Sunday Herald
EVERY Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) MSP is to undergo non-violent direct action training in preparation for demonstrations against the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July.
The party’s six MSPs will each pay around £100 to take part in a two-day training session, run in April or May, by the Scottish Centre for NonViolence in Dunblane. They also intend to call on SSP supporters and others planning to join in the protests to consider undergoing similar training.
Frances Curran, the party’s enterprise spokeswoman, said: “Some of us have done the training before – including [MSPs] Carolyn Leckie and Rosie Kane – but we are all going to do it for the G8 because we are intent on having a peaceful protest. The training teaches you what to do when you’re facing riot police.
“It urges you to think why you are protesting and what are you trying to achieve.”
Thousands of protesters are expected to join demonstrations against the gathering, in Perthshire from July 6 to 8, of world leaders from the G7 group of wealthy nations plus Russia. Anti-capitalist and anti-war protesters are planning a week-long campaign of events around the summit, including a march of up to 200,000 people, in Edinburgh and associated events at Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde (home of Britain’s Trident submarines) and Dungavel detention centre in Ayrshire, where asylum seekers are held.
Police are planning to draft in 10,000 officers, including hundreds from London, to deal with the threat of disruption to the summit.
In response, several groups, including Trident Plough shares and Seeds for Change, are now running courses on non-violent direct action in the run-up to the summit.
Curran added: “We will be calling on other SSP members and suggesting everybody goes through [training]. Most of our members have been on countless demonstrations across Scotland and there has never been one hint of trouble.”
Curran is to meet Tayside police in Perth on Tuesday, and on Thursday the SSP is using its allotted time in parliament for a debate on the summit.
