Make the G8 History Blog

G8 witness appeal

The G8 Legal Support Group writes: At the recent G8 protests in Scotland there were some 450 people detained by the police. These are different from arrests, as the police in Scotland have the powers to “detain” for a set length of time. We know of a number of people who were detained and then released, so the number of arrests is far less that 450. However, we don’t know how much less as it was difficult to get details. So, we are putting a call out for a number of requests.

G8 policing condemned

The G8 Legal Support Group has released an initial statement on the policing of the G8 protests in Scotland in early July and it makes grim reading. The group claims that during the protests, police detained or arrested more than 700 people, of which some 366 people were charged with one or more offences. The statement goes on to criticise the "draconian bail conditions" imposed by Scottish courts on protesters, which not only barred their further involvement in any demonstrations but also "forced those not resident in Scotland to leave at an impossible speed, making the conditions impossible to comply with. As a direct result of this tactic, some people were rearrested for breach of bail." The most alarming aspect of the Legal Support's Group report is its assertion that those people unable to give a UK address "have been remanded in prison, even though in all the cases we are aware of, none faces serious enough charges to result in a prison sentence even if convicted."  See the G8 Legal Support website for the full statement.

Police make good on their promise to 'get the Wombles'

Stuart Hodkinson. As the central London terrorists were going through their final preparations to detonate deadly explosive devices and kill innocent working class people in revenge for the Iraq war, at least 1500 London Met officers were working with more than 10,000 fellow officers from around the UK to shut down the streets of Scotland and stop protesters exercising their right to dissent. And it is tonight becoming disturbingly clear that the police's public threat, as reported here on Sunday. to target the anti-capitalist group, the Wombles, has been delivered. Using information from a reliable poster on Indymedia, what follows is a deeply disturbing account of how a small network of well-known activists have been subjected to a week of intimidation and harrassment in which rights and liberties we are supposed to be defending against the terrorists have been ripped up by the police themselves.

Carnival for full policing

Stuart Hodkinson. After the political whitewash of Saturday's Live 8 and Make Poverty History, today saw the first serious protesting against the G8 summit in Scotland. The non-violent blockade against the Trident nuclear submarine base in Faslane passed off peacefully without incident. But at the originally Carnival of Full Enjoyment in Edinburgh, the streets of the Scottish capital experienced a very different reality with thousands of police shutting down the city and then physically turning on protesters, resulting in over 30 similar injuries when people were forced to jump over spiked railing at West Princes Street Gardens after being baton-charged by riot police.

London Met police threaten revenge on the Wombles

London Metropolitan police appear to have been handed a special role during these protests - to harrass and threaten the anti-capitalist group the Wombles (White Overall Movement Building Liberation through Effective Struggles) at every turn. Yesterday afternoon, as the police blocked the 'black T-shirt anti-capitalist bloc' from joining the Make Poverty History demonstration, members of the Met's so called Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) - those with a penchant for filming and photographing activists - were overheard warning a 'Womble' that the police were 'going to get you lot this time'. Such threats have been accompanied by a very obvious harrassment exercise in which notorious Wombles are being followed and filmed as they move around Scotland's capital attending meetings.

London police harrass Edinburgh-bound activists

Heading to Edinburgh tomorrow to protest against the G8? Then you might want to check in first with your local police station before travelling to save a bit of taxpayers money. From around 9am this morning, three riot vans were parked outside the squatted Institute for Autonomy space in Gower Street, Central London, and police stopped and searched people entering and leaving the building under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which gives the police the power to stop and search for "stolen and prohibited articles" under "reasonable suspicion". People were also harrassed outside the squatted Ramparts space in east London. Red Pepper understands that police have for the last week and a half been attempting to place the Institute for Autonomy under covert surveillance. See Indymedia

Edinburgh accommodation update

The Dissent! Edinburgh Accommodation Group has just released this urgent and important statement about the accommodation situation for protesters coming to Edinburgh. In short, it details how due to a variety of factors, the only legal mass accommodation secured is in assocation with the council on Hunter’s Hall Park, surrounding the Jack Kane Centre in the Niddrie estate. The group has reluctantly decided to endorse this but has reservations about a number of issues and wants to alert activists to them as well as encourage people to help create a Dissent! space within the accommodation.

Indymedia under attack again

Police have tonight shut down Bristol Indymedia by seizing the local IMC's server. An IMC volunteer has also been detained and his personal computer confiscated. Red Pepper cannot link to the site because it currently doesn't exist.