Anti-capitalist protesters hold a banner underneath the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus in central London yesterday, during protests ahead of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.
LONDON: Riot police clashed with anti-capitalist protesters in running confrontations through the streets of central London yesterday and arrested 32 people as activists targeted some of the world’s biggest companies before next week’s G8 summit.
About 100 protesters gathered outside oil company BP Plc’s headquarters, while others chanted “war criminals” at the office of US defence company Lockheed Martin Corp.
Police used chainsaws to break into a four-storey block in the Soho district where the StopG8 protest group had been staying before a “Carnival Against Capitalism” to coincide with the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland.
Aerial footage showed a man on the building’s flat roof confront three police officers and charge towards the edge before being wrestled to the ground.
Several more police, some wearing abseiling ropes, rushed over to restrain him, inches from the roof’s unprotected edge. More officers carried away the man, who appeared to have a
bloody face.
The roof-top drama came as other protesters — who had threatened to target hedge funds, banks and multinationals — played cat and mouse with riot police through some of London’s most fashionable streets.
“The G8 is just a front for the corporatocracy, for the kleptocrats. It is about making them more money and dividing up the world so they can all get richer,” said a protester at Piccadilly Circus who gave his name only as Silver Fox.
“The G8 should be about ending all the wars — why don’t they give peace a chance for once?”
Police vans chased groups of shouting protesters down Oxford Street, one of London’s main shopping areas, to the visible shock of tourists and shoppers.
Police said they had arrested 32 people for offences including criminal damage, assault on police and possession of an offensive weapon.
Activists, some with their faces covered, waved black, green and red flags as they marched down Oxford Street. REUTERS
