Mass meeting launches resistance to cuts.

Last Thursday (18th Nov) saw an extraordinary meeting held in Lancaster.  Over 150 local  campaigners crammed into the meeting hall of the City Centre Collegian Club, filling it to maximum capacity. Then what can only be described as a dramatic 'peoples assembly against the cuts' began to unfold. Speaker after speaker received cheers and loud applause at the packed out meeting as the temperature rose physically and politically. 

The initial speakers included trade union representatives from local public service workers unions including local council, postal, railway, school and university workers along with green party councilors, pensioners, student protestors, Labour activists and community campaigners. All expressed anger at the way the working classes, and the public services and communities they serve were being destroyed to pay for a crisis caused by a greed driven banking system that profits only the rich.

People are seething over the reality that welfare for the poorest is being slashed while the government ignores the over £100 billion a year lost through tax evasion and avoidance. But what campaigners dubbed a 'government of millionaires' is soft on this tax cheats - who are primarily wealthy individuals and multinational corporations. Anger against the injustice that this stolen wealth could easily pay the deficit, instead of destroying public sector services, is driving the campaign. It was pointed out that many of these tax dodgers were high street brands like Vodafone.

To allow the maximum participation, each speaker from the start to the finish of the event was given just three minutes each to make their point, so the meeting heard testimonials from many local people working and living on the front line of services, jobs and local communities under attack. It became clear that these cuts will hit the most vulnerable and oppressed in our already deeply unequal society, including people with disabilities, those in social housing, young people, pensioners and carers. Feminists argued that women would be especially hit by the attack on the welfare state. Others talked about how the cuts would be bad for the environment, with cuts to home insulation, public transport and the privatisation of the forests marking a governmental attack that is both deeply socially and environmentally regressive.

The meeting also involved discussions about organising protest and resistance to the cuts. Protests and meetings are being organised by many groups and communities. Details will be added to this website. In particular, students in schools, colleges and universities will be taking action starting this week, then a coalition of local people will try to hand the local Tory MP an open letter against the cuts on Friday 26th Nov, and following this people will take to the streets of Lancaster in protest on Dec 4th. And these are just preliminaries for the big wave of protests planned everywhere for next year...