Thousands tell Tories: 'No cuts'

Lobby of Tory Party conference, photo I Dalton   (Click to enlarge)

AS THE first Conservative Party delegates arrived for their 2010 conference at the ICC in Birmingham - a city whose Con-Dem council has threatened 26,000 employees with the sack unless they accept new contracts with reduced terms - thousands of trade unionists and political activists were gathering less than a mile away.

Dave Griffiths

Despite the heavy and almost non-stop rain, it was an impressive show of opposition to the Con-Dem policy of destroying the public sector. Several thousand demonstrators took their banners, placards and voices along a tortuous route to the ICC and beyond.

The weather and the police tactics of attrition - slowing down and breaking up the march, forcing it through narrow passages - meant that most didn't get as far as the rally in a flooded car park off Broad Street. This was a shame, because speakers including Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist and PCS civil servants union leader Mark Serwotka were speaking about how to develop the anti-cuts campaign.

Dave Nellist put the case for socialism. He also called on Labour councils to refuse to implement the cuts. However, he argued that - where Labour councils wield the axe we need a political alternative to the big three parties. He said: "We need independent trade union, socialist and community-based candidates standing on an anti-cuts platform. It's been done in a limited way before. We need to repeat that with hundreds of candidates next May."

Socialist Party members worked hard to distribute a leaflet arguing how, when the shouting was over, the organised work to oppose the cuts in workplaces and communities needed to begin - a message that struck a chord with the trade unionists. Whatever the drawbacks of Right to Work as a focus for an effective anti-cuts campaign, this demonstration proved that the will and the numbers for such a campaign are not lacking.

Legitimacy of Cameron and Clegg further shattered

May 2012 local election reports

Leveson exposes links between Tories and Murdoch

The main parties

Housing safety nets for young people being scrapped by Tories

Tories stand for the 1%... We need a voice for the 99%!

Cuts:

Bristol East Socialist Party: There is an Alternative

Demo against cuts at Salford university

Walthamstow Socialist Party: France - Greece - Austerity rejected!

Back to work? How the system fails the unemployed

Socialist:

Bristol Central Socialist Party: Art and Politics

Bristol Central Socialist Party: The role of the monarchy in capitalist society

Southampton Socialist Party: Greece - how would a workers' government stabilise the economy?

Labour:

Leadership shows weakness at CWU conference

Election results: How did TUSC do?

Summer's riots

Dave Nellist:

On 3 May, use your vote to: Rage against austerity!

Socialist councillor leads fight to restore EMA

Coventry: Re-elect Dave Nellist

Conservative party:

Tory party struggles to recapture territory taken by New Labour