On Saturday 4th December, over 2000 trade unionists, students, and
activists braved freezing temperatures and marched through the streets
of Norwich as part of the Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts campaign.
Alan Waters, a Norwich councillor, said it was one of the biggest
protest marches the city had seen for several years. Despite the cold
weather, the atmosphere was hot, with impassioned chants throughout the
march and fiery speeches at the rally.
On Saturday 4th December, over 2000 trade unionists, students, and activists braved freezing temperatures and marched through the streets of Norwich as part of the Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts campaign. Alan Waters, a Norwich councillor, said it was one of the biggest protest marches the city had seen for several years. Despite the cold weather, the atmosphere was hot, with impassioned chants throughout the march and fiery speeches at the rally.
The trade unions were out in full force, with a strong presence from the FBU and Unison; meanwhile, the Labour Party and Green Party also had large numbers, with a number of councillors at the demo. The message of “students and workers: unite and fight” was also demonstrated in practice by the involvemet of a large contingent from the University of East Anglia.
There were a range of speakers at the rally, with many contributions about how cuts are going to affect local services in Norfolk, such as housing, access for the disabled, education, and public services. Solidarity greetings were given from Cambridge University by a student involved in the ongoing occupation there, who emphasised the need for the movement against education cuts to broaden out into a wider movement encompassing the trade unions, in order to fight against all the cuts. Meanwhile, Felicity Dowling, one of the “Liverpool 47” councillors in the 80’s, gave a concrete example from her own experiences of how to fight the Tory cuts.
The recent movement of the students has begun to galvanise the labour movement, which has been a sleeping giant up until now. Local demonstrations of workers and youth, such as this one, are a starting point in building towards the TUC demo in March 2011. Trade unionists must put pressure on their leaders to go beyond demonstrations and call for industrial action. Ultimately, a mass movement is needed to bring down the coalition government.
