Thousands of anti-austerity protesters fill the streets of London
LONDON -- Thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday in an anti-austerity march for "Health, Homes, Jobs and Education."
Much of central London was brought to a standstill as junior doctors, union representatives, activists and other groups of protesters held banners demanding the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron.
On Twitter, #4Demands was trending for most of the afternoon as the demonstrators shared photos and video. As ever, pig masks and signs were on display, in reference to the "PigGate" linked to Cameron.
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The demonstration was organised by anti-austerity group The People's Assembly, which says there is no need for cuts to public services.
Estimates on the crowd size vary from 50,000 to 150,000, but there is no doubt that it was a very big demonstration.
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Shadow chancellor John McDonnell vowed in an impassioned speech that a Labour government would end austerity and oppose any privatisation of the NHS.
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was in Liverpool but posted a video expressing his solidarity with the protesters.
The demands of the protesters include: a publicly owned NHS, rent control, the end of insecure work contracts and tuition-free education.
A major theme on social media was demonstrators trying to get the BBC to cover the protests. The BBC didn't cover the initial start of the protest around 1 p.m., but put a story online around 4 p.m.
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Topics Activism
Liza Hearon was the Deputy Editor for Mashable UK. Liza started her career in journalism writing about punk bands for a 'zine in Florida, and her wanderlust has led her to work for news organisations in Russia, Japan and now London. Prior to joining Mashable, she was the European homepage editor for the Wall Street Journal. Liza loves podcasts, karaoke and really, really spicy food.
