I was at the national steering committee meeting today and all is in place for the demo next week when Osborne wields the axe and proves that we are not all in this together but that the poor and vulnerable are the targets of this government. Already expressions of support are pouring into COR from all over the country, even from many previous apolitical people saying that they voted Tory or Lib Dem. We must ensure that this is a historic, large and powerful demonstration which says to this government - we will resist!
Protest at Downing Street on 20 October
US Civil Rights activists Jessie Jackson is the latest speaker to confirm for the protest
Stop the Con-Dem cuts! Build the Resistance! Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay!
Speakers include Tony Benn, Caroline Lucas MP, Jessie Jackson, Jeremy Dear (NUJ) Dot Gibson (National Pensioners Convention) Lee Jasper (BARAC) Zita Holbourne (BARAC) John McDonnell MP Mark Serwotka (PCS) Jeremy Corbyn MP Bob Crow (RMT) Aaron Porter (NUS)
Marches are converging at Downing Street on 20 October
Student March to Downing street: Assemble 4pm outside ULU, Malet Street
Camden Trades Council March to Downing Street: Assemble 5.00pm at Lincoln’s Inn Fields
Marches will join the Coalition of Resistance Rally at Downing Street: Assemble 6pm
At the same time, the University of London Students Union is calling on all students to march (assembling 4.00pm outside ULU, Malet Street). The students will march to join the trade union demonstration. The joint march will then head for a rally in Whitehall outside Downing Street.
The Coalition of Resistance is calling on all supporters to build the demonstration and rally, and to join the march if possible (4.00pm in Malet Street, or 5.00pm at Lincoln’s Inn Fields) or the final rally (beginning 6.00pm outside Downing Street).
When Osborne announces the cuts on 20 October, we need to challenge head-on the Con-Dem lie that ‘there is no alternative’ and that ‘we are all in it together’.
We need to break through the media consensus that working people and the poor have to pay for a crisis caused by the bankers, big business, and the rich. That means making the protest on the 20 October big, loud, and vibrant.
We can build protest over the next month by:
• Holding street stalls where we hand out leaflets, collect signatures on the Statement of Resistance, and sign people up to the 27 November CoR National Conference.
• Organising CoR public meetings with national and local speakers (contact us if you need speakers or help setting up a meeting).
• Leafleting tube stations, workplaces, meetings, door-to-door. Download the leaflet
• If you have a group of local activists committed to building and joining the demonstration, issue a statement to the local press explaining why you will be joining the protest (model press statement below).
Model Resolution
1. This [trade union branch, student union, campaign group, or whatever] resolves:
2. To campaign in active opposition to the Con-Dem Government’s programme of cuts.
3. To sign the Statement of Resistance headed by Tony Benn and Caroline Lucas and now supported by thousands of others.
4. To affiliate to the Coalition of Resistance and to send a delegation to the inaugural national conference in London on 27 November.
5. To support the Coalition of Resistance’s call for a mass protest in Downing Street on 20 October, when Con-Dem Chancellor George Osborne announces the cuts.
Model Press Statement
On the day Con-Dem Chancellor George Osborne announces the results of a ‘spending review’ designed to cut £83 billion from public services, the Coalition of Resistance is calling a mass protest in Downing Street. The Con-Dem government of millionaires, supported by the media, says ‘there is no alternative’ to massive cutbacks at the expense of working people to pay the debts of a bankrupt system.
They tell us ‘we are all in it together’ as they plan cuts in jobs, pay, pensions, benefits, and public services that will hit the poor ten times harder than the rich. If they want cuts, let them cut bank profits and bonuses. If they want to pay off debt, let them tax the rich and big business. If they say we can’t afford the NHS, let them axe Trident and withdraw from Afghanistan.
The cuts they plan will plunge us into a slump. Cuts in the public sector destroy jobs in the private sector. Cuts on the scale of the 1930s will produce unemployment on the scale of the 1930s. What we need is massive investment to create jobs, regenerate the economy, and provide the goods and services people need. In particular, we need massive investment in renewable energy and public transport to begin the transition to a green economy.
If the bankers object, we should take over the banks and put them under democratic control. We [members of, residents of etc] will be joining the march called by Camden Trades Council (assembling 5.00pm at Lincoln’s Inn Fields) and the rally called by the Coalition of Resistance (beginning 6.00pm outside Downing Street).
Current list of individuals and organisations supporting the protest:
Tony Benn, Caroline Lucas MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, John McDonnell MP, Jeremy Dear (NUJ), Matt Wrack (FBU), Mark Serwotka (PCS), Bob Crow (RMT), Dot Gibson (National Pensioners Convention), Lee Jasper (BARAC), Zita Holbourne (BARAC), Paul Mackney (former General Secretary, NATFHE and UCU), Aaron Porter (NUS), Kanja Sesay (NUS Black Students Officer), Clare Solomon (ULU)
Camden Trades Council, Camden UNISON, Camden NUT, East London Teachers Association (NUT), Hammersmith & Fulham NUT, Islington NUT, Lambeth NUT, UCU London Region, CWU Mount Pleasant (International), RMT Euston No.1 and Camden No.3 branches, Brent Trades Council, Hackney Trades Council, Haringey Trades Union Council, Islington Trades Union Council, Greater London Association of Trades Union Councils, Holborn & St Pancras Constituency Labour Party, Coalition of Resistance, Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC), Right to Work Campaign, Keep Our NHS Public, Islington Hands Off Our Public Services, Green Left, Socialist Resistance, Counterfire
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