By Steve Hynd
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Britain today held a massive protest against the conservative/liberal coalition government's "austerity budget" - a budget which is stripping public sector jobs by the hundred thousand and decimating the poor's social safety net while the UK is still spending money hadn over fist to help occupy Afghanistan and now to bomb Libya.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber was first in a line of speakers.
"We are here to send a message to the government that we are strong and united," he said.
"We will fight the savage cuts and we will not let them destroy peoples' services, jobs and lives."
The TUC and police said at least a quarter of a million people attended the march. Other estimates by the press put numbers as high as 400,000 or even half a million.
Out of all that, only 75 people have been arrested - most peaceful protesters from the UKUncut movement who were staging a non-violent sit-down at upscale store Fortnum and masons when the police declared it a crime scene and sent in riot police to arrest them.
Exactly this kind of protest is what the US needs to - aimed bi-partisanly at the corporate-serving conservatives and neoliberals who can find endless money for endless warfare, but none for nation building at home.
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