Protests Against the G-20 Summit and the Capitalist Economic Disaster in London, European Cities

Tens of thousands protest G20 summit

Associated Press, March 28, 2009

LONDON -

Tens of thousands of people marched across central London Saturday to demand jobs, economic justice and environmental accountability, kicking off six days of protest and action planned in the run-up to the G20 summit next week.

More than 150 groups threw their backing behind the "Put People First" march. Police said around 35,000 attended the demonstration, but there were large gaps in the line of protesters snaking its way across the city toward Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park.

Security was tight around a small group of people waving anarchist flags. Anarchists and others have promised violence before the G20 meeting Thursday, and the British capital is bracing for a massive police operation as representatives of the world's 20 leading economies — including U.S. President Barack Obama — fly in for a summit on the financial crisis.

The London protest takes place against the backdrop of a deepening global recession and growing public anger over bankers' pay and the painful fallout from the crisis. The marchers are pushing for a more transparent and democratic economic recovery plan.

In Britain, unemployment has risen above 2 million, house prices have fallen 11 percent in a year and industrial output has recorded its worst drop since 1981.

"The whole economic meltdown ... There's a really good opportunity for governments to get together and invest in a sustainable future," said unemployed Steve Burson, 49, marching with the protesters.

The biggest groups backing the demonstration include the Stop The War Coalition, whose supporters marched under the slogan "Jobs Not Bombs," Friends of the Earth, and the Trades Union Congress, an umbrella group of British trade unions, which is calling for Britain's crisis-hit manufacturing base to share in country's banking bailout.

"They should be solving (the crisis) in the interest of working people," said Andy Bain, the president of Transport Salaried Staffs' Association. "All the money is going to the rich."

Protesters whistled and booed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's 10 Downing Street office — with one shouting: "Enjoy the overtime!" as they filed past.

Some G20 protestors have adopted slogans such as "Hang a Banker" and "Storm the Banks." More protests are planned Wednesday and Thursday, while left-leaning teach-ins, lectures, and other demonstrations are scheduled throughout the week.

Protests in Europe

There were other demonstrations aimed at the G20 summit throughout Europe on Saturday.

Berlin police estimated that around 10,000 people gathered in front of the capital's city hall and more than 1,000 in Frankfurt, Germany's banking capital, for similar demonstrations under the slogan: "We won't pay for your crisis."

Some demonstrators in Berlin sported headbands reading "pay for it yourselves" and carried placards demanding: "make capitalism history."

"We have no evidence that anyone attending intends to disrupt our plans, break the law or commit any acts of violence," said Glen Tarman, chairman of the organizers.

Give us a chance,' Biden tells G20 protesters

March 28, 2009

VINA DEL MAR, Chile (AFP) —

US Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday called for tens of thousands of protesters already on the streets of Europe ahead of a G20 summit next week to give governments a chance to tackle the economic crisis.

"I would hope that the protesters give us a chance, listen to what we have to say and hopefully we can make it clear to them that we're going to walk away from this G20 meeting with some concrete proposals," Biden said at a news conference after a meeting of center-left politicians in Chile.

Tens of thousands frustrated by the deepest global recession since the 1930s took to the streets of London Saturday, as well as thousands more in Paris, Berlin and Frankfurt, ahead of Thursday's summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing economies.

"The action that is happening in London today I understand, and we will respond to it at the G20," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who will host the London meeting.

Biden added: "I would say to the protesters that unless we talk, unless we attempt to deal with this changed circumstance we find ourselves in, there is no solution. Things will only get worse."

Protesters in London plan a series of mass demos ahead of the G20 and have rejected police claims that they could be hijacked by anarchists bent on violence.

A university professor has been suspended from his job after warning that bankers would be "hanging from lampposts" during the protests, and finance workers have been advised to dress down to avoid attracting attention.

From Edinburgh to Paris to Kiev, Europe is revolting

Paola Totaro Europe Correspondent

smh.com, March 28, 2009

THE signs are everywhere, from smashed windows in the mansion of a British banker to the thousands who took to the streets of Kiev to decry pay cuts: Europe is rebelling.

As world leaders strut the stages of Washington, New York and soon, London, in a bid to forge a united response to the global financial crisis, the rising cost of living, mortgages heading skywards, job losses and a tide of home repossessions have sparked a chilling fear of the future and propelled the citizens of Europe into open uprising.

These isolated brushfires of civil unrest could ignite what Superintendent David Hartshorn of London's Metropolitan Police warned could become a "summer of rage" - with the city's G20 meeting the focus of widespread dissatisfaction.

Police are bracing for the first round of demonstrations and protests today in the British capital as trade union bosses from around the world converge on Hyde Park to lead a "People First" demonstration before Thursday's G20 meeting.

ACTU president Sharan Burrow, who is also president of the International Union Confederation, will speak at the protest. "Workers around the world in rich countries have lost jobs and homes while those in developing countries face further poverty," she said. "All are the innocent victims of this crisis and their anger is growing. This is understandable as more and more discover that their jobs, their houses, and their income security in retirement have been stripped away by a crisis which was precipitated by greed, incompetence and a blind faith in the market."

Next week, the so-called G20 Meltdown campaign - an informal group - is expected to set off from four sites in London and converge the day before the summit on the Bank of England, marching behind one of the "four horsemen of the apocalypse". A separate group intends to set up camp outside the European Climate Exchange in Bishopsgate while more protests are expected to focus on the ExCeL centre in east London where the leaders will meet. The 60th anniversary meeting of NATO next weekend in Strasbourg is expected to attract big protests too.

So far, an additional 2500 police have been attached to the London summit and the security bill for the ExCeL centre is estimated at $15.5 million.

Bank officials say they are taking seriously the safety and wellbeing of London staff and have suggested working from home next week during the G20 meetings. Some have advised workers to "dress down" to avoid being targeted as financial workers.

Iceland, Italy, Spain, France, Latvia, Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria have already felt the force of civil unhappiness since the economic crisis began to destroy the hopes and security of their young people and middle classes. Farmers, truck drivers, teachers, transport personnel and public servants have taken to the streets to protest. In Eastern and Central Europe, years of boom after the fall of the Iron Curtain have made the recession even harder to bear.

In France, the Elysee Palace is still reeling after a "bossnapping" - manufacturer 3M improved the severance packages for more than 110 workers in exchange for the liberty of manager, Luc Rousselet, who spent more than 24 hours as prisoner of his own furious employees.

The brazen stunt followed the nationwide strike last week that drew 1.2 million people onto the streets in peaceful protest. It came just days after it was revealed that the departing boss of car parts supplier Valeo, Thierry Morin, left the company with $6.2 million even though the company had been given a state bail-out. It is to slash 1600 positions in France and reported a fourth-quarter loss of $607 million.

French union official Bruno Lemerle said: "Those who sow misery reap fury. The violence is done by those who cut jobs, not by those who try to defend them."

In Scotland, vandals smashed windows of the home of Sir Fred Goodwin, former boss of the beleaguered Royal Bank of Scotland, and vandalised the black Mercedes in the driveway of the affluent Edinburgh home. The first direct attack on an executive since the financial crunch began, it elicited horror in Britain's business community.

Sir Fred kept his pension, worth $1.45 million a year, despite a series of disastrous acquisitions that ended up with the nationalisation of the bank. He steadfastly refused to give up the payments despite demands from the Government.

Two senior bosses have resigned from AIG in Paris, citing a "hostile" environment as the insurer faces a public backlash over multimillion-dollar bonus payouts made to executives using government bail-out money.

Documents released under the US Freedom of Information Act reveal the degree of vitriol in emails sent to AIG.

One says: "The family members of your executives are not safe. Your blood will run through the streets."

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