I Witnessed The London Exchange Bailout Protest

I hadn’t planned on spending my Friday afternoon with a bunch of protestors.

It was 3 p.m., and my class on business and finance journalism had just concluded; we’d been discussing the intricacies of the credit crunch currently enveloping the world. As I walked down the university steps, a student handed me a flier: “March on the City: We Won’t Bail Out the Bankers.”

Fifteen minutes later, I found myself getting to know the small group of student activists as we walked towards the Angel Tube station in Islington. There was shaggy-haired Tom, a slow-moving, but thoughtful man, who was a socialist and one of the main campus activists; Thomas, a wavy-haired blond in a blazer who joined the march on a whim, and the main organizer, John, a man of few words, who moved with a sense of deep purpose and conviction.

After making our way out of the underground maze at Bank Station, we came upon the crowd gathered in front of the Royal Exchange, a symbolic square near the Bank of England and the Mayor’s Mansion House. The rally seemed peaceful enough, with two young men leading chants on a bullhorn, and demonstrators holding signs that read: “Why should we pay for their crisis?” “Tax the Rich,” and “Get Out of Afghanistan.” A young woman wove through the crowd, handing out thin strips of paper bearing the phone number of Taylor Nichol solicitors—the lawyers to call in case of arrest. “Just to be safe,” she said with a smile.

A number of pensioners, students and middle-aged people had come out to protest the costly bailout package, equivalent to £2,000 (US$3,476) for every UK taxpayer.