Steve Wallis
2005-07-21 15:00:23 UTC
The initial line-up for my revolutionary socialist band Galaxia -
just myself on vocals and Adam from the Cutting Rooms recording studio
(Abraham Moss Centre, City College, Manchester) on acoustic guitar
accompanying me on two tracks - performed and recorded three tracks
("Do They Know It's G8 Time?", "The Revolution Starts Now!"
and "L'internaçionale") on Thursday the 30th of June. [I'd
like people playing other instruments and Adam does not want to be
involved with the band in the future anyway, so I will continue looking
for band members.]
I had had to go AWOL on the previous Monday from the psychiatric ward
on which I was a political prisoner, and the police recaptured me on
the Friday before I had a chance to put the tracks on the internet.
Despite escaping on the Saturday, I did not have access to my flat, so
I could not put the tracks on my website before the G8 summit.
I travelled to Edinburgh on the Saturday, too late for the Make Poverty
History demonstration, but I did attend the G8 Alternatives Summit on
the Sunday (at which I spoke in the debate on Africa), an anti-war demo
later that day and the Carnival for Full Enjoyment on the Monday.
Meanwhile, I came up with some improvements to the lyrics of "Do They
Know It's G8 Time?" (correcting some minor errors and explaining
some things more clearly) and posted them on various discussion groups
at Google and Yahoo! If you missed those improved lyrics and want to
read them, go to
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/galaxiamusic/message/33.
Unfortunately, serious strike action did not take place anywhere in the
world during this G8 summit (to the best of my knowledge). This was
probably mainly because my call wasn't backed up by any sizeable
organisation (although School Students Against War were trying to get
school students to strike in Scotland). This lack of action could also
have been influenced by the violence that occurred at the Carnival for
Full Enjoyment and/or the terrorist attacks on Thursday the 7th of July
in London. In my opinion, both were instigated by people on the side of
big business (whether in the police force, agent provocateurs among the
Edinburgh protesters or terrorists) to divert the world's attention
at such an important time from doing something constructive to defeat
the G8. [Along with members of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown
Army (anarchists wearing brightly coloured clothes and having painted
faces), I did my best to diffuse the situation, but with the
provocative actions of the police and enough of the 1,000 anarchists
around wanting violence, it was inevitable. I witnessed wanton
destruction by the anarchist Black Bloc of property during clashes with
police at the anti-G8 protests in Genoa in 2001, and it later emerged
that 50 fascists had infiltrated the Black Bloc.]
Nevertheless, in my opinion, a G8 summit is the best opportunity for
coordinated action around the world to try to overthrow big business,
and (with far more time to organise) I am setting my sights on the 2006
summit in St Petersburg in Russia. I would like Galaxia to record
improved and updated versions of the songs, as well as others, in time
for that summit. A European conference of Peoples' Global Action
called for a "Global Day of Action" on the first day of the G8
summit, and hopefully that organisation (which is holding an
intercontinental conference in India in October - see
http://www.agp.org) will support the call next time.
I was picked up by the police at the Carnival, and am finally back in
Manchester with some leave, so I can update my websites. I have now put
high and low quality versions of each track, as MP3 files, on the
Galaxia website. Go to http://www.galaxiamusic.org/downloads.html, or
click on one of the following links for specific downloads:
Do They Know It's G8 Time?
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/g8-hi.mp3 (2548KB)
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/g8-lo.mp3 (531KB)
The Revolution Starts Now!
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/revolution-hi.mp3 (8586KB)
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/revolution-lo.mp3 (1789KB)
L'internaçionale
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/internacionale-hi.mp3 (506KB)
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/internacionale-lo.mp3 (106KB)
--
Steve Wallis (http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk).
My mailing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manchesterism).
My revolutionary socialist band Galaxia (http://www.galaxiamusic.org;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/galaxiamusic).
Launch a general strike at the time of the G8 summit in July
(http://www.g8summitworldwidegeneralstrike.org).
Initiator of Revolutionary Platform of Respect
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/revolutionaryplatformofrespect.org).
Member of Glasgow Shettleston branch of the Scottish Socialist Party
(http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org) and initiator of the
Revolutionary Platform of the SSP
(http://www.revolutionaryplatformofthessp.org).
Initiator of the Campaign for Democracy in the UK
(http://www.democracycampaign.org.uk) and Campaign for Sanity in the
NHS (http://www.health-service-sanity.org).
just myself on vocals and Adam from the Cutting Rooms recording studio
(Abraham Moss Centre, City College, Manchester) on acoustic guitar
accompanying me on two tracks - performed and recorded three tracks
("Do They Know It's G8 Time?", "The Revolution Starts Now!"
and "L'internaçionale") on Thursday the 30th of June. [I'd
like people playing other instruments and Adam does not want to be
involved with the band in the future anyway, so I will continue looking
for band members.]
I had had to go AWOL on the previous Monday from the psychiatric ward
on which I was a political prisoner, and the police recaptured me on
the Friday before I had a chance to put the tracks on the internet.
Despite escaping on the Saturday, I did not have access to my flat, so
I could not put the tracks on my website before the G8 summit.
I travelled to Edinburgh on the Saturday, too late for the Make Poverty
History demonstration, but I did attend the G8 Alternatives Summit on
the Sunday (at which I spoke in the debate on Africa), an anti-war demo
later that day and the Carnival for Full Enjoyment on the Monday.
Meanwhile, I came up with some improvements to the lyrics of "Do They
Know It's G8 Time?" (correcting some minor errors and explaining
some things more clearly) and posted them on various discussion groups
at Google and Yahoo! If you missed those improved lyrics and want to
read them, go to
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/galaxiamusic/message/33.
Unfortunately, serious strike action did not take place anywhere in the
world during this G8 summit (to the best of my knowledge). This was
probably mainly because my call wasn't backed up by any sizeable
organisation (although School Students Against War were trying to get
school students to strike in Scotland). This lack of action could also
have been influenced by the violence that occurred at the Carnival for
Full Enjoyment and/or the terrorist attacks on Thursday the 7th of July
in London. In my opinion, both were instigated by people on the side of
big business (whether in the police force, agent provocateurs among the
Edinburgh protesters or terrorists) to divert the world's attention
at such an important time from doing something constructive to defeat
the G8. [Along with members of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown
Army (anarchists wearing brightly coloured clothes and having painted
faces), I did my best to diffuse the situation, but with the
provocative actions of the police and enough of the 1,000 anarchists
around wanting violence, it was inevitable. I witnessed wanton
destruction by the anarchist Black Bloc of property during clashes with
police at the anti-G8 protests in Genoa in 2001, and it later emerged
that 50 fascists had infiltrated the Black Bloc.]
Nevertheless, in my opinion, a G8 summit is the best opportunity for
coordinated action around the world to try to overthrow big business,
and (with far more time to organise) I am setting my sights on the 2006
summit in St Petersburg in Russia. I would like Galaxia to record
improved and updated versions of the songs, as well as others, in time
for that summit. A European conference of Peoples' Global Action
called for a "Global Day of Action" on the first day of the G8
summit, and hopefully that organisation (which is holding an
intercontinental conference in India in October - see
http://www.agp.org) will support the call next time.
I was picked up by the police at the Carnival, and am finally back in
Manchester with some leave, so I can update my websites. I have now put
high and low quality versions of each track, as MP3 files, on the
Galaxia website. Go to http://www.galaxiamusic.org/downloads.html, or
click on one of the following links for specific downloads:
Do They Know It's G8 Time?
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/g8-hi.mp3 (2548KB)
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/g8-lo.mp3 (531KB)
The Revolution Starts Now!
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/revolution-hi.mp3 (8586KB)
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/revolution-lo.mp3 (1789KB)
L'internaçionale
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/internacionale-hi.mp3 (506KB)
http://www.galaxiamusic.org/internacionale-lo.mp3 (106KB)
--
Steve Wallis (http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk).
My mailing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manchesterism).
My revolutionary socialist band Galaxia (http://www.galaxiamusic.org;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/galaxiamusic).
Launch a general strike at the time of the G8 summit in July
(http://www.g8summitworldwidegeneralstrike.org).
Initiator of Revolutionary Platform of Respect
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/revolutionaryplatformofrespect.org).
Member of Glasgow Shettleston branch of the Scottish Socialist Party
(http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org) and initiator of the
Revolutionary Platform of the SSP
(http://www.revolutionaryplatformofthessp.org).
Initiator of the Campaign for Democracy in the UK
(http://www.democracycampaign.org.uk) and Campaign for Sanity in the
NHS (http://www.health-service-sanity.org).