Where are the oil traders when you need them?*
From CityAM, January 15:
Six activists arrested over plan to disrupt the London Stock Exchange
Police presence in the City will be heightened this morning after six individuals were arrested on Sunday over an alleged plot to “disrupt” the London Stock Exchange.
In a statement yesterday, the Metropolitan Police said the activists from the Palestine Action group were allegedly intending to target the exchange on Monday 15, by “causing damage and ‘locking on’ in an effort to prevent the building opening for trading”.
The investigation started after the Daily Express handed information about the alleged plot to the force on Friday.
A 31-year old man was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage. Five others believed to be connected to the plot were arrested later that day....
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Six arrested over plot to disrupt London Stock Exchange
Great Moments In Oil Protest History
I thought we had posted this account but a search of the blog says no.
I failed you.
And though it reads like an Onion parody, this is exactly how it was published. Kudos to the writers.
From The Times, February 17 2005:
By Laura Peek and Liz Chong
Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders
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.
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.”....
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As we've said regarding the tactics used by Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion:
"Is that a man-bun? I haven't seen a man-bun in years?" , wait, sorry, that was a comment on the vandals in Vienna. From the same post:
As with any behavior, if the consequences become painful enough the behavior will stop.
