Report of March for the Alternative Saturday 26th March

I attended the TUC march along with my daughter.We met up with an old friend from
Southampton and his friends at Waterloo station.We had intended to go and meet up with the For Bolshevism comrades at Cleopatra's Needle but this was defeated by the police who for reasons known to themselves blocked the Hungerford footbridge,the most easiest and direct routes to the start of the march at Victoria embankment.We had to walk along the south bank to Waterloo bridge. Hundreds of people did the same so there was a long wait to get on the bridge and then slow progress to the other side.It took about an hour to do this.The police then had blocked the stairs down to the road and also blocked side roads off the Strand leading to the embankment.Perversely the police and stewards directed marchers to turn right along the strand in the completely opposite direction to what we had expected to go ! The police neglected to stop or divert traffic so the road got blocked unintentionally.We then .finally reached the start of the march on Embankment.
There were lots of colourful trade union banners and placard.Lots of ordinary working people some with small children had joined the march. We saw firefighters on the march either in their red FBU t shirts or in uniform.We even saw Nepalese Gurkhas marching.There was an array of left groups on the march or by the side,the different Trotskyite group with the awful counter revolutionary SWP having a big presence but also the stodgy Trotskyite Socialist Party.We saw ex MP Dave Nellist making a speech first at embankment then at Hyde Park(must have had his own helicopter).The revisionist "Morning Star" pulled off a coup by getting the trade unions to sponsor free copies of it.
Although the "Morning Star" had good layout and good writing style I noticed it basically advocated reformist ideas and called for support for the Labour party.

We found ourselves in need of certain facilities so headed for Charing Cross station.We then rejoined it at Traflagar Square.We spotted the AUCPB red flag but could not get across the road to join it.So we got back on the march.At last we got into Hyde Park about 4 hours after starting.Here we encountered the CPGBML at the entrance to Hyde Park I said hello to Zane quickly.
I would say about 1 million or just under went.Mirror newspaper say 500,000 and BBC say 400,000.It is an achievement for so many workers in a country like the UK , noted for apathy,passivity and conservatism , to march.

Getting home proved difficult.We thought we could catch the central line and change to the Jubilee line but the police would let people in the station. We tried to get a no 6 bus down to Charing Cross but no buses. So we decided to walk. We encoutered riot police at Oxford Circus and in Regent street.At one point we panicked a bit when we saw them behind us. Some of the police wore nazi style light blue flat caps.At Piccadilly the cops had blocked Shaftesbury Avenue.We could saw marchers still marching on Piccadilly including a marcher with a Starry Plough Irish republican socialist flag. We finally got down to Charing Cross and got a train.On the train we learnt that the Ritz and Fortnum and Mason had been stormed.Apparently banks were attacked and also Topshop which belongs to tax evading Zionist capitalist exploiter Philip Green