G20 Summit Next Week

rhubarb

rhubarb

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Now this might sound like a cray idea given the below, but anyone else thinking of popping out into London next week for the likely mayhem thats going to follow. Here's an extract of an email that I've just recieved at work - we're all basically being told to stay at home - but one side of me thinks it might be a great day to do a bit of shooting - always fancied doing a bit of phot journalism type stuff.

G20 Summit in London - Disruptions expected 28 March - 02 April 2009

Office workers face chaos next week with areas of London in security lockdown for the G20 summit and warnings that bankers will be targeted in a series of protests aimed at causing maximum disruption.

Workers in the City are being advised to dress down and postpone non-essential meetings amid fears that they will be forced to run the gauntlet of protesters.

On 1 April a coalition of radical and green groups will gather at four major London stations - Moorgate, Liverpool Street, London Bridge and Cannon Street - potentially obstructing thousands of travellers, before marching behind "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in themed processions to a mass rally outside the bank.

A climate camp will target the European Climate Exchange at Bishopsgate. The Stop the War campaign will march on the US embassy in Grosvenor Square . Police are also expecting action to block streets, attempts to infiltrate and occupy buildings, and marches heading in several directions simultaneously.

Police Officers will mount a "ring of steel" around the ExCeL centre where the G20 meets on 2 April.

Planned demonstrations are as follows -
Saturday 28 March

10:30am A service at Westminster Hall, led by the Bishop of London. The congregation will join the Put People First march in Parliament Square .
Noon PPF marchers set off along Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park .
2:30pm Rally in Hyde Park . At the same time the Anarchist Block will be holding a separate rally in Hyde Park to recruit marchers for Financial Fools Day.

Wednesday 1 April

11am Groups will converge at London stations Moorgate, Liverpool Street , London Bridge and Cannon Street. Each group goes on a parade to the Bank of England.
Noon Carnival at the Bank of England with live music and street theatre, including the hanging of bankers' effigies. Climate Camp will march on the European Climate Exchange, Bishopsgate.
2pm Stop the War Coalition meets in Grosvenor Square to march on the US embassy, then on to a rally at Trafalgar Square .
4pm Alternative G20 summit at the University of East London.

Thursday 2 April

7am March on the G20 summit in the ExCeL centre by various groups through the day. Giant block of ice left outside the ExCeL Centre. Talk of blocking transport to ExCeL.
11am Stop the War protest meeting at ExCeL centre.
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I live next to the ExCel, what a nightmare the whole of the royal docks is being shut, with armed guards and undercover officers. here is the link with more info http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/content/newham/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=newsNEWHAM&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsnewham&itemid=WeED25%20Mar%202009%2008%3A59%3A45%3A347

You will find it very hard to get any where near Excel. I am hoping i can get a few pics though!
I believe there is also a protest at West Silvertown station on the 2nd at about 11am by ethiopians. They may have to close that station if things get nasty. The Millenium Mills site opposite Excel has been fenced off with security fences everywhere and theres quite a few police there already.
 
Of course the government wants the number of people to be as low as possible. I for one will be there on Wed/Thurs with my camera.
 
Saturday 28 March
The Put People First march starts at Victoria Embankment by Temple station, at noon. Anyone wanting to join in should start to gather from 11am (the earlier the better, really). It's going to go past Parliament and Trafalgar Square, down Piccadilly and finish up in Hyde Park, where you'll be able to listen to Susan George, Tony Woodley, Brendan Barber, Tony Robinson, Mark Thomas, Daby Toure and Luke Pritchard of Kooks fame.

Wednesday 1 April
It's Financial Fools Day, everyone! The first (scheduled) protest is the G-20 Meltdown march on the Bank of England, kicking off (hopefully not literally) at 11am with a four-pronged procession representing the Horsemen of the Apocalypse:
*The red horse against war starts from Moorgate
*The green horse against climate change starts from Liverpool Street
*The silver horse against financial crimes starts from London Bridge
*The black horse against land enclosures and borders (honouring the "360th full circle anniversary of the Diggers") starts from Cannon Street

There's a big party planned when the processions meet at the Bank. This is billed as a very English protest, and they're recommending you bring food and water to share (especially cake: "you can't have a revolution without cake"), flags and musical instruments.

Climate Camp is setting up at exactly 12.30pm outside the European Climate Exchange at 62 Bishopsgate. If you want to go camp, take your own tent and sleeping bags, food and water, and anything to decorate the area.

Campaign Against Climate Change is holding a Fossil Fools Day protest outside the ExCel centre 12.30-7.30pm with a rally at 6.30pm. They'll have a big 'iceberg' and they invite you to bring your own 'ice blocks' and dress in white.

People and Planet are planning action against RBS-NatWest as part of their Ditch Dirty Development campaign, against funding of fossil fuels. There's not much detail about times and places, which is quite possibly deliberate.

Stop the War Coaltition are meeting at 2pm outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square to protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Alternative London Summit takes place at the University of East London's Docklands Campus 4-9pm. It's a teach-in, with keynote speakers including Ken Loach, Tony Benn, Tariq Ali and Caroline Lucas.

Fossil Fools Day will also be outside the British Museum's Great Russell Street entrance from 6pm, where BP are (kind of stupidly) celebrating their centenary. Protesters plan their own party (bring banners, instruments and "a sense of climate justice").

Thursday 2 April
This is the day the serious G20 meetings actually happen, so Stop the War are taking the opportunity to march on the ExCel centre. Be at Canning Town station by 6am.
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Londonist

Edited to add: full article includes handy links.
 
Joe T said:
1st TP member to get arrested gets an internet cookie! :lol:
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Can i retrospectivley get a cookie? ive been arrested and stop-and-searched before photographing protests in Hyde Park...

then I was shouted at by protesters! no general reason, one was "you don't hate bush enough", another being "why do you hate bush so much, its the rest of the New-World-Order you should hate".

and finnaly: "too many shots of us, not enough of the police!" so I took some shots of the police, AND! they posed for me as a joke!:lol: that really pi$£ed off the protestors...

apparently any "big buisness" office building that leaves its lights on this weekend is going to have its windows smashed. worth going on a reccy to see if there are any?
 
I'm going up on the 1st and 2nd to try and create a photo-essay type thing. Haven't done any reportage for a while so it should be a fair old hoot.
 
yeah, thats why windows will be smashed on the following days!

anyway, its fun for me! colledge might get closed for a day or two (and we aren't even near by).

I was off school for a week when the G8 came to london, our school was 30 seconds away from the hotel it was taking place in!
 
Guys just a quite bit of advice:

This is going to be a serious protest, very likely to be a lot of violence. It's not just banner waving, anarchists from the 1999 protest that caused a riot are said to be re-emerging and taking part.

Anarchists are notoriously dangerous, and will show no respect for photographers. Anyone who was at the large anti-war protest in Manchester about 6 months ago may have seen a small group of them (mostly covering their faces, waving black and red flags) there, who were aggressive towards everyone. The protests on the 1st and 2nd April will be far more intense with more widespread violence.

Shops, companies and financial/law/business firms are boarding up their entrances for the protest and violence and disruption is likely to spread throughout the city.

The ones on 1st and 2nd April are more likely to turn into violent riots and photographers will get caught in the crossfire so don't underestimate this protest, it won't be like protests of late.

Remember - anarchists are violent, show no respect for photographers and their ultimate goal is to bring down the government. Even though its perfectly legal to photograph anyone on public property, many of these protesters won't abide by these laws and will direct violence towards you.

It's not like G8, it's not like a standard semi-peaceful anti-war protest, it's potentially very dangerous, so be careful!
 
Damn hippies and anarchists. I'd lock the lot of them up, along with the corrupt bankers and politicians. Gits:razz::razz:
 
Ooh scary anarchists ... :eek:

There may be a few idiots, but the worst they're going to be trying to do is a bit of property damage. The media, cops and government are hyping the 'dangerous anarchists' theme for all they're worth to get ordinary people to stay away and not bother them with unwelcome dissent. After all, it's really important to give vast amounts of our money to useless bankers with no evident benefits in return, and the public should wind its neck in and not interfere with the activities of their betters.

Most likely source of physical danger is the cops.

If it kicks off they will want to make sure that they aren't photographed beating up citizens, so they will go after photographers.
 
Oh also Anarchists often don't like being photographed. Anyone going think before you run up to someone and take a shot of them. It could end up with you being seriously injured.

Again, it's not like any other protest when anyone can move freely around taking photos of whatever they like.
 
Druid - Obviously the media overhype, but don't underestimate them.

There is definite potential for serious violence.
 
8utters said:
Oh also Anarchists often don't like being photographed. Anyone going think before you run up to someone and take a shot of them. It could end up with you being seriously injured.

Again, it's not like any other protest when anyone can move freely around taking photos of whatever they like.
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Do you have any actual examples of photographers being attacked by anarchists?

I'm not aware of any, but there are plenty of examples of photographers being attacked by the cops, e.g. http://www.epuk.org/News/811/vallee-accepts-met-settlement
 
Yup, its the cops that cause all the problems right enough:nono:. Get a grip.
 
BRASH said:
Damn hippies and anarchists. I'd lock the lot of them up, along with the corrupt bankers and politicians. Gits:razz::razz:
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Leave the hippies alone!

they are harmless! I mean, c'mon could you really do any damage to anyone other than yourself if you had smoked a field full of grass:lol:

anarchists on the other hand.... the ones at protests aren't nice at all (apparently they used to be in the 60's-70s-80s just shouting "baked beans, chairs, lego, planks of wood"- to be random and anarchic lol!

i met a few studenty ones once, they where nice! but they didn't dare to go out on a protest like this :lol:
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
Leave the hippies alone!

they are harmless! I mean, c'mon could you really do any damage to anyone other than yourself if you had smoked a field full of grass:lol:

anarchists on the other hand.... the ones at protests aren't nice at all (apparently they used to be in the 60's-70s-80s just shouting "baked beans, chairs, lego, planks of wood"- to be random and anarchic lol!

i met a few studenty ones once, they where nice! but they didn't dare to go out on a protest like this :lol:
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If it wasn't for the hippies we wouldn't be living in the OTT PC, nany state we call a country. Bloody disgrace if you ask me, even if you don't.
 
Druid said:
Do you have any actual examples of photographers being attacked by anarchists?

I'm not aware of any, but there are plenty of examples of photographers being attacked by the cops, e.g. http://www.epuk.org/News/811/vallee-accepts-met-settlement
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I don't have examples, I have personal experience of anarchists and their dislike towards photographers.

Under normal circumstances and in smaller protests they would be less likely to attack photographers, but at a protest where the majority will be anarchists there is more than likely to be violence towards photographers, particularly when you had thousands of police into the mix.
 
I've got a couple of questions....

I'm new to London and my gf has an interview at a bank on Tuesday right across from the Bank of England. Althought it's on Tuesday, will it still be ok to head in? how bad do these protests get? and most importantly....

....is a 17-55 to short to get some shots???? :)
 
cheers for the linky druid!

the notion of hippies on here is rather different from the reality i must say! yes, they are against racism, but they are more pro-freedom of speach and to let you do what you want (not necesserily to the extent of anarchism) but to allow each and every person to be allowed to say what they want without awful consequences. it is the opposite of the hippies that are causing the "nanny state" people in grey suits who work out the risks of accidents and law suits etc! they try and stop such things happening so that others don't get hurt.

i suppose in theory both sides do have these beliefs with good intentions in mind! its just differing views...
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
cheers for the linky druid!

the notion of hippies on here is rather different from the reality i must say! yes, they are against racism, but they are more pro-freedom of speach and to let you do what you want (not necesserily to the extent of anarchism) but to allow each and every person to be allowed to say what they want without awful consequences. it is the opposite of the hippies that are causing the "nanny state" people in grey suits who work out the risks of accidents and law suits etc! they try and stop such things happening so that others don't get hurt.

i suppose in theory both sides do have these beliefs with good intentions in mind! its just differing views...
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You'll find a lot of people running the country are of the hippy generation from the 60's. The current hippies and new age articles make out they are peace loving. We'll see next week eh.
 
pixeljunkie said:
I've got a couple of questions....

I'm new to London and my gf has an interview at a bank on Tuesday right across from the Bank of England. Althought it's on Tuesday, will it still be ok to head in? how bad do these protests get? and most importantly....

....is a 17-55 to short to get some shots???? :)
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Lol! firstly, get your girlfriend to call on monday! it could be that the bank doesn't even open! even if they say "yes" on the monday, call tuesday morning just to make sure, they might think they will be open, but then turn out not to!

or just call on the tuesday! -keep in mind the protesters WILL be targeting those walking in and out of these kind of places all day!

secondly, I hope its not! I will be relying on something like that too!


perhaps all us lot from TP should huddle together at this for safety:lol:
 
BRASH said:
You'll find a lot of people running the country are of the hippy generation from the 60's. The current hippies and new age articles make out they are peace loving. We'll see next week eh.
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they may be of the 60s generation, but they certainly wearnt hippies. all the old hippies from that time do now is either sit in Mach (ie the place the Mach Loop is named after) in wales, running new age shops, that mostly more of their kind visit, or ones who made some cash at some point end up living in NW London (Hampstead, Swiss Cottage, Camden) and are very "middle class protesters" ie- writing letters to the council moaning about the police state/the PC state and the "extreme loudness that the overly-bright streetlights produce" yatta yatta yatta...
 
Really:shrug:
 
Druid said:
Do you have any actual examples of photographers being attacked by anarchists?

I'm not aware of any, but there are plenty of examples of photographers being attacked by the cops, e.g. http://www.epuk.org/News/811/vallee-accepts-met-settlement
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I think that 8utters is only trying to offer some helpful advice?:thumbs:

Feel free to post the pics of your camera shuffed up your a**e.:D

"Most likely source of physical danger is the cops. " :shake:

Spence
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
Lol! firstly, get your girlfriend to call on monday! it could be that the bank doesn't even open! even if they say "yes" on the monday, call tuesday morning just to make sure, they might think they will be open, but then turn out not to!

or just call on the tuesday! -keep in mind the protesters WILL be targeting those walking in and out of these kind of places all day!

secondly, I hope its not! I will be relying on something like that too!


perhaps all us lot from TP should huddle together at this for safety:lol:
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If her interview is for NatWest/RBS then the office will be open. I for one will make sure I have my camera with me and plan to pop out at lunchtime to see what carnage is occuring. Think it might be a good time to invest in a nifty fifty.
 
typical. Im in london wednesday AND thursday, and where am I on wednesday? London bridge Station. damn it
 
Thing is, the protesters here have a bunch of different and confusing agendas, and that makes it easy for the media to demonise them as entirely composed of feral bomb-throwing anarchists who want to eat your babies.

Look at it this way, recent polling suggests that a majority want to see the renationalisation of public utilities, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/11/renationalisation-poll-peoples-charter

There is no electable party which would be willing to implement such a policy however, so what are we supposed to do? Peaceful demonstration (because if you cause damage or disruption you are now a terrorist under the 2000 act) is about the only option we have left for trying to influence the government to do things that it doesn't want to do, but which a significant number of us want ...
 
to be honest, your probably just as likley to get grief from the coppers as you are from the protesters.

unlike journalists who don't use cameras, or tv crews who are treated with a little more respect, togs are almost seen as "enemies" on both sides-

The police think that you are hanging about trying to get a shot of them thumping/arresting someone, therefore they will want to stop you.

The protestors think you are gathering information on them, or your not focusing on the fact that the police are being "brutal"/arresting them. therefore they will try to stop you for that!

Catch 22 really!

My advice is to find some police waiting for the protest to get to them (ie a little further up the route) get talking to them a bit (explain what you want to do -without mentioning you want to get a shot of them arresting/thumping someone:lol:if you plan to). say you want to get some nice shots, ask if theres a safer(ish) place to stand etc... then at least the police shouldn't see you so much as a target. then you just have to worry about the protest.

stay by the sides, don't get too close and DONT! go up into some angry twirps face and fire off your flash a few times.... if stuff starts to get a bit nasty, then get out of there ASAP! (get a shot or two if you must, and know you can still get out ok...) other then that, keep a sharp eye!
 
Druid said:
Peaceful demonstration (because if you cause damage or disruption you are now a terrorist under the 2000 act) is about the only option we have left for trying to influence the government to do things that it doesn't want to do, but which a significant number of us want ...
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But it ain't gonna be peacful, is it?? They (or at least some) have made that pretty obvious. Rent a mob will be there.
 
OH! and as with the "gordon brown drowning in york" dilema that was posted on here a few weeks ago, choose wether to use colour or B+W BEFORE the bankers start to get hanged:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
BRASH said:
But it ain't gonna be peacful, is it?? They (or at least some) have made that pretty obvious. Rent a mob will be there.
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Well, I've seen some hype in the media, but if you check say http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/, it's pretty obvious that most of the political types have no intention of causing a ruck and think that the cops are hyping it because they intend to beat the crap out of anybody who dares to dissent against giving our money to dodgy bankers and want to fix the blame on 'baby eating anarchists' in advance.
 
AleksanderLoesch said:
Lol! firstly, get your girlfriend to call on monday! it could be that the bank doesn't even open! even if they say "yes" on the monday, call tuesday morning just to make sure, they might think they will be open, but then turn out not to!

or just call on the tuesday! -keep in mind the protesters WILL be targeting those walking in and out of these kind of places all day!

secondly, I hope its not! I will be relying on something like that too!


perhaps all us lot from TP should huddle together at this for safety:lol:
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hey thats a good tip!!! thanks for that.

The recruiter informed her that anyone who walks in or out might be targetted hence why I'm worried. This should be an interesting day.

hehe looks like the 17-55 will have to do.
 
Druid said:
Well, I've seen some hype in the media, but if you check say urban75, it's pretty obvious that most of the political types have no intention of causing a ruck and think that the cops are hyping it because they intend to beat the crap out of anybody who dares to dissent against giving our money to bankers.
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There were protestors on TV today saying they were going to break the law to get their message across. Didn't hear any cops saying they were going to beat anybody up.

You stick to yer stone circles and pagan rites then mate.
 
Photek said:
If her interview is for NatWest/RBS then the office will be open. I for one will make sure I have my camera with me and plan to pop out at lunchtime to see what carnage is occuring. Think it might be a good time to invest in a nifty fifty.
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Nah it's with Abbey. :)
 
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