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The G20 Aftermath
November 22, 2006
The G20 has been and gone and we can all breathe again! We had some great conversations about the G20 in the lead up and look forward to many more good conversations in the next few weeks. As an organisation, the only thing we really put our name to on the weekend was the prayer vigil on the front of the Collins Street Baptist Church steps. We tried to create a Credo vibe of offering hospitatlity to those who were around by having a sausage sizzle. The march didn't come down Collins Street as we had expected so it was a little bit quieter than we anticipated. However it was a great day. The only real downer was watching 'arterial block' come down Collins Street leaving a path of destruction. Other than that the protest was carnival like. The other downer was that it seems that the G20 didn't really spend much time discussing the relief of extreme poverty.
Here are some of our photos...
It was great to hang out with some of the Collins Street Baptist people, the security guards, regular Credo community punters, journalists and protesters. The sign 'this church is open' was an important one.
Busy cooking the BBQ.
Here we are giving out food to people on Collins Street. We tried to conjure up the images of Jesus feeding the five thousand and the story of 'manna' from heaven. People were quite surprised and grateful for our hospitality... especially the hungry camera crews!
The Narthex in the Church made a great chill out and reflection space for people to think about the "economy of God' where there is enough all. It also stayed nice and cool! We had images projected, candles, ice crosses and blackboards so that people could share their thoughts.
Kyla, ex Urbanseeder, got me a ticket to the Make Poverty History concert... just another thing on that weekend! It was a highly successful concert that was pitched to get particularly young people involved in thinking about issues of poverty. This shot was taken from my camera when Bono and Vedder sang 'Keep on rockin in the free world'!
The 'Credo Cross' sits outside the 'G20 Christian Collective' Embassy.
Pain in the Arts Launch
November 15, 2006
We launched inner-city-outer-circle: words and pictures from the margins at the city library last Wednesday. It was a great night, especially with the inclusion of the spoken word performances of the Credo Writing Group.
The exhibition is on until the 28th of November at 253 Flinders Lane.
View some of the pics below
Mark addresses the gathered crowd.
Sarah stands by her work.
Damo was the star of the night.
Thoughts on G20
November 08, 2006
The individuals at Urban Seed have differing perspectives on the G20 meetings. We have been engaged by the media a number of times about why we are interested in the G20. Unfortunately we have ended up being wedged because we have tried to hold the tension of understanding a number of perspectives regarding this meeting. As an organisation we have been debating different opinions and the following is what we have discovered in the dialogue.
It is clear that a number of groups concerned about poverty are using the G20 meeting to highlight the plight of the world’s poor. For Urban Seed, the G20 meeting holds particular importance given that it is literally taking place in our neighbourhood. Urban Seed attempts to build community in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD by providing a free lunch. This lunch includes representatives of major corporations who are intrinsically involved in the current economic system; it also includes homeless people who are often excluded from the formal economy altogether. These groups meet around our table on any given day and we celebrate and appreciate this diversity, and the dialogue that takes place.
Urban Seed understands that the poor aren’t always heard. It often falls to churches and faith based organisations like ours to be a voice for the voiceless. Kevin Rudd has commented on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s example in ‘Faith in Politics’ in the October edition of The Monthly, saying that we need a view from below rather than from above. The idea of ‘the view from below’ gives an important framework for where we should be aligned and how opinions should be formed. It is in following Christ’s words that the poor you will or should always have with you that challenges the ‘view from above’ model.
Debates about the legitimacy of the G20 often centre on the question of which voices are represented. The G20 promotes itself as a meeting of predominantly democratically elected delegates, inclusive of ‘systemically important’ poor nations. Yet critics would suggest such nations are chosen according to their role in serving the interests of wealthy economies. Critics also claim that delegates of these poorer nations represent elites rather than the poor at the grassroots. Pragmatists, on the other hand, argue that, while not perfect, the G20 remains a useful forum through which to identify and act on immediate poverty relief. These positions are respectively adopted by ‘Stop G20’ and ‘Make Poverty History’.
Make Poverty History’ (MPH), an international coalition of aid agencies and community groups, takes the pragmatic step of engaging the cult of celebrity to educate people about issues of global poverty, and to call them to be part of a mass movement. They are seeking to put pressure on the G20 leaders to ensure governments meet their promises to reduce global poverty through addressing issues of aid, trade and debt relief. During the G20, they will hold a festival in the Alexandra Gardens, stage a smaller ‘Aussie’ version of the memorable Live8 concert and host a debate at the Melbourne Town Hall. MPH works largely within the current economic system to seek poverty relief.
‘StopG20’ is an intentionally decentralised collective of affinity groups. These groups have united around the idea that the current economic systems that are being pushed at the G20 are themselves the fundamental causes of extreme poverty. In their estimation, aid, trade and debt relief are co-opted through neoliberal policies to serve the interests of capital and ensure a rich minority gets richer while a majority remains entrenched in poverty. While there do not appear to be any plans to actually stop the G20 meeting, their ‘Carnival Against Capitalism’ appears willing to interrupt CBD ‘business as usual’ with a street party.
Historically, protest movements have employed a range of different tactics to create social change. Non-violent civil disobedience, in Australia and worldwide, is an important component of a healthy democracy (to read more about non-violence click here). At the recent ARIA awards, we were reminded of the role that Hall of Fame inductees Midnight Oil played in opposing nuclear testing and promoting indigenous rights. Midnight Oil were able to use their music and celebrity to influence via formal political means as well as through more disruptive channels such as their unforgettable post-Valdez oil slick gig on the streets of downtown Manhattan: Midnight Oil makes you dance - Exxon Oil makes you sick.
As Christians - followers of one crucified by the state - we understand that violence can never defeat violence; at best it creates an uneasy half- peace. Nonviolent direct action is, however, a way to confront oppression without demonising the ‘other’. Nonviolence is not passive - it actively challenges power structures without resorting to violence. Nonviolent direct action aims to embody the change we want to see in the world and not merely shift power structures.
Urban Seed invites people to live in the city, offer hospitality to our neighbours both rich and poor alike, and attempt to make poverty a political, but also very personal issue. As the G20 offers opportunity to debate structural changes required for a fairer world, we believe it is imperative to understand our own poverty more deeply. Author Clive Hamilton says Australians suffer from ‘affluenza’, which contributes to global inequality, and thus to a poverty which is both economic and spiritual. We have been challenged and inspired by the idea that perhaps those of us in developed economies need to be engaged in a ‘Make Affluence History’ campaign (to read more about this idea click here).
If we are serious about making poverty history, we must first look at our own economic assumptions, contradictions and failings. We can buy the ‘slacktivist’ (slack activist) Make Poverty History wrist band, consume a concert or protest/party in the streets, be informed on all the issues, and yet the deeper challenge remains to make poverty personal. In light of the challenges we face, we believe our spiritual and physical survival is contingent upon hearing Christ in the voice of the poor who calls us to a renewal of cleaner, more humble and respectful means of production and consumption and a more generous redistribution of creation’s abundance.
Urban Seed has involvement with the following activities in relation to the G20:
• Facilitating a seminar exploring non-violence entitled ‘G20… What Would Jesus Do?’
• Participating in planning the Micah Challenge marquee at the Make Poverty History festival.
• Holding a prayer vigil on the steps of the Collins Street Baptist Church during the forum.
• Running a bible study on the ‘Economy of God’ on Wednesday Nov 15.
• Attending organising meetings for ‘God’s Prosperity for All’ - an Ecumenical Church Service to be held at St Pauls Cathedral on Saturday November 18.
