London J18
The following is a rough listing of events that occurred in London as part of the international day of action against the G8 conference on 18/6/99. In the UK a variety of groups came together to call for an all day "Carnival Against Capitalism" aimed at the City of London- the financial district that administrates much of British and international capital. The following information has been assembled both from eyewitness reports and the few media reports which we could verify. Since events in London were highly chaotic and many actions went unnoticed the list is naturally incomplete and many of the times may be incorrect.
7am A small group are chased off after hanging a large banner across the Tower Bridge. Police move in to arrest them after the banner is lowered and begins to interfere with traffic. Meanwhile hundreds of financial sector workers fail to turn up for the day having been ordered by their firms to avoid the City for fear of possible riots. Others are ordered to dress down in order to blend in with tourists and to avoid carrying copies of the Financial Times! Work throughout the day comes to a standstill as workers stare out windows at passing protestors and spend their time sending emails back and forth about what is happening. Some crazy rumours take hold during the day including that rioters had built a brick wall to block the exits at the Liffe building and that one protestor had super glued his head to the Stock Exchange!
7-45am A Critical Mass sees 500+ cyclists create total chaos in the morning traffic.
10-30am Campaign Against the Arms Trade members protest at various investment houses. Meanwhile numerous banners are dropped around the city reading "Money Kills", "Reclaim the Planet", etc.
11-00am The Friends Provident building is bannered and people lock on inside disrupting trade. Another group of protestors drenched in fake blood run into Lloyds Bank at Cheapside claiming to have been shot by arms dealers. Some of the group then chain themselves to furniture closing the branch for three hours. A third group lock on at a Nat West branch. Around the same time 60 people block London Bridge with chains, their bodies and dumped cars bringing traffic to a halt. Police clear the bridge shortly after.
12 noon Haringey Support Group members meet to hold a picket at Reeds to protest that company's role in administering New Labour's draconian "New Deal" for the unemployed. Rather than face the music Reed close their operations for the day and cynically paste up posters advertising their commitment to Third World charities. At the same time a crowd of 5-10 000 people meet at Liverpool Station. People dance to drums, MacDonalds is picketed and streets blocked to traffic. A few people scale the Warburg Dillon Read investment building (which closes in panic) and a banner reading "Enough is Enough" is dropped. 1000s of masquerade style paper masks are handed out to help people conceal their identities.
1-00 pm Groups begin moving off from Liverpool Station and into the city. Widespread confusion over what has been planned, where actions/parties are, etc sees people fan out across the Square Mile blocking traffic and grafitting of walls with slogans. Traffic is blocked at dozens of intersections as people start picnicking and sitting in the middle of the road. Overground rail and tube stations are closed in the City and buses and couriers are unable to move through the area bringing the City transport systems to a halt.
ACF members and other anarchists occupy the TUC building in a protest against the " leadership" of the moribund British Trade Union movement. Another group enter a MacDonalds in Canon Street and proceed to smash windows and trash the interiors. A Mercedes luxury car is also wrecked. Shortly after the London Stock Exchange has its windows and lobby attacked. Metal barricades put up to repel just such attacks are used instead to ram holes through windows. A Jaguar sports car is trashed and City workers squirted with fire extinguishers.
1-10pm A large group heading down London Wall is confronted by a wall of riot police. The police are forced to retreat as they come under a hail of missiles. A few members of the crowd arm themselves with riot shields removed from an empty riot van. As the crowd advances the police retreat into their riot vans, many of which are grafittied and have their tires let down. Most of the vans flee the area by passing through the packed crowd at low speed (whilst spraying CS gas), but one speeds off at 20-30 miles running over a woman as she tries to escape. A journalist who attempts to ghoulishly photograph the injured woman is marched off and has his mobile phone smashed. Police initially prevent an ambulance from entering the street, but 37 minutes after she was hit she is finally taken to hospital. In another part of London Wall police back into another protestor only stopping when they realise they have hit a "bump" that shouldn't be there. Police again delay the ambulance that comes to assist the injured man. Eventually the police withdraw from the area and the crowd moves off to more exciting locales.
1-15pm Another group leaves Liverpool Street and occupies Leicester Square holding a peaceful, but highly disruptive street party.
1-30pm A large group of people assemble outside the he Liffe building (home of the London Futures Exchange). A fire hydrant is broken sending a 20 foot high gush of water running into the air for hours which floods and damages the basements of numerous investment buildings and gives the protestors some relief from the heat. One motorist is pulled out of a luxury car and drenched with bleach. A protestor climbs a ladder to paint "Bankers are Wankers" on an overpass. At one point a section of the crowd bursts into the Liffe building smashing the lobby up, hurling smoke bombs and fighting for fifteen minutes with traders, security and riot police for control of the building. The group fails to reach the trading floor, but 400 workers are evacuated bringing trade to an early close. Due to security precautions after hours trading is also cancelled. Having ejected the crowd from the building police find it difficult to shift them from outside it and a period of intense fighting ensues for around 45 minutes. A wall by St Michael's Paternoster is torn down for ammunition and the church itself has its windows broken. Members of the crowd attempt to build barricades from the few items on hand and some force police back with use of wheelie bins. A number of small fires are lit and one luxury car is torched. Side streets leading into and out of Upper Thames Street are blocked and onlookers charged by riot police. Numerous riot police are drenched from head to toe in white paint after rioters hurl paint bombs hastily made from liberated building supplies.
5-00pm By this point the crowd from the Liffe building has been pushed part way up Upper Thames Street where fighting continues. A mounted policeman is pulled off his steed. A Mercedes Benz display room has its windows smashed and cars wrecked.
The front windows of the Dutch Rabo Bank building are smashed in by rioters wielding sign poles. Security at the bank flee and staff upstairs barricade elevators with chairs. Empty city flats are broken into and trashed. A couple of financial buildings are broken into and files thrown out of windows or set on fire. The Aroma Café is then trashed and Liverpool St McDonalds has its windows smashed. Elite wine bar Le Quai has its windows smashed when over 50 rioters invade stealing alcohol and harassing the yuppie clientele.
6-00pm Riot police continue pushing crowds out of Upper Thames Street. One section of the crowd is pushed onto Southwark bridge and held there by lines of riot police. Other sections are pushed up Fleet Street and The Strand where they attack yuppie businesses and cars, kick over bins and start small fires. Giant puppets are seen roaming the Embankment and peacefully blocking traffic. The Duke of Edinburugh's car is turned back en route to a fancy World Cup Cricket dinner at Guildhall when the reception is cancelled by the Corporation of London due to the rioting.
6-30pm A large group of women invade a posh lawyers party at Temple.
7-00pm Most protestors by this point are corralled at Trafalgar Square where thousands enjoy the summer night and celebrate the days events until late into the evening. Lord Nelson's statue is grafittied in gold with the words "Pigs Are Scum" and Charing Cross train station is closed.
At the days end over 2.5 million pounds of physical damage is estimated by the City of London to have been caused. This figure however does not include profits lost through the widespread disruption of trade. Numerous injuries were inflicted on protestors, many through the use by riot police of new retractable riot batons designed to split heads more easily. Around 50 people including 4 police reported to hospitals for help. Following the riot the Mayor of London was forced by panicked City firms to hold a major security review with police, the first time such a review had been deemed necessary since IRA bombing campaigns tore apart the city. The myth of the security "ring of steel" that protects the City has been well and truly demolished and London's financial reputation has been dealt a blow.
On the down side whilst the majority of the actions carried out in the day were directed against institutions of mass destruction/capitalism some idiots stupidly chose to direct their energies against non luxury cars and random onlookers. Large numbers of rioters also failed to mask up. Whilst less than 20 people were arrested on the day the City of London is one of the most heavily surveilled areas in the world and further raids and arrests followed the protest.

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