Who are the UK yellow vest protesters?


Organisers from The People’s Assembly Against Austerity described Saturday’s march as the arrival in the UK of the "yellow vests" movement that rocked France in November 2018 .



So why are demonstrators battling over this symbol? The French connection

"English people, you look good in yellow!" said a message on the jacket of Erick Simon.


Ms Martin said she came "to support the British because our demands are the same as those fighting austerity across Europe". French protesters Erick Simon and Laurie Martin wore messages of support Many protesters said they had been inspired by events in France.


"To me the French yellow vests were ordinary people wanting to get out and tell people how bad things had got and how they wanted change," she said. Kylie Crawley bought yellow vests online, including for daughter Kacee Jim Scott, who got up at 04:00 GMT to travel from west Wales to the protest, said the vests had become a powerful "symbol for change".


As the march began, one protester cried, "Let’s show the French what we can do!" Jim Scott said the yellow vest was "a symbol for change" Is it a right-wing or left-wing symbol?


They waved the union jack, burned EU flags and denounced "left-wing scum". "We’re not far right, we’re just right," they chanted. Say what you really think pic.twitter.com/ojUlM4ORy5 — Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) January 12, 2019 Report In France, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has said violent far-right and far-left groups have both infiltrated the gilet jaunes protests.

But Tony Griffiths from the People’s Assembly, which organised the UK anti-austerity march, said that because the movement had "burst out of the streets", it meant different things to different people.


"We are absolutely not allowing the far right to take over the yellow vest movement in this country. They’ve been forced out the yellow vest movement in France and they’ll be forced out the yellow vest movement in this country," he said. "The issues are the same, here and in France," said Katerina Kohler For some, the jackets sent out a message of togetherness. Katerina Kohler, who was at the People’s Assembly stall selling them for £3 each, said: "It gives us a nice unity for people all to wear the vests."


Antonia Bright, a campaigner with the anti-racism group Movement for Justice, said she wanted to "steer away from white populism".

"I don’t need it to march for what I am standing for," she said. "It’s not a uniform," said Antonia Bright, who chose not to wear a yellow vest How is the movement different from France?

On Saturday, France put 80,000 police officers on duty to cope with thousands of gilets jaunes demonstrators across the country. Les gilets jaunes: The full story



In the UK, protesters said they either bought their jackets online, picked them up at the stall or, in several cases, already had one they used for stewarding at other protests. Sharon Stafford-Jones and Debbie Hutchins were protesting against changes to women’s pensions And while the French protesters were outside of established political organisations, the British anti-austerity march brought together several trade unions and campaign groups, and was attended by Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell.


Sharon Stafford-Jones said she had been in France recently where she said there was "a wonderful community spirit coming together" over the protests.

