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G8 SUMMIT: No Solutions Here to ‘Climate Chaos’ – Activists

Stefania Milan

GLASGOW, Jul 9 2005 (IPS) - Around 500 activists in Glasgow said goodbye to the G8 Summit with a street party against climate change Friday, rejecting “any market-led techno-fixes to the climate crisis by an unelected global elite”.

The party culminated a day of “action on the root causes of climate chaos”, organised in opposition to the July 6-8 meeting of the leaders of the world’s most industrialised nations – Britain, Japan, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Russia – held in Gleneagles, Scotland.

The summit ended with leaders issued a vaguely worded communiqué promising future action on the global warming that causes climate change but supplying far fewer specifics than host British Prime Minister Tony Blair has proposed prior to the meeting.

The G8 Summit finished early in response to Thursday’s bombings of London’s transportation system. More than 50 people were killed and 700 injured in the incidents.

But even before the leaders’ communiqué was issued, the grassroots activists gathered in Scotland for a series of direct actions against the meeting were suspicious. “We are here to unmask the G8 climate criminals: their agenda is hypocritical,” read activists’ “call for action”.

People in Glasgow started to gather at 2 pm on the Commerce Street Bridge that crosses the River Clyde in the centre of the city. They blocked the span for about five hours to protest against climate change, pollution, oil-based capitalism and nuclear power.

With coloured chalk, activists painted a huge planet on the pavement, surrounded by bikes and slogans like: “trees, not roads”, “roads closed” and “enough is enough”. A massive green and pink banner read: “G8 fuel climate chaos”. Kids and dogs were playing on the car-free bridge.

“Rich pop stars dining with war criminals won’t stop poverty or climate change. G8 sponsored by corporations carving up Africa: Shell, De Beers, British Petroleum, Rio Tinto . the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank”, said a placard hanging from a post.

“There cannot be any end to global warming without ending the oil-fuelled capitalist system that causes it,” Andrew from Scotland told IPS. A handwritten message on his T-shirt read, “If nuclear power is the answer, then we need another question.”

But change will not come from any G8 solutions, argued the activists. “We need a radical rethink of our societies to cut our energy consumption drastically,” said a girl sporting colourful wings on her back.

The Stirling self-organised camping ground, where around 5,000 activists lived during the three-day summit, is an example of self-sufficiency and ecology: the energy is generated by solar panels and little windmills. The toilets are completely ecological. “Another world is already there,” said the girl with the wings.

Later in the afternoon, the hippy-like colourfully dressed crowd left the bridge to randomly swarm other streets and bridges nearby, and to block traffic in different roads. At least one person was reported arrested, while another went to hospital with arm injuries caused by a police baton.

Another group walked south towards the M8 motorway to draw attention to a planned 7.4-km extension of the M74 motorway, which they reject. “It will cut into two parts the south of the city, splitting communities, taking away our spaces, and increasing air pollution,” said one of the march organisers, who asked to not be named.

But police were able to divert the marchers into a residential area, where they were contained by mounted and yellow-jacketed police. A samba band and some clowns were also trapped, so the protesters launched a noisy party, with lots of music, a relaxed atmosphere and locals participating from their windows.

“We do not care about being enclosed by the police. We are anyway able to communicate and greet people hanging out of the windows. We are able to get beyond the police barrier to get our message across,” Italian activist Silvia told IPS.

An hour later, police allowed the activists to return but they were closely surrounded, to prevent them from again blocking traffic in busy central Glasgow.

The last action of the G8 mobilisation ended with a spontaneous party in an abandoned lot in the city’s south, which the planned extension of the M74 motorway will cut into two. A group called Cre8, which hosted a week-long alternative summit, is instead trying to create a community garden there.

During the summit, Cre8 called for people to help remove old tires, syringes and other rubbish from the site and to plant trees.

Other isolated actions took place all around Glasgow. A group of clowns from the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army briefly blocked a Shell petrol station and performed spontaneous street theatre, preventing drivers from getting fuel.

In Edinburgh, two autonomous activists climbed a bridge and hung a banner saying, “Coming soon, millions of ecological refugees, to a city near you.” Both were then arrested.

Actions against “the roots causes of climate change” were also organised in Venezuela, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines, protesters reported.

After the Summit closed Friday, protesters in Glasgow enjoyed the warm evening by relaxing on the grass. “Please close the G8 behind you,” said a hand-written note on the T-shirt of a girl with a hula-hoop.