More on the TUC March: From Manchester to Hyde Park

Up before dawn to pick up some comrades to get to Manchester Piccadilly for the 8.00 am Unite charter train. Arrived London Euston 10.50 am. Make our way to the Embankment for 11.00 start of march (30 minute walk). Just crossed Euston Road and walked into the ranks of the Camden against the cuts feeder column as we walked along in the spring sunshine to the strains of Bob Marley, more people joined the ranks at every corner. Marley now drowned out by a pipe band. Just before we got to the Embankment we came across our first GOON SQUAD about 20 strong all dressed in black and masked up, I commented to my comrades that it was obvious what their intention was. Upon arrival at the embankment it became apparent that we would not be able to make our way through to the massed ranks of the Unite contingent. As we picked our way through the crowds we passed the main Unison column headed up by a New Orleans jazz band, on past the R.M.T. headed up by their Easington branch brass band, pausing to say hello to Bob (Crow) and Alex (Gordon ) we found our way to the U.C.A.T.T. column which incorporated the justice for Shrewsbury pickets detachment . During our passage through the ranks we had encountered several similarly sized and clad GOON SQUADS It was clear they had been briefed to stay separate to avoid the chance of them all being KETTLED. We started towards Hyde park at about midday about 100 yards down the embankment I was charged with carrying the Shrewsbury banner which I did with pride until our arrival at Hyde park at 3.45 pm, along the route we saw graffiti on walls and The Ritz had been re-painted but we didn't see any violence or confrontation: on the contrary the police seemed unusually laid back. We couldn't get near enough to the stage to heckle Millibore, even had we been in time to hear his drivel. We left the park about 4.15 pm to head back to Euston, passing droves of people still heading into the park (by this time the police were filtering the columns, 100 in 100 out ).

I would estimate the marchers to be in excess of 500,000 all angry, all loud . On the way back we saw a GOON SQUAD starting a fire at the crossroads on Regent Street, goading the police to provoke a reaction. Half a million people marched against the cuts 200 got arrested, WHICH MADE THE NEWS? A good start which needs to be carried on with political resistance in the May council elections, not as reported on Radio Lancashire by the chairman of Lancashire T.U.C. with more protests during the summer and autumn commendable as that is. We must have an alternative politically to the three major parties who all want to cut. Lancashire County Council head-hunted a guy from Knowsley Borough Council on a six figure salary to orchestrate the cuts - I've got a suggestion how to save a six figure sum!

HASTA la VICTORIA SIEMPRE! by BLACKLISTED

Reflections of a TUC Marcher from Leeds

There is something a bit dismal about marches like one the TUC organised on Saturday. Hundreds of thousands turn out expecting not to be taken notice of. Their particular calls to save whatever service they most dread losing are but complaints to the wind. The TUC have hitched their wagon to the Labour party and it is headed along on the capitalist free-way. There must be some cuts, so who knows who will keep more of their share, and who will be ditched? How can solidarity survive? So the TUC demand is for 'jobs and growth'? The only way to create jobs in this way of thinking is to secure investment from capitalists and provide them with nice dividends. As if to make this more respectable the TUC are calling for 'a million green jobs'. Those who are excluded from this arrangement might wonder why they don’t call for full employment. Unions have always struck me as self-centred special interest societies, with career bureaucrats who cannot be entirely trusted. They do a lot of good in their way, but do not seem to aspire to provide any fresh thinking, or speak for the whole of society as any self-respecting organisation of 7 million should have the cojones to do. After the bank bail out and the credit boom, they should be trying to articulate some conclusions about the monopoly over money creation and the very selective availability of it for those who control it. There does seem to be unlimited availability of money for specific abstract functions but a scarcity for vital functions. The function of money as a means of exchange can therefore be challenged. By calling for full employment such a challenge is made. To borrow from Ann Pettifor, we can afford whatever we can do. Work is central to this argument, because it is the work that creates the wealth, not the wealth that creates the jobs. We simply have to identify the work that needs doing, and manage the demand in the economy to make sure the jobs are created. That might mean reducing taxes, or increasing central government spending, or allow local government to borrow or even create currency. Who can deny that the benefits of full employment would be enormous? If the TUC wanted they could plan this, get the Labour Party to endorse it and then get it on the international agenda. It would be a start.

TUC Demo

Impressions of the March 26th Demo:

This demonstration can best be described as the contrast between the TUC cart horse and the Anarchist Trojan Horse. A TUC march of 500,000 anti-cuts protestors through the streets of London achieved absolutely nothing except providing a platform for trade union and Labour worthies. The real action took place away from the official march, where the symbols of finance capital were attacked. As the Wobblies put it "direct action gets the goods". The subsequent press hysteria relating to the actions outside of the main march proves the point that the real challenge to capital and the state is to be found amongst UK Uncut activists and various anarchist formations. The compliance of the authoritarian left with the official demonstration was clear for all to see. This was compounded by the pathetic calls of the SWP and the Socialist Party for the TUC to call a one day General Strike which recognises the legitimacy of these organs of quasi-state control. The political impotence of the authoritarian left compares unfavourably with the dynamism and creativity of anarchists and other libertarians who embrace direct action and offer the only way forward to defeat the ConDem Government policies.

'The healthiest fish ... halibut': Big Bob on protein!!!

Cheeky Cockney Union Man Cocks a Snoop at our Northern Chippy Cuisine

SAYING he had no specific plan to co-ordinate strikes with other unions, Bob Crow told the FT's political correspondent, Jim Pickard, (see 'Lunch with the FT' interview - 26/03/2011) that 'if there are disputes in rail, shipping or bus industries at the same time over cutbacks, we would be fools not to co-ordinate the timing.' He estimates that 5,000 of his own member's jobs are at risk of redundancy.

The SWP and others on the Left have been urging a 24-hour general strike, but a petitioner on last Saturday's Unite train back from the protests in London had a hard time convincing people to sign up to get the TUC to call one. The SWP lad said the last Saturday's protest against the Coalition cuts showed what happens when the leadership of the TUC call for a demo. But it didn't do much good in the 1980s when the TUC last called for 'Days of Action' by trade unionists. This didn't faze the SWP lad, who claimed that it is different now to the 1980s; indeed it is, the trade unions are weaker now than they were in the 1980s.

Curiously Bob Crow told the FT that he is not against all cuts like some other leftwingers, nor is he a 'deficit denier'; his proposed alternative to the cuts is a 'one pence tax on all emails' according the last Saturday's FT. This would, says Full-fact an analytical website, raise £12 m a year well short of the UK's deficit. Other parts of his political philosophy include a dislike for free trade and a passion for bigger import and export duties. He reputably keeps a bust of Lenin in his office but believes in pay differentials being on a six-figure salary himself. He supports a policy of 'opportunities for all', which I suppose Dave Cameron would ascribe to.

The grilled halibut at the Rules "hunting, shootin', fishin'" establishment in Covent Garden, that claims to be London's oldest restaurant, costs £53.90 for two, and the chips were £7.50 for two portions. But Big Bob knows the place well and he said that 'we had a summit here ... five weeks ago' and gossiped about Blair and Brown using the same place not to mention 'Nell Gwynne and King Charles'. Then he said: 'That's the healthiest fish you could have, halibut' it's 'full of oil, good for everything, bones, joints, healthy glow.' That, and the fact that he works out six days a week is what he reckons keeps him so fit.

One is left wondering if he will in the end prove to be a better and more successful leader for the British Left than was Arthur Scargill in the 1980s.

'I can't get over how organised these anarchists are!'

photo by Dominic Alves

A PUNDIT on Radio 4 yesterday said: 'I can't get over how organised these anarchists are!' He and Brian Paddick, a former senior Metropolitan police officer, marveled at how the anarchist last Saturday had managed to stay ahead of the police in London. Actually it seems that the chaos on Oxford Street and elsewhere was the result of fast moving activists from the young anarchist 'Black Bloc' and UK Uncut.

It had been an early kick off for us up North on Saturday morning when we, along with thousands of other trade unionists, caught the trains from Manchester Piccadilly station. It was a good humoured crowd that landed at Euston armed with whistles, tabards and banners from the Unite union. Oh yes, and the regional officers were handing out arrest cards from Thompsons Solicitors - just in case. Then it was off down to the Embankment for most of them while others made for the feeder marches from the University of London.

After sipping tea at Albertinis near the RMT officers near Euston we made for Holborn only to catch a bus to Oxford Street and the store of John Lewis where my companion wanted to buy some moisturiser before joining the TUC march on Piccadilly en route for Hyde Park. The stores round Oxford Street like Boots and Top Shop already had police outside and by that time it was 2 p.m. and the Black Block and UK Uncut were surrounding our bus as it skirted round Oxford Circus. Time for another cup of tea - this time English Breakfast in John Lewis - which provided us with a safe haven to watch the riot police vans at the back. Text messages told us of breakaways from the main march and riot police on Oxford Street with a possible kettle forming at Oxford Circus. Suddenly, sirens wailing, nine riot wagons with lights flashing tore off towards the trouble. 'Isn't it a shame', said one woman in the Coffee Bar. Then, on advice from the local Cockneys, we sneaked out by the backdoor of John Lewis anxious to dodge most of the trouble and head for the main protest at Hyde Park. 'I wouldn't go there; if you don't have to!' said a security guard on the street outside as it seemed by that time that things were kicking off all over the show around Oxford Street.

Yet, determined to show our faces, we headed off down Oxford Street past Bond Street tube station and Vodafone. Others carrying Unison banners were walking back in the opposite direction saying that they'd been on their feet since 9 a.m. and had had enough. By then messages were coming in to say that the Ritz had been trashed and Fortnum & Mason occupied and it was then 'la hora de comer' in Spain (3-4 p.m.), so we retreated, or skedaddled, back to John Lewis on Oxford Street for a plate of grilled Mackerel and salad, and a glass of tap water. After that it was time to think about getting the Unite train from Euston station even though it was 4.30 and John from the Leeds contingent still hadn't got into Hyde Park.

Later, near Euston in the Exmouth Arms, people there with the NUT from Liverpool were complaining that the anarchists would get all the news coverage. That hasn't altogether been the case and a professor on the Radio 4 Today program this morning said that the 'Black Bloc' was only a small faction among the anarchists, pointing out that anarchists were in favour of organisation but objected to top-down bosses and bureaucrats. Today's web page of the BBC says: 'The label "anarchist" has been widely used to describe violent protesters' and asks, 'what does it mean to be an anarchist nowadays?' This morning, interviewed by John Humphries, Dr Alan Finlayson, a reader in politics at Swansea University, whose research interests include protest movements in the UK, analysed last Saturday's protest including the anarchists.