You might be feeling pretty exhausted right now. Or worried. Or angry. Whatever you're feeling, it's important to know you're not alone in it. We acted as a group inside the store and we are still a group now. And an amazing group at that: a group that stood up (or sat down!) for what we know is right. A group that made decisions together, who stayed together and who left together. Who together committed to a creative act of civil disobedience, without violence or vandalism. No amount of political policing can hide these facts.

This was not the first time that the police have gone too far in their actions at UK Uncut protests. In January we witnessed an officer use CS spray to unjustifiably devastate a group of protesters outside of tax-dodgers Boots.

On Saturday, their choice to make so many arrests of peaceful protesters, and to subsequently bundle us up with others who were arrested for 'violence', are clear examples of political policing: before we left the senior policewoman inside the store said our actions were “nonviolent” and “sensible”. The excellent Green and Black Cross legal team got this all on film. We were shocked to be arrested following these comments, following statements that we had been kept inside the store for our own safety, following assurances that we would not be detained upon leaving the store.

The night in prison was a nasty experience. We were split up into individual cells, had our clothes seized, some of us were detained for almost the longest time permitted without charge. Many had to leave in white overalls as late as 9pm the next day. Some have shared their stories of this experience elsewhere.

While we were forced to go through that experience alone, it's important we don't stay alone now that we're out. Sticking together, we can get emotional and practical support going forward.

To start this process going, the amazing legal observers at Green and Black Cross have organised a meeting:

This Saturday (2nd April), 2.00pm, at ULU (Malet Street, WC1E 7HY)

The meeting will be a chance to share our experiences and feelings with each other, as well as to sort out proactively where we go from here. Coming together could help your case, and will definitely help your confidence. More details and an agenda will be up here, or on the Green and Black Cross Website, as soon as we know them

Before Saturday, it's important that you let the Green and Black Cross know that you have been arrested / charged, and are out of custody. You can call them on 07946 541 511 or email gbclegal@riseup.net. Furthermore, if you want a chat about anything before Saturday, call 07415063231.

We did good. Our action was part of a growing movement that has been scoring major wins in our struggle against unfair tax avoidance and the reckless, greedy banks that caused the economic crisis. That movement will continue, but right now our priority is to come together and look out for each other. So don't go through this alone; get in touch, and we'll see you on Saturday!

Amidst all the news reports bouncing back and forth right now about mass arrests and political policing, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of what we’re fighting for, and how far we’ve come as a group. Today saw the launch of a public inquiry, to be conducted by the Treasury select committee, into the issue of corporate tax avoidance.

An issue which, six months ago, didn’t even figure on the political map for many, is now taking centre stage and, one way or another, this Government will be forced to listen. What is more, the executives of some of the worst offenders – hopefully Barclays, Vodafone and Boots amongst them – will be called to answer questions before the committee about their “tax efficiency” practices. With a bit of luck, Sir Philip Green might even have to explain to his former employers why he felt that the £250m he dodged would be better spent on his lifestyle rather than schools and hospitals for the people who buy his products. The coalition has already been put on the back foot over tax avoidance, thanks in a large part to the hard work and dedication of UK Uncutters up and down the country. The Government mentioned several new anti tax-avoidance measures in last weeks budget, and is even discussing a blanket anti-avoidance law, similar to the one in Australia. This inquiry will ramp up the pressure on Ministers to introduce such a bill sooner rather than later.

Occasionally people ask us what we’ve achieved and what we hope to achieve at UK Uncut. When they do, we think not only of the empowering, inspiring, creative direct actions we’ve taken, of the networks of friends and activists we’ve forged, or of the debate we’ve lit about the genuine alternatives to these unnecessary cuts. We also think of hard won political victories like the one we’ve seen today, victories which will, slowly but surely, bring about real political change.

This is a guest post by Adam Ramsay. Read more at Bright Green Scotland.

I spent the best part of the weekend in a police cell in Illford. I've been accused of taking part in a peaceful protest at Fortnum & Mason's, and charged with aggravated trespass. But being locked up for a day is nothing, nothing to the fate of those who will be hardest hit by the government's cuts and privatisation.

While out promoting the march a few weeks ago, a friend and I met two such people. Both of these people are severely physically disabled. They cannot leave their homes without help. They have a carer who comes, twice a week, and takes them in her car for a trip into town, where they do their shopping, and maybe see a friend.

But the money that pays for the carer's petrol is being withdrawn by George Osborne. She can no longer afford to take the people we met into town - can't afford to help them get out of the house. And so both expect to be left imprisoned in their own homes for much of the rest of their lives.

Or let's look at Martha. Martha is a multiply disabled woman from Oxfordshire. She lives in a care home - has lived there for most of her life. That's where her friends are, she knows her carers there. It's her home. Sometimes, she is pushed in her wheelchair around the garden, and she likes this. Her Dad, William, can tell she likes it, because she calms down. She's not been calm very often lately, because she can tell what's happening to her. She may not know the details - that the government is launching a radical economic experiment: mass privitisation and the biggest spending cuts in a western country since those that prolonged the Great Depression. She probably doesn't know that that George Osborne announced massive cuts to the support she needs by telling us that anyone who thinks these cuts are solely about saving money is "missing the point" - that the credit crunch is a "once in a generation opportunity" to change the services she relies on. Martha doesn't know what these cuts are about. She hasn't come across phrases like: "shock doctrine". She's never heard of Fred Goodwin or derivatives, or sub-prime mortgages.

But she can tell that she is going to be kicked out of her home. The cuts to the Disability Living Allowance mean that she can no longer afford to stay there - her parents can't afford to subsidise her place. She will be forced into a much cheaper home. One where she won't be with her friends - friends she may never get to see again. Her trips outside will be much rarer. She will be left lonely and alone, with a rapid turnover of carers she can never get to know. And so she will be too will be imprisoned locked up in an institution she hasn't chosen, trapped by cuts and by a government who thinks that she can't fight back.

Or let's look at my friend John. John is exceptionally talented - as many people are. He works hard and he is diligent and he is passionate. But as a member of the jilted generation, he has been left unemployed. He has been thrown onto George Osborne's scrapheap of the 'undeserving': poor people, disabled people, young people. His plight is the plight of my generation - a fate spelled out in unemployment stats and on a million rems of recycled job applications and a million fading dreams. After months spent searching for work that isn't there, days carefully filling in forms and updating CVs that end up in the trash, John gets depressed. Nothing knocks his confidence like unemployment. The evidence tells us that joblessness kills. It causes stress, it breaks down communities. And this too leaves people imprisoned - trapped by their own self doubt and self loathing and depression.

In the recent stories about Mark Stone - the police officer who infiltrated the climate movement - we saw the lengths to which the police are willing to go to gain intelligence on peaceful protesters, and to attempt to intimidate us out of activism. And that may be what they are trying to do here. But it won't work. It won't work because we know that protesting does work - we remember that every intitution of organised justice in this country had to be fought for. It won't work because people are beginning to see that these cuts have nothing to do with fixing the economy and everything to do with right wing ideology. And it won't work because a day in the police cells is nothing compared to a lifetime trapped as a prisoner in your own home. It is nothing to what they are doing to Martha, and what they are doing to John. It is nothing compared to the damage that these cuts will do to our communities and our friends and our lives.

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