G8 Alternatives

G8 Alternatives was a coalition of activist groups set up to co-ordinate actions around the 31st G8 summit held at Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland.

Individual supporters included author and academic Noam Chomsky, journalist John Pilger and comedian Mark Thomas.

In response to this, Scottish Socialist Party MSPs made a silent protest in the chamber at Holyrood.

On the day itself, police did call the march off for a time, and there was a level of confusion among the public about whether or not the march would be going ahead, however they eventually relented when the organisers said they would go ahead anyway and when a number of protesters started to head toward Edinburgh as an alternative protest site.

The march attracted considerable media attention when a number of participants broke away from the main demonstration across a field where they proceeded to bring down a section of the fence surrounding the hotel where the summit was being held.