Long march for justice

Five Welsh trade unionists set off on a week-long walk from Cardiff to London this morning to rally support for next Saturday's TUC demonstration.

With just six days to go before the Future That Works march, the Welsh walkers will speak at two rallies, in Newport today and in Reading on Wednesday, along their journey of over 150 miles.

Three of the activists, Cerith Griffiths, Richard Evans and Steffan Ap Dafydd, will walk the whole route and be joined by Lisa Van Zyl and organiser Jamie Insole for the first and final legs of the journey.

"The principle object is to galvanise support for October 20th. It will hopefully inspire people to go along but it's meant to be fun as well as carrying that serious political point," says Insole.

Evans, a member and rep of Civil Service union PCS, completed a similar walk before the TUC's massive March 2011 demonstration and has been in training for the latest challenge, walking up to eight miles with Ap Dafydd every day for the past seven weeks.

The five hope to arrive at around 7pm in London on Friday night, getting in a good night's sleep before joining the thousands of people fed up with the coalition's cuts culture set to fill the streets of London.

For those who don't fancy joining the walk from south Wales, organisers across England and Wales are busy filling hundreds of coaches, special trains and even a riverboat service through London to next Saturday's march and rally.

A running tally on campaign website falseeconomy.org.uk shows that 187 coaches are headed to London from English regions and another 24 from across Wales.

Organisers are receiving a surge of requests for travel to London since the Conservative Party conference, where Cameron and his cronies, spurred on by their party's grass roots, have lived up to their "nasty party" tag.

Notts Trades Council secretary Paul Martin was one of the organisers of a demonstration outside the Tory conference in Birmingham last weekend and was buoyed by the turnout.

"The demonstration at the Tory conference was such a great success, it was huge compared to what we had expected," he tells the Star.

It is also clear that while next week's demonstration is national, much of the anger building up across Britain is the result of local cuts driven by a Tory budget squeeze.

Working alongside trades councils and individual unions, local anti-cuts groups have played an important part in building support for next week's demonstration.

Mark Bentley, a 27-year-old activist from York Stop The Cuts, says that while spending a day travelling to London and back isn't an option open to everyone, people are still very receptive to the message.

"Even if someone just gets one of our leaflets it plants a seed in their mind and shows that someone is standing up to Tory cuts."

Only this week unions have been responding to proposed job cuts in Cardiff, Glasgow and Southampton councils.

"Once again it is the Conservatives, this time at a national level, that are hitting council services and jobs," says Unison Southampton branch secretary Mike Tucker.

"We'll be at the march on 20th October in London because we need to take our message to the government that their policies have failed and we need a future that works."

Demonstrations are also taking place next Saturday afternoon in Glasgow and Belfast.

The Glasgow march and rally received a boost earlier this week when the STUC was given the go ahead to start the march at St George Square, the city's main civic square, after initial resistance from Glasgow Council.

STUC assistant secretary Ian Tasker told the Star that he expected a good turnout.

"We are aware that there are some heading to London, but I think that adds to the event, that there will be people from Scotland travelling to the event in London and vice versa," he said.

"We are also aware that there are trade union members from the north of England coming up to the Scottish event which I think will add to the collectivism."

Groups representing the people hardest hit by Con-Dem cuts, such as women and disabled people, have also rallied in large numbers to support Saturday's demonstration.

And students from colleges and universities across Britain will also be hoping that Saturday's action will provide a springboard for their own national demonstration on November 21.

It's exactly this successful collaboration between trade union members, local anti-cuts activists and community groups that is giving many the confidence to call for further action for a positive alternative to the Tory-driven decline of Britain.