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In pictures: the Million Mask March comes to Joburg

Remember, remember the 5th of November? You should. It was yesterday. And in celebration of Guy Fawkes attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 17th Century Britain, online activists from Anonymous – who use his image as their calling card – took to the streets all over the world in what they called “The Million Mask March”.

Other groups involved with the global protest included the Occupy movement and Wikileaks supporters. While some countries saw hundreds of supporters turn up to protest against mass surveillance, corporate abuse of internet power and the state of the world in general, South African gatherings were rather smaller in scale. At Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, about 60 people turned up to stand in front of Madiba’s statue and make their point. By South African standards, it was a demure and polite protest – at the same time as the Anonymous protest, police were firing rubber bullets at Julius Malema in Pretoria.

Still, things could have turned nasty. This is a high end shopping in southern Africa just a few weeks after Westgate, after all. Police armed with automatic rifles were watching the protestors – who were in violation of South African laws regarding cover your face during a protest march and gathering more than 16 people in one place without prior notification. Credit where its due, whether you agree with the protest or not, the decision not to get involved by the police was the right one.

So what were the protesters protesting? There’s no clear message. Anonymous is a very loose association of people online: anyone can say they act on behalf of Anonymous and there’s no official hierarchy or defined aims. On the other hand, when someone broke into a SAPS database earlier in the year and released names and addresses of people who had reported crimes online, the group was quick to disown him.

Going by the banners, yesterday’s group was protesting corruption in general, with other issues like the health of the planet and the plundering of her resources and the economic oppression of Earth’s people thrown in for good measure. Words painted on signs said things like “This planet cannot sustain this system” and “Big Oil and Big Banks Control the World”, as well as various mottos of the Anonymous group like “We are anonymous” and “Expect us”.

Shouted slogans included “Banks and corporations control the world and you’re just a slave” and “We’re doing this for you” and “The system is broken” and, of course, the highly erudite “Fuck the system!” thrown in for good measure.

Here’s what it looked like.

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