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Protesters already abuzz about Sea Island G-8

By Russ Bynum
The Associated Press

SEA ISLAND, Ga. -- The protesters' ideas range from the fantastic -- anarchists pooling money to buy one of Sea Island's multimillion-dollar homes -- to the pragmatic -- settling for demonstrations 60 miles away in Savannah.

As soon as President Bush picked this secluded resort island for next summer's G-8 summit of world leaders, anti-globalization activists were buzzing on the Internet about ways to thwart the tight security that will be thicker than the surrounding marsh grasses.

"Folks are going to try any number of approaches," said Andrew Willis, a Washington anarchist organizer who plans to protest at the June summit. "Some people want to stop the meetings altogether, some want to get in the leaders' faces themselves. Some want to get media attention."

Past meetings of the Group of Eight -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- have attracted thousands of protesters. The Sea Island summit is expected to as well.

Gov. Sonny Perdue has said Bush chose 5-mile-long Sea Island in part because of its natural barriers -- the Atlantic Ocean, surrounding marsh and St. Simons Island, which sits between Sea Island and the mainland with a single causeway connecting them.

Perdue said last week he would welcome protesters as long as they act peacefully, though demonstrators would be barred from Sea Island. Still, some were already floating plans online on the message boards of the anarchist Web site infoshop.org.

One messager using the name "wispy" suggested trying to breach the island with flotilla of boats flying pirate flags and blaring composer Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries."

"Our chances of actually reaching the island would be slim to none," wrote wispy. "But the news coverage of a rag tag armada of pontoons, sail boats and motor boats attempting to land on Sea Island in protest of the ills of global capitalism would be massive."

A posting by the group Food Not Bombs in Berkeley, Calif., said it may build a "a floating food warehouse and communal kitchen to serve delicious vegan meals to participants arriving at the island by kayak."

Or perhaps protesters could take up a collection to buy one of Sea Island's 500 "cottages," which range in price from $1.3 million to $18 million.

"If ten-thousand people chipped in half a grand each, we could collectively own it, and then throw a REALLY BIG HOUSEWARMING PARTY," wrote a messager using the name "mj," who included a link to real estate listings on Sea Island's Web site. "It'd have to be illegal to keep us off the island."

Although some ideas sound far-fetched, Bill Rathburn, a Texas consultant who was security chief for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, said he's certain authorities will monitor the Internet to glean intelligence on protest plans.

"Absolutely. They do that before any event where you anticipate there might be significant demonstrations," Rathburn said. "This anti-globalization movement, it's a consortium of a whole lot of groups and some of them are hard-core anarchists. I think that will make security for the G-8 more difficult."

That's one reason remote sites such as Sea Island have become summit hotspots -- to shield dignitaries from disruption.

Denver played host to the last U.S. G-8 summit in 1997. But since the 1999 World Trade Organization talks in Seattle, where volatile protests inflicted $2 million in damages, and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, summits have sought more private hideaways.

Last year, Canada held the G-8 at the remote Kananaskis mountain ski resort, closing the lone paved road and forcing demonstrators to gather 60 miles away in Calgary.

Protesters faced a similar obstacle last month when the G-8 met in Evian, France, on Lake Geneva. Demonstrations were confined to neighboring Switzerland, where protesters in black masks looted shops and battled police.

In Georgia, summit organizers plan to make Savannah, 60 miles north of Sea Island, the media hub for an expected 2,000 visiting journalists. Some online anarchists are saying Savannah might also be the most practical protest target.

"Savannah looks like our only option," said an infoshop.org messager using the name Carlo Tesca. "And it's actually not that bad of an option, too."

Capt. Larry Branson of the Savannah Police Department said police are used to large crowds. The city's annual St. Patrick's Day parade, one of the nation's largest, draws up to 400,000 people each year.

"We train yearly for crowd-control techniques, so were pretty confident with that," Branson said. "As far as any special security plans, those have not been developed yet."