Tony Benn
On 4 August 2010, I issued an Appeal to form a Coalition of Resistance (COR) of people across the country standing against the ConDem government’s malicious attempts to dismantle the welfare state. The response was immediate and immense.
Since then we have been delighted to see a flourishing of local and national campaigns to defend the education, NHS, pensions, housing and the Welfare State. Most of these organisations were represented at the Coalition of Resistance Conference of over 1,200 people held on 27 November 2010.
There have been many local and national demonstrations with three magnificent student demonstrations against the raising of university fees to £9,000 and the ending of the Educational Maintenance Allowance for further education students.
These culminated on 26 March 2011, with half-a-million people on the TUC demonstration indicating their resolve to campaign, strike, occupy to resist cuts and privatisation. A number of unions are now preparing co-ordinated strike action to defend their pensions.
We have seen the ConDem government weakening in the face of such opposition, whether it be on forests or the ‘pause’ on the NHS Bill.
We now wish to consolidate the work of the Coalition of Resistance and urge you to:
- as a minimum, register for our mailing list at: http://eepurl.com/PHID
- become an individual member of Coalition of Resistance – Unwaged £5 ; Waged £15 (form below)
- affiliate your organisation to Coalition of Resistance – Local organisation/union branch £15-£25; National organisation £100
- register for the CoR Recall Conference (for members and affiliates) on Saturday 9 July 2011.
- visit our website www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk
- join our Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coalition-of-Resistance-Cant-Pay-Wont-Pay/137748819598933?ref=sgm
The Coalition of Resistance’s aims are detailed at http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/about/
If you need further information, contact: Andrew Burgin, Secretary, [email protected], 07939 242229, c/o Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1 9DX; Romayne Phoenix, Chair, [email protected]; or Paul Mackney, Vice-Chair, [email protected].
Yours in comradeship
Tony Benn
President of the Coalition of Resistance
Member of GMB and attended day of action in London Wednesday the 30th November against public sector cuts and helped to distrbute your banners at Holborn Station . Please keep me informed of further action .