Text of a Talk Given at the Brighton Anti-G8

Organising Gathering, February 2004

So the direct action movement in this country - and probably some of the people in this room - can fairly claim a little of the credit for having created this movement, which has spread across the world and has particularly taken to the streets in big demonstrations outside the summit meetings of the WTO, IMF, World Bank, G8, EU, NATO, FTAA, NAFTA etc.

Who We Are

At this years Earth First gathering, a workshop was held on the G8 summit coming to the United Kingdom. The group felt that it was important to start mobilising against the G8 event NOW!

As a group we decided that we wished to work non hierarchically with a view to enabling direct action protests agains the G8. To enable the non hierarchical working we agreed to adopt the PGA Hallmarks.

Here are Dissent's organisation principles which are same as the 'PGA hallmarks'. These are not rules or a fixed definition but rather a philosophy to help bring together those that want to work together in a similar way.

nb. PGA stands for Peoples' Global Action

The second Dissent gathering is in Brighton on the 7th and 8th of February.