DISCLAIMER: This article is somewhat of a departure from the usual content found on Tres Lola and as such I feel it necessary to write this disclaimer. When I created Tres Lola, the editorial direction had one key focus and that was to deliver articles that were relevant to young women and that had a focus on positivity. I was also determined to steer clear of personalising the articles by way of injecting excessive subjectivity and using personal story telling to support the information being presented.

Since May 2008 I have stuck to this editorial direction. I have preferred to keep a more neutral tone and I write without date stamps in an effort to reach a wider audience with content that will remain relevant. I try to avoid isolating readers by publishing articles that are only relevant to a minority (ie. I try to avoid writing seasonal, regional, political, religious etc based articles).

However, sometimes issues are too important to be concerned with offending a portion of audience and I feel that in the light of the events that I was fortunate enough to experience today, NOT using Tres Lola as a platform to share knowledge on social justice would be a missed opportunity to showcase something that is truly important and offer some truth that is so often missing from traditional media coverage.

I believe whole heartedly that as young people we should be equipped with unbiased recounts of events. I believe that knowledge empowers and that together we can create great change. I believe that if we have the power to share knowledge and truth and we choose not to; we are part of the problem.

What follows is a report on today's G20 demonstrations outside of Bank underground in central London. This article is not written with agenda to indoctrinate or as propaganda to attempt to align you, as readers of Tres Lola, to any particular political or social justice group, this is also not opinion that is tainted by affiliation with any particular demonstration group. This is merely my version of the events of 1 April 2009. I hope that those of you that choose to read on can appreciate that this is a report of events from someone inside the police barricades, without a press pass or a protest flag. I know anything political is always going to be contentious and so I ask that you refrain from waging war in the comments section, let’s share our knowledge and opinions but keep it mature.

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What Is G20 & The London Summit?
G20 is a meeting of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from 19 countries. It exists as a forum for discussion on global economics and was created as a response to the financial crisis of the late 90's as well as to open the lines of communication regarding "...recognition ... [of] key emerging-market countries...". The significance of the 2009 G20 summit lies in the current global economic crisis. The way our elected leaders have responded to issues such as bank bail outs, senior management pensions and bonus allocation is a major driving force behind the demonstrations that have been staged across central London. Learn more about the G20 Summit here.

The London Summit is a gathering of our elected leaders "...to address the global financial crisis.", amongst those leaders present in London ahead of the April 2 talks are Kevin Rudd, Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama - click here for a full list of the leaders participating in the summit. Having this collective, essentially representative of elected world power, sets the perfect stage for those passionate about creating change to step up and make themselves heard - campaigning is about creating awareness and working towards positive change... and all the square mile is a stage.... now that our world leaders are town.


What were the campaigns about?
The "four horsemen of the apocalypse" best represent the key issues that campaigners were focusing campaign efforts on: financial crimes, war, climate change and homelessness.


What Really Went On?
For around 3 hours, from 12:30pm, police officers formed human barricades to block the free movement of demonstrators in and around the Bank of England. Police officers disallowed people the right to leave the campaign area, they decided that the best way to communicate this lock down was to yell at and push back any demonstrator that dared come close to their shoulder-to-shoulder blockade. We were detained without reason and with force.

Essentially, anyone inside this penned off area spent three hours without any provision of water, food, toilet facilities and with limited access to shaded areas. For the most part, those in this area were keen to be there and thus being disallowed free movement around London was not of key concern. I am sure that those in charge of ensuring peace was the order of the day could reason that they were hoping to contain the crowd to prevent violent overspills and rioting in the streets surrounding demonstration spots - but the force used to ensure no one escaped this makeshift lock down was excessive ... thankfully, enough was going on that rather than being angered at this display of undemocratic police sanctioned behaviour we were able to roll up our trousers, listen to some music and lay out in the sunshine while appreciating the peaceful demonstration going on. However, the fact remains that the police decided to hold a group of people against their will and reacted violently to any who dared question this and in a supposed free and democratic country, this sort of behaviour is more than a little disturbing.

After 3 hours of this police imposed lock down, campaigners were allowed to wander freely again. Unsurprisingly, rioting, chaos and anarchy did not break out. This was not enough to assure police however, with media reporting that by 5pm police lock down was back in place outside the Bank of England.


Let's talk about the violence...
Unfortunately, on a day like today, it is far too easy for those in positions of authority to get away with unnecessary force and brutality under the guise of protecting themselves and their city. Defence against risk or personal injury is of course more than understandable, no one should be assaulted during performing their job. However, no one should be abused by the people who we trust to enforce the rules of our 'democratic' society, especially not for being passionate about social justice. It is disappointing and a scary reflection of our society to walk away from a demonstration and be able to say that a large proportion of violence was initiated by those in positions of authority. While for the most part, police officers acted as it seemed they had been instructed and without using force, there were some that abused their role as enforcers of our laws and resorted to displays of exactly the kind of behaviour and exhibited the aggressive attitudes that they were put in place to prevent. Hands and voices were raised unnecessarily far more than once and it is difficult to promote peaceful campaigning amongst an environment of police officers not willing to set an example.

What occurred outside of the Bank of England was a largely peaceful demonstration attended by a multitude of social justice groups. The minority that hurled objects through windows and started small blazes in the street were given extensive media coverage and exceptional focus was placed on these people as if they were indicative of what the greater proportion of campaigners were about. It is true that the way in which this small group of protesters behaved is absolutely not acceptable, but it is so important to understand that these people were such a very small group - a group that will no doubt sell far more newspapers than if coverage were focused on those laying in the sunshine with flowers in their hair while holding out their well crafted signs.

What was really evidenced at this demonstration was that the most powerful messages aren't spread through violence and activist groups do understand this.





...Let's wrap it up.
What I want to understand most is when passion for social justice became so undesirable and unacceptable? The misinformed masses seem so full of fear and so quick to judge those of our community who have the passion to take action against injustice.

A few things to keep in mind:

• 'Demonstration' is not synonymous with 'Violence';
• Demonstrators/Campaigners/Protesters are not all unemployed creative types with nothing better to do with their time;
• Unemployed creative types are not aggressive and uninformed;
• Sensationalism makes a better story than truth.

Passion IS Positive. Passion invokes action. Action brings about CHANGE. We need change.

We need to refocus our energy on educating ourselves on the issues that are truly important to us as a global community. We need to make democracy work. We need to care more and judge less.

And so I walk away from this demonstration with overwhelmingly apprehension. It is truly astounding to feel such monumental hope and intense belief in a better world, as well as witness selfless devotion to brilliant social causes, while at the same time feeling intensely fearful for having seen first hand unprovoked aggression exhibited by those we trust to enforce and uphold our laws. It is concerning that, even for a moment, one could consider the vast and possible truth held in the simple statement adorning one protest sign from this G20 demonstration, 'Democracy is an Illusion'.


Alright, over to you, say your piece and keep it clean....