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All together now — march against the cuts

Thousands to take to the streets in support of the People’s Assembly and a better way

PEOPLE who the Con-Dems thought would suffer cuts in silence will rise up in their thousands today as part of the People’s Assembly’s unprecedented protest against austerity.

Homeless mums, low-paid carers, stretched teachers, penniless pensioners and disabled people demanding dignity will be among a multitude taking to the streets for the grass-roots movement’s first national demonstration. 

Starting at BBC headquarters, they will swamp the streets of central London before descending on Parliament Square — reclaiming the heart of Britain’s democracy in a carnival of hope.

People’s Assembly national secretary Sam Fairbairn said the moment will make the views of the majority impossible to ignore for Britain’s out-of-touch elite. 

“From the BBC to Parliament they try to ignore the views of the majority,” he will say in his speech today. 

“They try to ignore the misery and suffering austerity is creating.

“Today they have no excuse to ignore us.”

Mr Fairbairn predicts that the huge show of solidarity, expected to spark a summer of protest and strikes, will call time on the Tories’ divide and rule tactics. 

“Today all of us have stood together in a show of strength, united and we’ve sent a clear message,” he will tell the crowds. 

“Now let’s go back to our communities, back to our workplaces, get involved in local People’s Assembly groups. Build for the July 10 strikes and make the TUC demonstration in October the biggest this country has ever seen.”

National Union of Teachers leader Christine Blower and Unite union general secretary Len McCluskey will speak up tomorrow on behalf of their unions’ 1.6 million members, many of whom are targeted for pay cuts or the sack. 

Comedian Russell Brand, who famously declared he couldn’t see the point of voting, said the demonstration was the start of organising “a fairer, more just society.”

“Austerity means keeping all the money among people who have loads of it,” he said. 

“This is the biggest problem we face today — all other problems radiate from this toxic swindle.”

The bells of Big Ben will be drowned out as the The Farm’s working class anthem All Together Now rings out around Westminster as the theme tune of the day. 

But the people bravely bearing the brunt of austerity — and fighting back — will be front and centre of the demonstration. 

Jasmine Stone will tell the crowds about the inspiring campaign by mums who were told they had to move out of London when their hostel was shut because of council funding cuts. 

Ms Stone, who lives at the E15 Foyer in Newham with her one-year-old daughter Safia, told the Star: “We are fighting for everybody with housing problems and offer our full support to anyone who needs it. 

“We will fight for as long as it takes to stop the privatisation of London and stop social cleansing.”

Andy Squires is one of six care workers travelling from Doncaster to London tomorrow, fresh from 34 days of strike action over a 50 per cent pay cut when the council outsourced their jobs to privateer Care UK. 

He said they were making the three hour journey because “there’s too much of a difference between the huge earners and proper workers.”

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