Sean @ PagAnarchy

There is a definite trend in the world perpetuated primarily by authoritarian and power-hungry "leaders" in an attempt to "divide and conquer", or "divide and rule" the rest of us.

They attempt to cause false division in order to divide, in a number of different methods using all means possible. For example, the media and government perpetuate a fictitious and racist "clash of civilisations" between "Islam and the West". In the Middle East, they have caused Iraq and Iran to be at war with each other for aeons (whilst selling both sides weapons). These divisions are upheld ongoingly by the divisions of sports teams into geographic locations.

People who are closely related to each other in terms of social class (e.g. the "working class" and immigrants) have been deliberately split so they can offer each other no solidarity. The division also gains strength through excessive competition between geographic locations within the same city or area; e.g. north and south of the Thames; people from western sydney are ostracised and supporter of different football teams often hate each other! This division in order to control us, and keep us glued to the TVs is absolutely insidious.

However.

The flavour of "divide and conquer" I want to talk about right now, on my way up to the G8 protests, is the false and ugly division between "good protestors" and "bad protestors". The media are basing this split on whether or not the protestor is willing to be militant in order to be effective.

Effective = bad, according to the mainstream media. In particular, according to the media, the bad protestors are those who are willing to engage in property damage and those who are willing to defend themselves when they get attacked. 95% of the time, the media will only show the protestor hitting back and will very rarely show the initial attack perpetrated by the state's representative (the police). We all know the mainstream media lies and distorts the truth. It'd be great if you could all switch off your box right now.

Look, just because I'm a rainbow-clad masked-up anarchist clown, doesn't mean that I don't completely appreciate the good work carried out by the masked-up anarchist black bloc community.

Big ups to the black bloc for it's them that really get stuff done and they achieve their work in some amazingly creative ways. To see the creativity of the destructive act is really beautiful for me. To acknowledge that out of the destruction comes new life and new growth is an amazing realisation.

Out of the rubble of the Tower of Doom we shall grow fruit.

Personally I'm not designed for engaging in militant black bloc activity myself. Instead i do what i am best at and at this protest I am a jester and I am running with CIRCA. And as a clown, I'm looking forward to showing and feeling solidarity with the black bloc crew who i will be working alongside. I look forward to dancing to samba and other bands and i'm looking forward to being in circle with pagans. A diversity of tactics and a respect to those who use other tactics to achieve a better world for all of us!

For me it's a multi-pronged approach and the spike of our prong jibbers into the symbols of the status-quo consumerist mainstream world we live in. And sometimes clowning is the best way to attack those symbols, such as using the art of ridicule, poking fun, pointing out the obvious ridiculousness. Sometimes setting up alternatives works - like the cre8 camp and the rural space. there's a living microcosm of how the world could really be! Alternatives like the global Indymedia network of volunteers. Big ups to Indymedia for all the hard work put in to it! Sometimes Gandhi and sometime Che. Sometimes King and sometimes Starhawk.

And sometimes the best way to show the world that there are better ways to live is to physically deconstruct the symbols that bind us. It's fantastic that the black bloc are there saying, much like i'll be saying, "we won't take your shit" and "we can govern ourselves thank you very much".

Without the black bloc there, we know the protests will have less effect. With them there, we can feel our actions might have some affect in the world.

The politicians ain't really listening mate... They are simply lying to us. Geldof has created a show to raise awareness. Respect to him. Can I count on his respect back?

Alas, one of the consequences of Geldof's protest is a reinforcement of the division between "good protestors" and "bad". The myth suggests "good protestors" go and watch rock bands in Edinburgh whilst "bad protestors" go over to Gleneagles to protest the G8 directly. Geldof would probably call me a "bad protestor" because I'm going to the fence and to demonstrate directly. I'm tired of listening to lies and I'm sick of asking some propped-up authority figure to spread the kindness. We should not be asking the leaders to do us favours, when we can be telling our representatives how to implement our will.

In a world where the most violent and insidious people have the most political power, it seems to me that the only bad protestor there could be is the one who does nothing at all!

Big ups to the Black Bloc! See you in Gleneagles!