Inside the secret world of anarchists preparing for G8 summit
The Times - April 16, 2005
By Adam Luck
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1571447,00.html
The Times penetrated a group of militants who are intent on organised chaos when world leaders come to Scotland
A REMOTE farm in the Lanarkshire countryside was transformed last weekend into a city of well laid-out army tents and marquees resembling a military encampment.
The military aspect was no accident. This was a “war summit”, where about 300 anarchists — some dressed in urban guerrilla garb in freezing temperatures — had gathered to draw up plans to paralyse Scotland during the G8 meeting at Gleneagles in July.
At this so-called Festival of Dissent, held on the land surrounding the imposing 17th-century Birkhill House at Coalburn, a secretive group of militants drew up plans to blockade the summit by cutting road and rail links.
Under the plans, tens of thousands of protesters are to be housed in three camps strategically placed across Scotland and will be deployed through a communications network designed to outflank the police.
Despite the group’s obsessive secrecy, The Times was able to penetrate it to discover the nature of many of its plans — and the willingness of some militants to resort to violence in their determination to disrupt the summit.
After attending a series of meetings under an assumed identity, a Times journalist also established that two key figures in the network are a university dropout named Alessio Lunghi and Mark Aston, a university administrator.
Mr Lunghi, 27, is a leading light within the Wombles, the hardcore anarchist group that was behind the May Day chaos visited on London in 2002. The son of an Italian wine importer and a primary school inspector, Mr Lunghi, from South London, has been directly involved in anti-G8 groups in the run-up to the summit.
He favours combat trousers and heavy, military-style boots, and admitted at one meeting that there was no point to the anti-globalisation protests if there was no violence.
Mr Aston, who works at Cardiff University and was the vice-president of the Cardiff branch of the Association of University Teachers last year, is a key organiser of the anti-globalisation group Dissent, which was behind the festival.
Set up in 2003, Dissent is an umbrella organisation for anarchists and other radical groups, which say that they wish to see the overthrow of capitalism through “direct action”.
The event last weekend at the farm 32 miles southeast of Glasgow attracted radicals from Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, Spain and Iceland, along with a broad section of Britain’s anti-globalisation movement.
These included a PhD student from Cambridge University, a sales representative from London, a professional artist from Cambridge and an assortment of eco- warriors. They were housed in a tent city set in the farm’s 50 acres that included a military-style mess hall, where activists lined up in orderly queues for vegan meals.
Using a large map of the Gleneagles area pinned to the canvas wall of the main marquee, Mr Aston explained to the listening militants the benefits of cutting off the A9 trunk road from Glasgow to Perth and the Forth Road Bridge. “This would effectively cut off the north of Scotland,” he said. “We have to make sure that we can transport the protesters around the area and make sure they have maximum impact and blockade Gleneagles.”
Protesters from outside Scotland would converge on three camps — in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling. Their exact locations are a closely guarded secret.
Activists at one meeting boasted that they knew the intended location for the main police camp, which will house many of the thousands of officers whose task will be to prevent any disruption of the summit. It is believed that some groups intend to target that camp. Mr Aston noted the success of text-messaging in marshalling protesters during anti-globalisation protests abroad and also discussed using motorcycle couriers to disperse information.
Among the foreigners were two Icelandic activists who gave their names as Oli and Runar. Runar, who said he was an art professor in Iceland until being made redundant when his radical activities upset the authorities, said: “We are here to learn about the techniques required for direct action. In Iceland we have serious campaigns against developing hydroelectric dams coming up this summer and felt we needed to come here to understand what we can do.”
The main action — which is scheduled for July 6 — is designed to prevent support workers, journalists and international and British civil servants, rather than the main leaders, from reaching Gleneagles. Several thousand foreign and British civil servants are expected to set the stage for the G8 leaders’ three-day meeting, where Tony Blair, as the host leader (if Labour is re-elected on May 5), has pledged to push forward his plan to relieve debt and poverty in Africa.
As plans for the summit are being polished in Western capitals, the organisers of the campaign were preparing their own detailed designs in the hope that they can plunge the event into chaos. The festival focused on a series of workshops that included using blockading techniques, surveillance and counter-surveillance, arrest role play, first aid and “dealing with trauma”.
Activists were told not to use inflammatory language or discuss detailed strategy or tactics in open meetings because of fears that undercover police or journalists were present. Security was tight, with mobile phones and cameras banned.
Nevertheless, activists openly discussed their involvement in previous anti-G8 riots at Evian in France, and Genoa. They also made clear their hatred for the “British State”.
One organiser of an “arrest role play” workshop, who did not give his name, said: “The British State has a soft and fluffy image, but it is not. It can be as violent as the Italian, German and Swiss police. Do not be fooled.”
More than 10,000 police are expected to be drafted in from across Britain to protect world leaders, including Presidents Bush and Putin, in an exercise expected to cost £20 million. Just how seriously the G8 anarchists treat the prospect of violence can be gauged by the setting-up of a trauma group to help protesters to deal with not only the aftermath of any physical injuries received during the G8 summit but also with their long-term effects.
One organiser also stated that they needed to pool funds to “sue the police as fast as we can” because it would “help the recovery process”.
In a “blockading workshop”, activists openly discussed paralysing Scotland’s rail network by using equipment to simulate a signal that there was a train on the line, and methods of interfering with level crossings.
One clean-cut English student, who did not give his name, explained the use of “track circuit operating clips” — which resemble battery jump leads — to turn the signals red on a rail line and effectively close it down. “There is an electrical current and you attach the clips to the tracks and it breaks the circuit,” he said. “This makes it look like there is a train on the line and stops everything.”
The blockading workshops also saw discussion about methods to block motorways, including the scattering of waste metals and plans for activists to dress as motorway maintenance workers before placing cones to create traffic jams.
Although Mr Lunghi did not attend the festival, he was at a meeting this month at a community centre in Reading of a “South East Assembly”, gathered to deal with the logistical difficulties of helping protesters to reach Scotland from London.
It was at an earlier meeting of the South East Assembly umbrella, in East London, that Mr Lunghi addressed the question of violence during the protests against the Gleneagles summit. Asked whether it was likely, he smiled and said: “Well, I would hope so. There’s no point going otherwise.”
Asked yesterday about the campaign, Abby Mordin, 29, a resident of the Talamh co-operative that owns Birkhill House and its estate, said: “Dissent is not about riots but peaceful protest. It is a way to get a strong message across and making sure the world leaders have important issues on the agenda. We had workshops about dealing with the media and peaceful blockades to block roads.”
Mr Aston said: “I would really rather not give an interview to The Times.” Alessio Lunghi refused to comment.
-----
SECURITY IN NUMBERS
100,000 people expected at the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh on July 2
50,000 protesters expected at a rally outside the Gleneagles Hotel on July 6
10,000 police on standby during the summit, from Scottish forces and from England and Wales
1,151 the regular strength of Tayside police force, which covers the Gleneagles Hotel
1,500 delegates from the eight countries attending the summit
3,000 members of the media covering the summit
£150m estimated cost of hosting the summit
£20m amount provided by the Treasury for security
-----
Police call up 10,000 to prevent repeat of Genoa
By Tosin Sulaiman
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1571435,00.html
Although the Chief Constable of Tayside Police reassured residents living near Gleneagles that the world is not going to end when the G8 leaders come to town, there will no doubt be fears of riots and protests such as those that brought Genoa and Evian in France to a standstill.
All Scottish police forces will provide officers for the security operation, the biggest in Scottish history.
About 10,000 will be involved in policing the summit, the anti-poverty march in Edinburgh and protests at the Dungavel detention centre and the Faslane nuclear submarine base.
Despite a heavy police presence at previous international summits, protesters have managed to cause mayhem.
In December 1999, Seattle played host to one of the biggest demonstrations since the Vietnam war, when tens of thousands of anti- globalisation protesters attempted to disrupt the World Trade Organisation talks.
The National Guard was drafted in and the Mayor of Seattle was forced to impose a curfew after the protests ended in clashes with riot police.
The 2001 G8 summit in Genoa was nearly overshadowed by the death of Carlo Giuliani, an anti-capitalist demonstrator who was shot dead by Italian police. About 500 other protesters were injured in riots that caused millions of pounds of damage to banks, shops and other businesses.
In 2003, 75,000 anti-globalisation protesters converged on the French-Swiss border as world leaders gathered for the G8 summit in Evian on Lake Geneva. Frustrated by a ten-mile exclusion zone around the venue, the protesters directed their fury at police across the border in Geneva and Lausanne, throwing rocks and petrol bombs and barricading roads.
The police fought back with rubber bullets, teargas and water cannons. Martin Shaw, a protester from Ealing, West London suffered multiple fractures when he fell 20 metres into shallow water after a policeman cut a rope attaching him to a bridge.
Police at the European Union summit in Gothenburg in June 2001 were overwhelmed by the 25,000 protesters who rioted in the Swedish city, causing £40 million worth of damage. Three activists were shot and wounded by the police, including one who lost a kidney. Dozens of police were also injured after demonstrators threw stones and fireworks at them.
=======================
G8 protestors reassure Perthshire residents
15 April 2005
http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=7359
(INCLUDES VIDEO REPORT LINK ON PAGE)
Protestors who are planning a massive march against the G8 summit at Gleneagles have started a campaign to win the support of local residents. A group called G8 Alternatives is hoping 20,000 people will demonstrate outside the Perthshire hotel, where the leaders of the world's richest countries will meet in July.
Activists from G8 Alternatives gathered in the town closest to Gleneagles Hotel last night. They are hoping to bring 20,000 protestors to Auchertarder for the opening day of the G8 summit - six times its population. If this was an attempt to win local hearts and minds, it appears it is needed.
One local said: "It would concern me greatly. I mean 20,000 people, this is a small town. Twenty thousand people would absolutely mob the place."
As the group delivered leaflets advertising a public meeting next week, one resident was so suspicious they called the police.
Angela McCormick from G8 Alternatives said: "That is why we're having the meeting on Wednesday. We want to meet people, we want to talk to people face to face. What's important is that local people know the route, they know what's happening. It's important that everybody gets to have their voice heard."
One of the local councillors just happens to be the convenor of the Tayside Police Board.
Auchterarder councillor Colin Young said: "I think people are genuinely worried about trouble, that would be quite normal. They're also greatly reassured that Tayside Police will have adequate police to deal with any peaceful protests."
The summit is going to attract a very wide range of protests. Everyone from concerned grandmothers to seasoned anti-capitalist campaigners. At the moment G8 Alternatives is taking a conventional approach. They are talking to the council and doing everything by the book.
Other groups are planning more radical action around Gleneagles. The Dissent network says camps will be set up in the countryside around Gleneagles a week before the summit. Protestors will try to light beacons on the surrounding hills the night before the G8 leaders arrive. On the opening day of the conference, protestors are planning to blockade on different routes to the hotel. They are expecting to fall foul of the police - on Day Two, plans are being made for what's called prisoner support.
The world's attention will turn to Perthshire this July. With or without official permission, the protestors will make their voices heard.
=====================
G8 Alternatives leaflet Auchertarder
15/04/2005
http://northtonight.grampiantv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=6385
Protestors who are planning a massive march against the G8 summit at Gleneagles have started a campaign to win the support of local outside the Perthshire hotel, where the leaderesidents. A group called G8 Alternatives is hoping 20,000 people will demonstrate rs of the world's richest countries will meet in July.
Activists from G8 Alternatives gathered in the town closest to Gleneagles Hotel last night. They are hoping to bring 20,000 protestors to Auchertarder for the opening day of the G8 summit - six times its population. If this was an attempt to win local hearts and minds, it appears it is needed.
One local said: "It would concern me greatly. I mean 20,000 people, this is a small town. Twenty thousand people would absolutely mob the place."
As the group delivered leaflets advertising a public meeting next week, one resident was so suspicious they called the police.
Angela McCormick from G8 Alternatives said: "That is why we're having the meeting on Wednesday. We want to meet people, we want to talk to people face to face. What's important is that local people know the route, they know what's happening. It's important that everybody gets to have their voice heard."
One of the local councillors just happens to be the convenor of the Tayside Police Board.
Auchterarder councillor Colin Young said: "I think people are genuinely worried about trouble, that would be quite normal. They're also greatly reassured that Tayside Police will have adequate police to deal with any peaceful protests."
The summit is going to attract a very wide range of protests. Everyone from concerned grandmothers to seasoned anti-capitalist campaigners. At the moment G8 Alternatives is taking a conventional approach. They are talking to the council and doing everything by the book.
The world's attention will turn here come July. With or without official permission, protests will take place.
Related Links
G8 Alternatives
G8 Gleneagles 2005
The Times - April 16, 2005
By Adam Luck
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1571447,00.html The Times penetrated a group of militants who are intent on organised chaos when world leaders come to Scotland
A REMOTE farm in the Lanarkshire countryside was transformed last weekend into a city of well laid-out army tents and marquees resembling a military encampment.
The military aspect was no accident. This was a “war summit”, where about 300 anarchists — some dressed in urban guerrilla garb in freezing temperatures — had gathered to draw up plans to paralyse Scotland during the G8 meeting at Gleneagles in July.
At this so-called Festival of Dissent, held on the land surrounding the imposing 17th-century Birkhill House at Coalburn, a secretive group of militants drew up plans to blockade the summit by cutting road and rail links.
Under the plans, tens of thousands of protesters are to be housed in three camps strategically placed across Scotland and will be deployed through a communications network designed to outflank the police.
Despite the group’s obsessive secrecy, The Times was able to penetrate it to discover the nature of many of its plans — and the willingness of some militants to resort to violence in their determination to disrupt the summit.
After attending a series of meetings under an assumed identity, a Times journalist also established that two key figures in the network are a university dropout named Alessio Lunghi and Mark Aston, a university administrator.
Mr Lunghi, 27, is a leading light within the Wombles, the hardcore anarchist group that was behind the May Day chaos visited on London in 2002. The son of an Italian wine importer and a primary school inspector, Mr Lunghi, from South London, has been directly involved in anti-G8 groups in the run-up to the summit.
He favours combat trousers and heavy, military-style boots, and admitted at one meeting that there was no point to the anti-globalisation protests if there was no violence.
Mr Aston, who works at Cardiff University and was the vice-president of the Cardiff branch of the Association of University Teachers last year, is a key organiser of the anti-globalisation group Dissent, which was behind the festival.
Set up in 2003, Dissent is an umbrella organisation for anarchists and other radical groups, which say that they wish to see the overthrow of capitalism through “direct action”.
The event last weekend at the farm 32 miles southeast of Glasgow attracted radicals from Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, Spain and Iceland, along with a broad section of Britain’s anti-globalisation movement.
These included a PhD student from Cambridge University, a sales representative from London, a professional artist from Cambridge and an assortment of eco- warriors. They were housed in a tent city set in the farm’s 50 acres that included a military-style mess hall, where activists lined up in orderly queues for vegan meals.
Using a large map of the Gleneagles area pinned to the canvas wall of the main marquee, Mr Aston explained to the listening militants the benefits of cutting off the A9 trunk road from Glasgow to Perth and the Forth Road Bridge. “This would effectively cut off the north of Scotland,” he said. “We have to make sure that we can transport the protesters around the area and make sure they have maximum impact and blockade Gleneagles.”
Protesters from outside Scotland would converge on three camps — in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling. Their exact locations are a closely guarded secret.
Activists at one meeting boasted that they knew the intended location for the main police camp, which will house many of the thousands of officers whose task will be to prevent any disruption of the summit. It is believed that some groups intend to target that camp. Mr Aston noted the success of text-messaging in marshalling protesters during anti-globalisation protests abroad and also discussed using motorcycle couriers to disperse information.
Among the foreigners were two Icelandic activists who gave their names as Oli and Runar. Runar, who said he was an art professor in Iceland until being made redundant when his radical activities upset the authorities, said: “We are here to learn about the techniques required for direct action. In Iceland we have serious campaigns against developing hydroelectric dams coming up this summer and felt we needed to come here to understand what we can do.”
The main action — which is scheduled for July 6 — is designed to prevent support workers, journalists and international and British civil servants, rather than the main leaders, from reaching Gleneagles. Several thousand foreign and British civil servants are expected to set the stage for the G8 leaders’ three-day meeting, where Tony Blair, as the host leader (if Labour is re-elected on May 5), has pledged to push forward his plan to relieve debt and poverty in Africa.
As plans for the summit are being polished in Western capitals, the organisers of the campaign were preparing their own detailed designs in the hope that they can plunge the event into chaos. The festival focused on a series of workshops that included using blockading techniques, surveillance and counter-surveillance, arrest role play, first aid and “dealing with trauma”.
Activists were told not to use inflammatory language or discuss detailed strategy or tactics in open meetings because of fears that undercover police or journalists were present. Security was tight, with mobile phones and cameras banned.
Nevertheless, activists openly discussed their involvement in previous anti-G8 riots at Evian in France, and Genoa. They also made clear their hatred for the “British State”.
One organiser of an “arrest role play” workshop, who did not give his name, said: “The British State has a soft and fluffy image, but it is not. It can be as violent as the Italian, German and Swiss police. Do not be fooled.”
More than 10,000 police are expected to be drafted in from across Britain to protect world leaders, including Presidents Bush and Putin, in an exercise expected to cost £20 million. Just how seriously the G8 anarchists treat the prospect of violence can be gauged by the setting-up of a trauma group to help protesters to deal with not only the aftermath of any physical injuries received during the G8 summit but also with their long-term effects.
One organiser also stated that they needed to pool funds to “sue the police as fast as we can” because it would “help the recovery process”.
In a “blockading workshop”, activists openly discussed paralysing Scotland’s rail network by using equipment to simulate a signal that there was a train on the line, and methods of interfering with level crossings.
One clean-cut English student, who did not give his name, explained the use of “track circuit operating clips” — which resemble battery jump leads — to turn the signals red on a rail line and effectively close it down. “There is an electrical current and you attach the clips to the tracks and it breaks the circuit,” he said. “This makes it look like there is a train on the line and stops everything.”
The blockading workshops also saw discussion about methods to block motorways, including the scattering of waste metals and plans for activists to dress as motorway maintenance workers before placing cones to create traffic jams.
Although Mr Lunghi did not attend the festival, he was at a meeting this month at a community centre in Reading of a “South East Assembly”, gathered to deal with the logistical difficulties of helping protesters to reach Scotland from London.
It was at an earlier meeting of the South East Assembly umbrella, in East London, that Mr Lunghi addressed the question of violence during the protests against the Gleneagles summit. Asked whether it was likely, he smiled and said: “Well, I would hope so. There’s no point going otherwise.”
Asked yesterday about the campaign, Abby Mordin, 29, a resident of the Talamh co-operative that owns Birkhill House and its estate, said: “Dissent is not about riots but peaceful protest. It is a way to get a strong message across and making sure the world leaders have important issues on the agenda. We had workshops about dealing with the media and peaceful blockades to block roads.”
Mr Aston said: “I would really rather not give an interview to The Times.” Alessio Lunghi refused to comment.
-----
SECURITY IN NUMBERS
100,000 people expected at the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh on July 2
50,000 protesters expected at a rally outside the Gleneagles Hotel on July 6
10,000 police on standby during the summit, from Scottish forces and from England and Wales
1,151 the regular strength of Tayside police force, which covers the Gleneagles Hotel
1,500 delegates from the eight countries attending the summit
3,000 members of the media covering the summit
£150m estimated cost of hosting the summit
£20m amount provided by the Treasury for security
-----
Police call up 10,000 to prevent repeat of Genoa
By Tosin Sulaiman
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1571435,00.html Although the Chief Constable of Tayside Police reassured residents living near Gleneagles that the world is not going to end when the G8 leaders come to town, there will no doubt be fears of riots and protests such as those that brought Genoa and Evian in France to a standstill.
All Scottish police forces will provide officers for the security operation, the biggest in Scottish history.
About 10,000 will be involved in policing the summit, the anti-poverty march in Edinburgh and protests at the Dungavel detention centre and the Faslane nuclear submarine base.
Despite a heavy police presence at previous international summits, protesters have managed to cause mayhem.
In December 1999, Seattle played host to one of the biggest demonstrations since the Vietnam war, when tens of thousands of anti- globalisation protesters attempted to disrupt the World Trade Organisation talks.
The National Guard was drafted in and the Mayor of Seattle was forced to impose a curfew after the protests ended in clashes with riot police.
The 2001 G8 summit in Genoa was nearly overshadowed by the death of Carlo Giuliani, an anti-capitalist demonstrator who was shot dead by Italian police. About 500 other protesters were injured in riots that caused millions of pounds of damage to banks, shops and other businesses.
In 2003, 75,000 anti-globalisation protesters converged on the French-Swiss border as world leaders gathered for the G8 summit in Evian on Lake Geneva. Frustrated by a ten-mile exclusion zone around the venue, the protesters directed their fury at police across the border in Geneva and Lausanne, throwing rocks and petrol bombs and barricading roads.
The police fought back with rubber bullets, teargas and water cannons. Martin Shaw, a protester from Ealing, West London suffered multiple fractures when he fell 20 metres into shallow water after a policeman cut a rope attaching him to a bridge.
Police at the European Union summit in Gothenburg in June 2001 were overwhelmed by the 25,000 protesters who rioted in the Swedish city, causing £40 million worth of damage. Three activists were shot and wounded by the police, including one who lost a kidney. Dozens of police were also injured after demonstrators threw stones and fireworks at them.
=======================
G8 protestors reassure Perthshire residents
15 April 2005
http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=7359 (INCLUDES VIDEO REPORT LINK ON PAGE)
Protestors who are planning a massive march against the G8 summit at Gleneagles have started a campaign to win the support of local residents. A group called G8 Alternatives is hoping 20,000 people will demonstrate outside the Perthshire hotel, where the leaders of the world's richest countries will meet in July.
Activists from G8 Alternatives gathered in the town closest to Gleneagles Hotel last night. They are hoping to bring 20,000 protestors to Auchertarder for the opening day of the G8 summit - six times its population. If this was an attempt to win local hearts and minds, it appears it is needed.
One local said: "It would concern me greatly. I mean 20,000 people, this is a small town. Twenty thousand people would absolutely mob the place."
As the group delivered leaflets advertising a public meeting next week, one resident was so suspicious they called the police.
Angela McCormick from G8 Alternatives said: "That is why we're having the meeting on Wednesday. We want to meet people, we want to talk to people face to face. What's important is that local people know the route, they know what's happening. It's important that everybody gets to have their voice heard."
One of the local councillors just happens to be the convenor of the Tayside Police Board.
Auchterarder councillor Colin Young said: "I think people are genuinely worried about trouble, that would be quite normal. They're also greatly reassured that Tayside Police will have adequate police to deal with any peaceful protests."
The summit is going to attract a very wide range of protests. Everyone from concerned grandmothers to seasoned anti-capitalist campaigners. At the moment G8 Alternatives is taking a conventional approach. They are talking to the council and doing everything by the book.
Other groups are planning more radical action around Gleneagles. The Dissent network says camps will be set up in the countryside around Gleneagles a week before the summit. Protestors will try to light beacons on the surrounding hills the night before the G8 leaders arrive. On the opening day of the conference, protestors are planning to blockade on different routes to the hotel. They are expecting to fall foul of the police - on Day Two, plans are being made for what's called prisoner support.
The world's attention will turn to Perthshire this July. With or without official permission, the protestors will make their voices heard.
=====================
G8 Alternatives leaflet Auchertarder
15/04/2005
http://northtonight.grampiantv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=6385 Protestors who are planning a massive march against the G8 summit at Gleneagles have started a campaign to win the support of local outside the Perthshire hotel, where the leaderesidents. A group called G8 Alternatives is hoping 20,000 people will demonstrate rs of the world's richest countries will meet in July.
Activists from G8 Alternatives gathered in the town closest to Gleneagles Hotel last night. They are hoping to bring 20,000 protestors to Auchertarder for the opening day of the G8 summit - six times its population. If this was an attempt to win local hearts and minds, it appears it is needed.
One local said: "It would concern me greatly. I mean 20,000 people, this is a small town. Twenty thousand people would absolutely mob the place."
As the group delivered leaflets advertising a public meeting next week, one resident was so suspicious they called the police.
Angela McCormick from G8 Alternatives said: "That is why we're having the meeting on Wednesday. We want to meet people, we want to talk to people face to face. What's important is that local people know the route, they know what's happening. It's important that everybody gets to have their voice heard."
One of the local councillors just happens to be the convenor of the Tayside Police Board.
Auchterarder councillor Colin Young said: "I think people are genuinely worried about trouble, that would be quite normal. They're also greatly reassured that Tayside Police will have adequate police to deal with any peaceful protests."
The summit is going to attract a very wide range of protests. Everyone from concerned grandmothers to seasoned anti-capitalist campaigners. At the moment G8 Alternatives is taking a conventional approach. They are talking to the council and doing everything by the book.
The world's attention will turn here come July. With or without official permission, protests will take place.
Related Links
G8 Alternatives
G8 Gleneagles 2005
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
bloody sunday times
16.04.2005 11:21
Is there a media response group yet? its just these sorts of articles that need letters written back in response.
a thought
Infiltrate, Penetrate, What Next?
16.04.2005 14:31
"a city of well laid-out army tents and marquees resembling a military encampment"
er hardly, there was ONE battered army tent (badly pitched) and all the rest were nice white ones, yurts, gazeebos and geodesic domes - hardly military style, indeed it looked more like a permaculture festival!
"The military aspect was no accident"
No that's right, but the most militaristic thing was the police helicopter that circled close overhead every morning.
"This was a “war summit”"
erm, no not really, then there's the fact that many people there were from anti-militarism campaigns... they could have been right if they'd said an 'anti-war summit' :-)
"some dressed in urban guerrilla garb in freezing temperatures"
at least the weather description's correct, it was actualy technically freezing - down to minus 3 at night, with snow, hail, rain, gales etc - "urban guerrilla garb" what the fuck is that? A pair of cammo trousers and muddy wellington boots combined with a nice tshirt?
"a secretive group of militants"
er who held a public meeting, the only proviso being to request journalists did not attend and that they should instead contact the media team for the festival.
"a military-style mess hall, where activists lined up in orderly queues for vegan meals"
oh come on, that's a joke isn't it...? but again, why military? what, because people formed a queue to get their food? - what, if anarchists or other activists form a queue then they must be all sinisterly military? - for heaven's sake! It was a kitchen tent, with volunteer vegetable choppers and cheesy music blasting from a tape recorder, with composting and people doing their own washing up!
Its actualy an interesting article. The scary edge is given by the language used to describe the camp, while the only violence suggestions come from one apparently womble attributed quote and the fact that people (many of whom have been beaten and injured by police before) are working on trauma and emotional support for each other. Hmmmm.
What's certainly true is that there was a whole lot missed out from the Times article. People often say the truth is often to be found in what is not said - and so in the spirit of that, here's some of the other workshops and content at the Festival of Dissent not mentioned by the intrepid times reporter:
The Issues... or why people may feel strongly about the G8:
Background info on the G8, how it works and what's wrong with it.
Analysing Blair's Africa Commission
Issues around Climate Change - Kyoto and the G8 / War, Oil and G8 Greenwash
Asylum Against Fascism and Racism
etc etc
As well as:
How to provide food for thousands of people
Clowning skills with the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA)
Consensus skills for facilitating large meetings
Community organising and positive community projects
Popular Education and Outreach on key campaign areas related to the G8
etc etc etc
Kind of strange that none of this sort of content was in the article, then again maybe not. That would be expecting too much.
protests planned for G8 summit shocker
Times Article Picked Up and Repeated in Scotsman + Edinburgh News
17.04.2005 15:49
Extremists in 'war summit' to plot G8 protest violence
Sat 16 Apr 2005
CHRIS MOONEY
A SECRET military-style camp has been used by hardcore demonstrators to plan major disruption, including road and rail blockades, at this summer’s G8 summit at Gleneagles.
The action plan for chaos has been drawn up at a "war summit" organised by extremist groups intent on causing mayhem at the July meeting of the world’s richest countries.
Protestors discussed the best ways to paralyse Scotland’s transport links and bypass the £20 million security operation during the three-day meeting of world leaders.
Some claimed there was no point in protesting unless violence was used.
They discussed whether to dress up as motorway maintenance workers and demonstrators were given advice on how to shut down railway signals through sabotage.
More than 300 anarchists — some in "urban guerrilla" dress — gathered for a so-called Festival of Dissent, held on the land surrounding the imposing 17th-century Birkhill House at Coalburn, South Lanarkshire.
Under the plans, tens of thousands of protesters are to be housed in three camps strategically placed across Scotland and will be deployed through a communications network designed to outflank the police.
The secret meeting, which was attended by an international cast of radical-minded people, was infiltrated by a British journalist this week.
The camp was made up of hardliners and veterans of previous anti-globalisation demonstrations in Genoa.
It is claimed that two key figures in the proposed campaign of extreme protest are a university dropout named Alessio Lunghi and Mark Aston, a university administrator.
Mr Lunghi, 27, is apparently a main player in the Wombles movement, a hardcore anarchist group that was responsible for much of the chaotic scenes at London’s May Day demonstrations in 2002.
The son of an Italian wine importer and a primary school inspector, Mr Lunghi, from South London, is believed to have been directly involved in anti-G8 groups in the run-up to the summit.
Dressed in combat trousers and heavy, military-style boots, he is reported to have admitted at one meeting that there was no point to the anti-globalisation protests at the if there was no violence.
Mr Aston, who works at Cardiff University and was the vice-president of the Cardiff branch of the Association of University Teachers last year, is a key organiser of the anti-globalisation group Dissent, which was behind the festival.
Set up in 2003, Dissent is an umbrella organisation for anarchists and other radical groups, which say that they wish to see the overthrow of capitalism through "direct action".
Asked whether violence was likely at the Gleneagles summit, Mr Lunghi said: "Well, I would hope so.
"There’s no point going otherwise."
Another organiser, who did not give his name, said: "The British State has a soft and fluffy image but it is not.
"It can be as violent as the Italian, German and Swiss police. Do not be fooled."
A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, said experience from protests at places such as Faslane would stand the police in good stead.
He said: "In addition to the specialist units from Scotland we will also be drafting in officers from English forces, such as those trained to tackle animal rights extremism.
"The Scottish forces have been training for the summit for the best part of a year.
"We will be aiming to facilitate lawful protest but we will swiftly stop illegal actions."
m hor
don't let them plead ignorance
29.04.2005 05:32
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