Russell Brand was spotted at a Million Mask March in London, an event promoted by the hacktivist group Anonymous and scheduled in conjunction with Guy Fawkes Day.
The Million Mask March is a massive protest planned for close to 500 locations around the world. The official Facebook page for the Million Mask March asks that followers “remember who your enemies are: billionaires who own banks and corporations who corrupt politicians who enslave the people in injustice.”
The march takes place on Guy Fawkes Day , which celebrates the November 5, 1605, plot to blow up British Parliament. The Guy Fawkes mask has become a popular symbol of the Anonymous movement after being popularized in the film V for Vendetta .
Participants are encouraged to wear the iconic black and white mask during the protests , and in London actor and comedian Russell Brand was spotted wearing one.
Brand has been increasingly vocal on a number of societal issues, including drug addiction and rehabilitation. In a recent editorial published in the New Statesman , Russell Brand bemoaned the current political climate and called voting a useless endeavor.
“I have never voted,” he wrote. “Like most people I am utterly disenchanted by politics. Like most people I regard politicians as frauds and liars and the current political system as nothing more than a bureaucratic means for furthering the augmentation and advantages of economic elites.”
Russell Brand has also spoken out on the divide between the rich and poor , saying the growing chasm between have and have-not is breeding resentment that manifests in things like the 2011 London riots.
“These young people have been accidentally marketed to their whole lives without the economic means to participate in the carnival. After some draconian sentences were issued, measures that the white-collar criminals who capsized our economy with their greed a few years earlier avoided, and not one hoodie was hugged, the compliance resumed. Apathy reigned.”
Russel Brand #MillionMaskMarch pic.twitter.com/wCA5AGQTVk
— W (@waleed_elhaddad) November 5, 2013
While the Million Mask March that Russell Brand attended in London was reportedly as a largely peaceful affair, other Guy Fawkes Day protests have ended in arrests, including one in Washington, D.C.
