While close to 100,000 people participated in the national demonstration in London on Saturday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, thousands across the country held local actions. World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to protestors in Leeds and Sheffield.
Leeds
Hundreds marched in Leeds, with several stopping to tell the WSWS why they had come.
Sheffield
Several hundred people marched in heavy rain from Mount Pleasant park in Sheffield to Devonshire Green, then on to City Hall where a rally was held.
Charlie, a graduate student, explained, “I feel there is a disconnect between how people think about things and how the media and the government portray it.
“I think if you had a poll of the whole country, most people would be in support of freeing Palestine.
“You’d have to be an idiot to not support it. We’ve seen so many dead children, so many bombed cities. It’s inhuman.
“We need to appeal a lot more to the working class. Because everything ultimately comes back to the question of class.
“The top minority are inflicting this suffering. And it’s just to make more money. To ensure that those at the top get more money. “They’re committing a genocide for profit basically.
“The whole point of having Israel there is so that the West has a place in the middle east to inflict their influence.”
Mckenzie said, “I’m here to stand in solidarity with Palestine and demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“A lot of people are suffering in Gaza, especially women and children, who can’t speak out. So we have to be the voice for the voiceless.
“They are being oppressed and systematically ethnically cleansed.”