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Vol. 73/No. 15      April 20, 2009

 
Thousands protest G-20 summit in London
 
BY ÖGMUNDUR JÓNSSON  
LONDON—Thousands took to the streets in various protests here around the G-20 summit to express their anger over the economic crisis and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In leading the actions trade union leaders and middle-class radicals mixed appeals to the “conscience” of governments in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Japan, and other imperialist countries with anti-banker demagogy.

“People are looking to the G-20 to deliver the justice that the world is crying out for,” Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), told more than 10,000 demonstrators in Hyde Park on March 28. Headlined “Put People First,” that demonstration, called by the TUC and sponsored by 150 other organizations, was the largest of the protests. Participants came from across England and a number of other European countries.

Mary Turner, president of the GMB union, said unions had long ago called for tighter financial regulations. She called for “taking all the ill-gotten luxuries from the bankers and locking them up.” A speakers’ platform at the end of the march was chaired by actor and TV presenter Tony Robinson. It included Bianca Jagger of the World Future Council, Father Joe Komakoma of the Zambian Episcopal Conference, comedian Mark Thomas, and environmentalist Tony Juniper. Susan George, author of books on the Third World debt, led demonstrators in chanting, “The banks are ours!”

Other demonstrations drew several thousand people on April 1. One called by the Stop the War Coalition demanded, “Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan” and “End the siege of Gaza—free Palestine!” Organizers of the action called for abolishing nuclear weapons and creating “jobs, not bombs.” The protest also demanded that the British and U.S. governments stop all military aid to Israel. At another action there were pockets of violence as baton-wielding police penned in and assaulted demonstrators. A small number of protesters trashed a Royal Bank of Scotland premise.

Supporters of the Militant got a good response as they campaigned for the perspective of working people overthrowing the capitalist system as the only way of ending the economic crisis and war. Nineteen subscriptions to the Militant were sold along with £110 of revolutionary books (US$160), including five copies of Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible?
 
 
Related articles:
G-20 powers meet amid mounting economic crisis
Conference marked by rivalry, protectionism  
 
 
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