LibertyRocks,
I am sorry to hear about your husband’s job loss - I too have had a few jobs drift away from me, ones that I would have liked to keep, but I am in the oil business, and we are a carniverous industry.. if your company gets bought, it is usually the buyers who keep the jobs. Just keep chipping away at it and another door will open to the next job.
Re your question about how the police in Britain are equipped - I did not see any guns. They had riot gear, some of them, but mostly just cuffs and batons. The batons they use extend to about baseball bat length so they are formidable and the police are quick to use them if they feel threatened. The London police are experts at crowd control and they form these lines that are used, with vehicles strategically parked, to cordon off large areas. So they just go to pushing and shoving. There were no tear gas or water cannon units that I saw, but I did see a vehicle full of police dogs. That is when I decided I needed to clear out, that the police were clearly spoiling for a fight.
Re your question about the communists - they seemed to me to be the tag-a-longs at the protest. The looney types with painted faces etc were a distinct minority. The anarchists are also a small group but dangerous, and they are the ones the police were most focused on - easily identifiable by their black/red triangle flags, face masks, black clothes and bad attitudes. But the vast majority of people there were regular folks, many on their lunch hour who came to see the event, lots of older folks, environmentalists and such.
My hotel is at Grosvenor Square, right around the corner from the US embassy. I went out for a cup of coffee this afternoon and one of the protests was forming up over there - this one was a mix of muslims, environmentalists etc, and I saw an older man and woman crossing the street to head over to the gathering with a huge orange banner that said, I kid you not:
“Quakers for Justice”!!
Thank you. We’re no strangers to layoffs with my husband being a machinist, but there aren’t many other prospects for jobs right now...(The last time he was laid off was in 1994 under Clinton) And now, EVERYONE around here is laying people off left and right. We’ve been told it’s “Temporary”, but no word on when they expect to call him back... They said one week, then Monday said “take this week off, too”. Frustrating to say the least. He’s a VERY good machinist (very close tolerance/prototype/precision) and even has management and supervisory experience, but even so, if there are no orders coming in and the industry is stalled, there’s not much one can do...
Thanks for answering all my various questions about the protest! Very enlightening. I got a kick out of the “Quakers for Justice” sign! LOL Pretty interesting that there was such a wide variety of people there...
Stay safe!