Anti-Globalization: An Activist Heritage

One sure way to get protesters out into the streets is when there’s another globalization meeting. Last week it was the G20, and the plutocrats got together just as Mercury was conjunct the Sun, and Venus was backing into a square with Pluto. This translates to big news in a conflict over values. Yet the Venus-Pluto square raises the question, what is important to us as individuals? And how does this affect us all?

The international Group of 20 (G20) summit of developed and emerging nations was held in London, and by its second day on Tuesday, March 31, police had already arrested 111 protesters. This coincided with Barack Obama’s first official state visit to the England and Europe. Later in the visit, he apologized for the United States’ recent arrogance (without saying so, referencing the Bush administration) and called on Europeans to give up their anti-American attitude.

In the past decade, an impressive international activist movement has emerged around these global summits, which began with the WTO protests in Seattle in the autumn of 1999. The “Battle in Seattle” coincided with the watershed conjunction of Chiron and Pluto in early Sagittarius. On Monday, the Sun and Mercury were exactly trine the position of the 1999 conjunction, Mars was square the position of that conjunction, and the Moon was opposing it. So the chart for the latest round of protests aligns beautifully with the one that started the movement. This is also the chart for the turn of the millennium and the Y2K non-incident.

While many protesters had objected to last week’s summit with vandalism and violence, others, did so by taking off their pants. (Be aware, this link is not safe for work.) Is there anything about the chart that says naked? Well, Aries does: they are the little kids that like to dance naked on the coffee table. Some finally do give up this activity as an adult, but maybe they are the ones who show up at protests and undress there.

By the close of the session on April 2, participants had pledged $1.1 trillion dollars “to revive the world economy, a joint call to fight protectionism, and concrete actions to tighten banking regulations,” China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

So, why all the fuss? Many people believe these conferences — this was the second G20 meeting — serve only to promote the interests of wealthy nations and big businesses at the expense of: you name it: developing nations, the environment, the poor, the hungry, small businesses, Iraq, Afghanistan, social programs and so on.

Not everyone raising objections at the G20 is on the street. French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the opportunity to lambaste the Anglo-Saxon Model, a reference to “survival of the fittest” capitalism that European nations say Britain and America have promoted to the detriment of other nations.

While there were violent clashes with police, it seems that most of the protests were peaceful, leading Business Week to declare them “More fun than violent.” In activism as in everything else, if you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.