Someone is going to be in big trouble after this demonstration. On a superficial level it was well organised and coordinated. The speakers turned up. Trafalgar Square was booked. The police had been told. But someone had forgotten to say their prayers asking their god for good weather. It was the wettest day in London in a couple of months. A very negligent bit of god-bothering.
This was a 
very important demonstration. Ostensibly it was organised by the unions and what are now called “faith groups”. There was not too much evidence of the unions having put in the work.
The demand was for a “pathway to legal status for long term migrants”. As you can see from the photos it was comprised almost entirely of immigrant workers and church groups. The organised left was, for all practical purposes, absent and there were not many Labour Movement banners either. One end of the Tower Hamlets UNISON banner was carried by a vicar. What you had in abundance was groups of workers who had been organised through churches. The march was led by Cormac Murphy O’Connor and the Catholic church was there in force. It was bewildering to watch the affection with which he was greeted.
When I arrived at Westminster Cathedral I couldn’t help noticing that lots of people were carrying Union Jacks. This rekindled a reflex developed in a north Belfast childhood. But I don’t smoke and didn’t have any matches on me. I think the point was that by ostentatiously displaying the butcher’s apron the marchers were demonstrating their enthusiasm to be British. 
This is the sort of event that should have been organised and built either by the radical left or the unions. It speaks badly of the condition of working class organisations in Britain that the churches have much deeper roots and a much more developed organising capacity than they do. But you could see the positive side of religion in action on the day. Their religious communities are giving some of 
the most exploited workers in Britain a sense of belonging, militancy and power. As they strode enthusiastically out of the cathedral and cheered as they entered Trafalgar Square I saw just how impotent and out of touch the British left is sometimes.
Next year socialists need to be there in force. Here was a group of workers with a sense of solidarity and, I thought, a willingness to fight.
Liam redux 
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