PlanetaryWorks
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Of Note:

LONDON – The G20 summit

Bankers have been warned not to wear suits to work next week lest they become targets for protesters and police are
bracing for the biggest demonstrations in years.

When leaders of the world's major economies meet Thursday in London to discuss fixing the global recession, they will
witness first-hand the public resentment against banks and financial systems whose risky bets caused the crisis.

Europeans are outraged that average workers are losing their jobs while well-heeled financiers at failed banks are living the
high life.

Financial houses here have been warned to step up security to protect their staffs after vandals in Edinburgh attacked the        home of Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland.Goodwin sparked a storm of protest when
he retired early, with an annual pension of $1.2 million, while his bank was bailed out with taxpayers' money.

"This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing,"


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http://www.stockhouse.com/Blogs/ViewDetailedPost.aspx?p=88743

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Banks step up security, police call reinforcements in advance of protests that will target G20 summit


Mar 28, 2009 04:30 AM
The Toronto Star
Les Whittington
OTTAWA BUREAU

LONDON – The G20 summit doesn't begin until next week, but the anger in London is already palpable.

Bankers have been warned not to wear suits to work next week lest they become targets for protesters and police are bracing for the biggest demonstrations in years.

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders of the world's major economies meet Thursday in London to discuss fixing the global recession, they will witness first-hand the public resentment against banks and financial systems whose risky bets caused the crisis.

As in the United States, where there is an uproar over bonuses paid to executives at now-government-supported insurance giant AIG, Europeans are outraged that average workers are losing their jobs while well-heeled financiers at failed banks are living the high life.

Financial houses here have been warned to step up security to protect their staffs after vandals in Edinburgh attacked the home of Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Goodwin sparked a storm of protest when he retired early, with an annual pension of $1.2 million, while his bank was bailed out with taxpayers' money.

The City, London's financial district, will be the scene of large demonstrations starting Wednesday, which protest organizers are calling Financial Fools' Day. Marches on Britain's central bank, the U.S. embassy and other prominent landmarks are being planned – as well as displays of street theatre, music festivals and the hanging of bankers in effigy – to coincide with the G20.

Left-wing London university professor and protest organizer Chris Knight was suspended from his job after threatening violence – "all hell could break loose," he told the media – if police clamp down on crowds in the streets next week. Part of the so-called "G20 Meltdown" group, Knight favours placards saying "Eat the Bankers."

In advance of the summit, some of London's banks have sent emails to their employees advising them to substitute casual attire for the traditional banker's suit so they won't stand out in hostile crowds. Employees were also instructed not to carry sensitive documents or electronic equipment and to postpone meetings if possible.

Resentment against the financial elite who set the stage for the current recession is not limited to protesters, however, and will play a part in the G20 talks.

At a news conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva said poorer countries are suffering from the current recession even though developed countries are to blame for the catastrophe.

"This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing," he told reporters during a pre-summit visit from Brown.

"I do not know any black or indigenous bankers so I can only say (it is wrong) that this part of mankind which is victimised more than any other should pay for the crisis."

The economic slump, which spread around the world after the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble undermined Wall Street, appears to be rejuvenating social activism focused against corporate capitalism.

"A lot of the impacts of this downturn are still to be felt, in all honesty," Russell Jones, a senior executive at RBC Capital Markets in London, said in an interview.

"The unemployment rate is going to rise to the kind of levels we haven't seen since the early 1980s and the potential for social and political strife as a result is pretty large."

Mass demonstrations against leaders of the major industrialized nations have been generally subdued since the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 on the United States.

But the run-up to the G20 here raises comparisons to the last summit of this sort before 9/11. That was the G8 leaders' meeting in Genoa, Italy, where one activist was killed and hundreds wounded as 200,000 protesters clashed repeatedly with police in the centre of the city.

In London, all police leaves have been cancelled and thousands of additional officers are being called in for the summit. With public anger on the rise, police say they are expecting an unprecedented turnout of protesters from the U.K. and Europe, including anarchists and other violence-prone groups.

The leaders will meet behind tight security at a sprawling convention centre in London's Docklands, a once-decrepit port that was turned into an extensive office complex with the help of the Reichmanns, the Toronto property developers.



http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/609776

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Thousands of demonstrators march through central London, on March 28, 2009. Tens of thousands of trade unionists, environmental campaigners and anti-globalisation activists took to the streets of London on Saturday to start five days of protests before the G20 summit. AFP/Getty Images

Demonstrators march through central London March 28, 2009. Thousands of demonstrators marched through London on Saturday to demand action on poverty, jobs and climate change at the start of a week of protests aimed at the G20 summit in the capital. REUTERS


Thousands of demonstrators take part in the ”Put People First” march through central London, on March 28, 2009. Tens of thousands of trade unionists, environmental campaigners and anti-globalisation activists took to the streets of London on Saturday to start five days of protests before



A demonstrator holds a placard with the words Obama kiss my toxic assets during the ”Put People First” march through central London, on March 28, 2009. Tens of thousands of trade unionists, environmental campaigners and anti-globalisation activists took to the streets of London on Saturday to start five days of protests before the G20summit. AFP/Getty Images





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Protests start ahead of the G20 summit in London

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