People reached the Royal Exchange at about 4pm. There was a Metropolitan police presence at all points along the route, some attempts to contain the demonstration and what at times appeared to be unreasonable force, including batons being drawn.
Later the police moved in against the assembly and made numerous violent arrests - pics to follow.
“The Bank of England stands right at the intersection of finance and government. In the light of Bank governor Mervyn King’s recent comments about “vested interests” standing in the way of reform of the financial sector, it is clear that that balance in the UK is fundamentally skewed. Hundreds of people gathering by the Bank of England is a powerful symbol of how things have to change.“ [1]
On reaching the Bank of England earlier this afternoon, Occupy London’s twitter account gave its own explanation for the choice of venue: “Bank of England -– the bad old lady of Threadneedle Street. Privately owned until 1946 but still run in the interests of private banks.” Followed by: “Mervyn king. Occupy London would like to talk. The 1% want more quantitative easing. More money for them. We say no.” [2]
Events in London come as part of an international day of action to mark the one year anniversary of the indignados taking to the squares of Spain. Demonstrations, occupations and activities are taking place in more than 380 cities across the world. A further day of action will be held on Tuesday 15th May, with Occupy London intending to target the British Bankers’ Association. [3]
Notes
[1] Sir Mervyn King tells George Osborne you must act now to tame the city –
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sir-mervyn-king-tells-george-osborne-you-must-act-now-to-tame-the-city-7707602.html [2] twitter.com/occupylondon or twitter. com/occupy may
[3] A map of international actions may be found at
http://map.12m-15m.org For more information on May plans in London – http://may2012.occupylondon.org.uk/
Original article on IMC London:
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Saw a vid from this
13.05.2012 16:30
anarchist
Occupy is what you want it to be
13.05.2012 18:02
Even if you don't agree with everything that is released by occupylondon in statements online-come on the protests. It's pretty much the only resistence to the bastards who oppress us. And it was nice to see on Saturday peope not accepting the police behavior and fighting back. Some of the police thugs were well and truly kettled on the march(having attacked first) by real people and they did not like that at all. When outnumbered the pricks freak out as they really are bullies and utter cowards.
me