30 March, 2011Upwards of half a million people marched through London on Saturday in a turnout that British trade unions said exceeded their highest predictions.
UNITED KINGDOM: The manifestation, heard around the world, was called "The March for the Alternative: Cuts are not the Cure" and was a direct push-back to the deep, rapid, and unfair public sector cuts in the pipeline by the ruling UK Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition.
Using the argument that fiscal austerity is needed to reduce UK's financial deficit, the right-wing government led by David Cameron wants to cripple a social welfare system that will see cuts to people and curtailment of British services. And both will fall disproportionately on the poor and on the workers of Britain.
The March 26 manifestation sponsored by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) was civil and peaceful. But the beat of drums, whistles, and chants of resistance made it clear that anger is real. Anger at the fact that for every four pounds in spending cuts, there is a one pound tax hike and that mainly is a higher VAT; anger that 50,000 jobs will disappear when the National Health Service (NHS) is cut; anger that the brutal cuts will cost 170,000 public-sector jobs.
Instead of cuts, the "alternative" should be a crackdown on tax avoidance totalling £25 billion alone taken by City of London operators; initiating a Robin Hood tax on banks and financial institutions over their transactions; a stop to exorbitant executive bonuses; and a gradual, sensible, and sustainable deficit reduction plan based on jobs, growth, and tax justice.
At the afternoon rally, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "We will fight these savage cuts and we will not let them destroy services, jobs, and lives. Today we are speaking for the people of Britain, and David Cameron, if you want to meet the Big Society, we're here in Hyde Park."
Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey called it the greatest demonstration in London in a generation, and said there is a "palpable anger in the country. If the government was brave enough, it would tackle the tax avoidance that robs the British taxpayer."