People’s Assembly Against Austerity
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 (register at www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk).
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 Cortes 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 Barrs 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
Wendy Savage & John Lipetz Keep our NHS Public
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
Carolin Jones Director, Institute of Employment Rights
Lindsey German Convenor, Stop the War Coalition
Kate Hudson General secretary, CND
Bruce Kent Peace campaigner
Lee Hall Playwright
Roger Lloyd Pack Actor
Josie Long Comedian
Iain Banks Author
Arthur Smith Comedian
Roy Bailey Folk singer
Francesca Martinez Comedian
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
6 comments
6 responses to “People’s Assembly Against Austerity”
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Yes please. Give us something we can vote for again after all this time.
This is good. We need a viable opposition to the butchers in power, sadly we are not getting it from the Labour Party.
Sadly Steve, the entire point of the People’s assemblies Roadshows from the perspective of its key organisers is NOT to build a “viable opposition to the butchers in power”, not on the critical electoral front anyway. Ahe aim of “the usual suspects” like Tony Benn and Owen Jones is actually to try to gather as many of the grass roots campaigning opponents agaist Austerity together – speil some high flown “anti Austerity” Blarny at us, and then hope that they have sufficiently attached the traitorous neoliberalist collaborators of Labour to the anti Austerity “Bandwagon” that we’ll all go out and campaign in the wider working class for a Labour victory in 2015. That Labour Government will then “do a PASOk” and carry on exactly the same neoliberal Austerity agenda for the financiers and the rich as before !
Sorry but that IS the agenda. Just look at some of the listed supporters – Carolyn Lucas of the Greens – currently busily carrying out the cuts in Brighton and Bristol. Sundry supposed “Left” union leaders – such as the Left faker McCluskey, fresh from a very dubiously achieved election victory over a real candidate of the Left – not exactly leading from the front on the anti austerity struggle are they ?
The Peoples Assembly Roadshows can have a useful purpose in bringing together the shared experiences of anti Austerity campaigners nationwide – but without a gameplan to create a brand new Radical party of the Left, ie, our Left Unity project, all this dynamism and campaigning will , by default, be funnelled into the guaranteed huge disappointment of yet another treacherous pro capitalist Labour Government.
In fact this is likely to be what happens – so the formative experience of building the new vitally needed replacement of Labour to its Left is highly likely to take place during the tenure of a particulartly vicious right wing Labour Government. Go along and hear the speaches, but remember that the Labour Left are actually just serving as the recruitment lieutenants for Miliband and Balls and co – with no chance whatsoever of Labour being distracted from its intended vicious rightward path.
This is the key point Left Unity supporters have to repeatedly make on the 22nd June (in a “comradely fashion” of course), if the event is to help build a genuine political alternative to Labour – rather than just fool people once again to join the corrupt , politically unreformable Labour Party .
Please keep me updated and informed on any relevant action.
If anyone is travelling by car to this from the Midlands, and fancies giving someone a lift, please give me a shout. (xobyle@me.com)
I am tired of politics? Which is why I and people like me do not vote. It is disgusting that in a modern age of great achievements mars rovers and planetary exploration, we also have food banks instead of welfare and or wages that do not need benefit top ups. Are we returning to serfdom or just creating a modern ghetto for undesirables like myself. Politicians spout austerity but never mention the 400 billion we have accumulated through quantative easing or bonds hidden away and never mentioned. Therefore, because we are the have nots and supposedly stupid, we don’t understand the complexity of MPs conflicting interest in business and outside parliamentary jobs, tentatively placed but never mentioned. We are not intelligent enough to understand these important MPs roles, or the lobbying misdemeanours that apparently are legal and non invasive of democracy and off shore tax evasion that is not illegal for various rich people advantage and corporate benefits. Again we are too unintelligent to understand the stripping away of our state next will be walls keeping out the undesirables of society like me.
We want honesty not transparency
We need real wages £9 or £10 hour like Australia
We need the NHS properly funded free to UK Citizens
We need council housing rebuilding programme
We need prison sentences for all tax avoidance and recoup our tax losses
We need benefits that are fare and not a modern day witch hunt, you should be ashamed.
We need our young to have work when leaving schools, college or university. Without slave trade wages and rules.
We don’t want to be shamed by union bashing. Unions help create balance. But destructive strikes are wrong. But members need protection from the companies and organisations that want quality work for pittance and no rights.
We want infrastructure investment, small business. Investment and investment in science and technology.
We need renewable energy investment for wind farms and other non invasive power creation.
We need new modern prisons not antiquated outdated hovels with reforms at the forefront and proper safe staffing levels preferably run by ex soldiers and retired police officers. Accountable targets at prisoner rehabilitation. Total control of prison life. Cut drugs and violence. More safe guards and protection for inmates and staff.
We need legal aid and the rule of law to protect every citizen, however, we need more scrutiny over and safeguards to protect the public from excessive charges and court costs and legal fees being claimed by the legal professions.
We need immigration to be strong and resistant, my father was an immigrant of the sixties. However, we need proper border controls to stop illegal entry and legal entry, by people who see our great country and rightly want to be involved. But reality is we have a shortage of houses and too many unemployed to justify allowing any more migration into our country. It’s not racist to tell the truth. But extreme migrationary views