Scotland Globalisation

Protest against secret Nato summit on Afghanistan

12-12-2007 23:05

About thirty committed activists protested against the NATO meeting at the Craigiehall Army Barracks near South Queensferry in Edinburgh. The demonstrators blocked the main road to the meeting, which is attended by defence ministers from eight NATO countries, and other senior political and military officials who discuss the current situation in Afghanistan.
Protest:
[ report of early morning actions | report and pics | leaflets in NATO hotel | Indymedia Scotland feature | details of protest | announcing article ]
Background links:
[ The Senlis Council | RAWA on US worsening human rights situation | Taliban control more than half of Afghanistan: IMC Germany | Womankind: Taking Stock | Canadian Peace Alliance | Imc Germany: There is no end to Afghanistan | Le Monde Diplomatique french/german/english | icasualties | Why are we in Afghanistan? | Just Foreign Policy]

'i' the film - screening tour

09-10-2006 23:14

Touring the UK this week, 'i' the film expands on the explosive prequel, "Eye of the Storm" and examines the relationship between media and power as manifest by the worlds largest all volunteer network of media activists - Indymedia.

Tue Oct 10 - London - RampART - 15-17 Rampart St (starts 8pm)
Wed Oct 11 - Brighton - The Cowley Club - 12 London Road
Thu Oct 12 - Nottingham - The Sumac Centre - 245 Gladstone Street, 7.30pm (read article | report and audio from screening)
Sat Oct 14 - Glasgow - Document 4 Intl. Human Rights Film Festival
Sun Oct 15 - Edinburgh - Quaker Meeting House, Victoria Terrace, 7pm
Mon Oct 16 - Edinburgh - Forest Café, 3 Bristo Place, 7.30 pm

G8 2005, Gleneagles: Repression, Resistance and Clowns

15-07-2005 00:00

All over Scotland, (dis)organisations as varied as the grassroots network dissent! and the largely conservative coalition "make poverty history" protested against the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles. The reasons were as varied as the forms to express disagreement, from marching to blockading, from clowning to filming, from talking to direct action. Although police from all over the UK were busy containing protesters in pens, arresting, searching and holding them under section 60 [Legal Support Group statement], discontent with the G8 agenda was voiced in many significant places and eventually supported by international solidarity.

Read the Full Article for summaries on issues, actions, timelines, repression and resistance in Scotland from Saturday 2 July to Friday 8 July. And check G8 Info for quick links and resources.

[ Legal Support | Medical Support | Activist Trauma Support: +44-796 240 6940 | Missing Persons/Prison support: +44-131-208 0767 ]

G8 Day1: G8 Blockades, Mass Arrests and Fence Breaches

06-07-2005 23:00

Movement against the G8 started very early this morning: while the beacons of dissent were still burning in the dark in the Ochil Hills, hundreds of people were making their way out of the Stirling convergence eco-camp 'Hori-Zone' to head for Gleneagles. Initial clashes with riot police forced many back, but other went on to occupy roads. In Edinburgh there was an attempt to blockade G8 delegates in the Sheraton Grand hotel and people obstructed delegate coaches as they passed through the streets. The M9 motorway was also blocked by a several hundred people.

Throughout the morning multiple blockades were set up on the approach roads to Gleneagles, from people locking themselves together to the late afternoon Kids Tea Party blockade. All this activity resulted in many G8 delegates having to delay their trip to Gleneagles. Later in the afternoon, and despite sporadic torrential rain and long traffic jams, people continued to converge aound Gleneagles Hotel. Just before midday, the police announced that the G8Alternatives march and rally at the town of Auchterader had been cancelled, but despite this announcemnt thousands of people continued to stream towards the G8 Summit location. Coach loads of protestors were also delayed for hours by police roadblocks, but the majority were allowed through in the end.

Meanwhile a spontaneous demonstration was taking place in Edinburgh. This was mainly made up of some 700 people whose buses had been prevented from reaching Auchterader. The demonstration started in Princes Street and was quickly penned in by police, with some people arrested violently. Local people watching the police actions shouted "outrage" and "disgrace".

In Auchterader at around 1pm, up to 10,000 people started to move towads the perimeter of the fence. The demonstration included many national and international groups and networks, as well as a large battalion of the clowns, Seattle’s Infernal Noise Brigade and an International Samba Band. This mixture of people, groups and nationalities gave a cheerful and colourful athmosphere to the demonstration.

When the march reached a fence blocking the road to Gleneagles Hotel many people paused bringing the entire march to a standstill. Later a determined group of people dismantled the fence in front of police lines, whilst another group of about 700 people moved into a nearby field towards another fence that actually formed the enclosure of the Glenegales Hotel. This was also partialy dimantled by this crowd, and a watch tower attacked. At this point police presence was masive, with hundreds of riot police, police on horses, police with dogs, and even military helicopters that kept dramaticaly flying in more riot police. The crowd maintained their ground for over an hour resisting police charges, whilst a group of about 100 people staged a sit down protest in front of the gap caused by the earlier breach of the fence. Eventually a big police charge managed to push people back down the hill and out of the fields. While Auchterarder itself was full of protestors, many local residents were friendly and there were no clashes or property destruction.

The Legal Support Team reported "hundreds of arrests" throughout the days actions and blockades, whilst a later update spoke of "over 400 arrests" confirmed, several of which are the result of London's FIT teams.

[Complete Timeline Reports: Stirling/Gleneagles Timeline | March on Gleneagles | Edinburgh Timeline | Glasgow Timeline]

Edinburgh Reports: 1 | 2 | 3] [Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5] [Video]
Stirling: Report | 2
Blockades: Reports (various): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 + 10a | 11 | 12 | 13
Blockades Photos (various): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
Blockades Videos (various): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Autcherarder/Gleneagles: [Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8] [Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 14 | 15 | 16] [Audio: 1] [Videos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5]

Carnival of Full Enjoyment, Edinburgh

04-07-2005 12:17

The Carnival for Full Enjoyment travelled around the streets of Edinburgh on Monday 4th, involving a cast of G8 Summit protesters, clowns, police and local people. The Carnival called upon 'workers, migrants, students, benefit claimers, New Dealers, work refusers, pensioners, dreamers, duckers & divers' to resist the 'daily grind of the institutions that plunge us into overwork, poverty and debt.'

The day started with police and groups of protestors playing cat and mouse through the streets, as police quickly started to stop and search people under the Section 60 imposed all over Edinburgh. At 12pm groups of people began to gather in and around Princes St. From that time on, and throughout the day, police tried to heavily repress any demonstration using scores of riot police, horses, dogs, and endless batton charges whilst attempting to pen in groups of people. As a result several clashes occurred in the Princes St and Canning St areas that resulted in more than 100 people arrested, including teams of street medics that were spcificaly targeted for harassment and arrest. Around 60 protesters were also treated for injuries caused by the heavy handed policing. Despite this many streets in central Edinburgh were taken over by protestors throughout the afternoon.

Click here for a full appraisal of the day and here for the Timeline of Events Account of the Day.

Newswire Reports: Medics interview and reports 1 | 2 :: Police [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] :: Princes Street [ 1 | 2 ] :: Carnival for full policing :: Debunking the Myths :: Day report on IMC Scotland
Reports and Pictures: Princes Street [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 ] :: Financial District 1 | 2 | 3 ] :: Clowns [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] :: Bristo Place [ 1 | 2 ] :: Soundsystem Seized :: IMC IE on the day
Video: Clowns | Police | Local retaliation 1 and 2 | Arrest outside IMC centre

Other Indymedia reporting: IMC-Nantes | IMC-Germany | IMC-Holland | IMC-Switzerland(It)

G8 Info

03-07-2005 18:34

Background info : Why Are People Protesting? [more] | Groups and Websites | Protests and Events
Read latest G8 coverage : Indymedia Scotland and IMC UK G8 topic pages [ RSS feeds: Newswire | Features ]
Video : Collected G8 Video Coverage - list of links | Upload your videos
Radio : See G8 Radical Radio Collective website or Global Radio Indymedia Newswire for streams or archive material.
Photo: IMC Photo Library and Search website

G8 Official Statement | Campaigns Responses

Read more | 9 comments >>

G8 Reports - 2 July

02-07-2005 16:49

For full collected reports see IMC G8 Newsblast

At least 200,000 demonstrators from very different backgrounds, ranging from religous organisations to samba bands and the Infernal Noise Brigade to the Clown Brigade, joined today's Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh. The organisers had called for people to wear white clothes. The march was set up with staggered starting times, but because of the number of people and small funnelled start gate many were unable to join the actual march. Report
Photos: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 ]
Video: [ Interviews
Audio: [ interviews | speeches ]

Before the start of the official march, residents of Craigmillar, the most deprived area of Edinburgh, joined with anti-G8 protestors camping on a park in their estate. They marched through the estate to show their opposition to poverty here and abroad.

An anti-capitalist block broke away from the main march and was cordoned off by riot cops. People are being released in small groups, others appear to be held and photographed under a Section 60 order (which police later confirmed was applied to whole city centre). There are two possible arrests. [ timeline | report]

Photos: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 ]

Other events happened during or after the official march (and we're not talking about Live 8). Faeries moved about the march, as did detatchments of the Clown Army (Photos: 1 | 2). Break Dancers gathered in Bristo Square in an attempt to 'Break Poverty' (photos). Capitalists marched in support of the G8 [1]. An impromptu street party (photos) on one of the roads closed for the march, with samba and music from the Infernal Noise Brigade, lasted until midnight. At that point, police moved the party to the nearby Meadows in order to re-open the road, resulting in one arrest.

Reports of G8 Protest Activities so far

28-06-2005 21:37

On Tuesday, 28th of June, the Red Pepper magazine publishes "Inside the Murky World of Make Poverty History". An in depth summarising analysis about Climate Change has also been published.

The Greek Union report their solidarity and participation of a delegation at the G8 protests in Scotland, whileas the School Students also call for participation in G8 protests [Subvert].
The accomodation situation is Edinburgh is less than satisfying for protesters due to the Edinburgh Council policy, and the Dissent! Edinburgh Accomodation group has put out a statement, describing their difficulties in finding a self-run collective convergence centre and an accomodation meeting is called for Thursday, 30th of June, 6pm at Teviot Student’s Union, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square, to discuss the issue.

On Monday, 27th of June, the Theatre of Dissent hit the Streets of Edinburgh and the Headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland was occupied for about half an hour in an anti-poverty action.
Reports with pictures about the fenced off Jack Kane Centre [ 1 | 2] and the fence around Gleneagles sparked off discussion about possible state repression.

A summary of all activities and events so far reported on Indymedia Scotland features, newswire and on the Indymedia UK G8 subsection in relation to the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland is listed below.

Glasgow Cre8 Summit - Reclaiming Community

20-06-2005 12:06

Over the weekend of the 11th and 12th of June the Cre8 Summit community initiative started taking back an area of land in Glasgow left derelict by the planners, transforming it into a community garden space. Set up in opposition to the M74 motorway extension (the site lies on the proposed route) and the G8, a week of community gardening and workshops culminated on Saturday 18th June with a celebration event. A follow up Family Festival day is also planned. During the first weekend as permaculture activists were planning the graden with local residents, it was announced that the M74 would be delayed by at least a year. One of the people working on Cre8 Summit said - We are doing this because we believe that many of the problems of the world are caused by a lack of solidarity amongst communities - coming together to create and maintain a space that is of benefit to all strengthens us all - we're also actively demonstrating what we are for, creating another possible world now, instead of just talking about it.

Cre8 Garden Pictures | Audio Interview (mp3) | Film: Cre8 Summit Day 1 (.mov 3mins): Direct Download | Press Coverage
Also see: Jam74.org | Corporate Watch on M74 | Road Block | Road Alert Read more >>

AUDIO: "Voices from Africa" Conference - G8 - Migrants - Aid, Trade, Debt - HIV

31-05-2005 17:28

In the wake of the Governments much hyped "Commission for Africa" came a reply - a conference not so much "for" Africa, as from Africans.

There were excellent presentations and speeches by the usual suspects - Patrick Harvie, Tommy Sheridan, Aamer Anwar, representatives from Oxfam and G8 alternatives - but the most succesful aspect to the conference, what made it really striking, was the African speakers.

The conference was held at Caledonian University - Glasgow - 23rd April 2005. Read more >>

Scotland Globalisation Feature Archive >>