The battle lines are drawn once again between G-8 heads and anti-globalization movements, this time in Deutschland's Baltic resort of Heiligendamm where next week's summit will be held. These assorted movements have made G-8 summits their playgrounds, even if their numbers have been waning in recent years. So, the Germans have called up additional soldiers to break up possible unrest. Watching the people get lairy is not very pretty I tell thee...I predict a riot (or at least the Germans do). From the LA Times:The tear gas is stocked and the police are helmeted and ready for tens of thousands of anarchists and anti-globalization protesters who are planning rallies and guerrilla-inspired mischief to disrupt next week's Group of Eight summit in this Baltic Sea resort.
President Bush and leaders from seven other industrialized nations will discuss global dilemmas in a spa, while far away, beyond 8 miles of razor wire and 4,800 concrete barricades, police and radicals will try to outwit and overpower one another amid flares, placards and water cannons.
It is a periodic showdown between leftists and police, a rolling mosh pit of eco-warriors and anti-capitalists complete with hundreds of arrests, stinging eyes and occasional bloodshed. Germany has called up 17,000 police officers and soldiers to keep order over rallies in different cities.
The events will include a march on Saturday expected to draw 100,000 protesters to Rostock in what has been billed as a warm-up for the three-day meeting, beginning Wednesday. "We are afraid this demonstration will also turn violent," said Konrad Freiberg, head of Germany's police trade union.
Security forces recently raided the offices of left-wing militants, and police have acknowledged that "scent samples" were lifted from dozens of radicals to track them with dogs during protests.
Tension around G-8 summits has grown since the 2001 meeting in Genoa, Italy, where police shot and killed one anarchist and scores more were injured in clashes. The coalition government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fearful of images of chaos in the streets but also empathetic to ecological and other concerns raised by protesters, is navigating between protecting freedom of expression and expanding police powers.
Germany has a colorful history of anarchists and leftist radicals, including the Red Army Faction, which in the 1970s and '80s assassinated a number of government officials and industrialists. Much of the scene is less volatile these days, consisting mainly of intellectuals, punks, squatters and environmentalists pushing for fair international trade, debt relief for developing nations and climate control.
UPDATE: The battle has already begun as protesters stream in by train and bus from all over the continent:
Masked demonstrators showered police with grapefruit-sized rocks and beer bottles, then were driven back with water cannon and tear gas during a protest march Saturday against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany.
The clashes left smoke from burning cars and the sting of tear gas drifting through the harborfront area in the north German port of Rostock. Some 146 police were hurt, 18 of them seriously.
Radicals "are smashing everything in their way to pieces," said Karsten Wolff, a police spokesman. There were no immediate numbers for arrests.
The officially permitted march preceded a three-day summit beginning Wednesday in the seaside resort of Heiligendamm, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts the leaders of the other G-8 nations -- Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada and the United States.
The leaders are expected to discuss measures against global warming, the fight against AIDS and poverty in Africa, and the world economy. As in previous years, the summit drew protesters of various stripes opposed to globalization, capitalism and the G-8 itself.
Most marchers were peaceful, but others pried up paving stones and broke them into chunks before charging police. Officers in helmets and full body armor fell back, then charged the demonstrators.
Five large green police trucks with twin water cannons mounted on top blasted groups of rioters. A police car was destroyed and several parked cars burned, spreading black smoke over the area.
Protesters torched a large blue recycling bin.
Police spokesman Frank Scheulen estimated the number of violence-minded demonstrators at about 2,000. Police put the size of the demonstration at 25,000, while organizers said it was 80,000...
The world shaped by the dominance of the G-8 is a world of war, hunger, social divisions, environmental destruction and barriers against migrants and refugees," organizers said in leaflets handed out on the streets. "We want to protest against this and show the alternatives."
Dozens of different groups, including communists, anarchists and environmentalists, were taking part and messages were mixed: Some urged action from the G-8 countries in the fight against HIV/AIDS, African poverty and climate change, while others questioned the legitimacy of the G-8 meeting itself.
