Anti-austerity protesters gather in London to demonstrate against cuts

Traffic on Westminster bridge in London was brought to a standstill on Saturday as hundreds of protesters occupied the road to paint a huge message decrying the government’s austerity agenda.

As dozens of police watched, protesters first painted, then hung a 20 metre banner over the side of the bridge facing parliament. “12bn more cuts. £120bn tax dodged,” it said. “Austerity is a lie.”

It was the first demonstration by UK Uncut, the grassroots direct action group, since the 7 May election. With the Conservative government planning deep cuts to public services, activists vowed that it was a taste of things to come.

A UK Uncut member, Beth Cunningham, 26, said: “With the new government being sworn in on Wednesday we just wanted to send a clear message that we are going to be fighting the cuts.

“Direct action is what works. It sends a loud and clear message that people aren’t happy. And it’s part of acknowledging that our current political resources aren’t enough. People don’t have enough resources in the current political system to make their voices heard and that’s why we resort to direct action.”

A second UK Uncut member, who preferred to remain anonymous, added: “You can tell David Cameron used to work in PR because they have been so successful in getting everyone to believe this story about austerity.

“We wanted to challenge that narrative and that’s why we chose the tax-dodging statement, because it makes our argument very succinctly.”

The protesters met at Waterloo station, with the crowd falling short of the 4,700 who had signed up to the event on Facebook. Many of those who did attend carried home-made placards. “There is such a thing as society, and we’re here to say enough,” read one.

The demonstration snaked past the Royal Festival Hall and the South Bank, as protest leaders led them to a secret location. Dozens of police followed. Many wore bulging blue overalls that concealed body armour.

Protesters were ebullient in the warm early afternoon sun. Battery-powered soundsystems played hip-hop, reggae and punk music. “They say cut back, we say fight back,” people chanted, as well as the now almost traditional calls of “Whose streets? Our Streets!”

The crowd stopped on Westminster bridge, with many still unclear as to what was going on until a UK Uncut member took to a megaphone and asked people to clear a space for them to roll out the long yellow banner. Paint and brushes were handed out, and several dozen chipped in to decorate the banner with its anti-austerity message.

Finally protesters lifted the banner from the road, carried it to the side of the road and hung it off the bridge. Weights attached to ropes kept it from falling into the Thames. Activists set off smoke bombs, shrouding the whole demonstration in a pink cloud.

A Scotland Yard spokesman later said he had heard no news of arrests and despite the presence of riot police, the protest remained good natured.

Those taking part expressed their anger over the deep cuts the government has proposed for the next five years. Jumanah Jones, 24, standing with a banner labelled “Sisters Uncut”, said: “With the advent of the new Tory government we are seeing even more in depth and frightening cuts to public services. Sisters Uncut are campaigning specifically to stop cuts to domestic violence centres

With the localism bill, local councils have even less money in their budgets to pay for services and given that domestic violence services are not given statutory status there is no duty for them to continue funding them.”

Following the general election there was also a sense that people were now prepared to carry on politics by other means. Jon Burke, 33, a Labour councillor in Hackney, was pushing his son along in a buggy.

“I’m a veteran of these campaigns,” he said. “I’ve been doing these campaigns for five years. It’s some of the most effective political work I’ve done in my life. These people are the reason why Dave Hartnett [a former chief tax inspector] lost his job.

“The left is in a bit of a crisis at the moment,” Burke said. “I’m concerned that Labour are going to have another protracted period of infighting and they aren’t going to give an effective opposition to the Tory government. UK Uncut are already providing that opposition.”