Burning torches and the Rolling Stones' ``Street Fighting Man?'' Or playful-but-pointed placards and community choirs? No one is sure what to expect when anti-Olympic protesters march toward the 2010 opening ceremonies on Friday.
That includes whether their late-afternoon journey through downtown Vancouver ends at peaceful protest or in tear gas and mass arrests.
``Our main goal is to be the voice of opposition, to disrupt the Games with a message of resistance and the true social impacts,'' said Anna Hunter, an organizer with the Olympic Resistance Network, a consortium of groups behind a ``Take Back Our City'' march planned for Friday. The protesters are railing against everything from the cost of the Olympics to tight security. ``The ORN believes in a diversity of tactics and strategies.''
That's largely been the case so far. In January, protesters lit torches and set Rolling Stones music blaring as demonstrators, some with faces covered by bandanas, marched through Vancouver. Last week it was a makeshift marching band, anti-Games chants and Olympic-mocking mascots like ``Itchy the Bedbug.''
Most anticipate a similarly broad mix when a crowd expected to exceed 1,000 gathers at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 3 p.m. on Friday. The question is what happens as that crowd makes the eight-block march toward the opening ceremony three hours late - and reach a point where security fences prevent them from going further.
``It's our right to march on the streets and we are going to exert that right,'' said Hunter. ``If there are some people that want to push the limits and get closer to a venue, that's their call.''
Neither of the earlier protests ended in conflict and the ORN insists they aren't promoting violence. But some have talked of past protests like the 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Corporation protest in Vancouver or the 1999 Battle in Seattle against the World Trade Organization, both of which ended with police subduing protesters with pepper spray and mass arrests. The ORN said it has legal advice and medical help on standby Friday if needed.
``There's lots of manufactured hysteria,'' said Steve Sweeney, deputy chief constable of the Vancouver Police Department. ``Their intention is to be peaceful and family oriented. There may be a small component intent on behaving unlawfully, but we see that all the time.''
The list of organizations involved with ORN is extensive, including more radical environmentalists and aboriginal groups.
The most common criticism is escalating costs - a 2006 government audit put the Olympic bill at $2.5-billion while critics argue it's closer to $6-billion - set against cuts to education, health care and social services. There are also protests against displacement of an estimated 1,200 residents from the Downtown Eastside, a poor, drug-infested neighborhood that sits just a few blocks away from - and in stark contrast to - the festival atmosphere of the Olympics.
Others are railing against the disappearance of civil liberties amid the presence of a 15,000-member security force, barricaded roads, and surveillance cameras. Tensions rose when the Olympic security force sought out anti-Olympic protesters at their homes, work and in the streets leading up the Games. They rose again as protesters were turned away trying to enter Canada this week - despite ORN advice to try to look like a tourist: ``if you can, buy a hockey jersey.''
``If you protest the Olympics for whatever reason you are made to feel criminalized,'' said Am Johal, founder and chair of Impact on Community Coalition (IOCC) and self-described moderate.
Johal predicts a ``fun, carnival atmosphere'' at Friday's anti-Olympic march, which he expects to include a 100-person choir.
``People are just going to be letting off some steam from frustration with the Olympics,'' Johal said. ``It's ultimately about the restraint the police are able to show. If some people are going to be arrested, they are going to be arrested. But if they start putting out tear gas and pepper spray into the crowd and start getting innocent people, then you are going to get into some problems.''
