Momentum builds for Spending Review protests

People up and down the East London Line are getting ready to protest against the impending cuts, as the coalition prepares to release its Comprehensive Spending Review tomorrow.

Source: Workers Revolutionary Party

People up and down the East London Line are getting ready to protest against the impending cuts, as the coalition prepares to release its Comprehensive Spending Review tomorrow.

Thousands of people are expected to gather at Downing Street as marches by a number of trade unions and anti-cuts activists across London converge there at the Coalition of Resistance rally at 6pm.

The coalition, founded by Tony Benn, is calling on all supporters to join their march which starts 4pm from Malet Street, passes through  Lincoln’s Inn Fields at 5pm before reaching Downing Street at 6pm for the final rally.

Local organisations from the East London Line boroughs are getting involved in the action. The Hackney Trade Alliance and Hackney Trade Union Council will be joining the march at Lincoln’s Field tomorrow and will assemble there at 4.30pm.

In Tower Hamlets the ‘Hands Off Our Public Services’ (HOOPS) campaign will be joining local trade unions for a number of lunchtime protests at Mile End, Chrisp Street, Whitechapel and Roman Road before joining others at Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Lewisham activists can join Goldsmiths Students who are assembling outside the university library at 3.30pm tomorrow before making their way to the rally at Downing Street.

A statement from the Coalition of Resistance said:

“On the day Con-Dem Chancellor George Osborne announces the results of a ‘spending review’ designed to cut £83 billion from public services, the Coalition of Resistance is calling a mass protest in Downing Street.

“The Con-Dem government of millionaires, supported by the media, says ‘there is no alternative’ to massive cutbacks at the expense of working people to pay the debts of a bankrupt system.

“If they want cuts, let them cut bank profits and bonuses. If they want to pay off debt, let them tax the rich and big business. If they say we can’t afford the NHS, let them axe Trident and withdraw from Afghanistan.”

Many different organisations will be represented at the protest, including the London Teachers Association, Keep Our NHS Public and the Right to Work campaign organised by the Socialist Workers Party.

Ben Taylor, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, said:

“We can’t stay silent whilst Osbourne carries out these massive attacks on our public services. If we don’t stand up to it and demonstrate then how will we be heard? We have to stop them.”

James Haywood, Campaigns Officer from Goldsmiths Students’ Union, told East London Lines:

“We’re marching tomorrow because we’re fighting to save Goldsmiths. If the rumours are true about 80% cuts then Goldsmiths will be devastated. It’s also about the defence of people who aren’t  born into wealth to have equal access to education.”

East London Lines will be joining the march from Goldsmiths and tweeting live from the scene at Downing Street.

For those who can’t make it to the rally, the Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance are holding a public meeting in the Stephen Lawrence Committee Room in Goldsmiths Students’ Union, tomorrow night at 7pm, to discuss the cuts and how to fight them.

On Saturday there will be another large scale demo by the TUC and RMT, who are meeting at Westminster Central Hall at 12.30pm to lobby parliament and press home their message that cuts will hit the vulnerable and threaten economic recovery.

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