50,000 youth and trade unionists marched against, poverty, unemployment, war and about climate change, tens of thousands more people are set to take to the streets of London on Wednesday and Thursday, when the G20 summit begins.
Many thousands are expected to assemble outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square on Wednesday, April 1, at 2.00pm to demonstrate against the expansion of the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan as announced by US President Barack Obama.
The new US administration, with the backing of the Brown government, is drafting many thousands more troops to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, poised to invade Pakistan.
Obama and other world leaders will be present at the G20 summit, which opens on Thursday, April 2.
Stop the War, CND, the British Muslim Initiative and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign called the demonstration, which will go from the US Embassy to a rally in Trafalgar Square.
The Stop The War demonstration will demand:
• ‘Get the troops out of Iraq & Afghanistan
• ‘End the siege of Gaza – free Palestine
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• ‘Create jobs not bombs
• ‘Stop arming Israel
• , ‘Abolish all nukes.’
On Thursday, another rally is planned from 11.00am outside the G20 summit in Docklands’ Excel Centre.
Organisers warn: ‘This is a time of slump but the G20 are spending more and more on war.
‘Despite the disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US and Britain are sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan.
‘They are spending more in Iraq. The total cost of the war will be around $6 trillion.
‘The US spends $54 billion and Britain nearly £2 billion every year on nuclear weapons.
‘For all these reasons, join us to protest at the G20.’
On April 1st, the G20 Meltdown are meeting at Moorgate, Cannon Street, Liverpool Street and London Bridge stations at 11am, and marching to the Bank of England.
They said: ‘Lost your home? Lost your job? Lost your savings or your pension? This party is for you!
‘Capitalism has been heating up our world for years, melting the icecaps, burning up the rainforests, pushing the planet to tipping point.
‘Now we’re going to put the heat on them.
‘At the London Summit, the G20 ministers are trying to get away with the biggest April Fools trick of all time. Their tax-dodging, bonus-guzzling, pension-pinching, unregulated free market world’s in meltdown, and those fools think we’re going to bail them out.’
