G20

polystyle

Well-known member
Protests at Excel Center , Moorgate , Belgravia and Liverpool Street
effigy of a banker burned by Bank Of London
around 2,000 - make that 200 protesters penned up some for 9 hours.
Blackberry anarchists , twitter mobs

G20 group photo with the Queen
"Abolish Money"
MSNBC just mistakenly identified the Korea leader as being Japanese
Israel foreign minister Avidor Lieberman dismisses Annapolis 2007 declaration
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
I've just remmebered the most disturbing incident of the whole thing - a really, really terrible hippy singing about the 60s "when music meant something". I heard the names Jim and Janis. He was performing beneath a 9/11 troofer banner. you can see why people get wound up by this shit.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
The soundtrack today was some pretty good breakcore and some hippies singing.

It kicked off down by the bank at between Throgmorton Street and Threadneedle and then we got cordoned off by mounted police. I've been caught in them before and they scare the shit out of me so I went through the scaffolding to get out. Good on the Climate lot though, that was nice, a nice little tactic.

It was nice round London Bridge on the way home.

Indymedia says that Bank's being cleared out now, single file with searches and photos taken.
 
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padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape

what???

well...it looks like he just collapsd tho or at least that's what's being reported...anyway know anything more specific?

also, not to take away from a man's death, but I'm kind of surprised that only 30-odd people have been arrested, especially given that there were so many scuffles with the cops...
 

john eden

male pale and stale
also, not to take away from a man's death, but I'm kind of surprised that only 30-odd people have been arrested, especially given that there were so many scuffles with the cops...

could be more to come - grainy cctv footage: "do you know these people?"
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Terrible news that that guy died - can't find any more info at the moment.

I missed most of the latter-afternoon violence (was there til about 3), but...can someone tell me what the point was, if the whole thing was going to be so fragmented and disorganised? To be frank, it was a fucking shambles, and has only made those who protest even more demonised in the eyes of the mainstream media.

People have to be a lot less stupid if there's any hope of change, I'm sorry. No-one was handing out leaflets or any written materials to clarify the point of the protests to passers-by (correct me if I'm wrong), there were loads of pissed up cunts making it easy for the protest to be dismissed as that of 'louts', and it was all so homogenous in a way. What about converting laid-off bankers and others recently disillusioned with 'the system' to the idea of the protests? Or ANYONE other than the usual suspects (wrong choice of words, perhaps!)? It's al too fucking....studenty, and what do a lot of the people there do on the other 360 days of the year with their time, after they've attended their 5 annual protests?

Sorry to be so negative, but it was self-defeating bollocks.
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Terrible news that that guy died - can't find any more info at the moment.

I missed most of the latter-afternoon violence (was there til about 3), but...can someone tell me what the point was, if the whole thing was going to be so fragmented and disorganised? To be frank, it was a fucking shambles, and has only made those who protest even more demonised in the eyes of the mainstream media.

People have to be a lot less stupid if there's any hope of change, I'm sorry. No-one was handing out leaflets or any written materials to clarify the point of the protests to passers-by (correct me if I'm wrong), there were loads of pissed up cunts making it easy for the protest to be dismissed as that of 'louts', and it was all so homogenous in a way. What about converting laid-off bankers and others recently disillusioned with 'the system' to the idea of the protests? Or ANYONE other than the usual suspects (wrong choice of words, perhaps!)? It's al too fucking....studenty, and what do a lot of the people there do on the other 360 days of the year with their time, after they've attended their 5 annual protests?

Sorry to be so negative, but it was self-defeating bollocks.

Ah didn't know you were there!

I really wanted to - and will press something up for the next one - to see people handing out public information about what their rights were, everything's constantly changing. I'm never sure whether I'm even allowed to be out in public at all anymore.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
90 arrests now: "ringleaders" followed by helicopter.

I agree with baboon, but then I'm fairly cynical about this sort of thing anyway. On the plus side it is good to see people getting passionate about these issues.

But yeah it does seem to lack a wider social movement - all the hard day to day stuff gets left behind in favour of the big bang of a demo... but (but but but) we're still only in the early stages of this crisis so who knows...
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Agree with mistersloane about rights info - no-one knows what their rights are at all, and that can be really problematic. Saw some guy being hauled away in a police van for seemingly nothing, but felt powerless to help, being so ignorant of what his rights actually are.

I was playing devil's advocate a bit, but I really think this needs a broader (and more broad-minded) base. Who were the main drivers behind yesterday's protest anyways, and where/when do they have their regular meets? Obv Stop the War Coalition and Climate Change (?), but who else?

Don't get me started on that "Abolish Money" banner..."and, sir, what is the system you hav ein mind to replace it...?"
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Agree with Baboon above. The demo on Saturday was the one with the proper agenda. Yesterday's was fun for those who want that kind of thing - astonsihing the numbers of cameras there. No coincidence that 4000 people and a few broken windows got way more coverage than 35000 and a wll organised march on sat.

edit: but what is the social base of the anti-globalisation movement? It's not much to be going on. Few people have any faith in substantive change, so you're left with the students and squatters?

The Sun has been asking readers for the ID of the man with the bloody forehead. Expect an 'expose' of his parents' lush 4-bedroom home in a Devonshire village within days.

Assume the positions.
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Yesterday's was fun for those who want that kind of thing - astonsihing the numbers of cameras there.

I thought the amount of cameras was to do with that Section 76 thing that got passed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Terrorism_Bill_2008

thus the only way to counteract that is to literally arm everyone with a camera of some sort. There's obviously other stuff - spectacle etc - but I know we were all trying to take cameras along cos of the 76 thing.
 

mms

sometimes
i would guess that most people agree that things are incredibly fucked, worried and angry at bankers etc, but then the press seems to try and create a them and us mentality before the protests, you know, danger, riots, hippies, what they want, to be honest the protesters often do as good a job at alienating the general populous as the press does.
That penning people in tactic is shit, esp as they take everyones pics, names and addresses on the way out, plus it essentially causes people to kick off, don't know what the legality of that is, taking peoples details without premise to do so.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Apparently this kettling thing is legal but I just don't see why - how can it be ok to pre-emptively hold people against their will for hours on end? And taking names and addresses when they do eventually release people is outright intimidation.
 
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