TENS of thousands of people demonstrated from mid-day yesterday outside the Bank of England against bankers,capitalism and the G20 summit.
They arrived via four feeder marches led by mocked-up Horsemen of the Apocalypse from Liverpool St, London Bridge, Cannon Street and Moorgate stations.
The lead banner on the London Bridge march said: ‘Capitalism Isn’t Working.’
Large numbers of riot police were on hand, parked up in side streets, and a police photographer was busy photographing individuals.
The police however presented a low profile with a smaller number of police in yellow jackets stewarding the different marches.
Before setting off from London Bridge, Tony Streeter, a housing association manager, said: ‘I’m here because people are angry at what’s going on in the world.
‘There’s too much corporate greed and not enough attention paid to the environment.
‘Too many people are downtrodden.’
‘It’s time for a better world.
Taxi driver Arshad Khan was carrying a placard denouncing the Iraq war.
‘I’m here to tell the politicians not to attack Iran.
‘There is already one million dead and four million homeless in Iraq and a further two million refugees in Jordan and Syria.
‘Iraq was better under Saddam.
‘We don’t want the same thing to happen to Iran.’
Andy told News Line: ‘I’m over 50 and out of work.
‘The Job Centres are not bothered with me.
‘The rich are just pigs with their snouts in the trough – tax them.’
A school student, George Blake, from Woodford, said: ‘I agree with socialism.
‘And we should nationalise the major industries and the banks – and all the things that Thatcher de-nationalised.’
Charity worker Christine Harris from Marie Curie Cancer Care said: ‘I’m here to protest against wealthy people who have it all to the detriment of the masses.
‘I agree with a general strike to bring down all political parties. I’ve had enough.’
There were scuffles with the police all morning around the Bank of England.
By 1.30pm a section of the demonstrators had broken the windows of the RBS bank, opposite the Bank of England, and set it alight.
Because of the huge crowd the riot police looked the other way and thought better of intervening.
However the police would not allow any of the demonstrators to leave the area, despite the protest of many that they thought that this was a free country.
By late afternoon the police reported that they had arrested 23 people.
Seven thousand mainly young people assembled outside the US embassy and marched to Trafalgar Square at 2pm.
The march was called by the Stop the War coalition and there were banners, from CND, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the NUJ Press and PR branch, and from Stop the War campaigners from all over the country, including Huddersfield, Cambridge, Bristol, Bath and Chesterfield.
Placards carried demands including, ‘Don’t attack Iran’, ‘End Israeli War Crimes in Gaza’, and ‘Quit Iraq and Afghanistan’.
Lauren Murdock, Queen Mary’s Stop the War society, said : ‘People need to speak up more. I am for the withdrawal of the troops.’
Aleesha Hansell a student London Met University said: ‘I support the demands for jobs, justice and climate and really just for a better world.’
Rachel from Nottingham said: ‘I don’t think war is ever the answer. I’ve just been at the other protest, where the police were really violent. People were being corralled into a tight corner and they were being pushed from all angles.
‘And they just would not let anybody out.’
Robin McGee from Cambridge, a sixth-form student, said: I went to the demonstration outside the Bank of England.
‘I want to see the banks properly nationalised rather than as they are at the moment where the bankers are still running them.’
American Heidi Brieczke, said ‘I think we should definitely start withdrawing and getting most people home from Iraq and Afghanistan.’
