Meet your G20 protestors

​Brisbane will host the 2014 ​G20​ from November 14 to 16 and residents are worried there will be similar scenes on their streets as those seen when Toront​o hosted the G20 in 2010. If you don't recall, 400 people were arrested, police cars were set alight, business were vandalised, and authorities ended up deploying tear gas to quell the unrest. Here in Brisbane, police know you can't hold a G20 without protests, but they do believe they can stop the protests from turning violent. So who are the protest groups, are they peaceful, and what are the chances of things getting out of hand? VICE spoke to some of them to find out.

Twenty-six groups will be staging 42 separate actions in the leadup to, and during the summit, mostly in a declared security zone surrounding the official venue. Anyone can go into the declared zones, the only difference is that within them police have special powers enacted solely for the G20.

Scott McDougall is the director of the Caxton Leg​al Centre who are providing a team of up to 60 legal observers to monitor interaction between protesters and police. He told VICE the special G20 legisl​ation allows police to stop and search anyone within the declared area without the usual need for a suspicion of an offense being committed. The legislation also contains limitations on protesters, including the size of their banners and a ban on masks or face coverings. Other items effectively banned if used unlawfully from the declared zones include potential projectiles such as eggs and tin cans, as well as more niche objects such as whips, cattle prods, and those bolt guns out of No Country for Old Men.

It's this special legislation and it's ambiguity that has the spokesperson from the Brisbane Community Action Network ​Group, Robin Taubenfeld, worried. She told VICE restrictions like the ban on masks criminalise, control, and curtail protest. The group called BrisCan for short is a loose network of groups and individuals who have put together what they call a three day festival of ideas. VICE understands within BrisCan's ranks are members of anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation groups like the Soci​alist Alliance and Occupy as well as Anonymous, who told VICE (anonymously of course) they will still protest despite not be able to wear their signature masks. BrisCan are holding film screenings, gigs, symposiums and marches throughout the G20, and say they are committed to voicing their social justice and environmental concerns peacefully.

One of the things that BrisCan say should be on the G20 agenda but isn't is Indigenous rights. To that end The Brisbane Sover​eign Aboriginal Embassy (BASE) is holding a First Nations' response calling for "DeColonisatio​n before Profit". The base for BASE is Brisbane's Musgrave P​ark which has a long history of Indigenous activism and was an important meeting place before colonisation. Boe Spearim, who helped organise the First Nations' response, told VICE the G20 is a chance to draw international attention to the problems Indigenous Australians face, like over-incarceration, deaths i​n custody, and disparity in health and economic outcomes. The First Nations' response also draws attention to the plight of all Indigenous people across the world and their fight for sovereignty. They are holding rallies, conferences, marches and a corroboree and will be joined by delegations representing Papua New Guinea, South America, and New Zealand. Spearim also sees it as a chance to revitalise the Indigenous rights movement and galvanise the next generation. He says he is happy with the police response so far, telling VICE we are in "clear water" for now. Follow the groups hashtag #genocidal20 to see if that changes.

BASE is not the only group concerned with independence and sovereignty. Th​e Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations is holding a "Prote​st against Putin" who is of course attending the G20. Expat Ukrainians the world over have been making their anti-Putin feelings clear since the Russian i​ncursion into the Ukraine. The message has special resonance in Australia in light of the murder of 27 Australian passengers aboard flight MH17. Pete Shmigel is a spokesperson for the group who told VICE whilst emotions will run high, the group is committed to making the point that "G20 leaders have made a fundamental error" in inviting Putin in a dignified and peaceful manner. However, he says rallies ​held earlier in the year attracted the attention of Russian Embassy security officers who filmed protestors and attempted to engage them in conversation and sometimes conflict. Shmigel says there is a concerted campaign on the part of the Russian government "right across the world be it on the internet or public rallies to try to upset, harass and distract people who support Ukraine's independence." Given that Putin will be in town along with 3000 international journalists, the stakes for the Russians and the Ukrainians are high. In a media briefing yesterday, the Queensland Police confirmed they are regarding the Russia/Ukraine schizm as the most likely to turn violent but said they have no specific intelligence to cause concern.

One other rally that might stir what organiser Ben Riley calls "robust debate" is a pro G20 reminder for the world's leaders to stick to their goals of removing barriers to trade. This group stands in stark contrast to the anti-globalisation and anti-capitalist protesting majority. The rally's Faceboo​k event page (184 going, 51 maybes) plays up this theme, calling for people who have "too much common sense and personal hygiene to join one of the many socialist rallies" to join them instead. Whilst the Young Lib​erals are not officially associated with this event, Ben Riley is their federal president so one can assume this rally could attract young rank-and-file conservatives. There is a serious side to this rally: the organisers genuinely believe that free markets and capitalism lead to higher standards of living and economic growth in developing nations. Riley told VICE that it is also important to show the international media that the people of Brisbane support the G20. He wants to make sure it is not just the "extreme groups on the fringe that want to shut down capitalism" who benefit from the media coverage.

None of the groups VICE spoke to are threatening violence. In fact all say they are committed to getting their point across peacefully. The police however have not discounted the fact there may be groups planning actions that they don't yet know about. Even if there isn't some unknown anarchist group waiting silently in the wings to "smash" the G20, as report​ed by The Courier Mail, Associate Professor Mark L​auchs from the School of Justice and Faculty of Law at the Queensland University of Technology thinks there is still potential for violence to happen.

In an interview with local radio station 4B​C, he said he expects skirmishes between protesters and police. "The violence will come from young men who join all sorts of different groups who get caught up in the moment. They will piss off the police and a lot of the police that are going to be there are young men. In the heat of the day somebody is going to get carried away." For its part, a spokesperson for Queensland Police told VICE they have worked hard to implement what they call "a strategy to build relationships and work collaboratively with protest groups with the aim of avoiding confrontations between protest groups and police." The police and the protestors all say they want to avoid a repeat of Toronto but what will actually happen over the weekend remains to be seen.

VICE reporter Lauren Gillin will be on the ground in Brisbane during the G20, follow her @the​ljg.