Alternate G-8

In early June I went up to Rostock for the Alternate G-8 about 20 kilometres from Heiligendam where the G-8 was being held. I had interviewed Siegfried, left, earlier in the month for another story, and he had invited me to come along to Rostock with him and his friends Hans and Birgit. They're in a group called Attac... an anti-globalization organization which is actually fairly mainstream.

We missed the riots by a couple of days and things had quieted down quite a bit when we got there. The workshops had started by then and everybody knows what a fun-killer workshops can be.

We did go out to where young people had blockaded the roads into Heiligendam. About 10,000 of them had marched through the police barricades the day before to set up the blockades, but it was more of a festival atmosphere by the second day. I was impressed by how idealistic a lot of the European young people are, they believe they can make the world a better place and actually try to make a difference... on the other hand there were some young Canadian American protesters on a train took one day..
They were rude and foul mouthed, especially the Canadians, I never thought I would see Canadians act that way overseas.