Print this post.The return of dread Thatcherism? The Brits think so.
By DJ Pangburn Saturday, March 26, 2011
You know shit is going badly for the wealthy elite when Black Block-style protesters take to the streets.
The UK newspaper, ‘The Independent,’ is reporting that nearly half a million protesters have taken to the street in anti-cuts protests. The protests were organized as peaceful, but expect authorities to whip up fury with agent provocateurs, the tactic Carlos F. Lam suggested to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
The groups TUC and UKUncut have organized the two arms of the protests.
UK Uncut posted a detailed plan and map of their target: “Simultaneous occupations of tax dodgers and banks the length of Oxford Street.” In effect, UK Uncut’s protests is aimed at large corporations and banks that have avoided taxes while the rest of the United Kingdom’s citizens have seen cuts in university, arts and social programs. Austerity for the middle class, not the upper class. To read a more complete list of their objectives, check out the group’s press release.
TUC, on the other hand, is the Trades Union Congress. Their march aims for an “alternative” to austerity by way of “jobs, growth and justice.” According to TUC’s site, a recent YouGov poll revealed that the majority of UK citizens support TUC’s March for the Alternative.
Initial estimates put the protesters at 250,000 (the expected number), but most recent reportsput the total number of TUC protesters at 500,000.
Some Black Block protesters—not associated with the vast majority of TUC or UK Uncut protesters—occupied Fortnum & Mason, a symbol of the wealthy elite’s shopping sprees, unfurled an anarchist flag and clashed with riot police.
It is important that people keep in mind that the Black Block protesters do not speak for the other approximately 500,000 people. And while the protests have remained peaceful, don’t be surprised of mainstream media or government officials try to spread disinformation about the nature of the protests, and try to paint the event as violent powderkeg, as is power’s wont.
One of the UK Uncut protesters, Sally Mason, is quoted as saying:
Civil disobedience has a long tradition of driving forward progressive change and we are here to send a powerful message that we are angry at the government’s choice to protect the rich and punish the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society. It’s society that’s too big to fail, not the broken banking sector. There is an alternative through clamping down on tax avoidance and making the banks pay for their crisis, the government is just choosing to ignore it and that is not fair or right.
Stay tuned for updates and possible interviews with London protesters.