lucky wilbury
06-10-2004, 10:56 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/10/g8.protests.reut/index.html
Anti-globalization army fails to mobilize for G8
Thursday, June 10, 2004 Posted: 9:59 PM EDT (0159 GMT)
SAVANNAH, Georgia (Reuters) -- An aging, toothless tiger or a clever predator that wouldn't take the bait?
That question hung over the anti-globalization army Thursday as the Group of Eight summit at Sea Island, Georgia ended without the mass protests or street battles that organizers had feared and militants promised.
Three days of rallies to protest the U.S.-led war in Iraq and G8 nations' economic and environmental policies attracted scant numbers in Savannah and Brunswick, the two coastal Georgia towns where this week's demonstrations were centered.
Journalists, who descended on the towns for a possible repeat of the violence that marked the G8 meeting in Genoa in 2001 and a World Trade Organization event in Seattle two years earlier, outnumbered protesters at times.
Anti-globalization activists view the G8 -- the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia -- as a cabal that favors multinational corporations and the rich at the expense of the poor.
"This was a low turnout in terms of the recent history of these events," said Robert Randall, a Brunswick-based peace activist. "That speaks to the reality of how the authorities have terrorized people."
U.S. officials massed an estimated 20,000 police, soldiers and federal agents along the Georgia coast and established a no-go land, sea and air zone around Sea Island during the three-day summit.
Military vehicles rumbled through the streets and helicopters hovered in the skies in a show of force reminiscent of that seen in the United States after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The heavy military presence, however, looked somewhat unnecessary by the end of the summit.
Unlike the menacing crowds that had smashed shop windows and destroyed property at previous G8 events, most of this year's protesting contingent were content to spend their time chanting, dancing and engaging in soil purification rituals.
"It couldn't have gone any better. We had no property destroyed, no arrests and nobody's rights to protest were violated," said Bucky Burnsed, a spokesman for the Savannah- Chatham police department.
About a dozen protesters, most of them self-described anarchists, were arrested in Brunswick, about 80 miles south of Savannah Thursday after they refused to leave a road leading to the Sea Island resort, where President Bush and the other G-8 leaders met this week.
Anti-globalization army fails to mobilize for G8
Thursday, June 10, 2004 Posted: 9:59 PM EDT (0159 GMT)
SAVANNAH, Georgia (Reuters) -- An aging, toothless tiger or a clever predator that wouldn't take the bait?
That question hung over the anti-globalization army Thursday as the Group of Eight summit at Sea Island, Georgia ended without the mass protests or street battles that organizers had feared and militants promised.
Three days of rallies to protest the U.S.-led war in Iraq and G8 nations' economic and environmental policies attracted scant numbers in Savannah and Brunswick, the two coastal Georgia towns where this week's demonstrations were centered.
Journalists, who descended on the towns for a possible repeat of the violence that marked the G8 meeting in Genoa in 2001 and a World Trade Organization event in Seattle two years earlier, outnumbered protesters at times.
Anti-globalization activists view the G8 -- the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia -- as a cabal that favors multinational corporations and the rich at the expense of the poor.
"This was a low turnout in terms of the recent history of these events," said Robert Randall, a Brunswick-based peace activist. "That speaks to the reality of how the authorities have terrorized people."
U.S. officials massed an estimated 20,000 police, soldiers and federal agents along the Georgia coast and established a no-go land, sea and air zone around Sea Island during the three-day summit.
Military vehicles rumbled through the streets and helicopters hovered in the skies in a show of force reminiscent of that seen in the United States after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The heavy military presence, however, looked somewhat unnecessary by the end of the summit.
Unlike the menacing crowds that had smashed shop windows and destroyed property at previous G8 events, most of this year's protesting contingent were content to spend their time chanting, dancing and engaging in soil purification rituals.
"It couldn't have gone any better. We had no property destroyed, no arrests and nobody's rights to protest were violated," said Bucky Burnsed, a spokesman for the Savannah- Chatham police department.
About a dozen protesters, most of them self-described anarchists, were arrested in Brunswick, about 80 miles south of Savannah Thursday after they refused to leave a road leading to the Sea Island resort, where President Bush and the other G-8 leaders met this week.