G8 PROTESTS Muffled voices of dissent BY STEVEN STYCOS

In anticipation of protests during the G8 Summit, slated to take place in Sea Island, Georgia, on June 8, 9, and 10, Georgia governor Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency in six counties, which went into effect on March 24. The extraordinary move and other steps taken by police, say anti-war-group leaders, are part of a larger effort to stifle dissent — an effort that includes protest restrictions at this summer’s national political conventions in New York and Boston.

In his May 7 executive order, Perdue, a Republican, declared the state of emergency necessary to protect the gathering of the industrial world’s top leaders. "There exists a potential danger to persons and property of this state from unlawful assemblages, threats to violence, and otherwise," he said.

"The government is using an exaggerated threat of disruption in order to demonize and discourage legitimate protest," said Michael Avery, president of the National Lawyers Guild, in a press release. Carol Bass, globalization-education and outreach coordinator for the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, agrees. "The state of our civil liberties is what’s in a state of emergency right now," she says, adding that the state of emergency is only one of several moves by government officials to discourage demonstrations against G8 policies that cause poverty, military dictatorships, environmental devastation and terrorism, she adds.

Perdue’s press office failed to return phone calls from the Phoenix.

With the G8 meeting only days away, Bass says, protest leaders have yet to receive permits for a "Fair World Fair" and for marches in nearby Brunswick. Police are using city parks for summit security, and the Glynn County schools have refused to lease their property during the summit.

Captain Larry Bruce of the Brunswick Police Department says the governor’s office and city officials are negotiating with protest leaders. At the same time, Brunswick, Savannah, and their two surrounding counties have passed ordinances that severely restrict protests, notes United for Peace and Justice national co-chair Lisa Fithian. The counties prohibit signs larger than two feet by three feet, ban sticks used to support signs and puppets, and require any group of six or more to obtain a permit if they wish to gather on public property for the purpose of attracting the attention of bystanders.

The ordinances were drafted, explains Glynn County police chief Matthew Doering, by a legal committee suggested by the US Secret Service. "To ensure consistency and continuity," Doering explains, the committee — comprising lawyers from the offices of the Georgia attorney general, the US attorney, and city and county attorneys — drafted a model protest-restriction ordinance that local governments could then adopt.

Thomas Mazur, spokesman for the Secret Service, would not say whether his agency supports the ordinances, stating they were a local decision. The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia is suing to overturn them.

Meanwhile, New York City is using other tactics to discourage protest at the Republican National Convention in August, charges William Dobbs, media coordinator for the New York–based United for Peace and Justice. The group is pressing Mayor Michael Bloomberg to allow an anti-war march past Madison Square Garden — the site of the convention — and a rally in Central Park. The city’s counterproposal permitting the march to wind through Manhattan, and end with a rally on the West Side Highway, is "unworkable," Dobbs says. Subway access is poor, the march would not pass Madison Square Garden directly, and the proposed rally site would force protesters to stand on hot pavement in the August sun.

Negotiations in Boston appear to be more positive. While he cautions that some issues are unresolved, John Reinstein, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, says the city has agreed to allow protests at a lot across the street from the FleetCenter, where the Democratic National Convention will take place. Reinstein calls the site "probably as good a space as there is" in the crowded area. He still worries that the permitting process may take too long, but adds, "The city has taken seriously their obligations that people outside the FleetCenter have the right to be heard."