LONDON BRIEFING:As the G20 leaders visit next week for talks on the global financial crisis, protesters plan to bring London to a halt
THESE ARE dark days indeed for bankers. Their bonuses are under threat, their jobs are at risk and their reputations lie in tatters.
But if the City of London’s reviled money men thought things couldn’t get any worse, they’re in for a nasty shock. Life might look bleak now, but it’s about to get really grim.
As the G20 leaders gather in London next week for further discussions on the global financial crisis, a disparate coalition of anti-capitalist and other protesters plan to bring London’s financial district to a halt. The protests are scheduled to start on Saturday, with a rally in Parliament Square and a march to Hyde Park, and will build up to what threatens to be a tumultuous crescendo on April 1st and 2nd.
The authorities, who warned earlier this year of a “summer of rage” ahead as economic conditions deteriorate, are so worried by the scale of the planned demonstrations they are drafting in more than 3,000 extra police officers in an effort to keep order. The cost of that has been put at £7 million – and that’s before any trouble breaks out.
At best, the protests will bring traffic in the capital grinding to a halt. At worst, they could erupt into civil disturbance on a scale not seen since the anti-poll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square in 1990, which ended in rioting and looting and caused millions of pounds of damage.
Bankers and bank buildings will be the focal point of next week’s protests, and there have been some disturbing mocked-up images, such as bankers hanging from lampposts, carried on the websites of some of the more extreme organisations.
A number of groups, including respected organisations such as Oxfam, the Trades Union Congress, War on Want and Friends of the Earth, are involved in the planned protests, and simply want to express their views in a peaceful but public manner.
But there are real fears that the non-violent demonstrations will be hijacked by extremists, who are using the internet and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to organise themselves.
G20 Meltdown, which is an alliance of anti-capitalist groups and insists that its plans are peaceful, says it plans show the G20 “what meltdown means”. Urging anyone who has lost their job, their home, their pension or savings to join in the protest, it aims to “reclaim the City”.
At noon on April 1st – the day the Queen is due to receive President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle at Buckingham Palace – it says its protesters will be “thrusting into the very belly of the beast: the Bank of England”.
In preparation for the demonstration, its website offers supporters a print-your-own money facility. The fake notes, adorned with a picture of a jester, will be handed out to the public in Threadneedle Street.
The University of East London is holding an alternative G20 summit and other plans include carnival parades through the Square Mile, led by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The day’s activities will be rounded off early on April 2nd with protesters banging on the doors of the hotel at the ExCel centre where the G20 meeting is being held.
There’s no chance of anyone getting near the ExCel centre in the early hours of the morning; the police will make sure of that, but clearly London is in for a rough time next week if even only half the threatened protests actually materialise.
People working in the City of London and in the Docklands financial districts have been advised to dress down – jeans and T-shirts instead of suit and tie and supermarket carrier bags instead of briefcases – to avoid becoming targets. Some employers are even advising staff to work from home for the duration of the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, in another of his attempts to demonstrate the common touch, and at the same time head off accusations of overspending, Gordon Brown has called on the services of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to prepare a G20 dinner menu in keeping with these straightened times.
Oliver is currently heading a TV advertising campaign for the supermarkets group Sainsbury’s, in which he cooks tasty, healthy meals for families of four for just £5.
The dinner, to be held at No 10 Downing Street on the eve of the G20 meeting, will certainly cost more than that – unless the world leaders get only one course. Now that really would be in keeping with the global financial crisis.
Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardiannewspaper in London
