Manchester Coalition Against Cuts hosted an inspiring rally last night. Over 100 people attended our public rally and responded positively to the calls for action which came from panel speakers and local cuts activists.
The children’s author, Alan Gibbons gave an entertaining and angry speech in which he exposed the lie that there is no alternative to the cuts, pointing out that although the UK was bust after World War II we managed to build the NHS and council houses. He also treated us to a little ditty he wrote about George Osbourne (see youtube video). Social justice and anti-racist campaigner, Lee Jasper reminded us of the need for the labour movement to represent and reach out to black communities given the disproportionate impact on black and ethnic minorities that the cuts will have. He gave a rousing call to action, including civil disobedience given the economic violence of the government’s plans. His call for general strike struck a particular cord amongst the audience as he explained: “We need a general strike, with the TUC, the UCU and the others, because the effects will be a lot deeper than before. We will spend the next 50 or 60 years trying to recover if we don’t get that sort of radical action now.”
Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, repeated Lee Jasper’s call to wipe the Lib-Dems off the map in the May elections and held up the students as a beacon of struggle that the labour movement needed to learn from.
Speaking from the platform, Steph Pike from the Access to Advice campaign spoke about the need to defend Manchester Advice, a vital service which last year provided free legal advice to 8 000 people who otherwise would not have been able to access the information and support they needed. From the floor speakers from Love Levenshulme, Hate Cuts and Save Newbury House reminded the meeting that mass action can save services and that the attacks we are facing are attacks on the working class. Speakers from UCU and NUT talked about their fight to defend pensions and how their struggle over terms and conditions, and over jobs, was intricately linked to the struggle to defend education.
The meeting ended with a call to support the actions taking place in Manchester over the coming weeks and months, in particular the possibility of having teachers, lecturers and civil servants taking coordinated strike action on 30th June. A speaker from the floor called on Manchester Coalition Against Cuts to make 30th June into a Day of Rage in Manchester.
After our successful demonstration on March 5th, when 2000 plus marched on the Town Hall, yesterday’s meeting was an important step forward for Manchester Coalition Against Cuts, giving us an good basis upon which to mobilise in the months ahead. In the words of Alan Gibbons in his Osbourne poem: “Let’s give his kind a bloody nose. The many against the Bally few”!
