CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - About 2,500 demonstrators took to the streets in Calgary on Sunday, banging drums and chanting to protest this week's summit of world leaders at a nearby Rocky Mountain resort, but avoiding the violence that has marked similar events in recent years.
Groups ranging from organized labor to environmentalists to ordinary families marched through the downtown core of this Canadian oil-industry city under heavy police presence, although officials said there were no arrests.
Activists are angry that U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the other Group of Eight leaders of industrialized countries will make decisions about key world issues with no input from average people.
G8 leaders meet Wednesday and Thursday at Kananaskis, Alberta, an alpine resort about 1-1/2 hours' drive west of Calgary, to discuss the economy, the war on terrorism and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's plans to help Africa.
"They are making decisions that are affecting our everyday lives without us being involved in any sort of consultative process," said demonstrator Larry White, who traveled from Toronto with a group of about 100 activists.
White said the world's major trade decisions were increasingly being made by bodies like the G8 and World Trade Organization and "national laws are being superseded without any sort of what I consider a democratic process."
But the atmosphere at the rally, which lasted until rain started to fall in the late afternoon, was party-like, with cheerleaders chanting radical messages, a makeshift "evil corporate boat of globalization" -- complete with skull and cross bones -- gliding down the streets and a Greenpeace truck topped with solar panels leading the way.
PEACEFUL, DEMOCRATIC DISSENT
It was all in contrast to protests at other events, like last year's G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, where violence erupted between police and protesters and one demonstrator was killed.
"This demonstration is what peaceful, democratic dissent is all about," Greenpeace's Jamey Heath said. "You have thousands of people on a bunch of different issues, who disagree with what the G8 is doing, and they're saying so. Draconian security measures that we see here in Calgary have not stopped this protest."
Despite the peaceful event, police said they would not let their guard down until the summit ends. Two Americans, a male and a female, were the first to be arrested late Saturday for spray painting anti-G8 graffiti on railway cars.
"We're not complacent. We know circumstances could change at a moment's notice," Calgary police Insp. Al Redford said.
Canada has assembled its biggest-ever security detail for the summit that will include its leader and those of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States, who are gathering for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks. The site is restricted to a small number of delegates and media.
This weekend, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the military were putting final touches on security measures at Kananaskis, which is surrounded by snow-capped peaks.
To get to the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis, where the meetings will be held, visitors must pass as many as 13 checkpoints on the only paved highway in. Along the way, the military has deployed numerous personnel and equipment, including surface-to-surface missile launchers.
The rally in Calgary on Sunday was monitored by numerous police in squad cars, on bicycles as well as in a helicopter.
Zambian activist Chaka Mwondella said the leaders "were not playing fair" in addressing Africa's problems, like poverty, famine and the HIV and AIDS crisis.
"I keep blowing the whistle and they keep on ignoring me," Mwondella said. "I want them to listen to me because I have a part to play in this and I have something to say. Whatever decisions they are making there are affecting me down here."
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