Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

 What is the NOG7 Coalition?

In response to the call from the NOG7 Coalition, nearly 60,000 of us mobilised against the G7 on 14 June 2026 in Geneva. It was a giant success, despite the policy of intimidation and restriction of freedoms pursued by the authorities, the police and the media.

The NOG7 Coalition in Geneva comprises more than sixty organisations and collectives, including the Feminist Strike, BDS, anti-fascist movements, the public services trade union (SSP) and the inter-professional trade union (SIT), CADTM, the students’ union, the Silure autonomous centre, SolidaritéS, and others, which are the main driving forces behind the organisation. This coalition also includes collectives from neighbouring France, and we have worked very closely with the French-side NOG7 Coalition.

We decided not to accept a potential request to join the coordination group of the Socialist Party and the Greens, as these are two organisations that form part of the government of the canton and city of Geneva. Worse still, the head of the Geneva police force is a member of the Socialist Party, and we wanted to remain completely independent. Given the demonstration’s progression and the Socialist magistrate’s involvement in profiling and repression, both prior to and during the event, we were justified in establishing this boundary.

On the French side, a NOG7 coalition was also formed at the national level, notably comprising ATTAC, NPA-A, Debt for Climate, La France insoumise, etc. Then, before 14 June, a coalition was formed at a regional level, with the same components as at the national level, but with a stronger presence of the FSU and CGT trade unions from the Haute-Savoie department. These last two trade unions made a last-minute effort to organise a protest camp and a demonstration on the French side, a move contested by most of the other groups, who felt that forces should not be spread too thinly and that it was better to converge on Geneva instead. Ultimately, there were almost no activities or demonstrations outside the Swiss border.

The freedoms to demonstrate and assemble, and, more broadly, democratic freedoms as a whole, were not only flouted in Geneva but also by the French authorities and the departmental public prosecutor, who had already come under scrutiny for the bloody crackdown in Saint-Souline. The authorities in Haute-Savoie, France, had banned all demonstrations, all activities, and even the hire of venues by the anti-globalisation activists of the NOG7.

 What significance does 14 June 2026 hold?

This year, the G7 (the summit of the world’s seven most industrialised countries) was held in Évian-les-Bains, on the shores of Lake Geneva, in the French region but close to Geneva, from 15 to 17 June. The NOG7 Coalition, in agreement with the Feminist Strike, decided that this year there would be a convergence between the mobilisation against the G7 and 14 June.

14 June is a historic day for the feminist movement in Switzerland. Every year, we organise demonstrations and events to commemorate the anniversary of the first feminist strike in 1991. The Swiss Federal Constitution enshrined a provision specifically dedicated to gender equality in 1981. Ten years later, nothing had changed. The idea for a strike came from female watchmakers in the Joux Valley. On 14 June 1991, the first national strike since 1918 took place, under the slogan ‘When women down tools, the country loses its footing’. Strong, proud, feminist and furious!

 Why this convergence between the feminist strike and the fight against the G7?

As the comrades of the feminist strike (GF) stated, it is clear that we would call for and organise the demonstration.

The call from various feminist collectives to gather in Geneva is unequivocal regarding this natural convergence, and thousands of demonstrators responded by marching in the feminist bloc. This struggle is also queer and feminist. The policies pursued and defended by the G7 countries are based on a patriarchal and authoritarian vision that exacerbates and perpetuates oppression. They fuel gender-based violence, femicide and discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people.

We reiterate here that our commitment is intersectional and that our feminist struggle will always be against capitalism, fascism and imperialism. We denounce the way in which these powers, with Switzerland’s complicity, profit Profit The positive gain yielded from a company’s activity. Net profit is profit after tax. Distributable profit is the part of the net profit which can be distributed to the shareholders. from wars and genocides – notably in Sudan, Palestine and the Congo – while closing their borders to people fleeing this very violence.

On 14 June, we’re standing together! It is through resistance that we will be able to build a fair and inclusive society. On 14 June, we’re marching against the patriarchal power that fuels sexist and sexual violence, as well as LGBTIQ+phobia. We are marching in international solidarity with peoples fighting for their rights and against the wars from which the G7 countries profit with complete impunity. We are marching for an inclusive society, against racism and deadly migration policies. We are standing united because we are marching together, proud and strong, for our sisters, for our daughters, for our comrades, and for ourselves.”

The idea for a strike came from the women watchmakers in the Vallée de Joux. On 14 June 1991, the first national strike since 1918 took place, under the slogan ‘When women down tools, the country loses its footing’. Strong, proud, feminist and furious!

 How did the coalition operate??

The coalition held a general coordination meeting once a month; in the last two months, meetings took place every fortnight. There was also a secretariat comprising the coalition’s main organisations (Silure, Grève féministe, SolidaritéS, Soulèvement de la terre Genève, BDS, les Antifascistes), as well as working groups (finance, media, demonstration, international group, village group, canteen, camping, borders, demonstration self-defence unit, etc.). Coordination between the various working groups was also in place. The international group served as the main point of contact with the French coalition.

There was a NOG7 call to action that each organisation had to accept to become a member of the coalition, as well as a “goodwill Goodwill The difference between the assets on a company’s balance-sheet and the sum of its tangible and intangible assets. When one company takes control of another company, the acquiring company generally pays a price that is higher than the value of the net assets. Goodwill generally consists of intangible elements, such as brands, which are evaluated subjectively. ” charter to sign. The general coordination committee met to decide whether to accept a new organisation into the coalition.

The Appeal is very clear and radical in political terms https://nog7ge.noblogs.org/. It refers to the current period of militarisation, wars, the rise of fascism and the far right, the destruction of life, the domination of bodies, and the genocide in Gaza and addresses the following points: It addresses the following themes: the nature of the G7, the reasons for opposing it, the fight against fascism and imperialism, the war against the peoples, and the necessity of building internationalist resistance.

 The Village group (lectures and workshops)

We had asked the Geneva city authorities for a park and several rooms so that we could organise a ‘village’ featuring lectures and other activities. We were banned from holding any activities in open spaces, and the rooms that had been granted to us at the university and other higher education institutions were cancelled. Worse still, the academic authorities banned any conference on the NOG7 on their premises and also prohibited teaching staff from speaking out on the subject or taking part in a conference on this topic in any university or higher education institution’s hall.

Despite these numerous restrictions, we managed to secure a hall from the City of Geneva as well as several others in alternative venues.

Four thematic strands underpinned the 16 lectures and the opening plenary session entitled ‘Building resistance against imperialism’:

• Anti-imperialist, anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles;

• Feminist and queer struggles;

• Environmentalist and anti-capitalist struggles;

• Anti-fascist struggles.

The workshop topics were diverse: student struggles, fossil imperialism and fascism; capitalist imperialism and the domination of peoples; producing political information on social media; combating Palantir and surveillance capitalism; war and extractivism; beyond the G7: building people’s multilateralism; Swiss imperialism, the world of work, eco-social transformation, political motherhood: challenges and activist experiences, ecological destruction and unnecessary mega-projects, the militarist trap, the criminalisation of anti-fascism, anti-racist struggles, strikes: how radical should our struggles be?, masculinist terror: how should we respond?

CADTM took part in two workshops: ‘Swiss imperialism’ and ‘Capitalist imperialism and the domination of peoples’. The rooms were packed for these two sessions, as they were for all the sessions. The various round-table discussions attracted a total of nearly 2,200 participants, according to the official figures. The NOG7 gazette (the journal of the NOG7 coalition, which published a special edition) was distributed in a print run of 9,000 copies!

Each workshop was organised by one or more organisations. Thus, solidaritéS organised three workshops independently and collaborated with other collectives on two further sessions.

To round off Saturday evening in style, a fantastic evening of concerts took place at a legendary venue on Geneva’s alternative scene.

Finally, we must pay tribute to the exceptional work of our self-managed canteen, which served no fewer than 1,700 meals and 1,200 sandwiches over the weekend.

 The demonstration on 14 June

The route for the demonstration had been negotiated with the authorities since November. We came up against intransigence on the part of the Minister for Police, a member of the Socialist Party, and the Geneva city authorities.

The route requested by our coalition was not accepted. We wanted to cross the bridge over the Rhône at the lake’s outlet and finish in a park on the left bank. The refusal was categorical: they did not want us to go near the streets where multinationals and luxury shops are based. The city centre looked like a city under siege; most shop windows and some house windows were boarded up. We witnessed a political and media smear campaign by the authorities and the right-wing against the possibility of violence. All their statements referred to the protests against the G8 G8 Group composed of the most powerful countries of the planet: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA, with Russia a full member since June 2002. Their heads of state meet annually, usually in June or July. in 2003, during which a few luxury shops and boutiques were damaged, though the vandalism took place outside the main demonstrations and activities organised by the Franco-Swiss ‘G8 Illégitime’ Committee.

The number of participants in the demonstration exceeded even the most optimistic forecasts of the NOG7 Coalition. We had anticipated a figure of around 10,000 people, telling ourselves that if we reached that number, it would already be a great victory in the face of intimidation. I think there were about 60,000 of us, as many as the 2003 demonstrators who left from the Jardin Anglais; the other 60,000 came from the French side.

The feminist strike remains the most powerful social movement, the most deeply rooted in society and the most capable of mobilising people. Its procession was undoubtedly the largest. Their demands are radical and anti-capitalist. Such a turnout bodes well for the mobilisation on 14 June 2027.

A large group demonstrated solidarity with the Palestinian people. The Kurds, in all their diversity, also played a crucial role in the demonstration.

The ‘Le vivant se défend’ bloc brought together all the environmental movements. It was a very lively, colourful bloc with a majority of women.

It is, however, regrettable that there was a low turnout from Swiss trade unions, as well as a limited and rather symbolic presence from French trade unions. The major trade unions (CGT, FSU, CFDT, etc.) did not call for mobilisation in Geneva. The situation at the borders did not help either. Nor was there any international call to travel to Geneva.

 Repression and crackdowns

A few days before the major demonstration, the city of Geneva was under a state of siege: thousands of police officers and soldiers from other regions of Switzerland had been deployed in Calvin’s city, supported by the French police who were authorised to intervene within the canton. According to newspaper reports, people were stopped and searched up to five times a day; there were large numbers of police vans and German-speaking Swiss officers who did not speak French.

Along the entire route, barriers had been set up at “sensitive points” through which the demonstrators were to be channelled.

Halfway along the route, a few incidents targeting a Tesla and two banks, carried out by so-called Black Bloc groups, served as a pretext for the security forces to repeatedly use tear gas against the demonstration, putting children and families at risk. The procession responded very calmly each time, protecting themselves and continuing the demonstration.

Once the demonstration had ended, in the same park where it had begun, the police intervened brutally and surrounded a section of the demonstrators. More than 300 people were kettled until dawn, after which around twenty of them were taken to the police station before being released a few hours later. Even Amnesty International condemned the police crackdown.

The Geneva and French NOG7 Coalition has issued several statements hailing the success of the massive demonstration but also highlighting the ‘serious security abuses observed on Sunday’; the coalition condemns the extensive use of tear gas, particularly against the section of the procession reserved for families and children. Similarly, the coalition strongly condemns the scandalous kettling of 549 people, which lasted for nearly 10 hours.”

 The joy of success!

Despite the crackdown, we are very pleased with the massive turnout, the friendly atmosphere, the diversity and the radical nature of the demonstration. The intimidating messages and information did not deter 60,000 people. This sense of victory is an excellent springboard for the mobilisations and challenges that lie ahead.

 Here are a few final thoughts:

1. We have managed to maintain the unity of the NOG7 Coordination despite the diversity of its members and their differing views on a range of issues. We have decided to continue our work beyond the demonstration on 14 June.

2. This weekend was colourful, with feminist demonstrations: in Lausanne on Saturday 13 June, there were more than 15,000 of us, and in Zurich, around 50,000 of us turned out in response to the call for the Feminist Strike to mark 14 June. 14 June 2027 will be a major event for the feminist movement and the left as a whole. A national call for a strike by care workers has been launched. We will begin preparing for it as soon as the new academic year begins in September.

3. Throughout the negotiations with the Geneva State Council, the public prosecutor, and the French authorities, we experienced ongoing attacks on democratic freedoms (we were strung along for months). In Geneva, the legislative proposal by the PLR (a right-wing party) to ban all demonstrations during the period of mobilisation against the G7 and the repression during the demonstration and its aftermath is a foretaste of the authoritarian tendencies prevailing in our region and in almost every country in Europe. Today, the deadly capitalist system tolerates no challenge to its authority. The ruling class knows that capitalism is in total bankruptcy, but it will cling on until the very last minute to preserve the privileges of the wealthiest. We must reaffirm our anti-capitalism and make the defence of democratic freedoms and the fight against repression one of our priority areas of action for the future.

By way of a provisional conclusion, a question arises: has the common thread of the anti-globalisation movement finally been woven together? Does this mass mobilisation herald a period of action against the rise of fascism, machismo, authoritarianism, wars and imperialism? As my comrade Jane Leonie of ATTAC France puts it, ‘mobilisations such as the No G7 campaign remind us that there are already other ways of living in the world, of producing, of making decisions, of caring for one another, of sharing wealth and of organising collective life. These experiences often remain fragmented, unfinished or marginal, but they serve as starting points for imagining societies free from the logic of domination that characterises contemporary capitalism.”
The common thread of anti-globalisation was evident in the feminist strike march, in the sections opposing extractivism, in internationalist solidarity with Cuba and against militarism, in the various anti-capitalist marches, and so on. We can affirm the truth: other worlds are already here, and others are emerging. Faced with the destructive trends of the present, the challenge is not only to resist but also to foster societies capable of embracing the plurality of worlds and preserving the conditions for life. We must avoid the barbarism brought about by fossil fascism and build eco-socialist and eco-feminist alternatives, as we did at the 7^th International Eco-Socialist Meetings in Brussels in mid-May 2026.

The coming months will tell, but one thing is certain: we will continue to fight capitalism and deadly fossil fascism. We have eco-socialist projects to propose and build; this is an urgent necessity – we must not delay! 14 June 2027 will be a crucial milestone on this journey – please mark it in your diaries. We look forward to seeing you in Switzerland.

Juan Tortosa, member of the NOG7 Geneva Coalition, CADTM-Switzerland and SolidaritéS.