6th July 2005

Anti G8 Protesters block bridge in Crieff

Traffic in and out of Crieff has been brought to a standstill early this morning by a group of people protesting about the G8 summit in Gleneagles. A group of people blocked the bridge over the river Earn on the main exit road to the south of Crieff, the A822, by locking themselves onto a piece of heavy metal in the middle of the road.

Leaflets are being given to motorists disrupted by the action to explain the motives being this blockade. The aim of blocking the road at this point is to prevent American delegates to the G8, understood to be staying in accommodation in Crieff, from getting to Gleneagles.

Duncan Locke, a self-employed carpenter from the South of England said, “The G8 is an elite club intent on pursuing their agenda of free trade capitalism across the world, at the expense of people, environment or justice. We took this action to try to send a message of hope to the rest of the world that this situation will no longer go unchallenged. We are sorry to be adding to the disruption to local people caused by the G8. However, the issues we are highlighting are of such fundamental importance globally that we felt honour-bound to take action.”

The first vehicle stopped by the road block was a delegation headed for the summit. Other drivers have been sympathetic to the protesters. One lorry driver commented that the trade liberalization being rolled out by the G8 leaders has led to the situation where foreign workers now do jobs for £3 an hour that local people used to get paid £7 an hour to do.

The action was visited by some Critical Mass cyclists and some people dressed as fairies too!

Photos coming soon!

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