Saturday 22 June 2013, 9:30am – 5pm,
Central Hall Westminster, Storey’s Gate, London, Westminster, London SW1H 9NH
- Register for the People’s Assembly Against Austerity
- Model Resolution in support of the People’s Assembly
- Add your support for the People’s Assembly Against Austerity
- Contact us: [email protected] – 07872 481769
The People’s Assembly Against Austerity was launched with a letter to the Guardian by the initial signatories below:
This is a call to all those millions of people in Britain who face an impoverished and uncertain year as their wages, jobs, conditions and welfare provision come under renewed attack by the government. With some 80% of austerity measures still to come, and with the government lengthening the time they expect cuts to last, we are calling a People’s Assembly Against Austerity to bring together campaigns against cuts and privatisation with trade unionists in a movement for social justice. We aim to develop a strategy for resistance to mobilise millions of people against the Con Dem government.
The assembly will provide a national forum for anti-austerity views which, while increasingly popular, are barely represented in parliament. A People’s Assembly can play a key role in ensuring that this uncaring government faces a movement of opposition broad enough and powerful enough to generate successful co-ordinated action, including strike action. The assembly will be ready to support co-ordinated industrial action and national demonstrations against austerity, if possible synchronising with mobilisations across Europe. The People’s Assembly Against Austerity will meet at Central Hall, Westminster, on 22 June.
Tony Benn President, Coalition of Resistance
Len McCluskey General secretary, Unite the Union
Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS
Christine Blower General secretary, NUT
Michelle Stanistreet General secretary, NUJ
Manuel Cortez General secretary, TSSA
Billy Hayes General secretary, CWU
Bob Crow General secretary, RMT
Mick Whelan General secretary, Aslef
Kevin Courtney Deputy general secretary, NUT
Paul Mackney Former general secretary Natfhe (now UCU)
Vicky Baars NUS union development
Kevin Donnelly Trade Union Council JCC
Caroline Lucas MP
Katy Clark MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
John McDonnell MP
Murad Qureshi London assembly member
Dawn Butler Former Labour minister for young citizens and youth engagement
Tariq Ali Author
John Pilger Journalist
Ken Loach Filmmaker
Owen Jones Writer
James Meadway Senior economist, New Economics Foundation
Dot Gibson National Pensioners Convention Keep our NHS Public
Merry Cross Disabled People Against the Cuts
John Hendy QC Co-chair, People’s Charter
John Hilary Director, War on Want
Sam Fairbairn National secretary, Coalition of Resistance
Imran Khan Solicitor, co-chair, People’s Charter
Rachael Newton People’s Charter
Romayne Phoenix Chair, Coalition of Resistance
Zita Holbourne Co-chair, Black activists rising against the cuts
Clare Solomon Vice-chair, Coalition of Resistance
Andrew Burgin Vice-chair, Coalition of Resistance
Colin Hampton Co-ordinator, National Unemployed Workers Centres Combine
Anita Wright Secretary, National Association of Women
Joginder Bains Association of Indian Women
Shang Gahonia Indian Workers Association
Carolyn Jones Director, Institute of Employment Rights
Lindsey German Convenor, Stop the War Coalition
Kate Hudson General secretary, CND
Bruce Kent Peace campaigner
Mark Steel Comedian
Lee Hall Playwright
Roger Lloyd Pack Actor
Josie Long Comedian
Iain Banks Author
Arthur Smith Comedian
Roy Bailey Folk singer
Francesca Martinez Comedian
Richard Wilson Actor
John Rees Counterfire editorial board
Natalie Bennett Leader of the Green Party England and Wales
Fred Leplat Socialist Resistance
Robert Griffiths General secretary, Communist Party of Britain
Bill Greenshields Chair, Communist Party of Britain
Richard Bagley Editor, Morning Star
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Talk TALK TALK that is all we hear what is needed is ACTION now! call a General Strike, yes people will suffer for a few weeks but better than suffering for years to come, bring down the coalition, force them to hold NEW FAIR elections. and before we do change the way the country is run not by 650 people but by the PEOPLE there is sufficent techknowledgie to beable to get more or less instant views on goverment policies.
Yes, I agree all this talk and we seem not to get anywhere! We need action, real action..the poor are suffering. The rich are living it up at the expence of the poor. This government has been very cunning, orchestrating a properganda machine..turning the working poor against the unworking poor, those who cannot find a job and those who are sick.The nasty language politicians use against those who have no voice such as “scivers and scrungers” is appalling. We don’t need 650 MPs or 850 Lords..we do indeed need the country to be run for the people..not the politicians and their friends…the rich bankers etc.
Don’t know anything about the people at the helm of UKIP, but they are dispensable if proven unsuitable to OUR agenda. En masse we could get them elected running on a ticket that they represent the people and will be accountable to the people and certain changes will be implemented within the establishment before moving on to the banking industry in Britain. It needs a good cleaning and then put back to its old respectable self. How long would it be before UKIP politicians started getting bumped off? I’d also demand a full and transparent audit of DfID’s books. Green taxes? Who’s getting those? Stealing African land from the poor and growing trees seems to be a favourite amongst the British elite for getting their hands on tax money. So much cleaning up to do, it will take us generations to rectify all the disasters brought on by increasing greed.
BRIAN, BEING RETIRED STILL NEED TO GET RID OF THIS
(excuse) of a goverment there will be an uprising if it dose not change its LAW on bedroom Tax
Yeah, I agree. This parliament is already over half way through (assuming it lasts til 2015) but we’re still at the talking about what to do stage. The unions need to put their necks on the line & call a General Strike. At the very least there should be big demonstrations every month (weekly would be ideal), instead of once every 18 months or so, & these should take place all over the country, in each city/town, not just London. Labour run Councils need to put their necks on the line too & refuse to cut services & refuse to evict any Council tenants for arrears caused by the “bedroom tax”, instead of just sitting there blaming the Coalition government for everything. I’m interested in getting involved in this, but I’m concerned it will be the usual socialist left talking shop where everyone piles in with their own agenda instead of concentrating on some key issues we can all agree on. If this is just going to be another excuse for various no hope socialist factions to sell some papers, then I’m not interested. Likewise if it’s just going to be a big advertising campaign for ineffective unions, like the Marches for the Alternative have been. How is this movement reaching out to & involving left wing Liberals & Anarchists & Left Libertarians?
Don’t live in Britain so can only comment as a reader. Surely English Councils have become right-wing parties in their own right. All I read is their greed for fines and huge salaries and bonuses for many. Why would it be in their interest to adopt left-wing policies? They are NEW labour, a whole different philosophy from the original people’s party.
Well said, and I’ve been to many of these “meetings” and nothing has come of it. The unions for some reason are against a general strike, and until they lead on this, ex SWPers don’t have that sort of clout. However I will point out that in the absence of union leadership, this type of protest is the only thing we got, so I’ll be attending…again. See it like a day trip to the left, a good day out!
Any one heading down from Liverpool. i could do with a lift.
I am retired, a member of the Green Party. I think we need a long term view of how the economy should work, but we dont need austerity,particularly for those who can scarcely afford to live now, to achieve this; and it wont be done using market forces.
John,
I agree, John Ruskin wrote ‘unto this last’ promoting ethics in economics, localisation and sustainability.
http://www.academia.edu/1967015/John_Ruskins_Political_Economy_There_is_No_Wealth_but_Life
I have just resigned after being a member of the Lib-Dems for 6 years . All their green promises have been ignored since Chris Huhme crashed & burned – I voted for him in the LibDem leadership election . I am very upset , the Lib-Dems had been left of Labour during the Blair/Brown years but now this country needs something different . They really are all the same now .
cor blimey, tony is a very smart cookie, an aristo, this is it, this is the revolution !
Let this event trigger a countrywide NETWORK of “People’s Assemblies”. May they become the SOVIETS of the British Revolution!
I too think the time for talking is over. Thousands of people today are unsure whether or not they will be homeless in April. The bedroom tax, for me, means that I have to pay £14 out of £99 per week as I have an extra bedroom which I use if my grandchildren or family come to stay. There are no one-bed room properties available only in the private sector and the rent for one of these is twice the rent I pay for my home. This tax only applies to the poorest people those on benefits and low-paid workers who get help with their rent. It’s terrifying. I’ve worked all my adult life from the time I finished uni until my spine collapsed which is the reason I’m not working now.
You deserve better. I hope you get it.
This is a planned and highly thought out attack by intelligent people on the underprivileged and the disabled, as well as normal working people. To think that the perpetrators are idiots, and that they are acting out of pure incompetence, is a woeful mistake. To misjudge the “enemy” in this way will surely lead to ruin. The cuts to public services are most probably designed to last forever, and eventually it is hoped that the new paradigm is accepted as the norm, just like post 80s privatised Britain has been accepted.
The problem is, many people are unable to truly believe this assault is actually happening at all, until it directly affects them. By the time this tiptoe-ing assault does touch them, the civil and legal means by which they would defend themselves have all been removed. The removal of legal-aid is one such example of this – it is one of the elements of a safety net which is being dismantled, largely invisible to most until actually needed, and then there is nothing.
This is clever. By attacking things that most of us don’t think about, we are slowly being undermined. The RELATIVE minority who do rely on these nets, are of course the ones in direct line of fire, but of course can so easily be removed from our attention by extremely selective media representation.
Of course it’s all planned. All part of the New World Order: flood the country with cheap labour and then bring down the people’s expectations. You only need a few cowhands to run a large herd. Where will everyone sleep? You will all squash in together. How do you suppose they live in the third world? This week we see that the banks have been given the go ahead (by themselves) to rob their clients. How long before YOUR savings are hit?
Sam is quite right in what he says. If I hadn’t been suffering from severe depression after losing my husband and father recently, I would probably have remained ignorant to what is actually going on. As it is, I had to attend the Atos assessment where, after almost ten minutes chat, they have decided I am fit for work and not listened to a word I had to say about my illness. They stopped all my benefits the following day, leaving me with no money at all, no warning or anything, and worried sick about how I was going to pay bills etc… Many people are known to have killed themselves because of the worry and anxiety this is all causing, those with mental health issues especially so. It is definitely time for action and we need to put a stop to Cameron and his possy before things get any worse than they already are. I am really angry at the way vulnerable people are being treated by this government, and it’s time they were pulled down from their ivory towers!
Speaking personally ,tho I dont think it’s just me at Lambeth anti-cuts group who thinks the last thing we need is a panel of speakers giving the usual speeches…..
The idea of local Peoples Assemblies before this Conference is brilliant- and crucial. But for this to produce owt useful, far as I can see, the people who should be talking are particularly those coming from these Assemblies.
We’ve had 3 years of cuts and Union leaders etc speakers- Enough! let’s hear it from the grassroots for a change!!
Sorry, but we DO need to talk, and not just to our friends.
The Right wing has waged a very effective psychological war, and they have fought it with words.
Almost everyone in the country (present company possibly excepted) thinks that the country is in massive debt, which must be repaid forthwith to avoid paying even more interest on these debts. Additionally they believe that the reason this happened was because the previous Labour government, personified as Gordon Brown, borrowed too much money.
Although most people are a bit fed up of blaming the previous Labour government when we have had 3 years of nasty medicine and do not seem to be getting better, the narrative has NOT been challenged. Gordon Brown borrowed to reflate the economy in response to the 2008 crisis: the right wing narrative is that he did this because left-wingers always overspend on civil servants and benefit claimants. Which story do people believe?
It is absoluteley necessary, if we believe in democracy, to address what the majority of the population think and believe. Taking direct action does not change other people’s opinions. In fact, if it can be placed in the right-wing narrative as proving that “deficit deniers” are irresponsible idiots who are too stupid to understand economic facts, or malicious idiots who do not care whether the country is “ruined”, direct action will harden opinions and increase support for right wing policies amongst right wingers and some “floaters”.
The Conservatives have a think tank of psychologists and behavioural economists (check out MINDSPACE) working out how to influence “Automatic” behaviour and choices (as opposed to “Reflective” ones). Whilst all this priming may eventually benefit UKIP, not the Conservatives, the fact is that they have succeeded in taking the debate on to right-wing turf since the Thatcher era (exactly as this excellent article points out).
Engaging in dialogue with people who think that it is wrong that benefit claimants get £26,000 a year, while hard-working people get less is not easy: retrospectively the £26,000 “cap” appears to have been an elephant trap for left wingers. Instead of saying that people ought to get what benefits they need, maybe we should have asked why benefit claimants were paying such outrageous rents.
Another example of “priming” is the apparent difficulty the government has in deporting “clerics” such as Abu Qatada to their native lands, to face criminal charges. This makes headline news. Whilst ostensibly complaining about the government, such reports foster both xenophobia and religious prejudice. More significantly, but less noticeably, the reports influence our perception of “legal aid”, as an extravagance mostly used by and given to the “undeserving”. Remember when the removal of mortgage interest from benefits was preceded by newspaper reports of people buying £2 millon houses whilst claiming unemployment benefit? Or the pictures of skivers with huge flatscreen TVs which preceded the latest round of benefit cuts? What’s the betting that legal aid is going to be cut again? This sort of softening up of public perception in NOT accidental, and we should be watching for it and thinking how to fight back.
Yes, but why did the previous government “borrow too much money”? We have an income, we have a budget between the various departments. What was the need for this loan and where was it spent? I can think of no event, other than the Olympic Games, that stands out…. except for the sudden invasion of immigrants, of course. Oh yes, and various wars.
Clear and correct – so what can I DO about all this: as an impecunious OAP, with plenty of time, I need to ACT. Not allowed to actually assassinate the blighters, what?
Hi,
I just started the petition “Stop the UK Government changing the law, retrospectively to cover themselves after breaking the law” and wanted to ask if you could add your name too.
I know a petition may not necessarily change things, but it will show the Tory Government (and Labour to abstained from voting thereby effectively endorsing such Bill) that some of us do notice what they do. We do care that such a fundamental change of our law is taking place and we have noticed the timing (day before the Budget) and the literal media blackout surrounding the same. We are not that apathetic that we are just going to stand by and allow them to change the law to suit themselves. Remember this is a law which they broke and are only doing this to cover themselves and to ensure they do not have to compensate people (job seekers) who they illegally sanctioned.
This campaign means a lot to me and the more support we can get behind it, the better chance we have of succeeding. You can read more and sign the petition here:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-uk-government-changing-the-law-retrospectively
Thank you!
Shari
P.S. Can you also take a moment to share the petition with others? It’s really easy – all you need to do is forward this email or share this link on Facebook or Twitter:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-uk-government-changing-the-law-retrospectively
Glad to see Christine Blower there – taking time out from selling out teachers pay and conditions to pretend she’s against the cuts. Nice!
There must be a buffet !
I hope the People’s Assembly will in time grow into something more than a campaign group against a specific raft of Tory policies. The Labour party have long since deserted the people it purports to represent. We no longer have an official/viable opposition because they have turned their backs on just about everything that Labour traditionally stood for. The reason we need an Anti-austerity movement is precisely because the Labour Party no longer represents us. So we need to be thinking as well beyond anti-austerity and towards future policies for re-nationalisation of key services (especially health)and their democratic management. I WILL NOT VOTE LABOUR in the next election because they have betrayed us. It would shame me to be associated with them. We need to deliver this message en masse and unequivocally, well in advance of the next election, and in the hope that it will begin to shake them out of their complacency.
We need to eventually turn this into worker’s councils. A political forum by the people for the people. This is how revolutions begin. We a primed and ready. The contradictions of capitalism are peaking globally. Britain can lead the way for revolution across Europe. But we must be shrewd and organised. Build the movement everywhere. This is where it begins
There is so much injustice, ‘divide and rule’ and bullying being carried out by this strong, wealthy and intelligent government against the weakest, least wealthy and most vulnerable amongst us, that I can’t get my head around the details. I think this political climate is the culmination of 1980s Thatcherism, during which I was teens/early twenties and feeling isolated and fearful, simply because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and so didn’t feel part of the ‘aspiration culture’ that dominated that time. Coming from Kent, where they weigh the Tory vote rather than count it, didn’t help, either. On behalf of others like myself, I want to be part of a movement that makes a real difference in changing for the common good, the prevailing culture and which appeals to people right across the board, not just to narrow factions pushing pamphlets. I hope the ‘People’s Assembly Against Austerity’ is the movement that can change the culture and set the ball rolling towards the dismantling of Thatcherism and its ill-effects.
Nuff respect, Well done brothers and sisters see u there.
For any protest to work and force an election, there must be a coalition across a broad front.
Look to the US and FDR’s “New deal” in the 1930s for inspiration. That means all unions must unite with the Green Party, the Communist party, the Marxist Party and so on.
This can be done.
I have image in my mind of a world full of colour and diversity. Not the grey one of austerity currently imposed on the overwhelming majority by a tiny kleptocratic minority.
A world where we, our children and their children can thrive and prosper.