People's Assembly Against Austerity Demo (20th June 2015)

'The Enemy is Profit'

We left Norwich at about 8am. I ended up on the coach with Equal Lives and kept wondering what the future holds for those who lead and participate in this group. Five more years of Ian Duncan Smith’s reign of terror on top of the reprehensible damage already done has the potential to make the lives of disabled people unbearable. Thank goodness that organisations like Equal Lives exist. They will only become more necessary in the near future. I kept thinking of those I’d shared the ride with as we marched.

Folks assembling at the beginning of the march

Having reached London, the atmosphere as the blocs assembled was electric. Speakers lined the street up from the Bank of England, allowing everyone to hear the speeches given by a wide range of people belonging to/associated with the People’s Assembly on a platform near HSBC. Among others we heard from NUS, CND, Natalie Bennett of the Green Party, and someone from the Fire Brigades Union (I didn’t catch who it was) who rightfully addressed the Met police officers working that march and reminded them that austerity would affect them too. Owen Jones, a journalist/activist who I always love hearing from spoke too, highlighting the government's avoidance of accountability through scapegoating immigrants, the unemployed, etc. He also stressed the importance of taking the energy from the march and maintaining it, eking it out in our communities to educate those who are unaware or misinformed, and support those who share this fight.  

One thing that struck me was the demographics present. For the most part I’d been expecting young people, students mainly, since my own personal (and clearly limited) experience of activism primarily involves university students. Plus I've been told quite often by jaded older people that you stop caring about politics as you get older, that you get worn down and lose hope about changing things. There were people of all ages present, however, including hardened protest veterans and families with very young children. It was pretty great to see toddlers trying to get their mouths around ‘No ifs, no buts, no public sector cuts’ – although I kept picturing a hysterical Daily Mail headline about socialists indoctrinating innocent children.

There were some great placards and costumes, too. One girl made signs using Mean Girls quotes, which there are pictures of online. I think my favourite is an image of Boris Johnson with the caption ‘That’s why his hair’s so big – it’s full of secrets…and bigotry.’ Possibly the best costume was worn by a guy who’d paper-machéed a really impressive crab outfit for himself, including working pincers, with a David Cameron mask on his face. He kept sidling over to us, clacking his claws in a way that I can’t decide whether to describe as hilarious or disturbing. I’m pretty sure he was alone. Great idea – 

Cameron and the Tories sidle up and get snip-happy when it comes to the public sector.

Met officers lined up near Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) - thankfully there was no trouble

My friends and I kept getting caught in quiet and sparsely-populated sections of the march, so we gravitated as much as possible towards people who were making some noise, because we wanted to as well, having a lot of anger to vent. We’d started with the Norwich Labour group, who have a very majestic-looking banner made in the eighties (yay for Norwich Labour folks, and the Norwich South Labour MP Clive Lewis, for supporting Labour’s original socialist values). We’d found a very noisy group by the time we reached Whitehall, and the sheer volume as we passed Downing Street was thrilling. To be surrounded by so many people who care deeply about the same thing as yourself is so incredibly uplifting.

Us lot after reaching Parliament (Katie Ward's photo)

Once we got to Parliament Square we all rested for a bit and went off to get a drink where we could still hear the speakers. When we returned, at the back of the square there were several people climbing statues, the nearest to us being a guy dressed up in full military camouflage with a gas-mask and helmet with the anarchy symbol painted on. He held up a smoke canister and posed for photographs, sticking placards through the arms of the Jan Smuts statue. Another guy climbed up beside him, dressed entirely in black including the scarf round his face, the hat on his head and his sunglasses. As he made the anarchy sign with his fingers I couldn’t help doubting his true dedication to anarchism what with his Nike bag, Beats headphones, etc.

The anarchist soldier

Anarchic smoke

We moved off so that we could hear the end-of-march speakers better. We missed Caroline Lucas due to needing a pee, sadly, but we got to hear from Jeremy Corbyn which was great – short, simple, and to-the-point. The highlight for me was Charlotte Church – her speech was so rousing, particularly at its climax where she listed the members of society who the government ought to help – black, white, Muslim, Jewish, disabled, transgender, etc. – all the while gathering in volume with the crowd’s cheering reaching a crescendo underneath her words. People scoff at Church for being a hypocrite, saying she as a millionaire has no right to criticise the government and their austerity regime, but she has said she would gladly take a tax raise and I see nothing wrong with a person using their position of privilege to help the disadvantaged. I myself am middle class and quite well-off, and will probably be relatively unaffected by austerity in terms of my individual material status (provided my mental health doesn’t decline so much that I need to access services for it again.) However, I refuse to stand by and watch the continued rise of homelessness, poverty, sickness, suicide and all the other effects of austerity on the most vulnerable in our society. I will not see the majority suffer while the minority accrues its jealously guarded piles of excess wealth. I won’t sit down in selfish complacency just because I am presently not threatened by government callousness. Instead I’ll do what I can to help – and on 20^th June 2015 that involved shouting in unison with lots of angry people, to demonstrate our dissent.

Wearing our Jeremy Corbyn tees with pride - there's hope for Labour yet

There are people who say that protesting is useless, that it will not change anything, that protesters are time-wasters at best or thugs at worst. I’ve seen people online telling student protesters specifically to go find a job rather than inconveniencing everyone by being belligerent lefties. In fact lots of students have jobs, thanks, and in fact I and other people I know gave up a day of work, and wages we could have done with, in order to attend this march. We showed up because we care, and because we need to be surrounded by other people who care, so that we can reboot our determination and show the government that there are great swathes of people who intend to hold them accountable. I see no futility in doing so.

The shouting, chanting, marching and singing is cathartic and the solidarity is rejuvenating. It’s not just an expression of anger, it is a celebration of our shared values and our right to protest. To see so many people protesting austerity has wiped away the political fatigue that I was feeling, the hopeless conviction that this country is on an inevitable downward slide into total grasping selfishness. And even if it is, at least we can say we fought against that decline. At least we can say that we railed against the loss of the best things about Britain – the welfare state, multiculturalism, and the freedom to express one’s values and beliefs. Every single person matters, and I intend to uphold and fight for that conviction for as long as I can.


[All images my own apart from the one I've indicated isn't]