June 9, 2007 at 19:45:39

Rocking the G8 Tour 2007

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By by David Rovics, Posted by Larry Sakin (about the submitter) Page 8 of 8 page(s)

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As soon as I started strumming, though, the milling crowd turned instantly into an attentive audience, and suddenly I recognized people I knew from all over Europe and North America. There they were, people I had just recently seen in Utrecht, Gothenberg, Copenhagen, and other folks I hadn't seen in months or years from England, Belgium, Berlin... And, as always at these mass convergences, mostly just lots of good people I had never met before.

I headed back to town in the wee hours of the morning to get some sleep before heading to the train station for the big rally. I thought about the jaded leftists I've known who say these mass convergences are pointless, and how completely wrong they are for saying this.

Whatever did or didn't happen in Heilingendam this week, thousands of people from all over the world have worked together, marched together, sat in together, made new friends, and they'll be bringing these connections and these experiences home with them. Whether the G8 meetings were seriously disrupted or just inconvenienced, the authorities and the world at large has once again had to take notice.

All is not well in paradise, and just who calls the shots, and in whose interests, is not at all set in stone. Whether refugees shall be welcomed or shunned, whether countries shall export arms or build windmills, whether forests shall be forests or bombing ranges, whether villages shall be villages or industrial harbors, whether recreational drug users shall be productive members of society or shall be thrown away in prison, these are all matters of life or death, and these matters are by no means decided.

Democracy is in the streets, in the big cities, the small towns, the forests � but not in the seaside resorts. Sometimes � often � governments are compelled, forced to listen to their people, especially when the people shout loud enough, long enough, sit down in the streets and refuse to move.

And sometimes when so-called democracies feel they must defend themselves with armies of riot police, the cobblestones get broken. They can be replaced.

Whose World Is This is also the title track of a great Jim Page CD. You can read more of my essays by going to www.davidrovics.com or www.songwritersnotebook.blogspot.com. Hope to see you on the road and in the streets.

DRovics@aol.com
DRovics@gmail.com
(617) 872-5124
P.O. Box 300995
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
www.davidrovics.com CD's, DVD's, MP3's, online videos, upcoming shows, essays, links and more...

Note: If you email me and I don't respond within a few days, it is probably an indication that I did not receive your email, possibly because it was intercepted by someone.

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