UNITED KINGDOM: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange rallies protesters in London's financial district

Record ID: 320413

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange rallies protesters in London's financial district
  • Date: 16th October 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER ALISTAIR HANNAH, SAYING: "I'm here because I'm aware of the cuts that are going to hurt people who are really poor. They can't come here, I need to come here. I've got kids who've not got the life that I would expect, we've got to fight back now otherwise we're stuffed." PROTESTER IN A TENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER, NAME UNKNOWN, SAYING: "I am basically here because I think it is incredibly unfair that these financial corporations get to privatise all the profits and nationalise all the debt." VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS AT THE RALLY VARIOUS OF POLICE, SECURITY MORE OF PROTESTERS AT RALLY (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER, NAME UNKNOWN, SAYING: "I am here with solidarity with people around the world for justice and for change in the system, I do not think capitalist system works. I think it is impractical, it doesn't work, it needs to change. It is not for the people." VARIOUS OF THE RALLY, PEOPLE CHANTING VARIOUS OF SECURITY MORE OF THE RALLY
  • Embargoed: 31st October 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Economy,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE3P19HGI00F9I23S0Y627QP0Z
  • Story Text: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange took a break from his legal travails on Saturday (October 15) to offer his support to thousands of protesters gathering in the heart of London's financial district.
    Up to three thousand people were gathered outside St Paul's Cathedral for a protest that organisers hope will emulate New York's "Occupy Wall Street" movement.
    Earlier in the day police officers faced down hundreds of demonstrators as they tried to march into a privately-owned square in front of the London Stock Exchange, where organisers had hoped to camp out in a protest against economic inequality.
    "I've always wanted to say, we're all individual," Assange told a crowd outside St Paul's Cathedral, in a speech that berated Western governments and touched on his own struggle with legal costs.
    Demonstrators aimed to converge on the City of London under the banner "Occupy the Stock Exchange" after a call on a Facebook page which has drawn some 12,000 followers.
    Spyro, one of those behind the Facebook page, a 28-year-old, who said he had a well-paid job and did not want to give his full name, said the protest targeted unfair financial system.
    Angry at taxpayer bailouts of banks since 2008 and at big bonuses still paid to some who work in them while unemployment blights the lives of many young Britons, one of the protesters said: "I am basically here because I think it is incredibly unfair that these financial corpirations get to privatise all the profits and nationalise all the debt."
    For more than a month demonstrators have occupied New York's Zuccotti Park, near the city's financial centre of Wall Street, often leading to clashes with police.
    Throughout the day worldwide protests have sprung up in countries from New Zealand to Taiwan, in part a response to calls from the New York demonstrators for more people to join them.
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