back to article City IT workers brace for anarchist attack

IT workers at City institutions have been told they must come to work on April 1 and 2, when thousands of protestors are expected in the Square Mile to mark the G20 meeting of leaders in London. Authorities fear the protests will turn violent, and many City workers have been ordered to stay at home. But staff maintaining the …

COMMENTS

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  1. Richard
    Pirate

    Should be fun

    If observed from a safe distance.

  2. Xander
    Unhappy

    They must be well paid

    It's just soem IT equipment. I wouldn't put myself near an angry mob just to keep a box humming...

    Best of luck to those guys that do though.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cartoon criminals

    Dear NETCU rozzers

    As you beat the crap out of the protestors, citing that 'cartoon criminal' on TV the other day. Please remember.

    1. He is a cartoon criminal, they are not him and he does not have control of them whatever he claims in his cartoon way.

    2. Try to remember that it's their country too.

    3. Try to remember that the majority of Britain supports them, (but not Mr cartoon criminal).

    4. Try to remember that anything you do that will have to be explainable when Jacqui is gone and a grown up is in charge.

    5. Try to remember that many people view Netcu as an attempt to suppress dissent and you are skating on very thin ice already.

    6. Relax.

  4. AreBelongToUs
    Boffin

    Yoghurt knitters beware!

    Bring forth the http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Luser_Attitude_Readjustment_Tool

    >:-)

  5. steve smith
    Pirate

    ...join 'em

    This year we're going to join in.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Please don't attack the city.

    My wife works there, and without her salary we'd have to take our children out of private school.

    The education you people put up with for your children is your choice but you really shouldn't be ruining other people's chances in life. Look at where you've all ended up. Do you really want this for your kids?

  7. Ian Bradshaw

    Its 2009 ...

    ever heard of remote desktop?

    I'm sure they could setup a remote desktop that would give them access to whatever terminals they need from a couple of servers ...

  8. Alwyn Tan

    "Disrupt the traders..."

    And then they realise that most trades are not actually done in person at the exchange, but electronically from the traders' respective banks.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yay, protesters...

    ...beat up some IT guys. That'll really solve global poverty.

    What a bunch of jackasses.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Define a "banker"

    Marvelous, all we needed. Let's see how many lower level employees will get it in the face because a gaggle of angry plebs can't make the distinction between those _actually_ responsible and the other 90% of FS employees.

  11. Spider
    Black Helicopters

    They should fear the counter attack more

    a dirty dozen BOFHs could screw the country far more than the anarchists have managed in a century.

    be afraid

    be very afraid.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Easy...

    Just look for the guys with creases in their jeans.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Numbnuts

    Yeah protesters! Go for it!

    Clearly the way to fix the currently knackered economy and protest against Government debt, job losses, increased taxes and the bourgoise banking system is to try and bring the city to a standstill for a couple of days!

    Never mind that most of the people you'll be harrassing are ordinary banking & IT drones, who don't get paid loads, had no part in those decisions, and are all worried about thier jobs. Let's put Britain back together by interrrupting the infrastructure of the city and the banking system!

    Just don't complain when your ATM switches off, , your giro payments don't clear, your credit cards stop working, and loads more businesses go to the wall. Bunch of pillocks that you are...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mufti?

    My lot (Moorgate based) have decreed that we should travel "discretely", coming in "casual clothing", "do not display your security cards" and bringing packed lunches so that we don't have to go outside for food.

    So, there's no chance any of us might get spotted marching through the front door of a building with "XXXXXXXX Bank" above the door in 10 foot high letters?

    Anyway, I don't actually mind too much. During the last protests, I pitched up for work, got as far as the front door before being called and told to sneak home to avoid any trouble, turned round and walked out straight into the middle of it where I was offered free beer (yes please) and a huge spliff (not my scene, but I appreciate the spirit of generosity). Spent most of the day drinking and sunbathing with them and had a great day. And I still got paid!

  15. Christoph

    It's much too dangerous

    They should not be asking them to come in, it's far too dangerous. If they are dressed casually so as not to stand out from the demonstrators there is a very strong chance that they will be attacked and beaten up. By the police.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sacrifice the IT lot

    that's hilarious. So, just how essential do IT folk feel in the city? Expendable, moi?

    Even Zelda would reclaim her own, what a bunch of spineless muppets.

    Well the time of the hooded man is upon us, there will be many Spartacai before this is all over, and anarchist ideals are the right ones, a society without hierarchy is correct, that's been plain to see throughout time.

    Meritocracy is the route, and that's probably where the anarchists are gaining support, they have the best of the best there, whereas capitalism engenders nepotism, meaning sycophants rise in power. Sycophants cannot keep power though, they don't train or organise just suck on the silver spoon shoved in their extremist rectums, relying on little slips of paper to hang onto control.

    Evolve and let the chips fall where they may.

    Viva la revolution.

  17. pete
    Stop

    Inaccurate attribution - the protest is not 'organised' on Indymedia UK

    Ive been following the G20 protests and the call for the LSE protest came from a group calling themselves "Bristol Dissent".

    An email from them is featured on a host of websites including Bristol Indymedia and many others.

    It would be right to say "published on Indymedia UK" and indeed on many other websites, but not "organised on", if anything you should say "organised by Bristol Dissent". I think that's an important distinction, especially given the recent interest by police in anyone who runs a box that have clients mirroring the Indymedia UK website.

    C'mon reg, sort it out!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Bah

    Quite annoying how the government is getting away with demonising protesters like this.

    What do they expect people to do when they implode the economy? Sit around and take it? Thank them? Only a matter of days before they wheel out Jacqui Smith to reassure everyone that normal people think the government is doing a great job and anyone who thinks different should be reported to the police.

    Give me a break.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re:Please don't attack the city.

    Poor argument as the public school types already run most of the city.

    Or are you a troll, maybe, possibly?

    And I'd like to see the other AC show some evidence of his point 3.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Propaganda

    The first step is to generate paranoia about the demo, then the police have an 'excuse'. Sigh.

  21. E

    What crap.

    I've been to one of these - the FTAA meeting in Quebec City in 2001. It wasn't especially violent, protest organizers did a lot of education beforehand. Most of the violence that did occur was rubber and plastic bullets, and teargas. These things were used by the state not the protesters.

    I found out that I love the smell of stale teargas in the morning.

  22. Cameron Colley

    It will be interesting, but sad, to see.

    Just how many people the government allow to be killed in the next few weeks. Wth the global summit they'll be able to tip some muslimaniac fuckwits off about good targets to get the population worked up.

    You think Mad Maggie was bad -- you ain't seen nuthinz yet...

  23. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Joke

    given

    the way most IT staff dress, I suspect the protestors would have a hard time identifying IT staff from the other protestors

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Grr...

    What these protestors don't tend to realise is that what they actually want isn't to bring down capitalism, it's to bring down bastardism.

    I wonder if we're going to see shining examples of intelligence like last time they were in London. Smash up Maccy D's, check, Smash up John Lewis, check. Idiots.

    (Foreign readers: John Lewis is wholly owned by the workers.)

    It is also perfectly possible to be capitalist and descent - The Coop Bank would be a shining example.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    IT bods - bunch of utter pussies

    Go on, stay away you bunch of scare-de-cats - nothing much is going to happen anyway. Plus if you can't stand the heat then maybe you should stay away from the kitchen of global finance, in other words not work there. Sure, you may not be the bankers, but you're making their work possible.

    Oh god how I love the sound of snivveling IT folk cowering under the desk at the first thought of any possible trouble in that big scary place called the real world, yes that place where the sunlight and all those real people are. You might even get shouted at!

    @AC 16:34 - nice trolling!

  26. Nick
    Boffin

    Fear them - fear the terrists

    Hey all you hard working good people ! Be careful ! Because there are many bad people, terrorists, who will protest. If they are protesting, you should fear them, because they are terrorists. All protesters are terrorists.

    This is why we oh-so-discreetly told every employer in London to tell their staff just what a threat they are under. The jobless terrorist protesters are threatening you on the street, so you must be careful, and keep coming to work and paying your taxes and not protesting because you are not like them. You are not a terrorist. Are you?

    This is why we have to photograph them, video them, search their pockets, question them, arrest them, keep them at bay with riot shields and batons, blind them with tear gas (so they can't take aim at you), detain them without charge for 28 days. And take them away to a far away land so you are all safe in London. And we'll ask them questions, encourage them to talk through any means possible because they know, they have a plan, and we just need to get them to tell us. To keep you all safe.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anarchist Infultrators

    At the last violent city protest (2000 - I think), where security guards prevented protesters from entering buildings by ingeniously locking the doors, the anarchist groups claimed to have a new tactic of infiltrating the banks by getting jobs, and then to open it up from the inside at the next event.

    What has happened to these infiltrators? Are they still there, and come Wednesday will reveal to their colleagues : "For the last last 9 years I have been helping to move billions of pounds around the world, but AHA! I am really an anti-globalisation activist and will now let my mates in and trash the office" ? Or have some gone native, found out they had a talent for it and will be watching the event from their corner office?

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Should be interesting.

    Nice quiet day inside the office, pick a nice vantage point near a window a few floors up and watch the festivities as the rozzers do a Rodney King on the soap dodging dope heads.

    Remember to bring popcorn.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    BTW...

    There's been no trading floor at the LSE since 2004.

    Paris, because she knows the difference between a long and a short position.

  30. Throatwobbler Mangrove

    this is all complete toss

    1) This same, tired email and same scaremongering emerges every time there's a demonstration. Nothing significant (positive or negative) has happened in years.

    2) Finding some anonymous teenage numbnuts on Indymedia that doesn't understand how electronic trading works to say something vague doesn't prove anything except that dim people with a net connection don't represent anyone except themselves.

    3) Taking some completely meaningless quote and using it for all sorts of sarcastic, snotty, snide comments about what The Protesters want and are doing is just pointless. This is like reading the Daily Mail forums!

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "My wife works there, and without her salary we'd have to take our children out of private school."

    Boo.

    Freakin.

    Hoo.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Gotta Laugh

    To the people that can't spot an obvious troll, or attempt at satire, thanks for the laugh!!!

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