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Antiglobalists Struggle To Attend G8

By Liza Hearon

Special to The St. Petersburg Times

Scenes of thousands of people taking to the streets in violent protest, like those at the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, are unlikely to be repeated at the G8 summit taking place on July 15-17 in St. Petersburg, according to antiglobalization activists.

The expense of visas and travel to Russia, along with fear of the police, are keeping many foreign protesters at home, activists groups say.

While activists are planning demonstrations in Russia, they are divided on what is the most effective course of action, lack central coordination, and are unsure of just how many protesters will show up.

Antiglobalists, anticapitalists and anarchists are also wary of the media and police associating them with nationalist groups, who may be planning their own protest actions during the G8 meeting.

Most groups want to express their views on the G8’s handling of energy security and infectious diseases, two of the main topics of the meeting.

“It’s difficult for most people to imagine coming to Russia — the idea scares them,” said Anya, an activist from Poland in her 20s who is traveling to St. Petersburg, in a telephone interview. Her last name has been withheld because of her fears of the border police. “Russia has a bad reputation in terms of human rights, jails and prisons.”

Despite the fears, a small group from Poland is making the trip, along with a few dozen from England, Germany and other European countries, according to Anya.

“Again, we’re talking about a dozen, not talking about hundreds,” she said.

“We’re more than convinced that they’ve planned security in St. Petersburg — they might not be worried about a few guests,” Anya said.

As yet, however, no foreign activists have reported any trouble obtaining visas or difficulty at the border, as they begin making their way to Russia. Some are heading to Moscow first, some are coming by bus, and some are even coming by bicycle.

A bicycle caravan left Berlin on Sunday and plans to reach St. Petersburg in time for the G8 meeting. Along the way, they are meeting with local activists and handing out literature.

It started with 15 people leaving Berlin, and people are coming and going along the way, said 20-year-old Nao, who believes in “alternative faiths” and chooses that name for himself, in a telephone interview. The caravan was stopped in northeast Poland.

“We promote clean energy transport — going by bike — even distances like 1,800 kilometers in five weeks,” he said.

The caravan is made up mostly of 18- to 30-year-olds from Germany, Lithuania, the U.S. and other countries. They are bringing tents with them, and are also staying with “nice people” along the way, said Nao.

Nao said he personally does not plan to go all the way to St. Petersburg because of the expense of paying for a visa. The group has already experienced border troubles.

“The Turkish people couldn’t go through the Polish border,” he said.

Even activists who can’t make it to St. Petersburg are supporting those who are traveling, organizing protests in their own countries and planning for the G8 meeting in 2007, which will be held in Heiligendamm, Germany, a more accessible country. They have already organized camps and meetings to prepare actions against the 2007 meeting.

“We have had various meetings in different cities to tell them about the G8,” said Manfred Schuster, 37, in a telephone interview from the Network Against G8 office in Berlin. “We are not to prepare people, but to give them information for them to prepare.”

“People are worried, but they are saying that it can’t be worse than [the G8 summit in] Genoa, where they killed one protester,” Schuster said.

He describes his organization as being in favor of radical globalization, not antiglobalization.

“We want to have open borders for refugees, not money,” Schuster said.

Groups outside of Russia are organizing for a global day of protest against the G8, on July 14. The idea was conceived at a meeting in Kiev, where activists from Russia and Western Europe were able to meet in a place where visas are not required, said Zhenya Oregon, 27, an activist in St. Petersburg.

“We are not sure how many people will be there. We try to cooperate with Western European people coming, and we hope that some of them will reach the city. It will be a new experience for us,” said Oregon.

He described the St. Petersburg group as “not very energetic” but well-connected to Moscow. St. Petersburg activists also have contacts in Belarus, where protesters plan to rent a bus to Russia, and are connected with groups in Ukraine, Lithuania and Estonia, according to Oregon.

But no one is sure how these disparate groups will unify.

The Russian Social Forum is set to meet at Kirov Stadium, an arena at the far end of Krestovsky Island largely inaccessible from central St. Petersburg, for the dates of the G8 summit. Various anticapitalist and antiglobalist groups will meet to discuss their views.

“As a network, as a whole, we have different opinions on the social forum,” said Oregon.

They object to what they see as the participation of political parties in the forum, such as the Regional Communist Party and the National Bolshevik Party.

Organizers of the forum have stated that no parties will participate in the forum, but parties will be allowed to participate in a demonstration on July 15.

The demonstration has been authorized by the authorities and is tentatively set as a march from Kirov Stadium to the Aurora cruise ship which is moored on the Petrograd Side on the Bolshaya Nevka, an offshoot of the Neva, cut off by several bridges from downtown.

Demonstrations are not permitted any closer to the center of the city. However, anarchists and antiglobalists are still concerned about nationalist groups participating or disrupting the action.

“The solution is autonomous actions. It is up to groups to decide what they are doing; some will probably make decentralized actions,” said Oregon.

Despite scarce resources, the group has arranged a legal team to assist demonstrators with arrests and street medics in case it turns violent. They have prepared information on legal rights against police.

The lack of central coordination has made it difficult to guess how many protesters will come from other countries, and how many will be involved in protests.

“I hope in St. Petersburg we mobilize 100 to 150 persons,” Oregon said. “If we mobilize 500 people, I would consider that a success.”

Organizers of the Social Forum are expecting different numbers. Ilya Ponomarev, 30, who represents the Left Front Coalition in Moscow, said he expects 1,000 to 1,500 people participating in the Social Forum and 4,000 to 5,000 to take part in the demonstration, including 300 to 400 from abroad.

“But it’s very unpredictable because of the visas and people being scared of the Russian police. We expect the largest part from France, Germany and Scandinavia,” Ponomarev said.

They are expecting the city to be closed, like it was during the 300th anniversary celebration of St. Petersburg, and for the police to be questioning people.

“Getting our voice heard is our major objective. We are not a violent organization. But if authorities put pressure on us, we will fight back,” Ponomarev said.

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