Posted on 02/16/2005 6:57:38 PM PST by Pikamax
Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders By Laura Peek and Liz Chong
WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail.
What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement.
We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs, one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. Ive never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.
Another said: I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot. Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: Sod off, Swampy.
Greenpeace had hoped to paralyse oil trading at the exchange in the City near Tower Bridge on the day that the Kyoto Protocol came into force. The Kyoto Protocol has modest aims to improve the climate and we need huge aims, a spokesman said.
Protesters conceded that mounting the operation after lunch may not have been the best plan. The violence was instant, Jon Beresford, 39, an electrical engineer from Nottingham, said.
They grabbed us and started kicking and punching. Then when we were on the floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush us. When a trader left the building shortly before 2pm, using a security swipe card, a protester dropped some coins on the floor and, as he bent down to pick them up, put his boot in the door to keep it open.
Two minutes later, three Greenpeace vans pulled up and another 30 protesters leapt out and were let in by the others.
They made their way to the trading floor, blowing whistles and sounding fog horns, encountering little resistance from security guards. Rape alarms were tied to helium balloons to float to the ceiling and create noise out of reach. The IPE conducts open outcry trading where deals are shouted across the pit. By making so much noise, the protesters hoped to paralyse trading.
But they were set upon by traders, most of whom were under the age of 25. They were kicking and punching men and women indiscriminately, a photographer said. It was really ugly, but Greenpeace did not fight back.
Mr Beresford said: They followed the guys into the lobby and kept kicking and punching them there. They literally kicked them on to the pavement.
Last night Greenpeace said two protesters were in hospital, one with a suspected broken jaw, the other with concussion.
A spokeswoman from IPE said the trading floor reopened at 3.10pm. The floor was invaded by a small group of protesters, she said. Open outcry trading was suspended but electronic trading carried on.
Eighteen police vans and six police cars surrounded the exchange and at least 27 protesters were arrested. A small band blocked the entrance to the building for the rest of the evening.
Richard Ward, IPEs chief executive, said that the exchange would review security but denied that protesters had reached the trading floor. However, traders, protesters and press photographers confirmed to The Times that the trading floor had been breached.
Mr Ward would not discuss whether he would press charges, and said he would not know until this morning if there had been any financial loss.
Greenpeace later started a second protest at the annual dinner of the Institute of Petroleum at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, in Central London. Greenpeace claimed that five campaigners had got into the Great Hall. About 30 protesters were outside the hotel, some blocking the front entrance by sitting down and locking themselves together, while others sounded klaxons and alarms. Climbers scaled scaffolding to unfurl a banner reading, Climate change kills, oil industry parties.
I would pay for a video of this. Jolly good show ol' chaps!
If only they could do this on the NYSE.
That's for sure. I spent a month there on business. When we'd go to lunch I'd have a sandwich and a 1/2 pint of beer. They'd drink 5 or 6 pints! Let me tell you, the drive back to the office was a fright.
More details.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1416295,00.html
Kyoto protests disrupt oil trading
Violent clashes at London energy exchange after Greenpeace activists use direct action to mark global warming treaty
John Vidal and Terry Macalister
Thursday February 17, 2005
The Guardian
Oil trading was interrupted for more than an hour yesterday in the world's second largest energy market when 35 Greenpeace activists invaded the International Petroleum Exchange in London on the day the Kyoto global warming treaty came into effect.
The exchange, which trades oil worth up to $1,000bn a year and sets the price for as much as 60% of the world's crude supply, was thrown into chaos just before 2pm as traders and security guards clashed with the activists coming through the only door on to the trading floor in the basement of the building.
Carrying foghorns, alarms and whistles, the protesters tried to prevent the trading.
As three Greenpeace climbers hung a banner from the roof declaring "Climate change kills. Stop pushing oil", more than a dozen people were hurt when angry traders pulled a large metal bookcase on top of protesters and guards waded in to punch and kick people trapped in corridors.
Activists expressed shock at the reaction. "They were in a frenzy. They just went wild. They were trying so hard to hit us they were falling over each other," said Peter Mulhall, a commercial manager from Liverpool protesting at the amount of oil being traded.
Stephen Tindale, head of Greenpeace UK, who led the activists into the building, said: "We believe we are stopping trading in oil on the global market. They just laid into us. We were non-violent and we made it clear that's what we were there for. But there were quite a few blows raining down on our heads. There was not much discussion. We decided to retreat for everyone's safety."
Many of the protesters were attacked again as they were forced out of the building. One man was pulled by his hair down a corridor and kicked, another was kicked and punched in the head by a guard at the entrance. "One person was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to hospital," a London ambulance service spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for the IPE said the trading floor reopened at 3.10pm. "The floor was invaded by a small group of protesters," she said. "Open-cry trading was suspended but electronic trading carried on as normal throughout."
One oil trader said his colleagues were angry about floor trading being delayed for more than an hour. "We were disappointed with security for allowing this commotion just at a time when the [crude] market was pushing higher on the back of reports that a missile had been fired at Iran. I kept on trading electronically but I could see the [Greenpeace] guys coming on to the viewing gallery and then they were pushed back."
Many of the floor traders are self-employed and stand to lose earnings from the disruption but the IPE was unwilling to comment on what volume of trade had been affected.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said 10 people were arrested for public order offences. A further 20 were still inside the building at 5.30pm and were being dealt with by the police. All those arrested are believed to have been demonstrators.
Nice work by your countrymen ping.
"three Greenpeace vans pulled up" gosh, I'm guessing that they were powered by french fry oil. NOT!!!!!! I do credit Greenpeace with converting me from an aging hippy lib to a conservative. I got really pissed off when they blamed Bush I for the fires that Saddam set in Iraq and Kuwait in Gulf War I. Plus, after I gave them $25 (years and years ago), they sold my name to everybody else including the hard left pro abort wackos. More trees were killed trying to get money out of me by Greenpeace and their wacko friends than a newspaper chews up in a year.
Did they get to the hospital in one of those gas guzzling ambulances, or did these Eco-warriers limp there on their own? Are they recieving energy-intensive treatments such as MRI's or X-rays in well lit, air conditioned facilities, or just some herbal remidies in the darkened basement?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
"They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs."
Translation?
How noble. </sarcasm>
Bwa ha ha.
This is the reason GP protesters don't bother oil refineries.
And why they throw paint on old ladies' fur coats but don't say anything about bikers.
Let this be a lesson to gun restriction advocates who intend on disrupting NRA meetings.
I did a term at the Univ of London some years ago and was absolutely shocked to see beer in the student cafeteria. I was sure all the students would be drunk in their afternoon classes.
If the students are drinking like that, who knows what the working folks are up to. I'm not surprised a few of them were ready to take on some Greenpeace weenies after lunch.
We should crash GreenPeace's next meeting and blow whistles and air horns and such. LISTEN TO MY POINT OF VIEW!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LISTEN TO MY POINT OF VIEW!!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO MY POINT OF VIEW!!!
"We believe we are stopping trading in oil on the global market.
In other words we were attempting to keep these guys (and/or gals) from earning a living
They just laid into us.
When you interfere with someones ability to make a living that is what happens.
We were non-violent and we made it clear that's what we were there for.
Hon you don't get the point do you? If these guys don't work they don't eat. Your actions were hostile and stuck at their survival. Did you expect them to just take it?
But there were quite a few blows raining down on our heads.There was not much discussion.
Evidently you did. Dumber then a sack of hammers.
"Another said: I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot."
Cops are restrained from publicly beating the crap out of people. I would have liked to see them take on the refinery workers. Nothing gets your attention like an 18" pipe wrench whacking the side of your head.
I remember an anti nuke protest at Comanche Peak back in 1981. They waited until all the Brown and Root craft were in the gates and then laid down in front of the gate. The sheriff warned them to get up and leave and they replied with all the lame old chants and went limp. After a few minutes, the sheriff and one deputy grabbed one, dragged him over to the road drainage ditch and threw him in. For those of you who have never been in Texas, we have a little noxious weed called a grass burr. Very painful to step on in bare feet. The ditches are full of them. When the protestor was tossed in, his back hit the burrs and he instantly levitated out of the ditch. He had several hundred burrs stuck in his back. One more was tossed in and the rest then meekly got up and walked to the bus.
Sod off, Swampy.
Oh, to have been there! I've always wanted to bruise my knuckles on some lefty's skull, and the self-righteous asses from Greenpeace are Target One. And to be able to put the boots to them too??? Truly there is a heaven on earth.
That's a classic!
Let this be a lesson to us. Violence IS the answer!
Once the nuts realize they risk personal injury with their protests, they will most likely resort to increased violence ala ELF.
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