Ahead of G-8 summit, protests in high gear
By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
PARIS – Gleneagles, a luxury hotel set amid fabled golf links deep in the Scottish countryside, is a good place to get away from it all.
The Group of Eight (G-8) leaders of the world's most industrialized countries, however, will not find the resort its normal secluded self when they meet there for their annual summit Wednesday.
Why G-8 summit is a haven for anarchist golfers
Radical organizers are catering to every taste as they line up protests this week to keep anti-G-8 visitors to Scotland busy even if they cannot get to Gleneagles itself.
After the mass "Make Poverty History" march on Saturday, anticapitalist militants are lining up events around Scotland every day.
On Sunday, "Make Borders History" took small groups on walking tours of Glasgow, visiting the government institutions and private companies involved in detaining and deporting illegal immigrants and asylum seekers who have been turned down. It was the kind of quiet event that did not cause any arrests.
A far more intense event occurred Monday, when about 500 protesters blockaded the gates of Scotland's nuclear naval base at Faslane, some 60 miles from Gleneagles. "It is vitally important that people make the link between the industrial war machine and the poverty that so many people are suffering from around the world," said protester Jenny Gaiawyn.
Anarchists belonging (loosely) to the "Dissent Against Work" network, meanwhile, celebrated what they called a "Carnival for Full Enjoyment" Monday in Edinburgh, though the police assigned to the event did not appear to enjoy it much.
The tension was eased by protesters who kissed police riot shields, and by a group that called the Clandestine Insurgent Clown Rebel Army.
Today, activists have a choice between lighting a series of beacons on hilltops south of Gleneagles to send a message that the G-8 leaders are not welcome in Scotland, or of demonstrating outside an "Immigrant Removal Center" at Dungeval, where illegal immigrants are held before being deported.
Meanwhile, anyone with a spare moment any time during the week is invited to Glasgow to lend a hand at a community garden threatened with destruction by a highly unpopular new motorway that local authorities have planned.
A select group calling itself the "People's Golfing Association" has announced it intends - probably overoptimistically - to hold a tournament on Gleneagles's exclusive links on Thursday.
The tournament "is open to all freedom-loving individuals who reject everything the G-8 stands for (except golf)," according to the PGA's website, and "promises the opportunity to brush shoulders with ... dapper anarchists from around the world."
• Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.