G20 (updated)

Anti capitalist and climate change activists demonstrate in the City of London on April 1, 2009 in London, England. Protesters marched through London demanding action on poverty, climate change and jobs, as World leaders arrived in London ahead of the G20 summit. Getty Images / Jeff J. Mitchell

The G20 meeting is in town and so are the protesters. Much as I would have loved to cover these events, two things prevented me; 1) my newspaper only cover events south of the river Thames (all protests are to the north of it) and 2) yesterday I was incapacitated in bed with a migraine (bohoo), watching it all unfold via BBC News 24 on my laptop. Looked like fun though. And while it dominated front pages for one or two newspapers here in the UK today, The Sacramento Bee in the US has the best photographic coverage! Shame on the UK press for disregarding good photojournalism to this extent.


An injured policeman, second from right, is helped by colleagues during clashes with protestors near the Bank of England, in London, on April 1, 2009. Leaders wrangled Wednesday on how a G20 London summit could fix the global economy as demonstrators attacked a bank in an anti-capitalist riot in the British capital's main financial district. AFP/ Getty Images / AFP Carl De Souza

Update: BTW, an Anonymous reader informed me of this, following on from this. Good stuff, keep it coming.

There is power in the union

Union protest outside Lewisham Town Hall in 2006. © Magnus Andersson

Quoting Billy Bragg in a blog header can only mean one thing: strike. I voice my support for the striking colleagues across the UK, and I would like to highlight the situation for The Yorkshire Post in Leeds; I commend The Shakeouts for writing a song which can be heard in this brilliant video from the strike.

Its easy to think that in an economic downturn we all have to fight individually to keep our jobs, but in fact the opposite is true. These owners took out high salaries, enormous profits and big bonuses from our livelihoods, whilst denying us even a pay rise in line with inflation. Year on year our salaries have actually gone down compared to inflation while these few took the fruit of our labour. Now some of us are being told we can't be afforded anymore. How convenient.

If you haven't joined your union yet, the time is now. United we stand, divided we fall.

Protester outside Lewisham Town Hall

Proud to be union!