LONDON -- Hundreds of anarchists opposed to capitalism and the World Trade Organization summit attacked police, overturned cars, and ignited a major fire Tuesday outside one of London's main railway stations.
Email and the Internet helped organize railworkers, WTO foes, health workers, anti-arms trade campaigners, Zapatistas, anti-GM food protesters, anti-capitalists, and Iraqi sanction-busters in the violent clash at Euston Station. In Seattle, meanwhile, the first day of a WTO summit was delayed as police tried to quell thousands of demonstrators.
Michael Leff, leader of the group Reclaim the Streets, said the London demonstration was part of a wider protest against what he called "capitalism with its gloves off."
The RTS views the WTO as an advocate of the world's most powerful nations and largest corporations and maintains that the Seattle trade talks were designed to allow the rich to further exploit the poor.
More restrained protests occurred earlier Tuesday at locations in London's financial district and at the headquarters of Citibank in Lewisham, south London.
At Euston Station, protesters brandished placards reading "Kill Capitalism" and "WTO = World Thieves Organization." Others, opposed to the privatization of Britain's railway systems, carried signs proclaiming "Privatization Kills, Capitalism Kills."
The station, which links with the north of England and Scotland, is also the site of Railtrack offices. Railtrack is widely blamed for several railway accidents, including one in September that killed 31 people near Paddington Station.
A representative from the RMT called for a minute's silence for rail accident victims as other organizations tried to link their campaigns to the Seattle conference.
"We all have a connection; we all eat food," said a speaker opposed to genetically modified food. "The campaign in this country is to get rid of GM foods."
Reuters correspondents at the scene said up to 2,000 protesters, many wearing masks, hurled bottles and other debris against anti-riot police at the height of the evening commuter rush hour.
Several ambulances arrived at the scene and police in riot gear advanced on the demonstrators.
Thousands of commuters were herded away from the glass-fronted station entrance into safety deep inside the building. All entrances to the station were sealed, stranding thousands more commuters outside the station. And a fire set by the protestors on the forecourt sent flames up to 50 feet high.
A Sunday story in the London Observer reported that campaigners were using Internet chat rooms to organize their protest.
Leff said he knew nothing about it, although he acknowledged the Net had enabled RTS to reach a far wider audience and to communicate with sympathetic campaigns worldwide.
One protester, Londoner Dominic Reynolds, said he first learned of plans for Tuesday's demonstration on the RTS Web site.
Another protester, Angela Dwire, agreed that the Net provided "access to information to what you couldn't normally get hold of."
In a similar protest on 18 June, protesters burned cars, smashed offices, and battled with riot police during London's most violent demonstration in a decade.
"After June 18, the newspapers said the enemies of capitalism would be back, and they are back," Leff told Reuters.
Reuters contributed to this report.
