In the biggest protest since the beginning of the financial crisis, up to 35,000 people came out to demand jobs, justice, and climate action in the lead up to the G20 summit.
The march was organized by Put People First, a coalition of 150 trade unions, charities, and non-governmental organizations including ActionAid, Oxfam, and Friends of the Earth. Groups carrying banners, whistles, megaphones and flags marched from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park under the slogan “jobs, justice, climate”.soundsofprotest
Police estimate at least 35, 000 protestors turned up for the event, all of them demanding to be heard by the G20 leaders.
ActionAid trade director Meredith Alexander said: “We are marching because we believe that world leaders are moving in the wrong direction on the Doha round of trade agreements, and we think that what they’re likely to do will be detrimental to, most importantly the poor, but also to the environment.
“We’ve seen a lot of things that have been done to help the banks and the car companies, and what we’re saying is we should be thinking about how governments are helping their people.”
Oxfam spokeswoman Helena Vinas added: “the G20 leaders need to put people first when they think about economic recovery by setting up the right framework to reform the financial system.”
Helena Vinas and other members of Oxfam
Trade unions played a major part in the event as thousands of demonstrators marched against skyrocketing unemployment across the country.
Mark Boothroyd, a shop steward from the trade union Unison said: “The Government should invest in public services, and stop privatisation. This is the start of a much bigger movement.”
Calling for “strike action”, Boothroyd pointed to the example of mass job walk-outs and nationwide demonstrations occurring in France. Put People First also called for a greater international commitment to eliminating tax havens.
Tax Justice Network director John Christensen said: “We’re calling for complete reform of the global financial system, closure of the tax havens which are at the centre of this crisis and a radical reappraisal of the way the tax system currently shifts wealth from the poor to the rich. Gordon Brown has called for the closure of the tax havens, we’d like to point out that London is the biggest tax haven of them all and that Britain controls more tax havens than any other country in the world.”
Trade unions from all over the world came to the march to show solidarity with British trade unions and to take part in the events organized around the G20 summit.
The Belgian Trade Union ABBV spokesman Wouter Vanalst, wearing clothes pinned with fake dollars and euros said: “We are here to say to the governments to use the money you have for the working people.”
Climate change was high on the agenda for groups like Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth and Climate Camp organizers, with many of them concerned that G20 leaders would not make the environment a priority in the upcoming G20 meeting in London on April 1st.
Tree sprite Jack Indergreen supports the protest
Fiona Deer from Campaign against Climate Change said: “It’s slightly worrying because they [the G20 leaders] are going to put jobs at the forefront out of fear of rioting. But this is an important year for the climate.”
Friends of the Earth senior climate campaigner Robin Webster added: “I think this is showing the Government that we need a different way of addressing our problems. They’re trying to prop up the same old system which is clearly failing. We are facing a number of real challenges here, ‘a perfect storm’, not just the financial crisis but also the looming threat of climate change. I think you’re going to see a lot more action like this as people come together.”
Up to 200 Anarchists came to the event, though they did not associate with the Put People First march. Several thousand police officers were on duty, but despite concerns the group remained peaceful throughout the day.
One anarchist that refused to be identified said: “The police want to demonise us, but we’re not the ones with truncheons. Today is about taking a different view on the world.”
Anarchist behind the flag
The Muslim Council of Britain also turned up to support NGOs and trade unions in “the campaign of poverty eradication”, according to spokesman Dr Muhammad Bari.
Many groups used the high publicity of the event to gather support for issues ranging from women’s rights to Tibetan independence from China.
The vice president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Sheila Triggs explained: “the great thing about this platform is that all of it matters-all the issues are linked.”
A small group of Tibetan families from the group Free Tibet were among the marchers. “We want the governments to look at all the other problems in the world, not just the global issues. People in Tibet want dignity and peace, and we’re coming here today to put these people first as well,” said one of the group’s members Sonam Dugdak.
Other events will continue throughout the week, including a rally at the US Embassy by the Stop the War Coalition and a party at the Bank of England led by the new organization G20 Meltdown on Wednesday. The Climate camp protest will also be taking place in the city from Wednesday to Thursday, with protestors camping out on the Square Mile in London.
The iconic image of the reporter- a young man draped in a trench-coat gallivanting off to some far away place with pen and paper in hand- has been swept into the dustbin of history. And the modern equivalent more closely resembles a small Chinese boy in glasses hunched over a laptop. Xu Lai, busily typing the next post on his critically acclaimed blog “ProState in Flames”, (or indeed his other blogs since Prostate was shut down by the Chinese government in November) is undoubtedly closer to the picture of what journalism is today.
The blogger
One of the key features to emerge out of the growth of the web has been the creation of the blog as an alternative source for news and commentary. The ever-expanding online community of bloggers challenges the traditional role of the journalist as gate-keeper; no longer do professional reporters hold exclusive rights to news dissemination.
Blogs provide users with the ability to access news that may otherwise escape the attention of traditional networks. To cite one well known example, Salam Pax (alias Baghdad blogger) provided invaluable information about the Iraq war, as he resolutely blogged while bombs blasted through Baghdad. Pax offered an insider’s perspective of the war on the ground in a manner inaccessible to most reporters, and rarely featured in conventional news coverage.
But should blogs replace traditional news-gathering? Professionals in the industry point to the fact that blogs often fail to follow the journalistic code of systematic fact-checking, non-partisanship and narrative structure. As McGraw-Hill director of digital media Barb Palser writes, they are “unedited, unabashedly opinionated, sporadic and personal”. Given that anyone with access to the internet can blog irrespective of journalistic credentials, for many reporters it can often appear as if, in the words of journalist Matt Welch, “the hounds from a mediocre hell have been unleashed.”
Forbes: the attack of the blogs!
Yet short of displacing journalism, blogs can be used to complement professional reporting by offering a form of participatory media, which media analyst Jane Singer explains, “can enhance the connections between journalists and the communities they serve.”
Community
What makes blogging particularly significant to journalism is its unique communal orientation. Unlike the top-down model of old media in which the public’s sole purpose was to receive information, new media allows the public to respond and improve that information. Journalist bloggers are given the ability to interact with their audience through comments on posts and links to other blogs. This allows the audience to become both fact-checkers and contributors, often providing journalists with new insights and pushing them to cover stories more accurately.
Robin Hamman on his laptop
As social media expert and former BBC producer Robin Hamman says, “now almost instantly when you publish an article you can find out what people thought about it, and see who’s linking to it and commenting on it.
“And if it’s popular, then you know potentially you’re doing good work…or not, I suppose,” he adds with a chuckle.
In a similar vein, Singer points out: “The blogging community is far from shy about going after journalists, shocking thin-skinned journalists unused to being scrutinized in the way they scrutinize others.”
Convergence
As the web becomes more accessible to users it has also become an increasingly diverse platform, functioning as an all-encompassing tool that provides not only written content, but also audio, video and photojournalism. A whole host of services such as Youtube, Flickr, Qik, and countless others allow users to publish in every form of media available. This has had a significant impact on the expectations demanded of journalists.
As the popular web analyst Jeff Jarvis approvingly posted on his blog: “Now, every time a journalist goes out to cover news, she must be equipped and prepared to gather and share it in any and all media.”
Yet in many respects this can be a double-edged sword. While it allows greater access to information across all media platforms, it can also put such a heavy strain on journalists to be multi-skilled that they lose sight of the journalism itself.
According to journalism professor Michael Bromley, “multi-skilling contains the potential for the final fragmentation of journalism, enskilling some as ‘entrepreneurial editors’ but deskilling others to the status of machine hands and extensions of the computer.”
The associate editor of Wired, Ben Hammersley, was keen to admit that after covering the Turkey presidential elections using eight different forms of media, exploiting all platforms doesn’t always make for good journalism. He says: “The barrier to equipment is zero, but journalists can’t do all media at once. You can keep the pace up, but the quality drops drastically.”
Ben Hammersley teaching multimedia
This doesn’t mean that journalists should avoid adapting to the requirements of technological advancement. It simply means placing the journalism above the technology, and using one or two media that best express the story.
As Foreign editor of the Times, George Brock says: “the challenge is to try and keep hold of the basic values of what you want to do, while the technology changes around you. I think its quite possible to do it, but you need to be clear in your own head about what it is you’re trying to do and why you’re doing it.”
Only a tool
The features of Web 2.0 and beyond have significantly transformed the modern method of reporting. But as journalist Mark Briggs says, “we need to change our practices to adapt, but not our values.” The web is only a tool, and like other previous innovations from soap to electricity, it is there to make the function it is designed for easier. Ultimately, it is not the role of the reporter that has changed- only the reporter’s tool kit.
This comes as the president accuses companies of hoarding rice to evade the government imposed price caps, leading to food shortages across Venezuela. However, the president has mentioned that compensation would be paid to the companies. He has not stated how long the seizures will last, though they are intended to threaten companies into compliance with government regulation.
“The government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeiousie or the rich” said Mr. Chavez.
Eleven Venezuelan and foreign firms will be affected by the decision, including Polar, the largest Venezuelan food corporation.
For all of the scepticism I still have about American politics, I can’t help but feel slightly more hopeful. Shockingly, we finally have a president willing to begin the process of dialogue with Iran. I remember sitting in an International Relations class at St Andrews University only a year ago with 6 other students, all of us looking down at our desks in frustration. The tutorial had ended, and in trying to assess the possible solutions to the problems facing the Middle East we found it impossible not to link the many obstacles to peace with the choices made by the US administration. And now, our president is quoting an Iranian poet.
London sales have bucked the trend of a nationwide sales slump as Brits from the provinces holidayed in London and overseas visitors flocked to the capital.
“Because of the credit crunch some families aren’t going on a foreign holiday, so people living outside London used the half-term holidays to take a trip up to London to do some shopping,” said British Retail Consortium (BRC)spokesperson Richard Dodd.
The capital also experienced an influx of tourists from the eurozone cashing in on the lower exchange rate.
“While UK consumer confidence remains low, retail sales in central London are being bolstered by overseas shoppers visiting to take advantage of the weakness of the pound,” said Rachael Halliday from services firm KPMG.
London sales rose by 5.9 percent in February compared with last year, while total sales decreased across the UK by 1.8 percent, revealed the BRC and KPMG on Monday.
Central London experienced 3.5 percent sales growth from December to February compared with this time last year, while retail sales fell by 1.4 percent across the UK during the same period.
Heavy snow in the first week of February resulted in decreased sales across the capital, though spending on discounted winter clothes and shoe sales helped retailers through to the rest of the month.
February sales were also boosted by London Fashion week, which lasted from 20 to 24 February.
“Tills began ringing as young shoppers, influenced by the fashion trends, prepared themselves early for the spring seasons,” said spokesperson for New West End Company Jace Tyrrell, the firm that represents West End retailers.
Discounts and clearance sales played a large part in boosting spending, though this may have negatively impacted overall profits.
“A lot of the sales are discount-driven, and margins are being squeezed as retailers own costs are increasing,” said the BRC.
The major department store John Lewis announced on Wednesday that profits were down by a quarter compared to last year. Baugur, the owner of clothing retailers Karen Millen and Oasis, was forced to file for bankruptcy this month.
Non-food retailers have been most affected by the economic slump, with household wares and big-ticket items such as televisions, computers and iPods taking the hardest hit.
In the biggest protest since the beginning of the financial crisis, up to 35,000 people came out to demand jobs, justice, and climate action in the lead up to the G20 summit.
