World Leaders and Protesters Gear up for G20 Protests

by Rob Walker | April 1, 2009 at 05:15 am

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Protesters are gearing up for the G20 summit in England over the next few days, with thousands of people expected to hit the streets. All police leave has been cancelled and over 5,000 officers will be positioned throughout the city.

France has already threatened to pull out of the meetings unless their demands are met, while some leaders are just arriving. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been busy with meetings ahead of the summit.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying in with his family today and US President Barack Obama arrived on Tuesday. Reactions to Obama's attendance has been much different than Bush's previous visits.

:: 11am: Four carnival parades were to move into the City from tube stations at Moorgate, Liverpool Street, London Bridge and Cannon Street.

Effigies of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were then to head the marches, representing war, climate chaos, financial crimes and land enclosures.

The protests are being organised by G20 Meltdown, a new group created especially to organise actions around G20, who are calling for the overthrow of capitalism.

All leaders are trying to find common ground ahead of the summit, with France and Germany warning they want a new era of financial regulation and no discussion of further stimulus measures.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has arrived in London, a city bracing for a stormy week of protests during a major international economic summit.
Harper, his wife Laureen and their children Ben and Rachel will spend three nights in the British capital as the Group of 20, a coalition of the world's industrialized and developing nations, debates how to fix the global economy.

The Los Angeles Times notes that when Bush was in London in 2003, "protests were so furious and safeguards so tight that the president was kept deep inside his security bubble," but "by contrast, an admired...Obama touched down Tuesday and paid a placid visit to US Embassy staffers at a school in the heart of residential London."