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#26 March, The Story Told by Those on the Streets

anon@indymedia.org (IMC-London) | 30.03.2011 22:23 | London

The massive March for the Alternative demonstration and day of action has come and gone, and what a day it was! Indymedia London was busy reporting the whole day and, together with other radical media projects such as the x26radio live streaming, it offered reporting infrasructure so those taking part in the demonstrations, occupations and actions could tell the story collectively in real time, first-hand and in an unmediated manner.

Reports kept coming in throughout the day whilst updates direct from the streets were being published to the Tumblewire. As the day went on people also contributed photos and videos, and post-action evaluation and analysis posts are still coming in. As a result it has been possible to document the day in this comprehensive roundup feature as well as in thetimeline of events. IMC-London would like to thank all of you that made the reporting possible!

We are now presenting all these contributions in a thematic order hopefully making it more comprehensive. See it all here ….

The day started with two main feeder marches. One that had been called as a South London Feeder march starting in Kennington park at 11am, and which included a call for a Radical Workers bloc. The other descending into central London from ULU in Malet Street called the ‘Education Bloc’ feeder march which included a Militant Workers bloc

The South London feeder march left Kennington Park at about 11.30am and it quickly grew to over 5000 people making their way towards Westminster. Apart from the 300 strong Radical Workers bloc, this march also included the now infamous ‘Trojan’ horse, union members, as well as many local anti-cuts campaigns and groups from all around south London, including Lambeth Save our Services, Southwark Save our Services and the Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance

Photo reports:

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Video:

x26radio stream:


The Education Bloc feeder march from ULU in Male street was also attended by several thousand people. People had gathered from 9am, and at around 11am the march set off towards the Embankment. It eventually reached the main TUC demo and most people stayed as a bloc within it until around 2pm when it split off at Trafalgar Sq and made their way towards Oxford St, where several actions where due to take place from 2pm:

x26radio stream:


The Pink and Black bloc that gathered in Soho Square also set off at around this time:


The TUC main march was well under way by 1pm, at it soon became obvious that the diversity of people on the protest meant that it could not be considered simply a a ‘trade union march’ or the ‘usual suspects’. It was made of a broad cross-section of British society, with the possible exception of the super rich.

Photos:

Reports and Photos:

x26radio stream:


From 2pm large crowds of people started to make their way towards Oxford Street following a UKUncut call to Occupy for the Alternative. Ukuncut protestors immediately started to close down shops all along Oxford St and the surrounding area. These included many flagship stores including Tesco, Topshop, Carphone Warehouse, MCDonnald’s, Boots, Miss Selfridges, Ann Summers, and many more. Many of these stores were also paint-bombed and graffitied, even though large lines of riot police formed to protect them. The crowds in and around Oxford Street kept growing throughout the afternoon into the many thousands, effectively closing down the are for several hours.

Photo reports:

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Videos:

x26radio stream:


At the same time the UKuncut actions were taking place in and around Oxford street, a large militant and fast-moving ‘Black Bloc’ was roaming around the West End, the high-class shopping district. In a quite coordinated and disciplined manner, they spend a few hours smashing in windows of banks and paintbombing symbolic buildings and police vans. They also managed to keep the riot police and FIT teams at by throughout the afternoon. As a result the HSBC bank in Cambridge Circus has its doors smashed, the Santander in Piccadilly had its windows broken, and many other banks attacked by the roaming crowd. The Mayfair Hotel, Starbucks and a Porsche showroom were also attacked. Eventually the bloc made its way towards Piccadilly where people attacked the Ritz Hotel.

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x26radio stream:


Fortnum and Mason Occupation. At around 3.30 pm a large crowd of over 5000 people was gathering in Oxford Circus for the UKuncut "spectacular" and "secret" occupation of an “landmark target”. People left the Circus down to Regent Street in a very large demonstration, re-joined the main TUC demo for a little while that was still passing Piccadilly, and eventually the crowd turned into the swanky food and drink superstore Fortnum and Mason and moved quickly to occupy it. Around 200 protesters managed to enter the store before riot police turned up in force to protect the entrance. A crowd of several thousand stayed on the street outside the store until police cleared the area clashing with those assembled. The occupation was ended when police, lying to protesters, announced that those inside the store were free to leave the building. But as people left the store in group, they were actually arrested one by one. 147 people were arrested at the action, many of which face charges.

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x26radio stream:


Fires is Piccadilly and Party and Kettle in Trafalgar Square. By 6pm, large groups of protesters were still roaming around the West End. Whilst hundreds of people started to gather in Trafalgar Square for the day’s grand finale, others were setting burning barricades around Piccadilly Circus. An occupation of Hyde Park was also tacking place where around 200 people set up tents and marquees.

The "Occupation of Trafalgar Square’ started with a strong party atmosphere with people dancing to several mobile sound systems and a samba band. But eventually, at around 6pm, large numbers of riot police violently attacked those gathered with the excuse that someone had attacked the olympic clock in the middle of the square. People initially defended themselves from the police attack, but the hundreds of police lines forming all over the area proved too difficult to overcome, and thus* around 200 people were kettled in the middle of the square until the early hours of the morning. Meanwhile groups of people kept defending their ground outside the police lines stopping traffic at junctions, but they were repeatedly attacked with police charges and snatch squads grabbing targeted individuals. The area around the square was finally cleared off at around midnight with thick riot police lines formed on all the junctions leading to the square. Those trapped inside the kettle were initially detained, filmed and some arrested.

Photo reports:

Tumblepic:

Videos:

x26radio stream:


Analysis and Evaluation of the day from a several sources:


anon@indymedia.org (IMC-London)
- Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/8602