[Newspoetry] will you please send this to newspoetry (fwd)

[chyn at onthejob.net]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 15:23:53 PDT
From: tsky hall <ibooloodi at hotmail.com>
To: chyn at onthejob.net
Subject: will you please send this to newspoetry

Top World News
Mon, 01 May 2000, 5:31pm EDT
McDonald's Restaurant Wrecked by London Protestors (Update5)
By James Amott


London, May 1 (Bloomberg) -- A McDonald's Corp. restaurant in
central London and a foreign exchange office were wrecked by anti-
capitalist demonstrators after a peaceful protest in Parliament
Square turned violent.

One policeman was seriously injured after a brick was thrown
at his face, and another seven suffered minor injuries trying to
arrest people outside the McDonald's, a spokeswoman for London's
Metropolitan Police said. A ninth suffered a dislocated shoulder.
Hooded demonstrators attacked camera crews and beat up a reporter
at the restaurant. Police had reports of three civilians hurt.

The protests, timed to mark the May Day public holiday across
Europe, form part of a global campaign against capitalism that
targeted the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle last year
and the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington DC last
month. The protesters say globalization is harming developing
countries, causing ever-increasing pollution and more poverty.

New York City police arrested 19 people for disorderly
conduct at an International Workers' Day gathering of about 600
people. In Chicago, about 200 people demonstrated outside the
Chicago Board of Trade in what police described as a peaceful
protest.

McDonald's Destroyed

In London, the McDonald's restaurant -- often a target for
demonstrators seeking to attack a symbol of global capitalism --
was destroyed. Staff at the restaurant and a nearby Money Exchange
Ltd. bureau escaped through back doors and no employees were hurt,
the police spokeswoman said.

The demonstrators moved on from the McDonald's in the Strand,
near Trafalgar Square, and attempted to storm Downing Street in
Whitehall, the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair, police said.
The most seriously injured officer was struck by a flying brick in
Whitehall, which links Trafalgar Square with Parliament Square.
``Police are now hoping the crowds will begin to disperse''
and that the protest will ``gradually fizzle out,'' the police
spokeswoman said.

Riot police ringed Parliament Square and blocked the entrance
to Downing Street. Demonstrators pelted six officers with missiles
shortly after 2 p.m., and mounted officers were on standby in
Northumberland Avenue, which links Trafalgar Square with the River
Thames, the spokeswoman said.

Police pushed the demonstrators away from Whitehall, where
most government buildings are based, back to Parliament Square,
leading to rising tension in the crowd, Sky News reported.

Same Demonstrators

Police said video footage showed that some of the
demonstrators were the same people involved in last June's
protests which led to 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) of damage in
London's financial district. That protest, called the J-18 Day of
Action to coincide with a G-8 meeting of the world's leading
industrial countries, led to the wrecking of offices owned by the
London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange.
``There is a degree of organization to the violence,'' Sky
News reported, citing comments by London police. Protestors called
today's demonstration ``May Day 2K'' to mark the festival, which
emanates from a 14th century English uprising known as the
Peasant's Revolt. It's now called Labor Day in many countries.

Trouble was also reported in demonstrations in Russia,
Poland, Germany and Italy, with arrests in all four countries,
though protests in Europe did not match the scale of the gathering
in London, home to the continent's largest financial center and a
number of U.S.-owned corporations such as McDonald's.

Water Cannons

In Asia, violence was reported during May Day celebrations in
South Korea and the Philippines. Police used water cannons to
disperse demonstrators in Manila near the Malacanang Presidential
Palace after protesters threw rocks at police and tried to break
through police lines, the Associated Press said.

Seven members of a labor group were arrested, the AP
reported, and several protestors and a firefighter were hurt.
Labor groups complain that Philippine President Joseph Estrada has
favored pro-employer policies despite campaign promises to help
labor groups fight poverty.

In South Korea, as many as 300 students threw rocks and used
sticks to fight riot police in downtown Seoul, the AP said.

In the London protest, 22 people were arrested. Two men were
taken into custody for possessing equipment that police believed
might be used to cause damage, while a third was arrested because
he was ``in possession of a pair of scissors,'' the spokeswoman
said.

A 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possessing CS
gas -- illegal in Britain -- and cannabis, while an 18-year-old
man was caught with a knife, police said. A sixth man was arrested
for drunkenness and a seventh for criminal damage. Others were
held for ``disorder.'' They were taken to Charing Cross police
station.

`Guerrilla Gardening'

Earlier, demonstrators trying to draw attention to
environmental issues engaged in ``guerrilla gardening'' by digging
up turf in Parliament Square to plant vegetables. Police were
unsure whether the protest constituted criminal damage and no
arrests were made.

Reclaim the Streets, one of the organizations demonstrating,
announced on the Internet ``city-wide autonomous actions,'' a
conference against capitalism and ``a very big surprise for the
Millennium Dome,'' Britain's showcase building in Greenwich,
southeast London, to commemorate the year 2000.

Police, who are keeping a strong presence across London, were
not aware of any other planned demonstrations in the city, and
they had ``no idea'' when the protests might end, the spokeswoman
said.

She said the violence had only been started by a minority of
demonstrators determined to cause trouble, and the majority of the
protests were peaceful.
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