The G8 is a group of eight powerful capitalist countries, whose leaders are to meet at Gleneagles golf course, near Edinburgh (Scotland) between Wednesday the 6th and Friday the 8th of July. Their agenda includes “making poverty history” and climate change, but such problems will not be solved until capitalism itself is overthrown across the world.

The G8 alternatives website lists some of the events already planned against the G8. There will be a mass demonstration in Edinburgh on Saturday the 2nd of July, and an “alternative summit” where we will discuss alternatives for the world and strategies for ending capitalism the following day, also in Edinburgh. Speakers at that event include Tommy Sheridan, a Scottish Socialist Party Member of the Scottish Parliament, Salma Yaqoob, Chair of Birmingham Stop the War Coalition, plus representatives from the World Development Movement and Oxfam.

I, Steve Wallis, am proposing a worldwide general strike and strike of school, college and university students during that week, and for mass demonstrations in cities and towns across Scotland and the rest of the world. In some places, it will start on the Monday or Tuesday, and may even prevent some world leaders from reaching the summit. In some parts of the world, the strike may be so successful that it will lay the basis for an indefinite general strike, with working class people taking over factories and distributing goods ourselves – this will hopefully lead to peaceful socialist revolutions via governments collapsing and new much fairer elections (such as proposed by my Campaign for Democracy in the UK, with a website and discussion group).