist / activist groups along the way and sharing
information about local activist tactics and projects, participating in
direct actions and living and working in a non-hierarchical / consensus
based structure as a spontaneous free project.

At the moment the Anti-G8 Bike Caravan has already made a long way
through Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and has just
recently passed the border of Russia. Different people joined it along
the way. In general there were more than 30 participants in the caravan
including people from Germany, the UK, France, Switzerland, Latvia,
Turkey, Estonia and the USA. People from Russia have also joined.

There are many people riding with the caravan as well as many
different reasons for riding and opinions on the matters of world
politics. Some are people like Arielle from the US or Phillip from
Germany whose biggest interest lies in the political side of the
caravan. Phillip, for example, left the caravan in Olsztyn (Poland) and
goes on hitchhiking because for him personally there is not enough
space for talking with locals and political actions between all this
cycling.

Others, like Lauris from Riga (Latvia), who joined the caravan
spontaneously see the caravan itself as a political action. He can't
come to St. Petersburg due to having no visa but he wants to support
the caravan and enjoy the spirit of the group. For him the mere talk
inside the group and with the locals they meet lays the basis for
every bigger political action. It is not always about big protests but
more often about exchanging thoughts and giving each other something
new to think about.

Also riding with the caravan are Eike and Henning, two photographers
from Germany. They document the tour as members of the group with a
strong political interest and critical opinion on the world but also
taking a look on the group through the distance of a camera they try
to see the caravan in a broader view.

There are many people riding in the caravan and there also are just as
many reasons to be against the G8. Some say the G8 is illegal because
its representatives are not elected and it functions outside of any
democratic control. Others see that at the G8 meetings only
economic issues are discussed and so the act of globalization is
nowadays just economic and not social, and the cultural globalization
is controlled by economic issues.

Also the behavior of the nations taking part in G8 is a point for
criticism. Only the eight economically largest countries take part
but their decisions influence the whole world and especially the less
developed countries. Along with this goes the fact that decisions made
by the G8 the WTO or the IMF, generous as they may seem at first, are
only for the good of the economically powerful countries of the world.
It is simply about money and no one who wants to stay powerful gives
this tool of power away just like that. The G8 is seen as a symbol for,
and one of the centers of, the capitalist neoliberal development the
world has undergone over the last few decades. The way the G8 treats
people, environment, society, culture and everything social and
respectful between each other, is what the caravan protests against.

The protest against the G8 in the form of bike caravan is already a
kind of tradition. The 2005 G8 Bike Ride (http://www.g8bikeride.org.uk/)
was a great success and some of the 70 or so riders who took part were
inspired to ride to Russia in 2006.

For more information contact people in bike tour by phone +49 163 300
38 66 (German and English) or e-mail: support-g8caravan@riseup.net

More information about the ride can be found at
http://caravan2006.outra.net
http://g8-2006.plentyfact.net/Cycle_Caravan

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This press release issued by LINK ("Libertarian Information & News
Kollective") - part of Network Against G8 (NAG8), which is a part of
Network Against G8 (NAG8), can be contacted by sending an e-mail to:
spb8media@riseup.net

While LINK is a part of NAG8, neither LINK, not any other group or
individual is authorised to speak on behalf of the whole NAG8. We can
only distribute our own press-releases, information of other groups
which are a part of the Network, and to assist individual NAG8 activists
in expressing their views to the media.
Network Against the G8 (NAG8) is comprised of anarchist, radical
environmentalist, non-authoritarian left activists from Russia and
Eastern Europe. NAG8 website: http://spb8.net