Utterly fascist methods are being used by the German authorities against those organising protests in the runup to the annual summit of the leaders of the G8 –countries – (United States, Russia, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany). The meeting of the G8 leaders is scheduled to take place at the German sea resort of Heiligendamm from 6 th to 8 th June 2007. German authorities are expecting up to 100,000 activists to target the G8 summit being hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The German authorities have compiled a database of human scents from “suspects”, which could then be used by trained sniffer dogs to track them down during demonstrations. It is understood the suspects were made to hold metal pipes in their hands and the samples of smell were kept by police. The German magazine Spiegel reports that the police have collected scent samples from activists as young as 18 and as old as 68! Though the authorities claim that collecting scent samples is legal, activists have vowed to fight it out and not be cowed down by such fascist methods.

Ever since the 27 th summit of the G8 at Genoa in 2001 which saw tens of thousands of people from all over Europe and beyond converging to protest against the nefarious activities of the G8 leaders, the authorities have tried every method possible to keep protestors away.

• The 2002 summit of the G8 was held at the mountain resort of Kananaskis, Canada far away from Calgary, the nearest town, in a bid to make it difficult for protestors to even reach the venue
• Over 10,000 policemen, many of whom were armed, and a number of US Marines, a Special Air Service (SAS) team and snipers, were used to protect the 2005 G8 summit at Scotland, at an estimated cost of GB£100 million. Police officers from all over Great Britain were called in to reinforce the local forces to maintain order in Edinburgh and other cities; even small protests were cordoned off by large numbers of police officers. At least 700 people were arrested and 350 charged.
• Before the 32 nd G8 summit which took place from 15-17 July in St Petersburg, Russia, a systematic police crackdown on people likely to participate in protests was carried out. Many of them were sentenced to ten days' imprisonment, enough to prevent them from participation in political protests until the end of the official summit.

The toiling masses hold the imperialist system and globalisation responsible for wars, unemployment, hunger and more. This is why G8 summits have attracted such massive protests all these years, and this years’ summit in Germany is no exception. The authorities of these G 8 countries, ‘champions of freedom’ that they proclaim themselves to be, resort to the most fascist methods to curb dissent and protest. However, we are sure that the toiling masses will not only continue to protest against the injustice, death and destruction caused by the imperialists; they will also actively unite and work for a world without imperialism, fascism and imperialist wars.