'Power to the people'

2005-07-06 16:18

Auchterarder - Thousands of protesters chanting "power to the people" began a march toward the site of the G8 summit on Wednesday under a quietly watchful police surveillance, after hours of acrimony sparked by a decision - later reversed - to ban the demonstration.

The protesters, banging drums, blowing whistles and led by a bagpiper dressed in traditional Scottish costume, marched through the narrow streets of Auchterarder, a village of about 4 000 people, toward the nearby fenced-off perimiter of Gleneagles.

Earlier in the day, Tayside police had called off the march after demonstrators south of the exclusive Gleneagles resort smashed car windows, threw rocks and attempted to blockade one of the main approach roads to the summit venue.

The decision to prevent the march outraged protesters in Auchterarder.

Organiser G8 Alternatives accused the police of "disgraceful behaviour" in denying thousands of people the right to stage a peaceful protest, and insisted they had not been consulted.

George Galloway, a politician recently re-elected to the house of commons despite being thrown out of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, said he was still angry that the police had tried to prevent the march.

"When, exactly, did this become a police state?" he said.

"When did the police get ... the power to call off demonstrations here in this free country of ours?"

- AP