LONDON — Chanting G-20 protesters clashed with riot police in central London on Wednesday, repeatedly overwhelming police lines, vandalizing the Bank of England and smashing windows at the Royal Bank of Scotland. An effigy of a banker was set ablaze, drawing cheers.
More than 30 people were arrested after some 4,000 anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists and others clogged London's financial district for what demonstrators branded “Financial Fool's Day.” The protests were called ahead of Thursday's Group of 20 summit of world leaders, who hope to take concrete steps to resolve the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.
The protests in London's financial district — known as “The City” — began as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference at Britain's Foreign Ministry elsewhere in the capital.
A battered effigy of a banker in a bowler's hat hung on a traffic light near the Bank of England as protesters waved signs saying: “Resistance is Fertile,” and “Make Love not Leverage.”
Bankers have been lambasted as being greedy and blamed for the recession that is making jobless ranks soar. Other banners read “Banks are evil” and “Eat the bankers,” and “0 percent interest in others.” Some bankers went to work in casual wear Wednesday fearing they could be targeted.
Some bolder financial workers leaned out office windows, taunting the demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them. Two men — one was wearing a suit — exchanged punches before police intervened.
Groups of protesters converged on the central bank, with Tibetan, Palestinian, communist, and anarchist flags poking out from the crowd. Tensions rose as officers refused to let the protesters leave the small plaza in front of the bank.
Protesters pelted police standing guard at the Royal Exchange with paint, eggs, fruit and other projectiles, and a small group of anarchists, skinheads, and masked protesters repeatedly attacked a police cordon flanking the Bank of England.
Some in the crowd urinated against the bank and the message “Built on blood” was scrawled in chalk in front of the building. Police helicopters hovered above.
A particularly ferocious balaclava-wearing mob broke into a closed RBS bank branch and stole keyboards, using them to break windows. Other protesters spray-painted graffiti on the RBS building, writing “Class War” and “Thieves.” Mounted riot police eventually pushed them back.
RBS has been the focus of particular anger because it was bailed out by the British government after a series of disastrous deals brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. Still, its former chief executive Fred Goodwin — aged just 50 — managed to walk off with a tidy annual pension of 703,000 pounds ($1.2 million U.S.) — just as unemployment in Britain is at 2 million and rising.
“Every job I apply for there's already 150 people who have also applied,” said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. “I have had to sign on to the dole (welfare) for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over.”
“It seems like everything is in a mess,” said protester Steve Johnson, 49, an unemployed construction worker.
At least one police officer was injured when a printer and other office equipment was thrown out of the RBS window. Hundreds cheered as a blue office chair was used to smash one of the blacked-out branch windows.
One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a light sabre toy at officers.
Sporadic protests rumbled on into the evening, as the rowdier elements tangled with riot police, tossing barricades and hurling bottles.
“Clearly, everybody has the right to protest and to make their views known, but people also have the right to go about their daily lives without fear of violence or unnecessary disruption,” said Michael Ellam, Brown's spokesman.
London equity analyst Viktor Gusman, 53, said he understood the protesters' anger but said it didn't put him off working in finance.
“This is what I do,” he said, taking a cigarette break a block down from a police barricade. “I'm supporting my wife and mother and I don't know that it hurts anyone.”
A separate protest on climate change took place near Trafalgar Square. Hundreds of people converged on an pop-up camp to protest economic programs that they say won't help tackle climate change. Protesters also swarmed the carbon trading body, the European Climate Exchange, pitching tents and shutting down nearby streets.
Anti-war protesters, meanwhile, demonstrated near the U.S. Embassy in London.
