The future’s bright, as long as the future’s green.

So the ‘Financial Fools Day’ protests were attended by thousands and seen by millions, but the spectacle it became was as useless as a stock market trader promising they’ll take care of your money.

The whole point of the day was ruined through the actions of a few, and the history books will show nothing more than a few crusty, rich-kid wankers fighting for the sake of it.

But the start of the day promised so much… As there were four horseman leading four parades down to the Bank of England I went with the climate chaos (green horse) march which set out from Liverpool Street Station.
The gathering of earth lovers and concerned middle-class hippies had a relaxed vibe about it, so much so that the police were happy to chat to the leaders of the march and they came to an agreement as to how it was going to be handled. With everyone co-operating and apart from the odd acne-covered angsty ‘rebel’, the crowd set off towards the Bank of England in a care-free mood.

I thought to myself; finally a protest might pass off without incident as the coppers at the front of the crowd were more concerned with the scrum of photographers rather than the protesters. The trip down to the bank was fairly uneventful and just involved a few chants and a lot of noise that was all above board.

We arrived at the Bank of England to a media presence that was nearly as large as the protest. The whole point of the day was to make the public aware of the problems the world is facing and to stand up against the way in which our futures have been compromised by the elite few. But the media didn’t give a shit why people were there. For the media it wasn’t about the 20,000 who went there to say they had enough excuses and action needs to be taken now, they only cared about a couple of hundred pricks who give the public the worst possible view of protesters and what the protest was for. Those who tore up the place simply pandered to what is expected of them.

Apart from the ‘anarchists’ there were a lot of people who just thought it was cool to join a protest but wanted to leave, probably in time for a working lunch with their banker friends. The commitment on show was at each end of the spectrum. You had people who were ready to cause carnage next to someone who just wanted to be on telly.

I couldn’t wait to get out of the crowd and I was lucky enough to escape the blockades at the bank after three hours and headed down to the ‘Climate Camp’ along Bishopsgate.

And that is what protesting should be all about…

At 12.30pm protesters led by the Climate Rush campaigners took over the European Climate Exchange and sealed off the road outside. They set up a mini village so quick the police couldn’t do anything. A sea of tents, parties, bands playing protest songs, drinkers, dancers and a sense of achievement hit you when entering Climate Camp. This is what the media should have shown and it should be an example to future protesters that this is the way it to do it. However, I did hear that the police stormed the camp at midnight which seems over the top as the camp was perfectly behaved compared to the crowd at the bank.

I managed to miss the storming of the camp as I left after a few hours to attend the Alternative G20 summit at the University of East London, which was cancelled by the university for fear of damage to property. But in true defiance the summit simply took place outside the uni lecture hall, and although the crowd was a fraction of what it could have been, there was a sense of accomplishment as speakers such as Tony Benn and Lindsey German rallied the determined few.

It was amazing to see so many people standing up for something they believe in at the camp and at the alternative G20. But for every true protester there were 10 idiots outside the Bank of England who were there to look cool or who wanted to be seen destroying something.

The point of the day was completely lost and the people to blame were not hiding inside the offices of banks, holding a camera or wearing riot gear…
The true enemies of the day were walking right beside us.


Photography: thealarmist.wordpress.com, digitaljournal.com