MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - Anti-globalists in Russia are intending to continue the tradition of alternative meetings to official summits of the leaders of the world's richest nations with a July gathering in St. Petersburg timed to coincide with the country's first G8 summit, a public movement coordinator said Wednesday.
"We are going to hold a social forum called upon to demonstrate our alternatives to Group of Eight proposals in July 2006 in St. Petersburg," Alexander Buzgalin, a Moscow State University professor, told a news conference.
Buzgalin said this would be "a peaceful meeting of representatives of various mass organizations, NGOs and social movements from all countries showing that they have an alternative to 'official' proposals to develop the world's civil community."
An employee of the Globalization Institute said the forum should be considered a civil discussion of G8 problems. Some forms of protests in recent years, though, have ended in violence as anti-globalists have clashed with police.
The movement organizers said the event in Russia's second biggest city was likely to attract thousands of activists from all over the world.
