Put A Million On The March
by Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser 12-03-11
“The price of this financial crisis is being borne by people who absolutely did not create it. I’m surprised the degree of public anger has not been greater than it is.”
These are not my words, nor those of some trade union leader, an enraged student or a community campaigner at their wits end with cuts to services. They are the words of Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England!
And it’s not a mis-quote; he previously stated: “The vast majority of people were in no way responsible for the financial crisis and downturn in output, yet they are suffering a squeeze on their real living standards.”
So, straight from the bankers’ banker’s mouth!
Every trade unionist, student, community activist, pensioner, socialist – anyone who wants a decent future – should do all in their powers to fulfil Mervyn King’s expectations of ‘greater public anger’ by helping to put a million on the streets of London on the TUC’s anti-cuts demo on Saturday 26 March.
The bigger the mass, the more hesitant the government butchers will be - and the more confident the crowd when they return to their workplaces, communities and colleges, to take up the cudgels against cuts.
A Rainbow of Butchers
Westminster’s Twin Tory butchers have declared all-out war on jobs, services, benefits, pensions and pay.
They are robbing £18bn off the poorest in benefits, to pay for bailing out the richest - the bankers, who are stealing a further £7bn off us in bonuses.
They are slaughtering jobs, services, education, schools, pay and pensions - hitting the poorest 15 times harder than the richest.
Instead of defying the Demolition Coalition by setting a No-Cuts Budget and leading a mass rebellion of the Scottish people around the battle-cry “give us back our stolen £billions”, the Spineless National Party government meekly implemented the £1.3bn Westminster cuts .
In turn, an array of Labour, SNP, Tory and LibDem councillors have issued a bloodcurdling menu of cuts in all 32 councils.
Universities, NHS and other bosses are swinging the axe with obscene zeal – as are private sector bosses, even in profit-making firms, using the general recession as a blunt instrument to cow and bully people into accepting job losses and pay cuts.
Mass Defiance
Defiance in the streets, workplaces, communities and universities is now required to beat back the butchers.
And as the slaughter gathers pace, so does the resistance.
The eruption of student protests, demos and occupations has shaken the authorities.
Street demos and occupations of tax-dodging banks and multi-nationals have highlighted the key issue: there is more than enough money in society to avoid every single cut – but it’s in the hands of the bankers and billionaires.
Mass local rallies - such as that of 1,200 parents and teachers in Paisley town hall recently, forcing the SNP council to hastily abandon their plans to chop 60 primary teachers and replace them with half-trained cheaper staff - show the mounting resistance.
Localised campaigns have already scored important victories, such as the Labour council’s climb-down on introducing fees for parking outside your own house in East Kilbride, after local residents initiated a protest campaign.
Demolition Coalition CAN be beaten
At UK level, the Cuts Coalition has already beaten a hasty retreat on privatisation of woodlands and some of their benefit cuts, in the teeth of furious opposition.
This serves to highlight that they can be beaten. The Coalition is not the hard-nosed, invincible inheritors of Thatcherism they would love to be; they are out to crucify ordinary people for the sake of profit, but they are deeply divided on how to get away with it, and the LibDem’s electoral trouncing drives the wedge deeper into this butchers’ alliance.
A million on the streets on 26 March could help to transform the mood of masses of people, giving them greater hope of halting the cuts, together, united in action.
Unfortunately, we have not yet reached the stage of the Egyptian workers and young people, nor of the trade unionists occupying the state legislature in Wisconsin against the state government’s vicious assault on union rights and workers’ conditions, with support rallies of 100,000. But these revolts give us an electrifying glimpse of the awakening giant of the working class in response to global attacks and dictatorship.
Build one-day public sector strike
So the TUC demo must not be the end of the resistance; rather, a platform to mount the coordinated industrial action pledged in rousing speeches at September’s TUC conference. Words now need to become deeds!
Workers face up to a £50,000 rise in their pension contributions, for smaller pensions. UCU members voted to strike against attacks on their pensions. PCS members are likely to follow suit. They plan to try and coordinate industrial action on this after the TUC march.
Scottish UNISON unanimously agreed to call for a one-day public sector strike in Scotland at its December meeting of branch delegates. Several other union leaders - such as Mark Serwotka (PCS), Len McLuskey (UNITE), Bob Crow (RMT) - have issued similar calls.
The time has arrived for such words to be acted upon - and a one-day strike built amongst Scotland’s 630,000 public sector workers.
The STUC and public sector unions should name the day for a Scottish public sector strike and use the TUC march to build mass support for it. Rallies on such a day of mass defiance would also enlist the support of students and communities - and beat back the butchers.
March, unite, and defy the cuts!