CALGARY/OTTAWA, 25 June — Globalization opponents yesterday were promising more mass mobilizations here, one day after thousands of demonstrators marched against the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight nations.
The meeting of leaders from the world’s richest nations opens Wednesday in Kananaskis, a small mountain resort village, an hour’s drive from here.
Breaking the normal quiet of a Sunday in the downtown financial district, 7,000 demonstrators, according to organizers — 2,000 according to the police — pounded the pavement for two hours to the rhythm of drums, tambourines and chants among the tall green towers that serve as headquarters for the energy and finance multinationals pushing globalization.
Demonstrators, who have dubbed their counter-gathering the "Group of Six Billion" — a reference to the world’s population, said Sunday’s protests were just a foretaste of things to come.
"This is an appetizer," said demonstrator Cassandra Christie carrying a marionette with the head of US President George W. Bush and the body of a vulture.
There were seven other effigies for the leaders of Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and Canada who will attend the summit Wednesday — along with a carcass.
"They are the bones of democracy, an endangered specie," said the young woman, in reference to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s decision to isolate himself with the other world leaders in a lost corner of the Rocky Mountains, far from the cries of the protesters.
This "community solidarity march" was the only demonstration to obtain a march permit from the local authorities. "There will be others and we will see how they’ll react," she said.
One barefoot young man promised that he would put on a hood tomorrow and break windows at Talisman Energy, one of the multinationals that human rights organizations criticize for its activities in Sudan.
"Today, things are calm because I haven’t gotten started and because I don’t feel like being arrested," he said.
About 30 members of the Soccer Moms for Global Justice joined the march.
"For most kids in Calgary, their biggest worry is whether they’ll win their soccer game," spokeswoman Jane Cawthorne said.
"In the rest of the world, most of the children are worried about whether they’re going to eat."
The Raging Grannies, a protest group of seniors, were on hand from Edmonton and Vancouver in their floppy hats, singing protest songs.
A few meters (yards) away, dozens of police on bicycles looked over the march while a helicopter circled overhead. Union members and members of international solidarity organizations of environmentalists, a few young anarchists and citizens of all ages with a simple desire to make their voices heard, formed a colorful parade for the antiglobalization movement.
"All in the same boat," said one large banner carried by 30 protesters, while some 30 "enraged grannies," wearing flowered straw hats, charmed the crowd with protest songs.
Partnerships between rich countries and Africa and the war on terrorism are two main dishes on the G-8 menu.
"Two thirds of one billion dollars for Africa — it’s the best they can do for the epidemic of HIV, and there were two million dead from AIDS last year in Africa," said Larry Ladell, of Oxfam. "For terrorism, the US gets billions of dollars. There were 3,000 victims in the attacks against New York City," he said.
An organizer asked the crowd for a moment of silence in memory of Carlo Giuliani, a young Italian who was killed last year by a police officer at last year’s G-8 protests in Genoa.
