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City IT workers brace for anarchist attack

G20 protest threatens critical systems

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 critical infrastructure behind the London Stock Exchange (LSE) have been told they must come to work.

Earlier this week, the LSE IT department received a request from police to organise an email alert to staff working in two buildings deemed vulnerable to protestors, sources said. The email told LSE IT and other staff who are expected to come to work to dress casually rather than in their usual suit, to avoid identifying themselves as a target for anti-banking activists.

One LSE staffer said: "It's going to be crazy - they'll be right outside our door."

A specific attack on the LSE has been organised on activist site Indymedia UK. "Disrupt the traders whose financial egomania perpetuates global injustice: let's shutdown trading for the day. Meet outside the London Stock Exchange," the call to action says.

According to our insider, backroom workers at the LSE fear being targeted as traders, but none plan to stay away.

Police will deploy thousands of extra officers in the City in response to the protests. The G20 leaders are meeting in London to discuss the global recession triggered by irresponsible lending and debt trading by bankers. ®

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