Thousands call for UK general election in ‘Britain is Broken’ march through London
- Demonstration was organised by the People’s Assembly, which said protesters are demanding action on low pay and the repeal of ‘anti-union’ employment laws
- Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the government will ‘eventually be forced to listen’ and ‘the people out here are very determined’
Thousands of people have joined a demonstration in London calling for a general election amid the worsening cost-of-living crisis.
A coalition of trade unions and community organisations took part in the “Britain is Broken” protest in central London, which was organised by the People’s Assembly.
Demonstrators marched in the rain from Embankment to Trafalgar Square, where a rally was held with speakers including Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT).
The People’s Assembly said protesters are demanding an immediate general election, action on low pay and the repeal of “anti-union” employment laws.
Protester Adam Robinson said people would “keep shouting” until the Government listened, and likened the movement to the 1990 poll tax riots, which he credited with causing former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s fall from power.
“I’m really starting to feel the pinch, as I know a lot of people are,” the 51-year-old secondary schoolteacher from Maidstone in Kent, who is among those who may go on strike early next year, told said.
“The current Government is an absolute shambles, it is not fit for purpose, it is damaging our country, and I think it’s important that we stand together to make our voices heard and to say that we’re not going to put up with this stuff any more,” he said.
“We keep shouting until they have to listen”, he added. “The trouble is, historically, that when it comes to a point like this when the people really have had enough, the protests start and the protests build and then something big happens.
“I was at the poll tax riot, and that was the one that forced the change and brought down Margaret Thatcher.
“I don’t want it to get to that point, but the powers that be need to understand that they cannot push people indefinitely, they cannot squash people forever.”
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Speaking on stage in Trafalgar Square, Lynch vowed to “strike and strike again” until a “fair deal” is brokered for rail workers.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who also spoke on stage, said afterwards that the government will “eventually be forced to listen” to protesters calling for improved pay and workers’ rights.
Corbyn, who sits as an independent after having the whip removed by his party, said he was there with three Labour MPs, and he believed members of the shadow cabinet should also have been present.
“The government is of course eventually forced to listen, as are the rail companies, therefore they have reopened negotiations with the RMT,” he said.
“The people out here are very determined. They’re not going to see people with disabilities discriminated against, they’re not going to see growing impoverishment in our society.”
