London Protest of budget cuts grows to 400,000

Anti-Cuts March Swells to 400,000

 London hosts largest protest since Iraq war as

    workers and public demonstrate against

    government spending cuts  Guardian (UK)  March 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/mar/26/thousands-march-against-cuts-in-pictures

Around 400,000 people have joined a march in London to

oppose the coalition government's spending cuts.

In what looks like being the largest mass protest since

the anti-Iraq war march in 2003, teachers, nurses,

midwives, NHS, council and other public sector workers

were joined by students, pensioners and direct action

supporters, bringing the centre of the capital to a

standstill.

Tens of thousands of people streamed along Embankment

and past police barriers in Whitehall. Feeder marches,

including a protest by students which set off from the

University of London in Bloomsbury, swelled the crowd,

which stretched back as far as St Paul's Cathedral.

The biggest union-organised event for over 20 years saw

more than 800 coaches and dozens of trains hired to

bring people to London, with many unable to make the

journey to the capital because of the massive demand

for transport.

"I'm sure that many of our critics will try to write us

off today as a minority, vested interest," said Brendan

Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union

Congress, which organised the march.

"The thousands coming to London from across the country

will be speaking for their communities when they call

for a plan B that saves vital services, gets the

jobless back to work and tackles the deficit through

growth and fair tax."

Barber is expected to tell this afternoon's rally in

Hyde Park that there is an alternative to the "brutal"

spending cuts, which have already led to the threat of

170,000 council job losses and another 50,000 elsewhere

in the public sector.

"No part of our public realm is to be protected. And

don't believe it when ministers say that the NHS is

safe in their hands. With over 50,000 job cuts already

in the pipeline - nurses, doctors, physios, midwives -

in the name of so-called efficiency savings of £20bn,

the NHS as we know it is already in intensive care.

"With David Cameron talking about selling it off to any

willing provider out to make a profit, the NHS is

facing the gravest threat in its history. Today let us

say to him: we will not let you destroy what has taken

generations to build. Let's be brutally clear about

these brutal cuts. They're going to cost jobs on a huge

scale - adding to the misery of the 2.5 million people

already on the dole."

The education secretary, Michael Gove, acknowledged the

public's concerns about the planned cuts, but insisted

they were necessary.

"Of course people will feel a sense of disquiet, in

some cases anger, at what they see happening," Gove

told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "But the difficulty

we have, as the government inheriting a terrible

economic mess, is that we have to take steps to bring

the public finances back into balance."

Labour politicians will join the march, and party

leader, Ed Miliband, will address the rally in Hyde

Park.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison union,

will tell demonstrators that the government faces being

wiped out in May's elections.

"Every month when a library closes, a care home shuts

its doors, or services for struggling young people are

withdrawn, I want them to feel the fear, and anger of

the people who have come here today from every part of

the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a

fairer future."

Banks and stores in Oxford Street are being targeted by

the anti-cuts group UK Uncut. There are also plans to

target a secret location with a mass occupation.

Around 4,500 police officers were on duty, with the

human rights group Liberty sending 100 legal observers

to monitor their actions.

The senior Scotland Yard officer in charge of policing

the protests, Commander Bob Broadhurst, has pledged

that the controversial tactic of "kettling" protesters

into a confined area will be kept to a minimum. "The

issues will be with the fracture groups who might want

to spoil the party," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/26/anti-cuts-march-swells-400000

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