Source: Russia Today

Demonstrators, including supporters of the group Anonymous, march in a protest against corrupt governments and corporations in front of the White House in Washington, DC, November 5, 2013, as part of a Million Mask March of similar rallies around the world on Guy Fawkes Day. (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

Thousands of people worldwide joined the Million Mask March rallies, encouraged by the Anonymous. Rallies ranging from peaceful to confrontational were in protest of online privacy breaches, corporate greed and corrupt governments.

On Tuesday, around 450 cities around the world had their streets filled with crowds of people wearing Guy Fawkes masks and carrying placards, reading the motto of the Anonymous hacktivist group: “The corrupt fear us. The honest support us. The heroic join us.”

In some of the places the events had an air of a costume party with whole families parading the streets with their kids, wearing the white-faced masks, while in the capitals of the UK and the US, there were scuffles with police ending up in arrests.

RT’s Sarah Firth, reporting from London, found herself at a certain point squeezed in between protesters and police. The correspondent described what was going on as “certainly not the peaceful movement that protesters said that it would be.”  

Firth estimated around 1,000 demonstrators were participating in the rally. Actor and comedian Russell Brand, a noted supporter of Anonymous and the Occupy movement, was in the crowd.

Protesters chanted, “Here we come, Tory scum!” and smashed police barriers along their way from Parliament Square to Buckingham Palace, where some of the masked protesters even made it across Palace Gate.

While the London event was mostly about protesting government austerity measures, the Washington one had NSA’s invasive surveillance methods top of the agenda.

“We live in a country that is fundamentally unfair, we no longer have the rule of law,” a participant told RT from near the White House. “From the NSA, to Edward Snowden, to Chelsea Manning, all over the world, people are speaking out, whistleblowers are speaking out, regular people are speaking out and saying enough is enough. We want justice and we want it now.”

On the West Coast, crowds marched through downtown Los Angeles to show their solidarity with the movement. Many of them have links with the Occupy Wall Street movement, born two years ago.

South America also joined in the global protests. Several hundred protesters blocked off roads in Brazil’s central Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, marching against government corruption.

“We want to change this corrupt system,” Eron Morales de Melo, a veteran protester dressed as Batman told AFP. “We are paying high taxes and this doesn’t get invested in education. We don’t have good healthcare, public security is precarious, as is public transport.”

Hundreds protested in Australia’s Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.  One of the Australian rally participants told ABC News that the non-centralized nature of Anonymous made it difficult to pinpoint an exact message behind the global rally.

“There’s so much that goes on in our world, and with Anonymous, because there’s so many of us, it’s really hard to have an orderly or structured discussion, rally or march on one point. So it’s probably best that we just incorporate all of them.”

Australia itself has been targeted by Anonymous recently over reported spying on Indonesians. Hackers calling themselves Anonymous Indonesia defaced some 200 websites with the .au domain in a gesture of protest.

Protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks display placards during a rally outside the House of Representatives in suburban Quezon city, north of Manila on November 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Jay Directo)

Indonesia, meanwhile, also had a masked protest on Guy Fawkes Day. Anonymous Philippines marched to Batasang Pambansa complex Tuesday noon to protest rampant corruption in the country. Police officers briefly blocked the march after it gathered along Quezon City Circle, but later allowed them to proceed to the vicinity of the House of Representatives.

Several dozen demonstrators rallied at the Nelson Mandela Square, a popular shopping center in Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of the Million Mask March. According to the 2012 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, South Africa ranked 69th out of 176 countries. Organizers of the rally put corruption and tax fraud on top of their agenda.

Demonstrators, including supporters of the group Anonymous, march in a protest against corrupt governments and corporations in front of the White House in Washington, DC, November 5, 2013, as part of a Million Mask March of similar rallies around the world on Guy Fawkes Day. (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

In Japan, the Guy Fawkes-themed action had an environmental twist, as masked activists conscientiously made their contribution to cleaning the streets by picking up litter.

The global action on November 5 is Anonymous’ annual celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, a British holiday commemorating the most prominent member of the failed Gunpowder Plot, a 1605 attempt to assassinate King James I of England by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. The plotter and his facial likeness in particular have come to symbolize the fight against tyranny for the Anonymous hacking collective.

A man disguised as super hero Batman takes part in a demonstration for the Guy Fawkes World Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on November 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Christophe Simon)

Police arrest a protestor during a march against corrupt governments and corporations organized by supporters of the group Anonymous, in front of the White House in Washington, DC, November 5, 2013, as part of a Million Mask March of similar rallies around the world on Guy Fawkes Day. (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

A man wears Guy Fawkes mask taking part in a demonstration for the Guy Fawkes World Day in Mexico City on November 5, 2013 (AFP Photo/Yuri Cortez)