Live from the G8

Report from a NZer at the G8 demonstrations in Scotland

hi everyone.
this is your foreign correspondent.
sitting in the glasgow convergence space at the end of it all, everything is
scummy, and everyone is dirty. most of us have'nt had a proper shower for
3
weeks(!)
some people feel victorious, others defeated. it's not the black and white
win or lose situation from days of old. all i can say is that it felt more
like a battle then i've felt, so far. running around in the 'woods' hiding
from helicopters or dogs, then out onto the motorway, only to choose
between
a field of bulls or a legion of riot cops.
if i get searched one more time, i will scream. i don't care that it's a
women cop. i just don't like being felt up with plastic gloves.
some fantastic barricades were built; concrete and rubbish and fuel. we
heard that every single road to gleneagles was shut down for at least some
time.
being in meetings with hundreds of people day and night for 3 days somehow
did'nt help organisation. what did it was independent clusters bumping
into
each other on separate secret missions co-joining and then blockading.
what made this special (i reckon) was the 'eco-village'(!?) which gave us
some grounding in anarchy and compost toilets. i am amazed at everyone for
getting it set up in only a week. infuriating to leave it knowing that its
wildness would soon be flattened into a golf course. also the cre8
community gardens in glasgow were built in this convergence time, as a
protest to a motorway vying to take over. if we did nothing else,
something
real was created in our wake.
i get the feeling the locals round here (white working class), and
particulary the gangs of kids(who throw stones), want to smash our heads
while at the same time actually wanting us to stay. tough love indeed.
as for the kiwi contingent, we dispersed ourselves into different
alliances
beyond borders and nations. i only hope the phenomenon of 'the clown
army',
finds its way down under, cuz i've never seen policemen laugh so much in my
life. they even let us kiss their cheeks. when its comes to de-escalation,
this is top-notch strategy.

love from h.