"This in Itself Is a Victory": The People's Convergence to Resist the G8/G20 in Toronto

Panel and discussion with Gesig Isaac and Sarolta Jane

This past June, the G8/G20 leaders met in Ontario, and in turn, faced a people's convergence, striving to "creatively build the world we wish to live in." The mobilization, in turn, faced unprecedented policing: 1,090 people were arrested; thousands were beaten, illegally detained, searched, and abused; over 300 people face criminal prosecutions for their ideological and political actions; and multiple instances of so-called conspiracy trials and politically motivated targeting continues. Yet as an article on the G8/G20 Toronto Community Mobilization Web site asserts, "Nearly 40,000 people took to the streets, gathered in discussion, watched movies, set up a tent city, danced and fought. . . . For the first time, an economic summit saw a march of thousands against colonization and for Indigenous sovereignty. . . . Instead of simplifying our diverse struggles in to one issue, we supported actions for queer and trans rights, environmental justice, income equity and community control over resources, gender justice and disability rights, migrant justice, and an end to war and occupation. We created the conditions for over 100 grassroots organizations to come together, to build relations, to grow stronger together. . . . We saw communities in ongoing resistance, people of color, poor people, indigenous people, women, disabled folk, queer folk, and others leading the days of action. This in itself is a victory" (http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/432).

Join Gesig and Sarolta for their analysis of this convergence, its organization, significance, successes, and dilemmas, and the post-mobilization issues.

Gesig, a queer-identified women from the micmac first nation of "Canada," has been active in radical antipoverty work and has volunteered at her local infoshop for the past several years. Besides being in Toronto for the mobilizations, she was involved in the Ottawa-based organizing leading up to them.

Sarolta, a Bay Area activist and filmmaker, was a member of I-witness video during the St. Paul RNC and currently does work with the Free the SF 8 Defense Committee. She lived in Toronto from 2005-7, and was deputized to work in the legal office during the deluge that followed the G20.

$3-5 donation, for the G8/G20 Legal Defense Fund (no one turned away for lack of funds)