It was a little disheartening to such dismissal of local activism with this entry. Though it took me a couple weeks, I wanted to return to it, however briefly.

For the most part I agree with NoiseSmith that there is something valuable in “[hitting] the streets just to visibly, publicly oppose the meeting on that level, even if doing so doesn’t accomplish anything.”

With the People’s Summit and the TCMN rallies, we are not building towards creating Seattle redux, or even attempting to “shut it down” (though the TCMN is not going to condemn or stop groups from working towards that if that’s their preferred tactic). Rather, we are building a space for labour, progressive, radical, and what otherwise can be classified as ‘social justice’ circles together to further develop alternative democratic organising in the city and the region.

The G20 summit is really a catalyzing factor, in that it is providing a space for a wide, wide array of people and organisations within the city to come together; to do so in a spirit of resistance but simultaneously of celebration of all the ways we are actively working on strengthening communities and community solidarity across marginalized spheres of life.

I think it is somewhat inaccurate to suggest that the summit protests are a site of “picking your battles” poorly, for the simple reason that for many people — at least involved organising work so far — the G20 summit is not the only site of struggle, but one of ongoing community work of which this is only a part. There are literally hundreds of organisations – established and grassroots – across our city for which the politics of the G20 is problematic and worth challenging publicly. Even if the G20 is not moved to reform or revolution by our actions, we are still actively contributing in “taking the power back” by being present, by showing resistance, by shouting loudly for a vision of the ever-elusive ‘just society’ that is supposedly our home. Could the same be said of a Toronto that welcomes the G20 with silence, indifference, and righteousness about the immediate effectiveness about protest?

This is just my perspective — which is constantly developing, so just my perspective for now — and not any sort of ‘official’ response from the network organising.

I haven’t heard anything so far to suggest there are plans to shut down the meeting. I could be wrong (but kind of hope I’m not).

Personally, I’m more interested in these spectacles as excuses/opportunities to engage in and encourage real public discussion about the direction capitalism is taking. I think an increasing number of people (certainly not a majority, but still more than even a few years ago) are privately having doubts about some of the basic assumptions of this economic system, but still not necessarily feeling empowered to air those doubts publicly or collectively— partially because they’re not seeing any sign that those doubts are anything but private (thanks in part to most mass media being deeply implicated in that system). Gigantic protests can be a way of normalizing doubt and widening boundaries, which is far more essential to democracy than electoral processes.

For the same reason, I don’t really think the protests are about “democracy;” even if the G20 worked by some sort of democratic method (which, given the scope of their presumed mandate, seems impossible), it would still be within the framework of an intrinsically coercive economic system.

And on a more visceral level, the G20 delegates have the gall to presume they can come here and form policy that could arguably affect the entire world, yet even the lot of them together can’t say they represent any more than a tiny majority of its population (and that “representation” is mediocre at absolute best). Plus Harper had the gall to just flat-out tell Toronto, hey sorry we can’t fund transit, housing, or childcare, but tell you what, you get to host my party, deal with it.

It seems reasonable to hit the streets just to visibly, publicly oppose the meeting on that level, even if doing so doesn’t accomplish anything.

Urban life can be very atomizing. Protests like these are a rare chance to come together and experience eachother, united by things of our own choosing.

Again, I don’t know what’s being planned. I don’t know if it will bear out what I just said, or just be a giant shitstorm. Protests aren’t the way to make lasting political change, but I still think it’s important that they happen.