"The trouble makers are out in force again", George Monbiot wrote on April 1 in the Guardian Online.
"Dressed in black, their faces partly obscured, some of them appear to be interested only in violent confrontation. It's almost as if they are deliberately raising the temperature, pushing and pushing until a fight kicks off.
"But this isn't some disorganised rabble: these people were bussed in and are plainly acting in concert.
"There's another dead giveaway. They are all wearing the same slogan: Police."
On April 1, thousands of people took to the London's streets for "Financial Fools Day", to protest the Group of 20 Summit meeting in the city the following day. Protesters demanded an end to the system of corporate greed causing poverty and destroying the planet.
Around 4000 descended on the Bank of England as a symbol of the corporate greed responsible for the economic crisis — and to protest the taxpayer-funded government bailouts. Nearby, protesters also established a "Climate Camp" to demand action to save the planet.
The British Socialist Worker said on April 1: "The mood was defiant but carnivalesque as the protests converged at a crossroads outside the Bank of England's building."
A participating student told SW: "I'm here because something desperately has to change. The economic crisis is just the latest sign of capitalism tearing our world apart. People here have lots of different views, but we have to start coming together. I want to be part of changing our world for the better."
The protesters were met with ferocious, and according to eyewitnesses, unprovoked, police violence.
Monbiot said: "The way officers tooled themselves up in riot gear and waded into a peaceful crowd this afternoon makes it look almost as if they were trying to ensure that their predictions [of protester violence] came true."
Despite police and media hysteria about "violent anarchists" in the lead-up, SW said: "some protesters managed to physically express their anger at an economic system that is creating havoc across the globe. They smashed the windows of a Royal Bank of Scotland branch and briefly occupied the building.
"But the levels of violence have so far been nowhere near those predicted by police officers quoted in the lurid press coverage that marked the run-up to the demonstration."
Instead, according to many accounts, the violence came from police. An April 2 statement by the Green Party of England and Wales said: "Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP has described the tactics used by the Metropolitan Police at yesterday's G20 protests as 'disproportionate and provocative' ...
"One party member involved said she had 'returned shaken and appalled' at the policing tactics employed at the G20 protests. Like many others, she described the way lines of police officers had kept groups of peaceful demonstrators 'penned-in' for hours without access to water or toilets."
When the police penned in participants in the Climate Camp, the statement alleged that "no warning was given to the camp that they were about to be contained — so, for example, families with babies and children were not given the opportunity to leave".
Then, when police attacked to clear the streets, "no warning was given and nobody was given the opportunity to leave of their own accord". When police attacked a second time, "people were sitting down with their hands in the air being very passive — but the police dragged, kicked, punched and hit people with shields to move them away from the area and disperse them".
One man, Ian Tomlinson, died during the police assault on the climate camp. Most media outlets reported that the death was due to natural causes.
However, the Salford Online reported on April 3: "One female witness who wished to remain anonymous talked of 'police brutality and heartlessness' and directly implicated members of the police force in the 'murder' of the protester ...
"She spoke of the 'unwarranted' attack made by 'masked policemen in riot gear.' After being struck in the head by a police baton she said the man was then bloodied and left unconscious on the street."
A larger demonstration occurred three days earlier, with police estimating that 35,000 people took to the streets in London ahead of the G20 summit, to demand policies to address the needs of the poor and workers in light of the economic crisis, the British Observer reported that day.
"The Put People First march yesterday was organised by a collaboration of more than 100 trade unions, church groups and charities including ActionAid, Save the Children and Friends of the Earth. The theme was 'jobs, justice and climate' and the message was aimed at the world leaders who will be gathering for the G20 summit here this week", the Observer said.
The March 31 SW reported that there was "an impressive array of union banners on the demonstration. More than ten sent their national banners" and several had large contingents."
"There were also delegations from trade unions in Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands."
Eighty-year-old Albert Rollinson, who had been a union activist for more than 60 years, told SW: "We're protesting against the fat cats making money while workers are left at the bottom of the pile. The government is trying to blame the recession on the global situation. But it's doing nothing for us."