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<P><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><STRONG>Outspoken
critic of the government, Russell Brand, joined thousands of protestors in
London on Tuesday.</STRONG></EM></SPAN></P>
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<DIV id=main-content-picture itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"
itemprop="image" itemscope=""><IMG id=426466
title="A protestor wears a Guy Fawkes mask during a protest in London on Tuesday, 5 November. (Twitter: @KetyDC)"
alt="Anonymous Million Mask March London"
src="http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2013/11/05/426466.jpg"
width=601 itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage">
<DIV class=caption itemprop="caption">A protestor wears a Guy Fawkes mask during
a protest in London on Tuesday, 5 November. (Twitter: @KetyDC)</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P></P>
<P>The protest was part of a global <A
href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/519669/20131105/anonymous-million-mask-march-washington-london-protest.htm"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>Million Mask March</A> which was organised by the
online hactivist collective known as Anonymous and which took place
simultaneously in 400 cities around the world.</P>
<P></P>
<P>While it is difficult to get an exact estimate of the number of people
involved in the London protest tonight, the number was certainly in the
thousands.</P>
<P>While the march was peaceful in the main, there were a number of outbreaks of
violence when police attempted to move protestors - though these incidents were
in the minority.</P>
<P></P>
<P><STRONG>No arrests</STRONG></P>
<P></P>
<P>The Metropolitian Police said there were no arrests made at the protest
tonight.</P>
<P>Crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square from early on Tuesday afternoon and by
6pm, the official start time of the event, thousands of people were milling
around the central London location.</P>
<P>Many were wearing the iconic Guy Fawkes mask which has been appropriated by
groups like Anonymous and the Occupy movement in recent years. The Million Mask
March was organised to coincide with the Guy Fawkes Day celebrations.</P>
<DIV style="WIDTH: 601px" class=imageBox>
<DIV id=main-content-picture itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"
itemprop="image" itemscope=""><IMG id=426467
title="Russell Brand at the Anonymous-orgnaised Million Mask March in London's Trafalgar Square on Tuesday, 5 November. (Twitter: @SpaceMonkey0000)"
alt="Russell Brand at Anonymous Million Mask March in London"
src="http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2013/11/05/426467.jpg"
width=601 itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage">
<DIV class=caption itemprop="caption">Russell Brand at the Anonymous-orgnaised
Million Mask March in London's Trafalgar Square on Tuesday, 5 November.
(Twitter: @SpaceMonkey0000)</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P>While the stated aim of the UK protest was to tell the UK government that
"enough is enough" others took it as an opportunity to highlight other perceived
injustices - including badger culling.</P>
<P>However most of the attention in Trafalgar Square was given to Russell Brand,
who was in the middle of the crowd wearing a Guy fawkes mask, speaking with
protestors and having his picture taken with them.</P>
<P><STRONG>Democratic process</STRONG></P>
<P>Brand has hit the headlines recently following an interview he gave to
Newsnight where he advocated revolution though he was criticized about the
indifference he showed toward voting and the democratic
process. </P>
<P>In an article written for the <A
href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/russell-brand-democratic-system-newsnight"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>Guardian </A>ahead of the Million Mask March on
Tuesday, Brand responded to the fallout from the Newsnight interview:</P>
<P>"Luckily with organisations like them, Occupy, Anonymous and The People's
Assembly I don't need to come with ideas, we can all participate. I'm happy to
be a part of the conversation, if more young people are talking about fracking
instead of twerking we're heading in the right direction."</P>
<DIV style="WIDTH: 630px" class=imageBox>
<DIV id=main-content-picture itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"
itemprop="image" itemscope=""><IMG id=426469
title="A protestor poses in a Guy Fawkes mask in front of police protecting Westminster Abbey as part of Anonymous' Million Mask March. (IBTimes UK)"
alt="Anonymous Million Mask March in London"
src="http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2013/11/05/426469.jpg"
width=630 itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage">
<DIV class=caption itemprop="caption">A protestor poses in a Guy Fawkes mask in
front of police protecting Westminster Abbey as part of Anonymous' Million Mask
March. (IBTimes UK)</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P>Just after 6.30pm the protestors headed from Trafalgar Square and after
briefly being held just outside Downing Street, the march was given a police
escort down Whitehall to Parliament Square where the protestors were contained
within the shadow of Big Ben.</P>
<P>The march did cause traffic disruption throughout central London with one No.
159 bus to Streatham getting blockaded by protestors with some banging on the
front window and taunting the driver. One protestor even managed to climb onto
the front of the bus, raising the biggest cheer of the night.</P>
<P>By 8pm a large proportion of the crowd had dissapated but still hundreds
remained. The protests finally moved down the Mall and to Buckingham
Palace</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>