darinsullivan.blogspot.com: Protest against Tory conference in Manchester

Issue: 2271 dated: 1 October 2011 News online only
posted: 11.30am Sun 2 Oct 2011 | updated: 1.09pm Sun 2 Oct 2011

Protest against Tory conference in Manchester - as it happens

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The front of the march

Leeds students arrive for the protest

On the march

by our reporters in Manchester

Socialist Worker will provide regular updates to this story throughout the day
1.10pm:

The march has set off.

David Cameron claims the Tories are "firing up the engines of the British economy" by slashing jobs and services.

In reality, things are getting so desperate that record numbers of people can't afford to feed themselves.

FareShare, a leading food charity, says it is feeding 20 percent more people than it was a year ago – from 29,500 to 35,000. Meanwhile, a thinktank has found that more than one in five workers are earning less than a "living wage".

Video of the march setting off.

1pm:

The main march is filling the road all the way from the Hilton hotel tower on Deansgate, back past the Museum of Science and Industry and towards the old Granada studios.

The march is already noisy and packed with union banners and flags – as well as huge Unison, Unite and NUT balloons. Political stalls line the street.

Disability rights activists have joined the demonstration in Manchester. Eleanor from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) traveled from Coventry to march.

She told Socialist Worker, “It takes a lot to get me out of bed early on a Sunday morning. But I am so angry with the Tories I had to come. They are attacking the rights of disabled people.”

Private sector workers are also on the demo, including Mohammed from Rotherham, south Yorkshire, who was on his first protest. He said, “I don't work in the public sector, I am in the motor parts industry. But it’s important for the private sector to show unity. The cuts affect all of us.”

There is also big delegation of parents and their children fighting to save Sure Start in Manchester. Parent Helen Nicoll said, "We have got to stop them shutting down Sure Start. Its about more than childcare. My partner is recovering from cancer and they helped our whole family through it."

One FE student, Lewis Holden, is a Labour party member and has made his own placard, "I can't believe its not Thatcher". He said, "I didn't want the Tories to feel welcome in Manchester."

12.55pm:
The whole area in front of the posh Hilton hotel is a sea of blue banners and massive balloons of the Unison union section ready to lead off the march.

A big delegation of Unison union members who work in the NHS in Rotherham are filing up behind their banner. Anita Heaton, a Unison steward, told Socialist Worker that the Tories have left workers “with no alternative but to strike”.

She said, “Right across the NHS there is a general feeling of frustration and sadness about what's happening. We are dedicated people. We just want to provide our services to people.

“The Tories don't need the NHS, they can all afford private health care.”

Unison branch chair Alan Daw said workers are organising to win big strike votes among Unison members in the ballots that begin this week.

He said, "We have been cascading leaflets and posters through all our members. Some workers are scattered around in small workplaces so it will be hard work. But we are confident we will win."

12.40pm:

At the Tory conference chancellor George Osborne is set to announce a series of measures to slash workers’ rights.

He wants to make it easier for bosses to sack workers by changing employment tribunal legislation. Currently workers can take an employer to an employment tribunal if they’ve worked for the boss for a year. Osborne wants to change this to two years.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, said the move would create a “hire and fire culture where bad employers cannot be challenged”.

The government unveiled its plans in its report One-in, One-out: Second Statement of New Regulation released last week.

It said, “We are increasing the qualifying period for employees to be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal from one to two years and introducing fees for lodging employment tribunal cases to tackle vexatious claims.”

Disgustingly it said that this would “give business the confidence to take on staff”. Osborne is also to say the government will cut the number of union officers in the civil service.

12.35pm:

Video of students assembling

12.25pm:

A feeder march has joined the main protest from Salford. There were at least three Unison union banners on the 200-strong march, along with Salford and Bolton trades council banners and others.

Martin McLaughlin from Bolton trades council summed up the mood among people when he said, “We’re fed up of cuts.”

Other protesters are arriving from further afield.

Neil Bendelow, a CWU union member, traveled from Cleveland, Teesside, to march against the Tories.

He told Socialist Worker, “I’m here because of what the Tories want to do to the post office. The Tories only value one thing—bankers’ profits.

“There is plenty of money around if they taxed the bankers to the hilt.

“I support the strikes on 30 November. My wife is in Unison. We work for peanuts. You start work on a pension scheme and you don't expect them to change the rules half way through.

“Cutting everything isn't going to fix things. But Cameron and Clegg are too arrogant to see that.”

12.15pm:

Several hundred students assembled outside the University of Manchester for a feeder march onto the main demonstration.

They are making placards, putting up posters and playing instruments.

Union banners from the UCU and Unison are up, and one group has arrived with a large paper mâché vulture with scissors for a head.

Sophie, from Manchester Metropolitan University, was part of the group of students carrying the vulture.

"Cutting the arts means the arts establishment can't do outreach work. It has a detrimental effect," she said.

"This is a symbol of the art and culture that Manchester's proud of," she said. "It's our culture vulture."

The crowd is constantly swelling, and people have many reasons to be here.

"The Tories aren't welcome here," said Amy Taylor, the University of Manchester Students' Union LGBT officer.

"I hate them. They're the class enemy.”

Amy is angry at Tory attacks on minority groups, including LGBT people.

"Cuts to LGBT services affect people. Homelessness and mental health problems are more common for LGBT people, and we're being disproportionately affected.

"The mood among students is getting more and more angry. Today is a build up to mass action to bring them down."

Tom Brooks graduated with a degree in History and Social Sciences earlier this year, but is now looking for work.

"It's difficult finding work, interviews are few and far between," he said. "The only option is bar work, if you can get that.

"It's hard living on £53 a week.

"My mum's about to lose her council job thanks to the cuts.”

But Tom is hopeful about today's demonstration.

"People are fighting and resisting," he said. "And today can build for the 30 November public sector strikes.

"There's some demoralisation, but today can help change people's feelings. It can give them hope."

11.20am:

Thousands of people are heading to Manchester from across Britain to protest against the Tories, who are meeting there for their annual conference.

Protesters on coaches from London ran into Tory Liam Fox at the motorway services at 10am. They chased him off, chanting "They say cutback, we say fightback" and "Tory scum"

In the city itself, activists spent every last minute building for the demonstration. A trade union-sponsored “battle bus” toured Salford and Manchester yesterday, Saturday.

Lee from the PCS union told Socialist Worker “Wherever we stopped we were well received. People kept beeping horns at us as we drove down the road”.

Danielle Leadbeater was one of a group of young mothers who brought their children on the bus. She said, “We’ve been out to raise awareness of the threats to Sure Start. The councillors accuse us of sitting around in our pyjamas all day—but we’ll be marching in our pyjamas on Sunday”.

Sam O’Brien from the Unison union said the bus got “a great reception in Salford and Moss Side”.

“People are clearly very angry about the cuts,” he said. “It was great to see people from the TUC and Labour Party getting involved—we had a Labour councillor on the bus.”

Sean Molloy, a 17-year old unemployed activist, told Socialist Worker “People are really angry, especially young people who have lost their EMA.”

Mark Krantz from the Right to Work campaign organised the bus. Branches of the NUJ, PCS and Unison unions, along with Greater Manchester TUC, funded it.

Tory conference delegates will be greeted by a warm “welcome to

Manchester” on almost every advertising hoarding around the venue.

But the message coming from local people is very different.

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