CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Mud people arose from the earth on Thursday to weaken the fortresses of the world's wealthy countries and major corporations in a bid to clear the way for a new culture of balance, abundance and delight.
Capping off days of demonstrations against the Group of Eight summit, more than two dozen activists evoked the spirit of Gaia, the Earth goddess, before stripping down, caking themselves with mud and setting off on a journey through the downtown core of the oil industry city of Calgary.
The mud people were joined by winged people and plant people.
The city has been the base of protests as the world's most powerful leaders met in the nearby Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis.
But the protesters in general have been more creative than violent. Office workers on their lunch hour were a bit taken aback as the procession wound its way to various corporate offices with the mud people, wreaths on their heads, singing, drumming and passing out seeds.
"The G8 is operating on a power structure that no longer serves the people or serves the planet," said Ocean Rose of a group called the Pagan Cluster, which organized the "mud-in."
"What this has to do with the G8 is it's symbolically and magically taking apart and helping the crumbling of the structures of power," the San Francisco Bay-area woman said.
Upon reaching a glass and steel tower, the group cried "Shame!" and rolled around on surrounding lawns and in flower beds.
Before leaving, mud people put their dirty hands on the buildings in a symbolic "uprooting" of the fortresses as large numbers of police looked on from mountain bikes as well as from a helicopter overhead.
Activists are angry that the G8 leaders are making key decisions om major issues like third-world development, the economy and trade without input from ordinary people.
Residents who spent months fearing violence that has marked similar meetings in recent years have been tolerant of the demonstrators.
"It's been peaceful, it's been kind of fun to watch and I think it's been great -- I think they have every right to say what they want to say," said Calgarian Paula MacLeod as the traveling ritual temporarily blocked her car. "It's a positive thing. But the mud? I don't know."
The G8 includes Canada, Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Russia.
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