Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/490/2493
From The Socialist newspaper, 7 June 2007
Join the 24 June demo
Fight Brown's agenda of war, cuts & privatisation
GORDON BROWN is visiting Manchester for a special Labour conference as part of his "coronation" as prime minister. His cheerleaders claim: "Brown won't be like Blair". One such apologist recently said: "What shade of Brown we get depends on us". We say any shade of New Labour's wars, cuts and privatisations is unacceptable!
Hugh Caffrey, Manchester Socialist Party
Brown, as his recent pronouncements on the 'war on terror' show, clearly intends to carry on where Blair left off. We should make the 24 June demonstration a massive protest against the continuing occupation of Iraq and Brown's latest attack on democratic rights.
It could be as big as the 60,000-strong demo against New Labour's conference in Manchester last year, especially given the government's attacks on our public services.
The recently-announced £500 million underspend in the health service is at the cost of bed closures, ward closures, job losses and attacks on staff pay and conditions. In the north-west alone £161 million went unspent, probably enough to have wiped out all the alleged debts supposedly causing cuts in the region.
The 24 June demonstration should be a springboard to the union-backed national demonstration on 13 October against cuts in the NHS.
Billions of pounds have been wasted on the private sector, paying for over-priced Private Finance Initiative projects. Public sector workers face pay cuts and millions of workers are seeing their pensions disappear. As Chancellor, Brown was ultimately responsible for all these policies.
Likewise, in education we've seen privatisation, closures, university fees and debts, and now the likely scrapping of "bursaries" received by poorer university students - all supported by Brown.
The government have spent billions on the catastrophic invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, while Brown insists 'there isn't enough to go round' for public services.
Brown has been called the 'friend' of the trade union leaders. He wants to keep the union leaders on side through false promises like the "Warwick Agreement". These mean little or nothing in most workplaces.
The unions should reject Brown's soft soap and lies just like we rejected Blair's kicks and insults!
All out for 24 June. Let Brown know, we won't accept a second cheek of the same Blairite arse!
Demo details
Sunday 24 June. Assemble 12 noon, Albert Square, central Manchester.
called by the Stop The War Coalition
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In The Socialist 7 June 2007:
PFI - a licence to print money
Petition on NHS: Stop cuts and privatisations (word)
War and terrorism
Fight Brown's agenda of war, cuts & privatisation
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Coventry says 'keep our Post Office open'
CWU delegates attack link with Labour
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