LOUISE GRAY

RADICAL direct action groups are meeting in Glasgow this weekend to work on protests against the G8 summit.

As government officials plan what they hope will be impregnable security measures, anarchists among the "Dissent!" network are planning to blockade the meeting of the eight most powerful men in the world.

The umbrella organisation of anti-capitalist groups, affiliated to Peoples' Global Action, states it is committed to taking a "confrontational attitude" against "destructive globalism".

One member, contacted by The Scotsman, refused to confirm the group are non-violent - or any other details about them. He pointed out the network has no leaders, therefore no-one is able to speak on its behalf.

He said: "It is a network of groups so it makes no sense to talk about a strategy."

The venue of the meeting in Albion Street was kept secret until the last minute and a contact phone number was made available only yesterday.

Members are offered indoor accommodation, "mostly of a distinctly floor-based nature" and food will be available.

Items on the agenda include legal briefings, "solidarity action for arrests", medical help, logistical planning and a golf tournament organised by the People's Golf Association.

Dissent! is one of three main groups planning protests at the G8 meeting.

Make Poverty History, a coalition of charities, is organising a march in Edinburgh on Saturday, 2 July - expected to attract 200,000 protesters.

G8 Alternatives, an umbrella group of organisations against G8, is organising an "alternative summit" and protests at the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde and the Dungavel detention centre for asylum seekers, in the days preceding the summit.

By Wednesday, 6 July many of the demonstrators will have moved up to Perthshire in an attempt to protest at the Gleneagles summit itself.

Gill Hubbard, the organiser of G8 Alternatives, is expecting protesters from around the world to converge on Scotland. "Social movements are coming to send a clear message of peace, we have no knowledge of people coming to smash up buildings or act in a violent way."

Ms Hubbard, who attended the Genoa G8 summit in 2001, where one protester was shot by police, has warned against a heavy-handed approach by the authorities.

She said: "We have had our first meeting with police and we did say we want this to be calm as opposed to chaotic, we want it to be peaceful as opposed to a riot and that means we have to learn the lessons of previous protests."

Today, campaigners are staging a peaceful parade to the Scottish Parliament to highlight the dangers of climate change in the run-up to the summit.

The Worldwide Climate Change Action Day event will coincide with similar events around the world, and will include a speech by Mark Ballard, the Green MSP for the Lothians.

The protest will include street performers, musicians, singers and face-painters, as well as protesters dressed as mosquitoes to highlight the northward march of the insect because of climate change.