Around 1pm the police started to move in horses and compact the crowd, and shops along Rose St (a small side street running parallel to Princes St) began to pull down shutters and lock doors, suggesting the protesters were going to be herded along there.

Meanwhile, the Infernal Noise Brigade and some splinter groups of protesters were seen grouping together on other streets, along with crowds of onlookers.

Looking at my A-Z, I think it's more likely to be Canning Street, nearby Shandwick Place, where people are penned in. There is a 'Canon Street' in Edinburgh but it's over on the other side of town.

I just got back from demo. Witnessed several women being hit on the legs with truncheons near the East end of Princes St. Gardens. The police shoved an old man with a walking stick into the park, after saying they would find him a seat. Several injuries, including a girl with what appeared to be a broken foot, who was taken away on a wheelchair by paramedics.

The police hemmed everyone inside the gardens. Some people uprooted the flower bed and started chucking it at the police. Also a streaker.

The police also said that some protestors had got on to the main train lines at the bottom of the park. I think they were running around in the bushes.

Another guy told me that one policeman had a metal bar dropped on his head, and a load of animal entrails, from a high bridge on the Western approach road. Think the policeman is in hospital.

The police have won the battle of street protests - they have mastered the art of surrounding protestors and grounding them down with draconian legislation. It's time to think of guerrilla actions: fast, furious and effective attacks on the economic infrastructure. The days of RTS demos are over.

I was one of the many witnesses at the march at Edinbrugh today (July 4th, 2005). I thought the police presence was a bit OTT, as well as the reactions of local businesses (i think some shops flatter themselves by thinking that they're important enough that they have to barracade their windows up). Naively i believed that this was going to be a peaceful protest led by an organised group with some kind of message which i could chew over in my mind for afters.

well i was wrong, wasnt i?

I'm not impressed with the protestors either - the atmosphere in Princes Street resembled a messed up version of The Master and Margaritta rather than an in-your-face, powerful, provocative message.

Please can someone convince me that the anarchists do have some relevance to today's issues before myself (and the hundreds of onlookers) dismiss you guys? In comparason to last Saturday's peaceful demo (make Poverty history), with it's clear message, today's demo in Edinburgh was little less than juvenile stageshow.

Princes Street was under near riot conditions at around 1630 BST - caused by police tactics?

A very large number of people are caught up - local youths are travelling in for 'a bit of fun' - i.e. confrontation with the police.

Witnessed police charges at the crowd in Princes St. Gardens - missiles thrown. The anarchists/black bloc are very much in a minority - most of the crowd is ordinary people.

The sight of a police shield wall advancing against children is one I'll never forget.

Info on Canning St. to follow.

Headed down Princes St. towards west end at around 1150, aiming to meet up with the carnival. After following the trail of police vans, caught up with the band at the top end of the Haymarket Junction. March was stationary at this point, but only surrounded by a small (couple of dozen) number of police.

About 5 minutes later, the march moved off down Torphichen St. - directed this way by police, then guided in to Canning St. - with a blockade waiting at the other end. We were quickly hemmed in, so quickly that the journalists were caught with us, along with a few ordinary members of the public. Police forces moved in from a service street off Canning St. and split the march into two - very quickly, took a while for those at the front and back to notice. I was trapped in the rear section, along with the band. This situation remained stable for a while.

At some point, probably when the march was split, one of the black bloc managed to evade the police and climb on to the roof of one of the office buildings - excellent photo opportunity of guy waving black flag from rooftop - wonder why the BBC has only a photo of him climbing up, not waving the flag...

As this location was over the police lines, an attempt was made by the seperated sections of the march to rejoin - this was resisted by police - a bit of pushing and shoving, but nothing particularly violent.

A short while later, the police withdrew their central line and allowed the march to rejoin, presumably because they had succeded in arresting the rooftop protestor?

Then.. nothing...

With police blocading both ends of the street, protestors stood back to take stock of the situation. Groups congregated at either end, the band at the west end, mostly black bloc at the east, with a large number of journalists milling about in the centre.

As it became clear that things were not going to change for some time, people sat down to rest. A lot of interviews by the press. A lot of press on their mobiles as they became aware that they were not going to be allowed to leave.

Eventually (about 1430?) some of the carnival atmosphere returned, with improvised games of street football, skipping and a game of frisbee played with a liberated officers cap.

About this time, the police started allowing journalists to leave, subject to a search.

Police at the east end of the street had been in riot gear since around 1400.

At about 1500?, police at the west end of the street were replaced by officers in riot gear sporting shields, following some very impressive music and dancing from the band.

At this point, police bagan to allow protestors and members of the public to leave from the west end of the street, passing them through one at a time, very slowly - searched.

I joined the queue forming, as I wasn't keen on the actions of the police in riot gear at the east end of the street.

Once the majority of people in the east of the street had joined the queue, the police advanced, surrounding the queue and blockading the penning protestors at the west end of the street.

Several protestors were snatched and arrested from the queue and the west of the street, no obvious reasons for this action. One of those snatched was a medic.

The police processed those remaining in the queue more quickly, with only a basic search - they seemed to be picking out 'less aggressive' protestors (i.e. those not wearing black) first. I was released fairly early and told to 'go home', I was then directed out on to Lothian Road.

On entering Princes Street, I became caught up in the events there.


Times are very rough.

Journalists as well as protestors were involved in the shoving match in Canning St.

it was a peacfull demo againts the G8 summit at that
street. about 60 swat black police and
100 regular police cloused the street and made about
10-30 arrests.

just before eveyone left, some police mans just pulled my friend out of the croud,
then i tried to help him and they beaten me up and serched my whole body and took my map of
glaneglease. my friend was hand-cooped detained. know he probably is at the big police station at Livingston

'Time for Guerrillas' wrote:

"The police have won the battle of street protests - they have mastered the art of surrounding protestors and grounding them down with draconian legislation. It's time to think of guerrilla actions: fast, furious and effective attacks on the economic infrastructure. The days of RTS demos are over."

I've thought this for some time now. It seems I'm not alone. The imperialist state/corporate apparatus can be disrupted! However, a new strategy has to be developed. The state in Western Europe has pretty much mastered the art of controlling mass direct actions. Its time for a rethink of strategy! Endlessly repreating the mantra -as many do on the direct action Left-of the effectiveness of mass direct action and affinity group action amidst this, is a road to nowhere.

I don't know why people are saying today's events show mass affinity-based/RTS-style direct action to be outdated/ineffective. Police tactics have certainly become cleverer but it hasn't stopped this kind of action being very effective in, for instance, many Latin American countries (e.g. the recent overthrow of the Ecuadorian president, recent protests in Bolivia, the anti-CAFTA mobilisations in Guatemala and other countries). Also, I think the point of the pigpen tactic is not to render protests ineffective - the protests effectively shut down roads and shops in an entire area - but rather, to disillusion protesters, to make people feel disempowered. The G8 protests so far seem to have been quite effective in various ways in terms of disrupting "normal" capitalism, and the costs of security operations mounted at summits and protests nowadays massively exceed the previous costs of damage/cleanup when the cops were less prepared..

The problem is that different tactics need to be formulated to defeat the repressive measures the police use. From what I've seen today, it seems a larger White Overall contingent could have easily broken most of the police lines. I've seen park benches thrown at the police - these could instead have been used as shields to push police back. Another problem is that resisting this kind of police onslaught requires militant confrontation, and an ability to switch between confrontational and non-confrontational visages without detection (people who didn't "look" like anarchists were being let out of the pigpens, etc). I suspect that the numbers prepared for confrontation when aggressively attacked and pigpenned by cops are smaller than is needed to effectively render impotent this kind of tactic. This is partly because of pro-police prejudice across society, partly because of persistently biased media coverage (the BBC today showed and even flagged up a police charge on a crowd, but still referred to some of the protesters "attacking" the police and the police "defending themselves"!) and partly because of excessive reluctance of non-"blackblock" protesters to be associated with the "black block" (because of clever recuperation strategies). Basically: if there was a big stratum of people who would not normally confront police but who would react appropriately to police aggression, and/or a larger layer of protesters openly hostile to the police, then the pigpen tactic would be counterproductive, serving only to intensify confrontation.

One reassuring aspect is that apparently local working-class kids are taking the opportunity to get involved because they don't like the police - boomerang effect for all the perpetual repression in everyday life. This shows that we are making links with the people we need to be mobilising - the socially excluded and dispossessed - in spite of, or even because of, all the negative propaganda.

Onwards to victory!

I take your point that the demonstrations today disrupted Edinburgh, but they also showed the dominance of state power. I've been inside police cordon areas twice. It is boring, frustrating and futile. It allows the state forces to dominate us, even when none of us has lifted a finger. It seems that just wearing a balaclava and holding a black flag justifies state violence, even if we are just walking noisily down the street and have not even thrown a brick. The fact that the crowd was so ineffectual in breaking a relatively pathetic police line shows that no-one had tooled up for a fight, but we are still criminals.

If the state believes that clothing and belief are enough to make one a criminal, then there is really no need to hold back. Instead of holding demonstrations that make us look like a gang of thugs being coralled by the police, we should learn the lessons of the Huntingdon Lab Animal Libbers. A more targetted campaign where the state has no warning of our presence would lead to greater triumphs than sitting around in the street dressed as clowns.

I'm not suggesting hurting or killing people, but even Gandhi's resistance movement attacked the property of the oppressors. Smash their missiles, slash their car tyres, destroy their shareholders' AGMs, disrupt their communications, etc - these are the guerrilla actions we need to perform to erode the state and its economic base. This requires training and adequate knowledge and good physical fitness.

Within the progressive Left movement, all I see are lazy beer drinkers up for a fight with the coppers and banging drums. They couldn't pick-pocket a blind man, let alone have the intelligence and ability to undermine state structures. This is going to get us nowhere unless we seriously think tactically.

I'll see you all at the next Anarchist Bookfair, I guess.

The link for this article on the front page via 'Full report and Summary' leads back to the front page, not this article.

It appears from police messages I intercepted this morning, that "huge numbers" of iilegal
immigrants dressed as clowns have descended On scotland. That gives the Police further
good reasons for apprehention and detention!
As Stalin's great grand child, can anyone supply information leading to archives,(detention,disappearance), as to the methods he used to create, a superpower, and how many of those are currently being used in Scotland.

MY TICKET TO EDINBURGH : *SLEEPER CARRIAGE*

I have one RETURN TRAIN TICKET for Edinburgh tonight:

Details:

Outbound
London (euston) - Edinburgh 23:45 tues - 07:17 wed

Return
Edinburgh- London(euston) 23:45 wed- 07:00 thurs

The ticket can be collected from Euston from 9pm onwards by arrangement.

The ticket is £89 which is what it cost me a few days ago.

tel raleric on 07753318969

OK, I agree that the police brutality is unacceptable, especially when people are just dressed up as clowns and wanna have a dance & some music. But here is my question. Is it not illegal to have un-organised protests which have not received permission? I am not saying I agree with this law, but this would perhaps explain why the police tried to stop the protests yesterday by penning people in. Obviously they did more to stop down the city center than if they had let the people carry on in their carnival.

Just wanted to add my support to that other Edinburgh resident.

I fully support our hard working Police force in every action they took.

You do yourselfs no favours by smashing up one of the worlds most beautiful cities.

I have never seen full grown adults behave like children. In scotland and the UK you would be known as nothing more than a NED or a CHAV.

I will be sending my council tax bills for your attention.

Comments antithetical to protesters' concerns appear to disappear from the site with remarkable speed.

In other words, someone is deleting comments from this site that they personally do not like.

And this makes me wonder if some of the comments we sometimes see from people in Africa supporting direct action against the G8 aren;t being concocted by these same editors?

If this is to be a truly independent media you must print every comment, including the ones that lambast protesters. Isn't that the point of democracy? You live with the fact that there is always someone with a completely different point of view?

I must be missing something.

Since when has relatively minor crowd trouble changed anything?

The fact is, the majority of you lot will be comfortably ensconced in well-paid jobs next Monday morning, and if not, the chances are it's a long-term goal, as soon as your parents get sick of funding your pseudo-ideological arsing about.

So someone occasionally gets chased by a horse or hit with a stick. Whoopdy doo. I would probably have found that exciting as a teenager, but I've grown out of it. Throwing bins about and trampling flowers are things you get told off for on your way home from the pub, it isn't protesting.

The most hilarious thing about everything I've seen so far is how seriously the protestors seem to take themselves, and how little effect any of it is having. If your intention was to slightly annoy local residents and give the police something to speak about until the football season starts, then congratulations - it's been quite an acheivement. If your intention was to prove that the harder people try to be different and edgy, the more they conform to stereotypes and bore the pants off everyone else, then, again, congratulations - you've pulled it off.

As you all swagger back to the Home Counties, things will quickly return to normal as if nothing has happened (which, in essence, is very much the case) but at least you'll have some exciting stories to tell your friends. Did you take any good pictures?

Was that it?

After all the hype all we got were a few thrown M&S trollys. I hope things liven up a bit at Gleneagles as I do enjoy watching grown men in clown suits getting their skulls fractured by police batons..... makes for great TV.

On a slightly more serious point I'm unsure exactly what rent a mobs aims are, perhaps that's part of their problem nobody knows exactly what/who they represent. The protests are so violent and "in yer face" any message that's being delivered is completely lost on the public.

Anyway enough from me, I'm off for a Big Mac ;)

I have to agree with some of the above comments about the local youths.

Lets not kid ourselves here. Edinburgh's "local working-class youth" would just as quickly lob stones and bottles at all us "fucking hippies" if it werent for the fact that riot police make a much better story to brag to their mates about when they get home.

What I witnessed last night on South St. Davids Street was not support for the anarchist movement, it was a group largely made up of pissed neds doing what they do best: starting violence for the sake of it and then running away like pussies when they realise they're gonna get their arses handed to them.

Dont get me wrong here, I think the police response to the protests during the day incited a lot of the violence. But wake up!...these people werent helping, they were making you look bad by provoking the cops.

However the demonstrations aren't a good advert of how things would turn out in our world if we complied with your beliefs.By world standards Edinburgh was a very beautiful and peaceful city until you lot arrived. Its now been turned into a battle zone and this website blames the residents of Edinburgh. Nice try, but we're not falling for it.

Hi,

As a resident of Edinburgh, I have two points:

1. Regarding the effectiveness of your actions, you were tactically naive both on Saturday and yesterday. I saw you on both occasions. You clearly don't know your way around the city. If you had genuinely wanted to hit Standard Life there was still a route to do it yesterday even after the police had been blocking off groups. Of course, if you wanted just to be able to fail miserably and then moan about police brutality later, then, yes, going to a very obvious place, dressed in very obvious clothes, taunting and attacking the police and then getting hit back works wonders. A hen party after twelve drinks could have launched a more effective and clear-minded attack than was managed on either occasion. Anarchists you may be - orienteerers you sure ain't.

2. As others have noted, we do not appreciated people using benches placed here by Edinburgh citizens in memory of other citizens as weapons. In fact, we are bloody annoyed about it. You didn't get one brick through the windows of Standard Life or Starbucks, but you destroyed some amenities provided by citizens for other citizens. Brilliant. A great blow against communally-minded acts. And don't think most of us will be taken in by talk of the heroic 'locals' joining in - they are neds, plain and simple, the sort who will be back to battering ordinary Edinburgh citizens as usual next week.

A bit more thought in future about what you do and how you do it, would probably bring in better results and more support from ordinary people. Tell yourself all you want how heroic and successful you were - few here are speaking of the anarchists in such glowing terms.

---just copy this out for your irate and aggressive comment- why not swap the words around a bit to create the impression of individuality! have fun!---

hey you protesting scum,

I am an ordinary, decent, local working class hero. You are all millionares from the home counties, with smelly bodies, long hair and hoods. Because of this, the police should be able to use any level of violence on you, whether you are attacking people and property or not. Obviously you have only come to protest to be cool, as i can tell, just by looking at you that you have no sincere humanitarian impulses. If you really want to undermine a brutal and injust system of oppression and exploitation, why don't you work for the council, or buy a fucking plastic wristband or something.

i hope you die

salt of the earth


OR

We woz atacked for nuffink by the imperialist cops! Long live the proletarian revolution!
They are total fascists interfering with my right to peacefully launch objects at them! Don't be fooled by the news, we actually are on the brink of revoliutionary insurrection! And everybody in Edinburgh thinks we're great!

Down with the G8! Up with the M32!

Just wanted to add my weight to the guys from Edinburgh, I'm disgusted at some of your action, particularly the destruction of public benches left in the memory of ordinary people you appear to be claiming to fight for. Or were you just ripping up the ones paid for by McDonalds? Go and sh*t in your own back yards.

I have just attended the Dunganan detetion centre protest near Glasgow and the police state tactics that were used against us adds further weight to the idea that we need to seriously rethink our strategy for confronting the capitalist state/corporate apparatus in the UK and more broadly in Europe. I was on a coach that was stopped by the police under section 60. A few policemen came on board and did a bag search and falsely claimed we had to to give our names and addresses etc. Of course we refused to give our names etc but nevertheless the police used their powers under section 6o to intimidate us and delate our progress to the protest. Unfortunately this happens again and again at anti-capitalist protests and the tactics of the state are all too affective.
Merely stating that we will not be intimidated is hot air! These tactics by the state work all too well to crush effective direct action. We need to rethink our strategy!

One of your protesters commented yesterday that it was ok to damage property as "all the rich folk would pay for it." Would that be the same "rich" folk who live on the poverty line and are already struggling with sky-high council tax bills? The same people who perhaps enjoy sitting in Princes Street gardens as they do not have a garden of their own and whose enjoyment has been ruined by some berks deciding geraniums would make good weapons? Your protests have made life intolerable for the ordinary people you claim to represent - you absolutely disgust me.

As a long term Edinburgh resident I welcome a little anarchy on the streets - by god (or allah or whoever) the place could do a with a little livening up and if that means I'm slightly inconvenienced by not being able to enjoy struggling through millions of shoppers and being unable to breathe from the diesel fumes of hundreds of buses then so be it.

Personally I though Princes St looked brilliant last night - people strolling along the road, not a bus in sight - nasty shop windows covered with eye pleasing chip board and lots of animals to admire. Admittedly the strolling people looked a bit weird - either in clown costume or riot gear and the animals were either alsatians or 19 hands high. But the air smelt sweet and there really was bugger all in the way of a threat to me or anyone else who wasn't looking for a rumble. Wander down Lothian Road at 1.00am on a Saturday and see if you can say the same.

The anarchists are a polite bunch and the coppers seemed to be more than helpful. No-one much minded me taking photos and I felt as threatened there as I would visiting an old people's home. It's just a shame that a third element (The Embra Ned) had to get involved - but they are just as identifiable as the anarchist, so with any luck they'll get a toasting from both sides. (everyone look out for the shiny white trainers and burberry caps)

There've been a lot of comments from locals telling the protestors to head off back home - this seems a bit weird from a city which welcomes all kinds of visitors from all over the world 12 months a year. I would much rather see the people who've been around this week than the neanderthals who visit Tynecastle and Easter Road ever second week for 9 months of the year.

There've also been lots of comments about the ineffectiveness of the the actions of the anarchists - ok so throwing a park bench at a met officer might not end world poverty. But does spending an afternoon in the Meadows wearing a white t-shirt and listening to Billy Bragg end it either? No but both actions provoke thought and generate headlines and if one thing politicians take heed of it is headlines.

So I say to the anarchists welcome to my city, go and have some fun with the police - I've already paid for them through my council tax so they may as well get used. Enjoy your time here and come back again in a few years with your kids and enjoy a holiday here. Good luck with the struggle - I wish I had the passion you obviously have.

To the Edinburgh residents - stop moaning, we've known this was coming and there ain't nothing we could do about it. Go and see for yourself what's going on and don't believe everything you hear on Radio Forth or read in the Evening News.

U say this is our city?

THIS IS OUR WORLD

What happens here during the G8 afects life and death beyond edinbrugh and beyond africa.

Do you have no compasion for things awy from your front door.

Do you even look that far.

For those who were there on Monday like me, it’s clear the media certainly sensationalised the whole thing and whipped upa frenzy! If we're as bad as the media make out tell me why Mac D's, GAP and Prêt a Manger (sorry about spelling) remained untouched.

A point though we should all remember and the press to is that police brutality is what took place in Genoa. The tragic murder of Carlo Giuliani should live in the minds of every protestor, and if a couple of shoves with shields is going to have us crying, we need to think long and hard about what some of us have come through and experienced before.

For a website supposedly on the anti-business, anti-establishment, anti-corporation ticket there seems to be alot of "protesters" emails ending in yahoo, hotmail, man, aol...very strange hmmmmm?????

What's even more confusing is that I saw some of the "balaclava brigade" sporting nike training shoes on their feet and warbling into mobile phones in the streets of Edinburgh yesterday!

What's the message? Aye just forget the big business, leave them in peace and resort to throwing around some park benches and flowers...Away and wreck yir ain country!

Totally agree.

Anti-capitalists using yahoo email addresses. Didn't they know that yahoo's floating sky high on the US stock market then?

Wrecking my hometown in Scotland in the name of "anti capitalism" while helping fund millionaires! Deary, deary me!

Better watch out lads, they'll delete our anti-anarchy comments like they have some of mine already!

BTW why is it okay for protestors to use violence but no' for the polis to give as good as they get? Do these guys really think the polis shuld just stand around an' get battered? Doh!

u guys with anti protest comments make me sick........
u guys are completly ignorants u know nothing about the organizations that are in scotland... u think that its the protestors that make the mess??? THEN WHATS HAPPENING IN IRAK??? whos doing the sh*t there?? whos doing all the mess on the environment?? is it the rebel groups?? the anarchists? the communists??

u speak about the clothes and stuff we have!?!? why?? couse theyr american brands?? we are not against the amertican ppl..... poor ppl by the way... they made them blind...
u got nothing more to accuse us from doing?? lol and YOU?? what do you guys do to help the pwrld or the poor?? u walk around with white bracelets?? u watch live8 on tv and say bob gheldof is the best!?!?! LOLOL AHAHAH

shame on you....
JCP-juventude comunista portuguesa www.jcp-pt.org

Yet more wonder comments by the commi comic.

“THEN WHATS HAPPENING IN IRAK??? whos doing the sh*t there??”

Did the people of Stirling in those council housing schemes invade Iraq then you clown? Garden huts and fences made into “battle tanks” and “fighter jets” eh?

“we are not against the amertican ppl..... poor ppl by the way”

So your just against the Scottish people?

Americans are poor people? So your saying the Scottish population are all rampant millionaires then? Champagne for breakfast, caviar for supper?

Do us all a favour though. Please don’t post any more of your comical and frankly quite hilarious comments my Portugese friend.

It’s a shame that you are representing the good people of Portugal. One rotten apple always spoils the barrel though.

I was not witness to the events at the west end of Princes Street nor Rose Street so cannot and will not pass comment on them. I was however witness to what occured between The Mound and Waverly Bridge, so feel that I am in a good position to pass on my observations -
I recall that it was around about 3pm - 4pm, forgive me if my timings are incorrect. I was standing on Princes Street just west of Waverly Bridge. I could see a lot of flashing blue lights, Police vans and yellow Police jackets in the far distance at the west end of Princes Street. Obviously quite a few people milling around and lots of noise, drums etc. I then saw that a large group of protesters near to The Mound, marching eastwards along Princes Street without any Police. Nothing to worry about there .. or so I thought. As the protesters continued, and perhaps following a pre-arranged signal, they firstly began to jog and then run east along Princes Street shouting and screaming, picked up bins and threw them about. Shoppers, tourists, on-lookers, mothers, fathers and kids were all swept along .. I managed to stand to one side and was witness to the terror that was on their faces. Oh and no, it was not insigated by the Police because they, at first, were behind the marchers. A very thin line of 'normal' Police then drew their batons and faced up to the protesters. A stand off ensued. I saw protesters, many with covered faces and hoods, unbolting the memorial benches (yes they are bolted down) and bringing them to the 'front line' along with broken stones and more bins. The benches, bins and stones were thrown in the general direction of the Police but with NO regard to the innocent others. A battle ensued and the protesters were pushed back. The Police line was then joined by horses and eventually riot Police.
I decided then to leave. Disgusted at the actions of these so called 'protesters' who with no apparant regard for others, had caused widespread panic to innocent people. If this is anti-G8, anti-capatilism in operation then I think we are better off without it. The protesters on 2nd July got it just right .. thousands of people with one peaceful, common messages. The idiots on the 4th July lost any shread of sympathy they had ..

My account of the events of the Carnival for Full Enjoyment are intended to confirm and elaborate on those above. I should also mention that I have made many of these comments to a news team, the comments I later discovered they were broadcast on channel 5 yesterday (The 5th), I have not yet seen the broadcast but my dad's recorded it for me so I cant yet give any opinion on whether the media did or did not put a spin on what I said.

My group (9 peaceful protesters) arrived at Princes street and found ourselves fairly close to the front line of protesters who after a short while decided to try to push through the police line in order to join the larger group of people who appeared to be 'fully enjoying' the carnival further along the street. The push was very nearly a success but unfortunatly the police managed to knock over the majority of the front line, including myself. With many of us trapped underneath each other getting up wasnt an easy task as police violently tried to drag people up, people who were trapped and could not be dragged. We eventually all managed to stand not before a few palms and punches to the face. Once I had stood up an officer pushed me back towards the crowd behind me which wasnt too successful as I landed a little too near a fellow officer of his who took offence to my proximity to his and decided to shout and push me also, of course I tried to explain that I had been pushed by an officer but he didnt care as he pushed me away. I found that many, including my friends were sitting a few metres back in an attempt to hold what little ground we had gained, this didnt last long.

We wound up retreating and attempting to get around the police via streets further north, the police brought in horses, an adversary that few of our small group were willing to face on the grounds of the danger to ourselves and the cruelty to the animals so we kept our distance and attempted to continue around. Police didnt seem too interested in us as they were all headed for the protesters near the horses, understandably.

We managed to eventually rejoin princes street further along, by which time it appeared as though the police were minimal in the area as we looked behind us it was apparent that we were once again fairly close to the front line, this time of thousands of people. The police quickly arived as we moved east. This time the riot police were in the majority. After a short time the police began to charge which worried most of the peaceful protesters, tourists and locals around me. I soon realised that my group had moved towards the park to the south (the name escapes me, something along the lines of princes street park) I saw the last of my friends jump over the victorian metal fence, the route I assumed all my friends had taken and so I followed. I attempted to climb up but found that the spikes designed to stop such actions are far more effective that I had assumed as I managed to pierce my foot on one of them. Bleeding, fearful and confused I eventually managed to hobble up and over the fence. I later found that all but the one of my friends I saw climb over had actually gone through a gate, I had not been able to locate a gate as the crowds must have been covering them. I was treated by a medic and then entertained by a clown who gave me a very tasty lolly pop :D (Gotta love those clowns). I clearly could not walk and luckily was carrying a flag which was good enough to use as a make-shift walking aid. My friends primary concern was now my safety (bless 'em) so I and a member of the group who we had by chance encountered earlier in the day made our way through the park in order to avoid the violence which was clearly errupting now inside the park.

Before continuing with my own story I should take the time to tell you the things Ive heard from my friends of the violence which I was now missing out on (poor me ;) )... I discovered that the attacks by the police (yes I said by the police NOT the protesters) were instigated when our fearless leader (as he so hates to be referred to) had presented a riot officer with a flower (not thrown as I gather many were doing from reading the above report), to which the officer clearly took offence as he attacked my friend who luckily escaped. A member of the black bloc witnessed this event and threw a rock/mud clump (no one is sure which) at the officers in defence of my friend, he missed the chasing officer and hit another at which point all hell broke loose and the police charged. This charge was at EVERYONE including the tourists and locals who far outnumbered the protesters in the park. The person assisting me to escape down the hill towards the rest of the park and safety saw one officer pick up and throw a woman who clearly was not a protester (we're an easily recognised bunch) into a bed of flowers before we managed to get away. It should also be noted that there were diabetics in need of insulin also not allowed to leave.

I needed some rest so we informed our friends that we were heading back to the campsite at the Jack Kane centre (who have been fantastic by the way), my friend and myself sat a while on some steps informing people not to go towards the way we had come from unless they wanted to encounter police brutality. Once ready to move on we headed for the gates only to find that the police were holding the entire park (who as I mentioned only had protesters in a minority) captive. After enquiring whether my injury would let myself and my friend (who we decided it would be sensible to claim was my medic as he did indeed have a medic bag with him) leave the park, we were told everyone would be able to leave "in a minute or two" after half an hour we realised the riot officer was lying to us. We discovered that there was no suspision of crime which as I understand it means there is no legal right for the police to hold us, but hold us they did. we saw the previously mentioned nude man walking around seemingly either mentally disabled or on acid - this may well have been part of his 'act'. We were told that some people were being let out one at a time with a manditory search and the police were taking names and addresses (I am not sure if this is legal or not considering we are all under a section 60, perhaps someone could shed some light on this). After hiding his knife (for camping uses only) my 'medic' and I went looking for another exit. We then discovered the rest of our group had been caught in another part of the park, something we had not expected. We advised one member to bury his spray paint and then decided to find an exit. I should also note that there were a great deal of as I said locals and tourists including one man playing tenis with his young son, clearly trying to keep his boy's awareness of the situation to a minimal as this was clearly still a dangerous place to be.

We found that a lot of people were able to escape through a gap/over a wall in the north west corner of the park. We continued on our way, got some food and then decided to go for a pint before once again parting ways (my friends were not done with the day's events though I clearly was).

*NOTE* This next section does not relate to the carnival though many of you may find it interesting.***

We decided to go, as I said for a pint in what we thought looked like a decent enough pub in central Edinburgh, The Deacon Brodie's Tavern. We walked in, bought our pints and sat around the only remaining table, near the men's toilets :-s . We soon noticed that the television back in the main bar area was showing news on the day's events so many of our group decided to go and watch, this lasted all of a minute as the bar staff turned off the television. I personally felt somewhat outraged as we were not causing any trouble or speculation and one person in the bar made a comment somewhere along the lines of 'What kind of censorship is this?' backing up my beliefs that we were not the only ones interested. I went to sit down and my friends came back to join me, once they returned the informed me that we had been asked to finish our drinks and leave the bar. I was outraged. We of course took our time with our drinks, not best pleased with this immoral request. One of our group, a man who looks a little les 'alternative' than the rest of us, was actually sat in the main bar happily drinking away - we all found it most amusing. A few minutes later one of the chefs (A woman who clearly did not want to be doing this) was ordered to close the doors to the area we were sat in and to stand in front of the doors. Our 'fearless leader' comically made jokes of imprisonment through the glass window to the other customers (since we were being kicked out anyway) and we eventually finished our drinks and attempted to leave. On our way out the four foot high landlady and some of her staff felt the need to become violent and start pushing around members of our group. I was last out due to my still hurting foot. The landlady decided to shout at me to get out and not come back (when it was obvious that I was hobbling with a stick) as well as to hurry up to which I replied "I am injured, I will take as long as I bloody want". I spoke with the young worker who had been told to make sure we were gone outside the pub enquiring as to why we had been asked to leave. He claimed it was dress code and we "cant expect to be welcome here looking like that". Since I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans I saw that perhaps the reason was our hair (dreadlocks of various colours, pink mohawk etc.) to which he replied no, it was the way we were dressed. And so I enquired as to why so many other dressed similarly to us were allowed in - he had no answer. Personally I see that the only difference between our treatment and the treatment of other races, religions and sexualities in the past which are now seen as illegal is that we choose to dress as we do and to believe what we believe. So anyone in Edinburgh that fancies a laugh gather some mates and get yourself kicked out of the DEACON BRODIE'S TAVERN which I believe was on Bank Street (though that could be incorrect, not sure).

Well Ive been sat here for an hour or two now writing this and watching news of the Gleneagles events I've now had to miss out on (my friends are there and I'll be finding out about their condition shortly after logging off), my foot's feeling a little better but walking isnt easy. And since I wont be bothering to write all this again anywhere else I'd like to wish good luck to my friends and say thank you to the Jack Kane Centre in Edinburgh for their hospitality (Im in the centre now writing this) and the First bus service for their tremedous, free bus service aswell as the Anarchy Express that got me here from Bath (Well from London, I got a coach from Bath :p) and all the groups and organisations that have made the events here in Scotland possible. Best of luck to you all and Stop the G8!

"I attempted to climb up but found that the spikes designed to stop such actions"....

What was failed to be mentioned, probably to put some sinsiter overtone into it all about "spikes" is that the fence is that the "spikes" are the actual fence surrounding the place.

These "spikes", well "n" shaped spars, weren't recently put up to injure protesters or keep protesters out...they have been on those fences for as long as I can remember.

I know I've passed those fences on a daily basis for years. Hope that you now all undertand about "spikes" on fences.

Two sides to a story.

Sing a long? Thats jolly. Why the need to hide your faces then? Who is kidding who?

Well it would appear that this website only wants to read posts from the protesters. Many posts seem to have been deleted that were posted by Edinburgh residents, including myself.

Why delete them?

It would be good to receive an answer, but I doubt that will happen.

You also ran another article with video of a "protester" being arrested on Saturday night. You claim he was whisked away by unknown police, in an unmarked van, to an unknown location.....very sinister....sorry wroooonnnnnggggg.

I know the guy and he was lifted for being a bit pissed and gobby!

Get your facts right before you sensationalise something!! You say the mainstream media are full of shit, well sorry my friends so are you!!

Yes Katana I hear what your saying.

These people wrecked Stirling yesterday but it's conveniently been wiped clean from the website. Yet they feel the need to re-iterate the "peaceful protesters" being drilled, terrorised, photographed and treated like arseholes by the authorities.

Maybe the "big media corporations", as they moan about so often, have taken control of their operations.

Sad yet not really surprised.

PS - The scars still sit in Stirling, no-one here has forgotten!

These stupid "locals" are just confirming my view that most people in this country are nimbyite wankers without a brain cell between them. First of all they blame protesters for the terror caused by the police, as if it was protesters detaining passing shoppers in cordons for hours and baton-charging children. Secondly they selfishly expect every act of resistance to be geared to THEM, to win their oh-so-important affections, and they denounce us for not "representing" them properly. Well we aren't Tony fucking Blair, we don't wanna represent you assholes. Our right to fight for our own freedom is irreducible, we don't have to ask permission from you pillocks and we aren't playing for your stupid Rupert Murdoch papers to love us. I'm sick of "the public" and their "message", if they wanna find out the truth it's easy enough with the internet and alternative media. Actually the "public" choose to be ignorant and miss the "message" because they are so self-satisfied with being "ordinary" and "little" and "decent" and "common" and otherwise conformist, unexceptional and pointless. If you support the actions of the police then you are thugs because it's the same as if you were hitting random people with batons like the police do. And you are worse because you are a hypocrite, you call other people thugs and denounce "violence" even while you support the helmeted goons. The police disrupt your lives and you praise them, well that just proves you hate yourself as much as you hate us, and it's your fault that you and we live in a police state you whining little pricks. You like the fact that they charged a crowd of people including tourists and locals, you stupid morons - this makes you pigfuckers a bunch of self hating nobodies as well as child abusers since YOUR police were terrorising children.

As for "advert for what society would be like", well that's not what action against corporations is for, if you want that then go to the protest camps instead. Nevermind what anarchist society would be like, just look at what society is like now, this is intolerable and cannot continue - it's just a matter of whether we'll be wiped out in wars before or after the planet runs out of resources.

And if your beloved park benches matter more to you then the world's poor, then perhaps you should have got us some proper ammo or better yet, stopped the G8 fuckers from camping out in your backyard in the first place.

To the guy who says "well the protest didnt have permission" - these laws are fascist - the fascist laws are as much a part of the problem as the fascist police. If the police choose to enforce fascist laws then they are just like Eichmann, they can't play at "only obeying orders" or "only enforcing the law". Nobody with any moral dignity would join this goon squad in the first place.

Deleuze says that resistance is necessarily resistance of minorities, against majoritarianism, against representation. And he's right. Fuck these anti-protest goons who would have voted for Hitler in Weimar to get the trains to run on time and shut up the noisy protesters.

Actually I think Time for the Guerrilla has a point, though I didn't quite see it earlier. Certainly the most effective resistance tactics are the ones which hit without warning. Actually I think the police state itself might be vulnerable to this kind of sabotage, since their supplies of goon equipment and their helicopters etc. are in very limited finite supply (and of course the suppliers are open to being hit too).

As for:
"What I witnessed last night on South St. Davids Street was not support for the anarchist movement, it was a group largely made up of pissed neds doing what they do best: starting violence for the sake of it and then running away like pussies when they realise they're gonna get their arses handed to them."
...exactly how many of the participants in the events you "witnessed" did you actually interview? Why exactly did they pick on the police instead of you?

And people have yahoo, hotmail etc emails because they are FREE you idiots, it's called using the master's tools to dismantle the master's house. Of course some people are purist enough to only use open source and some primmies don't even use the internet, but then again u won't find their posts on indymedia will you, you prat? LOL

btw no bad thing some of these whingers rantings have been hidden, they're either in the pay of the police or quite frankly they're underpaid LOL

FUCK THE PIGS
FUCK THE PIGFUCKERS TOO

to 'fuck the pigfuckers'

The 'Make Poverty History' march on 2nd July got it spot on. An organised event. Hundreds of thousands of marchers. Peaceful protest. Mass 'positve' media coverage. Huge public support. Absolutely fantastic and the message was left firmly intact !

If you ask anybody what 2nd July was all about they will tell you it was about addressing the issue of world poverty .. making poverty history .. trying to make the world a better place for all.

The 'Carnival for Full Enjoyment' march of 4th July was way off the mark. A disorganised event. A few hundred, perhaps a thousand, marchers. Anarchic disruption. Mass 'adverse' media coverage. Huge public condemnation. Absolute disaster .. message lost completely.

If you ask anybody what the 4th July was about they will tell you they dont know because what ever message you did have was completely lost because of the actions of a bunch of leaderless, directionless, narrow minded morons who were simply out to cause trouble .. and all in the name of .. well nobody knows.

No doubt your reply will be intelligent and free of explitives (swear words)

Just to remind Bobby Scouse the M32 is in Britol and only a little 1 anyways. so why do we want it up?

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You know, the intelligence, wisdom and knowlege shown by all of the 'Edinburgh/Stirling' residents in the comments posted above make me so proud to be Scottish. Well done everyone. You are certainly a credit to the Scottish Education system and I'm quite sure you have turned out to be everything your grandparents hoped for.

Of course it is far more worthwhile to join an organised march, asking to help the 'brown babies' (I know none of you Edinburgh idiots are old enough to get that reference but do ask your Grannie) A march completely under control, totally pointless and ineffectual... than to join a gorup of protesters with many different agendas which clearly they did not get 'permission' to excercise their democratic right, to protest peacefully about. ( and before you bang on about this got broken, that got hurt they, little old ladies got a wee fright. So what? If the protesters were allowed to police themselves from within, like large groups of humans have always done since civilisation began, the frustrated troublemakers and drunken yobs would be dealt with swiftly. As soon as the riot troopers start corraling the crowds, it amplifies the frustration turning the crowd toward negative anger. It is a feedback effect and it has the opposite outcome to that stated, of crowd control. Crowds are very good a controlling themselves... Take the Sermon on the Mound (with the loaves and fishes), or Woodstock (with the brown acid)
Neither of those events was fully planned for in advance, with permissions and preperations. Neither of those events required several thousand Law Enforcement drones, in full riot gear, on horses, with batons and shields in order to pass off smoothly. All they needed was for the crowd to take a little responsibility for themselves.

Incidentally, the reason why they dress up and cover their faces is because many of them know more than you about how closely under surveillence we all are, and this makes them a little bit paranoid, the poor things.
Also concealing your identity in situations such as those is a great british tradition, and quite enough traditions are falling by the wayside.

...then:

(a) Why do radical discourses fall over themselves at all times to posit the existence of allies who lie beyond the immediacy of protest events? We need only look at how many articles here claim "locals outraged at police actions" to see that.

(b) If the aim is not to represent anyone, then what possible ethical grounds can there then be for travelling to a city far from one's home to protest and destroy the local street furniture in the process? If you truly didn't want to represent anyone, it would be best simply to stay at home and watch the TV, no?

So the protesters don't care what "we" (the anti-anarchist, pro-Edinburgh section of the community) think about them. Just as well because we certainly don't give a rat's arse what they think. The minute they start lobbing street furniture around and pulling up flowers (what's that about? weapons? hayfever sufferers?) they lose any right they may have had to be listened to.

What are they protesting for? Don't know and care even less.

So where do they sell the Anarachist uniforms? Do they sell them together, or will I have to go buy each piece separately?

If you were there, you know what happened, surely? Police lines to divide and wind up, horse and baton charges for no discernable reason. Penning and charging, then forcing people into the park to be locked up for hours, illegally. All this to stop a carnival. The black blockers I talked to were a little confused, thir consensus had been simply to protect the samba band from police aggression in a carnival march. The benches were used as barricades after horse charges, the geraniums were used in a classic situationism detournement to pelt a group of eight or so police following a riot cop with a video camera, who came stampeding through the park of people trying to chill out from the police violence and got cut off. Don't you think there is something beautiful about people decorating them with flowers instead of the eight of them getting a right leathering from the 200 or so people surrounding them?

The imaginary and symbolic identifications of anarchotepot's post are quite remarkable. Lacan would have a field day with all of that.

The ideal of people chilling out and then always being forced to react to police charges does not correlate with the footage and pictures I have seen (including those posted on this site as "evidence" of unreasonable police brutality).

The symbolism of using flowers to decorate police officers simply doesn't wash in this context either. For one thing it's a tiresomely cliched image that just isn't subversive in the slightest. Furthermore, it might sustain certain anarchist imaginaries but all I see is just wilful vandalism. Bring your own flowers if you're thinking of doing that. It's not you that has to pay for them to be replaced is it? The bill for repair comes directly from residents' council taxes, and very few of the anarchists in the Carnival were locals as far as I can tell.

quote

Cool uniforms

14.07.2005 04:34
So where do they sell the Anarachist uniforms? Do they sell them together, or will I have to go buy each piece separately?

BadManBizniz

End Quote

Just separately so long it's Black and Corporate logo free.

Edinburgh's Carnival For Full Enjoyment was roundly condemned by the police, Edinburgh City Council and the mass media. But what was this anti G8 action really about? And what really happened on the capital's streets on 4th July? Here for the first time the Carnivalistas give their own account of the day....

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