Sheffield G8 - Protest for the Right to Protest

Around 80 people turned up at Devonshire Green to protest for the right to protest. A number of people dressed up in orange boiler suits as guantanamo detainees, while others held blank banners to highlight how civil liberties both in the UK and around the world are being dismantled rapidly under the guise of advancing the "war on terror" and blocking popular dissent against those in power.

Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest

The protest was initially in reponse to the decisions taken by police to deny people the right to protest against the G8 Ministers through the city centre. A protest pen was the only option conceded by police to ensure that any dissent was invisible and as ineffective as possible. A late concession was made by the police to the Stop the War Coalition, who negogiated a protest pen limited to 100 people nearer the Winter Gradens, where the Ministers were dining that night. Some have humourously referred to this as the new phenomenon of "imbedded protestors".

Later as the numbers swelled on Devonshire Green, people wrote their own messages for the G8 on their blank banners and placards and headed off into town, linking up with the critical mass and ignoring any notion of a designated protest pen.

helen

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Backed down — protester
from the Yorkshire Post — steve
.. — feelix

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Sheffield G8 - Protest for the Right to Protest

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