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Worcester Protect Jobs and Services Campaign Conference |
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By Andy
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Tuesday, 30 November 2010 |
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On Saturday 27th November 2010, Worcester Trades
Union Council chair Steve Martin welcomed over 40 trade union and political
activists to the conference called by the Trades Council to seek a co-ordinate
campaign of resistance to the Coalition plans to cut public expenditure. Unite
national official Doug Nicholls presented a keynote speech analyzing in detail
the Government plans. He stressed the ideological nature of the proposals which
use economic arguments as a pretext to inflict massive cuts in the Welfare
State. He said, “No one in Britain voted for what
is happening right now…We need to make sure that the absolute massacre of our
public services is resisted This was, he contended, an attack on the
working class and he commended recent demonstrations by students as an example
of effective campaigning and the violent actions of
a minority, adding “Many of these cuts are a
form of violence themselves...The government are seeking to undo what our parents
built up for the future.”
Part of the structure of the conference was to form three
sector groups; Education, Public Service and Services to the Public, to discuss
and formulate action plans specific to that sector.
Arising from the sector group sessions a joint plan of
action has been drawn up to build the resistance to the cuts in Worcester with
plans to lobby both city and county council budget setting meetings. In
addition, it was agreed to build for a mass rally in the centre of Worcester in
early February and that this rally would help promote the National TUC rally on
26th March. It was also agreed to take the battle to the streets if
the Tories attempt to close a much needed community centre in a deprived area
of Worcester.
The conference recognized that Worcester is only one of many
Anti-Cuts groups that have been created across the country. From these bodies
the labour movement can provide local resistance in support of a national campaign organized by the TUC
against the Tory Lib Dem attacks .The conference agreed it would reconvene in early
January to review progress.
Some
Tories and Lib Dems may try and laugh off a meeting of just 40 saying that it
is not representative, but to put the size of this meeting into perspective if
it had been replicated throughout the country, it would be a 26,000 delegate
conference of trade union activists. But this is just the beginning in
Worcester of the building of a campaign that will grow and grow to ensure that
no one is ConDemned, whether a public or private sector worker or vulnerable
users.
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