OVER 10,000 workers, trades unionists and youth marched from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square yesterday on May Day.
There were banners from trades unions, trades councils and political parties including Newham NUT, the Shrewsbury Pickets, Greater London Unison, Wandsworth POA, Waltham Forest Unison, London BECTU, and Hackney Unison.
There were huge red banners from the Turkish socialist movements, as well as thousands of red flags.
The Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists banner called ‘For A General Strike to Bring the Government Down, – For a Workers Government and Socialism’.
The Young Socialists ‘End the Occupation of Palestine’ and ‘Kick The Privateers Out of the NHS – No Closures No Sackings’ banners were also on the march, plus a delegation of Gate Gourmet Sacked Workers with their banner.
Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey told the rally in Trafalgar Square: ‘Millions of workers throughout the world are on the march today, sending a clear message to every government on the globe, “We reject your austerity programme. We reject your policies to make us pay for the crisis of capitalism”.’
McCluskey continued: ‘We have a Conservative government who are trying to take everything away.
‘Everything our parents and grandparents built when they came back from the World War determined not to go back to the misery of the 1930s.
‘They built the Welfare State.
‘They built the NHS, and now it is under attack from a bunch of posh, stuck-up public schoolboys.
‘We need to build a coalition of resistance, linking community groups, pensioners and trades unions.
‘Everything should be involved, civil disobedience, and, yes, mass industrial action.
‘Together we can create a better world’, he concluded.
NUT General Secretary, Christine Blower, told the rally: ‘We have to defend schools and prevent academisation. We have to stop hospital closures.
‘Everyone needs to stand together. Now we need unity across the whole movement’.
Damian Petitt, from the PCS Civil Servants Union, told the rally: ‘The impact of austerity on working people is devastating. We have to join together. We need mass action to defeat this government’.
Many marchers spoke to News Line.
Simon Palastanga, Hackney Unison Branch Treasurer said: ‘I agree with the call for the General Strike to defend the Welfare State.
‘As a branch we’ve supported amendments to national conference motions calling for national strike action and we have got to do it before it is too late.’
Luke Crawley, Assistant General Secretary of BECTU, said: ‘This government is attacking our members in the theatre with Local Authority spending cuts and Arts Council spending cuts.
‘They are attacking our members in the BBC with a Licence Fee freeze until 2016, which translates into a real cut.
‘We have already lost 7,000 BBC jobs, and now we are fighting against loosing another 2,000’.
Stewart McLaughlin, Wandsworth POA Branch Secretary, said: ‘I support our call for a General Strike.
‘Last week at the TUC, our General Secretary Steve Gillen was pressing for the General Strike call.
‘The TUC must call a General Strike to defend public services’.
