Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Devonshire Green - Right to Protest Protest
Later as the numbers swelled on Devonshire Green, people wrote their own messages for the G8 on their blank banners and placards and headed off into town, linking up with the critical mass and ignoring any notion of a designated protest pen.
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Backed down
16.06.2005 00:23
protester
from the Yorkshire Post
16.06.2005 07:53
William Green
Political Correspondent
ANTI-globalisation campaigners will handcuff and gag themselves today in protest at a ban on a march through Sheffield against the G8 meeting being held in the city.
Protesters plan to make a silent stand for the right to demonstrate after police turned down requests for a march to coincide with the arrival of justice Ministers from the G8 group of rich nations.
Campaigners initially feared they would be kept on Devonshire Green, some way from the Winter Gardens where the Ministers will be welcomed at a reception this evening.
A protest by 100 people has now been given the go-ahead in Tudor Square, closer to tonight's event, but some feel their right to demonstrate has been muted.
And they will gather peacefully at Devonshire Green handcuffed and gagged, with blank banners, from 5.30pm, in a symbolic gesture they see as criticising the council's lack of consultation with the people of Sheffield about the meeting and the police's suppression of meaningful protest.
Local GP Julie White, who will be joining them, said: "The right to peaceful protest is surely basic to democracy. That this is infringed when the Justice Ministers are here stinks of hypocrisy."
A collection of local groups will be raising their voices together in dissent during the G8's three days in Sheffield. A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said the force had stated earlier that it would not allow a march in the city centre during the G8 meeting but had facilitated such a protest last Saturday.
It was aware of today's protest at Devonshire Green but had confidence in an agreement with protesters that it would not need to take extra powers during the conference.
15 June 2005
steve
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28.06.2005 16:24
feelix