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On Saturday December 4th in freezing weather around 400 trade
unionists, students and youth marched from Coventry City Council House
to a rally in Millennium Square outside the world famous transport
museum to protest against the cuts and the rise in tuition fees. The
event was jointly organised by the Unison and Unite trade unions from
the city council and the Coventry Trades Union Council (CTUC) campaign
Coventry Against the Cuts (CAthC).
The reception from the public
for the marchers as they wound their way through the city was excellent
with many joining in. Down back alleys lurked police vans full of the
forces of “law and order” as they were expecting “trouble” given that
students were on the march. The only volatility in this event however
was the anger of the marchers and the speakers at the rally.
All
of them condemned the cuts, gave examples of what the cuts would mean
and some even presented an alternative to the crisis, the need to take
the banks and finance houses into public ownership.
The speeches can be viewed on You Tube . Log in to Coventry Against the Cuts on You Tube and note the speaker from the CTUC or just click here.
Since
the inception of the campaign here in Coventry we have gone from
strength to strength. The campaign was set up back in the early summer
as a sub-committee of the CTUC. We have organised lobbies,
demonstrations, meetings and marches and each time the numbers have
grown, a reflection of the rising tide of anger in the movement against
the programme of Tory/Lib Dem Cuts.
What was also significant
about this march and rally was the number of trade union banners
represented, including UCU, PCS, NUT, GMB, Unite, Unison and others. The
message is getting home to organised workers that unless we rise up to
defeat these cuts and this government, a crisis caused by the bankers
and their credit policies will be paid for by working people and THIS IS
NOT GOING TO BE ACCEPTED.
The task now here in Coventry is to
mobilise our forces to ensure that on March 26th, 2011, the Day of
Action being organised by the TUC in London, working people and their
organisations from this city are well represented.
In addition
there is a growing mood in trade union branches in Coventry for the TUC
Day of Action to be a step on the road to the calling of a one-day
General Strike to bring the country to a halt and show the government
that the latent power in society belongs to working people. Without
their effort nothing moves and nothing is produced. The bankers can swan
off to the golf course and will not be missed but if the real producers
of wealth stop work for a day, nothing moves.
This power must be
harnessed to stop the cuts and to offer an alternative programme of
socialism as the only way of ensuring that this crisis of capitalism is
not paid for by working people.
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