THE Young Socialists March for Jobs, now in the final week on its route from Manchester to London, left Rugby yesterday morning, heading for Northampton, winning strong support along the way.
At one point, a group of school youth in their school yard started cheering the march in Rugby and as soon as the leaflets were held up to them, they came running up to collect them.
They cheered the march all the way as it passed in front of the school as the marchers kept up chants of ‘Education must be free! We won’t pay tuition fees!’
The marchers were all in good spirits as they left the town.
In Northampton, they received more support and recruited more members of the Young Socialists.
Rosemary Dougan, a member of the USDAW shop workers union, who works at the Northampton branch of a well-known supermarket, immediately gave £5.00 to the marchers.
She said: ‘I think what this government is doing is an absolute disgrace. It’s going back to the times of Margaret Thatcher – starving the NHS and starving education.
‘It’s absolutely disgraceful.
‘If you didn’t laugh at it, you’d cry.
‘Labour has put money into the National Health Service and education and now they’re just cutting it back again.
‘I’m a member of USDAW, I’d support your demand for a general strike.
‘Everybody now is so scared. Certainly I agree with you, that the trade union leaders should be made to fight this government.’
Also in Northampton, Anne Omisade, a young hairdresser, signed up straight away to join the Young Socialists.
She said: ‘I think your march is really good.
‘This crisis is really affecting people now.
‘Some people now are just on the street.
‘It’s not fair at all. If we get this government out, people should be able to get jobs.
‘I’d like to see a different kind of government.’
As the marchers assembled in Rugby, Paul Adams spoke to them about the attacks on benefits, particularly on the disabled.
He said: ‘With the government cutting these benefits, it’s not helping anybody.
‘My son is disabled and he is just 11.
‘I also have a cousin who’s disabled, and this is the kind of thing that’s worrying me.
‘He currently gets disability living allowance, but now they’ve told him they’re not going to put him on Invalidity Benefit.
‘Instead, they’ve told him he’s got to go on Jobseekers Allowance.
‘Yet although he is 19 years old, he has the mind of a six-year-old.
‘It’s also worrying me because I’m finding it much more difficult.
‘I’m on incapacity benefit because I suffer now from degenerative disc disease.
‘I’m really struggling to get by and my doctors have told me that I shouldn’t work.
‘I used to work at a hospital as a porter but when my back went I had to leave the job.
‘They did tell me, however, that if I got better I could get it back.
‘But now, obviously, I am very worried about what will happen to me.
‘I support the demands of your march and I think this government are idiots.
‘Labour may have had their problems, but they kept up support for the disabled.’