The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
May 27, 2011

100 Protesters Detained in France Ahead of G8 Summit 
-----------------------------------------------------



French police detained some 100 people protesting against the Group of
Eight summit Thursday as protests sprung up across the country to mark
the two-day summit. In the city of Le Havre, demonstrators occupied a
branch of the BNP bank that they said helped finance the nuclear
industry.

Protester: "We are here to condemn two things. Nuclear power, because
BNP is the bank that invests the most in nuclear power in the world, at
a global level. This is also the bank that does the most tax evasion in
France: 1.9 billion euros of tax evasion in 2010. It's a record.
Sixty-nine branches in the tax havens."

In Paris, Doctors Without Borders hung a giant banner advocating free
medical care outside the Paris stock exchange building. Another group of
activists managed to get inside the Paris offices of credit rating
agency Standard & Poor's. Greenpeace executive director Kumi Naidoo
harshly criticized the G8 summit.

Kumi Naidoo: "The G8 is basically a cartel, a self-appointed cartel of
eight dominant nations, which carry actually the biggest responsibility
collectively for climate change and a whole range of other issues. What
we are concerned about the G8 is—and if you have a look at the
draft communiqués that have been leaked now—is it's a
regurgitation every year of the same commitments, repackaged and
restated. This is not leadership. This is fraudulence, and it needs to
be addressed."



.