Hope floats, marching for an alternative.

People across the UK today took to the streets in another show of solidarity against the cuts agenda by this Tory led government, with calls for a 24hr national strike.

Estimates currently sit at around 100,000 people in attendance but this is a vast under estimation in some peoples opinion.

Having been at both today's march and the event in March 2011, I would say numbers were roughly the same, if not perhaps more. The march was still entering Hyde Park as the rally finished, some two hours after it had begun, with many more still straggling their way along the designated route long after it had finished. At one point the MET stated that the march stretched back as far as Victoria Embankment.

Familiar scenes of the Empires stormtroopers protecting Topshop from over zealous people were interwoven with the sight of new untouchable premises, namely Starbucks, who in light of the recent revelation of their tax dodging ways had platoons on every street corner to guard them. Funny considering the police are having their pension contracts torn up in front of them in the mean time.

At the rally itself there were a number of speakers, top billing was of course leader of the opposition Ed Miliband. In true Labour fashion he tried to hijack the movement with his rhetoric about spending our way out of trouble but once again confirmed what they stated prior to the event last year that whoever was in government would be making cuts. This was met with a chorus of boos from the public.

So what is our alternative Ed?

He did win some cheers by scoring cheap points off of the buffoon that is George Osborne and his first class rail ticket gaff, but if you cannot score a cheap point from the hierarchy of this government, you should not be sat in opposition.

Still, 18 months on and are we any closer to resolving this economic crises? Not the way our illustrious leaders are going at any rate. Growth is what they are all clambering for but you cannot have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources.

At a recent meeting in Luton prior to today's march Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins showed a graph, which he explained showed how a Labour government, post World War Two, got the economy back on track with investment in spending resulting in high levels of employment and a soaring economy. I have even heard this mantra repeated on the radio recently when an alleged expert claimed that we 'rebuilt Europe after the war, we can rebuild it through this recession'. What they are all failing to mention however is that after a war of that nature, where infrastructure is all but totally demolished and annihilated, then of course there will be a soaring economy and high levels of employment.

You have entire countries and continents to rebuild.

Today we are not in that situation, at least not in the UK, the same cannot be said for countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq but here, we do not have a total overhaul of our infrastructure to complete. The message on the march was largely of the usual party lines 'austerity is not working' and references to the fact that 'confidence in the market' has slowed. Though most people seem to be moving in the same direction there are no changes being asked for that will lead to real change in the way things are done.

The highlight of the day were the signs that centred on cutting back on military contract spending, these were backed up by signs from what some members of the right establishment would deem to be Hippies, who were calling for investment in renewable energy, which in itself would create a vast amount of jobs and at the same time go some considerable way to reducing the devastating effects that our thirst and lust for fossil fuels have on our lives and society. A loud and vocal out pouring occurred outside Downing Street as the march headed past the Prime Ministers part-time abode. I could not be sure if he heard us in his palace, in an undisclosed location.

Another world is possible if we want it but it is something we will have to work for. One way of achieving this is by economic withdrawal. It is not a new idea, in fact it is one that has been advocated for decades, by people far greater and smarter than anyone from NNI.

If you want additional information on how you can change things follow the links below.

http://www.thevenusproject.com/
http://www.thezeitgeistmovementuk.com/