ROME (Dispatches) -- As the Group of 20 summit of the world’s leading economic powers brings numerous global leaders to Rome, it is also drawing laid-off factory workers, climate activists, anti-globalization campaigners and others to speak out in protest.
“There will be many of us,” said Gino Orsini, a representative for the Si Cobas union, one of the organizers of a demonstration planned for Saturday to coincide with the Group of 20 gathering.
This year is the 20th anniversary of the Group of 8 summit that Italy hosted in the northern city of Genoa that was marred by rioting. It is also a moment of tension between the authorities and opponents of the Italian government’s coronavirus vaccination requirements, which have resulted in violent clashes.
“The level of attention is maximum,” said Giovanni Borrelli, a local government official, adding that 5,500 extra law enforcement officers were being deployed this weekend.
Climate protesters briefly staged a sit-in on the main avenue leading to the G20 site on Saturday morning, but offered no resistance when the police forcibly removed them. And organizers of Saturday’s protests vowed that there would be no violence.
“It will be a relatively calm march,” said Lavinia Iovino, 15, a representative for the Italian branch of the international youth-led Fridays for Future movement.
She said they planned to urge the Group of 20 leaders to act urgently amid a time of unprecedented interest in climate change and social justice. “It’s the moment when we can do most,” she said. “What we don’t do now, we won’t be able to do in the future.”
The environmentalist march will be joined by workers’ unions and factory workers who are seizing the opportunity to voice anger at the elites. “It’s a protest against all the G20 governments who represent the part that dominates the world and exploits workers,” said Orsini, the union representative.
More than 5,000 extra law enforcement officers have taken to

the streets. Special vehicles are on patrol to detect toxic substances. In the skies, military drones and systems to counter rogue drones buzz overhead as helicopters patrol a no-fly zone.
Each nation is also bringing its own security. When President Biden visited the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis on Friday, he rolled down the broad Via della Conciliazione with a motorcade of more than 80 cars, many of them heavily armed and staffed with military personnel.
Security around the embassies is extremely tight, and a large “high security” area has been erected around the conference center where the summit is taking place. Only authorized holders of credentials and residents are being allowed to drive or walk inside.
The interior minister said that security had also been beefed up along Italy’s borders. Bus routes are diverted, and metro stations will be closed.