In response to the genocide in Gaza, the rise of the far-right, growing inequality and climate breakdown, a new grassroots movement is trying to connect the dots, and fight back against the 1% who have seized control and are bringing chaos down on so much of humanity.
The Surge held events in more than 30 cities across the world last weekend, and our report comes from the London rally, which assembled in Trafalgar Square on Saturday morning.
The date had been planned for some time, to coincide with worldwide actions and to mark the presidential inauguration of convicted felon and climate-denier Donald Trump. But it also fell on the day that the Metropolitan Police imposed a London-wide restriction on protests in support of Palestine, and so dozens of pólice soon surrounded the assembly point, threatening arrest if the group didn’t move into Whitehall behind a pólice cordon.
Despite the repressive policing, the rally continued, with flags and banners, chants, speeches and music.
Individuals and representatives from a wide variety of groups spoke about how justice for Palestine is a key rallying point against the very forces which are promoting inequality, oppression and climate collapse, through colonialism, extractivism, and fascism.
Could this be the birth of a new movement? It certainly had a fresh feel, and an important message. Watch this space.
More info: http://thesurgeinternational.net/
List of last weekend’s rallies:
Amsterdam, Angra do Heroísmo, Barcelona, Bergen, Bilbao, Brussels, Bucharest, Cochabamba, Faro, Granada, Hamburg, Ibiza, Innsbruck, La Paz, Lisboa, London, Lugo, Luxembourg, Madrid, Málaga, Malmö, Murcia, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Saint-Étienne, Sevilla, Sofia, Soria, Stockholm, Villach, Valencia, Zaragoza
