The North West TUC had done its job and the results were impressive. The big battalions of labour were present with many industrial workers mobilising from Unite, the RMT and the GMB as well as PCS, Unison, and the teacher unions of NUT, NASUWT, UCU and ATL. A very large contingent of students also joined the march right at the beginning.

The marchers were defiant as evidenced by the chants and the banners. The message was simple – we did not cause this crisis and we will not pay for it. The theme was taken up by the speakers – Len McCluskey of Unite, Christine Blower of NUT and Mark Serwotka of PCS among others. Their speeches moved the demonstrators to cheering and clapping.

With facts and figures each speaker showed how unfair the Tory dominated government cuts were and how the standard of living of working class people was being eroded directly through wage cuts and freezes as well as job losses, and indirectly through cuts in the social wage – and still the economy spirals downwards.

There was therefore a need for an alternative explained the platform – tax the rich, stop tax avoidance and evasion, invest in sustainable green alternatives and expand public spending by building houses, schools and hospitals. All of this we would welcome, as the burden of the crisis of capitalism is being borne by the working class while those who were instrumental in triggering it are enjoying fat pay packets and even fatter bonuses. For the rich there is no crisis.

At the same time as supporting these albeit limited demands for alternative policies we also have to be honest and ask some relevant questions, such as how do you tax the rich when they control the wealth? How do you expand public spending when the bond markets demand the opposite so that when they buy government bonds they will not run the risk of not getting their money back by a sovereign default?

In other words how do you control capitalism and make it more socially responsive by producing things that we need – homes, schools, hospitals and social services? The answer is that you can’t. You cannot control capitalism as it controls you. The only way to stop the anarchy of the markets, of the spivs and speculators who make bets on whether the economy goes up or down, who don’t give a damn for the effects of market movements on working class people, is by taking over the wealth and power of those who own and control the economy, the means of providing the wherewithal of life itself.

So the call today from all of the speakers for us to march and fight in a unified manner with a common objective of defeating this government raises the question of what it is we are marching and fighting for. Unless we have a political programme of fighting for socialism the result will be the same. We let off steam, we voice our concerns, we demand action – and we fail to turn this government.

We have to march and lobby as we need to know our strength and feel the potential power we have. We will now begin the task of organising for the massive show of strength on November 30th with the potential of there being 3 to 4 million workers taking action on that day mainly to protect pensions but also to fight against public sector cuts. But we must also realise that unless we have a political programme allied with the might of the labour movement, a programme that challenges the very basis of capitalism, we run the risk of marches and rallies not achieving their objectives and thus sowing the seeds of demoralisation and apathy in our ranks, a feeling that we cannot do anything.

We are at the beginnings of a coordinated fight back:

• November 10th 2010, students and lecturers march in London
• March 26th 2011, national demonstration in London (the biggest TU demo in British history)
• June 30th 2011, national strike in the public sector on the issue of pensions
• 18th September 2011, lobby of Lib Dem conference in Birmingham
• and today’s events in Manchester.

The next target is to mobilise the movement for November 30th. And after that? More of the same? Marches alone will not turn this government. A political programme to put an end to capitalism is the only way to ensure that the crisis of capitalism is not paid for by the working class.