19J in London and beyond

anon@indymedia.org (maqui & px) | 20.06.2011 22:55 | London

As part of the #globalrevolution day of action called for Sunday 19 June by the 15M Movement of the square occupations in Spain, around 500 people took part in the demonstration organised by the 15M London Assembly in Trafalgar square.

The 19J European wide day of demonstrations was called to protest against the '2011 Euro Plus Pact' - also known as the Competitiveness Pact or Pact for the Euro - which seeks to impose massive cuts in public spending as well as severe restrictions in labour rights across Europe.

See pics and report of the London protest and beyond ...

In London's Trafalgar Sqaure and Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens:

At around 6pm a procession carrying a coffin with the word 'democracy' written on it arrived at Trafalgar Square. The centre of the square was fenced off due to the 'Soho Live' festival that had taken place during the weekend, so the crowd made its way to the southern side of the square and took over the traffic island at the top Whitehall.

The 500 strong crowd demonstrated in there for well over two hours, dancing to an impromptu 'samba band', chanting slogans such as "no-one represents us", "one solution, revolution", and "take to the streets, we won't pay for your crisis" whlst displaying a huge banner demanding an '"Europe for the citizens, not the markets". For the first hour or so the demonstration was very lively and loud, and eventually the crowd sat down for an open-mic session. Several people took the opportunity to address the crowd, some talked about the 15M mobilistions in Spain and in London during the past few weeks [reports 1|2|3] , as well as in Greece and Italy.

Others talked about the J30 Strike announced for this June 30th against public sector cuts in the UK, and called for people to actively take part in it by supporting the pickets and actions planned all over the UK. Speakers also made connections between the massive wave of popular resistance currently going on in some southern European countries such as Spain and Greece against the austerity measures that are being imposed by governments, the EU and the IMF, with the anti-cuts and student movements recently seen in this country. Other speakers included someone from Iran that talked about the parallelisms between the 15M Movement in Spain and the ongoing wave of dissent throughout the Arab world, and another from Greece that talked about the need for moving beyond the rule of parliamentarian democracy and into more participative, inclusive and direct ways of organising our societies.

In Manchester around 100 people followed the 19J call to action and demonstrated in the city's Piccadilly Gardens. See report and pics.

In Spain:

Hundreds of thousands of people ttok to the streets in massive demonstrations in many cities and towns throughout the Spanish state. The biggest ones took place in Barcelona where 250,000 people marched behind a huge banner reading "The streets are ours, we won't pay for the crisis" from Plaça de Catalunya - the downtown square that had been occupied for the last few weeks - towards de regional Parliament building. In Madrid several demos arriving from different neighbourhoods and surrounding towns [video] converged in the city centre in a 120,000 strong demonstration, and marched towards the state's Parliament. In both cities the demonstrations passed without incidents albeit they were loud and determined.

Throughout Spain: See a collection of reports(esp), pics and videos from several cities across Spain here.

The Spanish 15M Movement of popular assemblies that organised Sunday's demonstrations, are now proposing to the local assemblies in towns and cities throughout Spain to start working towards a series of coordinated general strikes.

And beyond:

In Paris (France) 124 people were arrested when they were taking part in a 19J sit-in demonstration outside the city's Notre Dame cathedral. See report(esp) and videos.

In Brussels (Belgium) around 700 people followed the 19J call. See report(fr) and videos.

In Skopje (Macedonia) around 1,000 people took to the streets. See report(eng) and video.

More information in English language in the #15mayrevolution blog and in the #europeanrevolution website.

Recent related posts in the IMC London wires:

anon@indymedia.org (maqui & px)
Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/9354

UK Indymedia

19J in London and beyond