Civil rights activist Rev Jesse Jackson addressed protesters at St Paul’s Cathedral protest camp today.
The Baptist Minister told the Occupy London movement to “stand up and fight back” as the eager crowd chanted in agreement.
He added: “We fight back, we win, let nobody break your spirit.
“We keep our hope alive, so stand tall, fight back, stand up. Keep hope alive.”
Before his visit he told The Evening Standard: ‘Those protests, they are like canaries in the mine. They are warning us that there is gas below down in the mine.’
Rev Jackson, who worked for Martin Luther King added he hoped police and bailiffs would not be sent to break up the protests, as they had on Wall Street in America.
More than 200 tents have been pitched outside the famous domed church since 15 October in a protest against capitalist excess and was inspired by New York’s Occupy Wall Street.