G20 protest: Thousands set off on 'rainbow alliance' march

Thousands of protesters from around the country are gathering today in London, despite the wind and rain, to march for “jobs, justice and climate” ahead of the G20 summit next week. The events mark the start of a week of demonstrations ahead of the meeting of world leaders in London on Wednesday.

• Today’s march, which started on Victoria Embankment with protesters waving a range of flags and placards, has been organised by a “rainbow alliance” of more than 150 unions, environment, charity, faith and development groups called Put People First (PPF).
• One of the organisers, the TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said there had never before been such a wide coalition brought together with a direct message for world leaders. “The old ideas of unregulated free markets do not work, and have brought the world’s economy to near-collapse, failed to fight poverty and have done far too little to move to a low-carbon economy,” he said. “Of course, the G20 will not solve everything in a day’s work, but leaders must sign up to boost the world economy and govern it better, and show us that they are trying to build a better world.”
• The four-mile march route goes through Parliament Square, Piccadilly Circus, Hyde Park Corner, Park Lane and then culminates in a rally at Hyde Park starting at 2.30pm. There, speeches by union leaders and the activist comedian Mark Thomas will call for action from G20 leaders to save jobs, encourage a low-carbon economy and place more regulations on banks.
• Several thousand police officers have been placed on duty to keep the peace, although organisers have already expressed concern that police have spread stories that today’s demonstrations will be overtaken by violent anarchists.
• Barber told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning that he was committed to purely peaceful protest. “If there are other groups who want to cause trouble, I don’t want to see them anywhere near our event. I read about other events being planned by other groups over the next couple of days. If people want to make their protest in other ways, not the peaceful ways that we are absolutely committed to, then they should go in other directions.”
• The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, said the atmosphere at the event this morning was positive. He told Sky News: “It’s not ideal weather for a demo this morning but, nevertheless, the atmosphere here is very positive indeed.”
• He said: “I very much hope [it will not turn violent] because that will undermine the message and the message is a huge number of groups united at a time of great difficulty in our own country, a time of redundancies, broken dreams. We’ve got to have some kind of constructive solution coming out of this meeting and it will be an entire distraction and a tragedy if it were marred by people piggybacking on the concerns of huge numbers of ordinary people.”
• Environmental campaigners are also getting involved. The Climate Camp organisers, who have previously staked out Heathrow airport and Kingsnorth power station to protest against the rise in carbon emissions, are focusing on financial institutions in the City this week. Hundreds of campaigners are expected at the European Climate Exchange with bunting and baked goods. Their aim is to raise parallels between the current economic crisis and the problems of climate change.
• Kevin Smith, one of the PPF participants, told the Press Association: “We want to draw links between the financial crisis and the environmental crisis. The type of measures the G20 leaders will take to reflate the global economy are going to take us back to the system of an endless pursuit of economic growth. It’s not possible to do that in a world of finite resources, especially in the context of climate change.”
• Other groups include the Stop The War Coalition and CND, which are also organising a rally at the US embassy in London on Wednesday, as well as a protesting at the G20 summit the following day.
• G20 Meltdown is a new organisation with the aim of organising a party procession, led by Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, at the Bank of England on Wednesday, which has been dubbed “Fossil Fools Day” by Rising Tide, a network of groups that wants to take local action against climate change.
• On PPF’s Twitter feed this morning, organisers dished out the latest travel hold-ups for those heading to central London and wished their protesters luck. “Try to get there a little early if you can,” they said.