Free shit armies across the globe are mobilizing. Close to 300,000 people are gathered in London to protest the cuts in their free shit. On the one hand I can understand their anger. Their government leaders have chosen to save their bankers, but throw the people under the bus. The social benefits promised over decades could never be delivered. It was just a matter of time. Allowing the bankers who destroyed the world financial system to continue enriching themselves while calling for tremendous sacrifice by the common man goes beyond the pale. If our leaders had put the mega-banks into bankruptcy, we would have had a bad Depression. But, everyone would have been hurt. Today, only the middle class has been hurt. The ultra-rich bankers are still partying.
The people of London are pissed off, but they should remember the words of their former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher:
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Follow London’s Biggest Demonstration In A Decade As 300,000 Protest Austerity And Public Sector Cuts
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/26/2011 10:08 -0400
After leading to the collapse of the Portuguese government, anti-austerity anger is now ramping up at the very heart of the old continent, where the biggest demonstration in over a decade has struck in London. Per the Guardian: “More than a quarter of a million protesters against public sector cuts are expected to flood central London today in the biggest political demonstration for nearly a decade. Police sources, normally cautious about estimating numbers, said last night they were braced for up to 300,000 people to join the march – far higher than previous forecasts from TUC organisers. More than 800 coaches and at least 10 trains have been chartered to bring people to the capital from as far afield as Cornwall and Inverness. The Metropolitan police, under fire for their use of kettling in previous protests, said “a small but significant minority” plan to hijack the march to stage violent attacks. Organisers, however, insist it will be a peaceful family event. Union members are expected be joined by a broad coalition, from pensioners to doctors, families and first-time protesters to football supporters and anarchists. Ed Miliband said the government was dragging the country back to the “rotten” 1980s. Labour is calling today’s event the “march of the mainstream”.” Some of the protesters, already pigeonholed as “anarchists”, have already become unruly as a splinter group has formed on the iconic Oxford street where it is engaged in altercations with the Police, including throwing smoke bombs, lightbulbs filled ammonia.
The protest can be followed in real time on Sky News below.
The Guardian also has a live blog of the protest that can be followe here:
Some of the most recent entries:
1.44pm: Richard Evans has been talking to PA News about his 166 miles trek from Cardiff to join the march.
Evans, a PCS union rep who was interviewed by the Guardian about his protest earlier this week, said the walk was worth it although his feet were “very sore”.
“I wanted to encourage people to get on a bus. I think the best way to do that is to go a step further.
“The whole point of this is the government looks again at the cuts. I’m hoping there is enough people here to make them realise when you’re in the position you’re in – in the coalition government – you need to think again. With this number of people, the government have to take notice. “
1.39pm: Paul Lewis has just tweeted about police penning in protesters outside Downing Street.
1.39pm: Paul Lewis has just tweeted about police penning in protesters outside Downing Street.
Reports of “light kettle” at Downing Street and rolling shop occupations at Picadilly #march26 #26marchless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
Paul Lewis
paul__lewis
1.31pm: Activists from Ukuncut, the peaceful direct action group that has closed down more than 100 high street stores accused of tax avoidance, are moving into position on Oxford Street. They are planning 14 different occupations of high street stores accused of tax avoidance, Matthew Taylor writes.
A spokesman just said there were about 200 people moving towards their various targets with more expected to join in the next half an hour.
Meanwhile the main march just gets bigger. People are still streaming across bridges to join from south London while others are making their way from the north.
Bernard Goyder, a veteran of last year’s student protests, said he had been “blown away” by today’s turnout.
“This couldn’t be any better. I have never seen such a wide diverse group of people together. It dwarves anything I have seen before. It is much much bigger than any of us were expecting”
1.15pm: Tom Wills, a student journalist based in Brighton, has posted a set of photos from the march on Flickr, which give a sense of the mass turnout.
1.10pm: EastLondonLines, a news website run by the journalism department of Goldsmiths, has posted this Twitpic, which shows the protesters marching past police lines near Parliament.
Paul Lewis Photograph: Sarah Lee
1.04pm: Paul Lewis has sent through an update, describing the wide range of groups who have joined today’s protest.
“Standing here watching hundreds of thousands of people stream past, you get a real sense of the broad coalition against the government. I noted down every banner that past through over a couple of minutes.
“Somerset Teachers Association, Vulnerable Chinese Migrants Association, Society of Radiographers, Prison Officers Association, Don’t Cut Out The Disabled, Southend On Sea Unison Branch, Ipswich Labour Party, Cut Trident, Nurses Uncut, Met Police Group PCS Union, Calderdale Division of the NUT, Chelsea Anti Cuts Alliance, Colchester NHS SOS, South Ribble Children, The Bohemian Storm is Rising, Parents Alliance of Community Schools, Isle of Wight Uncut.”
1.02pm: Matthew Taylor says thousands of people are still joining the march, with the total number estimated at around 400,000.
“I am now on a footbridge overlooking the Embankment and people have been streaming underneath us for about an hour. People are queuing as far back as I a can see and tens of thousands more are still arriving from side streets. Organisers are suggesting there could be as many as 400,000 here today. That is impossible to verify at this stage. But it is clear that this is a very big demo.”
1.00pm: While this photo from Mary shows crowds gathering at Embankment.
12.58pm: This photo by Mary Hamilton pokes fun at undercover police officers – whose activities have recently been investigated by the Guardian.
Undercover police assembly point on the anti-cuts march in London. Photograph: newsmary/twitpic
12.45pm: Journalist Mary Hamilton – aka newsmary – has been posting photos of the march on Twitpic.
12.35pm: The Public and Commercial Services Union has set up its own live blog of the march.
12.30pm: Here’s a map of the march route
View March for the Alternative Route in a larger map
…
9.15am: Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the mass protest in London against the coalition government’s public sector cuts.
Around 300,000 people are expected to join the March for the Alternative organised by the TUC, the biggest union-organised event for over 20 years and the largest in the country since the protest against the Iraq war in 2003. More than 800 coaches and 10 trains have been chartered to bring people to the capital from as far afield as Cornwall and Inverness.
Union members are expected to be joined by a broad coalition, from pensioners to doctors, families and first-time protesters, to football supporters and anarchists. My colleague Matthew Taylor has written a guide to all the organisations – both official and unofficial – who will be taking part.
The Metropolitan Police believe a small minority will try to hijack the anti-cuts march to stage violent attacks on property and the police. The TUC organisers of the event say they have organised a family-friendly demonstration with brass, jazz and Bollywood bands. But there are concerns that unofficial feeder marches, sit-down protests and a takeover of Trafalgar Square could turn from peaceful civil disobedience into stand-offs with the police.
The march assembles on the Embankment from 11am but it will still be leaving at 2pm and possibly even later. The TUC has drawn up a set of tips for those planning to join the march. The protest will culminate in a rally in Hyde Park. Guardian reporters Matthew Taylor and Paul Lewis will be out on the streets covering the protest as it happens.
If you’re at the demo and want to send me any comments – or share any pictures, audio clips and videos – you can contact me either on david.batty@guardian.co.uk or on Twitter – @David_Batty
Administrator says:
THE AP SAID THEY WERE PEACEFUL PROTESTS. NOT SO MUCH:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/london-rioters-attack-ritz-hotel-fail-dent-reinforced-glass
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26th March 2011 at 3:30 pm
plato_plubius says:
A few days ago I posted this video from Charlie Veitch of the LOVE POLICE and said to keep on eye on London today….
Stay tuned to the situation, I have a feeling it is going to get more interesting than that Richmond Kansas game yesterday for sure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbMtokWoJFc
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26th March 2011 at 3:43 pm
moine says:
Folks need to remember that London is one of the most cctv-intensive cities on the planet. More surveillance cameras than you could “shake a stick at” (as my grandfather used to say). Any guesses as to whether or not the digital video feeds from those cameras filming the protesters are going to be shared with government intel/security agencies around the globe?
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26th March 2011 at 3:49 pm
Muck About says:
The richest segment of the Free Shit Army is being heard from, From London to Wisconsin, the ones who profit most from their FreeShit are leading the charge.
Anyone watch Fox today? They had another of John Stossel’s great look at “freeloaders” including himself! I think it was a rerun (at least parts of it) but Stossel is always great and about the only MSM commentator that knows his ass from his belly button..
This will be “trickle down” riots. First the richest of the FSA, next the old folks and pensioners and finally the dregs. Anger is directly in proportion to the amount of Free Shit you get!
MA
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26th March 2011 at 5:07 pm
llpoh says:
Thatcher was the bomb. She was like a right wing Clinton, but on steroids.
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26th March 2011 at 5:13 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
People always riot to get more free shit, not less.
Just one more piece of information that the end is nigh.
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26th March 2011 at 7:33 pm
Opinionated Bloviator says:
What a load of crap. The biggest consumers of free shit are the TBTF banks and Wall Street (ZIRP, bailouts), multinational corporations (GE paid 3% taxes, corporate welfare for ADM, Monsanto…) and the government itself – Pentagon, Dept of Ignorance, Dept of dependance on Middle East Oil, Dept of Open Borders…
The solution, as always, will be to PRINT and spend, then PRINT and spend and if that does not work PRINT and spend even more until IT DOES WORK, after all we control our currency and as such cannot go bankrupt?… at least the Harvard Economists say so and they are always right?….
Print baby print… the cry of the damned…
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26th March 2011 at 7:40 pm
Buckhed says:
Too bad most of the idiots in England don’t own guns but I guess that’s good for the TPTB .
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26th March 2011 at 1:45 am
Goldorack says:
Opinionated Bloviator, congratulation. there is at least ONE guy on this side of the ocean that don’t buy this shit.
just for J6P general information, you have to know that there is NO country in Europe with less free shit than GB. if you compare with the US, America could appear as a socialist wonderland.
the healthcare system is so fucking destroy that they send people in France to get cares.
about unemployment “benefits”, it is so fucking low and short in duration that a bunchload of people even don’t ask for it, not to say that conditions needed to apply are ridiculous and keep another bunch of people away from it. everything more-less depending from state action is a fucking mess in this country since everything has been cut. and the private companies that replace state in some segment perform wonderful fuckups, just like the railways that are the most dangerous of Europe.
the unemployment statistics have always been a fraud in GB and all the right-wingers have taken this economic “model” for real. in fact England has become since Thatcher an industrial desert that has lost his know-how (their biggest civilian ship has been made in france) fully centered on the City and all its wall street-like leechfucks. just like USA has lost its industry for the sake of wall street motherfuckers, but FAR worse.
now that there’s a real crisis, we see how real it is to run a service society built on thin air.
NEVER say that the brits are fighting for free shits, there’s no free shits there.
even if I don’t like them, I have to stand against this idea.
there is new taxes created everyday in England to pay the banksters, that don’t hesitate to increase their wage after being bailed out with public money. in the same time students discover the annual fee to enter public university will cost 3x more. some of those who have already made 1 or 2 years will have to give up before they get the diploma or starve.
the son of the banksters that raped the world dayly since the XV century will have no problem, and the worst criminals will go scott free as usual.
the real situation of GB is way worse than Greece, but since City boys and Wall Streeters fuck together, they mutually support them using the money stolen from the masses.
Brits are THE people the most fucked by their government and the banks
they are right to protest
they should burn and fuck up everything relating to financial crap. why do you think a rock band like Muse has issued tracks such as “uprising”?
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26th March 2011 at 4:17 am
TeresaE says:
The banksters are being allowed to steal everything, but that in no way discounts the reality that it is a FISCAL IMPOSSIBILITY to make the productive work harder to pay for others to stop producing.
The UK is in this boat for the SAME reason we are.
The people WANT government to “protect them.”
The government wants re-elected and writes the laws to benefit those that pay for campaigns.
The government “gave” the people cheap socks by offshoring their productive industries in the name of safety, security and low cost.
We, the people, buy the Asian made stuff from the mega-corporation and take the government’s free shit all the while watching our standard of living decrease.
This shit ain’t going to be “fixed.” And it is only getting started.
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26th March 2011 at 4:59 pm
ickenittle says:
We are all takers of “free shit”. Our “free shit” comes at a discounted price when we pay taxes.
We are all subsidized by the government-whether we want to admit it or not.
Yet the banksters continue to plunder-taking corporate welfare and everyone just points at some pathetic person on food stamps.
Take off your F..ing blinders!
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26th March 2011 at 9:33 pm