Manchester Represented At National 'People's Assembly Against Austerity' Meeting

Words by Neil Harrison

Representatives from Manchester meet Owen Jones at the People's Assembly in London on Saturday

REPRESENTATIVES FROM MANCHESTER WERE AMONG a 4000-strong crowd at ‘The People's Assembly Against Austerity’ in Westminster, London at the weekend.

The event, which made headline news, was attended by numerous political figures and activists – including Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone and Unite General Secretary Len McClusky, who called for ‘mass industrial action’.

Among the speakers was Stockport's own Owen Jones (pictured with members of the Manchester delegation). The Chavs author and Independent columnist has been touring the country speaking at local People's Assembly meetings, the largest of which was held at Manchester's Central Hall, for months. He had this to say ahead of his speech on Saturday morning:

“It's an incredible turnout. This is the biggest anti-austerity meeting since the [financial] crisis began. What this is about doing is building a united, broad movement. This is just the beginning – it's a launchpad.”

“In the months ahead we'll see local groups protesting [and taking] direct action. We're going to send a loud, clear message to the government – enough is enough.” 

Attendee of both the regional and national meetings, David West, of Manchester, added:

“Manchester hosted the largest People's Assembly in the country before today, with over 700 people in attendance, so it is only fitting that we are well represented here in London.”

“There are groups here from Salford University, local councils, Manchester students, local bedroom tax campaigns and many other groups affected by the cuts.”

To find out more about what went on at the People’s Assembly in London click here. 

Neil Harrison is studying Social History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is an aspiring journalist and a terrible guitar player. Read his blog LooseRiver and follow him on Twitter @LooseRiver

Live Blog: The People's Assembly 2013.

Student journalist Neil Harrison reports live for Humanity Hallows from today's massive People's Assembly meeting in Westminster. For updates follow us on Twitter- @humanityhallows or like us on Facebook- Humanity Hallows Magazine.







9am: Arrived at Westminster Central Hall, lots of people already gathering around the entrance and the specially erected marquees. Over 4000 people are expected to attend a day of political debate and action, and with speakers including heavyweights from the worlds of politics, comedy, film, trade unionism and academia they should not be disappointed.

Video: Chavs author and Independent columnist Owen Jones speaks to Humanity Hallows ahead of his speech at the opening session of The People's Assembly.




10am: The main hall is swiftly filling up, the speakers are taking their seats ahead of the opening plenary.



Owen Jones takes to the stage:

"Friends, enough is enough- we're here to fight back."
"It doesn't matter how angry people get, how scared people get, without hope, people don't fight back."
"We are simply a means of bringing everyone together, we'll have protests...we will organise strikes...we need to tap into this country's tradition of civil disobedience."
"Too many people rely on us winning...we stand together we fight together, we will win together."




10.50 am: Comedian Mark Steel brought the opening speeches to a close with huge laughs from the audience and his message to them: "We are not helpless."

He hailed recent protests to protect public services and the "brilliant, talented people on our side."

Adding his disdain for the modern political zeitgeist of austerity he ended his speech by claiming: "People will look back at the age of austerity and think 'What the bloody hell were we doing?"


Video: Caroline Lucas MP of The Green Party emphasised the importance of tackling the  environmental crisis alongside the economic one.

She continued:

"Tackling the economic crisis and the environmental crisis have to be done together. The good news is the green economy is far more labour intensive than the fossil fuel economy it replaces...investing in the green economy isn't a distraction from the financial crisis- it's the direct route out of it."
"George Osbourne says 'We are not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business,' which really does beg the question many of us have been asking- 'Which planet is George Osbourne on?'"
Caroline Lucas ended her speech by calling for a 'Green Industrial Revolution,' and announcing that next week she will be introducing a private members bill to the House of Commons calling for re-nationalisation of the railways.





Keep following @humanityhallows on Twitter for lots more to come throughout the afternoon from The People's Assembly.

1.15pm: Frontbench Labour MP for Hackney, Diane Abbot speaks about the links between economic hardship and racism:

"Anti-immigration racism is used as a means of dividing and weakening the working class."
"Nothing is gained by conceding to myths about immigration."
"Immigrants do not cause low wages...neo-liberalism causes low wages."
"We as people...have to stand up for a united movement of working people against the anti-immigration rhetoric which is so current today."





Video: Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone gives his thoughts on economics, industry and austerity.



Update:

With multiple forums operating in various rooms and marquees in and around Westminster Central Hall, discussion topics have been extremely broad ranging- which has been one of the stated aims of the organisers of today's event.

- Protesters against benefits cuts and the bedroom tax used the opportunity to voice concerns regarding police handling of peaceful protests.

- Representatives of UK Uncut announced plans to occupy high street banks throughout July to highlight the growing food bank crisis - "Food Banks- In Banks." Keep a look out for this on your local high street.

- Local Muslim leaders expressed their concerns about the violent reactions to Drummer Lee Rigby's Murder in Woolwich. They used the event to highlight the beneficial work done by Mosques in the community and called upon the government to work harder to bring people of differing faiths and ethnicities together, and to condemn racial hatred and violence with greater force.



Video: Political activist, broadcaster and writer John Rees is a national officer of the Stop the War Coalition and founding member of Counterfire. Here he speaks to Humanity Hallows, delivering a warning to the government and discussing the success of The People's Assembly.










3.45pm: The main hall is filling up again for the closing session as the audience prepares to hear from John Rees, Len McClusky, Francesca Martinez, Mark Serwotka and Tony Benn among others.




Video: President of Stop The War Coalition and giant of British politics Tony Benn received a massive standing ovation as he took to the stage.

Unite General Secretary Len McClusky:

"We are Speaking for the millions of people worried about losing their homes, jobs and dignity."

There were loud calls of "Strike" during Mr McClusky's speech.

He responds by calling for "Mass industrial strike action."






National Union of Teachers General Secretary, Christine Blower took to the platform, calling for reforms within the schooling system which would benefit all children including "universal free school meals, lunch and breakfast."   



 

John Rees did not disappoint, delivering an impassioned speech- to rapturous applause. He addressed, in his own words, "Tory Vermin," at points raging:

"We are only interested in no cuts at all to the welfare state. We will not be divided. We are united and we are going to stay united."

"We are going to need to break this government. Strikes, civil disobedience we are going to hit them with everything we have."

Rees called for the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester to be disrupted by civil disobedience saying: "Deport them back to Mayfair."

He ended his speech with a call for a "virtuous cycle of protest" to begin.





Writer and Comedienne Francesca Martinez spoke about the dissemination of wealth in society and, as she views it, the unfair treatment of vulnerable groups:

"There is a sense that (public) money is (the government's) money. It is our money!"
"I think we need to see through the lies of the corporate led government and media."
"The demonisation of vulnerable groups in society is disgusting." 
"I think politics is life. It is your life and you are involved."
Following her speech Miss Martinez received a huge standing ovation.




General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Mark Serwotka delivered a tub-thumping diatribe to round off proceedings and called for unified strike action and protest from each of the organisations present.

It was only left for National Union of Students Vice President Vicki Baars to thank the crowd and dismiss the assembly.



If, as numerous speakers throughout the day implored of the crowds, the individuals and groups in attendance are able to "Educate, Agitate and Organise," then British society may be feeling the reverberations  of The People's Assembly for some time to come. Watch this space...


For more information please visit thepeoplesassembly.org.uk

Manchester: United

People's Assembly Meeting, Central Hall, Oldham Street, 21^st May.

Over 700 people last night crammed into Manchester's Central Hall on Oldham Street to hear Owen Jones, Mark Steel and a host of others speak out against the coalition government's crippling austerity measures and call for unifying action in opposing them.

Numerous campaigns, trade unions and activists were represented at the event under the banner of the People's Assembly Against Austerity, an initiative designed to 'develop a strategy for resistance to mobilise millions of people against the Con Dem government,' which will culminate in a mass movement at Westminster in London on the 22^nd June.

As the hall quickly filled up, the first hour of the assembly was dedicated to an open mic session, where local people had the opportunity to give voice to their own campaigns and grievances. High on the agenda, inevitably, were bedroom tax and NHS privatisation. Some speakers shared personal, often distressing stories with the audience while others, such as Wow Petition and Living Wage Campaign used the opportunity to garner support.

In a demonstration of the attention focusing capabilities of the People's Assembly, the first hour also saw members of unions Unite and Unison, as well as representatives of The Green Party and CND, leading calls for strike action and civil disobedience which would 'cross political boundaries,' - to resounding applause.



Photo courtesy of Owen Jones

By the time the main session was due to begin, the audience had swelled to the point where seats had to be made available on the stage, alongside the main speaking panel, much to the amusement of Owen Jones and Mark Steel.

Comedian Steel soon had the audience in fits of laughter with his take on the causes of the economic crisis and the current government's punitive reaction to it.

"From day one of this government it's been 'the debt, the debt, the debt! We're in so much debt! We need to get this money back because we've overspent... and who's got all the money? It's obvious! The poor!'"

“Yet it gains a sort of logic when they say it's the poor who've got the money, when they say there isn't an alternative and that [the poor] are the people to blame:”

“It's the immigrants who are to blame, it's the lollipop ladies. Do you know who caused all the debt? It's the people in A&E ... and particularly those people in comas ... who caused the economy to collapse. So it serves them right if we take their trolley away. on and on it goes...”

He goes on to express his dismay at the ineffectual Labour Party and describes “poor Ed Milliband [as] the amiable chap you meet at a service station who talks to you for a little longer than you want him to ... a Sellotape salesman. ... Surely there is someone who can get up and articulate that anger, that ideology ... in a way that doesn't [involve] looking over their shoulder and worrying about what the Daily Mail says.”

Steel's sarcastic, stand-up style contrasts nicely with next speaker, Owen Jones, who delivers a forthright and impassioned indictment of 'the politics of divide and rule,' before issuing a plea for 'a grassroots movement in every single town and city in the country.'

“It doesn't matter how angry people get. It doesn't matter how scared people get. Without hope, people don't fight back. They yell at their television sets, their anger is directed against their neighbours, but they don't have the confidence to fight back. That is where this [assembly] comes in.”

Jones would later tweet that the event had been 'the largest political meeting in the city since the miner's strike.'

Perhaps star of the event, however, was Salford resident Maria Brabiner, a former council worker who had to give up work some years ago to care for her mother and since 2010 has been unable to find work. She has become a potent voice against the bedroom tax thanks to national news coverage. She began:

“I'm just an ordinary 47-year-old lady affected by bedroom tax. I've lived in the same [two-bedroom] home since October 1978. I've worked all my life, since the age of sixteen. I'm not the stereotype 'scrounger' that the government wants to portray. How dare they call me that.”

“This government has declared war on its own people. I never thought in my lifetime I would see any legislation worse than poll tax but the bedroom tax is the most evil and vicious legislation ... the government should be ashamed. It deliberately targets the vulnerable, sick and disabled. The bedroom tax must be abolished. It is not a case of won't pay, it's can't pay!”

Maria concluded: “To coin a phrase, 'the lady is not for turning,' - well, this lady is not for turning either!”

Cue rapturous applause.

For more information visit thepeoplesassembly.org.uk

Neil Harrison is studying Social History at MMU. He is an aspiring journalist and a terrible guitar player, you can follow him on Twitter @looseriver