G20: Put People First

“Put People First” G20 Demonstration

March 28, 2009

Yesterday, a huge march took place in central London in response to the G20 Summit which is being held next week.  By huge, it seemed a lot bigger than the Bush protests a few years ago, and those were massive.  However, officials reckon around 40,000 people took part.

There’s been a lot of talk about the G20 Summit, mostly centering around possible riots that could take place. Of course, the media loves to sensationalise these things, and the protest was incredibly tame. So tame in fact, that I struggled to find many interesting things or people to take pictures of :P

Still, the protest was headline news which can only be a good thing.  After all, the purpose is to raise awareness.

This man makes regular appearances at protests like here in 2007.  He was out again with a lovely positive message for us all.

This man sat at the bus stop and fiddled with a radio for ages, tuning it until he got to a classical station.  He then sat with a cigarette, listening to his music acting totally oblivious to the movement around him.  Legend.  I don’t know if he realised the road was closed to traffic and therefore no buses would be arriving any time soon.  Oops.

People congregated around Embankment and Temple Stations where the demos began.

Two of the four “Horsemen of the Apocalypse” who are part of a coalition of anarchists, communists and green activists.  Collectively, the operation is known as the G20 Meltdown and they will be out again next week to demonstrate in the financial district.

The protest had a heavy police presence.  This is what the front of the protest was like, which I’ve never seen before.

Aww :D

So, next week in City (financial district) we’ve been told to dress down at work, cancel meetings and people have also been advised not to go into work.  Major disruption is expected, but we shall have to see if all the media hype materialises into reality.  All this talk of riots.. if we were in France I’d believe the hype!

For more information on the G20 Summit – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20_industrial_nations

Information on the protests – http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/blog/2009/mar/23/online-guide-to-g20-protests