Dance on the Grave of Capitalism

So I got to experience my first London protest on Friday night.

Being Halloween night, a bunch of socialist morons thought it would be relevant to hold a protest outside the building that I am working in. Why my building? Well because its the 31 story office building mainly consisting of the Lehman Brothers headoffice for Europe. Added to that is the fact that the entire area, Canary Wharf, is home to various banking and financial institutions. So the scene is apparently a useful place to dress up as ghosts and goblins and mock the recent troubles had by these companies. Hence - Dance on the Grave of Capitalism.

Now, I am not really against the ability of the common people to voice their thoughts and concerns through peaceful protests and demonstations. In fact, I reckon I am the beneficiary of several of those such freedom-of-speech actions - slavery, poor working conditions, anti-war protests... But mostly, I only like it when people are standing up for things I believe in. Don't bother me otherwise, go somewhere else.

However, it was pretty entertaining watching them from the safety of my 17th floor location - looking down on the mob scene banging drums and chanting some sort of plea against capitalism, all the while knowing that I was secure and not in harm's way. There was probably about 150-200 people total, of which I'd say about 75 got excited and tried to make a wave through the police control. Several of these demonstrators quickly learned the value of the gyms at the police stations - let's just say the socialists were out-muscled by the police. One guy got a serious (assuming necessary and deserved) shake down by one (assuming angry) police officer. Looked a bit like a good hockey fight when one guy loses his footing and the bigger guy comes crashing down on him. They then turned around and walked up and down the pedestrian areas outside several pubs in the area. I thought there was going to be some crazy fights, but they just marched around for a bit and headed back to the pumpkin circle for a bit of rest/regrouping/sing-along/what ever you do in a demonstration.

After about 10 minutes of watching with some colleagues, I finished up the work for the day and headed out to face the crowd myself. I had been looking forward to this all day - considering whether I should pretend to talk on my blackberry and read a Financial Times paper just for fun. (Alright, I am not that much of an ass, or that macho, but there was no way I was taking the secret exit out, anyhow. Okay - unless it was complete anarchy out there. I am not that macho). When I headed out the front doors, there were plenty of officers protecting the front of my building, but nothing was really happening with the mob. I walked across the street to where the demonstration was - and the entrance to the tube, mostly - and stood around with several other on-lookers to watch the more peaceful part of the protest. Without any incedent, I left...

My only questions about this whole thing:
1. What were they trying to do? Raise awareness? Perhaps they could have handed out candy (it was Halloween) and communicated their issues with everyone. (maybe this would be too business-like).
2. Where were these people during the last 5 years of so called "good times"?
3. How would you feel if you were one of the employees that had lost your job and you had to endure this leaving work? I appreciate that it has been almost 2 months since LB went bankrupt and most redundancies have already left - but it's still a delicate situation for several thousands of workers throughout the entire industry.

Oh well, it was kind of fun.
We can save the capitalism debate for another time...(but I think you know where I stand).