Inspired by America's "Occupy Wall Street" and Spain's "Indignants", people took to the streets in Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo in the opening hours of the unprecedented global outcry.
Anger over unemployment and opposition to the financial elite hung over the protests in 951 cities in 82 countries, which coincided with a Paris meeting of G20 financial powers pre-occupied by the eurozone debt crisis.
But the demands and the sense of urgency among the activists varied depending on the city.
In London, more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside St Paul's Cathedral and struggled against police officers on horseback to enter Paternoster Square, the home of the London Stock Exchange.
Speaking at the protest, political campaigner Peter Tatchell proposed a one-off 20pc emergency tax on the net wealth of the richest 10pc of the UK population, as well as the introduction of a “Tobin Tax” on financial transactions.
"The richest 10pc of the UK population have a combined personal wealth of £4 million, million. A one-off 20pc tax on those people would raise £800 billion," he said.
"Those people can afford it, they'd feel no pain, they're so fabulously wealthy.
"With that sum of money you could pay off the entire government deficit. No need for any public spending cuts." Read on and comment » | Matthew Sparkes | Saturday, October 15, 2011
