Put People First, Peacefully
Put People First photosOn Saturday a coalition called Put People First organised a march for job, justice and climate in advance of the G20 summit. Originally I had no intention of going to any of the G20 rallies but after a couple of days of hearing the police and media talk up the violence expected, I got pissed off and finally decided to go that morning.
At the start of the march, I got talking to Hannah who was taking a year out before uni -- it was her first protest and she was keen to learn all about it. I wish I'd been better able to answer her questions on the history of the G20 protests, I guess I've got some reading to do. I also explained about Twitter, though sadly my text to Twitter failed, despite getting a delivery notification, grr.
A mile later, we picked up Liz, from the youth wing of the German Green Party, who'd never been to a protest in the UK before. They both asked me questions about security because of what the media had been saying.
There were no problems of note along the route, despite the 35,000 strong march stretching about three miles from Embankment to Hyde Park. The police were low-profile and could occasionally be spotted having a friendly chat with one or two of the dodgier looking marchers. If it's like that on Wednesday, that would be great.
We were in the tail of the march and it was hailing when we reached Hyde Park, so we bailed in favour of drinking coffee somewhere warm. Not knowing the area well, Hannah wound up leading us to the fifth floor cafe of Harvey Nichols. :-D But it was warm and the view was great.