I attended this event primarily as a leafleting opportunity for Julian Assange and the upcoming American appeal this month. I knew about it from leafleting by the Socialist Party, the organisers of the event.

As I was attending anyway I thought I would take a few pictures and videos for the website.

Apparently there were events organised all over the country as well.

This event had primarily left wing activists known to each other. The Stop the War coalition was also there as well as the Socialist Party. It was a small crowd of maybe 30 people.

None of the attendees were bothered that we had turned up to leaflet for Assange. In fact they were probably pleased that someone outside of the usual suspects had turned up.

The event consisted of a few speeches followed by a relatively short march through Birmingham City Centre, down New Street and back around to Victoria Square via St Philip’s Cathedral.

Unfortunately, the speakers did not seem too comfortable with the megaphone and so you had to be quite close to them to hear what they were saying. I doubt passersby could hear that much of the speeches. The man introducing the speakers and leading the chants later on was the exception but he didn’t give a speech.

I took some footage of the speakers but most of it was compromised by a mixture of the limited sound systems and the limitations of my device. Here is a couple of the ones that are comprehensible.

First one speech by a student:

Watch on Bitchute.

Another speech by an older worker:

Watch on Bitchute.

The complaints and demands made by the activists were the usual kinds of demands that you would expect from a Socialist event. Various speakers talked about apprenticeships, universities, pensions, zero hours contracts and poor wages.

Their list of demands is shown below.

The protesters then went on the short march around the city centre.

Watch on Bitchute.