{"id":4195,"date":"2015-05-18T17:20:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T16:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4195"},"modified":"2015-05-19T11:57:13","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T10:57:13","slug":"not-what-we-voted-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4195","title":{"rendered":"Not what we voted for"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It started on May 9 in London, less than 48 hours after the election. Hundreds marched in an impromptu protest<\/a> outside Downing Street, voicing their frustration with a government they did not vote for \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and one that hardly anyone did.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a matter of days, a burgeoning movement, which cut its teeth opposing the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 first raft of austerity cuts in 2010 and is now more confident than ever before, is quickly spreading everywhere \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in Bristol<\/a>, in Sheffield<\/a>, in Cardiff<\/a>. Not hundreds, but thousands \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and growing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mainstream media is downplaying the magnitude of it all, but no one can ignore the fact that, as the Tories are emboldened by rule without coalition, so too have the people become emboldened to fight back.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It will all come to a head next month, when, on June 20, hundreds of thousands up and down the country will join together in what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s set to be the biggest anti-austerity protest in a generation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner spoke with UniteLive about the gravity of the situation ordinary people are facing in the shadow of an austerity-enthralled Tory government.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even worse<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe coming Tory austerity cuts will no longer only be about those who are in receipt of out-of-work benefits,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said, arguing that what we thought was bad is set to get even worse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis will more and more be an attack on those who are in work. These cuts will be sanctioning those who, through no fault of their own, cannot work hours long enough to earn enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Indeed, the massive scale of the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 proposed cuts could see the slashing of many of the benefits and services we take for granted, from statutory maternity pay<\/a> to public health provisions such as school nursing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This, Turner said, is what the mobilising movement of ordinary working people is up against, and why continued and sustained organising at all levels is now more critical than ever.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of the things that the Tories want to do is debilitate ordinary people, to make people feel that you can protest as much as you like, you can demonstrate, you can get thousands on the streets but it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a difference,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut this simply isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t true.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories say they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re an elected government, that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to drive home \u00e2\u20ac\u0098our\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agenda based on the supposed mandate they have. But this is in spite of receiving only 24 per cent of the electorate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vote. And only 36 per cent of those who actually voted, voted for the Tories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“They may have won an election, but they have absolutely no mandate from the British people to carry out the cuts that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now planning.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turner hailed the People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly, an organising force that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s linking together the growing anti-austerity movement and making the case against the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cuts agenda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly\u00c2\u00a0 is an alliance that brings together all the different anti-austerity groups across the country,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd there are now some 90 groups in towns and cities and even villages across the whole of the UK and even in Ireland. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all organising various protests, mobilisations, demonstrations \u00e2\u20ac\u201c street activity to essentially raise the issue of the damaging effect of ideological austerity on our communities.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where we need to go,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need to build community resistance groups that are going to organise local people standing up and fighting back against, say, evictions. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already seen 11,000 evictions in the first three months of this year. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing compared to what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen in the next five years.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turner said the argument against austerity will not be won by politicians juggling numbers and statistics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Humanise<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to humanise the impact of these attacks,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just talk about the big figures. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to talk about what this actually means to people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to your neighbour, your kids, your friends, your communities.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turner explained Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strategy to help fight austerity, employing a multi-planked approach that includes an industrial, community and political strategy, all of which are linked together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPolitically,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll continue to argue the alternative to ideological austerity. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do it within the labour movement and the Labour party, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do it outside the Labour party as well. Our politics is not defined as only being an affiliate of the Labour party. Our politics is much more than that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turner noted that Unite will be taking a leading role in the People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly protest on June 20 and explained the impact it could potentially have.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs the national chair of the People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be chairing the event,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have well over 100,000 people out marching on the 20th<\/sup>, from the heart of British capitalism in the city of London, at the Bank of England. We will take 100,000 plus people on a journey and at the end of it we will have a festival against austerity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have bands playing, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have comedians, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have speakers, all of which will instil confidence in people that we can stand up; we can fight back. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly the point of these national and local demonstrations \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about convincing people that they can<\/em> do something about the situation they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found themselves in.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turner highlighted that, although Unite as an organisation will support local and national anti-austerity campaigns, the movement is only as strong as its participants \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from union members to community activists to ordinary people, some of whom may have never been politically active until now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand up as organised workers, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to do it for you?\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner argued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our duty and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our responsibility to stand up on June 20 and to stand up on June 21 and\u00c2\u00a022and\u00c2\u00a023 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c week in and week out \u00e2\u20ac\u201c until we deal with this government and get a truly progressive government elected that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to look after the interests of ordinary people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe encourage all Unite members to not only attend on the 20th<\/sup>, but to get involved in their local People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assemblies, to affiliate their branches, to go along to local meetings and to be part of a movement,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand in isolation as a union, and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand in isolation as a union movement. We link up with all of those organisations outside of the official union movement to build an alliance against an ideological attack on everything we hold so dear.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

Find out more about the June 20 protest here<\/a> and the People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assembly here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It started on May 9 in London, less than 48 hours after the election. Hundreds marched in an impromptu protest outside Downing Street, voicing their frustration with a government they did not vote for \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and one that hardly anyone did.   In a matter of days, a burgeoning movement, which cut its teeth opposing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[265,76],"wps_subtitle":"Hundreds take to streets in anti-austerity protest ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4195"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4199,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4195\/revisions\/4199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}