The democratic movement Save Our Rights UK has been fighting against the neo-fascist Fake-CovidCoup overshadowing the breakdown of financial systems since April 2020. Demos have been announced for 31st of December 2020 across England and Europe.
28 November 2020, London. I arrived at London Paddington at midday from Penzance to march for my freedom with SAVE OUR RIGHTS UK.
Through their telegram channel I had learnt by 9 am that numerous coaches had been chased down by the police on the road, as far a field as Scotland and demonstrators apprehended. At the same time roughly fifty Territorial Support Units (new army police thugs) had parked around Kings Cross train station and had started arresting citizens. Protesting had been made illegal in the UK under the Covid-19 measures. The organisers had to think fast – London is so condensed it is not so difficult to move.
“CHANGE THE MEETING POINT – MARBLE ARCH, LET‘S GO, PEOPLE”
The demo was originally announced for Battersea Park, on the morning moved to Kings Cross, finally thirty minutes before to thwart the police; Marble Arch. One of the activists Piers Corbyn (brother of former Labour leader Jeremy) was already hiding in the London underground after being arrested six times since April 2020. That set the pace for the day; a rugby match if you stop marching you will be arrested.
The energy was high, we were literally on a mad dash for freedom!
I asked my taxi driver to stop at Davies Street. I had just read people were assembling there; what the hell kind of operation is this I thought?! Our route was blocked by police vans and before I got out of the taxi I saw my first arrest; a man passively being led away; middle-aged, a spectacled ex-guardian reader. Jesus wept, what a sight! A kin to Joseph Roth‘s 1929 novel right and left, I felt nervous.
In contrast to Germany‘s carefully orchestrated demos complete with stages, musicians, candles and speeches... I was in for something completely different, a mad sprint for freedom. This was not the decision of the organisers but the only way to realise the march against the Coup-Regime. I had planned to meet Louise Creffield, one of the founders of Save our rights, but how in the chaos?
I could see a steady stream of people heading towards Oxford Street I followed the word on the street to keep moving on to the world famous shopping district. Great huge monstrous Gucci-Prada-shops lay dark and empty unmasked shoppers mixed with the unmasked marchers there was no telling who was who. Police ran in from all sides and arrested people at random; an ill conceived exercise.
The demographic was diverse just like London! Many friendly faces greeted me. “Hello to Heiko Schöning, we love what the German democratic movement, hello Ballweg, hello Anselm Lenz!” We marched on quickly. I witnessed my third arrest, a middle aged respectable looking “Germaine Greer intellectual type”. Someone next to me shouted “GESTAPO!” and “SHAME ON YOU!”. The police moved towards us, we marched on to Regents Street.
RESIST, DEFY, DO NOT COMPLY!
Police officers were closing in on every side, kettling groups of around fifty civilians at a time. “DON‘T LOOK NOW!” The stream grew into a river pushing through Soho and now their sound could be heard. Many people banaging on pots and pans shouting “FREEDOM” and chanting “RESIST, DEFY, DO NOT COMPLY!”
I marched on with a middle aged Slovakian couple who told me they had had covid in march; a mild flu and were there to say so and protect their basic rights. At many points organisers (former Labour Party employees) yelled “GO LEFT! GO RIGHT! Keep moving!” Anyone straggling behind was arrested with force.
As we rounded a narrow street towards Piccadilly Circus I was following behind three young Londoners, one Indian man in a suit, one dread locked Antifa type in a black hoodie with a megaphone and one tall smartly dressed black man. This is London for me, always di
verse, as I remember it in my childhood, I love it so! The man with the megafone announced ‚WE DO NOT CONSENT‘ the marchers bellowed back the same retort. Over the narrow windy streets of Soho the sound reverberated off the fiddly historic stonework. One homeless man chanted “VODKA, VODKA” as the crowd passed, “ONLY JOKING, FREEDOM FREEDOM!”
I joined a gaggle of young black women with a speaker box and microphone, 16 to 20 year olds. “We want our freedom back!” Sirens blared around us. We moved through St. James Park on to Buckingham Palace. Outside the Queen‘s residence three elderly Friends of the Earth folk held up a sizable pink handmade banner “PROFIT BEFORE PEOPLE”.
The word at Buckingham Palace was to head to the historic speakers corner in Hyde Park. At that point I read Louise Creffield had been arrested, our clandestine chance to meet was off. As dusk set in, so did the police. At that point Piers Corbyn had surfaced from the London underground and had made a five minute speech at Piccadilly. We were exhilarated by the chase, exhausted by the chaos and dumbfounded by the brutality of the police.
A Brazilian lieferando worker on a bicycle had just arrived there. I thought it was odd nuns ordering pizza. However, clearly he was there to pray, pray for this to be over. Pray for a better life... – The next day, demonstrations were made legal again in England. 31st of Decemer to come! European wide.
