Preparing resistance in Manchester

Chris Strafford from Manchester Left Unity reports on the anti-austerity protest in the city and next steps.

Photo: Mike Atkinson

On Saturday 23 May around 1,500 people assembled in Manchester city centre to demonstrate their opposition to austerity and the next wave of cuts. The demonstration was organised by two friends who wanted to do something instead of commiserating each other over the election results and were supported by the People’s Assembly.

There were speeches from trade unionists and local anti-cuts activists and music from local musicians. Manchester joined the growing number of cities who have held respectably attended anti-austerity demonstrations since the election, and the People’s Assembly was plugging the national demonstration in London on 20 June.

The demonstration also heard from those fighting against the devolution deal between the Labour councils and the Tory government, dubbed ‘Devo Manc’. The devolution of powers will be sold a positive extension of local democracy whilst the reality is the people of Greater Manchester have not been asked whether they want combined authorities, a mayor who would have control of a billion pound budget and the devolution of the NHS budget. It is primarily a vanity project by Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese who, for the price of allowing the NHS to be carved up, will collude with the same Tories who have savaged the council’s budget, resulting in the closure and shrinking of essential public services.

We also heard from an activist involved in the high-profile homeless camp that had been situated outside the town hall and library until the council used police and bailiffs to move them on. In a short walk around our city you can see clearly how much of a failure the Labour council has been in supporting those who have been made homeless, and instead of using the protest as a springboard to make changes they opted to spend over £88,000 to date to police and harass the protest camp.

The demonstration was a good antidote to the political situation but still very far away from the actions we saw in 2010, when the student movement erupted, and any wishful thinking that these demonstrations so far represent an “uprising against austerity” needs to be put aside. We are in a long struggle and the hard truth is that the left has failed to cohere a credible political alternative yet. Left Unity can play a crucial role in building that alternative.

Left Unity members from Manchester and Stockport were out in force and distributed over a thousand leaflets for Manchester’s upcoming public meeting on austerity and its alternative. The meeting will hear Manchester Left Unity secretary Ian Parker and leading Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition supporter Alex Davidson discuss the way forward. It takes place at 7pm on Monday 8 June at the Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS. Everyone is welcome.