Youth Fight Austerity: protest against the Budget on 8 July!
Claire Laker-Mansfield, Youth Fight Austerity organiser
On 8 July, Osborne plans a bonfire of welfare, jobs and services. This will be a billionaires’ budget – specially designed to transfer huge sums of wealth from working class people to the very richest in society.
Bolstered by their general election victory, the Tories believe they have a mandate to go on the rampage. But with only 24% of the electorate voting Conservative, the truth is that they are a weak, unpopular and potentially divided government. And we’re organising to fight them.
Stark choice
For young people, the choice we face is stark: we struggle, or we endure an ever more bleak future of austerity – Osborne’s planned poverty.
On Budget day, the speeches, heckling and general pantomime taking place in the House of Commons could make us despair. But outside parliament’s doors, on the streets of London, Manchester, Liverpool and more, the thousands demonstrating and fighting back will offer hope.
That’s why Youth Fight Austerity has called for a national day of action to take place on the 8 July. We are organising protests in towns and cities around the country. Let’s make sure we have mass mobilisations of young and working class people to block Osborne’s billionaires’ budget. We won’t let the Tories rip up our futures.
Take a look at the list of protests listed on the right and on our website and come along to your local one. But if you can’t see one near you, why not help organise one?
- Give us a call or drop us an email and we’ll help you out: youthfightforjobs.com, [email protected], 020 8558 7947.
Youth Fight Austerity demands:
- End austerity – no to five more years of cuts to jobs, education and public services
- Stop welfare cuts – no compulsory workfare for 18-21 year olds, defend housing benefit
- Fight poverty pay – raise the minimum wage to £10 now, scrap zero-hour contracts
- Defend education – no to cuts and tuition fees
- Democratic rights – stop attacks on the right to strike, protest and other civil liberties. For votes at 16.
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Why I will be there!
Aaron Bailey
As a young person, it can sometimes feel like the attacks that the Tory government are making right now don’t affect you. But believe me, they do.
The cuts and caps to the benefit system and workers’ pay that will be in the budget might sound distant threats to young people.
But these, as well as cuts in the NHS, local services and education, are just a few examples of how our entire lives will be affected.
Living Costs
These cuts will drive up living costs like rent and housing while at the same time driving down wages, making it all the more difficult for young people like me to have a job and find a place to live.
There are already over 1 million people who rely on food banks just to eat, including many workers. All the while, our services are being slowly sold off under our noses to private corporations who couldn’t care less if they provide a good service.
They want to make money from services that we need to survive, the NHS springs to mind as a perfect example.
While the government is making all these cuts, they are also attempting to pass the blame onto migrants and benefit claimants.
This is being used as a smokescreen as they try to dismantle the entire welfare system and put even more pressure on people like me who are barely making through the week as it is.
All the while they reward the bankers who got us into this mess in the first place. The time has come for us to stop letting them do this to working class people.
I am protesting on 8 July because I want to show that there is an alternative to austerity.
Let’s build that socialist alternative, starting with fighting the cuts and opposing the budget.
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Youth Fight Austerity budget day protests around the country
Birmingham
6pm
Victoria Square, B1 1BB
Call 07530429441
Coventry
5:30pm
Lady Godiva Statue, Broadgate Square, CV1 1LL
Call 07530429441
Glasgow
5pm
McDonalds, Corner of Union and Argyle Street, G2 8TL
Liverpool
12 noon
McDonalds , Church Street
Call 07769611320
London
5pm
Downing Street
Call Helen on 07540189052
Manchester
12 noon
Queen Victoria statue,
Piccadilly Gardens, M1 1AF
Call 07769611320
Nuneaton
12:30pm
The George Eliot Statue,
Newdegate St, CV11 4ER
Call 07530429441
Southampton
5:30pm
Bargate, SO14 1HF
Call Nick on 07833681910
Hanley (Stoke)
4pm
Clock Tower, Potteries
Shopping Centre, ST1 1PS
Call Liat 07900880146
Wolverhampton
12:30pm
The Man on the Horse Statue, Queen Square, WV1 1TL
Call 07530429441