We're inside an eco-village temporary autonmous zone, surrounded by cops and a helicopter constantly flying overhead. We have an Indymedia Center inside a big tent, with solar panels a satelite dish and a biodiesel generator powering a camp of 5000 protestors, - anarchists, hippies, grandmothers, camo-clad clowns and vagabond ferals from all over UK, Europe and the World. On Wed. July 6, the opening day of the G8 summit was successfully disrupted by widespread road blockade actions that snarled traffic on all sides of the Gleneagles resort, including major highways in and out. Sure the "leaders" were flown in by helicopter, including Bono & Bob Geldof, but all the 1000s of servants and workers were very late to work on Wednesday morning when the summit was to begin. Rumor has it the Canadian delegation never made it at all.

A huge march on Wed afternoon was lively and colorful. Militant protestors tore down the fences and surged against lines of riot police a mere 500 yds from the Hotel conference. Another group of protestors several hundred strong (including yours truly and the Infernal Noise Brigade from Seattle ) crossed a nearby oat field and another hole in the large perimeter fence was opened. Hundreds of extra riot police had to be flown in by double blade chinook helicopters to form long lines to push the protestors out, with shields, batons and horse charges. it took hours for them to reclaim the oat field for capitalism. Got some great footage!!

We have been pretty well surrounded by police and held in semi-captivity in our eco-village here in Stirling ever since Wednesday night at 2:00 am.
you can leave, at certain times, but not in groups, and everyone is subjected to extensive searchs, all cars and persons, and you get photographed and video taped and they have even taken peoples clothes out of their bags to try to match up clothes with suspected vandals who may have been wearing masks.

We have had amazing high spirits, with lots of drumming, dancing, whisky drinking, and video screenings in giant tents. I've had the usual computer malfunction nightmares but was able to screen a 12 minute edit of Wednesdays highlights last night to a very rowdy and appreciative crowd who cheered with great gusto, therefore making my hours of techno frustration seem worthwhile.

We ended up with the Findhorn eco-camp at 2:30 am sipping whisky around a campfire and eating fresh barrel oven pizza before fading off to bed as the early morn sun was rising. It starts to light up the sky around 3 am.


The terrorists bombings in London have been a shock to most here, as 911 was to US, and has removed our actions against the g8 from the general media spectacle. But the media of course were just sensationalizing the clashes with riot cops and the Anarchists and a smashed up Burger King in town, so it's not like we were getting much positive corporate press anyhow. Check Scotland or UK indymedia sites if you want to see some great pics and eyewitness accounts. We had a giant silent circle to honor the victims of the London bombings and including in our circl a huge line of Police who were keeping us in our camp, some of them even showed some genuine human emotions, but they didn't join us in the mass hokey pokey that ended the long silence. Nor with the wild dancing and partying that followed.

Scotland is beautiful and the people here are fantastic; kind-hearted and friendly. Most locals I've met have been very supportive of our actions against the G8, minus the traffic jams and Burger King incident. But it's not like their local pub was trashed, so they really aren't that upset, it's just the media that makes it appear so.

Hope all is well with you all. I'm having fun.

Peace, Love & Anarchy
Duff