On Wednesday 22 October, supporters of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) lobbied the leading body of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the General Council. Trades unionists talked to the general secretaries of some of the different unions attending the meeting about the urgency of enacting the policy agreed at TUC Congress in September, to call a national demonstration against Labour austerity.
Rob Williams, chair of the NSSN, said:
In September, the TUC congress passed motions that we were supporting and that I think were unanimously supported, that committed the TUC to calling a national Saturday demonstration against Keir Starmer’s austerity.
On 26 November, Starmer, Rachel Reeves and this New Labour government are going to deliver their Budget. It should be making the rich pay for this crisis. But the chances are it will make working-class people pay.
There is a responsibility on the trade union movement to fight back against that. And therefore we are calling on the TUC General Council today to name the date for that demonstration.
We think a good date would be the Saturday before the Budget, 22 November. Right now, no doubt this Starmer government is being lobbied by big business, to bring on austerity, to make working-class people pay. The trade union movement needs to lobby for our interests.
As we know, the far right are on the march. They’re looking to exploit the attacks of Starmer’s government. They’re looking to falsely present themselves as representing ordinary people. It’s a load of rubbish. They’re racists. They’re trying to divide working-class people. We know we’re stronger when we’re united.
TUC passed, in 2018, a policy to launch a campaign for ‘jobs and homes, not racism’. Why not call a demo against austerity, against the cuts, for jobs homes and services, not racism? To unite working-class people from all communities, a united movement against austerity of Starmer’s government and the far right.
