THE YS March for Jobs set off yesterday from Coventry after winning great support when they stayed there on Saturday night.
Coventry Unison’s branch administrator, Chris Coleman, came out into the city’s main square to bring the support of her branch to the marchers.
‘I met you on the big demonstration and lobby of parliament a few weeks ago when they discussed the Comprehensive Spending Review,’ she said.
‘There were a lot of us there that day. Maybe 10,000-20,000.
‘I heard about the march and I said I’ve got to support them when they come through Coventry.
‘Even if we had all our annual holiday together, we wouldn’t ever be able to do anything like you’re doing.
‘If you guys can do it, we are glad to support you.
‘In Coventry there are about 12,000 workers employed by the council now and there’s about 1,200 jobs under threat.
‘Our union reps are working hard and long to get the numbers down and trying to organise demonstrations and protests.
‘We’ve got together to form an organisation called Coventry Against The Cuts.
‘Labour have run the council since the elections, but before that there were Conservatives.
‘Labour are at least meeting with the unions about it.
‘We both agree that there should be no compulsory redundancies.’
Before Saturday’s long march from Birmingham to Coventry, John, who had bought his ticket for the November 21 rally, arrived and marched for the first two miles behind the banner.
Two other youth who the marchers had met just before also came with them.
John marched the first two miles behind the banner all the way to Coventry Road.
On Friday night, the marchers were invited to the main office of the West Midlands region of the civil servants’ union PCS for refreshments, and they talked to the marchers.
Christine Peduzzi, PCS office manager, said: ‘Our region represents 30,000 members, mostly low-paid civil servants, most of whom are under threat of redundancy, and the redundancy package is also under attack.
‘I think your march is fantastic, it’s just what’s needed.
‘We’re going to have mass unemployment and the infrastructure will collapse. We can’t let it happen.’
Geoff Dexter, PCS regional learning organiser, added: ‘I think the YS march is really impressive.
‘We are really concerned about education.
‘The government wants to cut 800,000 courses in Further Education and 80,000 workers.
‘Clearly, this will have a massive impact on young people, the community, and skills.
‘I wish the YS well on the road to London.’
Also in Birmingham, Lara Deveney and Josh Ainsworth rejoined the march on Friday night.
They are from Chesterfield and had joined the marchers there last weekend and marched with them to Mansfield.
‘I said then that I was looking forwards to coming back,’ said Lara.
‘Since then, I’ve been at a parents evening at my school and my science teacher started talking about politics.
‘I started talking as well and he said that he’d never heard me talk with such passion.
‘The next day I took in reports of the march and our leaflets.
‘He also said he’d never heard me being so enthusiastic about anything else.
‘He said I was speaking really articulately about it.’
She continued: ‘Today we marched from Birmingham to Coventry. I enjoyed it loads.’
