Who are the rioters and what exactly do they want?
Battle of Gothenburg: Swedish police panicked and used firearms to control crowds because they had no access to tear gas
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The violent disturbances staged by hardline anarchists in Gothenburg were the first in a series of battles which Europe's militant anti-capitalist groups are planning for major summits this summer.
The groups which fought running battles with police in Sweden's second city include pan-European groups such as Anti-Fascist Action, the anarcho-syndicalists Direct Action, the anti-globalisation group Ya Basta! and anarchists from Russia, Poland and Finland. The militants, including British anarchist groups such as Revolution and Direct Action, call their planned campaign "summit hopping", a rolling series of violent confrontations with police which leaps from conference to conference, city to city.
The police and intelligence services have found it difficult to combat the people involved. Although the same groups are often closely involved with each demonstration, their protests are usually regionally organised by loose coalitions of people. Finnish anarchists in Gothenburg yesterday were also in Prague and Nice earlier this year. Between each summit, these groups organise special training camps. Seven have been arranged for this summer, in Spain, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Russia, and Italy.
An organised network of anarchists, hard-left, anti-globalisation groups and militant environmentalists has already laid plans for protests at economic forums next month: at Salzburg on 1-3 July, the global climate change conference in Bonn on 16-27 July, and the G8 summit in Genoa on 20-22 July.
The list of battle-grounds on the groups' internet sites reads like a whistle-stop tour of Europe. Since September last year, it has pulled into Prague, Nice, Zurich, Gothenburg and Ljubljana, the location of President George W Bush's summit with the Russian premier Vladimir Putin. Yesterday Slovenian police turned away Italian anarchists from the Ya Basta! network which was implicated in the riots that overshadowed the EU's December summit in Nice.
To anti-capitalists, the summit of the world's most powerful economies represents the worst aspects of globalisation. It unites anarchists, environmentalists, anti-racist groups, regional separatist groups such as the Basques, anti-militarists, small farmers, and anti-free trade campaigners. "G8 are the major arms dealers and control Third World debt. They're responsible for thousands of people dying," said "John", a British anarchist with Revolution.
In common with the strong regional character of these demonstrations, most of the anarchist groups in Gothenburg came from northern Europe and include:
SAC
Who? A syndicalist anarcho-socialist group, Sveriges Arbetras Centralorganisation was founded in 1910
Where from? Sweden
Numbers in Gothenburg Unknown
Aims Believes in libertarian socialist revolution, based on decentralisation of power
Rainbow keepers
Who? A hard-core Russian eco-anarchist group called Khraniteli Radugi
Where from? Russia and Ukraine
Numbers in Gothenburg A dozen
Aims Radical group against environmental damage and capitalism in Russia
Revolution
Who? Hardline, anarcho-socialist group
Where from? Britain, based in London
Numbers in Gothenburg 150-200 British anarchists
Aims A revolutionary socialist movement targeting companies such as Gap
Finnish Anarchists
Who? Finnish youth and anarchist groups
Where from? Mainly southern Finland
Numbers in Gothenburg Hundreds
Aims Anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, militant animal rights groups and pro-environment
Anti-Fascist Action
Who? A pan-European anarchist group
Where from? Has groups in Germany, Finland, UK, Sweden, Denmark
Numbers in Gothenburg Hundreds.
Aims Revolutionaries hostile to EU policies on immigration and trade
Direct Action
Who? Militant anarcho-syndicalists
Where from? Groups in Denmark, UK,
Numbers in Gothenburg Unknown
Aims Anarchist group campaigns against globalisation and capitalism
Others
Who? Groups of unaligned anarchists
Where from? Norway, northern Spain, Germany, Poland, Baltic States, Britain.
Numbers in Gothenburg Unknown
Aims Targets capitalism, EU, animal experiments, environmental damage
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