On the march, Bryn Griffiths, secretary of Worcester Trades Unions Council, said:

“We have organised this march with friends from Worcester Against the Cuts, various local trades unions and political groups. It is a public demonstration of our revulsion at the cuts being introduced by this Government, which have had an effect on working people, on poor people and on society. We have got people to come out and protest publicly and peacefully and are following it up with a rally at Huntingdon Hall with various speakers to discuss how we should take these protests forward. There is a national protest in London on Saturday, March 26, and we are trying to get as many people as we can to Hyde Park.  We really want people from Worcester to come out to that demonstration and say ‘No! - people are being harmed.’ There is an alternative, it is not necessary. We could do things with taxation, we could consider alternatives – and that really is the reason for what we think is a very successful event today.”

We would say that the only effective option that will resolve this crisis is to abandon the ideology of capitalism and fight for a socialist alternative. Under the current system, public spending cuts will still be forced onto us by capitalism, whatever we do with taxation etc., such is the severity of their crisis. It is the whole system which is at fault and it is the whole system which must go. Even if the government was to backtrack in some way over the severity of the cuts – which, of course, would still be a tremendous victory and an indication of what can be achieved if you fight back – they would find some way of bringing the measures back at a later stage. That is why we need socialism.

The march culminated with the rally. First to speak was Tania Young, secretary of West Mercia NAPO, Justice & Probation union, who explained the effects of the government’s attacks on jobs, pensions & services locally. Tania outlined a range of jobs and services under threat from the closure of two elderly care wards down to her own job. What will happen to public safety when no probation officers are able to monitor serious offenders?  Tania then went on to explain that pensions in the public sector were not gold plated, at an average of £3,500 for women they are not even tin-plated. By raising contributions this will force low paid workers out of pension schemes altogether, which will actually cost the country more in the long term with more pensioners relying on state pension top-ups. The problem was not why are public sector pensions so high but why were private workers’ pensions so low if private was so much better than public?

Next to speak was Pete McNally, ASLEF and Worcester Against The Cuts, who explained that we are now been told to stop bashing the bankers, but Pete said that we have not yet started bashing them, after all it was their crisis that got us into this mess. From Unison, Steve Akers Regional Organiser NHS outlined the effects cuts are going to have in the local hospitals and called on all to join the TUC March on 26th March.

The main speaker was Matt Wrack, FBU General Secretary, who congratulated Worcester TUC for organising the March & Rally, stating that he is spending most of his spare time travelling up & down the country speaking at anti-cuts rallies from large cities to small rural market towns. Everywhere in Britain the resistance to the cuts is being built. Matt then spoke of events in Egypt and praised the bravery of workers and youth in overthrowing a dictatorship, but he was critical of Cameron’s hollow praise for the people in Tahrir Square, after all it is the system that Cameron supports that kept Hosni Mubarak in power for thirty years. Matt wanted to know how many people do we have on the streets on 26th March before Cameron will flee into exile?  Matt also wanted to know how the public sector workers had caused a world financial crisis as the government implied and told of the black humour of fire-fighters, especially one who had sent out an email apologising for causing the banking crisis - he doesn’t know how he did it but he is sure that it was his fault.  All the talk of redundancies in “Back-office” jobs being somehow justified has to stop. These are still redundancies and these jobs losses will have an effect on front line services.  Matt described the effects centralised control centres in the fire service are having on response times.  That extra two minutes could be the difference between life and death. Matt praised the excellent role recently played by students in awakening the labour movement and called on all activists to take heart from the recent student demonstrations.

The rally finished with the call on all present to go out and recruit family, friends and neighbours to go to London to show that the cuts are not going to happen in Worcester.

In passing, the local Tory MP, Robin Walker, told media that the march & rally did not represent the people of Worcester.  Well we may not represent his rich friends but we do represent the majority of people in Worcester who either work for the public sector or rely on its services. So here is a challenge to you Robin Walker: how many people of Worcester can you get to march in support of your cuts?