A reflection on the G8 protests in Scotland, July 2005.
*Based on a true story, although some names have been changed to protect the guilty
July 6th 2005. It’s around 8am. Two friends from South Wales looked at each other in disbelief. They were stood in the middle of the M9 motorway and news was coming through that every road leading to the Gleneagles hotel, venue for the 2005 G8 meeting, was closed. The start of the meeting would be delayed. Years of planning had paid off. They hugged each other in disbelief. Tears might have been shed. But there was no time to hang about, the forces of law and order were bound to be on top pretty soon.
But how did we get here. Let’s rewind.
The G8 has it’s roots in a summit in 1975, hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, thus leading to the name Group of Six or G6. They would meet once a year and take it in turns to host a ‘summit’. The summit came to be known as the Group of Seven in 1976 with the addition of Canada. Russia was added to the political forum from 1997, which the following year became known as the G8. (Russia was kicked out in 2014 after it annexed Crimea).
The G8 (now G7) is a capitalist club that forms part of the neoliberal network that keeps the rich rich, and the poor poor. Along with the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, they exploit developing countries, offering loans on the condition that they deregulate and privatise services, then sell them the services. They sell weapons to people who really shouldn’t have weapons, undermine democracy by supporting compliant tyrants, and exploit cheap labour to provide expensive products in the west… and all sorts of other exploitative nonsense.
In the 1990s, as information became easier to access and communications became faster, people started to mobilise to protest around the summits where these people met.
On June 18, 1999, protests, known as ‘Carnival Against Capitalism’ or ‘J18,’ took place in London and other cities worldwide to coincide with the G8 summit in Cologne, Germany. In November and December 1999, thousands turned out for protests in Seattle against the WTO meeting, which became known as the Battle of Seattle. In July 2001 200,000 protestors descended on Genoa to protest around the G8. Heavy handed policing resulted in hundreds being hospitalised and Carlo Giuliani being shot dead
A meeting was held at the 2003 London Anarchist Bookfair and a decision was taken to set up Dissent, a network that brought together various groups from across the UK, with the aim of disrupting the 2005 G8 in Scotland. The group would welcome anyone that was prepared to sign up to the People’s Global Action (PGA) hallmarks. The PGA used a horizontal, non-hierarchical form of organizing, influenced by anarchist political models.
Meetings and weekend long planning sessions were held up and down the country, most notably in Glasgow and Nottingham. Benefit gigs and fund raisers were held, awareness raising workshops were held, books were published. The logistics, such as how to get people to Scotland, where they could all stay, what type of actions would be carried out, were all agonised over in the minutest of details. As well as the planning of direct action, catering groups, media groups, infrastructure groups, medical teams, legal support, transport groups and even an entertainment committee were set up.
It was decided that a tented village or convergence space would be set up. With the authorities keen on there not actually being any protests, this was a tough negotiate. They were keen that Dissent didn’t have a space.
In addition to the Dissent network, various traditional left wing groups were organising under the umbrella of Mobilise Resistance. They had slightly less confrontational approach in mind and had negotiated a space in Edinburgh with the Police allowed to patrol the campsite. This was not something Dissent wanted to consider, and they wanted something far closer to Gleneagles. It looked like this was going to be impossible but eventually, realising that it was better to have people in one place, the police relented and allowed Dissent to set up camp in Sterling. This was a mixed blessing. It was an autonomous space that could be run as Dissent saw fit, but it was next to an old army camp – which it turned out would be the barracks for all the police that were being brought in from around the UK.
Then, in addition to the anarchist and traditional far-left protests, something bizarre happened. Various charities and NGOs banded together to form a ‘non-political’ campaign group called Make Poverty History. This was the first, and as far as I know only, time that a protest popped up that was endorsed by the government and appeared to be in favour of the G8. Bob Geldof even organised Live-8, a gig the run up to the summit.
On 2nd July, the Saturday before the G8, an estimated 225,000 people dressed in white formed a human chain around Edinburgh asking the G8 nicely if they would end world poverty. Of course the G8 said yes, who wouldn’t. Spoiler alert. Poverty, got worse.
Between the 2nd and 6th July a number of other events took place. There were protests in various cities, meetings, film screenings, gigs and alternative conferences took place. The numbers coming for the protests started to swell. They were coming from all over the world and had different tactics. There were the Wombles from London (not as fluffy as the name implies), The Clown Army (not as silly as you might think) and various international Black Bloc types. There was a large presence from the Cardiff Anarchist Network.
Whilst the meeting was being held in Gleneagles Golf Club, there isn’t enough room there for all the support staff, lobbyists and media that are part of the G8 circus. They had to stay in various hotels around Scotland and the Dissent plan was to shut down all roads into Gleneagles to prevent support staff attending and thus shutting down the meeting.
On the site in Sterling there were daily meetings and planning sessions. Some open, some closed for security reasons. Many small affinity groups who had experience of doing their own thing plotted to close down minor roads leading to the summit. There were many who had arrived either on their own, were new to protesting or totally unfamiliar with the territory. It was decided that there would be one big bloc that would march out of the camp on the morning of the start of the summit and shut down the M9. Chances of success were minimal, but you have to be in it to win it.
As is often the way, a series of unplanned and unforeseeable events led to an outcome that no one had dreamed possible.
The first unforeseeable event was anarchists being ready. On time. In fact early. The plan had been for this bloc of around four hundred anarchists to leave the convergence space at 4am. With tensions running high, a combination of adrenalin, nervous tension and excitement, led to everyone being ready an hour early. The police knew the march would start at 4am, so were changing shifts at 3am, with riot cops ready to nip the march in the bud. Whilst their attention was distracted, the bloc marched out of the camp bold as brass.
Second unforeseeable event, rain. Whilst missing the start of the march towards the M9 was not good, at least the police could keep an eye on the bloc from a helicopter. Or at least it could if it wasn’t raining. It rained. Whilst helicopters can fly in the rain if they have to, it is dangerous and visibility is significantly reduced. On this occasion, they were grounded for the duration of the rain.
Third unforeseeable event, blind leading the blind. Ok, the bloc had left early, they couldn’t be monitored by helicopter, but the police knew where they were headed, so all they had to do was block the rout to the M9. However, as the bloc left the camp, nobody actually knew where they were going. Everyone assumed someone else knew or had a map. There are theoretical variations on how this scenario came to be, but the bottom line is no one stood up to say ‘it’s this way’, or at least no-one that actually knew the way. Someone did take a lead, but it turns out they didn’t know the way, so the bloc marched away from the M9. Which turned out to be a good thing. It meant there were no police to stop the march.
When the police finally did get their act together, they blocked the road, kettleing the bloc in the middle of an industrial estate full of expensive car showrooms. At this point the Europeans in the block, most notably German and Greeks did what German and Greek anarchists do. Some of them were pushing shopping trolleys full of rocks, which they now proceeded to use to smash the windows of expensive cars. There wasn’t universal agreement with this tactic and some decided to head back to the camp. The tactic worked though, not wanting to have to deal with all the car dealerships in the morning, the police withdrew and let the bloc march on. Ironically, this little confrontation had diverted the bloc back towards the motorway.
And so it went for the next few hours, skirmishes here and there. Sometimes the police would pull back because they wanted to avoid damage to McDonalds or whatever, and sometimes the police were just not prepared for the militancy of the Europeans in the bloc.
At no time did anyone have a clue as to where the M9 was until the sun came up and someone spotted cars driving up and down it in the distance. There was still no idea how to get to it, so someone came up with the plan of just walking across the fields to get there. The bloc walked through a farm (making sure they closed all the gates behind them), then over a golf course, over a wooden fence, and onto the motorway. Job done, M9 closed.
It was at this point the two characters in the story are sharing their disbelief at what had been achieved. One had a phone call from a mate who was near a radio and confirmed that every route into Gleneagles was blocked. Mission accomplished.
What next though? After while someone stood up and shouted, “Come on, let’s walk towards Gleneagles”.
Fourth unforeseeable event. The bloc was on the motorway. there were only two ways to go. They chose the wrong way and started to walk away from Gleneagles. Which was lucky. The police had finally got their act together and were not going to be doing any more running away from the great unwashed. And they were blocking the route towards Gleneagles.
When the police realised what was happening, they started tearing down the motorway in riot vans. The bloc scattered, leaping over the fence back onto the golf course. People were now starting to get nicked, skulls were being cracked and bones were literally being broken.
Once back on the golf course and away from the fence which had slowed down the police a little, the two friends deliberated what to do next. Word on the grape vine was that there was another blockade a few miles down the road. One of the friends decided that luck had been pushed as far as it could go and opted to head back to the convergence space. The other friend decided to join up with the other bloc – which he did, and was promptly nicked.
There were many other tactics used that morning. There was the Clown Army that made the police look silly (who wants to be photographed hitting a clown?), there was a ‘kids bloc’ where mothers and toddlers sat in the road, and there were less obvious things, like people in Edinburgh locking on to busses full of staff preventing them moving. The combination of all the different blockades meant hundreds of people that should have been at the summit, didn’t get there.
The more traditional left had planned a more traditional march to Gleneagles with speakers. Ironically, this was disrupted by the anarchist blockades. But they did get there and there were heated confrontations between the police and protestors. Back at the convergence space, Chinook Helicopters were constantly flying police out of their base next door to to various sites in the area – helicopter being the only reliable way to travel as all roads were blocked.
The outer perimeter fence to the summit was breached but closer to the summit the police weren’t carrying batons, they were carrying machine guns. There was never any real risk of the hotel being breached.
So many arrests were made the courts were running twenty-four-hours to process everyone.
Our friend from the beginning of the story was bailed on the condition that he left Scotland immediately. He was then nicked for breaching bail conditions, stood on the platform of Edinburgh railway station with a ticket for Cardiff in his hand. The only way he could have got out of Scotland more ‘immediately’ would have been to be beamed out. Silly kids games eh.
The protests continued for the next few days but not at the same intensity. The first day had always been the big one. The convergence space was under siege, surronded by police. And many of the more militant activists were now behind bars.
Also, on the 7th July, a number of bombs went off in London, which sort of put things in perspective.
Was anything achieved? The G8 had been disrupted, but continued regardless. Poverty didn’t become history. The whole event had cost the tax payer £91 million. £72 million of which was just on security. The next time it was UK’s turn to host the summit, it was held on an island in the middle of a lake in Northern Ireland. There were no large scale protests
The successes and failures of these events are not immediately obvious. Networks had been set up and connections made. Although Dissent dissolved, as it had always intended to after the G8, informal links that had been made continued and new campaigns formed. Consciousness had been raised, more people started to question the status quo, seeds were sown, flowers started to bloom. Dissent proved what can happen when people organise. It wasn’t just about the protests. The autonomous way people organised a mini village, with kitchens, toilets, gathering spaces and even a media centre out of nothing, showed that another future is possible
The state had been so rattled, undercover cops were imbedded in various networks including Cardiff Anarchist Network. Interestingly, whilst people had always suspected there were undercover cops spying on the left, the curtain was pulled back slightly to reveal the extent of the tactic, when Mark Kennedy was unmasked. He had been a major player in the organising of the protests at Gleneagles and had shuttled people back and fore the convergence space in his minibus. His uncovering led to numerous other coppers being outed and rather dodgy practices being revealed. This was such a scandal an enquiry was launched which is still ongoing. It has cost the government millions and tied the police up in knots. Given that most of the cops were planted in legitimate protest groups that the state didn’t really have anything to fear from, it could be argued that the whole spy cops policy had turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. And it is one of the many reasons that trust in the state is currently at an all time low.
Twenty years on from the G8, an 83 year old lady was arrested and treated as a terrorist for holding up placard. That trust in the state is not improving, but at least more and more people are questioning authority and doing something about it.