Upwards of a half million people marched through London on Saturday 26 March in a turnout that the organizing trade unions said exceeded their highest predictions. The manifestation was called “The March for the Alternative: Cuts are not the Cure” and was direct push-back to the deep and rapid public sector cuts in the pipeline by the ruling Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition. The mass manifestation validated the resistance against the government agenda. At the rally, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “We will fight these savage cuts and we will not let them destroy services, jobs, and lives.” Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey said there is “palpable anger in the country. If the government was brave enough, it would tackle the tax avoidance that robs the British taxpayer.” Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis, whose public-sector union chartered 500 coaches to get people to London, told the assembled at Hyde Park that he wants the government “to feel the fear and anger of people who have come here today from every part of the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a fairer future.” One week before the demonstration a survey by public service unions Unison and PCS revealed that thousands of public servants have already to tighten their belts. The unions surveyed over 10,000 public sector workers with over 70% saying they have already cut back on their food shopping while spending on a range of other items, including healthcare, has also been reduced.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4335-500-000-Protest-Con-Dem ...
http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2236
http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2229
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.