4000 people attended a conference at Westminster Central Hall on Saturday, to discuss how to effectively oppose the swingeing cuts to the Welfare State in order to pay for the banks’ excesses. The People’s Assembly Against Austerity was so full many had to watch by video link in a marquee outside.
This was no protest but a conference to discuss why the government has let down those it should support. Why does the media kick disabled people who can’t work? Why denounce all those on benefits as “scroungers” when, when one job came up in Hull recently, 645 people applied for it? What drugs does the Cabinet take that makes it believe that by putting half a million in such poverty they need food banks to feed them, they will get jobs that don’t exist?
As Independent columnist and comedian Mark Steel pointed out in the opening plenary, “economics classes these days must be interesting – the first lesson is that the poor have all the money. The poor are richer than the rich!”
The aim of the conference was to energise the delegates and to unite local groups opposed to the cuts – from Trades Unions to anti cuts groups such as Bournemouth and Poole Anti Cuts Coalition – to work in coordinated action against the poison and propaganda coming from the Condem Government. To show the delegates that we are not alone when we scream at the TV when we see the sickening excesses of the bullying elite as the poor are blamed for the £800 billion bailout of the banks. To stand up against the Blairite Labour opposition and show we won’t tolerate Ed Miliband’s toadying to the right wing press over the ideological supposition that cuts are essential.
As a priest from Haringey said in a workshop, “love your neighbour as yourself. This is the acid test of civil law – somewhere the acid bottle has been lost!”
For individuals like me who attended? To meet likeminded people from across Dorset and the UK who are also piss angry at a system that has forgotten its moral obligation to look after those at the bottom while enabling personal success. Frances O’Grady, the General Secretary of the TUC got the whole hall to link arms before saying, “enough is enough! If they hurt what is ours we will retaliate!…”
It showed us that as small groups we can win. UK Uncut forced the political agenda over its actions against tax dodging corporations as they move their money to tax havens to avoid paying the Treasury what they rightly owe. This started with a protest to close down the Oxford Street Vodafone shop one day – 60 people went in and sat on the floor. That weekend 60 other shops were shut down by people doing exactly the same thing. This would lead to tax havens being top of the agenda at the G8 summit the other week.
Steel pointed out that 10 years ago you would have been viewed as an extremist if you wanted gay marriage. Now you’re a weirdo if you oppose it. Such grassroots work can and does win.
After the first, inspiring speeches from Owen Jones, Mark Steel and Frances O’Grady amongst others we broke into parallel sessions to give us the resources to build local campaigns. Of three sessions I attended two – a local networking event where I met 7 others from Dorset who will next meet in July at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival – and a session on tactics for local groups.
Locally you should engage in nonviolent direct action. Making a business or service unworkable through a stunt usually gets the press interested. Next, to remember that many of us journalists are members of the National Union of Journalists, which supports the People’s Assembly. A good media stunt sells newspapers too! The legal side? Always look at legal challenges to government excesses. The Mental Health Resistance Network recently had a High Court judge rule that welfare disability assessments discriminated against those with mental and psychological disorders. The law can only say “this is wrong” where the media can be used to force the final change to an ethical, acceptable policy.
UK Uncut came out in this session to announce that they will turn high street banks into food banks in the coming weeks. I look forward to going into my branch to get some interest free beans and cat food soon…
Such conferences have more going on than a 45 minute lunch break could adequately allow you to see. Chatting with people who are your intellectual betters, eating fantastic food served by Firebox London, browsing at bookstalls, attending a left wing comedy gig (making you laugh about the things you normally weep over)… I enjoyed an hour off on top of lunch just to get a grip on the atmosphere. If you could feed every disabled person a dose of that atmosphere when they’ve just been asked when their legs will grow back at an Atos assessment the government would fall tomorrow.
During the day the local chapter of the EDL paid a visit, presumably to find some Jihadist lefties to beat up. They were guided away by the police but not before getting into a scrap with one of the delegates – on video – and he got arrested with the Neanderthals who started on him…
The final session started with a standing ovation as the elder statesman Tony Benn came on stage. Few politicians in office these days would have got such an enthusiastic response. The great man watched in that very hall as Clement Atlee announced the creation of the Welfare State, that the conference on Saturday was meeting to save. He said to us all, “we must support all the people in these campaigns. If unions strike, we must support them!”
An almost equal welcome was given to Len McClusky, the General Secretary of Unite the union. The crowd cheered as he said “our message is simple: make the tax avoiders pay. Make the wealthy pay!” The full Central Hall cheered and laughed when he told us to “send a message to the ruling elite, the corporate giants, the super rich: pay your taxes you filthy bastards!”
And finally, most pertinent in South Dorset, the disabled actress Francesca Martinez pointed out that “most of us our unrepresented by our politicians in this country… we have got to remind the politicians who represent us who they serve!”
If you’re as fired up about the cuts as me then do get in touch through my website. The next People’s Assembly meets in the spring and I hope that myself and the others from Dorset I met will be representing a large, angry group of individuals determined to make the Age of Austerity the Poll Tax of the Condem government. See you there!
Richard Shrubb is a freelance journalist. See his website on https://richardshrubb.co.uk
