G20 protestors should remember Gleneagles

The hype surrounding Wednesday’s impending protest in the City of London against the fat cats and bankers deemed responsible for the current economic crisis is eerily reminiscent of the hype which surrounded the planned protests during the G8 back in 2005, when it was held in Gleneagles.

Back then, in the weeks leading up, the media were full of stories of camps dotted across Europe at which legions of anarchists were said to be training with the discipline of an elite special forces in preparation for their descent on Scotland, where they intended to wreak havoc and mayhem.

At the time I was a volunteer with G8 Alternatives, a coalition of socialists, trade unionists, pacifists, antiwar activists, environmentalists and others who were intent on marching and rallying outside Gleneagles Hotel on the day that Blair, Bush and the other leaders of the world’s richest nations were set to begin the three day summit at which matters of global trade, health, the environment, and poverty would be discussed and decisions made affecting billions of people around the world.

Just as in the run up to the G20 this week, the police attempted to divide people into who they considered were good protesters and bad protesters. The good protesters were the tens of thousands who took part in the Make Poverty History march on the Saturday before the summit, initiated by Oxfam and spearheaded by Bono and Bob Geldof. The bad protesters were the anarchists who’d organised a march through Princes Street on the Monday following without police permission. Also on the bad protesters list was G8 Alternatives, who’d initiated legal action against the local authorities in Fife in response to their efforts to ban the march to the Gleneagles Hotel on the Wednesday, the day the summit actually got underway.

Edinburgh during that week was like a war zone. A small army of police had been drafted in from London and Greater Manchester, and the sight of them marching through the city centre in columns dressed in full riot gear, looking like extras out of a Star Wars movie, is one I shall never forget.

There was trouble, though not started by any protesters that I saw. On the contrary, the police were clearly intent on making sure they hadn’t gone to all the bother of getting dressed up for nothing. What began as a good humoured protest by a group of protesters, the self styled Clown Army, who many will have seen on demos up and down the country engaging in silly antics, soon gave way to ugly scenes of riot police charging into peaceful protesters lashing out indiscriminately.

I experienced myself the underhand methods the police resort to when policing such events, when as one of the volunteers tasked with organising the departure of protesters on buses up to Gleneagles on the Wednesday from Edinburgh city centre, I and others were suddenly confronted with a fleet of police vans arriving to block the buses leaving. The police officer in charge said that due to trouble in and around the Gleneagles area, involving anarchists attacking buses making their way to the march, the event had been postponed.

However, upon making a few quick phone calls it became immediately apparent that the officer in charge was lying. The march hadn’t been postponed. Instead the police were intent on preventing the 300-400 people still waiting to get on a bus to Gleneagles from exercising their right to protest.

But the police had miscalculated if the thought they’d be able to do that easily. In response the protesters decided to blockade the road until the buses that were already full of people ready to depart were allowed to leave. The police relented, moved their vans, and the buses moved off to a huge cheer. Thereafter, we all moved back off the road and proceeded to wait for the other buses that were due to arrive any minute to take the rest of us up to the march. However, a phone call to the bus company to inquire as to the whereabouts of these buses revealed that the police had already been in contact with the company to cancel them.

This was the final straw and once again we assembled on the road, but this time instead of a stationary protest we marched through Princes Street, catching the police off guard.

A few of us were subsequently arrested and charged with civil disorder offences. A year or so later the charges were dropped due to the ‘inability’ of the police to provide all of the CCTV footage they’d taken of the incident and the events leading up to it.

The important point is that the biggest danger and threat to public safety at major events such as the G8 or the upcoming G20 summit has always been the police.

Ultimately, the protesters who come out on Wednesday better be ready for trouble, because if the police have anything to do with it trouble is exactly what they’re going to get.