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CP. 26 June 2002. G8 Summit - Protest turns violent. OTTAWA -- Chanting anti-war slogans, protesters burned a U.S. flag outside the American embassy Wednesday where several hundred demonstrators opposed to the G-8 summit faced off against police. RCMP officers wearing flak jackets and backed up by more police watching from nearby vans ringed the embassy to hold back about 600 protesters, some chanting "Bush is a terrorist" and "1-2-3-4, we don't want your fascist war." The crowd tried but failed to burn a rain-soaked Stars and Stripes, but burned another one wrapped around an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush. Police watched but took no immediate action. They pushed back one protester but didn't arrest him after he climbed a fence to hang the Canadian flag alongside the U.S. emblem. Demonstrators opposed to the leaders' agenda took their sometimes-violent march through downtown Ottawa and onto Parliament Hill where their numbers peaked at over 1,000. A police helicopter clattered around the Peace Tower as the protesters -- some naked -- carried their grievances against world's richest countries to the front lawn of Parliament. Half a dozen nude protesters danced on the steps below the Peace Tower, their bodies emblazoned with the slogan Not for Sale. Protesters light marijuana joints on the steps of Parliament. A mid-day cloudburst had done little to slow their march and small groups of demonstrators grew increasingly violent as they moved toward the Hill. Protesters hurling golf balls and heavy, paint-filled balloons cracked a bank window, smashed a television network van and slapped Capitalism Kills stickers on buildings as they marched. Two police cars were also damaged. Police confronted crowds of protesters who were chanting "Whose squat? Our squat!" as they converged in front of a vacant home occupied by anti-poverty demonstrators. Homelessness and a shortage of social housing in Canada is one of the many issues protesters have been raising. Police arrested one black-clad, body-armoured activist earlier in the day as the demonstrations began and a bicycle officer had his nose bloodied during the scuffle. Police confirmed one man had been detained but would not release his name. Other protesters said he is Bertrand Loiselle of the Montreal-based protest group La Clac. A thunderstorm had scattered a group of about 200 protesters calling themselves the Revolutionary Women's Knitting Circle from their perch in front of a bank on the Sparks Street Mall. But the larger group, estimated at more than a thousand, which had rallied at a midtown park was undeterred by the afternoon lightning, thunder and torrential downpour. Many protesters, represented by an umbrella group Take the Capital, had warned earlier that vandalism and violence was entirely possible during their marches. "Capitalism sucks," a 21-year-old philosophy student from Cambridge, Ont., said before the march started. "I hope there's chaos," added his friend, a steel factory worker. "The only way you get a message across is with machine guns." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with photos --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
