7/3/05 Tiny Scottish village girds for summit

Tiny Scottish village girds for summit
G-8 globalization protests get going under tight security
Ros Davidson, Chronicle Foreign Service

Sunday, July 3, 2005

Auchterarder, Scotland -- Although Sandra Murray works in the local tourist bureau, she wishes the visitors flooding into her town had stayed home.

"I'd like to ride my bicycle down the main street with a banner -- 'Blair and Bush, go home!' -- but I think I'd be put under house arrest," she said.

The security lockdown is almost complete in this town of 4,000 in the Highlands in anticipation of this week's Group of Eight summit at nearby Gleneagles resort, as days of protests get under way elsewhere in Scotland.

President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia will gather Wednesday through Friday to consider an agenda topped by global warming and African poverty, two issues that are grabbing headlines as the summit nears.

Auchterarder is justifiably jittery. The gathering of world leaders has become a magnet for dissent. Since hundreds of anti-globalization protesters were injured and one killed during the G-8 meeting in Genoa, Italy, in 2001, the summits have retreated to remote locations.

For the past year, Britain, of which Scotland is the northern part, has been readying for its costliest-ever security operation. As many as 10,000 police, backed by British troops if necessary, will be ready to patrol the rolling hills and major counterdemonstrations.

Forty miles from the summit site, more than 200,000 anti-poverty campaigners formed a human chain around Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, on Saturday for the Make Poverty History rally.

Waving banners, blowing whistles and clutching balloons, protesters clad in white -- the symbol of the anti-poverty campaign -- streamed through the cobbled streets of the Old Town, over the Royal Mile and through the commercial district, encircling Edinburgh Castle with a giant human bracelet.

The atmosphere was festive, with a percussion band from Ghana playing and some demonstrators wearing masks depicting the faces of G-8 leaders including Bush, Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We are citizens of the global village. We need help," said Siphiwe Hlophe, 45, who traveled from the African nation of Swaziland to participate in the march. "The G-8 leaders must live up to their promises. They must be accountable."

Steel barricades were erected around the Scottish Parliament and U.S. Consulate. Police helicopters hovered overhead and officers in riot gear, some on horseback, were on standby. But police said there were only minor disturbances, and the single arrest was for a drug offense, the Associated Press reported.

An attempted blockade on Monday of Faslane on Scotland's west coast, home to Britain's four nuclear submarines, is in the works.

Among those trying to close the base will be Miriam "Starhawk" Simos, a pagan witch and high-profile activist from San Francisco. She led nonviolence training sessions last weekend and helped set up an "ecovillage" for protesters in Stirling, 12 miles south of Gleneagles.

"I'm not trying to influence the talks with magic," she said. "I'm trying to use magic to strengthen the sense of community and help us reconnect with the Earth."

David Solnit, another prominent Bay Area activist, will join the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. Dressed for fun, they will try to impose "house arrest," they say, on the G-8 leaders this week. Solnit helped organize anti-globalization protests in Seattle in 1999.

Edinburgh will again be inundated by protesters on Wednesday, the summit's opening day, when Bob Geldof, the charity rocker and Live 8 organizer, is calling for a million demonstrators to join the "Long March to Justice" just hours before the capital city plays host to a Live 8 concert.

Gleneagles may be swamped the same day by several thousands protesters --

including George Galloway, the outspoken Scottish-born Member of Parliament who publicly scolded U.S. senators on Iraq last month. Singer-activist Bono has called for a march to the resort to pressure the leaders on African debt relief.

Over the past year, front-line Scottish police officers have trained on techniques to clear roads with bulldozers and cut protesters down from tall trees. They have tested special fireproof underwear and "WMD suits," in case of chemical attacks. All leave has been canceled. Police "spotters" from France and Italy are on hand to help identify potential trouble-makers.

There already have been reports of confrontations. "Anyone with dreadlocks, a banner or leaflets has been approached by police," says David Mackenzie of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Three busloads of protesters arriving from Northern Ireland for Saturday's march said they were stopped, photographed and searched by police, according to a BBC report. Others said police prevented them from boarding trains at London's Euston Station until they agreed to be photographed, the BBC said.

In a controversial move, British officials have confirmed that the government might invoke Section 44 of the Terrorism Act to arrest individuals and hold them without charges. The Scottish regional government has suspended the Freedom of Information Act, indefinitely, for all official security for the summit.

Major financial institutions, such as JP Morgan Scotland, have told employees to work from home this week, while Standard Life is advising employees to dress down. Even the queen has delayed her annual visit to Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh.

Scotland's first minister, Jack McConnell, flew several weeks ago to Scotland's oil capital, Aberdeen, to assure the oil companies that their offshore rigs and offices can get extra protection.

Rumors are rife, from imported police water cannons to U.S. Marines patrolling the Gleneagles. A Starbucks spokeswoman denied reports that the coffee chain is importing from Seattle a contingent dubbed the "latte police."

McDonald's, often a target of anti-globalization protests, also scotched rumors that it will close its outlets in downtown Edinburgh. The radical fundamentalist organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir, banned in much of the Muslim world, planned to participate, according to local news reports.

Most dramatic is a tabloid report that an American aircraft carrier will anchor off the coast. "That is patently false. It's fiction," said an exasperated Susan Domowitz, at the U.S. Embassy in London.

Auchterarder's jitters have not been helped by an official wrangle over whether protesters should be allowed to march past the resort. Galloway, the phrase-turning politician, has warned of "chaos" and "blood on batons" if protesters are kept at a distance.

Demonstrators are also angry because the local county is requiring that they buy insurance for $9 million worth of liability. "They are trying to stop people from participating peacefully," said Josh Brown, of G8 Alternatives, one of the groups behind the protests.

On a recent warm afternoon at Gleneagles, amid manicured gardens, police cars patrolled the grounds. A helicopter circled above. Grates over water drains had been marked with black tags, to show they had been searched.

Usually known for luxury golf and shooting, Gleneagles is now surrounded by five miles of security fence, 6 feet high and double-layered. Villagers who live inside the "ring of steel" must carry photo ID cards, unless they are under 8 years old.

By the opening day, camouflage-patterned fabric will cover the inside of the security fence. But the window-dressing will not appease everyone in the village, where the local parish church has opened its doors to protesters and where a replica African grass hut erected on church grounds emphasizes the protesters' focus on poverty.

"The G-8?" said a man smoking a cigarette in a doorway who was too angry to give his name. "I don't like it. It's everything. All the police. ... They should have held it on a bloody aircraft carrier off the coast."