Posted on 04/23/2005 11:56:27 AM PDT by Betaille
Britain
February 17, 2005
Oil on troubled waters: a protester is led to a bus requisitioned by police to hold them (RICHARD POHLE)
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. “I’ve 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.
Readers might recall that there was a particular individual who called himself ‘Swampy’ (real name Daniel Hooper), who basically buried himself in a tunnel to prevent some trees being cut down, some years ago. He enjoyed a brief pop celebrity. His name, like that of Herostratus, or Eddie the Eagle, has become a byword.
I think they gave it to themselves ... the justly deserved "Job Well Done" sleep of the righteous.
Maybe the whole idea of someone else giving an award should be eliminated from our consciousnesses.
I had heard the word before, but I never knew what it meant except that it was uncomplimentary. Yours is a likely explanation.
From the Oxford English dictionary:
sod2 // n. & v. esp. Brit. coarse slang
n.
1 an unpleasant or awkward person or thing.
2 a person of a specified kind; a fellow (the lucky sod).
v.tr. (sodded, sodding)
1 (often absol. or as int.) an exclamation of annoyance (sod them, I don't care!).
2 (as sodding adj.) a general term of contempt.
sod off go away.
[abbreviation of sodomite]
Socialist Kommie Krap meets two-martini lunch capitalism! Wotta story and lesson to be learned by all with the itch to start a fight.
Yes, I remember seeing him in the news at the time, he looked much like his name!
ROFLMAO!!! Nice to hear these guys finally get their come-up-ance! Wish ida been there!
This story was posted already.
Times onlines^ 2/16/2005...do a Quick search
I don't think that sod comes from sodomite. I say this only from its general usage: it's a very mild phrase.
The 'swampy' thing comes from an environmental protest from the mid-90s. Some guy, calling himself 'Swampy', dug himself a tunnel in an area where a bypass was being constructed and held out for a month or so, delaying progress on the road. It was a very big news story in Britain. So any unkempt jackass hippy is generally called Swampy now :)
Andrew
Real men trade oil futures.
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