G8 Dispatches: Organizing for Justice: Inside the Anti-G8

Tag : Hole Punch Tool

In 2006, ten parks were evicted by the city, according to localactivist Hex, 26, who has been active in squatters' rights issuesfor several years. "The important thing is that we are not here tosympathize with their plight, but to be in solidarity with them.The people here want a decent life in the middle of the metropolis.They are refusing to pay rent, refusing to give up their autonomy,refusing to be corralled into night shelters and workers' hotels,where they have no space or privacy, early curfews, they have toline up every afternoon to get an admission ticket for the night,and get woken up at 4:30 every morning. Those places look likerefugee camps inside. At the parks they have some stability despitethe systematic irregularities in the labor market. They don't haveto worry about being kicked out if they can't get work, and theyhave a community behind them. They can plant a garden. I've learnedso much from their strength."
It has been a difficult few weeks in Osaka for the KamagasakiPatrol. They had been focused in three main areas of work: 1)patrolling the neighborhoods for safety and coordinating weeklycommunal meals; 2) organizing with the precarious workers' unionsfor workers' rights, and helping community members find jobs; and3) supporting the anti-G8 organizing. But several weeks ago theirefforts were derailed.
It started on July 12--the afternoon before the G8 FinanceMinisters and IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn wouldmeet over a lavish dinner on the other side of the city--with thesimple act of a homeless man trying to buy a pancake. With thedisrespect that is too often directed toward the homeless, thesaleswoman ignored him and helped other customers first. He lefthis money for her and went away, figuring she would have hispancake ready when he returned. But she took the money andcontinued to ignore him when he returned, and he got angry. Sheresponded by calling the police, who arrested the man and beat himviciously in jail, going so far as to hang him upside down andpunch him in the face and stomach. When he emerged from jail withrope burns and bruises, the homeless community rose up to fight.
Although tensions rise to the surface in clashes with the policeevery few years, the riots last month were the most violent in thisarea in sixteen years, according to Nakagiri. Outraged communitymembers faced off in front of the police station with stones andfists against police batons, water cannons, and riot shields. Noone was arrested at the time, but police monitored homeless rightsactivists and organizers before and during the riots, and used theevent as reason to arrest 23 people in the following weeks.Japanese police are known for targeting people involved inpolitical organizing, and many of those detained were held onfrivolous charges such as failure to register a change of address,jaywalking, and "fraud"--registering a cell phone for a homelessfriend who couldn't register his own due to his lack of address.Thirteen are still being held.
Local activists contend that this wave of arrests was timed tosquash dissent against the G8. The Kamagasaki Patrol had beenplanning to send delegations to the G8 protests as well as holdlocal solidarity demonstrations in Osaka. Instead, they were forcedto spend much of their time supporting their friends in jail andtrying to avoid further arrests.
So while the world's media watched the G8 leaders' photoopportunities and the anti-G8 protests in Hokkaido, Japan, some ofthe strongest G8 resistance--and repression--took place largelyunseen, hundreds of kilometers to the south in the streets ofKamagasaki, Osaka, led by homeless, day laborers, and localyouth--those most impacted by G8 policies.
As Kamagasaki community members resisted water cannons andshield-wielding riot police, the G8 Finance Ministers issued theirCommuniqué to the world from Osaka, strongly pushing to furtherthe policies of corporate "free" trade, speculative capitalism, andneo-liberalism that are largely responsible for the poverty andhomelessness of those in Kamagasaki and around the world.
Their Communiqué read in part:
"We, the Finance Ministers of the G8 countries, met today in Osaka,Japan, in preparation for the Summit of the G8 Heads of State andGovernment in Hokkaido-Tokyo. For a long time the world economyenjoyed a combination of robust growth and low inflation, but itnow faces headwinds. We affirm our commitment to an open investmentpolicy... We will resist protectionist sentiment at home andabroad. We also highlight the urgent need for a successfulconclusion to the Doha Development Round."