Saturday's March for the Alternative was no futile gesture, despite the government's determination to forge ahead with its spending cuts, says Tania Mason.

So the coalition is not for turning on the cuts, despite the collective anger of quarter of a million people who felt so strongly opposed to the agenda that they were moved to take to the streets on Saturday.  Somehow this is not a surprise – after the Iraq war demo we are resigned to the fact that democracy does not occur between elections – but it is sad nonetheless.  You have to wonder how many people would have to turn out before the government would listen and act – five million, 30 million?  There were plenty of placards on the march calling for a general strike, and there are six million employees in the public sector, so perhaps we shall yet see.  Sadly the damage will already be done to many civil society organisations by then.

But Saturday’s march was no futile gesture. As my friend remarked to me as we inched past Downing Street, surrounded by people as far as the eye could see: “The great thing about this is knowing that there are so many people out there that feel the same way you do.”  

Now, you may think this was stating the bleeding obvious, but it is heartening to have such unequivocal confirmation that you are not the only one feeling alarmed by the direction being taken.

I know the media has been full of reports of balaclava’ed yobs smashing stuff up, and yes there were a handful of those, but that really is to detract from what was actually a  brilliant event. There was a carnival atmosphere with plenty of chanting and cheering and whooping and general good-natured chatter; a stomping selection of bands keeping the marchers entertained, and some imaginative placards:  ‘Teapots against kettling’, ‘Sam’s not the only one getting screwed by David’, ‘Tories – bunch of cuts’ and a London street sign bearing the name ‘Tahrir Square’, for example. Everyone was smiling – the subject was deadly serious but the mood was positive. People clearly felt good to be doing something that felt meaningful, rather than just moaning to their mates in the pub.  It was a good day – and now there are quarter of million people feeling solidarity with a cause and inspired to do more.  Surely just what the Big Society is all about.