JOE Morgan from the GMB yesterday morning treated the YS marchers to a hearty breakfast to fuel their journey from Birmingham out to Wolverhampton on Day 10 of the Young Socialists March for Jobs.
As the YS marchers left Birmingham City Centre youth joined them by ‘The Bullring’. They shouted: ‘No Zero Hour Contracts! Youth are Not Slaves!’
A day earlier, outside the Unite union offices in Broad Street, the Unite’s Sainsbury’s National Committee gave their full support to the YS March for Jobs. They said that the issues of the march were the same issues that they were dealing with and fighting for within Sainsbury’s and they would see us at the lobby of the Trade Union Congress in Liverpool in the 7th of September.
The Unite union treated the marchers to a buffet lunch in the Unite canteen. Steve Peacock, the Regional Industrial Organiser, said: ‘As a union we support any action that young people are taking, because the savage cuts made by this government actually affect young people really badly.
‘It is young people that are taking the brunt, the full force of what this government are pushing down the line. Youth unemployment is at a maximum. It is so high.
‘Any action against youth unemployment must be supported by all trade unionist. I give my full support to the Young Socialist march for Jobs and its call for the TUC to organise a General Strike.’
Peter Logan, a Stand Down Officer, said: ‘We always support anyone who marches for jobs, especially the youth. If we don’t fight for our youth we don’t have any future.’
While campaigning in Birmingham City Centre, the NUT Regional Secretary for Warwickshire, Andy Summers, gave a big donation to the YS March for Jobs.
He said: ‘I am disappointed in myself for not having followed the situation close enough to know about your march. Now that I know about it I am going to publicise it in every way that I can.
‘For me the future is our youth. I have spent years of my life being part of a system run by older people who make it very difficult for the young.
‘But I believe we must listen to the youth and their questions. If we continue to exploit and undermine them, then we are ensuring that this society continues as it is, on its spiral of decline.
‘It is fundamental that young people should get involved in informed dissent. The action of the Young Socialists is crucial.
‘Young people must stand up and be counted, saying when things are wrong and organising to be part of the huge movement for change that is sweeping this country.’