G20 - London - April 2009

Aims
On 2 April 2009, world leaders from the G20 countries – representing 85% of the world’s output – will meet in London. They will meet against the backdrop of the worst international banking crisis in generations.

Confidence in the international banking system has fallen. Major institutions have failed. Countries around the world have entered recession, with falling trade and rising unemployment.

At the Summit, countries need to come together to enhance global coordination in order to help restore global economic growth. World leaders must make three commitments:

• First, to take whatever action is necessary to stabilise financial markets and enable families and businesses to get through the recession.
• Second, to reform and strengthen the global financial and economic system to restore confidence and trust.
• Third, to put the global economy on track for sustainable growth.

Since 1999, the G-20 has contributed to strengthen the international financial architecture and to foster sustainable economic growth and development. The G-20 now has a crucial role in driving forward work between advanced and emerging economies to tackle the international financial and economic crisis, restore worldwide financial stability, lead the international economic recovery and secure a sustainable future for all countries.

The financial markets and the world economy continue to face serious global challenges and the severity of the crisis and ongoing uncertainties demonstrate the need for urgent action. During the United Kingdoms Chair, the immediate priority will be to gain further agreements for a concerted, co-ordinated international response.

The G-20 will need to send a strong signal that it is prepared to take whatever further actions are necessary to stabilise the financial system and to provide further macroeconomic support. At the same time, the G-20 must commit to maintaining open trade and investment, to avoid a retreat to protectionism, and direct necessary additional support to emerging markets and developing countries.

The G-20 should also lay the foundations to move beyond the crisis to a sustainable recovery. In 2009, it will be important to understand the roots of the international financial crisis and identify the lessons that we can learn to ensure that a crisis of this kind does not happen again. The G-20 should develop proposals that will restore global growth in the medium term, including the unwinding of emergency measures taken in response to the crisis.



Attendance

• Argentina: President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
• Australia: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
• Brazil: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
• Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper
• China: President Hu Jintao
• France: President Nicolas Sarkozy
• Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel
• India: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
• Indonesia: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
• Italy: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
• Japan: Prime Minister Taro Aso
• Korea: President Lee Myung-bak
• Mexico: President Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa
• Russia: President Dmitry Medvedev
• Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
• South Africa: President Kgalema Motlanthe
• Turkey: Prime Minister Recap Tayyip Erdogan
• United Kingdom: Prime Minister Gordon Brown
• United States: President Barack Obama

*EU - represented by Czech Republic
*ASEAN - represented by Thailand



Protests
The G20 summit in London next week will be the target of widespread protests, many of which are being organised online. City workers have been warned that they might be targeted and police are preparing a massive security operation. But who are the protesters and what are they planning?

G20 Meltdown
An alliance of anti-capitalist groups organising a carnival, headed by "Four Horsefolk of the Apocalypse", which will converge in front of the Bank of England on 1 April.
The organisers' aims are set on their website: "G20 Meltdown calls for the G20 ministers to own up to their mistakes and admit that their global dominance – the dominance of finance capitalism – is the problem, not the solution to the current economic, ecological and political meltdown."

Anarchists
Anarchy.net has called on its followers to join in "****ing up the summit and other adventures". It is planning action in London on 1 April and at the site of the summit at the ExCel centre in Docklands on 2 April. "Join thousands of disgruntled, angry, pissed off people on the streets of the financial district. As the bankers continue to cream off billions of pounds of our money let's put the call out – reclaim the money, storm the banks and send them packing," reads its website.

Climate Camp
The group, which organised previous protests at Heathrow airport, will march on the European Climate Exchange on Bishopgate at 12.30pm on 1 April.
Climate Camp is planning to "swoop in from different directions and under different means to all arrive within a minute or two of each other. We therefore advise that people meet up with their mates early, and somewhere within easy reach of the Climate Exchange. Then, at the appropriate moment, leave quickly, and timed to arrive at exactly 12:30. You may even want to practice beforehand."

Government of the Dead
The group describes itself as "a varied bunch of radicals, drawn together by the fickle hand of fate and a joyful determination to build a better world for humanity, our biosphere and all the descendants thereof than the train wreck bequeathed to us by the decadent, decomposing corpse of capitalism". It is urging supporters to take to the streets on 1 April and the next day for "the trial and execution by beheading of capitalism featuring the final repentance of the accused for crimes against the planet".

Stop the War Coalition
The anti-war campaign is focusing on Barack Obama's first presidential visit to Britain to call on the US and UK to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is meeting outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square on 1 April and outside the ExCel centre on 2 April.

Put People First
This TUC-backed march in London on Saturday (March 28) starts at Victoria embankment and ends in Hyde Park. "Put People First is a coalition of development charities, trade unions, faith groups, environmentalists and other organisations, formed in response to call for a fair, sustainable route out of recession," says the website.

Alternative G20 Summit
A few hundred paces from the ExCel summit, an alternative "teach-in" will be held at the University of East London. It is aimed at "everyone who thinks that the bankers and politicians in their pay have been making a mess of things and need to be sacked and replaced".

Other online groups and websites planning to take part in various protests include: Billy Bragg Fans at the G20 Meltdown; the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination; the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Rising Tide, which is organising a Fossil Fools Day; Reclaiming Spaces; and the Socialist Workers' party.


Demonstrations
Three days of demonstrations

Saturday 28 March
10:30am Joint denomination 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.



Warnings, Fears
Office workers face chaos next week with swaths 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.

Staff 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. Thousands of G20 Meltdown campaign posters show a mannequin wearing a suit being hanged, while an anarchist website has the slogan: "Burn a banker!"

Details of direct action, gleaned from chatter on anarchist websites and meetings attended by the Observer, include a rumoured plan to block the Blackwall Tunnel and cause a security scare on the London Underground by leaving bags unattended on trains. There is also speculation that protesters will drive a tank to the ExCeL conference centre in London's Docklands, where the G20 are meeting, and attempt to harass politicians with wake-up calls to their hotels in the middle of the night. None of the organisers of the peaceful demonstrations say they are aware of any such tactics.

There are growing fears for the safety of people making their way to work on 1 and 2 April. A spokesman for the London Chamber of Commerce said: "Businesses might want to consider asking their staff not to dress in a suit and tie as a lot of the protesters say they're going to target bankers. Staff should check they have their security passes and think about staggering their start and finish times. They might want to postpone for a few days meetings which aren't absolutely necessary."

A police operation involving more than 3,000 extra officers from six forces will cost an estimated £7.2m. Its leader, Commander Bob Broadhurst, said last week that activists are planning in an "unprecedented" way and are determined to "stop the City". He added that groups active in the late Nineties were re-emerging and forming new alliances. They are using technology such as Twitter feeds to mobilise in ways unthinkable only a decade ago.

Sources
G-20 London Summit
BBC The Guardian