THOUSANDS marched through London today to celebrate international workers’ day and to call for increased solidarity.

Trade union branches, community groups, party branches and communist organisations gathered in Clerkenwell Green outside the Marx Memorial Library and chanted and sang their way to Trafalgar Square for a rally.

Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the crowd that a general election was likely soon and he expected a “shift to the right” in upcoming local and European polls.

He said there was a “desperate need of a change in government” with 5,000 people living on the streets and millions on council housing waiting lists.

“The reason for this is the Tory tax giveaway to the corporations and the rich,” Mr McDonnell said.

“In the last general election they accused me of having a ‘magic money tree’. Well there is a magic money tree in the Cayman Islands and we will dig it up.”

Mr McDonnell promised Labour would create a fair taxation system, invest in services and scrap anti-trade union laws.

“We now have the resurgence of a far right and must ensure we defeat Ukip, Tommy Robinson and the fascists in the upcoming elections,” he warned.

GMB national secretary for public services Rehana Azam cautioned demonstrators that the “biggest con sold” to the British public was Ukip and the Brexit Party.

“There is absolutely no problem we face that these parties have the solution to,” she said.

Quoting the late Labour MP Jo Cox, Ms Azam said: “’More unites us than divides us.’ These words are so significant today.”

RMT general secretary Mick Cash blasted Labour deputy leader Tom Watson by saying he should respect the result of the EU referendum, adding: “Let’s get on with it.”

He also called out London Mayor Sadiq Khan for implementing Tory cuts on the Tube, urging him to reverse them.

“Failing Grayling; wherever he goes is an absolute disaster. But so is this government,” Mr Cash added, telling both Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Prime Minister Theresa May to “go now.”

“We need a new government and a new direction,” he said.

As with previous years, the Turkish and Kurdish community organisations attended the march in large numbers. Members of Gik-Der Community and the Kurdish Assembly carried banners in solidarity with the Kurdish hunger strikers.