Officers, from all 43 forces across England and Wales, under the slogan: ”Cuts are criminal” marched through central London to protest against the spending cuts and wide-ranging changes to their pay and pensions. Then Prison Officers staged an unofficial walkout. All on the day that 400,000 public sector workers such as teachers, university lecturers, NHS staff and many others went on strike to complain about the deepening crisis brought about by draconian austerity measures. Interestingly enough at the 2010 students’ demos against tuition fees and last year’s TUC marches against cuts demonstrators had told Police, whilst being severely repressed: “your jobs are next on the line”.

So, what will the Police be doing, as the Occupy/*Indignados* movement starts another round of protests against the power of the plutocracy? Will they feel part of the 99%?

**12 May: Global Day of Action – Meet the 1%**

Press Release by Occupy London: “Meet at 1pm, St Paul’s Cathedral. Bring a tent.

On 12 May, the Occupy, *indignados* and take the squares movements all over the world have called for a global day of action.

In London we’ll be visiting the ’1%’, those who:

* gambled with our pensions and savings,
* created financial nonsense to make money out of thin air,
* brought the global economy to the brink of ruin and forced ordinary people to pay for their mess,
* paid hundreds of thousands to wine and dine with our ‘elected’ representatives,
* have taken more than £1tn in bailouts from the taxpayer and continue to pay themselves exorbitant bonuses,
* evaded billions in taxes,
* are benefiting by the crisis by grabbing fat privatisation contracts of our public services.

From banks and hedge funds to lobbyists and private equity firms, they’re all in the ‘Map of the 1%’ that has been produced by Occupy London and will be available on the day.
Nowhere in Europe is the unequal distribution of wealth as striking as in the UK. The richest 1,000 persons, just 0.005% of the adult population, increased their wealth by £155bn over the last three years. That is enough for themselves alone to pay off the entire budget deficit and still leave them with £30bn to spare.

We’re all in this together’ never rang so hollow. Whilst the rest of the country is being crippled by war-time austerity, the very same people who caused the crisis are now sitting on wealth even greater than what they had before the crash.
Saturday will start with a teach-out at St. Paul’s at 1pm, organised by the Tent City University, the educational arm of Occupy London. It is aiming at promoting informed political action and exploring viable economic alternatives before we pay a visit to the City institutions that caused and continue to profit by the crisis.

The day will see citizens using peaceful, creative ways to deliver their own messages to the financial and corporate elite of the City.

We will continue to exercise our right to peacefully assemble in public spaces and develop the democratic processes to address the problems we face.”