The demonstration will be preceded by a four-day convoy that will leave Jarrow in northeast England and arrive in London to coincide with the rally. Another rally will also be held in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The Guardian newspaper reports that truckers and farmers also plan to block every junction of the M25, Britain's busiest motorway, which circles London, and that protesting fishermen intend to sail a flotilla of boats up the Thames River.

"I don't know a farmer in this area who does not support the actions," said John Lawrence, a cereal farmer. Lawrence and his wife farm 350 acres on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. "What we need are not more subsidies to offset the cost of high fuel, but an end to high fuel taxes and prices. The government has already said that they won't meet our demands. But they are gambling if they think that they can beat us. They should realize that we had a lot of support last time around."

Lawrence was referring to the pickets and blockades of refineries throughout the United Kingdom that farmers and truckers organized in September. These actions led to widespread fuel shortages at petrol stations across industry and highlighted the vulnerability of the capitalist distribution system. Their protests won solidarity from many workers inside the oil refineries who refused to move fuel across picket lines, and were inspired by similar actions across Europe.

Farmers who began the protests have been hit hard by the escalating crisis in agriculture. Prices for fuel, fertilizer, and animal feed have all risen, while there has been a sharp decline in the prices they receive for their produce. The protests rapidly won the active support of independent truck drivers who like farmers have been hit by increased fuel taxes. The consumption tax in the United Kingdom (UK) stands at 80 percent of the cost of petrol.

Since the September protests many farmers in the UK have also been hit by the worst flooding in 50 years, which has destroyed much of the recently sown winter grain. Lawrence explained that the government is offering no compensation for the damages caused by the floods, and that many face losing their livelihoods.

Following the September protests, farmers and truckers set a 60-day deadline for resuming their actions if the government failed to cut fuel taxes. "We want every member of the public to come along and support us, whether they are there for 10 minutes or four days," said Andrew Spence, a member of the committee of the People's Fuel Lobby.

You are seeing people who have finally had enough. People are losing their homes and...their employment," explained David Handley, chairman of Farmers for Action and the People's Fuel Lobby. He pledged that he would protest in London for "as long as it takes."

In response to the planned actions the government has begun preparations to use cops against farmers and truckers who are fighting to defend their livelihoods, and has also stepped up a propaganda campaign against the protesters. It has instructed the cops to direct truckers off the main roads and ban them from central London. The police have said that they will treat anyone who "disrupts" the flow of traffic as breaking the law and therefore liable to arrest.

British prime minister Anthony Blair asserted that he was "sure that the police will act quickly and decisively." Home Secretary Jack Straw has also threatened to withdraw the operating licenses of any truckers convicted of offenses during the protests.

Government ministers have attempted to drive a wedge between farmers and truckers and other working people by claiming that reductions in fuel taxes could only be implemented at the expense of social spending on education and health care. Straw has also claimed that the protesters are planning to blockade food depots and implied that they will also block access to fuel supplies.

The main organization planning the protests, the People's Fuel Lobby, has explicitly ruled out such action. The government, however, has gone ahead with plans to train 1,000 soldiers to drive oil tankers in order to try to break any future blockades of the refineries. The government's claims that there will be fuel shortages have encouraged the so-called panic buying of petrol. Gas stations across the UK have begun to ration supplies or run dry. The protests have also been condemned by the main bosses' organization, the Confederation of British Industry. However, support among working people for the actions of farmers and truckers to win a cut in the fuel tax remains widespread.  
 
 
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